Gotta Love the Internet

When I was little, my family had a big case of Christmas cassette tapes that surfaced every December.  We listened to Christmas music while we baked cookies with my mom, while we decorated the tree, and while we drifted off to sleep every night.  I knew all the songs, new and old.  My three favorites were the Sesame Street Christmas tape, the Raffi Christmas tape, and A Cabbage Patch Christmas.  I loved the Cabbage Patch Kids.  I even had a Cabbage Patch cassette player to play my Christmas tape in.  I loved Colonel Casey's narration and I knew every song on the tape.  Whether my dad finally couldn't take it anymore and crushed it under his boot or it's lost in the depths of my brother's garage, I will never know, but my tape disappeared for good one year.  It was awful to open up the Christmas cassette case and see an empty slot where my favorite tape used to reside.  "It'll turn up," my mom had said.  It never did.

As an adult, I searched eBay, Amazon, and countless other sites every year for my beloved Christmas album to no avail.  But this year...

Ta-Da!!

Though it was not for sale, someone had expertly uploaded the entire album from their LP and packaged it into a single downloadable file.  Our Lady of Perpetual Obsolescence Vinyl Rescue Mission and Orphanage is "A safe haven for forgotten and downtrodden record albums" and possibly the best gift I will receive this holiday season.  Not only were all ten tracks included in the file, the album cover (front and back) were graciously included.  As a result, I was able to make A Cabbage Patch Christmas CD and place it in a jewel case with the original album cover.  I was so excited!  I am so excited!  Now my little boy can grow up listening to songs about Christmastime in the Cabbage Patch just like it did.  And tell me he doesn't look exactly like Otis Lee (the little bald one in the middle), pictured on the album cover of the other long-lost Cabbage Patch album I was able to download:

So the wonderful world wide web came through for me this year.

Merry Christmas to me!

Let's Stay Healthy!!

Alright, it's obviously cold and flu season, and the media has done its best to instill unnecessary swine flu-related terror in our hearts.  I hope that by now, everyone knows that hand washing is the number one defense against contracting the pathogens other people are putting out into the world.  However, if you want to do your part to keep others healthy, you really need to take five minutes and watch this entertaining (and totally legit) video.

If you were one of the millions of people who sneezed/coughed into your hands, erroneously thinking you were stopping the spread of germs, you were wrong.  The good news is that you now know how to cover your sneeze or cough appropriately.  Unfortunately, if you're already in the habit of doing it into your hands, it can be difficult to switch.  But with a conscious effort and the health of your community in mind, you can do it!!  Let's stay healthy!

Currently Without State

resident |ˈrez(ə)dənt; ˈrezəˌdent|

noun

1.  A person who lives somewhere permanently or on a long-term basis.

Ah, if only it were as simple as that.  You would think that after spending my entire life in the state of Idaho that there would be no question of my residency.  You would think it would be easy to prove my residency in the event that someone did question it.  Yes, you would think that, but you'd be wrong.

There are many hurdles involved in applying to medical school.  It is a challenging and grueling process, not to be taken lightly.  But of all the possible roadblocks, I never once thought that this would be the one to stop me.  The University of Washington School of Medicine was my first choice of medical school, and the WWAMI program was going to help me get there.  UW is the only medical school in all of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI), so the school reserves a select number of seats for each state's residents.  When you apply, you simply fill out the residency paperwork, submit it to the residency officer in your state, and wait to see if you are going to fill one of those reserved seats.  I submitted my application.  I was invited to fill out the secondary, more specialized, application.  I wrote the essays.  I paid the fees, I submitted my residency paperwork, and I waited.  I didn't have to wait long.  My paperwork was promptly returned to me "for completion."

With my original form, I had attached photocopies of my Idaho driver's license, the lease agreement for my Idaho apartment, the bank statement for my Idaho checking account, and my marriage certificate.  I sent copies of vehicle registrations for my car, our 5th wheel, and our 4-wheeler, all registered in Idaho.  I got it all notarized.  Now, they wanted to know the date my checking account was opened, the original date of registration for all vehicles, and the original date my driver's license was issued to me.  Oh, and they wanted a copy of a bank statement from over a year ago.  I spent the rest of the day getting in touch with offices all over the state to obtain the information.  It was no trouble until I called the DMV about my license.

"Hi, my name is Lindsey Smith and I was wondering if you could tell me the date that my driver's license was originally issued to me."

"What could you possibly need that information for?"

"I need it for my residency paperwork for medical school."

"We generally don't give out that information.  You need it for medical school?" she asks skeptically.

"Yes.  I'm applying to University of Washington but I get in-state tuition if I'm an Idaho resident because we don't have a medical school.  First, I have to prove my Idaho residency and they would like to know the date that my driver's license was originally issued."

Silence.  And then:

"What is your driver's license number?"

I tell her.

"What is your name?"

"Lindsey Smith."

"How do you spell your middle name?"

"K-A-Y-E."

"What is your address?"

I give her the one listed on my license.

"What color are your eyes?"

"Hazel."

Is this a matter of national security?  Seriously, why is it such a big deal for them to provide me with the date they certified me as a competent driver in their state?  Finally, begrudgingly, she gives me the information I was seeking.  I read over the returned paperwork to make sure I wasn't missing anything else and discovered that I needed to provide either a voter registration card from a year ago, or documentation certifying my abandonment of my previous domicile.  I wasn't registered to vote, so that left me with proving abandonment.  I called the residency officer to find out how to go about this.  She told me the state of Idaho accepts three things: proof of sale of your home, confirmation that your previous lease was completed, or bills for moving expenses.  I did not sell a home.  I only moved 10 blocks and I used my own truck.  I didn't have a lease because I was living with a friend.  What was I supposed to do?  She basically told me I was out of luck.  There are different sections of the form, and you can use any of them to show your residency.  I was attempting to use section V.  She suggested I try another section.  Why couldn't I just provide a copy of my Idaho taxes from last year?  Because I didn't pay Idaho taxes last year.  I didn't work, and my husband was traveling around California for his job.  Consequently, though our residence was not in California, he paid California state taxes last year.  Why couldn't I check that I was attending this institution immediately following graduation from an Idaho high school?  Because I graduated nine years ago.

So I ask, "What are my options?"

"I don't know what to tell you."

How can I NOT be a resident of the state I reside in?  Because the system is flawed.  I am an Idaho resident.  I love Idaho, and, with the exception of leaving for med school, I never want to live anywhere else.  But apparently, that doesn't count.  It doesn't matter that I've maintained a permanent residence in the state for 27 years, or that I have appropriate documentation for everything that it's possible for me to document.  It's about the money.  I didn't work or pay taxes to them last year, and this is my punishment.  The Idaho that I've known and loved my whole life has turned its back on me because of a technicality.  Thanks a lot.

Science Outreach - And We've Got T-shirts!

Science Outreach is a program at Lewis-Clark State College that was started by Dr. Matthew Brady.  The idea is to get elementary school kids excited about Biology (and a little Chemistry).  Teachers from the elementary schools invite him into their classrooms to teach a little segment on a subject that they have been learning about.  Bats and Owls are the popular programs in the fall.  Insects, Marine Life, and Mammals of North Idaho are also popular choices.  The popularity of the program started to grow, and Matt couldn't handle it entirely on his own anymore.  The answer?  Recruit science majors to assist him with the specimens, and then eventually delegate the teaching of these programs to students as well.  I have been with Matt's Outreach program every semester and I absolutely love it.  Going out and working with kids is so much fun, and they always amaze me with how much information they already know!  Some of their questions are really good and they really get a kick out of all our specimens.  Outreach is great, but we were missing one thing...t-shirts.

I took it upon myself to fix this problem.  I figured if we were a legit program, we should have a form of identification, so last spring, I painstakingly designed a shirt logo.  It's pretty simple, but each image on the shirt is a symbol for something that we talk about, and the Gummy Bear is an inside joke.  At any rate, I was really excited and I brought my design in for approval.  We had an overwhelming number of students in Outreach last semester - too many - and while they all liked the design, we couldn't agree on a color scheme and the project kind of got dropped.  I was bummed.

This semester, it's just me and one other girl.  I decided I was making my t-shirt and if anyone else wanted one, they could order it themselves.  Of course, I had one made for Matt, too, since he's the founding father of Outreach.  I picked up our shirts this evening and they're everything I dreamed they would be...

Now I just hope we have some more Outreach requests this semester...

I'm Officially Ranting

There aren't many things that make me outrageously upset, and even fewer that warrant a blog post, but I'm mad tonight and I'm going on a rant.

I don't even know quite how to begin, so I'm going to start with a little story.  A few years ago, I started Organic Chemistry.  The first week, we had a decent sized homework assignment due.  After everyone had handed theirs in (at the beginning of class), a little blond girl walked up to the front of the room.  I didn't know her, but she struck me as the kind of girl who was really popular in high school and skated through by copying people's homework.  She turned on the innocent charm and approached our instructor.

"I didn't know that we had a homework assignment that was due today.  Can I bring it by your office later?"  [Insert nauseating puppy dog eyes and syrupy voice].

"No."

"No?"

"No.  You're in this class because you are planning for some kind of important career, whether it's a doctor or a vet or whatever.  In those kinds of professions, you are required to be responsible.  You need to start now.  I don't allow late homework."

This girl was practically in tears as she took her seat.  She quietly explained to her friends what the big bad teacher had told her.  They consoled her.  I smiled and thought, "Dang, this instructor rocks.  See, one of my biggest irritations is people who don't take responsibility in life.  My O-Chem professor set the tone right from the start - we knew what she expected and we all did our best to live up to those expectations.  That's how it is in the science department.  We can't say, "I got a C.  That's good enough," because it's not good enough.  A 2.0 GPA is never going to get you into graduate school or medical school.  A lot is expected of us and we work hard.  So now on to the thing that's making me absolutely insane with irritation tonight:

I'm getting my English minor, so this semester is full of English classes.  The semester is almost over, but this has been bothering me the entire time.  People in this department are incredibly lazy.  I'm not going to generalize and say that all English majors are lazy, but there are quite a few that are giving the whole group a really bad image.  The problem manifests itself most in my Creative Writing: Non-Fiction class.  It's a one-night-a-week class from 7-9:45 p.m.  At the beginning of the semester, Misty Urban explained to us what was expected.  She went over the assignments.  She passed around sign up sheets.  We got to pick which essays from our anthology that we wanted to present (everyone was supposed to sign up for two).  We got to choose which days we wanted to be responsible for bringing in our own essays to be "workshopped" by the class.  Misty photocopied the schedule for both of these things and gave a schedule to everyone so we would have no doubt which nights we had to present something.  You would think that everyone could figure it out.  Wrong.  Here's a typical weekly conversation:

Misty: Student, I believe you are leading our discussion of this essay tonight.

Student: Am I?

Misty: I have you down for it right here.

Student: Oh.  I didn't read it.

Then later...

Misty: Everyone who was supposed to bring essays tonight, do you have copies for the class?  Student A, Student B, Student C, Student D? [Students A and B pass around their essays]  Student C?

Student C: Would it be alright if I get it to you later?

Misty: Can you have copies outside my door by Thursday?

Student C: Probably.

Misty: Okay, everyone drop by my office on Thursday and pick up Student C's essay.  Student D, do you have your essay for us?

Student D: Was I supposed to have one?

Misty: Yes, I have you down right here.

Student D: Oh.

Misty: By Thursday?

Student D: Okay.

But Thursday comes around and, after making the hike across campus to Misty's office, I find no essays outside the door.  Critiques of our essays are also supposed to be submitted by each class member after one of our essays is up for workshop.  This is a simple, one page response about the good and bad of our essay to help us in the revision process.  Out of around 16 students still enrolled in the class, I got 8 critiques turned in for my first essay and 6 for the next.  How do people get away with this?!?  It is rude and disrespectful, not just to the instructor who tries to complete things on schedule, but to your classmates.  It is rude to make us print off copies of your essay when you were supposed to provide them.  It is rude to make us walk across campus to check for an essay every day that never materializes.  It is rude to give us a critique four weeks late and expect us to give you full points.  The worst part is that I see them getting away with it.  When they don't have their essays/critiques/notes prepared when they are supposed to, the instructors in this department continually smile and say, "Okay, when can you get something to me?"  I have not seen it affecting their grades.  What I see are lazy students getting the same grade as dedicated students who meet their deadlines.  It's not fair.

"I have to leave class early to study for a Spanish test."

Really?  How long have you known about your test?  This class is over in an hour.  You really need to take off?  Haven't you missed more classes than you've attended?

"My printer was out of ink."

Then come back to the school ten minutes earlier and print it off in the library.  Don't say that, show up with nothing, and then not even turn your paper in by the following week.  It's absolutely ridiculous.

"I didn't have any paper."

See above.

I can't believe what people get away with, and I nearly walked out of class in anger tonight.  Out of five people that showed up to class that were supposed to have essay copies for everyone tonight, two of us actually had them.  Now I am waiting on three people to post copies outside Misty's office.  I will have to go there every day to look for them.  I have to critique them by next Tuesday.  My guess is that one will show up on Friday and the others will never materialize.  I would also be willing to bet that none of these people fail the class.

I am a full-time student.  I had a baby early in the semester.  My husband lives 2000 miles away, my family doesn't live here, I have no roommates, and I'm basically a single parent with a newborn.  I get to sleep in two-hour increments every night.  If any of you lazy-ass slackers have a better excuse for not getting stuff done, I'd love to hear it.  And if you say, "My printer was out of ink," I'll go absolutely insane.