Man, all I have been doing the past two weeks is plotting. Plotting what i'll do after med school, plotting how to get out of med school, plotting what to do after med school. plotplotplot.

What the fuck do I do if I DO drop out? I can still make a fair amount working, enough for rent/bills, maybe food too with just the job I have now. And then I'd have time to work at the wooden shoe and help out at both FnB's, all of which I don't do right now, but would rather do than learn about medicine. Not that I can't take medicine anymore, just that I can't keep doing the work like this.

the thing about plotting is that as soon as you set your mind to dropping out or something like that, you stop taking the work seriously.

I need to winterize my bike soon, which I think means getting a cheap mountain bike and getting fenders for it to keep the slush off my legs/back.

I'm almost back to normal after getting hit by that car, my ribs are still sore, but that's about it.

I was late as usual biking to school today, but biking nonetheless, which makes me happy all the time. But the streets are all torn up and geting 'fixed' (however, there were still cars on them, so they still need more fixing), so I was riding on the sidewalk. Anyway, I don't remember what happened next, you don't really remember things like getting hit by a car, but flying through the air I remember calming saying 'fuck.'

I jump right up and try to walk it off, the wind is totally knocked out of me. Somehow my bike is still ok. There is damage to the car, but she said it was there before. I was about to ride off when someone told me to change info with her. I should call her and tell her that I'm ok.

So I keep riding to school, put my stuff in a locker, text message janet "Got hit by car, will be across the street today." (at the hospital) And walk into the ER. After getting the run around, I walk up to the desk and say "I just got hit by a car, CAN I SEE A DOCTOR." Janet has freaked out and ran over to find me, which she does right before i go to the part where she isn't allowed in. Then they walked me in and I found out that I have no broken ribs, and no broken lungs/spleen. So they basically give me some ibuprofin and tell me to go get some rest. My knee hurts too, but lying in a hospital bed, you don't notice that.

The today show is worse that I imagined.

Then I biked home and watched We Inturrupt This Empire (which you can download from archive.org).

Anyway, then I told

Wooo. So yeah, med schol. I'm really not used to memorizing large amounts of info really fast. We have block schedules, so the memorization comes pretty hard, like all of the musculoskeletal system and all the nerves and what they do, etc, etc, had to be known by last friday. If I get a lower than 70% on the test I have to come in an hour early everyday to a special study session. No more talk of school.

I have met some fun kids here, I need to make a better effort to meet non-med school kids here, like just show up at some meetings in west philly, etc. My friend sean is a libratarian, but that doesn't really cut it with his uber-yuppie aspirations. Another friend that I made at my job at market just moved to north london. So, yeah, no more catherine.

In the past week or so, my block has changed from a regular ghetto to a student ghetto. Thanks Temple! actually no, the three homeless dudes I used to chill with have all but disappeared, I saw Saleam thursday, and he has a job now, which is really cool to see. i can finally understand why emily used to always bitch about 'college kids' and its true that they are really oblivious about what goes on around them, and living between two 'frats' really adds to my opinion of their social consciousness.

My roommate is pretty tight, we don't really fight about anything, so that's neat.

I like biking around everywhere, that is really cool too. Ok, i need to go memorize things.

I have moved to philly. My roommate is pretty sweet, but she smokes, but I told her to keep it outside, so it's chill. When I moved in we only had a one story apartment, now there are two! HAHA! Actually, itsa free standing 8'x8' loft my dad and I built, but fortress uberskypalacemensch owns.

Also, I wanted to share this picture with you:


Its from bikepirates, but its too sweet to not share.

I watched a very short but moving video yesterday and it may have changed my life. Too bad I have to tell you about it in person.

So today I fixed my bike up. I put in new brake pads and replaced the tire and innertube. I have this feeling that the front tire has a leak already, but we'll see when I get back. It's actually pretty basic stuff, but I probably screwed up and poked a hole in something. Oh well, at least my curry kicked ass today. Oh wait, no, it was too salty and too spicy for my family.

On the upside, I say a guy with a mullet down to his waist. He was wearing one of those shirts with the wolf on the front with lightening behind it. Just think hick-shirt if you don't know what I mean. My firends and I in high school used to play the mullet game when we'd go to the fairs around out county. Mullets and various forms of confederate flags were the points, with the confederate flag belt buckle scoring the most.
w00t.
I leave for Tacoma tommorow, awesomeness includes: building a sea kayak, doing a short trip in said kayak, backpacking, hanging out with nate, going to san francisco for a week or two. Any advice on the last one? Places/people I should see? I will be poorer than emily after this trip.

Trying to figure out why I'm going into crisis mode all of a sudden.

Actually, typing on lj isn't going to help especially.

So the past 2 weeks have been not home. Seeing emily again was awesome, awesome in that bittersweet way that you are not sure when you ever see someone again.

Then I went to hang out with my parents. When we're on vacation, we eat out all the time, which is fine, but when you are a vegan, eating out is a bitch. Basic things ended up not being marked like "this pasta has alfredo sauce on it" or "there is ham in here." BITCHES, I"LL CUT YOU. I actually just got something, and I'm reconsidering my general stance on ever eating out again at a normal (not explicitly vegatarian) resturant. The sauce tasted funny, and I told myslef that it was probably just the capers, which I hadn't eaten in a long time. Nope. Ham. Pink, fleshy, fucking pig flesh.

I tried because I hate wasting things, but after a while, I just got nauseated. I don't know if it was the pork juice itself or just the idea that I had to touch it to try to clean up the food. Probably both.

I'm still feeling sick.

I read some good books over vacation.

Ugh. I think I am going to drink something and not think about the carnage.

I really haven't felt so guilty over "so little" for a long time. When I was in philly last saturday, my dad and I were just walking around, killing time until we were supposed to meet this landlord in 1.5 hours, and we walked past this yuppie bar/deli thing called marathon. I think they're a chain and they might not be that yuppie, but whatever. Point is, there was this homeless dude sitting at one of the tables outside and the manager came out and started hassling him, talking to him like he was a 5 year old. I had this impulse to sit down next to him and say "Sid! Hey, how's it going? You didn't have to bring a sandwich, we were going to get something here!" And then take the manager aside and tell him that this was my uncle and he's been going through a lot.

But I didn't.

I walked by.

Like everyone else in this guy's life.

So a while back I joined the Bike_pirates lj group. I wanted to know if there was a bike collective or anything in philly. Anyway, they post a freaking lot and that's about all I've read as far as friends for hte past couple days. I also feel like I've gleaned enough info from reading stuff I didn't understand before that I could put together my own bike. So that may be a project for me my first week I am living somewhere. That and start a garden and a bonsai tree from scratch. The bonsai thing is a little disheartening, I find these sites with 5yo bonsai trees for sale. 5yo bonsais are still freaking small. This stuff does take patience.

I should probably ride mt mom's old bike around for a while and make sure I want to bike around the city before I go around making my own bike. That would take a while and could be a lot of investment in something unnecessary.

Hopefully I'll have this apartment thing figured out be sunday and i can stop using the internet telling myself that I need to be looking for an apartment and then getting sidetracked.