Road Trip

Retroactive Post

On Sunday, Cami and I drove to Utah for my Spring Break. The trip there was uneventful, except for the fact that we were towing along two little kids with us. We agreed to take Cami’s sister’s two children, Daniel and Jessica, with us to give Wendy, Cami’s sister a break from the insanity of home-schooling her two intense kids. What an ordeal that was! I am not sure if you are aware of this, but little kids have no concept of time or distance. This slight problem is compounded by their incessant insistence on knowing “How many more miles till we get there?” or, more accurately written, “How meny moah mios tiwwe get theyo?” Jessica, at four years of age, has yet to master the pronunciation of those tricky L’s and R’s. Our back seat looked like a nightmare after the 9+ hours in the car. Fortunately for us, the trip to Utah is about three hours shorter when driving from Sacramento to SLC. I know I am not authorized to receive doctrinal revelation, but, let me let you in on a little secret: Hell is not a fiery inferno, but an eternal road trip with children.

Driving aside, the trip was a nice one. It was nice to discover that BYU is right where I left it. I got to see the finished Joseph F Smith Building, which is quite a building. It felt strange to walk around again, but this time as an alumnus (I think the lady at the parking booth thought I was lying when I said I wasn’t a student… That’s against the honor code!) Even weirder was the fact that I saw so many familiar faces, don’t people graduate from college anymore?

Monday I went and paid Missy a visit, but now that I think about it, Missy should have paid me for the visit, because I was really just a living jungle gym for Droolie G and his trusty sidekick Leadbottom. I could not believe how big those two ankle biters have gotten (I think Nina weighs just as much as Grant does). Nina is talking and signing away and looks just like Missy, while Grant still talks without every really closing his mouth. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them and have lunch. We played hide and seek and goofed around for a little while before I had to go. I was sad to have to leave, it’s hard when everyone lives so far apart.

On Monday night, I had a reunion of sorts with some of my ol’ college buddies. We all went out to Chili’s and reminisced and ruminated over fried foods. It was good to see them all again and it made me kind of sad that you can’t take your friends with you wherever you go. Scott and his family are finishing up a Master’s at BYU and then headed East, Robbie and his wife are likely headed to Chicago. Ryan will probably never leave Provo and his job at the same telemarketing company his been punching the time card at for the past four years. Adam has already taken his family of 3 ½ to Denver. Fact is, we’ll probably never all be together again. I think making real friends gets harder the older you get.

Tuesday we hung out with Ashley and then with some of Cami’s friends. We ate at the Legend’s Sports Grill on campus on Ashley’s Dining Plus account. I had a philly cheese steak sandwich and it was good. I also had to buy a BYU T-shirt at the bookstore. I admit, I’ve felt that I haven’t lived up to the Beach Boys admonition to “be true to your school, just like you would to your girl or guy” at UC Davis. Nearly everyone in my class pays homage to their respective alma mater by wearing T-shirts and hoodies with various three and four letter acronyms emblazoned on their chest. As one of three BYU alums in the entire school of medicine, I figured it was my duty to represent the school, so I bought a plain white T-shirt with a blue Y on it. I already feel much better.

On Tuesday we also went to a Jazz game at the Delta Center. Cami’s bro-in-law Doug buys season tickets and had some other meeting to go to, so he gave us the $78.00 tickets. Needless to say, they were pretty good seats and I didn’t even feel bad rooting for Phoenix to win (they didn’t) because Shawn Marion, who plays for Phoenix is on my fantasy basketball team. Just prior to the game we went and supported Jake, Cami’s nephew, at his pinewood derby. It was fun watching Doug fret about the car and constantly grease the wheels. Cami just laughed because she said I going to do the exact same thing when I’m a dad. I just nodded, because I admit, I am probably going to do the exact same thing when I am a dad.

Wednesday was a do-nothing day and Thursday we came home. The ride home was more annoying than the ride here and if my car came equipped with a rear ejection seat I might have been tempted to use it once or twice. Fortunately for Wendy’s progeny, Volkswagens do not come equipped with standard rear ejection seats (I think that costs extra).

So today is Friday. Poor Cami had to work last night after driving all day, work this morning and will work tonight again before we leave for Merced tomorrow night. I haven’t done much all day. I started doing our taxes and worked on this blog and played the guitar (but not all at the same time). I am probably going to watch some hoops games tonight. Two of my final four picks blew it last night, but I was really too tired to care.

I finally took a look at my schedule for next quarter. I’m taking Endocrinology, Immunology, Pathology, Neurobiology, Genetics/Human Reproduction and Doctoring. Wow, that’s a lot. I hope I’ll have time to write you this quarter. The quarter ends at the beginning of June and then I have six weeks off before year two starts in Sacramento. Cami and I will probably be moving directly into Sacramento to get closer to the hospital. A 4th year LDS student who is graduating is offering us his old apartment, only two miles from the hospital. We’re going to check it out a little later and might even move in. Who knows?

Finals Again!

Retroactive Post

Well, it is a Saturday afternoon and I don’t have anything to do. After a nightmarish week of studying and finals, I finally have a brief moment to catch my breath and relax. I spent most of the morning cleaning up and helping Cami do stuff. Now, she is gone off to work until 10:00 tonight and I am left with nothing to do… and I love it. The weather has finally cleared up around here, but, as Calvin might say it, the trees are really sneezing today—it has been quite windy.

March Madness has finally arrived here in the US of A. As we speak I am sitting down and watching Washington play Illinois. I’m not really into either team, or the game for that matter, but it’s nice to be able to watch a game without feeling like I should be studying. My friends and I all filled out Tournament Brackets and currently I am in 3rd place. There’s nothing riding on the game, just a little friendly competition, but it makes watching random games a lot more entertaining because you have someone to root for.

So, things have been crazy around here this past week. I had five finals in five days. Monday was histology, Wednesday was physiology, Thursday had two doctoring exams and Friday concluded the nightmare with biochemistry. I’ve had rough finals before, I’ve studied hard and crammed for exams, but nothing could have compared me for this past week. My histology exam was a five hour ordeal that left just about everyone feeling yucky. Part of the exam was simple multiple choice while the second half was a practical portion where you had to identify different tissues by looking at them under the microscope. That was sort of entertaining, but at the end of the exam all that microscoping gave me a headache. My physiology gave me headaches too, only I didn’t need a microscope. Just about everyone seemed to have been stunned by the difficulty of the exam. Which, in some ways is comforting (meaning, I wasn’t the only idiot) but at the same time it is very humbling (meaning, I am still an idiot).

My doctoring exam was a bit different. Part of the exam was to perform a physical exam on a fellow student. That was my favorite exam. I like “playing doctor” and I did fairly well on the test. By the time biochemistry rolled around, I was exhausted. I think most of my class was. Staying up late Thursday night and studying like mad from 5:00 am until the exam at 1:00 Friday afternoon I had the very real feeling that I was going to fail the test. I was engaging in the dirty practice of educational bulimia, a complete binge and purge approach to test taking. With no real understanding of any of the concepts I was banking my scholastic success on word associations. Fortunately, that seemed to be enough, as the professor, in an act of mercy, wrote a fairly simple exam. I finished it in 15 minutes and haven’t looked back. I am glad it’s over.

Tomorrow Cami and I are driving to Utah for a little vacation. We’re only going to spend a couple days there, but it will be nice to revisit BYU and see some of my friends and visit Missy and the kids and Laynie and everyone! We’re also going to be taking Cami’s niece and nephew to visit their grandparents in Provo. We’re coming back next Thursday. We’d stay longer but I have to go back to school.

Ahh… I have the windows open and the setting sun has just gotten to the point where it is warming my body without getting in my eyes. I figure I have about 15 minutes until I have to shut the blinds, but I am going to enjoy those 15 minutes.

Last week Cami and I won a $25 gift certificate to Ruby Tuesday for paying our rent before the first of the month. So, last night we both went to the restaurant and ran up a $24.98 bill on hamburgers, drinks and appetizers. It was very gratifying to use that gift card so well. The food wasn’t bad either.

Single Again

Retroactive Post

My week has been fairly uneventful. Cami spent all week in St. George which left me all alone to fend for myself. Normally, that isn’t a problem, but I got sick this week and didn’t have anyone to take care of me. I guess I got what was going around, but I’ve been super congested and have had so much sinus pressure I could feel it in my teeth with every step I took. Ouch. Fortunately, most of the sinus pressure has eased and now I am left with moderate congestion. I am glad that I got this whole “sick” thing out of the way before my finals next week. That would have been miserable.

I am not sure if Mom told you or not, but Laynie has been doing some research on the topic and has decided that she would like to have a cochlear implant. I was near horrified to discover that the operation costs $100,000! Ridiculous! Since Dr. Brodie is an otologist, Mom asked me to ask him some questions about the procedure. Apparently, there are 5 clinics in Sacramento that do the surgery. Laynie wants to do the surgery here so she can recoup at home. I watched some video of Dr. Brodie putting a prosthetic stapes in some fellow’s ear. I think the stapes is the smallest bone in the body. Essentially, the Doc stuck a straw in the patient’s ear and worked through it. Then he blasted off the busted stapes with a laser gun (I’m not kidding) and then on a new little metal one. It was crazy. I am not sure if Laynie is going to qualify for the surgery (the consult alone costs 3 grand) and she is going to need to get some insurance, but she is convinced that this is something she is supposed to do and I hope it works out.

I spent a lot of time this past week playing the ol’ guitar. It has been quite enjoyable and I think I am playing better now than I ever have before. Yesterday, I picked up the song “Blue Shadows” from ¡The Three Amigos! Speaking of leisure time activities, my friends and I at school invented this new ping-pong game at school involving two ping-pong balls and called it “Torsion.” It is a fiercely competitive, fast pace game with a constantly changing brew of quirky rules. I’ve spent many an hour playing Torsion this past week.

I got a job as a dissector this week. I was chosen from a host of candidates to perform a cadaver dissection for use in anatomy classes this Spring. I was happy to get the job because a) It will be helpful for my summer project, and b) it pays $500. Of course, when you factor in the time, I think it ends up being something like $2/hour. None the less, it will be good review and practice and we can always use the money around here.