Rainy Day

I'm loving the rain right now. Yesterday was a miserable 90 degrees with the sticky humidity permeating everything. Today it is about 70 and raining, which just feels like Portland.

I'm done with my first classes. I've written the last paper and taken all the tests. I have most of the grades back, but not quite all. Some are better than others, but I should pull at least an A- in everything, I think. I'm actually going to go talk to my pharmacology professor about my clinical paper assignment, because I either really screwed up something and can't figure out what, or the TA that graded my paper didn't do a very good job. I'll find out which tomorrow.

This weekend has been pretty lazy. I spent all day Thursday at Muddy Waters writing my genetics paper. Friday I lay around the house watching a really good stage of the Tour, then went for a ride in the rain that was sadly cut short by a flat tire. I changed the tire but the pump I carry with me is only powerful enough to inflate the tire to 75%. That's enough to get home on, but isn't fun to do any real riding on and any underinflated tire is more likely to flat again. After I got home I was covered in mud and grease and spent about an hour scrubbing myself clean.

I then ate lunch and promptly fell asleep while attempting to read. Luckily I woke up in time to get dressed and head over to Sarah's for a game night. Unluckily, I decided to pump up Johnny's tires before I left and managed to break the valve and let all the air out. That meant that I would have to change the tire, which takes a ridiculously long time on Johnny because his tires are kevlar and not very stretchy. So I called Sarah and she came to pick me up. She had Yasmine and Maya with her and Maya was not very happy at all. She's got a probable yeast infection, and was doing a lot of screaming. Anyway, when we got home Sarah took care of Maya while I got a lesson in cucumber peeling from Ronen. Apparently there's a very particular way to do these things in his family. Paul showed up at some point and we were all put to work getting dinner ready. Dinner involved the usual toddler-induced hilarity and chaos. After dinner, while the little ones were being put to bed, Paul and I made cookies and got Settlers out to play. We played the Cities and Knights version, which I had only played a couple of times before but really like. Paul beat us without too much competition, and then we just sat around chatting until Sarah looked like she was going to fall out of her chair from exhaustion. I got a ride home from Paul and immediately passed out in bed.

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of working on the Fuld project. I met up with Elspeth, another friend from class who is working on the project with me, and we rode our bikes to an STD clinic in the "bad part of town." It's actually about a mile away from my house, but it's amazing how the neighborhood changes in a very short distance. It's not a dangerous place to be in the middle of the day, but I would never go there at night. We found the clinic and met with LaRon, who is running the study. We thought that we were going to be recruiting young moms to participate in the focus groups but LaRon informed us that they had been having trouble getting enough people, so they've hired a full-time recruiter. That was a big relief to me, since walking up to teenage moms in the street and asking them if they'd like to come talk about their sex lives didn't sound like much fun. So Elspeth and I just got a tour of the STD clinic, which is a cool nurse-run free clinic that offers a lot of really good services for free. He then gave us the software and stuff we would need to do transcription and emailed us the audio files of preliminary group sessions so that we could get an idea of what to expect. I started listening to one last night and transcribing it is going to be hard work. First of all, it's hard to understand what they're saying because of the way the talk and all the slang they use. Secondly, they all talk at the same time, and they have their kids with them to scream in the background. I'm one of the people transcribing next weekend, so it'll be very interesting to see how well I do. At least I don't have to recruit, but it'll be slow going.

Today I'll just be hanging out at home finishing up a lot of minor chores. I'll edit my genetics paper, do some laundry, maybe some baking, finish listening to those audio files, sew patches onto my scrubs, and maybe get to the assignment that we already have for our next class. It's not due until Wednesday though, so I'm not terribly worried. My schedule looks pretty manageable next week, it's the following week that things get crazy with the beginning of clinicals.

The heat is gone!

It rained this afternoon, and I had a little celebration inside my head. It's now a very comfortable 80ish degrees and not very humid and smells like fresh rain. It's even cool inside the house, for the first time since Friday.

I met my other roommate tonight. He was just moving some stuff tonight and will be officially moving in on the 19th. I don't know where he's coming from or anything about him, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.

This week has been pretty laid back at school, but everyone is looking at next week's schedule with awe and dread. Here's a taste of what we have to do on top of our usual class schedule:
Monday: Genetics pedigree assignment due
Tuesday: Medication proficiency test
Wednesday: Cardiovascular Assessment SOAP write-up due
Thursday: Health Assessment test, Pharm test

The big problem is that the only thing that can be done ahead of time is the pedigree. I won't do the CV assessment until Friday, so I can't start that until the weekend, and we won't finish covering the material for the Thursday tests until Tuesday in class. I'll start studying over the weekend, but I have a feeling that Wednesday will be a long night no matter what.

I need more ideas for things to bring with me to class that I can eat throughout the day. Fruit is good, and PBJ is good, but that starts to get old. Anything that I can eat in class would be ideal, since I have a lot of three hour classes and tend to fall asleep if I don't get something to eat. If only my bagels hadn't been attacked by the Rochester super-mold. Maybe it's time to start making trail mix.

Sexy research

Apparently you guys think I should study either condoms or prostitution... I dunno what that says about me, or you, but I'm sure it's something. I've emailed the coordinator for the condom use study because that one sounds the best to me. I would actually be able to sit in on sessions with participants and do transcription of interviews, which would be fun.

Today was still hot. Katherine ended up being unable to ride with me, but I still went out for about an hour this morning on Paris. It was nice and relaxing, except for the sweat dripping all over me. Everyone at school seemed shocked that I was still riding my bike in this heat, but then they would go sit outside during class breaks. I think they're all insane.

I'm probably not going to race tomorrow night, since the forecast calls for a high of 86 with accompanying thunderstorms and potential large hail. Doesn't that sounds like fun. At least it'll be cooler. The low at night will actually drop to 70ish tonight, which will be a welcome relief. As an example of how brutally awful the heat is, there was a pro bike race in Philadelphia (about 3 hours away) this weekend. 190 men started, less than 50 finished. And these guys get paid for this.

I'm having other problems with the weather. All of my bread is going moldy. Until this past week I'd been keeping everything in the cupboard because fridge space is limited. Well, half a loaf of bread got covered in black fuzzy stuff in just s couple of days, so anything that has survived is now refrigerated. The thing that really puzzles me, though, is that my bagels got moldy. Why is this a puzzlement? They were in the freezer. How does mold grow in the freezer? I know they weren't moldy when I put them in there, but I went to toast one this morning and it was covered in little white spots. I thought maybe it was just from freezing, so I warmed the bagel up a little, and turns out the white spots smelled like mold. And they were on all 10 of the bagels in that bag. Rochester must breed super-molds or something, I just don't get it.

Procrastination

Not really procrastinating, since I don't have a lot of schoolwork to do right now. I had planned to spend my extra free time today shopping for hot weather clothing, since I'm woefully short on that kind of thing. Sadly, all the zipcars were booked so I have to put it off until Wednesday evening.

The good news is that Alice finally got her wedding dress in and the color has been confirmed for our bridesmaid dresses. Which means that while shopping for tank tops and shorts, I can also pick out a bridesmaid dress. It will almost certainly show off my fabulous tan lines. Should be great.

I really want to do some muffin baking, but it's just too hot to turn on the oven. Ugh. Thankfully it should cool down to high 70s/low 80s by midweek.

Oh, and I'm thinking about doing this. It sounds like the Torture 10,000 of the East. I might just be a little bit insane.

Crazy weekend fun

Last night was the East End Festival and a night out with the main social crowd from school. We were celebrating Jessica and Eric's birthdays, or at least that was the excuse for the outing. I managed to get a ride into town with a group of girls that I'm getting to know pretty well, including a Sarah from Portland. You guys might get to meet her between semesters, I think she'll be going home too.

Anyway, we met at a British pub called the Old Toad. I sadly didn't get the chance to see much of it, since we were running late and whisked off to the festival. The festival was all local bands playing on several different stages. Think loud, crowded, lots of beer and greasy food, people cheering for no reason, etc. It was a lot of fun, except for the 90 degree heat with extra humidity. Every time a breeze picked up there was a lull in the noise as we all stopped to make the most of it.

While standing in line with the group for beer, a random guy I'd never seen before (clearly very drunk) put his hand on my shoulder and said, "You are so..." and then couldn't finish the sentence. So Kristina, who was standing beside me offered some help, suggesting "Beautiful, gorgeous, ravishing, lovely..." and on and on. He decided to agree with "all of the above," I was bright red at this point and wanting to go hide in the crowd, but couldn't figure out a graceful exit. He probably noticed this and then stalled me by asking if I would like a beer. I was so surprised I didn't answer, but Kristina answered for me, saying that I would absolutely like a beer. She also told him what kind. So I ended up getting free beer, having hardly said a coherent word since the moment he accosted me. Of course, when he handed me the beer he asked if I had a boyfriend. The answer was an emphatic yes. I don't think he was too disappointed, since he promptly turned around and bought beer for the next girl in line.

I think the highlight of the East End fest was a country-ish group with an enormous man in overalls doing the worm across the stage to Sweet Home Alabama. It was definitely a sight I will never forget.

The festival ended at 11, so we went out to a place called the Blue Room afterward. They were playing music from when most of us were teenagers, so we danced like idiots and did a lot of giggling. I got home around 1am, completely worn out, drenched with sweat from the heat and dancing, and feeling quite happy with my Friday on the town.

When I woke up this morning it was only slightly cooler outside. But, I had to get food, so I went to the market and Wegmans and did my grocery shopping. I tried to convince myself to get on Paris and do a workout, but it just wasn't going to happen. So I tried to convince myself to work on my Nursing Science paper, but that was almsot impossible with sweat dripping off my face onto my keyboard. According to the thermostat it was 80 degrees inside the house by about 2pm. It only got hotter throughout the day. So I fled to Muddy Waters for air conditioning and caffeine to get me through my paper writing. It was remarkably successful, and I'm now pretty much done with the assignment and have caught up with my Pharm reading. I also managed to put together the two videos in the previous post and spend a lot of time joking around with the barista.

This barista was very funny, sarcastic and inappropriate. For most of the day (I was there from 2:30-9:30 except for a short dinner break) I was the only other person in the shop. A few examples of his (funny) inappropriateness: We complained about the weather and he suggested starting a commune in the shop and invited me to join the commune because, "I'll need women to help me populate it." Then, when I got back from dinner and said something about the weather not being nice he said, "Like Mormons at your door trying to convert you not nice, or the people who throw the Mormons out not nice?" Oh, and my personal favorite was when I bought my second drink from him he gave me 50% off just for hanging around all day. But he said, "I'm only giving it to you half price because I put something special in there just for you. *wink* If you start feeling a little woozy, let me know, it means the rufies is working." We then went on to describe an advertising campaign for the shop that included, "It's a great place to bring a date! Free rohypnol with every drink!" I blame all of this on heat stroke.

So, things I have learned this weekend:
1. Keep your mouth shut and you might get free drinks.
2. Get used to a constant layer of glistening sweat, since it reappears immediately after showering.
2a. Sunscreen only works for a little while, since the glistening layers of sweat get rid of it pretty fast.
2b. Sweaty sunburnt skin should not come into contact with a leather couch. If it does, it hurts a lot when removed from the leather.
3. Air conditioning is one of the best inventions ever.
4. Become a coffee shop bum and get free barista entertainment plus cheap coffee.
5. Chocolate peanut butter blended iced coffee is right up there with air conditioning.


Oh, and maybe some stuff about pharmacology too. By the way, I got a 96% on my last pharm test. And I have no exams this week, which is a small miracle unto itself. Tomorrow I will do a workout on my bike, I promise. I ight also go shopping for more summer clothes.