Have a carrot?

So I survived my first week as a full-time employee and full-time graduate student and I still have my hair and sanity, LOL!! I also had my first midterm and for the first time in a LONG time, I don't think I did well at all on it. So I've pretty much conceded that my streak of all A's is over unfortunately.

Other things going on is that my daughter had her 13th B'day party a few weeks ago and I temporarily lost my mind when I decided to have 4 other 13 year old's here for a sleepover. NEVER WILL THAT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!!!!! EVER!!!!!

My Micro/Immuno course is getting VERY, VERY interesting with lectures on the orgin of swine flu being a recently covered topic. Man, I can't get over how fascinating infectious diseases are, so much so that I'm having to reconsider residency choices!!! IM combined with a fellowship in Infectious Disease could be just the ticket a woman with an empty nest!

I also learned that each director at my job is now expected to do original research which is of course, right up my alley!!! And that opens up the possibility of me being able to do dissertation work while working full-time in kinda of a 2 for 1 deal, hence the new "carrot" in my life. Now I'm very aware of just how difficult that would be, but my thinking is that every educational option I'm considering is going to be very difficult so it's 6 of one, half dozen of the other and otherwise all the same. In this scenario, my PhD would be in Biodefense/Infectious Disease with an emphasis on bioterrorist agents (gotta keep that DOD thing going). My research would also of course, have a pathology flavor and all of that sounds nice in theory. The issue would be putting together a committee and not just any committee, but a committee of folks who can get along with each other and get me out in decent time.

We'll see what happens, for now I'm going to set things in motion for this as in get my application in to the program, while continuing on my study schedule for the MCAT. And this point I can confidently say that the TBR review is the best MCAT review out there!!!

Busy, busy, BUSY!!!!!

As the title indicates, I was VERY busy this week. I ended up skipping class on Monday because I was swamped in the lab, which meant that I had to listen to the lectures on line. I got through that OK, and had a very interesting lecture in my Micro/Immuno class about how swine flu evolved. Yep, I'm thrilled to be back where I started research wise in 1988, hitting infectious diseases hard core!

I mentioned that I was promoted last week with no increase in pay, but I found out on Friday that I will get an increase in pay of about 10% of my salary, so I'm pretty stoked about that!!!! I also had a solid MCAT Chemistry review this week starting out with "12's" and ending up with "10's" by the end of the week. Lemme tell you that by the time I did my last set of passages on Thursday, my brain was just fried from exhaustion but I succeeded in getting through the first section of my TBR Chemistry review! I also realized by the end of the week that I have to make sure I get at least a 30 minute nap/rest, EVERYDAY to get me through the studying I have to do for the evening if I'm to retain anything I learn and keep my grades high.

Unfortunately, I didn't run any this week, but I did get my 4 miles of walking in, plus I take a 1 hour tennis class once a week with my daughter too. With me feeling very wary of riding metro, I got my DOD decal and now drive in everyday. I HATE driving in metro DC, but I hate even more the idea of riding what I think isn't a very safe public transportation system with people sneezing, coughing and otherwise sharing minute particles of mucus with other passengers. YUK!!!

Guess that's it for this week!!! :)