The Reemergence of Cliques - Fat People Versus Thin People

A study claims that obesity is essentially contagious, according to an article in the NY Times yesterday. People who have obese friends are 57% more likely to become obese themselves. The solution "to avoid becoming fat" according to the Times article's author, Gina Kolata, may be "to avoid having fat friends." Even one of the study's principal investigators suggests making "friends with a thin person... and let the thin person's behavior influence you and your obese friend."

Looks to me like this is the start of a great divide. If people follow the advice to avoid being friends with fat people, high school-type cliques will reemerge as a form of social demarcation, but on a worldwide scale. I think that would be hilarious. Imagine the pranks the groups would play on one another? It would be like high school all over again. It could even turn into an epic war, where thin people are constantly trying to outrun their fatter counterparts to tire them out, and the obese are trying to catch up and sit on the thin to squash them. It would be like one giant game of cat and mouse between the two biggest cliques in the world!

Ahh, the things I think of at work to distract myself from the tedium of data entry. :)

A New Number, A Lost Piece of the Past

My mom had to change our home phone number. With the continuing collapse of SunRocket, her VoIP provider, she felt the need to switch immediately. Had she waited 10 days, she would have been able to transfer her SunRocket number to her new provider. But she felt she needed a land line immediately, so she took a new number.

This may seem a bit over the top, but I tried to convince her to wait the ten days to keep the old number. She has a cell phone, and if you plug in a phone into any phone jack, you can call 911 whether or not you pay for land line service; she could afford to wait. She seemed confused by my last minute plea and asked, "are you stressed about your MCAT scores or something?"

My mom didn't understand my attachment to the old number; to be honest, it surprised me as well. I didn't think I'd be so attached to 7 digits, but I associate those 7 digits with home, with my childhood and adolescence. We've had that number almost the entire 21 years we've lived at that house- I think my dad in fact picked that number out personally. My friends would dial that number to speak to me on the phone for hours. I anxiously awaited boys' phone calls in high school, hoping they would dial that number. It's still one of the only numbers I have committed to memory. I feel I've somehow lost a little bit of the past by losing that number.

Lamest Summer Ever

This weekend was a much-needed reminder of what study-free summer weekends are like. Lawrence and I held a successful garage sale, ran errands, and watched a couple movies. It was nice. :) Having just finished the MCAT on Friday (may I NEVER take them again), this is the first weekend in a while that I've not had those cursed Examkrackers MCAT prep books propped open. I have about 30 days until I receive the results. Wish me luck.

Sadly, Lawrence is still recovering from his colonoscopy complications. He in fact started bleeding again about 12 hours before I had to take my MCAT. The poor thing kept passing blood throughout the night, but let me have a good night's sleep for my big exam. Any other night, he would have awoken me at midnight, when the bleeding reached its peak, to run to the ER. Instead he went to sleep hoping he wouldn't lose too much blood in the night so that I could take the MCAT with only the MCAT on my mind. Now that's love.

This really has been the lamest summer ever. I've spent most of it studying for the MCAT, and with the trip being canceled, I'll spend all of it in LAME-O Boston. Lawrence has been sick (shingles and internal bleeding) and stressed (quals were two weeks ago) all summer. I hope August has better things in store for us than June and July have had.

T - 36 Hours

36 hours to go before my MCAT! I'm so nervous. I hope do well. :-/ The focus of my last six weeks of studying has been this exam, so I better darn well only have to take it once.

I thought my MCAT and our trip big backpacking trip would be the biggest events of July, but Lawrence's colonoscopy complications definitely take the cake. Click on the link for Lawrence's witty commentary on the past week's events. Let's just say I'm glad he didn't bleed to death.

Though happily Lawrence managed to survive without a hitch thus far ::knockonwood::, sadly we had to cancel our big trip to Los Angeles/Thailand/Cambodia/Burma. This trip has been the only thing that's kept us sane since the beginning of the spring semester. Initially we were planning on traveling to the Philippines in January, but I unexpectedly landed a job that was important for my medical school application- I couldn't get away. With my tough spring semester and MCAT and his PhD quals, we were just hoping to make it to Asia in one piece. We were looking forward to being relatively worry/stress-free for three short weeks.

More importantly though, of course, I'm extremely happy that Lawrence is on his way to a successful recovery and that I can spend the next couple weeks ensuring his rip-roaring return to his adventurous self.

But for the next 36 hours, I need to think positive thoughts for the MCAT. Tomorrow will be my day of zen. I plan on running, doing some yoga, and eating plenty of brain food. Wish me luck!