Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I was nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award by Montana over at Pretty Lil Mudder! Thank you so much! :] (Check out her blog for super awesome race info and workout ideas!) We’re also starting up a recipe linkup soon with a few other ladies from Girls Gone Sporty. Stay tuned (Fridayyy)!!!

According to the post, the rules are:

• Thank and link to the person who nominated you
• List the rules and display the award
• Share seven facts about yourself
• Nominate 15 other blogs you enjoy, then comment on their posts to let them know you have nominated them

7 Random Facts About Me

1. I get called upon by the guys (HBLers + 1) to help move things [aka furniture] around. I find this very flattering. The last time this happened, my friend’s mom happened to overhear and protested, “Don’t ask her to do that for you!” (M: No, Mom, you don’t understand! She’s really really strong! She does powerlifting and holds a state record for deadlifts! She’ll be fine. And we can’t move it without her.)
2. By the time I graduate medical school, I will be in about a quarter of a million dollars in debt. This does not include interest and also depends upon me continuing to live on <$10k/year, so mayhaps you can see why I get a slight bit annoyed when people say that we go into the field of medicine “for the money.” (I really don’t think I’d be picking the least-paying specialty if that were the case.) But one of my life-long goals is to be able to spend my life doing something that I love, so here we are.
3. My goals when/if I ever swim out of my student loan debt are to pay off my parents’ house, take them on a cruise, fund no-kill animal shelters (Please Save A Cat + Friends For Life are biggies on my list) and donate to the clinic I used to volunteer at. I’d also eventually like a house with an awesome kitchen, fruit trees + an herb/vegetable garden, and a room with high ceilings that can be a dance studio
4. The only time I willingly call people is when I’m driving (relax, I’m using a headset/just one earbud)…but I still usually hate talking on the phone (#25 of 25 Things You Didn’t Know). This is probably why long-distance relationships would be a bad idea for me. (Y’know, other than the fact that I’d only be able to pencil him in once every couple days in probably-10-minute-intervals.
5. I can fall asleep anywhere at almost any time, within a matter of minutes. The floor, a couple chairs, standing up…you name it. (Sometimes, I seriously think I have narcolepsy, but it’s more likely just chronic sleep deprivation…?) Symptoms of narcolepsy include:
   • Excessive sleepiness or sudden muscle weakness
   • Cataplexy
   • Sleep paralysis
   • Hypnagogic hallucinations
   • Automatic behaviors (like driving home and not remembering how you got there)
   • Disrupted major sleep episode (disruption of the longest sleep episode that occurs on a daily basis)

   …and now that I think about it, my dad can do the same thing. Crud. (Nooo, orexin, stay with me!) Even if I really do have it, I’d like to think that I’m a pretty effing high-functioning narcoleptic. :O

6. I’m not very good with improvisation, or being extremely articulate with words (spoken, anyway). Given the opportunity, I plan it all out to excruciating detail before I start talking. More on that on Saturday. :O!
7. If food is in front of me, it tends to disappear. Especially if I’m preoccupied with doing something else. I spend most of my day thinking about food, eating, or planning my next meal(s).

Unofficial #8: I’m really, really terrible about nominating people because I always feel like they’ll feel obligated to respond even if they’re super busy (also because all[?] of the people I wanted to nominate have already been nominated already! Go figure. What can I say? We have good taste in people. Can I just…ask you, my dear readers, to share random facts about yourself? :]?

JUST KIDDING. I’m nominating the ladies I’ve been doing Fitness Fridays with because they are awesome and have not in fact been tagged yet (as far as I can tell, anyway)! ;)

1. Jen from JVKom
2. Brittney from Brittney Breaking Free
3. Katie from Fit Beach Babe
4. TO MY DEAR READERS <3

I’d also just like to note that Trish is wonderful and awesomely amazing. <3 She went to the farmer’s market over in Ithaca earlier this(? I’ve lost track of dates) month and got me some pepper jelly! 3 homemade blueberry muffins using blueberries she’d picked herself! (Super jealous. I wanna go berry picking!) I’ve been enjoying it with a smoked jalapeno cheese spread and maple chicken sausage patties stuffed with a beet greens scramble (recipe will be up in a couple days) in a pita bread pocket. <3

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Update: May Fitness Challenge (05/16-05/22)

I am officially done (again) with my med school courses! The “again” is due to the fact that ACLS apparently did count toward our grade, so we’ve had that all week. It was somewhat frustrating in the sense that I have my giant test to take tomorrow, and ACLS effectively sapped all my boards study time away this week. On the plus side, it wasn’t all for naught! I did my megacode yesterday and after I finished and signed off on what I’d done, they had me sit elsewhere while they deliberated on whether or not I passed/failed.

When they brought me back over, here’s the conversation that followed:
L: How do you think you did?
F: I think(?) I did okay and I hope I passed. I don’t think I left out anything glaring…
S: Do you think you left anything out?
F: I feel like there was one point where I should have addressed the patient’s oxygen levels first but I was tending to something else.
S: But you corrected it, didn’t you?
F: Yes indeed.
H: Who was your instructor this week? Dr. Cookie?
F: Yep, but I’d go to Dr. M’s reviews at night since I heard that all the instructors emphasized different things. (This was an understatement. I went to him specifically because he held us to a higher standard and included a great amount of detail. I figured it’d be safer to err on the side of way-too-much-information.)
S: We wanted to know who taught you because we think you did very well. In fact, we recommended you for IP (instructor potential).
F: …:O! Really!?
L: You interacted with the patient, made sure they were comfortable, explained and clarified all the procedures in great detail and went through your reasoning behind everything that you did. We were very, very impressed.

I aced today’s exam too (not bad for never having owned the book, right? :D ), so it looks like I won’t have to retake it! :P I sincerely hope this trend continues!

My mom sent me a giant container of mixed nuts (brazil nuts, hazelnuts, cashews, almonds, walnuts, etc.), another ginormous Costco bag of walnuts (she said they’d be good for my brain), a bottle of pineapple aloe juice, 2 cans of lychee (I requested em’), a bag of dried longan, allergy meds, a giant bag of Krave Lemon Garlic turkey jerky(!), a mystery package that I can’t read the calligraphy for (I’ll figure it out eventually) and 4 bags of dried mangoes.

I’ve concluded that my mom would be amazing at Tetris (maybe that’s where my Tetris-ing skills came from). I guess she figured that if she was going to pack up a box, she might as well fill every last bit of space up. :P

I also got a package from Becca a couple days later and it completely made my day. :D! I think both of them realize how much I miss having an accessible (aka not a 2-hour drive away to get to the closest one) Asian market, so said packages reflected that. :P They definitely provided me with the pick-me-up I needed. <3! But of course, before I could check it out, it had to pass inspection first.

“There’s nothing for me in here? I guess you can have it then.” :[

Becca sent me 2 boxes of curry, furikake seasoning, ingredients (minus the eggs, obviously :x ) to make tea leaf eggs, a reminder of home + a super cute card. <3

May 16

• 1 hour + 1 min. on ellipticals @ 7% resistance while studying (214 questions completed)

May 17

• 30-min. At-Home Abs/HIIT

May 18

• 25 min. Tahitian practice
• 5×2-min. Supermans

May 19

• 1×200 bridges @ 24 lb
• 3×25 BW squats
• 1 hour + 5 min. ellipticals @ 6% resistance while studying (250 questions completed!)

For the record (you may have already noticed this), I’m not much for taking gym selfies or anything of the sort, but I recently remembered that I could take screenshots on my phone, so I’ve just been including my fitocracy points in pictures, haha. :D

We started off the week with another lovely stab to check for TB (yet again). I’m proud to say that Mike is still alive, and so am I.

May 20

• School is killin’ me. :[ The entirety of me walking to and from different buildings + all over the farm probably added up to 20 minutes.

She makes my studying more bearable. :]

May 21

• 1 hour + 7 min. on ellipticals (intervals) while studying (250 questions completed)

I’ve taken to buying a tub of mixed greens for $1.59 (manager’s specials! <3) and loading it with stuff so that I at least won’t be eating like crap during exam week. :O

May 22

• 2 hours on ellipticals (intervals and then even harder intervals) while studying (342 practice questions completed ._. only 98 left until I’m caught up, but I think I have another 250 tomorrow…)

Total: 342 minutes
Running Total: 1537 minutes!
(Start, Week 1, Week 2)

The #20×31 fitness challenge is hosted by Jen, Samantha, Carley and Anna. It’s not too late to join if you’re interested! (We still have a whole ‘nother week!) Just 20 minutes per day for the month of May! :]

an end to year 2

I’ve finished my last pre-clinical exam (aka last textbook-studying exam) ever!!!

19 years of school after 2 years of preschool (my brother refused to go without me) and a year of kindegarten.

This doesn’t feel real.

Now I just need to pass boards! (Please be kind.)

Complete with a present from my boards buddy! (I get to find out who she is on Wednesday!)

more goodies

My Boards Buddy struck again! :D She is a wonderful soul. :O

Whilst studying for our OPP practical last week, Hira and I decided to loot the president’s office as a snack break. (I may have failed to mention that he keeps a whole bunch of goodies [cookies, crackers, candy, pretzels, etc.] in his office so if any of us are ever hungry, we can stop by to grab something. He is a wonderful man, in case the last sentence didn’t make that incredibly clear.)

Here are my spoils of war! (He was out of his office, so we didn’t get to say hello.) I managed to show slight restraint.

pampered

I am about 99.99% certain that my boards buddy is definitely female (or a very thoughtful/considerate dude with a girlfriend). She is a wonderful human being and completely made my day last week. :]!