I have heard that it is the critical moments in life that define us. Well, in these critical hours (of cramming for tomorrow's renal exam) I have interspersed cramming with peanut butter making (for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies), veggie stock making (for vegetable barley soup), coffee grinding (for caffeination, obviously), and dish washing....so I can make soup and cookies later!! It's just too bad we aren't studying the gastrointestinal system right now. I know all about digestion. So there you have it. You know the 'real' me.

Now it's really time to start thinking about kidneys.

Class of 2013,

Please read the attached memo for information regarding the USMLE Step 1 registration.

Thanks for casting a dark shadow over this lovely fall morning...

Well, hello there readers of my humble little blog! I felt it was time for my monthly update. I love the momentum of this year. We fly through classes so fast, I can actually feel the time passing. Pharmacology, Pathogenesis, Microbiology...check, check, check. And now here we are halfway through Renal!

In addition, I signed on for a month and a half long elective in Pathology. Unfortunately, there are a few fields of medicine we won't see much or at all during our third year rotations, a time where I hope to find out which field of medicine is right for me. Being that I am completely undecided about which field I will enter, I am trying my hardest to explore every path available.

Today that search led me to a lecture by the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia on a domestic violence and murder case and a tour of the ME's office. Suffice it to say, I can finally cross something off my list. Forensics. And two examples of decomposing human was all it took! If only deciding between the other fields of medicine were that cut and dry for me.

Anyway, it's fall. It's beautiful outside. And I am no longer smelling decomp. Life is good.