laxplayer37

11:24 pm: Post Junior Year
It has been forever since I have updated, and I doubt anyone reads this anyways, but I decided I would try and recap what’s been going on in my life. Junior year is over, and so are the MCATs. I did surprisingly well, and now I can apply to whichever medical schools I like and not feel like an idiot. I have started my research for the summer, and have quickly decided that a career in research is not for me. I was surprised how much I missed interacting with people, and just being around them. Also, I am sick and tired of using rats for research. I know how important it is, and how much animal research benefits people, but that doesn’t mean that I have to be the one to do it.

Speaking of rats, I got a new pet one, and her name is Sophie. She is seven months old and is really cute and sweet. However, she is really shy around me and doesn’t seem to want to be friends yet. It has been tough for her so far, because I got her from the pet store, and then brought her to Melanie’s, then two days later brought her down to Rutgers, and now tomorrow she is going back to Melanie’s. I am hoping that in a few weeks she will calm down and realize that I just want to be friends with her.



I am really looking forward to the weekend and getting away from Newark/UMDNJ. I can really use a break just to hang out and do nothing. However, I know when I get back the research is still going to be here waiting for me. I feel like I have been working so hard for the past three weeks with very little to show for it. I took a preliminary look at the data today, and it did not look that good. However, that is just the uptake/functional data, and I still have the molecular evidence to analyze. Hopefully that will be better and I will see the trend I am supposed to see. Its kind of funny how after a year that is all that I have to say, but I am going to try and be better about keeping my journal up to date...or at the very least not a year out of date.

03:55 am: Thoughts on High School
Well summer is rapidly drawing to a close, and I decided before I leave I would see my friends from high school, something I have always described as four of the worst years of my life. Courtney, Newsome and I saw The Dukes of Hazard, and went for half price appetizers, and had an awesome time. First off, the movie was absolutely hilarious, as I knew it would be. Maybe it wasn’t one of the greatest examples of filmmaking as the critics have done a pretty good job emphasizing, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t one of the funniest movies I have seen since American Pie. I mean, how can a movie not be funny with Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville? So, anyways, after that we went to Applebees, had some awesome food, and had a great time remembering funny stuff from high school. I actually had such a good time with the two of them that I plan on going to a party tomorrow that I have refused to go to for the past two years because everyone from high school would be there. I have finally decided to let go of all of the petty bullshit from high school, and just remember the good times, and make sure to have a good time.

In other news, nothing exciting has happened since my last update. My sister got her new computer for school, and I fixed it up for her, and actually got it running really well. I also set up some new speakers Melanie’s parents gave to me, and started fooling around with the “new” computer. I also finally got the stupid router to work the way I want it to, after about a year and a half. I will never buy something from Linksys again. Other then that though, I have just been hanging out and relaxing and coming to the realization that my junior year starts in just a few days. Hopefully it will go the way I want it to.

Tomorrow, I really have no exciting plans, except for the party, and hopefully talking to Melanie. I also have to go get another eye exam since my new glasses suck, and I will probably finishing working on the other computer, so this way when I leave for school my parents can have three computers, which is exactly what they need. My new cables came from New Egg today so I can finally finish getting the computer set up (really just get it online). Well it’s now 3:52 in the morning, and I am not tiered, but I am going to try and make myself sleep. Hopefully I will keep up my updating schedule, though it seems really doubtful.

03:01 am: It's Been a Summer...
Well, it’s been a summer, and I haven’t updated at all, which seems just about right for me. Since I am going back to school in five days I figured I should update before I get there. It has been an awesome summer, as summers usually are, though this has been the best summer I’ve ever had. It is the first time in my life I have ever had a job that I didn’t despise, and in fact, I actually looked forward to work everyday with this job. Well, with the exception of a few mornings following some great nights. I was down at TCNJ for pretty much the entire summer working with Dr. Lovett, and two amazing lab partners, on osmoregulation in crabs. I was actually somewhat in charge of a project (in brief the effects of nitric oxide on Na/K ATPase) but it didn’t pan out. However, I think the reason it failed was not because the idea was wrong, but just that we couldn’t develop the right protocol to prove that NO really does help down regulate the enzyme. Other then that though, I worked with my two lab partners on their projects, one of which also failed like mine, but the other one actually succeeded. We proved, through using biotin, that the enzyme is actually drawn out of the membrane in order to down regulate its activity. Dr Lovett said it was the second most important thing he has ever found in crabs in his 15 years of research. We might actually get to go with him to present our findings at a major scientific conference, which would be awesome.

Well, besides the whole learning/lab experience I got down at TCNJ I also had an amazing time hanging out with everyone in the program. I also got to see Melanie a ton which was awesome, as it is always great to see her. That ended on the 29th of July, so since then I have been home relaxing. I went to both Steve and Laura’s going away parties, and had a great time at both. I also went to Andrew’s party in July, which was also a lot of fun. I am really going to miss them all when they go away; I became really close to them all this year. Of course though, they are all going to have amazing times while they are away.

Well I think I have done a really good job of compressing my summer down into a few short ideas. As I said, this was easily the best summer that I have ever had, though the end of it has not been all that great with Melanie away in England, and me without many friends left from home. Soon though, I’ll be back at school and Melanie will be back and everything will be great again. I am so excited to go pick her up at the airport, I didn’t realize how much I was going to miss her.

School should be interesting this semester. For the first time I actually have two classes I am really looking forward to taking; Neurobiology and Developmental Biology. I’ve also got two psych classes, which I am sure will be easy, as psych classes always are. I also got another job down at school as a lab assistant for Dr. Lovett’s Histology class, which should actually provide me with some practical experience, unlike my other two jobs. I am also considering picking up an independent study with Dr. Lovett, though I am not so sure; I really don’t want to overload myself. I also really need to start thinking about the MCATs and how I am planning on getting through them. Well, all in all, this should be an awesome semester, and for the matter, an awesome year. I cannot wait to get back to TCNJ and to see Melanie. I am also going to make more of an effort to update this thing, but we will see how that actually pans out. Well, until the next time then.

02:38 am: The Beginning
So, I have finally decided to write in this thing, after having created it about a month ago. It seems weird to actually write a journal. I have never been much of a journal keeper, or for that matter all that much of a writer, though it’s something I have always wished I were able to do.

So far summer has been interesting. It felt great to finish my second year of college, and for once in my life I am right where I want to be. It actually feels as though things really might fall into place for me, though today was not the most interesting of days (and probably not the best day to start keeping a journal). I woke up at my usual noon, after having stayed up till 5 last night for absolutely no purpose, reading a book I must have read a hundred times. It is so great to be back in my own room, and away from college, and to actually have my own space where I can just escape. I am really looking forward to having that next year living in the townhouses and all.

So today I ran some errands with my mom and got Wendys for lunch which was really fantastic. I then came home and sat around for awhile being bored until I realized that I actually had stuff to do today (though unfortunately it was neither interesting nor exciting). So I finally got off of my ass, cleaned up and alphabetized all of my books (I think I might be becoming a little too anal) and then I cleaned the inside of my car. All of this pollen is really pissing me off and I hate having a messy car, so after washing the outside for the fourth time this week I finally also decided to do the inside.

This of course meant I had to find where we actually keep the vacuum in this house, which was about a 10 minute adventure, until brilliant me finally decided to look in the most obvious of places, where of course it was. So after finding the vacuum I was able to go back outside to vacuum my car though it was a pain in the ass to get electricity out to the car (which means tomorrow I am running a new outlet so I don’t have to bust my ass running stupid extension cords). So after about an hours worth of vacuuming (and revacuuming as the pollen kept falling through the sunroof and in through the open doors to already cleaned areas), I was done. The only thing left was the plastic and whatever so I found some kind of cleaner (my Armoral had of course disappeared) and finished cleaning.

After the car and what not I had an awesome dinner of steak, potatoes, corn, and string beans, and then hung around waiting for Laura to call so we could go out for dessert. In the meantime, I watched "Hells Kitchen" the new reality show on FOX, which was interesting to say the least. Of course the women who I wanted to get voted off didn’t, and in fact won. I guess that’s what happens when you aren’t in charge of the show. Maybe when I grow up and get a job I can host my own reality show...."Who wants to be a heart surgeon?" (the name needs some work). We could have a whole bunch of people compete to win their MD. Who knows, it might be interesting, and it would be hilarious to see people having no idea what they are doing trying to operate on someone. Though that show might turn out to be a little dark...with all the people dieing and what not.

Anyways, as I said, I was waiting for Laura to call, and when she did, she said she wasn’t really up to going out as her grandmother was in the hospital and not doing well. So hopefully her grandmother gets better, and I will be able to see Laura one more time before I leave for school/summer research. All right, well this was ridiculously long, and I didn’t actually say anything so I guess I may as well leave it here. It feels weird after having read everyone else’s stupid journals for so long I actually have a stupid one of my own...though I would imagine most people don’t read everyone else’s journal's like I do...but hers my own, and who knows, maybe I will have something interesting to say sometime (or at the very least some clever and well thought out comments).