This will be unlike any break before it — spent with cold meds, textbooks, and peanut butter. I need to spend the week catching up, so I can be better prepared and have more time to study in the next eight weeks.

Since last month, I have learned to chip and putt, but only when I can remember to not “break my wrists”, keep my butt out, and always accelerate through. We will be playing on the Balboa Park Golf Course starting in April or we can go to the driving range if we’re not ready to compete against our classmates on nine holes.

There has been a lot of rain this month, and sickness, so on the days that the soccer field wasn’t closed to prevent our cleats from messing up the field the coach called out too, so this gave me more time to study bones (all but the three of the inner ear, so 203) and muscles (about 80, since it’s difficult to see the deeper ones on models and cadavers) for anatomy — two exams. My grade went from acceptable to awesome, but I’m hoping to do better when we test on the nervous system in three weeks, as I already know the location and function of the 12 cranial nerves.

Chemistry lecture isn’t going as well as I had hoped. There are hundreds of elements and a million ways to combine them all. It doesn’t help that I completely missed an online assignment worth 20 points, but I talked with the professor and he said he would drop that from my total grade, so that will raise me a letter grade.

Chemistry lab, on the other hand, is going amazingly well. I spend hours watching the professor’s videos and reading the handouts and writing the procedure into my lab notebook. I come prepared, make a minor mistake each time (learning opportunity), and then write about it properly in my post-lab discussion. The only thing I still struggle with is the professor’s humor to have multiple choice quizzes with most of the options being “none of the above” or seemingly tricky.

how many bones (65), and landmarks(~90), can you count?

I finished my managerial accounting with a 96 or 97, depending on how the professor rounds. The final was six questions and I had two hours to complete. I thought I might spend 20 minutes like I did on the mid-term, but ended up spending 90. My business calculus class is still hanging on by a thread. My midterm for that is in two weeks so I need to study because it accounts for 30% of my overall grade.

herbed bread

Kickboxing is the easiest class, and it should be at only half a credit. It allows me to blow off steam from the week before going into the weekend. I can see classmates making improvements in other areas of their life — stretching, diet, studying, and rest because the coach cares more about the whole person than just teaching them to punch people in the face (which we avoid).

(~48) muscles: origin, insertion, and action

I will spend the rest of the week: getting ahead on chemistry labs and doing all the worksheets that have been handed out; coloring, drawing, writing, and using flashcards to study the nervous system; do all 45 practice questions for the math midterm; and go to the gym with Caleb when he gets back from dropping our boat off in Montana. My online kinesiology class starts on April 1st.

Caleb has been busy mowing the yard (to keep up with the rain), doing dishes after making me dinner, washing and hanging laundry, sewing more on his quilt, and experimenting with new bread recipes to keep me filled up on carbs so I can concentrate on studying and getting in some steps when I need a break and we take a walk together.

Our shower started to leak more than usual so we got a guy out here for the day (on the landlord’s dollar) to saw through tiles and wall and replace our two handles with one. It’s a bit of a shit job (metal piece stabbed me and grout all over crooked tiles), but at least there’s less rust to be seen.

Our eleventh anniversary was 18 days ago and Caleb made sure his gifts arrived a day early; mine would arrive two weeks later. He got me an owl necklace (to go with my varied collection of the wise animal) and some earrings. I got him a personalized key chain with an acronym for March.

The principal at work had a birthday and the 7th graders had a little song, with drums, and dance performance to celebrate as they presented her with a cake. The boss gave me a test to administer to the students and he retested the ones who failed the following week. The class average is D.

The lady that bought the pizza last time hasn’t spoken to me (I’m glad), but the boss still wanted to do pizza and ice cream so I’m grateful I was able to email out of it due to being sick enough to leave anatomy class 45 minutes early one night. But there is a new intern that has impressed the kids with her knowledge of meditation and yoga so she can fill in for my absence and I will see them all after they get back from their two weeks break.

sheep’s brain with dura mater on the left

Other than all the homework in my life I still find time to walk the neighbor’s dog, watch a TED talk with Caleb during dinner, and talk to my Dad almost daily. I’ve only woken up late once but still made it to school on time and to my favorite parking spot. Caleb rearranged the living room and I thought it would bother me, but the layout works, so I just pull the curtain halfway as the sun begins to set so it doesn’t blind me.