But I’m going to for just a second.

As of about two seconds ago, I officially finished all of my finals. I had three exams on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and today I wrote two papers. SO THERE. I’M ALL DONE.

If you didn’t know, the P3 and P2 students take finals early because our rotations and internships start on May 6th while the rest of the university takes finals until the 7th. It’s just the way the cookie crumbles I guess!

So with some final touches on this public health final paper, I can finally say I am done with this semester. And that is awesome.

My friend Myle got us Flying Cupcakes to get us through our last final! I partook in a red velvet cupcake because it’s my favorite. I highly recommend just throwing caution to the wind and eating cupcakes to get you through this week. Totally helps!

Good luck and happy cupcaking!

I’ve been trying for a long time to articulate exactly why processed foods are the worst, and that sugar is in everything, and [insert long and exhausting rant about food here]. This article does a good job of summarizing how calories just aren’t equivalent:

Still Believe ‘A Calorie is a Calorie’? (Dr. Lustig was on The Colbert Report if you’re interested in watching his interview!)

I did a presentation on high fructose corn syrup a few weeks ago in my Drug Information class discussing the biochemical differences between HFCS and glucose, and it was quite enlightening. (Summary: fructose doesn’t stimulate the release of insulin and lectin, which are vital hormones for digestion/appetite control–also fructose doesn’t cross into your brain like glucose does to tell it to stop eating, and your brain needs sugar to live!).

Anyway, the best advice you can take away is to eat more fruits and vegetables and less processed foods. As little as possible! If you’re on a budget, frozen food works, canned is better than nothing (just watch the sodium and other ingredients).

Be vigilant of your food labels. Look for things with a lot of saturated fat, sodium, and sugar, and stay away from it. I’ve also mad ea habit of staying away from things with ingredients lists that are paragraphs long (have you seen a Cheez-It box lately?).

And reminisce?

So my study playlist looks like it’s straight out of 2001 or a bad pop station from now. A little bit of both. And it’s all thanks to Spotify which enables me to add a bunch of songs that I should not be allowed to put together into one playlist.

I’m actually reusing my study list from last year, which consists of N*SYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears–your imagination can fill in the rest. It also has a mix of Arcade Fire (?) and The Killers. I do not claim to have any taste in music.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Classic.

It keeps me awake and pumped. Whatever it takes, right? I mean, it’s  better than drinking so much coffee that I fall out of my chair.

Today was my last day of classes. Of this semester. Of my academic career.

buuuut I have 3 finals and 2 papers left.

THEN I’M OFF TO ROTATIONS. GAME FACE.

It’s been unreal. My last two classes ever. And what were they? Strangely, a drug abuse lecture in therapeutics, and my substance abuse elective. Side by side. I’m finishing off my academic career with a theme.

We celebrated with India Garden in Broad Ripple and trying to get ahead on some kinetics homework. There is nothing more satisfying than a good Indian buffet and finishing final assignments early. Now it’s just… the big stuff. Like our 4 semester cumulative therapeutics final on Monday. But after all we’ve been through? Seems easy enough!

Getting cluster grades back and trying to move on for finals/projects:

Trying to gather enough energy to study through the rest of this weekend:

Finals week diet:

Basically, ask me how I am on May 1st at noon.

Not right now.

Gifs are courtesy of Tumblr, Workaholics, Supernatural, Parks and Rec, and Top Gear.

That means I’m in my last academic semester and it is very important that I keep track of all of my “lasts.”

I turned in my last cluster exam last week–therapeutics–in the late afternoon on Wednesday. It was one of those exams where there were a lot of topics and none of them were very difficult. I answered each question with this sense of “Yeah! I know this!” Or maybe it was “I didn’t study this topic enough to know I don’t know this so, sure! This is the answer!”

(It went fine by the way.)

So as I hand in my 18th and final cluster scantron, the proctor tells me I have to fully mark in the test form (you’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever taken a scantron–and if not, it’s as basic as writing your name).

All I could think was: “MAN, THIS AIN’T MY FIRST RODEO.”

But I did as I was told and fixed my bubble-mark. But geez! I should be a scantron pro at this point!

I found out sometime last week that The Powerpuff Girls was on and I was like “oh.em.gee.” Talk about a blast from the past. I didn’t get a chance to log on and look for several days (see: my life last week), but my mind started racing with the possibilities that Cartoon Network just opened a contract with Netflix. What if they had Dexter’s Laboratory? What if they had Samurai Jack? Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends? JOHNNY BRAVO?

All. of the. Above.

EVEN BETTER, they have 26 episodes of ADVENTURE TIME.

We have a problem though.

A very big problem.

Netflix. Listen to me. Everyone on semesters in universities across the country are TRYING TO WRITE PAPERS, TAKE EXAMS, AND FINALS RIGHT NOW. Could you have waited one stinking month to release these magnificent shows?

(If cartoons aren’t your thing, they also released: Hatfields vs McCoys, Witness, The Mask of Zorro, The Hunger Games, and a ton of other things I’m too excited to be bothered to remember right now.)

Netflix you are the biggest patoot in the world.

Pause–I’m really impressed that I just found the album The Pretender on Youtube (linked above).

On Monday I had a group presentation for my law class on insurance coverage of smoking cessation productions. It was in front of the entire pharmacy class so it was kind of intimidating. But I wore my power blazer so it was okay. (Ladies, everyone needs a power blazer–it’s a Leslie Knope from Parks and Rec thing.)

Then Wednesday I had a big case presentation on a geriatrics patient. I thought I was super prepared for it except I got asked some kind of odd ball questions that I didn’t think were really pertinent in the patient. IN MY HUMBLE OPINION.

Thursday I did a presentation for my substance abuse class on peyote. My fourth presentation was supposed to be an article in the news for the same class but it got pushed to next week! Whew. I feel like I haven’t even started studying for clusters!

Also, from the amazing tumblr whatshouldwecallme, I found this gif that has been a good representation of my brain for the past few weeks:

My current jam is Harper Lee by Little Green Cars. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I heard it on WTTS and I was like “this song was made for me.” Something about the vocals and the indie rock and the literary reference. I just love that.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also please join in the magnificence that is Levon Helm. He died last year on April 19th.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Something about playing the drums and doing lead vocals just screams TALENT. Also… Levon Helm. The Band. Majesty.

It’s Friday, so it should be my day off, but I am on campus in the science library and it is COLD. It was 80 on Wednesday! I bite my thumb at thee, weather! Such is the reality of cluster prep, though. It’s nice and quiet up here except now Levon Helm is wailing in my ears. Thanks Levon.

(I may or may not have tagged this post Music Monday and I regret nothing.)

I thought now that the weather has finally broken and it feels like spring time, I’d talk about allergies. Everyone’s favorite part about springtime!

So you have horrible allergies? What should you take? For runny noses sneezing, the absolute best is Benadryl (diphenydramine)–but if you’ve ever taken it before, you know it will put you to sleep. That’s because it can cross into your brain and hit your histamine receptors there. Then it’s all nap time.

That’s why there’s Claritin (loratadine), Zyrtec (cetirizine), and Allegra (fexofenadine), which we’d call “second generation antihistamines” that don’t cross into your brain as much. All of them have generics now (YAY).

All of them also have a formulation paired  with pseudoephedrine (Sudafed), which are called “____-D” and you can find them behind the counter at your friendly neighborhood pharmacy. Bring your ID for those! Don’t do the pseudoephedrine formulations if you have high blood pressure though. The pseudoephedrine will help if you’re really stuffed up (not runny) and at risk for sinus infections. (Side note: DO NOT DRINK ORANGE JUICE WITH ALLEGRA. It won’t absorb as well.)

These products should get rid of most of your sinus-y, nasally allergies. What about eyes? If they’re really severe, you can pick up some Zaditor antihistamine eye drops. I had a pharmacist tell me that these can even be a good alternative for patients who can’t afford the ultra-expensive prescription Pataday allergy eye drops!

There’s also the suggestion out there to eat local bee pollen (or locally made honey) to decrease your allergy sensitivity. I personally think bee pollen tastes like pond water, and if you have severe allergies or have a lot of food allergies, you will want to stay away from bee pollen. If you have mild seasonal allergies and you can find it (farmer’s markets!) then it’s worth a try.

And that’s what I know about allergies! I’m open to questions in the comments!