Eeeeeee!

Erik Lovell is back. (He's a freshman friend.) And! Oh gosh, he'll be here for the spring term! That's so sooooon. Eee!

Even more ee-worthy?

Today I was helping out with the dance medals exams... when I ran across a Silver American for a Nathan Dudley. I swear my heartbeat doubled instantly. THIS IS CLIFTON'S LITTLE BROTHER. I NEED TO HUG THIS MAN. I could barely even type the data in and print off his certificate. Then I ran to go give it to him, when I realized that I'd forgotten his medal. So I ran back, grabbed it, and then found him.

"You're Clifton's brother?!"

"Yes, I am!"

I don't know how excited I looked, but I'm pretty sure it was pretty obvious, because Nathan said, "I don't know who you are, but HUG!"

And hug! It was sooo good! I haven't had any hugs like this since freshman year! (I swear all the talented huggers left after freshman year because I have been wistfully searching for such hugs since their departure.)

I finally explained myself, and he informed me that CLIFTON IS COMING TO PROVO FOR SUMMER TERM! Um, excitement? YES. Two extra months with brother? YES. I can hardly refrain from wiggling.

June 2010 is going to be the LONGEST month of my life.

Close to Home

So yesterday instead of doing homework, I went to a friend's family dinner. It was actually on a whim, because SOMEHOW her mother accidentally invited her brother's FHE sister. So, in an attempt to not make it awkward for the girl, my friend was to bring along a friend as well.

I loved it; her family is refreshingly nerdly.

However, one part of it hit rather close to home. Her family has been convinced since freshman year that she'll marry a certain missionary. And then he came back... and he didn't make any effort to date her or even be super good friends. She took this a little hard, because admittedly, she did kind of like him. And it really didn't help that he was super cute.

But some of her family members wouldn't let it go. The teasing and egging escalated until finally my friend broke down into tears, admitting that she really was very upset that since getting back from his mission, he hadn't shown any interest in dating her and begging everyone to please just stop talking about it.

Silence fell across the room. And then, almost obliviously, her grandfather asked if the guy had talked to her at all.

Bad move. All the women in the room shushed him violently, and next thing I know, my friend is dragging me out of the room. She drags me into the bathroom where she cries on my shoulder.

And it sunk in that I might be in the same boat not too long from now. My family (and actually, a good portion of my friends too... eek!!!) is pretty convinced I'm going to marry a certain guy too. I find it quite annoying. Even more annoying though, is the fact that I really do really like him and I STILL haven't gotten over it.

So it is far too easy to imagine myself in my friend's place. And while I hold her, I start tearing up too.

Should I Really Be a Doctor?

I don't know.

All the doctors I've been talking to lately just shake their heads and say it's not worth it. Get out while you possibly can. I shadowed Dr. Beus today and he says he tries to dissuade everyone from becoming a doctor now since the very start of this whole health care issue thing.

However, I told him a theory I had. There's already a shortage of doctors and dentists and all of these sorts of people--the health care bill will make it worse. So at some point the government will panic about there being a SEVERE shortage of doctors. And then, in desperation, they'll start paying qualified people like me to go to medical school. (Very bad for the national debt, but hey, I think medicine is my life calling, so I would totally take that.)

On the down side, both I and Dr. Beus foresee this panic only happening... like ten years or so from now. Gah.

Okay. Maybe I'll just get married, have some kids, grow them up fast, send 'em into the adult world, and then I'll go to medical school! Heh... Right.

Ah well.

So I'll be going into medicine right at the VERY worst time in history to do so. Please pray that I'll somehow find a way to pay for medical school and then be able to make money underneath all those taxes (and malpractice insurance payments and other costs associated with practicing) to be able to pay off my debts.

Sigh.

It PASSED?!?!?!

I am SO mad right now. Furious, actually.

The health care bill passed. This is very, very, very, very bad. I also really, really, really, really want to swear right now. I just can't think of any other words that adequately express my rage.

This whole "now everyone can afford health care" thing? Swear word. That is the biggest load of bull I've heard in a long time. The bill costs half a trillion dollars--and guess who's going to pay for it? The taxpayers.

Ooh, ooh, I know! I have a bright idea! Since so many people can't afford health care, let's make the taxpayers pay for everyone's health care! Face in palm. Swear word. Shouldn't it be obvious? The patients who couldn't afford health insurance in the first place ARE the taxpayers, you dolts.

This national debt thing is something you should be worried about, because WE are supposed to be the ones paying for it. This is horrifying. The national debt goes up by about $75 million dollars every hour or so. It's going to go up even more quickly now... But nobody seems concerned about this, no. Of course not.

The benefit isn't going to the people or the medical workers -- it's going to the big insurance companies and the big pharmaceutical companies.

And really, this whole thing is HIGHLY unconstitutional. It "passed" through the House today. It shouldn't have. You're supposed to get 60% of the vote to pass, but they tweaked the rules so that 50% will pass it. Did the people vote on it? No. But it sure as heck is going to affect us big time. Health insurance is mandatory AND the cost of it is going up. Which means we all need to somehow get more money to pay for this.

Let's all just burn the Constitution, shall we? Load of good it's doing us now.

Oops.

I just slept through church. Gah!

This was purely accidental. One of my medicines kept me up until 5am, which wasn't so bad... I was wide awake and I got a TON of work done.

However, I was finally able to fall asleep and then I just didn't wake up... partly because my roommate didn't either.

I hate medicine and their dang side effects. :(

Roommates

I like my roommate even though we have practically nothing in common besides the lack of a Y chromosome.

However, I HATE her friends.

I hate them.

Hate is an aggressive word. But I really, really, really don't like them. They're crude, rude, and SOMEHOW they ALL have obnoxious laughs and voices. Also they are all men. Women never visit my roommate except for visiting teaching, it seems like.

Just obnoxious men. And they all want to date her, but she won't because they're rude and crude. I will never understand how there can exist LDS men who think rape is funny. I never realized it until I had this roommate, but such scumbags exist.

But she cuddles with them and lets one kiss her on the cheek, so of course, they NEVER leave. If fact, I'm convinced that one that kisses her on the cheek is confident he'll win her over at some point. But from her behavior when he's gone, I can guarantee that she is NOT attracted to him in the slightest and half of what he does irks the heck out of her. So. Although it'll never happen, this obnoxious boy will never realize it because she allows all the physical affection. So he's here all the time, and probably won't realize that he's wasting his time for another half a year.

And then, when he's gone, my roommate will bring home ANOTHER guy who is equally obnoxious. It just keeps happening.

Arrrgggghhhh.

Frustration and loathing.

tgif

FRIDAY!
Oh heck. I am so GLAD it is finally the weekend.

Last night I accidentally locked my keys inside the break room at work -- which means I have no way to get inside my apartment or my car or more importantly, my mailbox. Furthermore, not only were my keys in there, so was my backpack -- which meant no homework either.

Eek.

Well, it turned out fine.

Although my roommate is almost NEVER home, her final draft of her thesis was due today, so she was home working on it, all night. So I could come and go without fear of getting locked out.

My o-chem professor is quite satanic sometimes. He gave a take-home quiz and had it due next class period on electron-pushing mechanisms. And then of course I locked it up so I couldn't work on it until this morning.

Well, I got my keys back and I got access to the quiz just 90 minutes before it was due... This is very bad practice. These suckers usually take forever and a day to figure out.

Thankfully, though, I figured out all but the last one on my own. And then the last one stumped me. But guess what? My TA Lauren just HAPPENED to be walking by when I was freaking out about it -- and then she sat next to me on the bench and guided me through it.

I ended up having extra time before class to read a page or two from the textbook.

Then, just as I started to get hungry?

Class starts. And then a boy behind me in lecture -- "Psst! Jenna! Jeeeeeennnnnnnnaaaa..."

I finally hear him and turn around. He was offering me an orange.

Umm... blessings upon him. I accepted the orange and savored it. It just got me through the day.

Other good things?

I had a homework assignment due yesterday evening, but I honestly didn't have time to do it. Thankfully though, you submit it electronically through Blackboard, and the computer grades it. And a loophole in the system? If you open the submission page before the deadline, you can submit it whenever you want, as long as your browser doesn't freak out and close it on you before you get to it. So... sweet. Things are good.

Also my neuroscience teacher told me that if I can't finish the paper by Wednesday, she'd extend the deadline for me.

Thank you, God. I needed all of the above.