Bawal magpanic.

One thing at a time, Bea. One thing at a time.

I have long wanted to journey into my own 365 project, yet I was always hesitant because I knew that there's a 93.457421% possibility that I won't be able to follow it through. A bolt of lightning struck me though, so with a mix of a current of electricity from the heavens and my current BV state direly needing some sort of serotonin synergist, http://bealogy.blogspot.com/ suddenly and spontaneously took birth.

Birthdate: January 28, 2010, 9:34 PM

Birthplace: Starbucks Anson's

Type of delivery: Normal spontaneous delivery (term)

The bottom line is I'm bored and stressed (and I amazingly caught Podium's free wifi from the other side of the street), and so I made a 365 project. I just hope I live up to it.

I should be studying, but I just have to take note of these awesome blogs that I stumbled upon:

http://friedaquilter.blogspot.com/

http://dandelion-parachutes.tumblr.com/

http://nothingspaces.com/blog/

Inspiring and lovely! :)

Fundal Grip

Although I measured the fundal height of my antepartum patient almost 10 inches off its correct value, miscalculated my patient's AOG (age of gestation) wrong because I failed to note that February only has 28 days, and got a terror preceptor who told me that I should go to an EENT doctor because I couldn't hear the heart tone of the baby inside my patient's womb during my practical exam, today still has been a good day.

I went to a government hospital not as a visitor or as an observer but as someone doing real hospital work. I was exposed to a real-life hospital setting where three patients shared one bed and pregnant mothers patiently fell in line standing. I faced real antepartum and postpartum patients. I learned a lot. I grew a lot.

Tomorrow, I am sure, will be another good day. It'll be a more better-er day even, for more comparativeness. I'm just so excited to be at the labor room and delivery room tomorrow, I actually can't wait to wake up and return to Quezon Memorial Medical Center come morning. Haha.

Happiness--this is how it should feel like :)

We Are Family

I was supposed to wake up at 6AM so I could do a brief jog and wake up my hibernating muscles, but yet again, my alarm failed me. Or was it I who failed my alarm? I snoozed it forever and ever until I finally woke up three hours later than I should have. Oh, well. Still, Hello to a beautiful Sunday morning :)

So last night, I was at Starbucks, where I spent half of my time enjoying my coffee and reading magazines. I missed reading and just lazing around with a nice, relaxing cup of caffeine like this, not worrying about anything for a bit. The other half of my time I used on finishing two transes. Yes, I study slow, but at least I got some work done.

Then I got hungry, so I transferred to Dunkin Donuts and had my favorite Bunwich. I was being productive, when this family stepped in. A mom, a dad, two late adolescent boys and one 6 to 8-ish year-old kid. The youngest seemed to have ADHD, because once he got near the counter, he kept on shouting and tugging on his mom's top and pointing and nagging and AAAAHHH! He was really loud as in LOUD. The kind of loud that bounced off from all four walls of the room, the kind of loud that still rung inside your ears even after the loudness. I also knew that he had ADHD because he wasn't allowed by his parents to have donuts or drink sugar-y Dunkin Donuts drinks at that time of day because it'll make him more jittery and energetic.

But it doesn't end there. Their whole family was actually noisy. The mom couldn't decide which of the six nutty choco donuts displayed had the most nuts on it and kept asking if she could have more nuts on her donut. The eldest brother was asking about this combo and that combo and he just kept asking in circles. The second son could not wait to have his one choco honey-dipped muchkin. And the youngest kept screaming "pahingi ako niyaaan!," "mama, gusto ko 'nuuuun!," and "pansinin niyo naman akoooo!" His mom kept ignoring him an continued asking about nuts on her donut.

What's worse was that the four of them--the mom and the three kids--were wailing all at the same time. And they spent around 5-7 minutes on the counter before they were able to finish their order. Noise pollution, really, and not just because I was studying. They were plainly loud that the couple talking about their wedding preparations on the other table urgently left with stern looks on their faces (yes, I eavesdrop sometimes hihi).

Good thing the dad was just seated there, relaxed and all, as if he was so used to such chaos. I was a getting a bit pissed because their voices were literally hurting my ears already, but then the mother told the cashier and manager this: "nakilala niyo na ang pinakamagulong pamilya sa balat ng lupa."

And I don't know, my straight lips just turned into a small smile after hearing that. Their craziness still went on and on even if they were already seated (the father got the bunso some Boy Bawang to munch on while they all had coffee and donuts), but I didn't feel annoyed or anything anymore. Probably because I suddenly missed my own crazy family, and I realized that like this family, we also have our own quirkiness that's probably uniquely us, too. Other people may not understand, other people may smirk at us for it, but that's us. That's our family. And that's how we go. We're special like that.

I plugged my earphones into my ears and stopped eavesdropping so I could finally move on with my school life and stop minding other people's businesses. The family left after around 20 minutes, and I smiled at their youngest kid as he stepped out of Dunkin Donuts' door.

I have 11 more minutes before I start studying again. Wait, make that 10 minutes.

Aaah, time. We lack that. Being a med student is life-changing and meaningful and fun and all, but the time they give us to learn is just not enough. I wish med students had 30-hour days, or 3-day weekends, or 6-day weekdays so that we could have more time preparing ourselves to save lives in the future.

But we all have to do with 24 hours. I've been spending my nights studying, my weekends studying, my free time studying. It's become a vicious cycle of study, eat, sleep a bit, go to class, then study, eat, sleep a bit and go to class again. Again and again and again. Of course there are moments of laziness and socializing here and there, but the bulk of it all is spent on being face to face with pages of transes and med books.

I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss having time for myself. I miss doing the things I love. But what the heck, I'm loving med school too, so maybe all this lack of time for everything outside med school will really pay off in the future. It really will.

***

Three minutes to go before 11:30! After I've gotten this time thought out of my system, off to my 2011 resolutions!

1. Study more. Yes, I didn't study enough last year. I know that because I'm aware that I can do so much more if I just pushed myself harder. My first exam of the year went great thanks to my newly discovered perfect personal study habits, but I just hope I can consistently pull it off.
2. Exercise. I miss jogging and doing my video exercise thingies, but due to lack of time and energy, I haven't exercised at all since 2011 set in. Here's to at least two physical activities per week!
3. Cook/bake. One dish/recipe per month is reasonable enough, right? I'm so excited for this! Will blog about my cooking escapades here.
4. Write. I should blog or write on my journal at least once a week. I love reading back on my previous jots because it reminds me of the things that mattered to me in the past and the things that made me happy.
5. Save. SUPER DUPER MEGA RESOLUTION! Hahaha. I eat and shop and buy a lot, my savings are kaput now :( So I'll start putting P5 and P10 coins into Boink (my piggy pank) from now on, and maybe stash at least P100 in my account from my weekly allowance. That'll do.
6. Keep the happiness and zest. I'm the type of person who gets bored easily. So paano na 'yan, med can be boring AND it's super tiring pa :| So I just need to constantly remind myself that I want this and this will all pay off in the future. And to prevent times of stress and burnout, I should allow myself to do something I like once a week. It can be as simple as eating froyo or watching an episode of a series or sleeping for more than four hours, or as grand as getting a massage (AAAAHHH KAILANGAN KO 'TO) or watching a flick or having a coffee date with myself, as long as I give myself a break, but only when I can afford it--time-wise and money-wise. Hahaha.
7. Stick to Him. Enough said :)

So there. Seven resolutions. I can do this! :)

Got Milk (Tea)?

I made my own milk tea today because I was feeling a bit off and tired, aside from needing a healthy source of fiber or some form of natural laxative to hinder my despicable regular incontinence. I finished my concoction in one chugging, which only means that I loved it and that I would surely be making more in the days to follow.

For one, it's cheap. I super love cheap thrills like this that makes you sunshine happy in an instant (I suddenly miss UP and the endless venues for cheap thrills huhu, but that deserves a different entry). Secondly, it's so easy to make. Warm 1/4 glass of water and add one bag of tea. Leave the bag soak for around 5-1o minutes. Then mix half a glass of skimmed milk to it (or normal milk), half a pack of Splenda (or whatever amount suits your taste), some ice, and tada! Cheap instant yummy milk tea. Nomnomnooom.

I got hooked on milk tea last December after our school choir organization, VoX, sold milk tea and food as their fund-raiser. I've recently had three milk tea experiences after being able to try it at school: two in a mall in Divisoria (was it 999 mall? Basta the one beside 168) and one in Megamall. I've spent the last 30 minutes googling and bloghopping on milk tea establishments here in the Metro, and I found two that I want to visit some time soon:

1. Serenitea - A fave of my med batchmates. They often have some delivered to our school.
2. Happy Lemon - You could opt to put an egg in your tea and/or indicate how much sugar you prefer added to it. How cool is that! And what's cooler is that Chris Tiu owns the Philippine branch of Happy Lemon! :3 LOL. Hahaha!

Okay, I'm excited already. Haha. Weird kooo. But yay to my milk tea!