Not quite the "bender"...

Problem being that during first term, you finish midterms and then have a week before Sandblast. In second term, it's the day after your last midterm.

I was planning the sort of self-indulgent bender that killed Hendrix, when I discovered something: Midterms are Tiring.

Friday after the exam? How about some lunch at the mall, a trombone concert outside, home for some vegetation, and then a quiet dinner at the local pasta joint after getting kicked out of Coyaba because they suddenly decided to enforce a dress code (in the Caribbean??) and were going to grant us the distinct honor of sitting off from everyone else in an area that wouldn't get waited on, but we'd get to pay the same price. Er, no. Then? Hang at my apartment with friends.

So Saturday; THAT'S the day everyone parties, right? I can sleep off the no sleep before neuro, wake up at noon and party hard? Except, it's kind of rainy, I WANT to feel like partying but really don't, and my cupboard has been stripped to nothingness by midterms. So I'll just go shopping. But that takes awhile, and then Sandblast is over, and oh, gosh darn I missed it and it was pretty expensive, and there's an after party at Aquarium, but there's parties like that all the time, so no need for this one, so quiet night hanging with Nina and watching Fight Club. Ahhh...

This, at first, made me feel like a loser (the skipping partying; not the hanging with friends), until I realized that nearly all the second termers I ran into were doing the same thing. That week sucked.

So how'd it go? I passed everything. Which means Ishie Happy. It also means Ishie's standards have lowered significantly from "I'm going to try for straight As" to the post midterm/pre grade posted "Gee, I hope I get an 'F' high enough I can bring up during finals".

Neuro... sucked for me, though the test was fair. Was going to pull a deliberate (Ishie, Ishie, you never learn) all nighter to learn everything I could, particularly in neurodevelopment, which I'd been neglecting. Because cramming the entire night before an exam during a week where you've used up all your mental reserves and are living off dry honey nut cheerios because you ran out of everything else is a good idea.

This meant in the exam, I got the distinct pleasure of nearly passing out. Fantastic. Stress + sleeplessness = Health problems. I was sitting there, heard humming, thought "no way", started sweating profusely, and nearly dropped. Asked for a restroom run, which of course is highly moderated (thanks, cheating microbio students that screwed up the privilage of going to the bathroom by yourself, for that, by the way), and they apparently had my number and I put my head down and drank water, which recharged my batteries, so I burned through the rest of the exam.

Someone, fairly close to the exam, said "Don't expect neuro to be any easier than physio", which considering physio was harder than giving birth to an rabid adult Saint Bernard is less than encouraging.

Er... your results may vary, but neuro was easier than physio. It was not easy; don't get me wrong, and was made far more difficult by virtue of it being the last exam. But while the physio exam almost seemed deadset on punishing you for knowing ALMOST enough but not quite enough, the neuro exam seemed to, for the most part, hit on key points that were made. The questions were fairly straightforward with a few curve balls, and many of them answered other questions within the test. Oh, though guys? Venom properties? An aside paragraph in one handout? One question, but c'mon now. Ask me about tetanus. I know about tetanus.

But so my "party weekend" was really more of a "Ahhhh.... I can relax and lounge without feeling GUILTY" weekend. Which I really like. This was punctuated today by diving with Lori. Hooray for diving! I went out on the water for the first time in 6 months and just the sensation of being back in the water was wonderful. No pictures I'm afraid, since I was reorienting and didn't want to mess with my camera.

And tonight? I learned to properly make lentils, which should carve a substantial slice off my food budget.