Dear Journal,
Feeling listless today. It started this morning, when I tried to make a smoothie out of beef bones, breaking my juicer.

If the above reference, and the entry title, are lost on you, then you NEED to start watching "Glee," or as I call it, "television's greatest gift to humanity in recent memory." You all know how I feel about musicals, especially those set in high schools. This one ups the ante by featuring contemporary pop hits and classic rock standards. To make things even better, it's also really really funny. Just watch it; it won't disappoint.

Moving on to even better things... Tuesday night at trivia, one of the questions required us to name both of the women who attempted to assassinate Gerald Ford. Both of them. Our answer was "Squeaky Fromme and... BUH???" Actually, I said something generic like Susan Williams, because it's always better to put some guess than nothing at all. But still. That was tough. The trivia moderators said that they're trying to make the questions a little tougher, and I'd say they have succeeded. By all reports, it's already the hardest (translation: least lame) bar trivia in town, so I'm not sure why they're trying to make it tougher. But we won, for the second week straight, so if that's tougher trivia, I like it! (During the final wager, I was subject to a little ribbing because, when told to name Shakespeare plays that start with 'T', my first thought was "Titus Andronicus." As opposed to, say, "The Tempest.") We also did the best on the "lightning round" question, netting a total of $70 in house cash for the team. Giddy up.

My emergency medicine rotation is still trucking along. I've only had a grand total of two clinical shifts so far (I'll have had six by the end of the weekend), but I have been to plenty of lectures! Honestly, as much as I whine about the travesty of mandatory lectures as a fourth year, they are for the most part very useful. We've covered things like life-threatening causes of common complaints, management of arrhythmias, and acid-base abnormalities. I can usually appreciate how much I'm learning. Occasionally, however, I zone out in lecture because of a wave of abject terror that I'll actually be responsible for taking care of sick people very, very soon. And sometimes those sick people will have another person inside them! I don't know what I'm getting myself into. But let's not dwell on that.

Since I'm no longer on surgical rotations*, I've been able to start volunteering in the med school admissions office again. (That's the only reason I'm still on campus right now, since lecture ended at 11.) Now I sit down with the interviewees for about ten minutes before they go on their tour, and give them a little talk about the clinical years. I remember when I interviewed, the fourth year seemed so wise and old. I could never imagine myself in that position, getting ready to graduate, confidently saying "I'm going to be a [insert specialty here]." And here I am! It's pretty fun to interact with people who are just starting the process.



*Waking up at 7:10 beats waking up at 4:45, but I miss the OR like gangbusters.

So, the roommate (who shall henceforth be known by her name, which is Liz) and I just sat down to watch the first episode of Oprah's "The Big Give." It turns out, one of the contestants is the husband of one of our classmates. Isn't that nuts?? How did we not know this beforehand?? We're going to be rooting for him, but mostly, the two of us will spend the entirety of each episode weeping. It's a pretty cheesy show, but I'm a sucker for giving things to people in need.

Now, we're watching "Here Come the Newlyweds," which is pretty darn ridiculous. However, they managed to find contestants who are funny, so we're still watching.

Besides, watching crap TV beats studying. Which I fail at. Honestly, I studied pharm for about 10 minutes today before giving up and walking to the baseball stadium. Vandy wasn't even playing (it was Iowa vs. Kansas), but the day was so gorgeous and the sound of the bat on the ball called to me like a siren's song. Wonderful for my sanity, bad for pharm.

Not too long ago, I said that "Brothers and Sisters" would probably be the one show I stuck with this fall. That was a false statement. I'm not excited about Grey's, but all 100+ of my classmates are. I'll probably end up watching that out of peer pressure. And then yesterday, I discovered the trashy TV to end all trashy TV: Gossip Girl. Just one episode in and I'm in love. All I can say is, amazing. (And yes, I recognized Kristen Bell doing the voiceover.) So that's three hours of appointment TV a week, not to mention my sports-filled weekends from now until early April. And Project Runway's coming back soon, right? Right?? When will I have time for school?

Week 1 is done! The material we've covered over the first three days has been pretty basic and easy to handle. I have to keep reminding myself that it's going to get a lot harder very soon. Actually, it already has been harder than it should be. Remember that massive amount of information I crammed into my brain last year? Turns out I was supposed to retain it. Why wasn't I warned about this?? I might've paid a little more attention! Trying to appreciate diseased organs in Path lab without remembering what healthy ones look like wasn't very fun.

The world premiere of High School Musical 2 was last night, but I decided to go see Shakespeare in the Park instead, and then do a late dinner afterwards. The play was The Merry Wives of Windsor, set in 1940s New Orleans. The language was Shakesepeare's, but the costumes were 40s, and there was a lot of jazz. It was better than that description makes it sound. I'm glad I decided to go. Besides, I knew that HSM 2 would be airing at least five more times this weekend. I actually just finished watching it. Not quite as good as the original, but still entertaining.

I was channel surfing the other day, and I happened to come across "High School Musical" on the Disney Channel. I'd heard about it, so I decided to watch it because I'm a sucker for song-and-dance numbers. OMG, it was awesome. No wonder it became so popular with the kids. (I know that I'm almost a full year behind the rest of the world on this discovery, but I was a little busy last fall. Humor me.) So now I'm all excited about the premiere of "High School Musical 2" in just a few days.

Percy just had another vet appointment, to finish up all his vaccines and deworming. He handled those shots like a champ. I think he really enjoyed everybody fussing over him and exclaiming how cute he is. Apparently his face markings are fairly unusual, and his eyes are the darkest that the nurse had ever seen on a cat. Since his first visit, he's almost doubled his weight, going from 2.2 pounds to 4 pounds even. At this rate, by the end of the semester he'll weigh 44 pounds. Won't that be awesome?

Watch this now. You're welcome.

I'm sorry, Shonda Rimes, but your show has yet to finish its second full season. There is NO REASON for there to be a damn recap episode on my TV right now. Please get over yourself soon. Thanks!!

Edit: Okay I take it back, it was worth it just to hear the 'va-jay-jay' line again. Sorry!

"Stomp the Yard" was okay, but didn't live up to its potential. First of all, in my opinion there should have been less plot, more step-offs. Secondly, when there was stepping or dancing, they shouldn't have used the Shaky Cam quite so much. The opening scene made me so dizzy, I had to close my eyes. It would have been nice if we were actually able to see/appreciate the choreography. I give it 3 stars.

Season premiere of "24" was excellent!! I won't spoil it for anyone, but I'll say that just when I think Jack Bauer can't get any more badass, he goes and proves me wrong. Oh, and Milo from season 1 is randomly back. And the guy who played Kumar in "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" is in the cast, apparently expecting to be taken seriously. We'll have to wait and see about that.

In order to be admitted to medical school, you are required to watch a TV show that's set in a hospital. You've got the Scrubs people, the Grey's Anatomy people (like me), and the House people. In several conversations about TV, the House people have scoffed at Grey's because it's too unrealistic, and the medicine on House is "more real." (One has to wonder why anybody would be masochistic enough to want to watch "real medicine" on TV after spending all day in med school, but that's a discussion of its own.) I gave House a try after trivia tonight, and I'm going to call BS on that entire argument. Let's see... there's the fact that this "medical team" erased all a guy's memories as part of some extreme treatment for a super-rare condition, without bothering to do an MRI first. An MRI!! They decided on this treatment based on info he gave, without bothering to interview his relatives to get any more information. There's the fact that immediately after a patient's medical crisis, a fellow stops the department chair (or whatever House is) to ask personal questions about his rehab process, and then gives him a big ol' hug. Because that's the time that sort of thing should happen. There's the interrupting the prescription fraud hearing, the perjury by the Dean of Medicine...basically, there's the fact that with my entire semester of real med school under my belt, I'm already a better real doctor than the doctors on House. So my conclusion is that House doesn't actually have real medicine, it just pretends to so med students who watch it can tell themselves (and others) that they're above fluffy melodrama. At least Grey's doesn't pretend to be anything other than a soap opera that's coincidentally set at a hospital. I'll take that any day.

I must have punched myself in the face while I was sleeping, because when I woke up, my nose hurt like crazy. It's been sore all day.

Today was Anatomy studying, but not NEARLY as productive as it should've been. So don't think I'm some highly motivated overachiever. I barely got through the material of one whole lecture. I was going to take a break from Anatomy by doing Ecology/M&M/Emphasis stuff, but I definitely left all the materials for those classes in my Light Hall locker. Goooo me! So I took a break by going to campus to get the stuff, and I did the reading and "blogging" over there. Then I went over to the Rec and worked out. Sadly, I didn't find the indoor rowers until after I'd already finished. Next time!

"And the Emmy goes to...'24'." It's kinda pathetic, but I totally feel like I just won the Emmy. I've been obsessed with the show since before the first episode aired. It's been a long journey, with plenty of ups and downs. But it has all been worth it. I'd like to thank Fox Saturday Baseball for airing a commercial, five years ago, that made me say "Real time? Hmmm. I think I'll watch that show." I'd like to thank Fox executives for not cancelling the show back when I comprised about 9% of the show's viewership, all by myself. I want to thank all who contributed to my 24 shrine, epecially Casey, whose generous gifts of magazine clippings represent by far the largest portion of the shrine. I want to thank everybody for understanding when I left Monday (or Tuesday) meetings early, or sometimes refused to go to them at all. Finally, I want to thank Jack Bauer, because we all know that if you're alive to watch the Emmys, it's because Jack Bauer spared your life.

Ahem. Yeah. That was pretty awesome, and I'd just like to say that the acceptance speech thing was totally Casey's suggestion. I did not expect "24" to win at all, which was bad, because I had my computer on my lap when they announced it. Luckily, when I leapt into the air, I propelled the computer high enough to give myself lots of time to recover from the shock and catch it. That could've been disastrous.

Yes, the 24 shrine is absent from my apartment. I just haven't figured out what to do with it yet. In the dorms, I used a thousand bits of scotch tape and poster putty to keep that thing up. Besides the fact that I wouldn't do it on walls that I'm paying for, it's just a decidedly un-grownup thing to do. I'm also wrestling with the grownup-ness of putting dozens of tiny magazine clippings on my wall in the first place. Anybody else do that? I'm thinking of getting some kind of corkboard for it, OR making a whimsical wall border in my room!

In other 24 news, I've seen a bunch of commercials for "The Nine" (aka "The Nin-backwards-9") this summer. But yesterday was the first time I noticed that Kim Raver's on the show. I was like, "What? She has a job!" Audrey's the most long-lived Kompanion of Kiefer, she can't just go away! Or...can she? I wouldn't know, because when it comes to 24, I exist in an absolutely spoiler-free void of information. I know nothing about the casting for the next season, except that Kiefer'll probably be there (but I won't make assumptions). That's the way I like it, because everything is a delightful surprise. It's just tough for things to stay surprises when cast members are gallivanting around on other TV shows.

Five months one week until the premiere!

Emmy nominations were announced today. Twelve for "24", more than any other show!! Eleven for "Grey's Anatomy"!! People (like MOM) think my TV obsessions waste time, but I think this proves that I'm just taking the time to view what will become the classics of our time. I'm like those people who read A Tale of Two Cities back when it was a "trashy" serial in newspapers. I...am a visionary. I...need to get a life.

Nominations that made me squeal with glee: Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart for "24", and "Project Runway" for Best Reality Series

Nominations that baffled me: Kyle Chandler for "Grey's," because his character did nothing but stand there and (spoiler!) get blowed up. Kevin James for "King of Queens", because I thought that show was canceled years ago. Lisa Kudrow for "The Comeback," for the same reason.

And finally, I'd like to say that I think Mary Lynn Rajskub was robbed. She made me cry for Edgar, that's got to be worth some kind of nod.

When I saw the Yahoo news headline "S.C. Lt. Governor Bauer hurt in plane crash," it took me almost a full minute to process it. My brain simply could not comprehend the phrase "Bauer hurt" in a headline. Is there something wrong with me?

On that note, the season finale of "24" was really good. The only problem was, people kept calling. People to whom the phrase "I'm watching 24" meant nothing. Bah.

( (semi)-Spoiler Alert! )

All these schedule conflicts keep popping up among the members of my thesis committee. Well, among two of the three members. Dr. Soria, God love him, just told me "Tell me when to be there and I will be there." It's the other two who have meetings and seminars and blah blah blah. Do they not realize that motivating myself to do this in the first place is an uphill battle? And then it turns out that Dr. Kindt had many more extensive comments on one of my earlier drafts. I ignored those comments because they DIDN'T SHOW UP on the file he sent back to me. Why didn't they show up? Because MACS SUCK IN EVERY WAY IMAGINABLE AND THEY WILL ALWAYS SUCK AND ANYBODY WHO THINKS MACS DO ANYTHING BUT SUCK CAN, QUITE SIMPLY, KISS MY BUTT. So I get to go back over this thing I thought was finished and make all these corrections that I didn't know I had to do!

Oh well. You know what? 35 days.

I was a waste of space yesterday, and I've been a waste of space today. I just have zero motivation, and I don't know how to fix that. If I just put my mind to it, I could at least have a whole section of my thesis roughly done. But I need to go over the theory, because I forget it the moment I stop looking at it. And I don't feel like doing it. Blah. After 24, I have to turn up my music and force myself to write at least a few pages.

Speaking of 24, tonight's ep is what I like to call the golden episode. (I like to call it that because I just thought of it two seconds ago.) You know, "the following takes place between 9:00pm and 10:00pm," and it's on from 9pm to 10pm, so I can imagine that all the heartstopping action is actually happening live as I watch!! Although now that I think about it, they're in California, and I'm here in Atlanta. So I guess I should have imagined that for the 6pm to 7pm episode. Curses, foiled by time zones.

One of my sinus cavities just like, collapsed in on itself with a horrible squeaking noise. I have a flight on Thursday, so this is Not Good. Why are my sinuses all crazy? Because I went out to this club that's next to Shakespeare Tavern on Saturday night. No, not on that side of Shakespeare Tavern. I'm not a pervert. The other side, the place with the parking lot volunteers can use for free. Django's. It wasn't too bad, just really crowded, and super smoky. I may never breathe normally again. Another reason why I don't go out.

Django's is a hip-hop club, which really isn't my scene, but oh well. I wanted to hang out with the fun people I might not ever see again. It was worth having to tolerate the hip-hop. Actually, Friday night, the whole group was actually talking about music, and I was trying valiantly to keep up. I was doing okay, since I don't live in a complete alternative rock bubble. I was completely lost on the underground/indie rap stuff, but I was covering well. And then my phone rang.

My cell phone ring is a lovely rendition of "Don't Panic," by Coldplay.

Now that I think about it, it probably wasn't all that recognizable in the first place. But I was kinda horrified! I felt like that guy in the McDonald's commercial (shut up), who's trying to be all "street" and then has like, La Cucaracha as his cell phone ring. Like I was being exposed for the poser I am.

Spoon plays here tomorrow. I have a bazillion things to do, but I'm going to the show. I've been listening to some of their stuff, thanks to Pandora, and I'm really not that impressed by it. However, I do believe that "I Turn My Camera On" was one of the best songs of 2005. (I meant to do a list of the best songs of 2005, but I forgot. It's so hard to keep up with when songs came out.) Anyway, if I can hear them play that one song, I'll be happy.

I'm rambling. But I'm no longer a complete waste of space, since it's actually a little after midnight and I did turn up my music and write a bit of chemistry. I introduced and explained one of the statistics I...made up, basically. Then I introduced and explained a bit of theory that my results don't really agree with. Now I'm going to type all of that up.

I am sure this will come as a shock to most of you, as it did to me. But apparently, intern year (the first year after graduating med school) is nothing like "Grey's Anatomy." First of all, nobody uses the elevator that much, even when going up several stories. The one time we did use the elevator, there were no emotional breakdowns or dramatic confrontations. None of the residents brought their babies to work, so there were few possibilities for wacky hijinks. And just going by the deference I saw being given to attendings, I feel like the Chief wouldn't take very much attitude from residents.

Of course, I was in Medicine, not Surgery, so who knows?

We got to rank three specialties that we were interested in for today's preceptorships. My #1 was endocrinology, for no other reason than I've found the endocrine system fascinating every time I've had to study it: Science Bowl (shut up), AP Bio, Quiz Bowl, the MCAT, Human Phys. And also, my mom had that pituitary tumor seven years ago, so I've a reason to be somewhat interested in the field. Anyway, I got placed with an intern who introduced herself as "Brie, like the cheese, not the Housewife." I knew then that we would get along splendidly. And we did!

We saw several transplant patients who were on steroid treatments to counteract rejection, and had developed diabetes because of the steroids. There were a couple of pituitary tumors and thyroidectomies, both pre- and post-op. I got to write an order, signing my name to it and everything. It was just for a routine TSH level, and Dr. Brie co-signed on it, and I guess it's not a huge deal, but it was basically the best thing ever. Because I'm a dork. A medical dork.

Hmm, it turns out 24 can still surprise me every once in a while. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Today was pretty rough. I think I fell asleep in Human Phys. I feel bad about that, but having to concentrate on cell-mediated immunity was asking an awful lot. I have to give Starnes credit for letting us go when she finished her lecture 10 minutes early. She's normally the type of professor who'd just think of something else to say, or some more details to give.

I tried to nap between classes, but that didn't work out. So I ran some errands, APhiO-related stuff of course. And I did a little bit of lab work. I have a lot of stuff, but now I have to make it actually sound like a paper and not just a string of graphs and tables. That'll probably be the hardest part.

Global Health was okay. We finally got our study guide for the midterm, which I do believe was supposed to be on March 8. Now it's scheduled for Friday, which is smack in the middle of Emory's second visit weekend. So I'll have to make that up, unless I decide not to go. That option is looking better by the second, actually.

Finally, chapter tonight was...epic. We did this planning conference thing, which I didn't think was going to be worth the time. I was pleasantly surprised, however. A LOT more people than I expected to stay were there the whole time! So that was nice. And I don't know abou the other areas, but I got some really good input and ideas regarding the service program. Well, I guess the stuff isn't so much for me, as for the next SVP, whoever that may be.

No silent clock this week???!! Oh, HELL to the no. Unacceptable.

How can filling in a blank sheet of paper with 65 team names make me so happy? Maybe it's the infinite number of possible outcomes. Or the anticipation of all the exciting moments that are in store. Or the thought that, as of right now, absolutely anything could happen. It's such an arbitrary process: one player gets hot, one player gets cold, one missed free throw, one hit three-pointer, one steal, one blocked shot, and all of a sudden the world is topsy-turvy and Duke has lost and there's a 14-seed in the Elite 8 and Josh and Donna are finally kissing...

Quick interruption to talk about TV: I knew that kiss was coming, and it still made me warm and melty inside. I am not a fangirl, I am not a fangirl...

ANYWAY. Back to the subject at hand. March Madness. Brackets. Right. I've filled in the 65 teams in pen, and now I'm working through the rounds in pencil. Both Baton Rouge universities, LSU and Southern, made it into the tournament. LSU is a 4-seed, and hopefully won't choke like they did last year against UAB. Southern, unfortunately, is a 16 seed and has to play Duke first. The first sports team I ever rooted for in my entire life was a Southern University team, so it hurts me, it physically hurts me, to listen to common sense on that one. So maybe I won't...

By the way, if someone could explain why the overall top seed doesn't open against the overall bottom seed (the winner of the play-in game), I'd be much obliged.

So now, I've got a day to ponder these picks. Which 5-12 upset am I going to go with? When will the number ones fall? Will the teams that usually choke, choke (I'm looking at you, Florida)? Will a Louisiana team make me proud?

I love this time of year.

Turns out I got a 90% on that human phys test. Watching the entire Academy Awards telecast instead of studying didn't hurt me that much, after all. I got the gear shift analogy question wrong, but I also got full credit on questions that came from an article I didn't read and a lecture I neither attended nor got notes from. So, no complaints here!

Season finale of Project Runway was quite wonderful. I actually liked all the collections, even Santino's. They each had pieces that made me go "Wow," and other pieces that made me go "WTF?" but overall they were good. Taking the entire season into account, though, I wouldn't really have been able to stomach a Santino win. And they gave him the winner's edit in the first part of the finale, so I had a sinking feeling. Good thing that didn't happen!

Exec was long, and quite frustrating at points. We talked in circles for a long time about the problems with planning formal. And there are many. But then, the conversation on the shuttle ride back here made everything okay. My name in Morse Code...and that's all I'm going to say about that.