Sunshine and Silliness...

hello? (*a voice behind the really big really black really velvet curtain on stage*). Just a sec, let me see if I can find the center stage... wait, hm, aha there it... (*steps out into the spotlight*)

Ta da!

Just in case any of you were wondering, I am still alive and kickin'! ... I'm just in med school.
Ha ha, "just" in med school. Okay, I'm really sorry to anyone who's missed reading about my life-- yes, all two of you were very disappointed I know. The last time I wrote it was still July, wow-- so to fill y'all in, I took some time off work, didn't get to see Matty in Vermont :(, started orientation at MSU COM and met ten gajillion people from my class and learned at least half of their names in two days, spent $1000 on medical equipment and group memberships, moved into a new apartment with Jenny Meek and started class two days later.


That was when the real work started.


For those of you not at medical school, this is what it's like: every morning is lectures, usually 9-12 and sometimes 8-12. (this year it's different subjects each hour, but next year they start having lectures on systems-- for example, 8 hours of lecture on the GI tract!) In the afternoon, I have OMM (manipulative medicine) lab, clinical skills, doctor-patient relationships, and histology lab each once a week, and gross anatomy lab for an hour every day.
I'm helping run a note-taking service, have joined 6 groups (two of which I'll do 4 hrs of shadowing/volunteer work for over the semester for a credit) and a spanish medical terminology class for a credit, and still work 5 hours a week at the computer lab job (study and get paid). And I take a bunch of time off to see Troy and friends-- although it looks like I'll get to do that less until I catch up.


So I have to get running and be a good student and look over the anatomy lab material. I intend to write an update here once in a while, but if you really wonder how I'm doing drop me an email and I'll write you back, even if it's just a one-liner "i'm alive and studying." Take care!!!

Guess what!! They're selling Canada!!!!

So I was finding maps of the Sarnia to Niagara route on google today, and the first link at the top was this:
"CANADA - Great Deals on eBay - Click Here!"
Does this mean that canada has filed chapter 11 and is selling off parts of itself to raise funds? Or are people listing their properties on ebay now?? I wonder if they're selling off monuments and cities too-- maybe I could buy Toronto or Montreal-- I hear they're pretty cool towns.

# posted by Joanna @ 2:42 PM

Hi folks, I want to tell you that it's been corroborated, I got a second opinion: I am indeed in recovery from my congenital Type A personality.
Ok, so it's not that big a deal (and I am still over-organized sometimes) but I really wanted to talk about everything I have planned for this summer and I wanted to preface it with something about how I know how to relax. Because I'm very busy, but it's mostly FUN stuff!

So sometimes I'm going to be in lansing.... work work work all day long.
I'm going to see the Cirque du Soleil "Quidam" tomorrow with my mom (yay) and then will see my family and brothers' families for Lorenzo's 2nd birthday.
I'm going to the Hiawatha Music Festival in marquette next week and going from there to Isle Royale for a week of tromping in the woods with Venture Crew with everything we need to survive on our backs.
I'll work for a week, then I think I'll go to Vermont to visit Matty before his 25th birthday; from there I could go to Boston (never been there) and probably to Canada to visit a really cool friend of my mom that has a sugar maple farm, writes kids' books, watches birds, and likes to go camping/kyaking. If someone takes the trip with me I might go to Toronto too (never been there either).
I'll probably go to Farm Fest up in johannesburg. Then I'll either work a few days or take the time off to veg before orientation for med school.
... of course, from then on my social life dries up as I adjust to full-time class and studying and tests. But good news! Beaner's is open 24hrs!

What a life, huh?

And now I'm going to return to my "vacation on the beach" (in my head of course)... I've had two people comment on my electric blue hawaiian shirt; Hawaii-five-oh, baby!

Going back to my earlier AIDS-aid rant... I'm still unsure as to how much has been committed to it by the US government. The article I found the date I posted said it was $500 million. An article today says today "The White House has budgeted $988 million for worldwide anti-AIDS efforts this year, including $200 million for the global fund." Still, this is a pretty small number. Anyone out there know what other countries are contributing to the global AIDS fund?

I just found out that my friend, former social dance partner, fellow RA and former Sparty mascot, Jason Zicchino, is engaged! Congratulations to him and his lovely fiancee Kara. You can bet that Sparty will be coming that THAT wedding!

It's a rare day that I post three times in one day, but look it's happened. Matty pointed out this funny website to me and I thought I'd share.

So, this is what happens when mathematicians refuse to grow up and leave their Legos behind.

So I separated my "joy" entry from this one because, well, it's not very happy. In fact, this article from today's NYTimes is pretty sobering:
"AIDS will claim an additional 65 million lives by 2020, more than triple the number who died
in the first 20 years of the epidemic, unless more countries vastly expand their prevention
programs... AIDS is the fourth-leading cause of death in the world. Without a sharp drop in
the number of new infections, the AIDS death toll by 2020 will rival the number of people
killed in wars in the entire 20th century."

Wow. This makes me want to get involved somehow, somewhere, and soon! Maybe I'll lobby Bush to give more than a paltry $100 million a year in AIDS aid to Africa. This brings to mind another article I read today about heart pumps (and a possible debate as to whether the government on individuals/insurance should pay for them) and the fact that the US govt pays roughly $12 billion a year through Medicare for kidney dialysis for 300,000 Americans. I think it's great that we provide that treatment but it puts the $500 million/5 years AIDS assistance plan into perspective.

I wish sometimes that I understood the national budget a little better than I do.

Thank you to Tim, who declared me "a bringer of joy" yesterday; it started when I told lab monitors that the lab was closing early and they didn't have to work. Today I decided to extend that, and I declared a national holiday tomorrow for Tim, which he has so kindly decided to share with the rest of us.