No more fun

Oh my god…

I think it’s been weeks since I last posted. In that time I have had so much fun getting settled into Chicago. I’ve met so many great new people that all share the same excitement about starting optometry school.

But now I’ve come to the realization that just like first year university… I’m playing the catch-up game. The quarter system is a hell of a system. Time flies like you wouldn’t believe – especially when you’re having fun. With the first exam starting on Friday and then one after another every 2-4 days I realize I’m in a boatload of trouble if I don’t start catching up.

I’m sure I’m panicking a little excessively at the moment but better than not worrying at all I suppose.

On a side note, I have under $13 and owe almost $50 to people and yet I have a bank account with plenty of money that I have no access to… argh.

I need to get back to studying. More updates later… I hope.

Wrapping-up

Summer is quickly coming to an end. I only have nine more days of work to go, four of which are the next four days (I don’t work Friday’s in July :D, and I have quite a few days off the closer we get to August). I finish work in sixteen days and leave for Toronto (and then to Waterloo and eventually to Chicago) in about twenty-four days.

I should start thinking about getting myself organized so when it comes time to make the big step across the border with my “non-immigrant VISA”. As for finances, I am covered for school but for personal finances I’m in the dark. Apparently we will go over financial information for Canadians as soon as we arrive but at the same time I still wish I could have funds easily set up before I arrive. Unfortunately there aren’t any ‘TD Canada Trusts’ in Chicago (or the American counterpart: TD Banknorth). Not to mention I would sure like to exchange my finances when our dollar is at or slightly above par.

I should also clear off/organize my computer/external hard drives before I cross the border… which reminds me. My laptop hard drive has started to make screeching sounds of death as I hear the drivehead bounce around and kill my computer. It’s only happened twice but twice too many, so I wonder how long this computer will hold up.

On another topic, it’ll be nice to be in the US for shopping purposes… (minus duty :P) which makes me wonder how that works if you’re in the US for months at a time. I also wonder how cheap it is to travel within the United States. My friend Mike is in San Francisco/Los Angeles/somewhere in California and a patient at work mentioned they go to school in Los Angeles and it got me thinking that the Western United States would be pretty cool to see. Although there are a bunch of places I’d probably want to go, but just don’t have the time.

So in one month today, I will be finished my first day of optometry school and living in Chicago. It’s interesting how quickly life can and will change on you…

Shingles

Well, Canada Day long weekend I came down with a bout of Herpes zoster, also known as “shingles”… on the face. It was/is a boatload of fun. Head-stabbing fun. In case you don’t know what shingles is, as I had no idea as well, it is latent chicken pox virus that resides in nerves throughout the body that randomly decides to go BAM “Let’s break the F out again!”. It can happen anywhere and only affects that one nerve. I got it in the trigeminal nerve of the face. Fun. Anyway, it started on Thursday/Friday and I went to a doctor on Sunday and he’s all like, “It’s a good thing you came in now because it’s very close to your ear and (because I mentioned my eye was twitching like mad) you definitely don’t want that spreading to your eye.”

So naturally I Google’d/Wiki’d things (he told me to! lol) and yeah, not very pleasant if I had let it just keep going. Basically it could affect my hearing and/or vision permanently – to an extent unknown since we caught it early. So really now all I have to deal with is unsightly blisters/sores on the left side of my face and the random feeling of a knife being plunged into my skull/ear. But thanks to good ol’ science, we have the miracle of drugs.

Speaking of which, twentyfive pills of generic 800mg acyclovir (anti-viral) is $95.20CDN. Yikes. Apparently it’s used to treat genital herpes (phew, I’d rather have shingles lol) and used in AIDS to prevent other Herpes family related things. Since I had Friday to Tuesday off, I only missed half a day of work.

That’s about all that’s different so far. In other news, very geeky news, Diablo III was announced and I am ecstatic (minus the fact that it probably won’t be released for awhile and that I will never have a computer that can play it). I played Diablo II for ages and actually have been playing it lately since the announcement.

It’s like old times, except this time I’m showering daily. lol

Work Life

So it has been awhile since I’ve updated this, but I should probably add something quick here.

In general not much new has happened. I turned 22 on May 21st, I’ve been working full time… and that’s about it. Occasional trips to Winnipeg, last one was to help Jessica’s brother move into a new apartment. Work is fine, the occasional crummy day but all in all good. The weather has been nice, a little bit of rain lately, but lots of sun. Tomorrow I go to the hospital public health unit to get my immunizations done… hopefully I need only a couple quick tests.

Tomorrow I also fly out to Waterloo and then on Wednesday Jessica and I will be attending convocation. I’m not really excited and I’m not really sure why. Oh well. Perhaps I will be later.

Anyway, off to work.

Morden

So I guess Binks called me on not updating for awhile on his blog. Guess I should do that.

Jessica and I drove through the US from Waterloo to Morden, Manitoba with a stop at the Mall of America and some quick shopping in Grand Forks to make use of the $400 duty free. I can add three States to my ‘Places I’ve Been’ map. Just missing Ohio to surround the Great Lakes. All the junk that I planned to bring to Morden for my dad to pick up fit – and a little more. It was quite the tight car but it all fit better than expected.

So now I’m back in Morden and still haven’t quite unpacked yet. Not looking forward to work just because I’ve been so relaxed playing Wii all day. True ’summer vacation’ ends on Monday. Then I have to start getting up bright and early for work, but I suppose it will get me ready for school in August as well. My past two terms have had classes start pretty late in the day which has ruined my ‘getting up early’ routine in past terms.

All my marks are back and I did decently. I didn’t keep my ‘every term goes up or is the same’ pattern (just missed it by 0.6%) but I did pretty decently for not putting as much effort as when you have that ‘what are you going to do with the rest of your life’ fear behind you. Oh well. I can’t complain about getting all As!

Anyway, now to enjoy my last couple days of summer before work sets in.

Goodbye, Waterloo

I have finished my last exam at the University of Waterloo… well, on Friday. I am done completely, that is, until convocation in June. It feels kind of odd. I don’t think it will really hit me until I have to move to Chicago. On that note, I officially have a student ID number so that puts me in the system I suppose. With that, a ton of people are joining the Facebook group. Funny, it almost feels like the little group that existed earlier on before the influx is being ‘invaded’ by outsiders. The group had been pretty much the same size for awhile, but what do you expect with a class size of ~160. It’s always interesting to see new people – also ‘interesting’ to know who you’ll be spending the next 4ish years with (minus intern/externships).

So since Friday, I’ve been relaxing (too much, although that makes up for the four exams in a row) and packing. Packing is never a time of the year that makes my ‘top activities’ list. For one, I have too much friggin’ shit. Second, where the hell does it all go? This time around is different though since I’m not coming back here for school. The plan is to take a bunch with Jessica and I to Manitoba where my dad will come out and pick it up. The rest stays at Jessica’s place in Waterloo and my dad and I pick it up in August when we drive to Chicago. The real question is, will it fit? We’ll see. I’m looking forward to whittling my belongings down to a more manageable size when I head to Chicago. I really wish I could magically transport all my stuff home in an instant and just be able to pick and choose what to bring with me. Oh well.

In other news: I was hoping I’d have a little more NHL Playoff games to watch but unfortunately the Calgary Flames have been ousted from Round 1 again. I really thought they could at least make it to the second round this year. Here’s to next year… then again, with ICO’s quarter system I don’t know if I’ll be too busy to watch or not.

To those that know me, you may find this amusing. I went to the gym. Not once, but twice. Voluntarily. UW Fulltime students pay for it every term. I decide to go in my eighth and last term to get some of my money’s worth.

Well, I guess I should move/pack all the junk laying on my bed so I can sleep…