I Liiiiiiiiive

The last few weeks were rough, one of those times when all hell breaks loose and it's all you can do not to go crazy.  To top it all off, I narrowly avoided getting a cold only to get strep throat.  I felt like everything was distracting me from what's most important, which is studying for my MCAT in March (**** so screwed) and making me feel insanely guilty and unhealthily worthless.  Even worse, I was craving another cheesesteak sandwich all week and I couldn't eat one because I could barely swallow my penicillin.  Nnnoooooooooooooooo.  

I took a day off work to recuperate, made myself a study calendar, did practice problems, and spent another several hours playing shooting games to cheer myself up, and now feel somewhat better.  At least, I'm back on track studying.  I'm trying to figure out how to re-integrate the gym.  Since I'm trying to be hardcore about studying, I may just have to park my butt on a bicycle and read, because reading while running on treadmills is very difficult.  

Last Monday was Lunar New Year which means RED ENVELOPE MONEY!!!!!  YEAAAAAH.  It's customary for married people in the family/extended family to give the kids and unmarried losers in the family red envelopes for good luck.  Which means I get money yeaaaaaaaah.  Although, my cousin still hasn't given me or my sister a red envelop ever since he got married in 2008.  Hrmph!  It's not really a big deal, or a lot of money to begin with, but still!  Anyway, I have a habit of not spending any of these.  The last time I used some of my red envelop money was in middle school, when I bought Pokemon cards (wtf?).  I also have a habit of hiding them so well that I forget where I hid them...

This week there are two Lunar New Year parties going on at the senior home.  The residents organized the first one on their own, and the one on Friday will be organized by the staff.  I'm looking forward to the Friday party because the staff managed to get the police department to perform the lion dance.  My secret wish growing up was to join a lion dance group and learn how to perform, but knowing my build, I would end up being the butt, and no kid will enthusiastically say to their friends, "Hey! Watch me perform tomorrow!  I'm gonna be the lion butt!"

Year of the Dragon! 

Unfortunately, I have a patient during part of the show, but maaaaybe they'll still be performing when we're done.

Food Cures Everything

"Mingle smash!"

That's how I felt most of last week....There's a certain individual (not a patient) that my coworkers and I have to deal with occasionally - chip on the shoulder, thinks everyone is out to get him, lies, doesn't listen to explanations and then accuses you of withholding information, acts entitled and calls you racist if you don't concede to his demands.  Some adults are worse than kids, I've learned.

After dealing with him I treated myself to not one, but TWO Philly cheesesteak sandwiches (not in one day though).  Oh yeaaaaah.  I've never been to Philadelphia, and so I don't have a frame of reference to judge whether a sandwich is "authentic" or not, but good eats are still good to me even if it's "fake."   The second place I tried was kind of disappointing, though.  I'm not a glutton but that sandwich pictured below was pretty damn skimpy.  I was actually sad.  I always thought it was an unspoken rule of thumb that, for hot sandwiches made fresh, the white part of the bread should never be visible.

Trying to stay focused on studying...It's tough :[  I like listening to Audio Osmosis lectures (by Examkrackers) and reading their study guides to get the facts memorized and learn mnemonics.  For practice problems, Kaplan has better problems that get me used to the "MCAT lingo."

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

New Year's Eve was pretty subdued for me...I studied, I procrastinated, and I briefly attended two NYE parties, both of which are pretty subdued compared to previous years.  Someone brought pretty cupcakes, but I had so much food I never got around to eating them:

omnomnom

...All that icing scared me too.  I'm not really into these fancy shmancy cupcakes, although they are pretty to look at.  I like regular cupcakes with regular chocolate/vanilla icing and sprinkles.

Next up, I went to another friend's house for our annual NYE's Bad Movie Bash.  Last year we watched Kazaam with Shaquille O'Neil, this year we picked Troll 2, which was so terrible it was hilarious.  I'm not sure if we'll be able to top it next year.

Another present from a patient - mini almond cookies!!  I have no idea what this brand is called.

My coworker (CW) and I also received another box of chocolates.  It made up for the fact that we had to work on a Friday.  When CW asked if I was going to share the chocolates I glared and said, "Hell no!  You crazy?!  We had to work today!  They goin' in MY belly!"  (Evil Boss made the two of us work, but the rest of the office got the day off.)

And finally, I caved and paid an extra $10 ($72 total) to buy this Clipper card, which the city sells as a pass for all the local transit systems in the area:

It's $62/month for unlimited use of all the bus systems that travel within the city.  The extra $10 gives me access to the Bay Area Rapid Transit aka subway system, which gets me from work to the gym MUCH faster.  I still have to transfer to a regular bus line to get home, but at least I can circumvent all the homeless people and crazy people that take the bus in and around the office =/  Now, if drug stores like Walgreens would just install a Clipper reader so I can use it to pay for things like juice and water....
(Hong Kong's Octopus card is a pre-loaded card you use to pay for bus fares annnnnnnd you can use it at many of the local chain stores to buy food.)