The other day I got home around 10:45 PM. I had been studying in the library in the dungeon (basement floor). Since there was no cell phone reception down there, I didn’t find out I had a voicemail until I got back home.

My mom had left a message. I wasn’t sure what she called for, but in the message she left she complained about my voicemail greeting. My voicemail greeting is an Italian-accented male voice. It sounded funny at the time… so that’s what I chose to use. So I’m listening to this voicemail message from my mom and she’s complaining about my “ugly” greeting and then offers to record a message for me.. lol.

Well after listening to the message I call home. As the phone is ringing, I’m just hoping that my parents didn’t go to sleep yet. Before the third ring, my mom picks up the phone. I say hi. She says hi. I tell her where I was and why I couldn’t pick up the phone. This whole time I’m wondering why she called me earlier.

Then she tells me (paraphrased):

I don’t want you worrying about anything now. Don’t worry money. Don’t worry about your stocks. If you need anything, tell me, and I’ll do it if I can. Your job right now is to study.

And the conversation continued something like this…

Mom: Do you need any food? I can cook you food.
Me: Okay.
Mom: What do you want me to cook?
Me: Uh… I dunno

I’m kind of taken back by this conversation… I’m not too sure why she needed to call me to say this. I’m.. slightly speechless? I can’t think of something I want her to cook for me.. lol

Anyways, the point of this post is just to say thanks. Last week during Thanksgiving I was so caught up with the stress of school I didn’t really think about what I was thankful for. I even studied on Thanksgiving Day! But on an evening where I find myself unable to sleep, there is some clarity. I’m thankful for my parents who have always been there, always supportive.

Thanks, Mom and Dad.

First day back after Thanksgiving break. I’m kinda feeling sick… well its more like this sick feeling that I didn’t do enough over break. I think I should get used to this feeling.

It reminds me of the movie Schindler’s List where he regrets not doing more to save people at the end of the movie. Okay… maybe I don’t feel that bad… at least the tears are not streaming down my face…

Anyways, lecture is starting… gotta learn about MHC Molecules now!

Well we got through the second set of exams. Now we are working our way through the pulmonary system. Already I feel like I’m falling behind and we’ve only had one week and 2 days since the last set of exams. I’m hoping to be able to catch up over this coming weekend and Thanksgiving break. I can’t believe I actually want to study during Thanksgiving break… Well I don’t really want to study… I just want to catch up… So I suppose on some levels I do want to study…

I’m finding respiratory physiology to be tricky. Thankfully I find our textbook (Respiratory Physiology by West) very helpful. Although, it is pretty dense… The thing costs about $40 an is a small paperback book. I’d almost call it a booklet. But in all fairness, I think its 12 chapters long. Its also the same book used at UCSD School of Medicine. Dr. West, the author of the book, teaches there.

Cell Structure & Function is looking a little intimidating. We have a huge stack of notes for the Christmas exams. It will probably have close to 80 questions on it… by far the largest test of the year in the class. The class is very front-loaded. The majority of lectures will be given before Christmas Break.

There it is. After day 1 of exam week I went to the campus store and purchased myself a copy of Apple OS X Leopard for the student discount of $69. I would’ve gone to the campus store over the weekend but the did not receive the shipment until today. They said that since they are selling the software at a discount, Apple Inc’s priorities were shipping to all their retail stores first. No problem with me. At a discount of almost 50%, I can wait a couple days…

Anyways, I went home, threw it in the computer to upgrade and took a nap. Then spent the rest of the day prepping for day 2 tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m taking two exams. The first is for Cell Structure and Function and the second is for Evidence-Based Medicine.