Burnt Out

Needless to say, school has kept me a little busy lately. A lot of tests, wasting time, and not being able to focus are a bad combination. I don't know what happened this past month but it was a bit scary. I would study to a point where I knew I could pass the test and then stop. My grades show that I was slacking off too.

Some cool things that happened last month are that we learned how to do some nerve blocks, epidurals, and bandaging. It's nice to do some practical stuff amidst the many hours in the classroom. Oh, the classroom - so when it starts getting warmer outside, the heating system doesn't realize it and keeps pumping hot air into the room and BAM - welcome to the SAUNA, good luck focusing while you're dripping sweat.

Also, I almost got a ticket last week. I'm riding my bike, yes BIKE, back to my apartment and fly through a no walk signal - it was perfectly timed as cars were coming from both ways and I had plenty of time. I stop at the next traffic light and watch a cop car turn a quick U-turn and pull up next to me. I was thinking if I did something wrong it would only be a $20 ticket.
Cop: Do you know why I'm contacting you?
Me: Uh, no
Cop: Why didn't you stop at the no walk sign?
Me: Uh, I didn't know I had to.
Cop: Well, you do and you're riding on the sideWALK and crossWALK.
He takes my license and gives me a warning if I agree to tell all my bicyclist friends (there's one that I know of) that we need to ride in the street (some places there are designated areas but if not just on the right side of the road) because it's safer. I learned that it's a $100 fine for riding in the crossWALK and sideWALK and a $150 fine for running a traffic signal in the street. Lesson learned: Use the crosswalk to run a red light and save $50. The funny thing is that as we were talking, a bunch of bikes were flying by on the walk areas and he was yelling at them. Then when he let me go, I almost rode across the crosswalk, but luckily I remembered and got off my bike and walked it across the street.

The annoying things: it's supposed to be safer? riding a few feet away from cars where I'll probably get run over when they turn is probably not safer than riding 15 feet away on the sidewalk and having time to react if someone tries to kill me. Why are the bike racks off of the sideWALKs? How do I get to them? Some of the sidewalks on campus have designated biking areas....uh, mixed signals? I think I'm going to call the police on all the little kids riding their bikes on the sidewalk around my apartment because they should be riding in the street where it's safer.

As you can see, sadly the most exciting thing that happened in the last month was me getting stopped by a cop on my bike.

4 more weeks