One Week Later

It seemed like this night would never come. Time passed so slowly all week, especially today. And yet, as predicted, here I sit typing my Planaria lab report.

What I care about most at the moment is the outcome of the election on Prop 8. The initial results at this early stage show a resounding victory for the Yes on 8 folks. It saddens me but doesn't surprise me.

Saddens me deeply. I can't reasonably account for my ability to focus on my Planaria report, which is not in the least bit intriguing, other than to say I have always found solace in my schoolwork. Even when it is not all that interesting, work is a distraction for me, and so I am grateful to have loads of it at the moment.

My exams did not go so well. I hate walking out of an exam and later remembering nit picky points that I missed. Like how on my diagram of the hemoglobin dissociation curve, I labeled the x-axis PO2 but did not give units (which should have been mm Hg). Sigh. Yes my mind really works like that. I try hard not to think about my exams once they are over, but of course it pops into my head and then my classmates want to talk about their answers and will even call me up to discuss questions!

Luckily I did not write anything utterly ridiculous on my exam, like my friend who wrote an essay on how the sympathetic nervous system works to increase the heart rate via fluffy hamster cells. OK, well in all fairness we both realized what is involved is release of norepinephrine which binds to beta-1 adrenergic receptors in a G-protein coupled cascade involving adenlyl cyclase and increased cAMP. But there was also a question about which cells specifically do the neurons releasing the neurotransmitter synapse onto-- I wasn't sure which is why I wrote about the unusual length v. tension diagram of cardiac sarcomeres instead. I suspected the neurons synapse onto sinoatrial nodal cells, possibly atrioventricular nodal cells as well. My friend put down that they synapse onto fluffy hamster cells. Really truly. Because she couldn't think of anything better. I had to laugh. She's a goofball sometimes. At least she got me to laugh on an otherwise rather dreary night.

So what else have I been up to? I spent the afternoon at the polls campaigning for No on 8. After my exam I returned to the polls for the final hour of voting. Then I got in a quick swim. Alone at night in the crisp cold air and dark water, trying to clear my head and decompress a bit.

I have to admit, I have been pretty blue lately and today hasn't helped. I am utilizing my usual limited coping mechanisms-- run and swim more, pick up more shifts at work, give away more of my possessions (books and clothing), study harder. It's not necessarily the healthiest way to cope, old habits are hard to break. Dr. Cool has noticed and teases me that it is my own special version of triathlon-- swim, study, run. Substituting studying for the bike ride. Hey, it works for me so don't knock it.