today was an easy day– one exam, and a few hours of lightweight emergency medicine lectures/video. i dropped the car at the honda dealership for a few hours to get its checkup, and browsed photography and design books at borders while i waited. so now my car is happy almost ready for vacation. i just need to clean it out and get it spiffed up so that it can get dirty again along the yosemite roads.

dinner tonight was at keith’s house, where we had hot brownies with vanilla ice cream on top and watched episode after episode of sex and the city. quite fun.

only 9 days left…

todai and the driving rage at night = tres amusement, tres jolie! the view of the twinkling lights of the city from the PP hotel is quite lovely…especially with background music from a tiny high school prom.

i think we laughed ourselves to exhaustion.

it was a short day of lectures today– interrupted by a fire drill complete with faculty members covered in fake blood and a dozen policemen, firemen, and paramedics. the case study in the afternoon barely lasted an hour– septic arthritis, otitis media– treat aggressively! i ran out with a few friends to buy supplies for tomorrow’s “extravaganza”… and ended up blowing bubbles outside the school. we’ll be doing the same tomorrow at “extravaganza”– fully equipt with wands the size of my head and super mondo 99 cent bubble solution.

i’m actually not quite sure what this “extravaganza” is… but it apparently is going to involve: otter pops - beef - a dunk tank - bags of salt - boba - delerious medical students - cream puffs - basketball - and flavoured ice.

we’re hitting the home stretch… and the class seems to be more into playing around… which is nice, things are a little more lighthearted [as long as you ignore class politics]. we’re all anxious to get away from here. there’s been so much ugliness around me that it has consumed me, and i find myself perpetuating it, spewing it into the air before i can catch myself. it’s time to take a break– time to let all of it drift away. i’ve got to start looking for beauty once again–and stop listening to those voices that preach about the horrors of relationships. i am not the sounding board you use to justify your f-ed up existence.

the end is near.

for about an hour in the late late afternoon, the class and i forgot about our books and played in a mess of plaster, gauze, and funny hand-sock-like mesh.

it was the [mandatory] casting workshop.

after i had casted cat’s arm [and she, mine], i broke out the camera and caught some of the fun on my new 1GB CF. the pictures are shaky… but i guess that’s what i get for trying to snap available light shots with one hand in a cast.

well, that, and a plaster-smeared camera.