Where Are The Sheep?

Catching the view from the Top of the Rock with a friend a couple of weeks ago:

Me: "Hey, the map points that out as the Sheep Meadow."

Him: "Yeah? Oh, so those blobs must be sheep!"

Me: "Hmm ... no, I think those are people ..."

Him: "But they're not moving."

Me: "Sunbathers?"

Him: "They seem like they're all the same color though. They're all ... brown."

Me: "Brown sheep?"

Him: "Maybe."

Me: "More like tanned people, I think."

Him: "Alright, hold on, let me look this up on my phone and we'll settle this once and for all."

Him: *fiddles with phone*

Me: *fiddles with map*

Me: "Oh, hey, look here, the map also says sheep grazed there until 1934. Hmm, what year are we in again?"

Him: "Yeah, well, wiki says ... okay, fine. You can wipe that smirk off your face now."

Other recent happenings: My cousin's first born was born - it's a girl! I had to bring my notes and hunch over to cram for my neuropsych final at her one month banquet, but she's absolutely adorablicious. And the food was great. I also went out to celebrate a friend's birthday and we had Venezuelan food. Guacamole and arepas with pork brisket, yum. My other cousin coincidentally had his birthday around the same time and we feasted on pasta and tiramisu for dinner. (My life revolves around food.) His sister later surprised him with an iPad! Dude, she should be my sister haha.

Yet another friend's birthday is coming up so we just went out last night and tried Ukrainian food for dinner, where friends claimed I took my time pondering over the menu just to have an excuse to repeat borscht a gazillion times. Well, borscht turned out to be pretty yummy. So were the pierogies. The stuffed cabbage ... not so much. We also demolished a whole cheesecake topped with berries. Restaurant rejected our surprise cake from outside so we made do with just forks from a nearby cafe and sat in the outside seating. There is something strangely satisfying though about just forking into a cake, civilized pieces be damned. (Indeed, my life revolves around food.)

Otherwise, life has been pretty boring ever since I got back to school. The workload has been seriously picking up its pace. I just had a subject board exam last week and more weekly exams lined up for this month (clinical epi, systemic path, pathophys, and so forth). Sighs.

I am about 9 pages in for TM Chapter 29 so please bear with me. Hopefully, I can squeeze in some writing time one of these days and finish this once and for all. Thanks for understanding, everyone.

Mockingjay & Sailing Away

School recently started and work's been picking up. There's a midterm and a group powerpoint presentation on the neuroscience of sleep creeping up next week.

I did manage to fit in some last bit of summer fun.

Finally read Mockingjay! I enjoyed it for bringing closure to this epic series. While it didn't quite match the way I adored book one, The Hunger Games, it was a bittersweet ending that at least made me go "Ah ... hmm ..." rather than "Ah! Blargh!"

Suzanne Collins sometimes tend to brush over certain death scenes of her characters or Katniss is too busy escaping or passing out to really allow us to linger on what just happened - which I can understand as a stylistic choice: high paced action punctuated by casualties, no time to breathe, fear, think. Death? It happened. So it goes.

Still. I just wish we could have dwelt on certain moments, certain characters just a tad longer. Some parts left me in such a dazed funk, I was still trying to get my mind to wrap around it three pages later and barely processing where Katniss was running to.

But all in all, I loved the characters and the world Collins set up and it was an utterly awesome trilogy.

A few weeks ago, a friend invited me out sailing on his uncle's boat. I'd never been on boats and yachts before, not even a cruise; the closest thing I had going for me was a ferry ride. So yup, it was fun. Nice sunny day, gentle waves, and then ... beers and wines were brought out.

Each person got a beer bottle to him/herself and as I slowly worked mine down, my face reddened its way to tomato status. I am truly the cheapest of all cheap drunks.

He joked, "Hey, after some alcohol, the waves start feeling pretty steady, huh?"

"Yeah!" I agreed a tad too enthusiastically.

He eyed me. "You're starting already, aren't you?"

I clapped my hands to my cheeks. "Yeah ..." I mumbled. "It's a sunburn?"

He ended up finishing both of our cups of wine so I wouldn't over-enthuse myself off the side of the boat.

Taboo

I thought I'd be able to get through this summer without a single mosquito bite. Failed. My neck has a lump that's fast entering goiter size and my left foot is swollen from a bite so badly, it hurts. Today, the bite mark turned black like a bruise. Not good. I'm so allergic to bug bites, I should roll around in a bubble outside.

On Wednesday, my friend had her barbeque (where I picked up the bites); we burnt a lot of food to a crisp because we didn't want to pick up salmonella and then of course, we assessed the crispiness because we didn't want carcinogenic properties. Basically, we ate a whole lot, hung out with her golden retriever, and played Taboo. Except when you have a bunch of really competitive med students together, the clues we start giving get ... interesting. 

"This is what you give albuterol for!"

"ASTHMA!"

"What are we studying to be? But not primary care! Okay, what does this specialized person use?"

"SCALPEL!"

"This is where we purchase attires ... oh forget it, blank junction!"

"GAP!"

Yes, by interesting, I did mean way nerdy.

Of course, I'm a tad more eloquent and cool so I threw out a few gems of my own:

"Yo, this has a red ass."

"BABOON!"

Went out to lunch yesterday with a friend (she's also doing med - entering this year) and then we checked out Bed Bath & Beyond so that she can pick up some supplies for her dorm. It was nice to catch up since we hadn't sat down face to face in over a year now; especially lovely to do so while perusing cedar balls (only wish this were an interesting euphemism) and cushions. She got this giant under-bed storage box that's about her size which the saleslady wrapped up with two pieces of saran wrap before handing it back to friend; so she lugged it onto the train back to her place like a bulky surfboard ... or mini coffin. 

Folks were also passing out free samples of Science Diet dog treats on the streets so I swooped in to grab two bags for my friend's golden retriever. Now they just need to pass out free treats for humans, like chocolates and ice cream bars. Yes, please.

Studying for my exam next week has not been going well. Barely made a dent in neurology and I still have behavioral sci to review. I barely remember behavioral sci, but I have convinced myself I could go at it in one day since it should mostly be psych and child development stages. Yeah, this will probably come back to kick me in the butt in the upcoming weekend. Who else hates that summer is coming to an end?