Hurricane Jill

Songs

So now I’m in the not-so-fun phase of research: compiling results and writing the manuscript.

People say I write well. Perhaps, but writing doesn’t come easily to me. My primary method of writing is to stare at my computer screen until I break into a cold sweat, and then start surfing the web until I run out of Diet Coke. Then I go to the store to buy more, and repeat the process indefinitely until something coherent ends up on the screen. Then I have to put it away for a week or two. Or a month. Then I look at it again, become nauseated that I could have written something so awful, and then cut, paste and rewrite until I end up with something completely different.

Thank God for iTunes. It makes the process slightly less painful.

Lately I’ve found a bunch of new favorite songs. I got introduced to Coldplay on my NS rotation, which was a band I’d heard of but never really paid attention to. I didn’t even know which songs were theirs, which is the case for most music I hear on the radio. Some people are good at keeping track of that stuff, but me, I have to make a special effort. It must be handled by the same part of my brain that deals with associating names and faces, because there’s that same sense of knowing I should know, but never having consciously made an association.

Anyway, I was flipping through channels one night and saw that Austin City Limits was on. ACL is totally hit-or-miss as to the artists they invite. But one thing’s certain, if they’re on ACL, you can bet it’s good music from an artistic standpoint. It may not be cool, or current, but the artists are always good musicians.

This particular evening the artist was Jason Mraz, whom I’d never heard of. But there were a bunch of young trendily-dressed women in the audience, so I figured I’d find out what the young’uns were listening to these days. Once I got used to the musical style, it was actually really good.

So I’ve added both of them to my playlist. My current Top 10:
1. Coldplay “Speed of Sound”
2. Jason Mraz “You and I Both”
3. Five for Fighting “The Riddle”
4. Jo Dee Messina & Tim McGraw “Bring on the Rain”
5. Jimmy Eat World “The Middle” (a little overplayed, but still good on a bad day)
6. Alanis Morissette “21 Things I Want in a Lover”
7. Dixie Chicks “Not Ready to Make Nice”
8. Norah Jones “Nightingale”
9. 10,000 Maniacs “These Are Days”
10. Sting “After the Rain has Fallen”

Runner-up: Bruce Springsteen “Born to Run”

Other goodies: the Cure “In Between Days”, Jackson Browne “Running on Empty”, the Who “Pinball Wizard” and “Baba O’Riley” (now known as the theme for CSI:NY), and a boatload of others, old and new, that I don’t have the patience to list.

As I said, thank God for iTunes. Man it sucked when you had to buy the whole album to get one great song, just because it was never released as a single.

Placement issues

I seem to be spending a disproportionate amount of my time lately on social work issues. Housing, health care, financial support, that sort of thing.

All for myself, unfortunately.

I spend at least a half day every day trying to find places to live on my away rotations and shepherding my financial aid from theoretical money towards real cash status. I don’t seem to get very far very quickly, and for every two steps forward, I take at least one step back. Sometimes two or three.

Like yesterday all of a sudden my financial aid addendum disappeared. Three weeks ago I got email confirmation from my financial aid advisor that all my documentation had been received, and then yesterday the very same guy tells me they’re missing my paperwork.

So I forwarded him the email he sent me confirming receipt of the paperwork. And yes, I cc’d his boss. Not that that’s going to make a difference. But next week if I still don’t have money, I start cc’ing his boss also. And on up the chain till I get my financial aid. Surely somebody in that chain of command can be held accountable. Because for sure they’re not accountable to their customers.

Normally I’m not so obnoxious. But no corporation would get away with not paying its employees on schedule, and the financial aid office should operate the same way with regard to students. Just because we can’t quit over not getting paid doesn’t make it OK to dick around over getting the paperwork done. And just because the University doesn’t care when the money actually gets there, doesn’t mean our landlords don’t.

Anyway, so on the heels of my documentation disappearing, now today the whole financial aid status site has disappeared. So I can’t even check to see the status of my loans, or payments, or anything.

The only effective way to deal with Financial Aid, when they’re acting like this, is to go sit in their office and force them to deal with you. But I’m in Houston and I can’t do that. So I’m just sitting here fuming about it, and sending polite but pointed emails in the hope of getting these people to do their jobs so I can go back to learning medicine instead of being a social worker.

Thinking outside the cat box

I was just thinking…I don’t need this apartment at all after December. I should be done with any rotations that require me to be in New Orleans. All the ones I have left can be done either in Pineville or some small town where they provide housing as part of the deal. So I can just pack up my stuff, put it in storage and stay with friends and family till it’s time to move for residency.

In fact, I could move out now if it weren’t for my cat. My cat is the wrench in this whole plan, as usual. My mom says I should just put her to sleep, but there’s no way I’d do that. She may be old, but she’s been with me through everything and I’m not going to get rid of her just because she complicates my plans.

Or, I could just rent a room from someone who’s cat friendly, and that would solve all my problems.

Thinking outside the cat box

I was just thinking…I don’t need this apartment at all after December. I should be done with any rotations that require me to be in New Orleans. All the ones I have left can be done either in Pineville or some small town where they provide housing as part of the deal. So I can just pack up my stuff, put it in storage and stay with friends and family till it’s time to move for residency.

In fact, I could move out now if it weren’t for my cat. My cat is the wrench in this whole plan, as usual. My mom says I should just put her to sleep, but there’s no way I’d do that. She may be old, but she’s been with me through everything and I’m not going to get rid of her just because she complicates my plans.

Or, I could just rent a room from someone who’s cat friendly, and that would solve all my problems.

Hotel Honda

So I’m back in NOLA to get a few errands taken care of. Oh, and also I need to find a place to live in Houston for the next three weeks.

I suppose I could live out of my car. I’ve been thinking it over, and it’s actually pretty feasible to do. I could rent a locker at the Rec Center to keep my stuff in, and then just swim every morning and get ready afterwards. I’d do my laundry here in NOLA on the weekends, and eat all my meals at the medical center. It’s certainly a very economical option. But I’d need to bring a pillow and blanket, and I didn’t have one with me this past week.

Call rooms are another option. Although I only know the code to one of them, and that one doesn’t have a shower. That means it’s essentially equivalent to my car, plus there’s the possibility of getting caught. I’m not sure what the penalty is, but I really don’t want to find out. So, not the best plan.

Or I could call one of my friends in Houston and ask to stay at her place. But I’m a little uncomfortable around her husband, and frankly I think she’s a little uncomfortable having me around him. Probably if I gained 50 pounds and got all Cushingoid again it’d be OK, but my car is totally a better option than that.

So I’ll have to ask my brother if I can stay with him.

I’ll stay there if he lets me, but I’m bringing the pillow and blanket just in case.

It only LOOKS chaotic

Interesting few weeks…

I just rearranged my schedule for perhaps the 5th or 6th time these last two years. I was supposed to do my OB/GYN rotation, but the slides came back from Aberdeen with positive results, and now my research mentor wants to do a host of other tests as part of the overall investigation. All the tests are basic techniques of research that I need to learn, plus I’ve already put a significant amount of my time and energy into this project. So when she asked me to come back and continue working on it, of course I want to do so. It involved getting permission from the dean, but so be it. It’s important to me, and I’ll do what I need to do to make it happen. It’s true there was an unspoken element of “come finish this or else,” but I’m not going to turn down a fabulous opportunity just because it came in the form of an ultimatum that involves rearranging my life. And obviously there are no guarantees about what finishing the project means for my residency chances. But the project is worth the time, even without that.

Substance is far more important than form.

The other interesting thing that happened was the admission committee selection. Without going into too much detail, I have to say I was really surprised by the results. I went in there thinking that there were a couple of people who were complete shoo-ins. But the people who stood out during the interview were entirely different. It was really hard to make that last decision. We could have flipped a coin and not done a disservice to the committee in terms of finding outstanding people to serve on it. But it would have been a disservice to the people applying, for us to decide in that manner. So we talked it out until we had a consensus. And the funny thing is, after comparing and contrasting and paring down the list applicant by applicant using more objective criteria, we ended up with the same three people we’d all first mentioned as a gut reaction the minute we finished interviewing.

I think that’s a good sign.

Happy dance

Woohoo, we have staining!

What kind of National Guard can we call in for this?

Mental health services in New Orleans should be the next item on the agenda after crime.