My Little Corner

I had a project and a final last Monday and Tuesday; I have a project and a final this Tuesday and Wednesday. It just doesn’t ever seem to slow down. I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was until I fell asleep at 7:30 on Friday (in my clinic clothes). I rule. I woke up around midnight, put on PJs, and then went back to sleep. Saturday was a pre-planned day o’ fun with Amy. We got coffee, walked around the mall, hung out at the pool, went to Tin Star and a movie. It was a fabulous day! And a much needed break from school. Today, however, reality is back and I must write a paper, make a power point presentation, and start studying for the final. Woo hoo. Oh and finish two instrumentation labs before Wednesday.

I finished that stupid annotated bibliography. yay! Now I get to study for the final. boo!
I went to the dentist today and have two cavities. Not good. For those of you who don’t know the back-story of me and cavities, here’s a recap: had never had a cavity in my life; somehow between my check-up in January 2004 and my check-up in July 2004, I got seven. Yeah, I said seven. So I went to work at Frontier on ropes and rappelling, gave up drinking Cokes, and came home to two days of drilling and filling those cavities. This was also the dentist trip where the assistant tried to set me up with the dentist’s son. So the doc numbs half of my face, works on the cavities, gives the numbing shots to the other side of my face, and while I wait for that to kick in, the assistant brings over the son. I physically am having difficulties talking and he takes after his father in that he’s practically a mute. He had just graduated in chemical engineering (this was supposed to be a good thing according to the assistant, plus they have a house in the Caymans) but didn’t know a lot of people who went to UT with him. Extremely awkward. And then I had to go back the next day. Luckily the new dentist in Dallas that I went to did not try to set me up with her son.
Back to the studying I go. Hope that was an enjoyable story for you. It also epitomizes how people are always trying to set me up–I’ve got some great stories about the old people from the Assistive Device Center who try to set me up with random family members and some even ask me out themselves (lunch at 10:30 a.m. with an 85 year old, talk about a hot date!).

okay I know I just need to suck it up and get it done but first I want to vent a little on my blog. I can do that because, after all, it’s my blog.
I have an annotated bibliography due on Monday. Actually, 8 annotated bibliographies and they aren’t ABs in the strictest sense of the word (that would mean they only have to be about 150 words long). No, no, our assignment is to select 8 to 10 articles from our reference list to discuss; summarize the article and then critique (for grading purposes, she will pay particular attention to independent thought and critiques). Frustrating part, we live in the electronic age where all this information is available already at the touch of a button. How am I supposed to basically write an abstract on the article when one has already been written for it and not plagiarize the previously written abstract? And how am I supposed to give independent thought to a research article? Keep in mind I’m getting a CLINICAL doctorate not a research doctorate! grrr. enough. must make myself do this ridiculous assignment. check back in a week or so; this class will be over by then!

or right after I post. I don’t know what my problem is; I’ve suddenly reverted back to major procrastination days. I have a project due on Thursday and I’m not remotely close to finishing it. It’ll get done before Thursday (because it has to and I’ve never not finished something this big) but I’m having serious motivation problems. I started pulling research articles on Saturday, then went to the lake on Sunday, this afternoon I took a nap instead of working on it, and that’s pretty much all I’ve done. Oops. I went to class (which, by the way, having a 4 hour class twice a week from 5 to 9 is not a good idea no matter how much you like the prof or how interesting the subject is) and now should be working on either the presentation portion or the annotated bibliography portion. But I’m blogging instead. eek! I think I’m going to have late nights this week because I’ll be procrastinating until 10:30 p.m.–much like tonight!

So I’ve been back at school for 3 whole weeks. I’ve already had to do a PowerPoint presentation and had a midterm. Yuck! Things I’ve learned about summer session in grad school: when the schedule for a class says 5:15 to 9:15 Monday and Thursday nights, they really mean the entire 4 hours for class lecture; our department doesn’t really follow the university’s rules–there are only supposed to be 2 6-week sessions but because we don’t follow the rules, "we’ll have one class for the first 6-week session and then another class that starts in the first 6-week session but then goes for 2 more weeks into the second 6-week session, then you’ll be finished with that first class and add a second class, but in a different time slot so you’ll have to rearrange your entire clinic schedule 3 times during the summer…confusing? you’re in a doctoral program, you can handle it"; when you have a 6-week class, the midterm really does fall during the 3rd week, after having only 4 classes, and then they expect you to listen and take notes on a lecture for a hour after you’ve finished an 1 1/2 hour long exam. Like I said, PHEW! Kinda intense. Today, I plan on cleaning up the apartment (life gets put on hold when school gets crazy) and then going to a bar-b-que for school Sara’s (not the roommate, that Sarah has an "H") birthday. yay for fun summer activities that do not involve learning the types of fungus that grow in the ear!