Only 362 more days!

I have been 23 for 3 whole days now. I am old. I remember in high school when you would watch TV and see 23 ish year olds on MTV and stuff and be like man they're old. Guess it's all downhill from here right?

My birthday, uh, weekend was awesome. I told myself that I would do no studying at all on Saturday and just kick back and do what I wanted. I did just that. Unfortunately I did that on half of Friday and most of Sunday as well. Oops. Now I'm playing catch up, but it's not too bad. 

I would like to thank everyone for the gifts, cards, money, etc that I got over the course of last week. It's pretty awesome to check the mailbox and find cards in it or find boxes of banana bread on my doorstep, so thank all of you. Any food items that were given to me are most likely gone now because nothing edible really lasts long around me.  

So Friday I went riding with a med school classmate. I didn't have my road bike because it was in the shop for a new bottom bracket, so I rode my fixed gear. It was fine because we were only supposed to do 20-25 miles, which is totally doable on my fixie. We got about 8 or so miles south of campus and turned west to do the bottom part of the loop before heading back toward campus. I was in front of him pulling (it's when the front rider does all the work to cut through the wind so the back rider can take a break). I did my part then pulled off to the side so we could switch places (do it every few minutes or so). However, he was riding overlapped, meaning that his front wheel was overlapping my rear wheel so that when I pulled out left, he buzzed my tire and consequently wrecked. It was kind of ironic because we had been talking not 10 minutes before about how he didn't wear gloves when he rode (which will protect you in a fall) and he didn't have a helmet on because he said it was at home. Now, if I would have known that he didn't have a helmet, I would have advised him to not ride until he had one, but we met up somewhere, so I just decided to go with him. He did not injure his head in any way, lucky for him, but he ripped up his right shoulder, elbow, knee, ankle, and both hands. His hands looked like someone took a cheese grater to them because he fell on the most bumpy part of the road, stupid farm roads. He also broke his deraileur and his deraileur hanger, tore up most of the shifter hood, pretty severely scratched his break lever, and bent his aero bars. The bike was unrideable, so I had to call Jenna who was nice enough to come pick us up. While we were waiting the lady whose house we were in front of came out and let Jake in the house to clean up and then gave us water. Turns out her son graduated from the Rockford campus of U of I's med school 5 years ago. Small world. After dropping Jake off at home, Jenna and I went to Dos Reales, a mexican restaurant, with some of her friends. I was so lucky to have such a thoughtful girlfriend because she informed the waiter that it was my birthday. They came with a gigantic sombrero, put it on me, and sang me a song, but it wasn't happy birthday in spanish, or at least the version I'm familiar with. Oh well, it was super special either way. 

I studied for a bit on Friday and then went to Jennas to hang out with her and the rest of the village people. (she lives in an apartment complex-like town that is called the village, hence her friends that live there are the village people). She made me fruit pizza, which she originally made like 2 years ago because it is a sweet, but she said I would eat it because it is hidden under the fruit. Works for me. 

Saturday was awesome. I ended up riding my fixie for probably like 2 and a half hours total. Another kid got a fixie last week so we've been doing some riding together. Also, I am learning how to ride backwards. Takes a lot of time, but I'm getting better. I really just want to ride to class backwards. I mean I can ride a unicycle, so I feel like the next step up from there is riding backwards, but thats just me. On a side note, one time last year a friend and I went out at 11:00 pm on a Friday or Saturday night on unicycles in my spandex riding gear. We did this to get weird looks from the people in line at all of the bars we rode past. Also, it was raining, so we were holding umbrellas to stay dry, you know don't want to be completely stupid. It was a blast and I spent most of the time laughing to a point that I could not breathe. Oh, and alcohol was in no way involved in the planning or execution of this meaningless stunt. 

Sunday was also awesome. The rents (parents) came down with Mark for a day of putting up curtains (because my apartment has, nay, had none), Walmart shopping, seeing Jenna's apartment, and food eating at Biaggis. Good day.

Then back to class as usual. 

Except last night I assaulted my freezer. See the thing is my freezer had about 2-3 inches of frost built up on the top and some on the bottom, greatly reducing the functional size of my already small freezer. With the addition of a new bag of chicken from the rents there was 0 room. So I took out my screwdriver and a hammer and went to town on the freezer. It didn't stand a chance. It was like it was David and I was Golaith, except in this story Golaith crushed David and beat him down with a hammer and screwdriver. Strangely enough then David turned into a snowcone like snowy powder. Weird. Anyhoo I have included some pictures so you can feel like you were there with me. 

Before, well I guess I had already started

 During. Note, I was shirtless because I had just gotten back from working out and was warm. And it's my apartment and I now have curtains, so I could have been naked. I think you should thank me for even wearing shorts. You're welcome world.

The remnants of David --> snowcone

 SNOWBALL FIGHT!!!!!!

Oh and here's me enjoying some banana bread. 

Well team, as usual, you performed beautifully. Now I must return to studying and such. Enjoy the day!!

“I feel stupid when I write the word banana. Its like, how many na’s are on this thing? ‘Cause I’m like ‘Bana … keep going. Bananana … damn.’

    - Demitri Martin

exams = conquered

greetings

I write to you today from the comfort of the union because I do not have internet in my apartment still. Not because I don't want it, but because it's overly expensive and I haven't had time to get it set up and such.

Getting back to my last post before I was so rudely interrupted by the cripple (I say cripple because Jenna's body is so janky (messed up/weird) that she may have a stress fracture in her foot from running the half. She can't even run right, I know. Anyway she went to the doctor after texting me a while trying to see if I could diagnose her over the phone by telling me that her foot hurt, I can't. The doc said no major fractures, but stress fractures are very difficult to see in an xray. They did, however, give her a super cute surgical shoe that she can now use to accesorize her outfits. That's her story. That was a long aside). As I was saying, whatever day that was I went to Jenna's, had dinner and did laundry, oh yea and studied.

Saturday I studied all day.

Sunday I studied all day.

Today I took 6 exams in under 3 hours. Mostly cause I'm awesome. Partly because they were short exams. Then shortly after the tests were done, it was my turn to skin. I was in lab for about an hour and a half peeling the skin off of our cadaver's legs and foot from the hip bone down to the foot, obviously. You would not believe the amount of cutaneous innervation (nerves in the skin) that there are in the front of your shin. Thats probably why it hurts like the dickens when any snot nosed kid kicks you in the shin for taking his lollipop and whiping it in dirt cause he said you smell bad even though you just showered and the little kid doesn't know what he's talking about cause he's just a kid and kids don't know anything, but you still took offense to it because you don't smell and you know you don't smell and he's just a little brat so you whiped his lollipop in dirt, but then he kicked you. But I digress.... So yea pretty awesome day. The grades are up for the majority of exams and I am pleased to announce that I passed all of my exams with flying colors. Best test was physio so far with an 18/20 and worst was histo which was 10/15, which is pretty baller cause I only studied for histo for an hour because it was only a 15 question test worth 7% of our grade and there were more important things to be studied in our time. It was pretty much the idea of everyone in my class, which sucks for histo, but even if you failed the test it's still super easy to make up the points. But yea good stuff. I'm going riding shortly with the cycling team, and my new tubes for my fixie came in so I can put the real front wheel back on. Also, we're all going out tonight (oh no on a school night???) because we need to see what the outside world is like instead of the inside of the library.

There's a business career fair or something like that at the union right now and I heard the words "free food" so I'm going to go see if I can track it down. I think you have to be in a suit with a nametag and I am in shorts and a T shirt and, sadly, no nametag, so I'm not sure how well it will work, but I'm going to try. Catch ya later.

“I like parties, but I don’t like piñatas because the pinata promotes violence against flamboyant animals. Hey, there’s a donkey with some pizzazz. Let’s kick its ass. What I’m trying to say is, don’t make the same Halloween costume mistake that I did.”

           - Demitri Martin

long time no see

oh hello, I didn't hear you come in. Please have a seat and I will regale you with stories of whimsy, grandeur, and medicine. Well, really just medicine, and other stuff.

Sooo..... what has happened since the last time I wrote stuff on this here wall...?

Last Friday was the bomb. I knew it would be after bad day Thursday. I don't remember why it was the bomb, but it was. Oh it was this kid's birthday from my program so we all went to a bar and had a joyful time. Then my friend Isaac from undergrad came down so I hung out with him after. Then Saturday I studied all day and Saturday night Jenna and I drove up to the big city (Chicago), well Jenna drove and I studied for 3 hours. We stayed at her neighbor's apartment for the half marathon the next morning. The apartment was on the 22nd floor of a building on the north side of Millennium Park. It was awesome. Well the apartment itself was kinda old looking inside, but the view was pretty sweet. Then we went to noodles and company for dinner and went to sleep for the BIG RACE!!

Sunday at 5:30 we awoke to a sleeping city, well a city just going to bed in some parts. The race started at 7:00, but it was down by the Museum of Science and Industry so we grabbed a cab to take us there. It cost $30 to go down there. $30. Ridiculous. The race went well for me. I got stuck in traffic (people) for the first 3 miles and only could keep a 9 min pace even weaving through people. After that, though, it opened up and I could get back on track. Just like my 12 mile run, though, I had some pain in my right hip flexor, at the half mile mark. Not a good way to start. So I ran 12.6 miles with a sharp pain every time I kicked my right leg back. I did finish in 1:51.02, which was a min longer than I wanted, but with the traffic at the beginning and the pain in my leg, I was pleased. At the end of the race they give you those oats and honey bars, bananas and cookies. My mouth was like a desert, so after the one bite of banana I took turned to a thick banana-y paste in my mouth that tried to choke me to death I decided to stick to water. Why they give you dry things after nearly 2 hours of running is beyond me. Then I watched Jenna tear up the finish later.

We didn't get back to school until like 6 or so so I only had 6 ish hours to study that day.

This week has been ridiculously hectic and awesome at the same time. I have spent probably 10 hours a day studying on top of going to class, review sessions, lab, and small group sessions. Honestly, it makes the studying we did in undergrad seem like it was nothing at all. I was able to work out a few times this week and get dinner with people, so the social life is still alive and well. I ran for the first time with my Vibram Five Fingers shoes the other day, which I have been waiting for for probably the entire month I have had them, but haven't run in them because I was training for the half. For those of you who don't know, Five Fingers are those weird shoes that have individual toes and are meant to be like being barefoot. I have included a link below to the Five Fingers here (http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_KSO_m.cfm). They are pretty awesome. However, because it is like running barefoot, and my feet are used to running in big squishy shoes with tons of padding and orthotics, my feet and calves were pretty sore after only a 15 min run. That is good though, cause that means that my legs and feet are doing the work and not my orthotics. Hopefully it will fix, or make slightly better, my flat feet and pronated ankles. Either way it is a new way to run and it is really fun.

Let's see, what else. Yesterday, or the day before, I don't really remember cause all the days blend together, I skipped my class at 11, cause it was stats and was a pointless review session, to study. I went to a study room in the library of the med school building at 11 with another kid. I did not leave or stop studying until 6 when we went to Chipotle for dinner and Joe, a 29 year old ex-nurse, got the biggest burrito I have ever seen. I mean this thing was gigantic. Then we had a review session from 7-8 and more studying till 11 or so. Joe was not feeling too hot during the review session because of the massive burrito baby that was wreaking havoc on his innerds. I can't tell you exactly what it was doing to his innerds because I don't dissect the abdomen until January or February. If I had to guess it was hurting his, um... what's it called... um... stomach? I don't know. To tell you the truth I don't think anyone knows.

So today I had 2 exams (Anatomy and Stats) at 10:00 and then anatomy lab practical later. I did really well on Stats, not as well but also well on Anatomy, and the scores aren't up for the lab practical, so I don't know. Think it went pretty well, but I was unsure of what they tagged in the quadrangular space. It could have been the posterior circumflex humeral artery, or the axillary nerve. It looked like they had 2 things tagged, but one of them for sure was innervating the deltoid, so I assumed it was the axillary nerve. I mean that sounds right, right? Then I got a 30 mile solo ride in because the weather was amazing, review session, and since about 6:30 I have been studying in Jenna's room because I came here to do laundry because it's free. Plus I got dinner...

(P.S. Jenna says that she is absolutely positively most definitely 100% NOT doing my laundry, nor will she ever. Ever. (that was from Jenna as she reads over my shoulder. She came in for a minute talking about something that I don't remember. I wasn't really listening anyway. But she has a beer, it's a good beer, and she didn't offer me any. I have been in here ALL night working my life away so that I can buy her nice things in the future. I SAID IN THE FUTURE. FUTURE. She's probably going to live in a cardboard box till then so I mean someone will have to support her eventually. She wants a blue house in St. Joe, not because she likes the house, but because the color of the house is appealing to her. She likes blue because I built her a blue bike for her. I have attached a photo of said bike below.

In the time that it took to upload the picture Jenna said that I was lying and called me a BLASPHEMOUS BLOGGER!!!! I don't know how to spell it so I think that's right. Not that I was called a BLASPHEMOUS BLOGGER, but the spelling. I just want you to know that I stopped my typing above because Jenna walked in, so this is all an aside that I typed because she was reading the whole thing over my shoulder and commenting. I was simply commenting back via typing instead of talking to her. You probably can ignore it. Oh by the way I built the bike you see above. Just so you know. Again. Now she's storming out because she says I type lies. Oh well, back to the action.

..... I don't remember what I was saying, so I'm going to say peace out girlscout. I'll talk at you later.

“When you have a fat friend there are no see-saws. Only catapults.”
                                                                - Demitri Martin

not so good

today sucked. just straight up sucked

i apparently forgot to set my phone alarm last night. luckily i dont have any window treatments because my apartment didnt come with them even though almost every other apartment has them in my building, so the sun woke me up at 8:15, just in time to miss my 8:00. Not really a big deal, I heard, though. Now how to get to class. A few nights ago I went out riding at like midnight on my fixie (with lights, don't worry) and blasted a pothole that I saw in time to pull the front tire over but the back was not so lucky. So there was a slow leak on the back tire which worked fine for like 3 hours. Today it decided to fully crap out and was dunzo this morning when I was going to leave after filling it up like 20 min earlier. Cool. So I took my road bike, which makes me nervous because I have a $20 lock that is probably a piece of cake to break and my bike is right around a grand to replace so not good. Also, I can't lock up my wheels very well and they're quick release so they could easily be taken. Class was fine, the usual. Got out at 1:00 after a meeting where they give us more work to do. Then I went to the local bike shop, Durst, to get a couple new tubes. They don't have the right ones. So I had to go back home and ride my road bike again for my anatomy demo at 2:00. Good demo, maybe the best part of the day. Then right back out to try a different bike store, no luck. Another, no luck. Cool. Home, Jeeves. I tried patching the tube, which I'm pretty sure worked, but in the process of putting the wheel back on, the axle became stripped on the left side. You have to be kidding me. I dont know how that happened because I only loosened the nut to take the wheel off and just tightened it back up to put the wheel back on. But either way now I can't even put the wheel back on without a new axle. I guess that's what I get for buying cheap wheels. Never again. Well, back to MSB MSB (medical science building) for studying and then a review at 5:00. Good review, but then another right after from 6:00-7:00. For a bit it was like the TA was speaking another language. I'm supposed to be able to learn this stuff? Ugh. Looks like my night just filled up. So I headed to the library after, but as hard as I try I just can't keep focused on my stuff. Yesterday I studied from noon to 11 with an hour break for dinner. An hour, that's it. No prob. Today, 20 min of staring at my computer screen seems like an eternity. So I surf the net, look up options for new wheels for my fixie maybe? Maybe a new track bike? I don't know. Eventually 10:00 rolls around and I just have to peace out. Wish I had my fixie. I have found that spending some time outside at the union is pretty nice though. So here I am outside in the cold, which feels great, watching people walking by going out, some girl looking for her purse, a few bikers (I'm jealous), pretty typical. Oh and an amazing picture of Bruce Weber, the head basketball coach, that someone drew in chalk. (pictured below)

I feel like I had something else to say, but now can't remember. Good thing bad days come in one's, cause I know tomorrow will be sweet. So much work to do for tests though. So much work. It just builds up and then all crashes down at one time. And I haven't been able to work out since my 12 mile run Sunday, yea Sunday and haven't seen Jenna or even really been able to talk to her in a few days. I need the weekend. Except all I'll have to do other than run the half is study. Should be good study groups though.

Sorry this post is negative. Just a crappy day. One every week, today was just it.

I'll see ya'll

Labor Day

Finally that relaxing 3 day weekend is over and I can get back to spending all of my time indoors away from the warm temperatures and the sun (you know that thing can give you skin cancer???).  Anyway, it was a good weekend. I was able to get caught up on my work that I fell behind on while dissecting last week and even managed to squeeze in some pre-reading for this week. I also went to a new Italian restaurant with my lovely girlfriend Jenna K. Pearson (she’s new, I don’t expect any of you to know her) where she paid for the bill with her $48 Visa gift card (I know $48 is pretty strange) from her boss at Whirlpool. And I’ll have you know that it was actually meant (from her boss’s mouth) so that we could go out to dinner. So there. That was Saturday night. Then Sunday night we made a homemade pizza at her apt cause her oven is bigger than a bread box.

But let’s rewind a bit. Back to Friday night. This was my first night out in like 2 weeks. And it was with the med students (my kind!!). So I get to the bar at like 10 ish and there were a bunch of us. Ooh fun!! Then after an hour or so of fun-ness I received a call from a miss Shannon Lotz. “Hey, it’s my cousin who goes here now!!” I exclaimed. Turns out on their journey back to Champaign, a couple of Shannon’s friends got stuck in Kankakee because the dude’s car broke down. So I let her borrow mine (of course, I mean c’mon look who you’re reading right now), but she’s like “OMG I TOTALLY HAVE LIKE NO IDEA LIKE WHERE THE LIKE HIGHWAY IS LIKE. THEN LIKE ONCE I’M ON THE LIKE HIGHWAY LIKE HOW DO I LIKE, UMM, GET THERE?” So I put my superhero cape on, brought her to my apt so I could write out some simple directions , and drove her up to 74 and Neil so that she could just take 74 the half mile over to 57 and be on her way. Then I just biked home. Get back to the bar at like 12 ish and sit down. Boy do I need a beer now. “okay see you guys later,” everyone says. Dang med students going to bed early. So I went home… lame. Then after about a half hour James (a co-med student) calls me and needs a ride to pick up his car from the impound because he was towed. He has a friend’s car so sure I’ll go. We waited for 45 min for a tow truck driver to get there so he could get his car back. Oh well that’s life. Sleep followed.

Sunday: my body informed me that it no longer wishes to run. Ever. I ran 12 miles on Sunday in preparation for the half marathon next weekend. My last long training run. It was pretty good until the last 3 miles or so where my knees stopped working correctly and my right hip flexor (muscle that lets you bend your leg toward your chest) was seizing up. Stupid body, I want to run still. So I did. Then when I was done my hip flexor would not let my leg move properly so I walked like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Man did I look cool. If only I had a huge boombox (on a side note, as I was typing boombox, my finger jumped the gun and typed boobmox. Easy finger, this is a family oriented blog) that I could rest on my shoulder and play some phat beats I would look totally awesome doing my very own gangsta lean down the street. Now for some of you, cough, older folk, don’t worry about the terminology, I just looked like an idiot.

Monday: This is one of my bikes:

It is what I use to get to class or anywhere else I go on campus. It's really fast and it's a fixed gear. That means that you cannot coast. If the rear wheel moves, the pedals move. That means that I can use my legs to slow the bike down. It is not a coaster break where you pedal backwards, it just means that I slow the rotation of the back wheel by slowing down the rate at which I pedal. It’s really fun. So I went out on a group ride on Monday with the cycling team and some other dudes. It’s a shorter, easier ride so I took my fixie (Slang term for fixed gear bike, there will be a quiz on these terms next week). It was a blast. And now I’m helping a friend find one to buy. The problem with that is that now I would really like a new one to play with, but bikes are expensive, unfortunately. Then that night I made the most amazing meal. Seasoned chicken wraps with turkey bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato, and Koops Arizona heat sauce with homemade baked, seasoned French fries. Holy cow did I hit the jackpot with that one. Definitely putting that in my very small recipe book in my head.

Today is Tuesday: I was studying in the lib today and took a break to look at Craigslist to see what good bikes were available. Old road bike, old road bike, crappy mountain bike, kids bike, old road bike, free road bike, old… wait what???? A guy posted that he was just putting his old road bike next to the dumpster by his apt and whoever wanted it could take it. HAZAA!! Is this my lucky day or what? So I immediately packed up my things and bolted out the door. Giddy with excitement I rode as fast as I could to my car. “Oh happy daaaaayss,” was playing in my head as I tore down the street. I got my car and went to the apt complex. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Bikes gone. Well it was good while it lasted, me. Time to get back to work.

And that’s my life.

See ya later crocodile

I think the worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades...or a game of fake heart attack. 
-- Demetri Martin

Dude going to town on the DDR

So here I am in the basement of the Union studying like a good little med student, and out of nowhere this guy starts playing DDR (Dance Dance Revolution.... I'll explain it later). Needless to say, after about an hour of this mindless DDR'ing I felt the need to share it with someone, but who....? I mean this guy is just such a baller that I think the world should know, should see the coolness, nay, the magnificence of his pointless skill that he participates in. So I thought to myself, who should I tell. Who could I tell. There is no one around except me and the distraction himself. So then it came to me.... take a video of it and post it on the internet!! They can't teach this stuff in college, let me tell you. So out comes the camera and the video was made. Here it is world, the world premier of "DDR kid: blood, sweat, tears... oh so many tears."

Now, back to business. DDR is an invention that allows you to play video games and sweat, much like how Rock Band lets you play video games and play instruments at the same time. Arrows appear on the screen and you have to stomp on that corresponding arrow on the ground in time with the music. It's like dancing, but much cooler. Now in the University of Illinois has been gracious enough to bless us with our very own DDR machine in the basement of the Union. This allows people like DDR Kid to come and play it whenever his heart desires. Which, today, was around 11:00 pm on a Monday night. Now, you would think that it would be sort of a one and done deal. One game, and then leave. You'd be wrong. He/they come and play for extended periods of time, often sweating right through their Lord of the Rings T-shirts.

Now I'm not saying DDR isn't fun, it is. I actually have played, in high school, and was pretty good. But there is a time and a place for DDR and I'm just not sure the basement of the Union at 11:00 on an Monday night is that time or that place.

Post complete.

Every fight is a food fight when you're a cannibal. 
-- Demetri Martin 

BREAKNG NEWS!!!!!

I'm just messing there is no breaking news. I just took pictures of my apartment yesterday and thought that people would like to see the place that I live. Now I just have to figure out how to put pictures up.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... After scanning the post page I have discovered the button necessary for picture posting. You can stop holding your breath now world cause here they come!!

Living room/bike storage room. 

Bedroom/bike storage room. 

One of my closets/bike storage room. (I feel like there's a trend here...)

Kitchen/Dining room. The fridge is a smaller fridge, not mini, but not big, so Jenna says that I look like Shrek when I'm in it. I don't see any resemblance, but that's just me.   

Closet. Yes ladies, it's a walk in. Jealous?

My bathroom. Kinda small, but it gets the job done. 

Good work team you made it through the entire apartment walk through. I know it was exhausting, but I'm sure in a few days time you'll feel rested and ready to go once again. 

This is me studying. I totally wasn't picking my nose, I just had an itch. And I didn't know the camera was going to take a picture so fast, but I figured what the hey, right? 

Look forward to upcoming posts where I talk about action packed things like blood osmolarity and total body water exchanges between the interstitial space and the intracellular fluid. Get excited. 

"If I'm not back in five minutes...just wait longer."
- Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

First few weeks

Hey guys,

So I was told that I should start a blog so everyone can keep up with me. I guess I have kind of become a ghost in the past couple weeks and probably will continue that way for a while now. Basically, med school is everything they say it is, but I just get more sleep than I thought. No all nighters, no coffee, no energy drinks, just a lot of studying during the day.

Orientation week was great. It was like a little intro to classes and stuff from 8:00 to whenever every day. On Thursday of that week a couple of guys and I even went for a round of golf. I haven't played in 3 years ish so it wasn't pretty on my part.

Then class started. I have class every day from 8:00 to noon. Then an hour for lunch and then afternoon classes, which we don't have every day. Most of it is lab demos, but now we're starting to get into the nitty gritty of it. We have started Histology lab and Microbiology lab, which are 4 hours one afternoon during the week. The afternoons are really just open to do what we want, or what we should be doing, rather, because really all we do is study. A couple days during the week I get time to go for a run, but the other days I do work from about noon thirty until probably 6. Then quick dinner and back to studying until about 11 then bedtime. I have, though, started riding a bit with the cycling team here. I was going to do a race this weekend, but I don't have my mountain bike here, so I couldn't. The pres and the VP's have said that they're very impressed with my riding strength, but what do they know they're undergrads right? Just kids really.... No but it sucks really bad some days, and other days its a blast. And I know that so on the bad days I just know that I have built up karma for a good day the next day.

Dissection: awesome and awful at the same time. Awesome because the human body is just crazy. The things that go on inside all of us without us knowing is just ridiculous. The thought that there are normal people with normal working parts walking around is astounding. I guess I should explain a little bit about the lab and stuff. There is one room of cadavers. There are 11 of them. Each student is assigned to a cadaver, so there are 6 students for each body. Each week a different student (or in the first 3 weeks 2 students) is/are assigned to dissect a specific part of the body. The first week it was the anterior side of the arm. That means they had the side of the arm with the bicep and then the palmar side of the forearm (the palm faces forward (anterior) in the anatomical position). They had to find arteries, veins, muscles, and connective tissue. The list of structures is daunting, but you learn it fast. Then this week I, with my partner in tow, were lead dissectors for the hand and the axilla (fancy word for armpit). I took the hand and he had the axilla. So I spent the weekend last weekend in the lab for about 2-3 hours each day removing the skin from this man's palm and fingers. At first it was kind of weird holding the hand of a dead man and then cutting into the palm and fingers, but you get over it really fast. It is no longer a person, or a body. It is just this piece of tissue that you are using to learn. Also, the faces are covered up with a towel and we keep the portions of the body that we are not dissecting under towels as well. Then after skinning all weekend I spent 2.5 hours on Monday after lecture removing fat from his hand. That was a bad day. I was kind of pissed when I left lab because the hand looked nearly the same as when I had gotten there. Then all I had to do was go study, not uplifting. Tuesday turned things around, though. I got a lot done and was starting to really get in there. My partner was having a tough time. Included in his work was to remove the superficial fascia from the chest (fat, connective tissue, etc.) and get down to the pectoral muscle, the lat, and the serrateous anterior (uuhh the bumpy muscle over your ribs on the side of your chest under your arm? if that makes sense?). However, unfortunately for him, our body's muscles were not well preserved in that region and it was all basically mush. So he spent like 3 days picking through mush to try to find the nerves and arteries that he was supposed to find. Also not fun. We did finish, though, a day early at that. Then we had to learn each other's parts so we could demo it to the other students on Friday. That's how they do things here, they have a couple students learn then teach the rest, for anatomy at least. Oh and you can pull on the tendons in the forearm, especially the one that goes to the thumb, and make the fingers move. It's really cool. The next time I dissect I will be all by myself and I have to dissect the abdomen, which I heard is not fun or easy, so that's something to look forward to.

Anyhoo, that's all the time I have for you right now. I am staying sane, for the most part, and enjoying most of my experience so far. Oh there is a program called CCCP that we can get in, where we go basically shadow a doctor around here. I'm going to try to get it with a surgeon. We meet a minimum of 4 times throughout the year for 4 hours each, so it could be really cool.

My address is 605 S. 4th Street (apt 210) Champaign, IL, 61820. Feel free to send me anything: food, gifts, prizes, lottery tickets, money, magazines, funny pictures, postcards, paper cranes, pieces of a mystery machine that I can't finish until I get all of the parts, DVD's, beer, bike parts, your car keys, nuts, a cell phone, new shoes, seeds for a plant that bears fruit, candy, tacky Christmas sweaters, toilet paper (yea toilet paper, then I don't have to buy any), graphic novels, a snowboard, blue pens, your ideas about the possibility of time travel, or hats (just some ideas). I am also open to things not on this list. I will not accept: small children or pets, your laundry, bills, bottles filled with any sort of mystery liquid or gas, candycorn (I just don't like it that's all), those little metal circles that look like quarters from the hole punchout parts of electrical boxes, underwear that you or someone you know has previously worn, red pens, anything expired, or copies that you took while sitting on your copier.

I will try to keep this blog updated, although time is of the essence for me, but this is a nice escape from studying, so we'll see. If I don't post for a week or so someone just shoot me an email and tell me to say something. If you have any questions for me, there might be some place to respond to the blog, I don't really know this is my first time using this. You can always email me at slotz2550@gmail.com. I respond to emails every day, so I'll get to yours eventually.

Well I'm going to make like a tree and get outta here. See ya!

-Scott