Unless I become a neurologist or neurosurgeon, I will never in my life have more knowledge of neuroanatomy than I did at 8:59 this morning. We were told that today's cumulative exam would be a 60-40 split between material covered before the midterm, and stuff covered since. I thought that just meant there'd be a lot of locating neurologic lesions, because everything we learned about anatomic diagnosis was in the first half of the semester. Two questions into the practical exam (embryo???!?!), I knew I was very wrong. It was a lot more nitpicky about the old material than I expected. Even though I know I didn't cover myself in glory, I'm fairly confident I passed. Now I've just got Psychiatry tomorrow and Pathology on Thursday. I know there's something special about the day after our last final, but for now I can't seem to remember what that is.

Neuro exam tomorrow, but I've been taking it easy study-wise for the past couple of days. I decided to do this Saturday morning, when I woke up and realized that I'd been dreaming about nystagmus ("Slow phase left! Fast phase right! Cold opposite warm same!"). I then thought back to Friday, when I'd seen a sign for Weight Watchers and thought it said Weigert Watchers. Clearly, I'd had enough Neuro. Today, I've mostly just been looking at my pathways and all my lesion diagrams. All while watching the 80s channel on Music Choice. Which brings me to the real reason for writing this entry.

Earlier today, I learned that the "I'm never gonna dance again / Guilty feet have got no rhythm" song is by Wham! and is called "Careless Whisper." Did you all know that? Were you keeping that knowledge from me? I thought it was called "Never Gonna Dance Again" and figured it was by some one-hit-wonder 80s band. Anyway, I decided that if I had to pick one piece of music to represent the 80s, I'd use the saxophone riff from that song.

Next, I heard Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." When I was little, I heard the lyrics as "Then I'm Gonna Give You Up." I thought the guy was listing all these mean things he was going to do to his girlfriend. And he seemed so happy about it! That jerk. I found out what the real lyrics are a few years ago, so no need to worry that today has been an overload of 80s music epiphanies. Just an overload of 80s music.

Now, the roomie and I are listening to Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" on repeat. It's been on for at least an hour now. And every single time, I whisper the final "And if we...." right along with Celine. That's probably a sign that I've finally snapped.

It's been a while. I've had quite the full week. How about a reverse-chronological-order recap?

I had a pretty low-key weekend. My nighttime social activity, both Friday and Saturday nights, involved just hanging out and having conversations with friends. Saturday it was over apple cider, Friday it was over Turkish food. Way more enjoyable than going out on the town, if you ask me. I should do it more often.

On Thursday night I went to watch Nashville's NHL team with a group of classmates. I was surprised by how much fun it was. The Predators won in overtime, and Sue and I made it onto the jumbotron. Good times.

We had guest speakers come to Neuro class Thursday morning. They were members of a group called The Compassionate Friends, a support group for people who've had children die. The talk had two effects on me. First, it turned me into a sobbing mess. Then, it actually made me wonder if I really am cut out for this profession. When I actually lose a patient of my own, I might not be able to handle it.

Wednesday night, my class held a big review session to help the first years get ready for their first Anatomy exam. Last year, when review sessions were held for us, I remember being in complete awe of the second years. I couldn't believe that they knew all that material, and were rattling off facts like it was nothing. Now that I've been on the other side of things, I realize that their confident knowledge was the result of quickly relearning the material right before the review session. I can tell you anything you need to know about arrhythmias in two minutes or less, but ask me about any of the other material and I'm lost.

At this point, the events of Monday and Tuesday are hazy, so we'll just pretend those days didn't happen. Except for trivia. I always remember trivia.