Aqua Regia

I've been having a hard time so far this semester. It seems like the amount of work has doubled and my time has shrunk to half of what it used to be. Sometimes I feel as though I'll never get all of my work done.

In addition to schoolwork (including multiple visits to a nursing home to do medication therapy management), I have the following commitments:
1. TA for the first-year's Pharmacy Systems I class. (This nets me my first unit (of four needed) of Pharmacy elective classes.)
2. Piano (half-hour lessons on Tuesday mornings and 7:45 plus practice at least three times a week).
3. Choir (1-1.5 hours/week on Wednesday nights).
4. Work on every Sunday at Longs (10-4, and when I get home I usually have to force myself to study).

I feel like I can barely watch an episode of anything or read at all this semester, and feel guilty almost every time I do. And writing has basically gone out the window. I really want to work some more on my Jewel Riders fic, but just can't find the time (or when I do find the time, I'm super-exhausted and feel entirely uncreative).

In short, I may be reaching my breaking point. Thank God I'm going to Disneyland for a Pharmacy Seminar after midterms (which are in two weeks!) - it's the only thing that I'm looking forward to at the moment.

What the hell? I put in all the forms for direct deposit so that I wouldn't have to deal with going to the bank all the time anymore. My first work check was supposed to be deposited today - so where is it? I am going through mad book withdrawals and need that money to satisfy my cravings.

Understandably upset Ry is understandably upset.


But also~~~

ONLY ONE MORE TEST TO GO BEFORE THE END OF YEAR ONE.

HOPEFULLY

I feel like I was run over by that last test. It was was 3.5 hours and 25 pages. 25 PAGES!

So I'm (finally) going to see Indy tomorrow after my last midterm, and have been looking forward to it for over two weeks now.

I am also coveting an iPhone right now for some strange reason. Probably because it is shiny.

So I'll stop avoiding my Disease Processes notes now and actually get back to work. Blah. I am so ready to be done with this round of tests.

I feel as though I've been running a mental marathon that started back on the 17th of this month, and is only finishing up (sort of) now.

It started with the super-busy weekend that was detailed in my last post. That led into the following crazy week (with new, up-to-date descriptions!)

Monday: Health Poster Project Presentation, which went well. Big relief there. :)

Tuesday and Wednesday: Started work at Longs Drugs for Early Experience rotation hours. I was going to post about these earlier in the week, but was just too tired. After the first day of standing for roughly five hours, my feet felt like someone was pushing hot pins into them. I have since ordered more comfortable shoes to minimize this issue. However, the work itself was very interesting - I learned quite a bit about inputting information into the high-learning-curve Long computer system, filling prescriptions, etc. I even got to mix up some of the liquid medications, which was fun. :D

Thursday: After lab, I came home, registered for classes (getting none of my first-choice sections!) at a Panera Bread while trying to eat dinner, and went to Phantom of the Opera. Which was amazing, as I expected it to be. It was just as wonderful as I remembered from when we went a couple of years back, and now the songs have been running through my head for DAYS. They simply will not go away. (To complicate matters, my family also watched the movie on Saturday night so that Dad could finally understand what was going on in the story, which only further cemented the songs in my brain. XD) However, we got home rather late, and I had school the next day.

Friday: I killed my arm doing six puppet shows in a row. I am also totally in debt to the AMCP folks for helping out and letting out committee people sit a few out to recover. I also missed class to do this, and had to listen to the lecture recordings later.

Saturday & Sunday: Rested during Sabbath, and tried madly to catch up with work during the rest of the time. I also worked from 10-4 at Longs on Sunday, which sucked up most of that day. It was also super slow though, so I had the opportunity to do some research online for school work.

Monday: FINALLY took a short breather and went with the family to see Iron Man. It's seriously one of the best movies I've ever seen. Tony Stark comes off as such a HUMAN character, and his sort-of-relationship/friendship with Pepper Potts is really touching - especially when she gives him the little gift! :) It totally blows the socks off of the X-Men movies. Now I can't wait for the sequel. Also, it had a preview for the new Indy movie, which just made me more and more excited for the time when I can squeeze it into my schedule!

So, the rest of the day has been spent studying.

I have also slept horribly this weekend for unexplained reasons. Blah.

Also, in a scary turn of events, I have started reading Star Wars novels - Heir to the Empire to be exact. This was very unexpected. @_@

Go read Kate Beaton's comics - they'll make you feel better. http://www.katebeaton.com or here on LJ at beatonna.

It always feels good to be done with finals, even if I'm usually near death by the end. :) I've gotten grades back from (and passed) three of the five classes - still waiting on the last two, which I don't think will be a problem, but one never knows. I really studied hard for these finals - harder and more in depth than I think I've ever studied for finals before. I have to say I felt better prepared going into this round than I have previously. Now, if only I could motivate myself to really stay on top of all the studying throughout the year - that would be an accomplishment!

As usual, my diet has been hell in the last couple of weeks (too many energy drinks and coffee), along with most of the rest of my life outside of school. Time to try and eat healthy again!

Also the computer is dead again. I dropped it off at the tech office to try and get it updated and have them run the usual tests for corruption and viruses. However, when I went to pick it up after the final, they said it would be ready in about another hour. So, I took off to Borders where I picked up some books (looking for Silvermist and the Ladybug Curse but they only had a beat up copy, so I bought the easy-reader books The Great Fairy Race and The Fairy Berry Bake-off as well as The Rose Bride from the "Once Upon a Time" series).

So when I got back to the tech office, the computer had basically gone into meltdown after they tried to install Service Pack 1. So I am now writing to you from the family computer (joy - no privacy! XD) It should be ready to be picked up on Monday again, and may actually be totally replaced, but that remains to be seen.

But it doesn't really matter because the family and I are gone this weekend to visit my brother anyway. We're going to spend the night tomorrow in San Jose/Santa Cruz and enjoy the ocean and some nice dining and shopping. Should be a fun way to unwind (I of course will take a few books that have lain unfinished these last several weeks!)

I hope to just really relax over this 1.5 week break before the next semester begins (yes, another semester over the summer...x_x). I'd like to write the Fallon/Tamara origin fic for Jewel Riders (unfortunately, the notes are on the dead comp, so I won't be getting them back until Monday afternoon), catch up on my piano, read at least two books, and watch a ton of stuff (both movies and series). I also downloaded the old DOS game "The Legend of Kyrandia." Did any of you ever play that? It was my favorite computer game when I was a kid, and I'm really excited to get to play it again!

Oh, and I'm crossing my fingers that my number doesn't get called in this week for Jury Duty.

Oh pills, you own my life. Even in memes. I am almost speechless (as I usually am when memes almost mirrors real life...XD)

Kyaa! My B&N book order (made using a beautiful Christmas gift card) finally came! I found so many great deals because of their post-Christmas warehouse sale too!

I got:
Talyn by Holly Lisle
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure by P.B. Kerr
Edge Chronicles: Beyond the Deepwoods by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Kilala Princess 4 by Rika Tanaka and Nao Kodaka
Disney Fairies: Dulcie's Taste of Magic by Gail Herman
and Tamora Pierce's Trickster's Choice. This was originally supposed to be Sunlight and Shadow from the Once Upon a Time book series, but the book arrived all beat up, so I returned it to the store and decided to wait until the new edition comes out this summer.
But I'm so excited to get this order - it has a lot of stuff I've been wanting to read for a long time. However, I just had to laugh when I realized that out of seven items, only one was marketed for adults. XD Oh well...

School has been hard so far (as expected). I also had to have the motherboard replaced on my laptop since apparently out of the 200+ computers that were given out at the beginning of the year, mine has been one of the consistent "problem children." So hopefully the current "behavioral correction" has fixed it for good. It's a little sad that the people in the tech office know me by name now. Now I have to reinstall Photoshop so that I can finish my drawing too.

We have another group project, too. Geh, I was hoping to be rid of these by this point in my schooling.
I've been having a hard time buckling down and focusing this semester as well (not quite as bad as last semester though!). As usual, most other things look more interesting that schoolwork. :D I've been incredibly tired as well. Between studying the Top 200 Drugs and trying to re-listen to the lectures from several of my classes, I haven't gotten nearly enough sleep (and coffee can only make up for so much!). Probably didn't help that I started the week off with a deficit in my "sleep bank" either.

And ever since tanz_fanatika has been watching Card Captor Sakura, I've been dying to pull out my episodes and finally finish the series!

Well, I guess I knew it was coming all summer, but I'm still floored. Goodbye (forever!) summer vacation - hello, tons of work. Even after a short starting week, Pharmacy school has managed to dump tons of work on me. And I'm NEVER good about it the first week - but apparently now I have to be. I'll definitely have to be more well organized than I ever have before. We're talking about scheduling things in down to the half-hours. So I'm taking Pharmacy Systems and Experience I, Integrated Pharmaceutical Sciences I, Integrated Biological Sciences I, and Pharmacy Calculations and Statistics. 17 units...gah...

I was nervous about putting my piano lesson at 7:45 am on Tuesdays and being able to get to school by 9 am, but it worked out very well. I actually ended up avoiding major traffic snares and getting to school well ahead of schedule (which is good, because parking is a rare commodity to come by at my school!). Having to get up at 6:00 am sets a good wake-up schedule for the rest of the week, and even gives me a little "hit the snooze" time to play around with on non-piano days. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to give more than half an hour a day to practice, so progress will probably drop off a little.

Luckily, I was able to spend last Sunday in San Francisco. It was a lovely, overcast day - my favorite. ^_^ Mandi, Beth and I took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, for those who don't know) train into the city, and spent a little time at the Metreon, though the Da Vinci exhibit went unattended due to lack of funds. (Though I wouldn't be opposed to getting back there and taking a look sometime!) After that, we rode the historic streetcars and randomly ended up in the Castro...XD But we eventually found out way down to the fun, touristy Wharf area. And what trip to San Francisco is complete without a ice cream from Ghiradelli Square? Mandi and I both enjoyed Cookie-bottom sundaes, while Beth splurged with a Dark Chocolate Raspberry Sundae - heaven in a cup, I swear. After than we tootled around Cost Plus World Market/Barnes and Noble waiting for Mandi's friend Brian to meet us for dinner at the Fog City Diner. We've always wanted to try it, but forget about it until we drive past it on the way home...>_< The food was classic American (pot roast, mac and cheese, etc.) except served classy (with slightly classy prices as well...XD) Heh...Mandi's Caesar salad did kind of crack us up though - four stacked leaves of romaine (or was it butter?) lettuce... But it was still well worth it - and I'm glad we finally got to go! Luckily, Brian drove us back to the BART station, because my feet were like pounded steaks by the time we got on the train home. Fun times, but definitely tiring.

Last night I went to Best Buy to pick up and 320 gig external hard drive on the cheap, but they closed just as I got there! So to assuage my grief, I went and spent money over at Barnes and Noble...XD Picked up a Star Trek book, two "Once Upon a Time" books (Beauty Sleep and Before Midnight) and an omnibus edition of the first three Magic Knight Rayearth manga (for only $10 - it pays to check the children's bargain area!).

Also, Saturday night saw me finish a book (Tamora Pierce's First Test) in only 6 hours...XD But I am a bibliophile, so what else am I to do on a long car trip if I bring my book light along? (Besides buying a rad mug at Starbucks...>o<)