words and pictures
After a hiatus of a few months, I was finally able to make it to a Cream City Milwaukee Flickr photowalk. We walked along the Menomonee River in Wauwatosa for a bit and ended up at the Chancery for a bit of food and drink.
I’m just sad that I’m going to miss the 2nd anniversary photowalk next month. Damned school…
I can live with a B+… considering that I had very little indication of how I was doing, especially relative to the class (it’s curved around a B-), and I wasn’t devoting as much time to studying as I should have. So–what that seems to indicate to me is that if I actually study more… I will pwn.
Okay… now, once I catch up on work, I can go on vacation and actually enjoy it.
Classes for the fall quarter started off with a bang on Wednesday. The first batter in the order? Organic chemistry. Now, jumping into organic chemistry cold feels a bit like being dumped in the deep end of the pool and you weren’t that strong of a swimmer to start with, except I was pretty competent at chemistry back in the day. That’s what happens when you don’t exercise that part of your brain for awhile, I think. I’m pretty sure, however, that if I flounder around a bit–um, I mean, work hard, with tenacity and determination–I’ll get my sea legs.
Let me explain. During the first 30 minutes or so as the prof talked about acids and bases, a vague sense of panic crept in, replete with an overage of self-doubt and fears that I may have to go back and retake a year of chemistry. The experience was what I suspect being lost in France and only barely remembering bits and pieces from the 12 years of French you took in grade school and high school feels like.
The rational decision may be to go back and take general chemistry, but I’m stubborn. Well. I’m going to go off and do some problems from the textbook, and depending on how the first quiz goes, I’ll make a decision then.
Flipping through the TV programming guide tonight, I saw the familiar 9/11 documentaries and movies popping up in the listings, reminding me that, on Thursday, it will have been seven years since that day. I have little in the way of comment except to say that, as always, remember to treasure your loved ones every day.
I located an email I sent to friends and family the day after, having been reminded of its existence because of the proximity of September 11, and also from having had the chance this weekend to see an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in nearly four years. Its text follows below.
This month’s Cream City Flickr Photowalk took us a little off the beaten path for a short exploration of a bit of Milwaukee that most people don’t ordinarily see. The rain ended in time to keep our equipment dry and the clouds stayed thick enough to provide nice, even lighting in the open (with some nice directed light in certain areas).
I know I’m well and truly late to the iPhone game (I stopped caring about being an early adopter a long time ago), but I couldn’t help but be a little amused at the iPhone user subgroup within our cadre of Cream City Flickreenos. Truth be told, the iPhone is far and away the best pocketable device for showing off photos, so it’s only natural that a lot of us have them.
[Oh yeah… I decided to screw Direct Fulfillment and try my luck at the Apple Store. So, last Thursday, I removed my employee discount (to allow activation at the Apple Store) and then went to Mayfair. Incredibly enough, after a half-hour of waiting in line (and another half-hour of activation pains), I walked out with a 16 GB black iPhone 3G. I then put back my employee discount on the line. There were still complications–namely that my iPhone data plan was not actually added and I had to fix that with customer service–but it’s been a blast so far.]
Speaking of the iPhone, I’ve been spending too much time browsing the App Store. Thankfully I think I’ve walked through all the store has to offer to date and snagged everything that I think is vaguely useful (and free–I’ll wait a bit on the purchases). One app has caught my attention–Twinkle. It’s a Twitter app that leverages the location services of the iPhone to create a virtual community of local users whose updates you can browse through. The level of connectivity it provides through this simple feature is pretty impressive, I must admit–it was enough to make me actually get a Twitter account. The level of activity in Milwaukee is decent, but I can only imagine what it is like in a larger area like Chicago or New York.
The post-baccalaureate pre-med program at Northwestern assumes that you are a complete career-switcher (for instance, you studied the humanities in undergrad) and have never taken any of the med school prerequisites in college. With that in mind, they provide a structured program with chemistry, physics, and biology courses that should satisfy most medical schools’ requirements for admission.
All well and good, but I did happen to take some of the prerequisite courses–definitely physics, and maybe one or more chemistry classes (general and physical). Now, back when I formulated my plan of working before going to med school, I got the impression that my college credits would be good for about five years before I’d have to take them again. Given that it’s been six years since graduating, I have been preparing myself to retake some classes that probably I don’t need to take again, like physics. At a rate of ~$1300 per class, though (and I would have to take three physics classes), if I can get away with not having to retake classes, I’d certainly save some money.
The admissions counselor at Northwestern with whom I spoke said that it’s a good idea to find out directly from the schools I’m interested in what their policies are regarding academic requirements. So, I sent out emails asking about how recently prerequisite classes need to have been taken to the addresses I could find for the various admissions departments of the schools in the area: Northwestern, UIC, Rush, UofC, UW-Madison, and MCW (Loyola admissions doesn’t have an email address published, only a phone number). Registration for fall classes at Northwestern has started and it would be a good idea to know whether or not I really need to take chemistry and physics this upcoming quarter…
The responses? So far, no one has said that there’s any “expiration date” on credits. Hooray! Pre-med might not be so expensive after all! 🙂 Now, all I have to do is try to remember just what classes I did take back in college and match those up against the schools’ requirements…
As I begin to execute parts of my exit strategy from my current job (engineer) to points unknown (med school), I thought I might start to chronicle on this site my journey out of the desert.
It all started with an informational session at Northwestern University for their pre-medicine professional development program–well, to be really honest I guess it started back when I was still applying for the job I have right now. I was pretty up-front then when I said I intended to stay only for a couple of years before transitioning to med school. Now…it’s been five years (six since graduating) and I figure I’ve put in my time (woot–three weeks of vacation!) and can move on now. Only problem is those pesky prerequisite courses I need to get into med school, and the question of whether my undergraduate credits still apply. (Do I really need to take physics all over again? I aced it back in college, and I’ll do fine it if I have to take it again… but that would be such a waste of time and money.) So I figured the program at Northwestern was the best option as it is structured and offers guidance for a career-changer like me.
Knowing that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel (for this stage of my life, at least) and seeing that light have an effect on one’s outlook in life. Admittedly, I’ve gotten myself into a comfortable rut, but I could definitely do without corporate politics and the general malaise that accompanies life in an office. Were the years I’ve spent working a waste? I don’t think so. I think I’ve grown and matured a lot since I started and has given me a bit of perspective. But I can’t help but think… when I finish my prerequisites, I’ll be close to 30, then in my mid-30s when I finish med school… a part of me thinks that that seems so… old. (I know it’s not necessarily old, but still.) Shouldn’t I be settling down and raising a family by then? It’s trains of thought like that that give me pause as to whether I should be doing this at all, but deep down I am confident this is for the best.
So, here I am today, in the middle of taking a biology course at Northwestern (I’m a student again! Haha. STUDENT DISCOUNTS, BITCHES.) and trying to juggle work at the same time. Challenging? Definitely. The long commute from WI makes things interesting (and makes me question whether I shouldn’t just quit my job right now and move to Chicago) and is a strain on my wallet, to be sure. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to pull this off without too much financial hurt.
If nothing else, the trips to Evanston have infused a part of my weekly routine with the environmental stimulation you can only get in a big metropolitan area. And it’s made me remember how much I miss living in a big city.
Lots of things to catch up on. I haven’t had much motivation to post or take pictures, but anyway:
February saw a lot of snow and a lot of driving to McHenry. Auntie Mench checked into the hospital at the beginning of the month presenting symptoms of high blood pressure. Her heart was found to be in bad shape and underwent a quadruple bypass and repair of her mitral valve.
The surgery was successful, but she developed complications post-op and unfortunately spent the next few weeks on life support in the intensive care unit before it was clear that the likelihood of her recovery was slim to nonexistent. The clock turned past midnight on the morning of March 3; life support was terminated and soon afterward she passed onto the next life, having spent a scant 70 years on this earth. I try not to dwell on the unfortunate turn of events because it is not her death but her life that is important–but it’s hard to shake the regrets and the guilt of not having spent more time with her.
Life continued in the meantime–February saw a trip to the Chicago Auto Show with the Chicago MINI Motoring Club to check out the new MINI Cooper Clubman and some other very cool cars, and the beginning of March saw a mini-road trip to the Dells to rendezvous with the MINIs Motoring Against Cancer banner.
On the way to Chicago to be with the family before the funeral, the MINI struck an unholy pothole, trashing a rim and rendering Radcliffe immobile until I could find a replacement. I took the opportunity to put some new non-runflat tires on… so far, so good.
Catching up on recent events, part 2:
Despite the 0-degree weather (and even worse wind chill), the Cream City Flickrites braved the elements for a stroll down Brady Street. After starting off from The Nomad with a couple of pints for faux warmth, the daring photographers snapped up images of the streetscape heading west towards the Brady Street Pharmacy, for a snack, hot beverages, fogged-up optics… and a truly fabulous spur-of-the-moment tour of the upstairs Astor Theater space by owner Jim Searles.
The walk concluded with beverages at the Hi-Hat. Hopefully next month’s walk will be in better weather–but I will not be there due to commitments for the Jessup.
Somehow I thought that, because everyone abandons the neighborhood for Christmas and street parking is plentiful, that this would also be the case for New Year’s.
Suffice it to say that this was not the case. After a very enjoyable New Year’s party I was faced with having to find a parking spot and after about 30 minutes it was obvious that there were no nearby spots to be found and no one was leaving (everyone most likely being passed out at that hour).
I passed up this spot too many times to count, not really sure if I would fit and not sure if my coordination was up to the task, recovering from the party and being generally tired. All I know is that if I had tried earlier I would have been much less grumpy. ‘Cause actually, I got it parked in one shot.