PG County

Now that my sister has moved to PG county, I'm spending a LOT of time here and for those of you unfamiliar with metro DC, PG County is home to the wealthiest/most educated Blacks in America complete with gated communities and numerous million dollar+ homes. And for me that's where the celebration ends. While PG County has the highest number of minority kids on the honor roll in the state of Maryland, the school system itself isn't near as good as it should be considering the tax base. Of course almost all of the Blacks I know that live in PG county in those millions dollar homes sends their kids to private school and there in lies the BIG problem I have with these mostly bougie Black folks.

Where I live in Montgomery County, people here would NEVER settle for having less than top notch PUBLIC schools, so it should come as no surpise that Montgomery county Maryland is not only the richest county in Maryland but more importanly has the best public schools in the state. But it's not just about schools for me, it's about goods and services. For example, having to drive over 45 minutes to a Nordstroms or Lord and Taylor doesn't seem to bother PG County residents. OK, high end clothes aren't a big deal to everyone I get that, but going to the local Marshall's and seeing that there are no locks on the dressing rooms, SHOULD be a problem in a neighborhood where the average income is over 100K/year. THAT, I sure as hell do NOT get!!!! I also don't rasing major hell when a million dollar home burns to the ground because there aren't enough fire hydrants in the neighborhood, or calling 911 in a medical emergency and hoping someone: 1) answers the 911 call in the first place and 2) Shows up within the hour. This kind of apathy among affluent and educated Blacks is shameful and is why I don't live in PG County!!!

Movin' on, I'm so NOT looking forward to starting school in a few weeks. Normally, I'm pretty excited but this time for probably the first time in my life I'm just kinda blaze' about it. I serioulsy considered sitting out the semester but figured I'd get bored to death if I did, so I decided to suck it up and get on with things. Jobs wise things are still groovy, I'm learning so much and using my histology books a LOT!! My path books, not so much, but that's OK.... for now!!!!

Fall semester is upon us!

So my Fall schedule is finally set and here it is:

Molecular Physiology
Intro Microbiology/Immunology
Intro Tumor Biology

Cool schedule, I'm pleased but I really, really, REALLY, wanted to take that Path of Infectious Disease course instead. No problemo, there's always next year!

I'm also getting my snippy 12 year old ready for 8th grade. Did I say snippy? Yep I did and trust me, there's only room for one b*tch in THIS house, LOL!! Geez, I don't recall being "snippy" at 12 because being that way was a great way to end up toothless, LOL!!! But hey they call it hormones, I call it "you better get your attitude together or else" sista!

Other news, job is going great but then I guess anyone reading this is probably sick of me saying that all the time. But it's the truth! Still, that nagging "I REALLY wanna be a Pathologist" is always playing in my mind especially as I look at my slides under the microscope. But OK, I'm not gonna dwell on that............

Speaking of being a Pathologist, my Chemistry course/MCAT study is finally on a regular schedule. And it's probably no suprise that my fatigue issue has become more manageable as well. I'm starting to think about when I may want to take the test but I have to be careful because I don't want to ever again run into an issue where another good score expires before I matriculate.

Ok, that's it for now folks!:)

Histo what?

So today I was introduced with a new title, Histopathologist, by my Supv. Now I've heard of this term before, Pathologists in England are often referred to as Histopathologists, but not so much here in the US. I'd guess that here in the US, there's some concern that folks with this title would be thought to be Physicians. Of course I'm not one to fake being something I'm not, but the fact is that I do have a special gift for reading slides which "real" Pathologists seem impressed by.

Speaking of that, I'm getting a lot more scope time lately particularly with grad students, many of whom haven't taken courses in either Histology or Pathology. And honestly, I LOVE teaching. Interestingly, most of the grad students at the institution where I work are required to take a course in Histology as part of their PhD programs. Maybe one day I could be allowed to teach one of those sections, and if I had my choice, I'd go with the urinary system, hands down!

In other news, I"ve done well lately staying on top of my Chemistry/MCAT review and since I started out so inconsistently, I decided to start again from the beginning. That was a bore at first, but now things are going along very smoothly and I fully expect to be done with the course by the end of the year.

Speaking of that, I'm going to reduce my course load in the next few weeks because I've just got too much going on. I'm still going to have a heavy schedule of 3 classes, but certainly not the 5 I'm registered for. I'm still trying to get permission to take a Pathology course instead of Molecular Physio, so hopefully that will go though.