Can't Sleep; Clowns will Eat Me...

I'm having this weird little bit where I can't sleep, even when I'm tired, and then when I try to nap later, I sleep even less. I think I passed the point of "I'm so tired I can't study" and resolved into a sort of functional "Ah well, I'll do it anyway" that's been odd, because it feels almost like well-restedness.

Meanwhile, I'm ignoring those studies they did on rats where they deprived the creatures of sleep and they eventually dropped dead.

So thanks to a new friend of mine, friend to slightly older MPH friend of mine who we adopted to the Stuart's party, I am possession of little blue droplets of wonderment and magic known to some as "Unisom".

But remember kids; drugs are bad, mmkay?

So I've taken my first one for the night and am hoping it kicks in soon, at least before I get too deeply into the embryonic heart.

The school hilariously sent us an *invitation* to a mandatory financial aid seminar at 4 this afternoon. I like invitations to mandatory things. It makes them seem so non-mandatory.

I was debating on whether or not to go to this 'mandatory' session, since as they said in Animal Farm, some animals are more mandatory than others, or something like that, but decided to go lest they pull some drug seminar monkey crap where you have to fill out at three question survey.

The lecture hall had a good number of students in it, as well as vet students who had somehow managed to secure seating for a change, and were quite vocal when referenced, though apparently they have an exam tomorrow as someone tossed off while leaving with an 'unlike these MEDICAL students..." Bwa ha. Enjoy learning the anatomy of anything that started development with a notochord, suckers. We're enjoying our exhaustive coverage of one species. I kid... I kid.

But as soon as the awaiting masses realized that this financial aid seminar was going to be the same crap we suffered through in college about the importance of having a budget, living like the Amish, and the wild confusing world that is "understanding the concept that INTEREST makes short term items more expensive" (yawn), combined with a broken power point presentation, a mass exodus was spawned. Seriously, like half the class, and then more and more of it in the first 15 minutes until the previously full hall had become sparser than a Chadwell late-term biochem lecture. Ooooooh.

I stuck around because in brilliant forethought, I had brought along my notebook and a handout on the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, allowing me to feign politeness while actually getting something productive done. Basically, by that point, I didn't leave because I felt bad for the speaker. It sucks when you're trying to present something no one wants to hear and everyone just flat up walks out on you...

Unless you're giving a sermon about how I should vote regarding drug laws. Then, you can go straight to Hell.

Anyway, she said that due to our vigilance ("Huh?" we asked in unison, looking up from our anatomy slides, biochem notes, and histo outlines?), we should put our names on a list to turn in and for all the people that stuck around, she would grant us "a favor". We'd also be treated to free pizza, though I think anyone could get in on that, but since she's a red tape chick, we can actually invoke her name, ala the Sandman comics, to call upon her for a boon. Awesome. Next time my loan status pends until the next continental shift, I'm totally hitting her up on that. Though my current financial aid counselor kicked much ass at that. Ah well.

Naturally, after signing, a bunch more people walked out. Heh. I stuck around as she went through some cliche and in some cases, flagrantly untrue information.

First of all... Credit reporting is most *certainly* regulated by federal law. The thing is that no one KNOWS that or any of the codes surrounding it, but there is a fortune in undiscovered lawsuits for any lawyer that would bother with it. Even banking officials don't know this crap, but it's there. She was essentially positing that if you aren't careful, anyone can stick anything on there (true), but that you were essentially powerless, so you'd best keep your nose clean.

Ha! So I said "Uhhh... the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the FDCPA are federally regulated stipulations on credit reporting." I know this, because thanks to creditboards, I bumped my credit scores up A HUNDRED FRIGGING POINTS on all three scores.

She said something about how that didn't mean you could do anything, which wasn't even the original point, and I said, if they fail to comply, you can sue them for a lot of money, at which point she was all "well, no one has TIME to do that in medical school, do they?" and made the class laugh at me.

Woman, punk me when I'm only sitting in this hell to be polite??????

For the record, if you remained to the end, she's still wrong. I got nearly everything off my credit reports with nothing more than certified mail and a few complaints to the Better Business Bureau and the state Attorney General concerning a couple stubbornites that didn't like obeying the laws. I neither filed a lawsuit nor talked to a lawyer, and while *educating* myself on the process took a buttload of time, the actually process invested in writing was not ALL that substantial. Hmph.

So don't believe everything you hear. Best plan is keep control of your credit, NATURALLY, but come on.

The other thing she put into the powerpoint (when she finally got it working), was I suppose a point on delayed gratification versus instant gratification (yeah, we're all becoming DOCTORS at a quarter million dollar expense because we likey the instant), but she attempted to make it by asking whether we'd rather have a jeep now or a Lexus later.

Uhh... given those options??? Jeep now. Why must she assume I'd be more into rampant consumerism as a doctor than I am now?

Sigh. But still not a waste of time like the drug seminar was a waste of time, and while certainly annoying in places, not half as infuriating or hypocritical.

So back to studying... Midterm in two weeks!!!!! AIIIEEEEE!!!!!!!