Busy Little Bee

Hi Folks. Been a crazy week and I've definitely fallen behind on my communication.

Here's what's happening.

My band is playing tonight! Funny story behind this. Last week I had my final pre-med committee interview during which I of course talked about the band. A few days later, I received an invite from the director of the program to play at the Penn Post-bac Premed Reception this evening in Houston Hall! Ha. We of course accepted. Looks like we're doing a Health Program Tour (since our first gig last month was for Temple Musicians In Medicine Spring Concert and our next gig will be for Penn as well in July at an employee bbq). We are so cool.

Med school applications open on Tuesday. Yikes and excitement! I've been waiting and planning for this process for five years, so I'm pretty psyched (and a bit nervous) to get things moving. Wish me luck!

I've also been keeping up with climbing about 3 times a week. My climbing buddy, Emily, has been doing a rotation in NE Philly Hospital and has been working 10 hours a day and doesn't get out until 8. We've been meeting up at 8:30 and climbing until the close of the gym at 10. It's not a long session, but we've been consistent and definitely been improving. I'm hoping we'll be getting up to the Gunks in the next month or so.

Running has been going well, though I only run 3 times a week now. I have a new running buddy, Greg, who is in his first year at Penn Med. We met randomly in a spin class that I substituted about 1.5 months ago and have been fast friends. We balance each other quite nicely--when he's lagging I motivate him to push harder and vice versa. He's been getting me to challenge myself in the push up domain (I'm up to 30 in a row!). It's quite a relief to have an equal; meaning, I love class and motivating people, but it's also nice to have someone who can challenge and motivate me too. He's going to help me get the extra edge to qualify for the Boston Marathon (whether he knows it or not!).

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Grant, graduated from Drexel Med School on May 15th. I can't believe he's actually a doctor! So crazy! I got to go to all the events that week--formal, family dinners, graduation, cocktail parties. It was quite the week, going out every night, celebrating his accomplishment, and unfortunately, saying goodbye. He took off that following weekend for Boston. He's doing his residency up at Boston University. I'm so proud and happy for him, but I'm really going to miss him. He's like family and it's going to be hard to be without that tie (and our famous seven hour meals together).

Work in the lab is going well, but slow. One week I'll be getting really awesome results, and then it seems as though the next week none of the experiments are working. This is pretty normal for lab work and you just have to accept it as the way of "Science." It's a bit trial and error. Also, the mouse workload has increased a 100 fold in the last couple of weeks. I've been spending a lot of time down in the "Mouse House", collecting hearts, livers, and tails for DNA genotyping. I like mouse work in general, but spending six hours at a time down with the smells, bad lighting, and Death has me appreciating bench work a bit more.

And lastly, summer session at the gym started this week. My schedule is completely different from last semester. I'm teaching three spin classes and one body pump class (plus lots of subbing). I'm bummed to be only teaching one official BP class, but they really cut down on the amount of classes during the summer and that's all I could get.

So, yes, I've been a busy bee, but thankfully with things that I love to do. Hopefully things are going well with you, too. I'd love to hear your own update!

Until next time!