Tonight Caitlin and I made nummy Christmas cookies together. We got two giant cans of frosting, four tubes of glitter gel decorating stuff, and two tubes of sprinkles. I took the opportunity to put as much frosting on my cookies as I wanted, and no one told me that I couldn’t eat spoonfuls of frosting out of the tub. So I did.
We made a lot of cookies.
I got out of my PChem final this morning and found Caitlin waiting for me. “How are you doing this morning?” I asked. “I fed the squirrels!” she proudly replied. I saw a couple scratches on her cheek and jokingly asked “Did the squirrels scratch your face?”
Oops. Yes they did.
Apparently she was feeding a runty squirrel when a big mean fat squirrel decided that it deserved the food more than the itty bitty one. So it gave the little one a smack and hit it hard enough to knock it into her face, where it scrabbled around a little bit before escaping. Don’t feed the squirrels!
The semester is finally drawing to a close. With all the med school apps, essays to write, and work to do, it definitely wasn’t one of my easier. It’s been one of the best, however, thanks in no small part to meeting such a wonderful girl to spend each day with. Although the classes this semester haven’t been the most strenuous, they have definitely stretched me in some new ways. Most notable among them has been my Literature and Medicine class, an Honors Colloquium. When I showed up to the first day and was given a syllabus, I was taken aback. Every single time I walked in the door, I was expected to hand in an essay, the topics of which ranged from “Write about what it might be like to give birth” to “Discuss an issue of medical malpractice present in the readings.” This added up to well over 30 essays that had to be turned in for this single class. I left that first day disheartened— could I really handle such a requirement?
34 essays and a term paper later, I guess I survived. I really did enjoy the discussion that went on during class, most of it being so topical to my future career plans as a physician… it was just a lot more writing than I’ve ever really had to do for any sort of class. I guess that should be expected from an Honors course.
Sidenote: our Honors curricula requires that you take a certain number of courses that are designated “Honors”, from any discipline you like. Most of these courses are smaller than their corresponding non-Honors section, and most are GenEds (Music, Art, English, etc.) Having come into the University with credit for so many of my core class requirements, most of the Honors offerings simply weren’t available to me. I came into this semester realizing I needed one more class. What were my two choices? Honors Meteorology, or Honors Accounting! I picked Accounting simply because it sounded easier, but boy what a waste of a class that does nothing to prepare me for much of the real world.
Today in Lit/Med, the professor held up a small print of a painting that he had gotten at the Shanghai Museum while he was presenting at a conference in China. He decided that we should have a vote to decide “who among your peers has taught you the most while in this class” this semester. We passed around papers to ballot, and the top three stepped out of the room “until the white smoke signalled that the voters had decided.” I happened to be one of those three, along with a professional writing major and an English major. Together we represented the Literature and the Medicine, surely. When we came back in, I found that I had won this little prize! Rather flattering.
So despite telling myself “I’ll blog tomorrow,” tomorrow just never seemed to come. Most of my free time over the past couple months has been spent applying for medical schools (or doing all the associated drudgery that comes with such apps), and with nine schools to apply to, I just have put off doing anything extraneous. (In case you’re wondering, I’ve applied to the Washington, Michigan, Baylor, UT-Southwestern, Northwestern, Illinois, UNC, WashU in St. Louis, and Mayo.)
When not slogging through my labwork, med school apps, or my Literature & Medicine class that requires me to write two essays a week, I’ve mostly been spending time with my wonderful Caitlin. Tonight we went on a date… to the store, to buy ingredients for pumpkin cheesecake. We collected cream cheese, spices, and graham crackers… but when we got to the last part, canned pumpkin, the only size can the store had was big enough to make TWO cheesecakes. So what was there to do but buy more cream cheese and make two whole cheesecakes so that the pumpkin would not go to waste? 
The last several hours have been spent gleefuly mixing a melange of ingredients in hopes of popping out something that resembles cheesecake. We’ll see how it turns out.
I have not, as some people feared, yet killed Phiji the Betta Fish. He enjoys doing the Bringer of Food dance every time I come around with the Betta pellets, and the Bringer of Light and the Day dance when his blinds open. And unlike his two cohorts Gamma and Pez, he does not gnaw on his own tail.
I find myself looking forward to Thanksgiving more than just about any of the past school years. It isn’t that this year has even been particularly difficult, coursework-wise. It’s just been so stressful. But I’m also especially looking forward to bringing Caitlin back with me 
Caitlin went to PetsMart today to get a Betta fish (she was so excited to get it; it was pretty cute). I tagged along with her and Sam (fish consultant extraordinaire) to help pick one out. Well she found a pretty red one that she liked… but Sam pulled out a very nice blue one that I thought was rather awesome. So, um… I have a fish now. Caitlin’s is named Gamma Betta Epsilon (Gamma for short), so of course mine had to be from the rival fish-fraternity Phi Betta Gamma. I just call it Phiji though.
