Step prep day 26

Still here. Still studying. Not doing a whole lot else.

You know, there's a drawback to getting more sleep than I'm accustomed to. There's a certain amount of deprivation that goes on during the general schedule of things, due to classes and having to be places on time and such. When it comes time to buckle down and study for an exam, I tend to regulate my sleep fairly religiously - the brain consolidates info better, and I just do better. An unintended consequence of this, though, is that my creativity seems to go into overdrive - sure, I can study, but I quickly find myself distracted by all the books I want to read and possibly write; I'm overwhelmed by all of the escapist pursuits I just didn't have the energy for previously.

Do you want to know how boring I am right now? I bought some starch for the first time the other day (anyone who knows me is wondering why I haven't done this sooner). The hi-light, though, is not the new crispness of my shirts, but it's how I picked out which brand. I was standing in front of the display at Winn-Dixie, looking back and forth between three or four different brands. Usually, I check the prices first; I assume most products to be fairly similar, in our economy of competitive capitalism. But then something caught my eye - I was reaching for the cheapest one (I figured starch was something to skimp on if ever there was such a thing), when I realized that there was one brand that was almost gone from the shelf. All the other brands were stacked out to the edge, but I had to reach way back in for this one. Thus, I decided that it was the one to get - clearly, folks who bought starch bought this starch. There are tons of possibilities to explain the relative scarcity of that brand compared to the others, but I'll just choose to believe that it's because it's been proven to work.

Physiology is almost done; I'm going to be getting into the interesting stuff soon.

USMLE Day 15

The studying's coming along - I've so far gotten through anatomy, histology, and neurology, and am painfully slogging through biochemistry. Damn cycles and enzymes....cycles of enzymes.... I do, however, take solace in the fact that these have been relatively low-yield topics; the Board just doesn't ask as many questions about them as, say pathology or pharmacology. I feel like once again I've sold my soul to something, or what's left of it; Sallie Mae already owns my soul. I guess I need to do well on this to get my soul back from Sallie.

I saw this post on the Yale Daily News, and I feel quite ambivalent. On the one hand, Yale has seen enough violence for a lifetime, with the terrible tragedy of Annie Le, and the court proceedings that I'm sure will drag on for months and months. On the other hand, however, I am elated - that someone can be absolutely frickin' nuts and still get a medical residency at Yale University. Seriously....what does a psych resident (that means that he's working on becoming a psychiatrist, not that he's a resident of a psychiatric facility, as it may seem) need with two shotguns, two assault rifles, and two sniper rifles? While I'm all for the Second Amendment (the original Homeland Security), one sniper rifle should be enough for anyone. This guy couldn't have been that bright, or he would have known to get a concealed carry permit - that's why they busted him. However, sometimes we just can't outrun our destiny, and, like poor Oedipus, our fate follows us relentlessly - wanna know this soon-to-be-ex-resident's name? Remington!

USMLE preparation: Day 11

Today's the first day that I'm really glad I'm doing this Kaplan thing. Over the past week, I've been making my way through anatomy, histology, and neurology (ick). I could have done this all on my own, but that would have meant slogging through old notes and review books - a significant portion of that time would have been dedicated solely to finding and organizing the material, much less reviewing. However, I'm particularly pleased with the post-chapter questions Kaplan supplies - the majority of them are straight recall, and not the third or fourth order questions like the USMLE will ask. After every one of their review books, though, they offer an assessment that is in the style of USMLE questions. This I like; I can find questions on my own (and I will, in fact, shell out for UsmleWorld - reputedly the best Q bank out there...sorry Kaplan), but having them correlate so closely with what I'm doing at the moment is a refreshing way of measuring performance. The assessments are going well, so I guess I can move on.

So I'm done with that - it wasn't that bad. I TA'd anatomy, so I was pretty familiar with a lot of the information. Now, though, I'm starting biochem - my arch-nemesis. It was by far my weakest subject, and while it's not supposed to be that "high yield", they're still valuable points I can mop up with a little effort. So that's this next week for me.

In other news, things aren't looking good for Annie Le, but I find it horrendous that Fox news jumped the gun and prematurely reported that they'd found a body. I tuned into the live feed of the press briefing at Yale, and could tell from the body language of the folks setting up cameras and microphones that there was no body; they were too business-as-usual, too calm - they were joking around too much for there to have been a body. The bloody clothes in the ceiling are the most ominous piece of evidence yet, however...so much was made of what she was wearing when she was last seen (brown skirt, green shirt), that the investigator's reticence to disclose whether or not they were actually connected to her further deepens the mystery; it almost seems as if the clothes found were not the clothes she was reported as wearing - hopefully they aren't. It's a stretch at this point, but I still hope for a happy ending.

Nose to the Grindstone

I've got a little over two months to review 2 years worth of information. A few weeks in, and I'm sick of it already - I've got to slog through all of the stuff I didn't pay enough attention to the first time around. It's going much more quickly this time, and I can't say I can complain too much; the Kaplan center's not a terrible place, the review materials are decent, and Miami's not that bad. I take it back; I'm not sick of it - I'm just sleep deprived. Already.

On another note, Annie Le's disappearance is exceedingly wierd. When a young woman disappears so close to impending nuptials, everyone thinks it's just cold feet. However, a few things make this case damn strange:
1. There is a 100-man task force looking for this girl. She's not a diplomat or a star - what gives?

2. No one from her family has said anything to the press. There has been no "please send our little girl/finace' back".

3. One doesn't just disappear if one is pursuing a doctorate at Yale.

4. The mysterious fire alarm?

5. The mysterious class cancellation

All of this leads me to believe that there is some very large, very significant piece of information that law enforcement is holding onto.

Holy Writ

Medical school is a cult. Everyone on the inside knows it, and I've referred to it in my own writing as such. The doctor/professor who lectured us during those last ten days of UMBR joked about the concept - we have our cult robes (the white coats), or own secret-language (Bigeminy, aorticopulmonary septa, subluxation, borborygmi, melena, etc); our own saints (Galen, Sir William Osler), specific rituals (abdominally speaking: inspect, auscultate, percuss, palpate), special commandments (Primum Non Nocere) and a dedication that rivals all major religions. We have tremendous faith - that this mountain of accruing debt will someday be whittled to nothing, that we can, infact, shift the balance of disease and health in favor of those upon whom we lay our hands. However, rigth now, I'm going to address our holy text. From these we diligently study our daily devotionals, "studying, to show ourselves approved". I only bring this up right now because my 17-pound box from Kaplan arrived today, and I am in my period of cleansing - for tomorrow I will begin my preparation for the tribulation of USMLE step 1. These will be the lamp unto my study, and the light unto my road to the score I want.

I don't have a definite schedule mapped out yet, but it's supposed to include at least a hundred questions per day. That's a lot of questions, given that this test is more than 70 days away.

Spokane River and Falls

These are from Clinkerdagger restaurant - it's nondescript from the outside, but offers some amazing views of the river and the falls, which we walked around afterwards.

Manito Park

These were taken at Manito Park's big garden.

These were taken inside the park's conservatory. I've always had it in my mind that I would someday own a little greenhouse, in which I'd grow succulent cacti and orchids...looks like they had the same idea.

Here's one of the many duck ponds that surruonds Manito Park.

These were taken from Manito Park's Koi pond - apparently, a few years ago, someone released their own diseased pet fish, which killed off all the koi, and what you see ther are just about all they have left.

Pictures from Spokane's Centennial Trail

I'm going to have to break this up, since Blogger's misbehaving. Here are some shots from the Centennial Trail that first day.

Checking in

So much has happened since I last blogged (all of it good), that I'm not quite sure where to start. Just after the last post, Nicole and I went to pick up my 13 year old brother, and spend some time with the family. My maternal grandmother had been visiting my family in Texas, and he rode the Greyhound back with her to Miami. He spent a few days with us - we walked around various malls, blasted our way through hordes of zombies at Gameworks, went to church with the grandparents, and went to south beach.

After dropping him back off with the grandparents, Nicole and I started the final section of UMBR (Ross' step 1 review class we've been attending through the semester). This section - pharm and phys - was run by the esteemed Dr. Kudrath. I say "esteemed" because his part of the course is the reason Ross imposed their mandatory attendance policy on UMBR - 90% attendance, or no dice. See, he's so good, that people would just skip the earlier stuff, and come for his part. I believe he also teaches at a lot of the Texas medical schools, and had some very specific, tested-and-proven advice to hand down to us. It was a grueling 8 hours per day, but I think we came away with an excellent review, and some fantastic advice.

We'd planned to take that advice, and hit the ground running, but we needed a serious break. Thus, Nicole and I spent a few days doing nothing but hitting the gym and reading by the pool.

(This blogger website is being unreasonable today, and so I may not be able to post all the picture I'd like. You've been forewarned).

After our poolside relaxation, we flew to Spokane to visit Nicole's family for a week. The last time I was in Washington was about two years ago in November - I managed to fly in on the same day as their first big winter snow. However, my bags chose to wait a day, and arrive at their leisure (I believe they stopped off in Milwaukee or somewhere like that). So there I was, wearing jeans, a button-up dress shirt, and the the little zip-sweater I'd layered on in Houston. This time was different - it hovered around 80 during the days, and only dipped down to about the 70's during the night. Nicole's parents wanted to make sure to show me the town at this time of year, and I've got to say - it's a beautiful city. Part of it remind me of Augusta, GA, and other parts of New Haven, CT. The river running through the middle of the whole town, though, adds in a certain something that couldn't have been done by engineers and city planners.

The first day (if I remember correctly -they all sort of run into each other), we walked around the park that hugs the river that runs through the city.

(Nope...blogger isn't letting me post pics the way I'd like to - I'll do it in a separate post).

So we walked around the park that first day, and had a nice lunch at Rock City Grill. After that, Nicole and her mom walked around Nordstrom, looking for baby clothes for a friend of Nicole's, while her father and I browsed ties we couldn't afford. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and hanging out.

The next day, we went to Manito park - Spokane's got a lot of parks, but this one is more like a botanical garden. they had their little plant conservatory. We spent a good amount of time walking around and smelling the roses, before heading to the Elk Pub in Brown's Edition. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I heard "Elk Pub", but I wasn't too far off - it felt like it catered to the hipster set and businessmen alike, with a whole lot of Northwest charm.

The next day, we did a bit of shopping - hitting up the Nordstrom Rack (their big bargain basement that, for Nicole, is always good for hundreds of dollars of savings on jeans and tops, and for me, is always good for at least one tie), and costco. We also went to see a friend of Nicole's mother, who has this fantastic projector set up in their living room. Forget flat-screens - I want one.

There was a lot of hanging out, a lot of eating good food - I went to mass with the family, and we had a huge family barbecue, during which time I got to meet the rest of the family. It was like a matching game - Nicole had been telling me stories about all of these people for years now, and I just had to put names to faces. It was a lot of fun - we also spent some time with their next door neighbors, who have turned their back yard into a beautiful little park. Their fire pit was an ingenious little deal crafted from a tractor wheel.

One night we went to the Gibliano Brother's Dueling Piano bar. The whole idea of a piano bar is very northwest (very Seattle - very Billy Joel and Elton John ), and, as such, is something with which I had no experience other than Nicole's stories. She and her mother were all revved up to go, so her dad and I tagged along. It's been explained to me this way - you have two pianos, and everyone sings along. Part of the way the pianists make their tips is that you pay them to play or to stop playing something. It's supposed to be a lot of fun - apparently, though, the crowd we mixed in with that night didn't know how things were supposed to go. There were some older folks singing their hearts out, but the rest of the folks were the college-aged crowd who, apparently, thought it was just some regular bar. Nevertheless, after a few drinks, Nicole and I belted out all the verses to Billy Joel's Piano Man (which, in my heyday, I could have gotten up on stage and tickled from the ivories), and Don McLean's American Pie. I hate to say it, because it probably isn't true - but I had more Bon Jovi in my soul than that crowd. (It's impossible to go clubbing in a college town and not hear Livin' on a Prayer).

Following that rousing start to the night, I made an interesting discovery - I love ginger; not the spice girl, not the castaway - but the actual plant. I mean, I'd always liked ginger-ale, but ginger's great, especially when added to martinis and mojitos.

We went out for Anniversary dinner (our 2 year, her parent's 29 year) at Clinkerdagger - the same place we'd visited on my last trip. Afterwards, we walked over bridges, taking pictures of the city.

This trip - this time off - has allowed my to finally get into some reading I've been meaning to do for quite a while. I've managed to get through the following:

Irving Stone's The Agony and the Ecstasy

Justin Evans' The Good and Happy Child

Carlos Ruiz Zaffon's The Shadow of the Wind (one of my new all-time favorites !),

and I'm reading Andrew Davidson's The Gargoyle.

Right now, I should be plowing madly through hundreds of questions in preparation for step 1, but my package from Kaplan hasn't arrived yet (it should today). So, I'll go through a few from a q-book I have, and hit it tomorrow.