I'm a baddie for not having written in so long, forgive me! Extra-long post to make up for it? I hope? The primary culprit for my absence is a much beloved, but much time om-nom-nomming Umich Medical School tradition: the Smoker.

The Smoker is a comedic (or so we like to think) musical production put on entirely by medical students that pokes gentle/occasionally not-so-gentle fun at the faculty and culture of our school. It is insane. It is ridiculous. It can take over your life if you're not careful. It is awesome. I had a fairly hefty role and, consequently, spent oodles of time in rehearsal. I also managed to make my costuming endeavors dramatically more complex than they had any right to be. The short version: Played professor with mustache. My skin reacts to everything(!). Needed fancy hypoallergenic mustache glue. Aforementioned mustache glue only sold by select retailers. Mustache glue useless if freezes. Despite really expensive express shipping, mustache glue froze (of course). Classmate (aka Saint Sara the Super) procured second batch of mustache glue in person while en route to weekend destination. Success. (And yes, that is the short version.) Making things difficult is a skill, truly.

Anyway – enough of that! Being in the Smoker was an awesome way to meet upperclassmen I otherwise may not have ever really interacted with. This made the recent extravaganza of Match Day, where M4s find out where they will be doing their residency, much more exciting: I KNOW a lot of these people now!! (Facebook was blowing up that day, for real.) It's literally impossible to wrap my mind around the fact that I will be in that position in only 3 years. What.

Post-Smoker I had lots of things to get caught up with: the OCD research I've mentioned previously, a new (and rather challenging) sequence on the central nervous system, and a disturbing amount of real life stuff like, you know, taking out the trash. Laundry. Oops…? In fact, I'm still working on getting caught up with a lot of that stuff, so thank goodness it's…

Wait for it…

…SPRING BREAK!

I'm a giant goober so I'm spending most of my "break" doing lame things like getting my oil changed, finally seeing a doctor about my back (#oldladyproblems, #itoldher"notsciaticalol", #defsciatica, #diagnosisfail), and playing with broken pottery. (There will be an explanation for that, I promise, but not today.) However, MY MOMMY IS HERE! Being a goober is much less boring with one's mommy. We're eating up a storm (Zingerman's

Next week we'll be jumping into the infectious disease sequence, infamous both for being "the best" and an M2 sequence cloaked in an M1 sequence disguise. In other words, not to be taken lightly. Truthfully, I'm a little nervous. I'm, shall we say, not terribly fond of contagious stuff/parasites/yucky yuckers. They give me the heeber jeebs. This may or may not be fueling my efforts to take care of everything ever this week so that it's out of the way.

One major thing that will not be vying for my time is anatomy. CNS is the last M1 sequence that has an anatomy component so our final practical exam was last Friday. Far more importantly in my case is that our last practice practical exam was last Thursday. He fessed up that he reads these things, so HI JOOOOOEEEEEEEY!!!! Joey is my anatomy BFFL and we concocted a beast of a final practice practical together for our classmates. We were also table buddies (stood next to each other/walked through together) for the actual practical and got many an "Aw, cute!" from bystanders, 'cause BFFLs. My partner-in-crime and I were gifted with ADORABLE thank you posters from our classmates for our work throughout the year after we finished the exam. I cried. Joey didn't. I yelled at him. The whole thing was just precious. The responsibility of being in charge of the practice exams involved TONS of work, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.