The cherry on the top

Why yes, I DID fail the test.  Wonderful.  Final is Monday/Tuesday, so you'll excuse me while I completely check out from blog-o-land until after then?  Of course, from the sounds of it, a substantial number of OTHER people also failed, but it remains that I now have a C in the class, which does not cut it if I want to stay eligible for funding this summer.  At this point in my college career, grades are of minimal importance except when it comes to a) having to repeat a class, and b) maintain a GPA for the funding grant that I've already applied for, but do not know whether I've gotten it yet. 

And in even more exciting news, we have...the formaldehyde levels in the anatomy lab.  Which were tested as unacceptable for a second time, even after modifications to the ventilation system.  Which, as of 5pm today, resulted in a new restriction. 
-Students are not allowed to spend more than 1 hour a day in the lab.
-Personnel are not allowed to spend more than 2 hours a day in the lab. 

Ummmm.....to give you an idea of how much this impacts me/my fellow students/and the upcoming test.

1.  I had a 4 hour lab this afternoon
2.  I have another 4 hour lab scheduled for Wednesday
3.  On average, I've been spending 10 hours of SCHEDULED lab time per week in the lab.
4.  This does not count any personal/study time, only scheduled hours where we are dissecting and learning NEW stuff.
5.  We have yet to be tested on the anatomy stuff that we've been learning in the last 7 (?) weeks - that was reserved for a lab practical to be taken with the cumulative final. 
6.  Given that the lab practical ITSELF takes 2 hours to complete, anyone want to guess how many hours of personal study time was going to be needed in the lab in order to review over 50 hours of lab instruction? 

So....lets say that they break the 4 hours of lab remaining for the week over the next 4 days before the test (which would royally *insert F word* me as I NOT GOING TO BE HERE THURSDAY AND FRIDAY).  That's an hour on Tuesday, an hour on Wednesday, an hour on Thursday, and an hour on Friday.........Which leaves us exactly 2 hours (one hour on Saturday and Sunday respectively) to review 50 hours worth of lab structures. 

Wonderful.  I'm SURE I'll be able to pick out the gazillion little structures I learned the end of January on my exam Tuesday with no review.  Hey - a nerve is a nerve and really, who cares whether it's CrN VII or CrN X? (I sure don't at this point). 


I haven't even gotten to the part where my car almost didn't start this morning.  No idea what's wrong.  When I shut it off 20 miles down the road to refuel, it started up just fine.  Although, I wasn't sure it would and as I stuck the key in the lock, I found myself trying to control my fear that it wouldn't start.  Kind of like a strange, aggressive dog.  "show no fear, show no fear.." as if, if I didn't trust in the car to start it would become some weird, self-fullfilling prophesy.  "be confident, show no fear, just turn the key". 

Consider me off the radar for the next week or so.  I'm going to convention NO MATTER WHAT they do to my schedule.  And I'm going to have fun.  And I'm going to learn lots of new stuff that I'm going to share with you.  Either as daily "convention updates" (what I want to do), or after my test next week (as I should be using my evening time in the hotel room to study, NOT compose blog posts).