Archive for December, 2009

Winter weather advisories

This from the City of Fort Worth

A storm system centered across West Texas will move east during the day today. The bulk of the precipitation, much of it in the form of snowfall, will occur in the Fort Worth area today and tonight …

Will it snow, will it snow, will it snow? It’s cold and wet outside right now, so I suppose it may — personally I was planning on going shopping, so maybe I should get out the door ASAP.

Two snow storms in one week, for Fort Worth, is highly unusual, to say the least.

Whose idea was it for me to work over my break?

Well, I’m back at the pharmacy after a year and a half of escape, because somebody (the editor) thought I should be productive and make some money for a change (truth be told, it’s a good idea, as it’s been months since I earned anything and I do anxietize over funds a lot – usually unnecessarily, but oh well).

So, I came home tonight after my second day, second 8 hour shift, to the usual “you will not believe what went on today! – insert tales of woe involving some teenage brother being, shall we say, confrontational -” I wished I could have countered with an exciting story of my own. Instead, all I could relate was 8 hours of pure commercialistic mundanity, as I stood behind the checkout, involving such things as….

- Spending five minutes explaining to a customer that no, they can’t use that coupon unless they spend $2 more, yes, I’m sure, no, cigarettes don’t count, yes, that’s after the other discount, no….

-Counting how many leopard print “Snuggies” (“It’s a blanket with arms!!!”) I sold

-Selling enough 3$ a bottle wine to fill a small swimming pool

-Not to mention enough chocolate to ruin more than a few New Year’s resolutions

-Becoming the ultimate broken record “Hi! Do you have your ____ card? Would you like a bag? Credit or debit? Have a nice day!” — Don’t forget the sometimes-sincere plasticine smile, of course

-Ten trips to restock the shopping basket rack

-Plastic-holiday-junk, ’nuff said.

-Not-making-eye-contact with particularly rude customers (you’d be surprised, if you’ve never worked in retail before)

-Looking at the clock several million times.

-Selling almost as much red and green tissue paper as cigarettes (that’s a lot of tissue paper)

-Hours looking at the nubby, slightly discolored utility carpet, rows of brightly colored candy bags, and the counter (slightly chipped). The juxtaposition isn’t enlightened.

-A large chunk of time spent running around the store, looking up sales, poring over the register readout, calling the manager (twice), redoing the transaction, explaining to the customer, and running about a bit more, all for “2 for 1″ lounge pants (unisex, but I wouldn’t recommend the pink ones for your husband).

-Trying to stay out of bitter coworker rivalries “Oh, she’s coming in…”

-Walking by our half-and-aisle devoted to….”As Seen On TV!” Complete with monitor showing the relevant informercials (“you just stick the onion in there, and, slap! it’s cut!”….”Sham-WOW!”….”I had this rash for months, and then….”)

-Three words: “Zhu Zhu Pets”

-Counting the seconds until 7pm.

Lately we’ve been on a passage to India around here almost every night — Bollywood India. I wrote about it before — see the reviews of Om Shanti Om, Eklavya, and Jodhaa Ackbar. Now most recently we have watched Veer-Zaara (2004) the story of a star-crossed love between an Indian pilot and the daughter of a Pakastani politician.

The usual Bollywood elements — beautiful scenery, exotic characters, plot-driven narrative, song and dance numbers — are all present. What makes this film most unusual is its utter unpredictability. You really don’t know what is going to happen next. And you do care, because the characters somehow, despite their initially stock nature, do seem more human than the usual. The framing of the story from 22 years later, after one character’s life has been, it would seem, utterly destroyed only adds to the suspense, as does an included courtroom drama involving an ethical woman lawyer and a member of the “old boy” network of India.

Also typically Bollywood in its length — about three hours — the star of the film is Shahruk Khan, Indian movie star and billionaire film producer known for posing with his shirt off in tight jeans as well as for portraying romantic heroes for whom no suffering is too great.

Bollywood seems flooded with love stories, seemingly doomed love stories between Muslims and Hindus, rich and poor, people whose families hate each other, people who were already promised, by their parents, to someone they hardly know — the plot possibilities are endless, especially when you throw in the Hindu belief in reincarnation. But I can’t remember any such movie we’ve watched — we must have seen more than a dozen now — with more surprises than this one.  And it’s the surprises, somehow, and the characters, that make movies worth watching.  So hats off to Indian film for providing these dramas that last longer than American films, believe in more than American films, and aren’t afraid to layer on the glamour and pathos — sometimes you need a little bit of that. Viva Bollywood! Here’s the trailer — only in Hindi, sorry, couldn’t find an English version. The movie itself, of course, is subtitled.

Well, I asked my grandmother for a topic and I got one: what am I doing to prepare for med school? This should be easy, since the topic fills my brain, either on a front or a back burner, a lot of the time.

So, what am I doing?

1. Treating my transcript like a “sacred shrine of gold.”

My mother’s words, not mine. This means paying what can seem like way too much attention to my classes, and, by extension, to my grades. It means paying attention and staying organized. It means getting things done before they have to be done – that’s new this semester. It means going to class, analyzing what I’m doing right or wrong, and preparing for exams as thoroughly as possible. But, above all, it means giving my classes the highest conceivable priority. If it’s important for school, I take care of it. Work, social activities, goofing off, hobbies, or things lower down on this list will just have to wait. Years, possibly, maybe more than a decade. I can take it.

Thanks to jesuscm at Flickr Creative Commons

2. Planning ahead…way ahead.

I have been doing this for a long time, but recently I sat down with my adviser and made a plan, from now until fall 2012, when I will hopefully begin med school. We made a chart of when I will take all my important classes and what I will do in each  summer. We chose an MCAT test date over a year in the future, carefully early enough and late enough, so that I will have the information I need but also have time to take it again. I have been attempting this kind of planning for a long time, always thinking ahead  to “what’s next?”

3. Volunteering:

This is one aspect I truly enjoy. In high school, community service was done “because I have to.” Now, it’s not mandatory, and perhaps for that reason, I get a great deal out of it. The main things I have done so far are being involved in TCU Leaps and, very recently, volunteering at Cook Children’s. My plan is to continue both, and hopefully get more involved in the summer.

4. Getting experience talking with and observing actual doctors

I have done and plan to do this mostly in two ways, both through the Health Professions group at TCU. Firstly, going to meetings where doctors come to speak about their specialty and other aspects of their profession; also, “shadowing,” where an interested student follows a doctor around their place of work to get an idea of the day to day aspect of that specialty, and the health field in general. I have done this once, in 2008; I actually shadowed a nurse practitioner and a registered nurse at a children’s hospital in Austin. I plan to do more next semester.

5. Staying involved in health-related opportunities in the community

Slightly different from straight community service, this is also something I enjoy a lot. Fulfilling this goal could encompass going to meetings and presentations about health fields, such as this fall, when I attended the 2009 Synergy Infant Mortality Forum, which concerned the high infant mortality rate in Tarrant County. It could also be getting involved in organizations I am a part of in a health-related way; for example, I just completed training to be a Hospital Minister for my church, and soon will start visiting patients in a nearby hospital as a representative of my parish.

Also, I follow health-related news on a regular basis.

6. The nitty gritty.

This is basically bookkeeping, tying up ends and making sure things go smoothly for the above to work. This includes some crucial tasks, such as:

-Getting enough sleep every night. It may seem absurd as I am a college student, but I get to bed regularly before 10pm and wake before 7am. This allows me to actually be conscious most of the day, and to get to school early.

-Making sure I have enough money. I have worked during school when possible, and over breaks similarly. Last summer I worked, and while I have not done so this semester as it just wasn’t going to jive with number 1 above, I will start working again this winter break, likely as soon as finals are over. Also, this fall I made the decision to live at home, taking into account financial realities: by saving money on housing, I can take classes in the summer.

-Staying stable: This is paramount. Getting enough sleep, eating enough, trying to exercise somewhat regularly, and so on, are important to all of the above. Keeping up connections with supporting friends and family is very helpful in this regard, also.

In closing, I would like to make two points. First, doing well in my classes is important for many reasons, too many to count. The “sacred shrine of gold” concept is fairly tongue in cheek. The first thing on the list is simply making “preparing for the next step” a priority in general. Secondly, for the most part I do the things above because I like to, not because it “fits the bill.” To be sure, I love my classes, and when I look at the requirements for my plan, I see classes I am excited to take, that I would probably choose out of interest anyways. Volunteering is something else I just really enjoy; I love being at the hospital, I find it fascinating and fitting, “the place I want to be.” I am hard pressed to come up with something that fits the heading “I am only doing this for my preparations, I wouldn’t do it otherwise, and I don’t like it.” Even things like working or studying in the summer, while difficult decisions to make, jive fairly well with my inclinations.

So, that’s it. Hopefully I haven’t bored anyone to tears. My grandmother suggested the topic. I hope this fits your idea, GA!