So behind

So I'm spending a month at the shore to study for Step 2 and get my life in order, etc., and I feel completely behind. First of all, I haven't had what I would consider to be a "normal" day yet -- between traveling back to Maryland to help my mom get packed for Brussels, to traveling to suburban Philly for family events, and wanting to actually spend time at the beach, rather than studying. Then there's the moving-in issue: I arrived at Eric's tiny apartment with tons of clothes and shoes (hey, I'm here for 2.5 months and I have to be ready for anything from beach to normal clothes to scrubs to work dress-up), and I have not yet succeeded in putting them -- or the 6 huge bags of clean laundry we produced yesterday -- away.

I don't have a good place to study. Ideally, something like a coffee shop or Panera Bread with wireless internet would be good; I like the combination of food and internet. So finding a place to study is on my to-do list for the week, as is researching question banks.

Just as I was starting to feel slightly in control -- got the dirty laundry done yesterday, have plans to put clothes away and check out the public library's wireless today -- it hit me that I need to start applying for residency now, too. I got an email today with my ERAS ID and a list of things I'm supposed to be doing right now, like writing my personal statement. Writing my personal statement?!?!!?!? Crap. Not to mention that I'm already overdue on updating my CV to send to potential recommendation letter writers, and coming up with a list of 50 programs I'm interested in applying to, to send to a mentor of mine. Entering panic mode.

Luckily (unluckily?), when I enter panic mode, it often triggers me to be productive in non-essential things, like cleaning, so maybe that's a good thing for the apartment. Unfortunately, it also triggers me to pretend like I have nothing that needs to be done, and that's doubly dangerous when there's a beach one block away...

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In other news, a 10.6% cut in Medicare payments is scheduled to go into effect immediately, which doesn't help the cause of universal healthcare (the ideal proposal, at this point, is to simply expand Medicare to cover everyone). Hard to get doctors to buy into it when they are about to see a cut in their payment rates. Time to call your senators, everyone.

Also, I saw an article on the 66 cities in which it's a decent deal to buy a home, and the Philly area is on it -- yay! So is Louisville, but that ship sailed for us a couple years ago. There's also a list of 34 cities where buying a house is a bad idea, if you're interested.