How Ya Duurrrrn?!

I know I haven't published a post in a long time. I just feel like I don't know what I could possibly post about, and then I end up writing some incredibly long piece and then discarding it in the end (which is great -- I still get everything out of my system).

Last couple of weeks have been rough. I overanalyzed some aspects of my life (once in a while, I do this), became a bit burned out, and then, in the end, surrounded myself with those I love. A simple dinner with my best friend, a trip to the local fire station and then the beach with my boyfriend, and just hanging out with a couple of people I love hanging out with really did it for me.

Interestingly, at my workplace, we are working a project on coping mechanisms for stressed-out adolescents. I laughed at some of the problems these kids were having. I then chuckled at the coping mechanisms like "hang out with a buddy," "play a sport," or "go shopping." The thing is, I keep my guard up, and rarely do I stress myself out to the point that I get anxious. On top of that, I absolutely hate when people complain about the little things in life. However, last week was a difficult time in my life. I actually ended up taking advice from the project and genuinely felt better about myself. Never will I laugh at coping mechanisms or "stupid problems" again.

Now, of course, my advice on those days you're feeling down in the dumps: hang out with a friend, get some ice cream, watch a FUNNY movie, do NOT read textbooks, and, finally, mix in some old school rap, like Tupac and Nas. Instant feel-good. :)

LAFD.

Here's a glimpse of what LA's finest does for a living.



Firefighters/paramedics have amazing skills. I interact with them on a daily basis, and I genuinely have the utmost respect for them. It's not every day you meet a person who does 24-hour shifts of constant runs around the city, picking up patients with medical emergencies (ranging from fatal chest pains to GSWs), helping them out, stabilizing their conditions, calling base hospitals, taking them to EDs, and getting everything precisely right without ANY mistakes. They're always waiting for the next call, and they see a lot of, for lack of better words, CRAZY SHIT. Did I mention they fight fire, too?

I believe I have the audacity to become a firefighter. I just may be lacking in the physicality department-- I gotta work on the guns, baby. Just Google CPAT. :D

Hmm....

Do I go to the ER and become your typical abdominal pain patient? Or do I suck it up? That is the question.

Biosociality and Tupac Shakur

I had this very efficient schedule made for finals week. I was supposed to have completed reading chapters for Cognitive Psychology by Sunday, and I was supposed to have started my 20-page paper on the biosociality of diseases with genetic predispositions on Monday morning.

Truth of the matter is, I finished reading the [extremely theoretical yet very interesting] Cog Psych today (about 1 hour before my final), and I opened up MS Word to start my paper about 3 hours ago. I then decided that I should stop complaining so much about how much I SUCK at time management sometimes. Tupac Shakur helped me come to this conclusion through some sort of lyric along the lines of "always do your best, don't let the pressure make you panic..."

I'm currently listening to Buddha Bar, staring at my walls, and drinking water ... I think I just may attempt Yoga on my WiiFit before I sleep. I think that's one thing I genuinely like about myself -- even when I'm "stressing out," I can just kind of STOP stressing out through some sort of behavioral or psychological activation. (This can't be good, can it?!)

My friend said some nice words about me today when we were studying for psych: "Even when you have a billion things going on, you're just so relaxed." So yeah, let's all just relax. Get along. And floss. ;)

Feeling Yellow?

I have to write a paper about a book about yellow fever's medical history. The book is about 380 pages long. The paper is due on Tuesday. Can this be done?

I keep finding things to do instead of reading. I cleaned my room, gave myself a spa facial, and researched Yellow Fever on Wikipedia, which ultimately led to me finding out about these really awesome signal recognition particles in cellular endoplasmic reticulum. Now, I'm blogging. Might as well write about something more interesting than SRPs.

Yesterday, I worked all day. I had a couple of meetings in the morning, followed by a few miscellaneous data entry tasks. Helped out with patients, met some clinicians, blah blah blah. The day ended with a small gathering at my supervisor's house, where I chit-chatted and had dinner with really well-known, "intelligent" people with lots of degrees. It was sweet. Sweet, but different.

Ah, I should get back to Yellow Fever. By the way, this disease is crazy-- fever of 105, body aches, vomiting blood eventually lead to organ system failure and delerium, and then you die. It's like a more acute (and worse) version of porphyria (which has one of the most interesting natural histories ever). And, apparently, it's re-emerging.

DOCTORRRRRRRRR!?

The Wolff-Kishner Reduction SUCKS BALLS

This is what I should be doing right now.



This is what I want to be doing right now.









But I am le tired, which means the only thing I'm gonna be doing is running to my bed and sleeping. Yes, I am 22 years old, and I sleep at 10pm. It's kind of like my trademark, that is, if bedtimes could be trademarked.

FYI, I initially wanted to make this entry about how much I despise Organic Chemistry. But why would I put so much effort and time into writing about something I absolutely hate? That's ironic (or hypocritical or oxymoronic-- one of those analytical terms we learned about in high school). Ahhhhhhhhhh, goodnight. :)

My First Blog ... EVER (too!)

So we decided to join the rest of the world in blogging our lives away.

I think I'm getting nervous writing this, because I'm staring at my screen and entering, deleting, and re-entering jumbles of words that make no sense. Should I write about my thoughts on how crappy music is nowadays? Maybe I should write a witty review about the latest Straight-To-DVD movie I watched. Does anybody want to know about how my street-tacos-at-midnight Friday night went?

I don't know what this blog is gonna be used for, but I think it's gonna be fun.