Fish Tales

I promised updates.

This fact dawned on me as I stood in front of the corkboards in the student lounge browsing the posters to avoid staring at my herb notes.

I wish that I could say that finals are over, but they’re not. Five down, two to go. This afternoon I actually constructed a seven day schedule for myself. It looks like this:

Friday: study

Saturday: study

Sunday: study

Monday: take final #6 and then study

Tuesday: study

Wednesday: study

Thursday: take final #7

Sadly, 98% of the studying I am going to do over the next seven days is for one class. It’s that intensive. I’ll be relieved when it’s over.

Right now, I am cramming as much information into my noggin as possible because, tonight, we are going to venture to Balboa Park for the December Nights festival. Every December for two nights, the park museums are open to the public for free. The Museum of Art, the Photographic Arts Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Museum… all free admission. I love it. Of course, the international food and drink provided by various venders is also quite attractive. Eric and I went last year and had a blast. This year will be even more exciting since it will be a welcomed break from studying. Mmmm… I can taste the perogies and Turkish coffee already.

Anyway, I will continue to update regularly so don’t go anywhere.

Peace.

As I have mentioned, I just spent the last three days studying the axil skeleton which is composed of the skull, vertebral column, and bony thorax or thoracic cage (the ribs, the thoracic vertebrae, the sternum). So, I am intimately familiar with the structure of each subdivision and its functions.

This afternoon, while jogging a three mile loop around the neighborhood, I got to the thinking about the bones, muscles, and cartilage in the thoracic cage as I attempted to deepen my breath. Then I began to picture my thoracic cage rising and falling, expanding and contracting as I labored to take in as much oxygen as possible. In my brain, I could see the first ten of my twelve ribs expanding laterally and contracting medially with each inhale. I could picture my sternum angling anteriorly at the sternal angle just below the manubrium. I could imagine the nucleus pulposus of the internal portion of my vertebrae absorbing the shock of my footfalls. In my head, I could see the real thing… the slime, the colors, the horror-film version of it all. And all I could think was…

EW!

So…

I’m alive. We’re both alive, actually. It’s just that the Fish Bowl has been turned upside down now that school has started. I’ve spent the last three days studying during every waking moment in which I was not seated in a classroom. Literally. I have never study so hard in my life. And this is just the first quiz of many quizzes to come.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to doing the laundry because, for me, it means I’ll be doing something other than memorizing the 80 bones in the axil skeleton. Hell, maybe I’ll cook a meal instead of eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner out of a Wheat Thins box.

My first class of the semester was Tai Ji. I spent three hours learning forms and meditating. My second class of the semester was Clinical Counseling. I spent four hours discussing with my classmates the concept of listening as a communication skill and meditating. My third class of the semester was Biology. I spent three hours staring blankly at the professor because, although he was speaking clear English, I didn’t understand a word that came out of his mouth. My fourth class of the semester was Anatomy 1. I just spent the last three hours wishing the human body wasn’t so damn complicated. Who knew the human head was so… dense.