Massachusetts

I think I'm about ten here...

Well, I made it here. So far I’ve slept some, eaten some, and watched some more Olympics. My dad got me a membership at his gym for my stay here, so I got to experience a mainstream gym the other day. There’s a single piece of equipment that you might be able to label as a squat rack, maybe. It wobbles when I give it a shove. But I used it, and it didn’t collapse, and there’s a place to do pullups, and some space towards the back amid all the useless Nautilus machines where I managed to do deadlifts without arousing the suspicion of the management. I had to go sockfoot though, because I only packed my running shoes and left my lifting shoes at home. Running shoes are too squishy to lift in.

My brother Bryan is here, but I really haven’t seen him very much. Ari is preparing to move into her dorm at UMass Lowell in ten days, and somehow I have been assigned the job of managing the process. Today we did some online shopping and chose various accessories for her bed, and tomorrow I believe I am going to be dragged about in the flesh to select the remainder of what all is thought to be necessary.

This one needs some Photoshop repair...

I got to see my old friend Stacey yesterday, and her new house as well. It’s adorable, built in 1910 and so it has a lot of character. I’m jealous. The way things are going I’ll have my first house when I’m about fifty, I figure.

My aunt Dorothy will be here tomorrow, I haven’t seen her in years. She has celiac disease too, so we always had some solidarity in eating, but apparently now she’s gone vegan. Me, I shoot for about 100 grams of protein a day, so alas, our alliance is dead.

Well, back to the Olympics. Did you know BMX racing was an Olympic event?  What about racewalking?

Done

Poor Floof, all that fur in this heat...

Well, I took the test yesterday.  I didn’t panic, and I answered all the questions, so that’s a victory in and of itself.  I have to wait a month to get my score though.  Today I’m pretty exhausted, despite having slept like a rock last night.  This heat can’t be helping, it’s the third day in a row of almost 100 degree weather.  It’s not what we’re accustomed to out here in Oregon.

Last night after the test Brian and I went out to eat for, oh, the second time this year.  We’d been waiting for a special occasion to use a P.F. Chang’s gift card that Brian’s parents gave me for my birthday, and what with having just taken the MCAT, and Brian having just finished his first week at the new job, and the house being like 85 degrees when we got home, it seemed like last night was special enough.  I ate all of it.  Even the leftovers, a few hours after getting home.  When I’m nervous I can’t eat very well, so I felt like I hadn’t had a proper meal in about a week.

I’ve been enjoying the Olympics, since just yesterday I’ve gotten to see a few of the more obscure sports.  Today I was introduced to Olympic trampolining.  Who knew?  It looks like they get to at least thirty feet up in the air, I was impressed.

Well, today I pack, and tomorrow morning Brian is driving me to Portland so I can get on a plane and go east.  At least I’ve been so worried about the MCAT lately that I’ve not had much time to worry about flying.

Tomorrow

Well, tomorrow is the day.  My MCAT starts at 2 in the afternoon and I’ll be done at about 7:00.  I have been in varying stages of nervousness all week, but I don’t feel too bad today.  I am going to review a few topics today, and then generally try not to think about it too much.  Tonight I plan on watching the women’s gymnastics final; if I think I’m nervous, I can’t imagine how those girls must feel.  It’s been kind of interesting, watching all these athletes experience what for many of them is the biggest test of their lives.  It puts my anxiety into persepective somewhat.

On Saturday I will pack up, and on Sunday I fly to Massachusetts to visit the family.  My brother is there, on a month-long vacation from the Peace Corps.  I will be staying for quite a while, three weeks, as I want to go see some of the med schools back that way while still having time to visit and relax some.  I am planning on doing as much of the actual application work as I can stand while back east as well.  I have some essays to write and whatnot, and my mom can help me edit those.

Brian has been working at his new job this week; so far so good, his only complaint is that he’d forgotten how tiring it is to stand up all day.  At least he’s in an air conditioned spot; today it’s 95, and tomorrow it’s supposed to be about 100 out there.

Five days and counting

Check out the cool bug that traipsed up the window behind my desk today…

Five study days left until the MCAT.  Eeek!

Today I will finish the Orgo, and tomorow I’m thinking I’ll do another practice test.  They’re rather grueling, as they’re full length, so you can’t really study much the same day you take one.  Or at least I can’t.  Okay, “Amides and Nitrogen Containing Compounds” awaits.

Moving forward

Some good news: Brian got the job that he was waiting to hear about.  He’ll start working in the U of O bookstore, in the art supplies department on Monday.  (Yay health insurance!)  And I got some folks to promise me letters of recommendation, including my creative writing professor from Rice, Max Apple, who teaches at Penn now, and my organic chemistry teacher, Gary Spessard, who is retiring from St. Olaf this year.  (He has taught several summer sessions at U of O.)  I am basically just asking the professors who I liked the most as teachers and as people.  Good enough, no?  Okay, back to studying.

Nervous

We are rather a bundle of nerves here in our house today.  Brian is waiting to hear whether he got a job that he wants, and me, well it’s a week and counting until the MCAT, and I’ve been having to start asking people to write me recommendation letters for my applications.  It’s not very comfortable for me, I’m not much of a schmooze.  And I’d like a letter or two from my professors at Rice–that’s a pretty strange e-mail to have to write.  Hi, I haven’t been in touch in a decade, can you write me a recommendation?  However, I just sent one off.

I am eyeball deep in Physics; circuits, at the moment, to be exact.  Hey, check out Brian’s rocking farmer’s tan:

Front...

I harass him to wear sunscreen, but he apparently isn’t doing a very good job of it.

...and back.

Blast from the past

Brian scanned a few of my photos from Japan; here’s a selection for your enjoyment…

The answer

By the way, the answer to the July 23rd problem is C., remains the same.  Archimedes’ principle states that the buoyant (upward) force on an object submerged in a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.  The key to this problem is in remembering that about 10 percent of the volume of the ice remains above the surface of the water.  As the mass of the water in an ice cube is not dependent on its phase (but the volume is), it can only displace a mass of water equivalent to its own total mass–and the remainder of the volume occupied by the less-dense ice must remain above the surface.  Tricky, no?

Weekend chores

The wash

I had the realization a month or two ago that it was ridiculous to be using the dryer during a Pacific Northwest summer.  I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before, as there was already a clothesline out back; Brian and I just replaced the cord and bought some clothespins.  I haven’t used a clothesline since we lived in Japan, but I rather like the little ritual of hanging up and taking down each piece.  (I do all the laundry, mostly because Brian seems to find a way to destroy some article of my clothing if he so much as looks at the washing machine…)  I can fit three loads of laundry on this line, and as it takes only a few hours to dry, it’s actually comparable to using the dryer in terms of time.  And we’ve seen a pretty significant reduction in our electricity use since we’ve stopped using the dryer.  On the other hand, I personally don’t particularly enjoy the “crispy” feeling of line-dried clothes, but I am slowly getting used to it…

Speaking of…

In the vein of somewhat unusual female athletes at the Olympics, here’s Melanie Roach’s blog–she’s a 33 year old mother of three, and the number one ranked American weightlifter in her (117 lb.) weight class. To give you some perspective, we are about the same size–and while I can squat around 140 lbs., she can back squat an insane 360 lbs. Here’s a video where you can get some idea of just what all she can do (yes that’s double her bodyweight that she’s throwing over her head), and another video piece from the NY Times that’s more biographical in nature.