The Update Thread

I've been a-slackin' lately, and I really have no good excuse. I'm sorry! But to make it up to everyone, I'm going to write this wicked-awesome post about what all is happening in my neck of the woods.

Ready? Let's go!

I'm up past 60 total miles on my half-marathon training plan. There's about a month and a half left until the big day, and I'm not sure I'm going to be as ready as I hoped I'd be. I'm still going to do it, though! Barring some kind of tragic accident, that is...

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I want to be a doctor.

Just like my hero, Dr. Frank N. Furter.

My original plan was to get a bachelor's in nursing. This was so if I got to the end of those 4 years and I was totally burned out, I'd still have a degree that was useable. However, apparently everyone else in Utah wants to get a nursing degree as well, so everywhere I looked, there was a wicked long wait list for nursing programs, and the programs themselves were super competitive to even get accepted to.

I am not willing to wait around for 3+ years just to get accepted into a nursing program, and then have at least 2 (probably more) years after that before I even graduate with a bachelor's degree. I have plans, people!

I decided it was time for a major change.

I used the Googlemachine to look up various tips for impressing a medical school board. Alongside obvious stuff like "volunteer your ass off" and "get good grades," was something I hadn't considered: "get a bachelor's in something other than biology or chemistry." You can go before a med school board with a degree in English with pre-med, and you're going to catch their attention more than someone with a degree in biology. Because everyone gets a degree in biology.

Jake and I went for a walk on Sunday, and I filled him in on my educational plans. I said I was having a hard time coming up with a major that was neither biology nor chemistry, and I said I'd really like a degree in chemistry because I really like chemistry.

We then had the following conversation:

Jake: You should be a chemical engineer.
Me: No.
Jake: Why not?
Me: I don't even know what a chemical engineer does.
Jake: Me neither, but they have the second-highest starting salary of all engineers.
Me: That means the schooling is really hard.
Jake: No, it just means it sounds really hard and scares people away.
Me: I'm not smart enough to be any kind of engineer.
Jake: But you're smart enough to be a doctor?
Me: ..... Touche.

So I went home and Googled "chemical engineer" and looked into it. And a chemical engineering job sounds... fun! Jake was reading over my shoulder and said, "That looks awesome! I wish I'd thought of this for myself."

Basically, a chemical engineer is a wizard who can do anything. Jake suggested I try to work for ARAMCO so I could go to Saudi Arabia and ride a camel. I suggested I actually succeed in obtaining a degree first. Because holy crap if the classes required for a degree in chemical engineering aren't intimidating as hell.

Jake assures me that I can do it, and that if I have trouble with the engineering or math stuff, he can help me because he's already been through it. I'm of the opinion that if I get a degree in chemical engineering, not only is it going to look awesome at a medical school board, but it's also going to get me ready for the rigors of med school. Who knows, I might get to medical school and be like, "Wow, this shit is easy compared to the classes I took to just get here."

So that's my updated school news. Chemical engineering followed by medical school! My brain hurts just thinking about it!

While we're on the subject of medical school, remember how I mentioned volunteering earlier? Well, I was looking into volunteering, and pretty much all the volunteering stuff I could find would require me to put Camille into daycare. I can't justify paying around $1,000 a month for daycare just so I can go volunteer. So I decided to apply for a CNA job. I'll still be getting hospital experience, but it won't be for free. It's something!

I applied at a bunch of places last week, and today I got a call from one of the hospitals. And...

I has one.

I always blow the interview. So I'm Googling how to nail an interview, so that I can march down to that hospital and be like I'M THE BEST without actually yelling "I'm the best."

I'm super excited about this particular hospital because they have on-site daycare, so I don't have to worry about getting Camille into care somewhere else. So cross your fingers for me!!

In Camille news, she has sprouted vampire fangs! Her bottom front teeth are now kept company by top eyeteeth. When they grow in, it's going to look like she got her top front teeth knocked out in a fight.

A fight with gingivitis.

I can't mention Camille without also including a smorgasbord of photos I've taken over the past few days.

The naked ones occurred because she had a persistent, nasty diaper rash. After powder and diaper creams didn't work, I decided to just let her be nekkid. She's sitting on a waterproof crib sheet. She spent about half an hour on it before she decided to start crawling around on the carpet, and that's when I put her diaper back on. I didn't want to have to clean up baby wee off the rug.

Jake took these photos of Camille's bitchin' mohawk! Some of them are a little washed out because of the flash, but I included them because the look on her face is hilarious.

Supermodel pout, with MumMum cracker.

She loves to play with the dishwasher when I'm putting dishes in it. Her new thing is to remove the silverware from the rack and throw them onto the kitchen floor.

At her cousin's birthday party, Camille got a tattoo!