I guess I can only blame myself for how things are right now.  I made all the decisions that got me where I am…it just really sucks.  And now I have to seriously buckle down and start thinking of my thesis and getting that ready to go.  Here’s the crappy part:  I’m given some dedicated research time during my second year, but it isn’t until April.  I am required to give my final defense sometime in May.  What does this mean?  It means I have to do the “exhaustive lit review,” design a protocol, give my preliminary defense (hopefully only once), collect my data, give my final defense (again, hopefully only once) and then write my final paper. 

Of the 7 other grad students in my program, I am the only one with research time scheduled in the final quarter.  Talk about drawing the short end of the stick.  So this means that while taking classes, doing my rotations in the clinical lab, working in the ICU and hopefully going on med school interviews, I also have to squeeze in time for research.  I didn’t even factor study time and me time in there.  Something tells me this is gonna be fun (yeah, right).

Hope everyone else is enjoying summertime.  Me….not so much.

This might sound crazy, but it’s the truth. Each of those three classes has had a unique relationship with NBC’s The Office. I will list.

Class 1. The professor describes herself as being from “the Scranton, Pennsylvania area.”
Class 2. The inscription on the professor’s bookbag reads “Houghton-Mifflin.”
Class 3. The associate professor’s name is Michael Scott.

You cannot make this stuff up. It’s just too weird.

This post obviously means nothing to anyone but Jared and Al, but it was just on my mind. I was thinking about how the NBA playoffs were coming up, and how the Jazz might face the Suns in the first round, and how that would be an awesome series to watch with those guys and then follow it up with some 2k. We could probably try to play over Xbox Live, but it just wouldn’t be the same.

Anyway, I’m just saying I really liked doing that, and I’m not going to get to this year.

For the first time, new undergraduates at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this fall will have to shell out more than $20,000 to attend the state’s flagship university.

The cost—the highest for any public school in the state—includes nearly $12,000 in base tuition and fees and more than $8,000 in room and board. The university’s Board of Trustees approved the increase Wednesday. Tuition for the typical new freshman will increase 9.5 percent to $9,242, an amount guaranteed for four years.

It looks like we got out of there just in time. Here’s my favorite part:

Engineering and business students will pay $4,152 more.

To add a completely ridiculous cherry to the top of this sundae, by my experiences, financial aid awards have declined over the past 5 years. So in summation, here’s what they are saying: “We’re making it more expensive for you to go to college, but don’t worry, because we’re giving you less help to pay for it.”

Obviously since she is on this show her marriage to the classical saxophone player did not work out. Honestly, I’m glad. He was a real ass. Though, she must be happy out in LA now. Not in the simple, small town, rural southern Illinois. She always seemed to complain about that every day.

Anyways, gotta get back to studying. Last final is in two hours.

how come everywhere i need to go on campus is on the third floor?

it’s ludicrous. there are five places i need to be on siu’s campus during a given week this semester, and getting to four of them involves taking stairs to the third floor. it just gets old, and actually makes little to no sense.

a secondary complaint to this is as follows: i have now taken six math courses here at the so. ill. u., and a grand total of one of these have actually been in the math building. now, i would understand if the classes were first of second year math courses that needed to be housed in lecture halls, but this is not the case. the course numbers are 250, 251, 301, 335, 352, and 472. guess which one was in the math building. yup, 250. someone explain this to me.

Now it’s come time to try consolidate, as seems to be the norm. You hear these things all the time about how you can save hundreds of dollars a month by consolidating. My experience so far is that it’s little more than a lie. Federal loans aren’t an issue, but even then I’m not saving hundreds–try tens.

As for private loans, that’s an entirely different story. So far, it seems like the best consolidation loan I would be able to get would give me a higher interest rate than any of my existing loans. How does that make sense? They tried to convince me it was based on credit, but that’s obviously a lie, because so were my initial loans. And in the case of two them, the interest rate they’re offering is actually 2.5% higher. Not only that, but it would be over the course of 5 more years than what I’d currently be paying.

In short, I should have started a fucking bank. Making an automatic 160% percent on every dollar I give out? That’s not a bad deal at all. Yeah, that’s right. I give you $10, you give me $26. Booyah.

I guess I really shouldn’t be complaining.  I did afterall choose to go to grad school.  But still, when your study guide for a midterm is >150 pages, and you just had the test on Thursday, there is no need to have another exam the following Friday.

I just finished my midterms this past Friday. That was the first thing, being in the sixth week of a 10-week quarter this fast was a wake up call in terms of time management and study habits. Having spent my whole life in semesters, this was a huge adjustment. Second, working has been kicking my ass and not in the fun way of long days in a busy ER with multiple traumas. Don’t worry Harlow, no more gruesome stories from me anymore.

I traded in fun in the ER for fun running a simulation lab for medical students and residents in the anesthesia program at Rush. It isn’t what I wanted to do–I really did want to work in an ER up here–but I had to take what I could get. I have learned more about anesthesia though by working in their simulation lab, and it has presented me with some great networking opportunities so I suppose it isn’t all that bad, right?

A few weeks ago I had a run in with the vacuum cleaner in the dark hallway of my apartment. It resulted in a fracture and dislocation. Thankfully, Al came over the next day and reduced my toe. I would have done it myself, but hey, it hurt like a bitch to touch so there was no way I could make myself do it. Al did great, and I have the satisfaction of knowing I was his first live patient he treated all on his own. Great job, Dr. Abalos! It’s healing well, by the way.

In some exciting non school/work news, I did do something entertaining last night. Scott and I went to see Kathy Griffin live at The Chicago Theatre. Her stand up was awesome! I don’t know if any of you watch her show on Bravo Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, but I highly recommend it.

Kathy has been in the news a bit recently for her “controversial” Emmy acceptance speech. I think her speech is great and dead-on. Here’s a clip of it and her subsequent interview on Larry King, in which she goes on to explain the meaning of her speech…but that meaning apparently fell on deaf ears to some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbziBwi489Q

As I said, her routine was excellent. I think anyone that can make a crowd laugh as much as she did last night for 1.5 hours straight through deserves major props. In my mind she isn’t on the D-List (and hasn’t been for some time, I might add). She has great sass and a rapid-fire wit and knows how to use it.

Hope everyone is doing well.  I’m outta here!

I think the new ones are towards the end, but not quite the very last ones. The last pictures in that folder came off a different camera, and the pictures are sorted by name. I’ve tried to change it, but I’ve never been successful. Basically, I just don’t care enough to do anything about it.

I recently made all of my travel pictures public here. However, I took some shots of my kids today that won’t show up there. It seems somewhat wrong to put those on the internet for all to see, like an invasion of privacy or something. Anyway, if anyone wants to see them, I will email you the link to the private album, assuming you aren’t a known child pornographer or something, then you can’t have them.