Hello everyone,

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was outstanding. Every time I fly back home (Oklahoma), it seems I go back in time - to a place of slow and quiet life of a small town. This Thanksgiving was a special one for me. I learned a new value of family and time given to us on this planet. I found out that my little brother is 16 - a whole grown person who is not just my brother, but also my friend. I found out the value of differential diagnosis. Finally, I found out that the emergency seating on the aiplane is the most comfortable seat EVER.

Then I get back and face the grind... And what a better way to be thrown back into the grind than a lovely morning to setting teeth in Prostho. An hour and 10 minutes after a "short" lecture, which further confused the hell out of me, I proceeded to set. 15 wax burns later I was told to redo half of it, due to something I missed the previous lecture. Lovely. The time on the clock was 11:40, and I went to find the professor who critiqued my work. To my dismay he/she had already left for lunch. I can be very understanding and lenient when it comes to many things. One thing I DO NOT take well, is people cutting corners at my expense. If we (the students) are expected to be in the class until 12, then I expect the instructors to be there as well!

The afternoon was spent on a fishing expedition to find a cool case to assist. After a classmate beat me to an extraction, I settled on assisting an Endo case. Turns out, I lucked out big time, as the D4 I assisted was very helpful and informative. the whole case was exceptionally educational and I'm actually looking forward to Endo next quarter.

Alright, I kinda have finals next week, so I guess I'll get to studying.

To be a dentist, one has to pay dues along the path towards those three capital letters. One form in which these dues come is full removable prosthodontics, more specifically full dentures. There are lots of things, which I enjoy in life (great sunrise, ice cream, FVC prep on # 3, etc. However, setting teeth is NOT one of them. Thus, my Tuesday mornings are not the best of times.
To aid the already wonderful day, which thus far consisted of waking up 15 min before class starts (also known as afro day, referring to my cranial pelage), forgetting to mount my mandibular model cast, only 3 instructors were present, instead of the usual 7. To put this into perspective, there are 85 of us, and none know what the heck we are doing. The scenery reminded me of a bird mating ritual, as 30 some students attempted to gather attention of a row instructor to review their work.
Finally getting through a half-assed job of setting a full Max arch, I packed my things and headed to the end-of-the-quarter PhD journal club meeting, which was more of a "how you doing" meeting. As the current program director is retiring and passing on the torch to someone else, the T32 NIH grant expiring at the end of year, and a major revamping of the curriculum, I stand with little more than a somewhat clear idea what my research project will be. I still have no idea how I am going to fit in my 3rd and final lab rotation while basically working full time in the clinic, not to mention the grad courses, which start next year as well. All I can do now, though, is to keep seeing the big picture - no matter what, I will graduate...eventually.

On this note, I bid you adieu until tomorrow.

-Because I can.