Blast from the Past

In the interest of reviving the further adventures of Clever Cake Genie, here's an archive from my first semester of Chinese Medicine at FBU on Sunday, September 28, 2008. Even then, it sounded like I bit off a little more than I could chew.

Oh my goodness, my goodness – I am frantically treading water here. Or a better metaphor would be trying to outrun a huge snowball rolling downhill – and it’s getting bigger and bigger and rolling faster and faster. With midterms in eight out of ten classes, I’m feeling a little under water. The TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) material is coming easily: I’m able to memorize all the qualities, organ channels, functions and indications of Chinese herbs, the theory behind TCM, etc. without much struggle. What’s a b*tch is all the memorization for Anatomy (not just the bones and muscles, but the names of all the itty bitty AREAS of the bones, muscles, skin, connective tissue, nerves….) AAARRGH! It’s easy to study the topics I’m interested in, the others, not so much.

Our schedules at the school vary from day to day, so I’m not eating, sleeping or exercising on a regular schedule, which makes it tough to get a routine going where I can depend on autopilot to get everything done. Think about how many steps you take getting ready for work in the morning. Now realize how much of that is habitual and automatic – brushing your teeth, getting dressed – you don’t even have to think about it. I’m burning additional brain cells just getting through each day, because every day is a different pattern that I have to remember. Is this a short day, where I can study some, do laundry, and buy groceries before evening classes, or a long day where I have to pack lunch and dinner to take with me, decide whether to drive or take the bicycle (which means a scary ride home in the dark – hope the drivers see me!)?

I had a mini-burnout on Friday (no class that day) – had a nice acupuncture treatment (because I was feeling like I was coming down with something), then spent the rest of the day watching Showtime on the computer. I’m so tired of studying within these four walls! Yesterday I bribed myself to study at an outdoor café with tea and carrot cake. Pleasant but distracting – everyone else was enjoying the sun too, smoking (lots of young poseurs here), talking, shouting, laughing, knocking over their drinks.

At times like this, I just want to escape with a movie, preferably something from the 30’s or 40’s, when life was simpler -- The Thin Man, or anything with Cary Grant or James Stewart.