Day 176

Or, Oh Hey There!

I know I keep promising different people that I would eventually get around to writing, but as it turns out, the best motivation for me to write is a long list of lectures and readings that I haven’t done for school. (Big surprise there.) That, and the 12.5% ABV dessert beverage I’m currently consuming. (Big surprise #2? Liquid courage/kick in the pants, hah.) Regardless, the point is that I’m here. Writing. Finally.

Let’s do a bit of a recap, in reverse chronological order.

This morning I got in touch with my inner youthfulness by showing 11 high schoolers “what med school is like.” This essentially meant that I fell asleep alongside them through a couple lectures and asked them a lot of medical questions to which they didn’t really know the answers. I wasn’t just being cruel with the questions or on a power trip; I swear we were suppose to do it. (Okay, it felt pretty good being the question asker instead of the dumbstruck-face-giver for a change.) Welcome to my life, kids. If you’re ever in the position to teach high schoolers the physiology of diabetes, forget about it. I especially enjoyed the part when, after our Dean of Admissions gave a 30-minute talk about med school admissions (MCAT, taking classes like organic chem and biochem, etc… basically things you worry about in college.), one of the students asked, “So… what are we suppose to get on our SAT?”  Dean of Admissions: “Umm… I don’t know. Do the best you can?” Which roughly translates to “No one will give a hoot about your SAT the second you walk across a stage in a goofy cape and square cap.” [Side note: it's funny that our lives can be divided neatly into inscrutable but powerful acronyms of standardized tests: TAKS, SAT, MCAT, USMLE.] To be young and worry only about the SAT! Oh fleeting youth!

5 hours later, I was compensated with 50 bucks for being a glorified babysitter – not a bad gig at all. Admittedly, I was pretty skeptical about having to deal with high schoolers – I told E that if any of them gave me any sass or some too-cool-for-school crap attitude, I would open a can of whoop-ass on them. (Maybe not physically, but emotionally? Intellectually?) Fortunately for everyone, the kiddos were good kids and gave me some hope for the state of American teenagers. (They followed my rule of not mentioning anything related to “Twilight”. However, one of them did bring up the Jonas brothers… I chose to overlook it and blamed it on the 8-year-old diabetic patient in our discussion case. Fact I learned: Nick Jonas has diabetes. Fact I did not learn: Who the other JoBros are and why they’re famous. I may look “18, no more than 19″, but I have the Disney channel knowledge of a 68-year-old curmudgeon who could give a rat’s ass.)

[Rewind some more.] This past weekend, I had the great pleasure of watching Despicable Me. If you haven’t seen it and are planning to, stop watching the trailers/clips! My initial response to “Let’s watch Despicable Me” was “Despicable what?” Not that my fellow moviegoers did not enjoy the movie, but after a discussion over some delicious Chipotle, it was decided that watching too much of the trailers/clips will reveal too many scenes as to render the experience to be less than maximal satisfaction. Whoever first said “Ignorance is bliss” is a genius.

Most importantly, can I make clear how awesomely delicious I think Chipotle is?! The nearest Chipotle to my current location is 45 minutes away, and this distance has been bumming me out especially much lately. I’ve had some serious gustatory delights in my 23 (not 18, you high schoolers) years of life, but there’s a special place in my heart for Chipotle. Say what you will about chain restaurants blah blah blah (I’m one of them haters), but those chicken burrito bowls just make me weak in the knees. </love ode to Chipotle>

So I was gonna get around to my activities this past summer, but man, look at the time!