I won!

I bet on a very unlikely event happening and for the first time in my life it happened! The university closed today (an incredibly rare event). I don’t think they really could have functioned, anyway.  Biochem exam delayed until Friday, no physics lab, and no group presentation. Yay! The only thing that could have improved it would have been a medical school acceptance or interview offer. Alas, nothing of the sort.

It snowed until noon today with a final reading of somewhere between 12 and 15 inches, and the wind didn’t stop blowing until 5 pm, so up until that time everything they plowed blew shut again. Zephyr loves the snow and bothered me endlessly wanting to go outside. I would open the sliding patio door, he would step out, fall in over his head (he is 21″ at the shoulders, so no small feat), and immediately jump back in the house.

His blue eye seems even more prominent when is face is full of snow.

The drifts behind our apartment

He played in them a little

And then he helped scoop out my car. He so kindly pounced on every shovelful of snow to be sure it wouldn’t jump back to where it was. And we definitely had differing opinions as to whether he was more helpful standing on top on the shovel or off of it.

He tried catching snowflakes and for some odd reason kept losing them as they landed 😉 Silly me, can’t I see that they just fell at the bottom of the drift, and of course Zephyr is brilliant enough to pick out *his* snowflake from the billions of others on the ground.

Of course, now, I have probably used up all the luck for this current life and should never plan on such an unlikely bet again (sad day).

~L

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Walking in a Winter Wonderland

It’s snowing. It’s been snowing for the last 24 hours. It’s supposed to continue snowing for another 24 hours. The National Weather Service has dubbed this a “storm of epic proportions.” Epic. That’s a pretty big statement. The University canceled all classes after 6 pm and closed all buildings at or before 6 pm. The website says a decision regarding Wednesday will be made at 6 am tomorrow. I’m supposed to have a biochem exam tomorrow at 11 and currently I’m playing Russian Roulette and writing this blog post instead of studying. The University almost never cancels, I should know better. However, my thought is that if they canceled tonight’s classes and the weather is supposed to be worse tomorrow then my chances are actually fairly good. And I could really use another two days on biochem. It’s a wicked hard class and I have to do well on this last exam. Biochem is the advanced biology class on all my medical school apps which means they will all see the grade I receive when the semester’s done with. Not to mention, if classes were canceled tomorrow I probably wouldn’t have to do the group Women’s Studies presentation because we would only have time for half the class to present (I hate group projects and I especially hate group presentations), my final physics lab is tomorrow and I hate physics lab too so it would be a joy to not go. (Knowing all this stuff I hate is it any surprise that I absolutely hate/dread Wednesdays? I have since I was 7 years old. That’s a lot of stressful Wednesdays). Really the only thing I would be sad about missing this week would be my recording session, and that was this morning at 8 am, so all’s well there. I could do with a jolt of goodness from no school too, I was very irritated to find out that all the winds in orchestra have to re-audition because of the insistence of one studio instructor (not mine). And I have a skeleton in my closet–his name is ED (eating disorder). ED has been causing much stress in my life lately and I am planning on going to treatment over the winter break. Having to re-audition for orchestra means I will have to make a special trip back to Ames sometime in January. I don’t particularly want to add 4 hours of driving to my life, and it’s always unpredictable how the weather will turn out. But I should let that worry go, because I can worry myself to death between now and January and despite how important I think I am, I am not important enough for my worrying to affect the weather.

On the less stressful, side, I have been using the biofeedback room at Student Counseling. They received a grant this year and have three equipment set-ups that are free for students to use at any time. I simply walk into the counseling center, give them my ID, and they give me the equipment to use for an hour. I get to spend an hour in a dark, quiet, private, space, in an extremely comfortable massage recliner, learning to relax. Tell me what isn’t good about that. It’s a gem in the middle of my day. I try to go 2-3 days/week. Regardless of how good I think I feel going in, I come out feeling incredibly centered, focused, and stress-free. It’s also great for performance anxiety (although I seem to be one of the few music majors who has absolutely no performance anxiety, if anyone was cut out to be a performer, it would be me….and I want to go to med school, go figure) When I have the financial means, I would love to invest in my own biofeedback equipment. If you want to read more about biofeedback check out this link: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/biofeedback/SA00083

On the med school front, nothing has really changed. No word from my interview at Iowa yet, and another 5 school applications still in the pool of initial reviews. Michigan admissions sent a tweet today saying they closed 100 files, I wasn’t one of them so I breathed a sigh of relief. I’ve been trying my hardest to look on the bright side….still 6 schools I haven’t been rejected to yet. And note to self: I need to remember to turn in my graduation application this week. It’s due Friday. It would not be good to be accepted to medical school and not be able to graduate because I missed turning in a sheet of paper.

Now I really should return to my lovely 12-lb Biochem book. Just staring at it is making me stressed because I know I shouldn’t rely on class being canceled tomorrow…
….remember biofeedback….oooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm………

~L

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