Happy Medical Monday!

   Happy Medical Monday, y'all!  Last week BF and I drove to LA to take Step 2 CS.  It was actually pretty tough!  You see 12 standardized patients (actors pretending to have things wrong with them) in about 8 hours, which was exhausting.  Props to primary care docs who do it day in and day out, because it takes a lot out of you.  Anyway, I'm pretty sure we passed, especially considering U.S. med students have a 97% pass rate on the first time taking it.  It's nice to have that over with!  

We were lucky enough to visit some friends while in LA!

Gamma Phi friends!

J, my bestie!

This is Ollie

One of my old roommates and UCLA besties!

   Now I just need to sort out my personal statement.  I spent 6 hours working on it yesterday, and now I have my second draft, but it still needs a lot of work.  I'm meeting with some of my OB/Gyn advisors this morning, which I'm nervous about because what's left of my confidence doesn't need to be beaten down anymore, but hopefully they can point me in the right direction. 

I've got the black lung, pop.

I spent the second half of my spring break in LA visiting friends and bf, where my wonderful souvenir from Vegas first appeared (a nasty cough).  So now I am studying for my Immuno final and hacking up a lung.  How appropriate?

Anyway, the trip to LA was fun!  J and I had a lovely time singing and car-dancing while I DJed for the drive.  Got to see lots of my Gphi friends once in LA, and even got to visit the Gphi house for a bit!  The girls and I went out to some Irish bar for St. Patty's and got Bella Pita after, just like old times.  And of course, NO trip to LA is complete without a Panera meal with the ladies.  J and I encountered some pouring rain in LA and some snow on the grapevine on the drive back, but we made it through!  Here are some pics:

Mongols!

Gotta love Mongol King

Botanical Garden at UCLA

We got stalked by some squirrels...

Veggie Grill! Just as good as Native Foods!

Snowy Grapevine

California Open Road

A little visit to La La Land

Thanks to a cheap deal on Southwest,  I spent the three day weekend visiting some friends in LA.  I love when Southwest has cheap deals.  I really should get one of those rapid reward account things.

Anyway,  I got to see people I missed very much and we had such a fun time eating, going out, and walking on Venice beach in 80 degree weather!  PS- Sac is like 30 degrees these days....

Anyway, here are a few pics from our Venice beach excursion.  Unfortunately I did not capture any photos from our lobster pizza fiasco (can you say "most awkward situation of 2011"?!)  I took a "vacation" from my diet for the trip since half the fun of visiting friends is eating out.  Unfortunately, I gained back all the weight I lost in the last two weeks in a matter of three days.  Ooopsie!  That's okay!  Back on the healthy train!

Speaking of the healthy train, today I went to my primary care provider to get some blood work done.  My dad has extremely high cholesterol and the rest of his side of the family doesn't trust Western medicine/never goes to the doctor so I have no idea what their levels are like.  I figured it would be good to just know where I stand because its something I will probably just have to be extra careful about.  While I was getting blood work done anyway, my doctor ordered glucose levels, TSH, CBC, etc too.  Might as well just make sure everything is fine!  I'm still waiting for my results.  I hope everything is normal!  One good thing is that I noticed my blood pressure was nice and low (116/71) which is good.  I don't wanna have to worry about hypertension any time soon.

Anyway, enough of my jibber jabber - here are some pictures of the weirdos at Venice (there were more out than usual)... oh and my friends :P