Freedom ... I can almost taste it

A much-dreaded visit of the Infamouz Sister is coming up this weekend. Fortunately they're going to NYC tomorrow night, so I'll have some peace & quiet to work on my last essay. I'm already anticipating the next 10 months when I'll be free of Medical School Application Essays and all that baloney, except for interviews.

Things I have to do:

1. Resume some semblance of fitness. This will involve some sort of core-strengthening, even if it's just crunches, because my back's starting to hurt me from sitting slouched in front of the computer all the time.

2. Get some actual work done at work. I've been sneaking in time here & there to work on my essays. Related to work:

3. Update my lab notebook, which is at least a year behind. Really must get caught up, as they're having a campaign to implement the Records Retention Policy this fall.

4. Possibly run my last high-throughput screen, ever. I'd avoid it if I could because it entails long hours & little sleep.

5. Squirrel away as much $ as I can to stem the tide of med school loans. May be difficult this winter with the spike in fuel prices.

Things I want to do:

1. Clean my apartment. I may get roped into it early because of the visit this weekend.

2. Train Fluffy to go inside the apartment. There's a big bag of mulch sitting by my front door, waiting to be used as "substrate" to transition her into the potty pan. At least over the past, oh, 7 weeks, I've taught her the meaning of "Go potty."

3. Interview applicants to Yale for the Alumni Schools Committee. I've been doing this for the past 2 years. Looking forward to being on the other side of the table after the interviews I'll be doing this fall.

4. Do some reading & possibly writing of my own, a budding hobby of mine as anyone can tell from this masterfully-written blog.

5. Visit Geiosee Froggie in Japan & buy as many Osuwari pandas as I can fit in my luggage. Oh wait, that might prevent me from meeting goal #5 above. The pandas, I mean--not Jois of course.

I could use some more suggestions for the second list, as you can see. I had dinner @ Aki's last night, and even though she was cleaning out her fridge, she still whipped up a great meal:

Salad with shrimp & garbanzo beans in Caesar dressing.

Soup with fresh corn and rosemary.

Spaghetti tossed in spicy tomato sauce with sliced andouille sausage and red bell peppers.

Okie doke, back to the painful process of squeezing blood from a stone. 3 more days!