Spinal Tap

Yesterday, when I was working at the hospital, my doctor sent me up to the HIV clinic, where another doctor (who I share a last name with) showed me around and invited me to view a lumbar puncture and then to aid him in drawing blood from the femoral vein. I felt bad for the person getting the lumbar puncture, but it was really neat to learn about. You have to go in between the L3 and L4 vertebrae, and if you don't go into the direct center, you will keep on striking bone, which was what my doctor did until another one of the assistants helped to scrunch up the patient more so that he could hit the spinal cord and drain out some fluid for tests. It was really weird to see people who were all infected with HIV because some of them didn't look very sick at all. I helped in both procedures by opening cleansers, sterilizing the area, and handing over various medical equipment--even preparing a shot of lidocane. I can't wait until I become an intern. Only seven more years...

Letters to the Editor

Debates on Immigration
that aren't for class
actually arguing a point,
and proving my rebuttal
But this doesn't even matter
when it's 3 am
on a
SCHOOL NIGHT
and I still have to write two lab reports.
sometimes I wonder
if it is just better to keep my
mouth
[shut]

Early in the Morning, Rising to my Feet

My chemistry exam today went well, I hope. Right now I am working on remembering all the material that is going to be on my Calc II exam tomorrow (which is going to take place at 8:30 in the morning). My question is, why do they make us do math so early in the freaking morning? I cannot tolerate it most of the time and end up falling asleep; what can I do to make the experience better?
In other news, today I found out that the boy I wrote my first two blog posts about was chatting to his new girlfriend (that's right, they are officially "in a relationship" on facebook, something we never were) on facebook the weekend I was gone for the AMSA conference. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I'm still kind of mad that I didn't know anything about it. Plus, this girl he's "dating" wouldn't even know good grammar if it bitch-slapped her; I don't know how he can be an English major and tolerate it. O well, I'm almost over it. Stupid boys.
Haha, speaking of boys, this guy I was dancing with at the hip-hop show asked me for my number; we'll see how that plays out. I'll have to look at his facebook before I can decide if anything will happen. Yeah, I'll book your face.
Anyways, for our pre-med AMSA chapter we are now putting on a fashion show for the Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease. I volunteered to model the prepster clothes. I'm excited, because my definition of school clothes is jeans+T-shirt = hawt! Haha, not really, but it might as well be.
I made a revelation today that I am now very addicted to regular coffee because I can get it for free at my place of work. It's good because it's free, but this will screw me up when school's over.

Ode to the Pursuit of Happiness
Oh, I linger,
for that last drop
of ground café
to fill my cup.

What if I Wanted to Break?

I got to thinking about the hip-hop festival held on my campus this past weekend, and I remembered the huge amount of people in attendance who are not my school's students. Now, when campus safety is at it's tightest because of a student being stabbed a few weeks ago, we are inviting random people to hang out? I know that the school wants to improve its appearance with urban and race relations, but seriously, was that the best way to do it?
Besides that, I attended the festival one night and it was really fun and I can't wait for next year's. I feel like the whole situation was a conundrum. Sometimes, I think that our school needs to drop this whole "one with the urban community" thing and close the campus. I mean, our city definitely needs improvement, but it shouldn't put our students in danger. Yesterday, though, I was appalled to hear that a girl got a ride to the other side of campus from a campus safety officer and told him, "Yeah, I'm really scared to walk around campus at night with all these black people around." Sheesh, when will people learn that someone's race doesn't make them unsafe? I mean, there have been a couple of muggings on campus this year perpetrated by black community members, but that is probably just representative of the fact that the community is composed of mainly minorities. Stick any private open college in an impoverished city and you're just asking for trouble. Oh well.