This week was the first week of class. I think it went alright. Two of my classes are pass/fail. Of course one of them is journal club and I have to present in it, but I signed up for December 1st so I can put off freaking out about it for awhile. The other pass/fail class is Ethics. I think it will be pretty easy. Then I have Micro 551, which is Microbial Diversity. It's only five weeks long, then it's replaced by Pathogenic Microorganisms and then Bacterial Genetics. I think it won't be too bad. I don't know how in depth it will be and there's only one exam, but it's a short class and I think it will be okay. Then there's Biochemistry. It's a huge class full of undergrads, of course, but the professor says he wants everyone to know big concepts rather than minutiae. Whether that will play out in his exams and homework remains to be seen. The annoying thing about the class is that all of the tests are online and we have to take them at the Online Learning Center in Carver Hall. This is stupid. If I wanted to take my tests online, I'd take the whole freaking class online! I am not amused by this at all. Oh well. I'll live with it.
The major source of my anxiety thus far is that I still don't have any rotations set up. Two people have said no, and I'm waiting to hear from two people right now. If I don't hear from anyone by tomorrow afternoon, then I'll email two more people. I really only have about ten days to get the first one set up, so I'm really nervous.
In the land of non-grad school but still annoying things, my cat is still stressed about the move and I think might be picking up on my anxiety a little because he took a pee on my papasan chair this evening. So tomorrow after class I have to drive to Ankeny to go to Petsmart and get some enzyme cleaner to get the smell out. I can't blame him too much because he's a nervous cat, and he takes some calming treats called Composure every day, but it is one more thing I didn't need to deal with. I actually need to find a vet to take him to soon, since he's due for his rabies shot, so maybe I can talk to them and see if they can offer anything else to help him out. He's got the Feliway diffuser and the Composure, maybe he needs a short course of antidepressants again. I don't know. Anyway, more crap I have to do.
I've also been eating like crap the past couple of days. It sucks because I'm obviously still trying to lose weight, but I just felt so out of control. I'm trying to go back to the Weight Watchers basics and be really good about tracking my points and exercising so hopefully I will start feeling better and less crazy. And hopefully I didn't do too much damage to my weight. I did buy a swimsuit this week though, which I haven't done in four years, and it's a really cute one that doesn't look horrible on me, so I guess that's good.
Can any of your profs help with setting up rotations? Or is it something you're expected to do totally on your own? I would think that as difficult as it sounds that they would offer some assistance or bully someone into letting you do some rotations. If not, that's just crappy. =P
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear about Memo! My roommate got another cat to keep her cat company once me, D'Artagnan and Satine moved out. Turned out he and her other cat didn't get along well, so he literally pissed on everything in the entire apartment: her bed, couch, floor, clothing if it was on the floor, etc. She finally got rid of him (it was obvious he needed to be an only cat) and got two kitties that get along great with her first cat. My other friend also has a cat that's on valium because it's so nervous it bites on itself and the sores never heal. At least Memo isn't doing that.
Maybe when you can you could go to the Rec Center too? I had a terrible time trying to lose weight in grad school for some reason (I was 30 pounds overweight, which isn't horrible, but it was enough I didn't like it). I started counting carbs like my dad did for diabetes, and I actually lost the weight and kept it off that way. Here recently I've upped the anty by doing more exercise and stuff like that.