Hump Day Update

Hi folks. I'd meant to write a post after I uploaded the pictures below but totally forgot! Those pictures are from our line-dancing adventure at the Diamondback Saloon last Friday night in pre-celebration of Matt's and my birthday on Saturday. Now most of you can probably infer that...well...line dancing just isn't my style and I'll admit to being quite reluctant to go earlier in the week. I was pleasantly surprised, however, by how much fun we had and by how different it was from what I thought it would be. Even though I think I heard enough country to be content for the remainder of 2005, they played a lot of good ol' rock and roll as well (note: I have a very low tolerance for country). At any rate, my shameless air guitar was not in short supply and Josh even thought I was exposing my true rocker self too much too soon for the D1's. We have only known them for a month, after all! Oh well...if they can't appreciate my love of White Snake, Aerosmith, and Led Zeppelin, then I don't appreciate them!

Thanks to everyone who called/sent cards and emails...I felt very loved :) All in all, my actual birthday on Saturday was pretty low-key. My cousin came into Ann Arbor for an interview that day and my parents took us all out to dinner at Rush Street. I got a fun, new espresso machine from M & D which could not have come at a better time. Now that the semester has started rolling, those 8 am classes sure come early. The theme of this week so far has been wake up late so maybe the incentive of a strong vanilla latte will get me back on track. At any rate, my sister posted a birthday montage in honor of 23 years of successful antagonization of me that you can check out here. At least I can take credit in having a hand in developing her creativity: there's butt munch, butt face, butt wipe, turd burgler...the list goes on and on. (psst: it's really weird to actually write out "butt munch").

Finally, our White Coat Ceremony, a symbolic tradition at the beginning of most professional schools, is this Friday. It is then that I will be taking an oath to practice compassion, integrity, and responsibility in my career as a dentist and will be given my white clinic coat, the symbol of health-care professionalism. I was curious as to whether or not they could embroider my name in pink instead of Michigan blue but figured it might be unprofessional to ask. Hmph. I guess Halloween-print scrubs will have to do for unprofessional professional attire for now.

Anyhow, I must run. My laundry is in such a precarious state that if I don't get it done tonight, I might have to wear my bathrobe to school tomorrow. My bathrobe and a pair of Valentine's Day socks. Happy Hump Day!

xoxox

Trying to catch that two-step move...

Me and GT

Play my leg as a guitar, Trevor! That'll be funny!

Grant's got a little too much hip-hop flava for line dancing

You don't want to get into a bar fight with these tough cowboys!

Laura and Sara are ol' fashioned country gals

At the risk of getting into the habit of posting pictures in lieu of blog entries, here's a fun pic I yoinked from Kara's weblog taken at the Michigan-Notre Dame game two weeks ago. Despite over-crowding and vulgar, drunk, obnoxious sports "fans," you gotta love the Big House.

I'll post soon.

xoxox

111,000 strong at the Big House

Quotation of the evening:

Mom: What do you want for your birthday?
Me: I really don't want anything.
Mom: How about a gold tooth?
Me: Maaaaaahm. That's not funny. You know I don't wear gold--make it platinum.

Dental School should just be changed to "Ass-Kicking School" and I think it's pretty clear whose ass is being kicked by whom.

I mean, I knew this was going to be hard and an obscene amount of work but seriously? I have 2 quizzes, 3 exams, a short paper, a treatment plan, and two major lab projects due...between now and Friday. And that's not even mentioning the colossal exam I have next Monday or the 80 pages (literally...80 pages) of science lecture notes we got on Monday for tomorrow's quiz. It certainly doesn't help that I had quite a virulent flu bug all of last week and slightly into the weekend and thus had a hard time getting ahead of the game. Frankly, I'm not even excited about my birthday this Saturday because I just can't think that far ahead in the week. I haven't seen some of my UM friends in ages, my apartment needs a good top-down scrubbing, I've had to resort to doing my grocery shopping at 11:30 at night, and exercise is totally out of the question. With this schedule, all I can do is squeeze my eyes shut and try to hang on each day at a time.

Whew. That's enough complaining for now. I can't complain to my 109 classmates because they've got the same workload--good thing my pal blogger lets me get things off of my chest.

Goodnight.

xoxox

I probably shouldn't be posting right now considering I have a tooth ID quiz in 4 hours for which I will be given a handful of real, extracted teeth and will have to identify them simply by their structural characteristics after looking at them for 20 seconds each. I just figure I need a mini-break after realizing I had dreams about the maxillary central and lateral incisors last night. Oy vey. What are they doing to me over there in that molar-shaped building?

At any rate, enjoy the pictures below of some shenanigans in the lab on Sunday. And by "shenanigans" I actually mean a whole lot of never-ending, back-breaking work.

xoxox

Can you tell I'm smiling under my face mask?

Just call me Sonya "Born2Drill" Palit from here on out.

Trevor demonstrating the occlusion on his articulator. I love dental jibba-jabba.

Nice posture, Dr. Wansten!

Number of 2 ply tissues consumed in past 48 hours: approx. 150

Maximum number of sneezes-in-a-row today: 7

Days until 23rd birthday: 9

Pattern on slightly premature Halloween socks worn yesterday: witch hats and black cats

Number of quizzes/tests next week: 5

Dollars spent at Starbucks last week: 31

Dollars spent at Starbucks this week: 6

Hours slept since Sunday night: 19

Likelihood that I'll ever dress up again now that I bought my scrubs: slim to none

Best dental student quote of the week: "Here I thought it was just for licking ice cream and now I find out it has 50 different parts!" --Marty, on learning the anatomy of the tongue

Things have been crazy lately and I just wanted to quickly say hi, confirm that I'm still alive (just barely, though!), and post these pictures from lunch last weekend with my UM friends. I'll write more tomorrow about how dental school keeps getting weirder and weirder and about my love/hate relationship with Michigan football. Goodnight.

xoxox

p.s.~ I bought myself a new digicam recently and took a few snaps in the lab this afternoon. Pics of me and my D1 pals doing our thang are soon to come. Try to wait patiently.

Caught off guard in the Diag, our old stomping ground. What's Sarah doing?

UM alumni at Potbelly's: Steph, Sarah, Me, Shadi, Carrie, Mary Money

Friend Marathon 2005: Carrie, Shadi, Me

Here's a quickie post as I'm on my way up to the lab:

Things sure have been busy lately. I have a sneaking suspicion that we're still only at about 60% busy-ness when it comes to work/classes so I'm simply waiting for the rest to hit the fan in the weeks to come. I wish I could truly take this Labor Day to honor the hard-working citizens that make this country tick by taking the entire day off myself. Tee hee. Unfortunately, there is no rest for the weary and I'll be drilling little 3x5x2 mm rectangles into a wax block all day. *sigh* Atleast the lab is kind of fun :)

Also, some of my fabulous lady friends from undergrad were in AA this weekend and I got to spend a little time with them. I had a wonderful lunch with Stephanie (who's now working for the Dems in Michigan's Congress in Lansing!) and hung out on the town with Shadi, Carrie, Mary Money, Steph, and Sarah the rest of the afternoon. Even though I wish I could have soaked up their company all weekend, it was a treat to see them. A few pictures are coming soon.

Okay, I gotta run but keep in mind that the birthday countdown has begun. Only 19 days left! I expect to see all of my pals gathered in celebration in Ann Arbor in a few weeks. I still can't shake the memory of that awful, food-poisoning incident on my 22nd birthday last year. Yuck.

Have a great day.

xoxox