Swayze, Obama, and life at large

Quite a few big headlines this past week.

Patrick Swayze passed away on Monday, Sept 14th. I'd definitely heard his name growing up, but never watched any of his movies or anything. I got a chance to tonight (or I guess last night? seeing as how it's earlyyyy Sunday morning now, ~2a.m.). Anyway. I was working away on one of my multitude of essays for my med school secondary applications (BORING), and took a break for dinner. Lo and behold, Dirty Dancing was just starting -- great timing. I actually watched the entire film. Those who know me know what a feat this is -- with most TV movies, I end up watching bits and pieces as I wander around the house doing random things.

I made it a point to sit down for this one; I only missed a couple of minutes toward the beginning because my mom was editing my essay. And wow, was it amazing. I mean, the movie has its occasional flaws, like any other, but it was still amazing! I came out of it feeling insanely happy and good about life and I loved the song for the final dance ("[I've Had] The Time of My Life") and just... I don't even know. It was like my heart expanded in my chest for a little while as I watched it. Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze may not have liked each other all that much, but boy did they have some amazing chemistry / sexual tension. And the dances, gah! Swayze, you will be missed.

The other big headline for me, at least, this past week: President Barack Obama visited the University of Maryland, College Park campus this past Thursday, Sept 17th!! He came last February, too, during his campaign, and I skipped class and stood in line for that, which was simply electrifying! This time, the crowd wasn't quite as big (but still 10,000+), and the energy was different (he's already president now, after all, and it was a health care rally, which not everyone is passionate about), but still so energizing and uplifting and it makes me want to do something RIGHT NOW.

I woke up at 5a.m. (on four hours of sleep), ate a quick breakfast, and trudged to campus from my apartment around 6a.m., to get in line by around 6:40 a.m. The lines weren't supposed to start forming 'til 5a.m., but some people came and sat themselves down at 3:30 anyway -- overachievers =P Doors opened at 8, an hour earlier than planned, which was nice, since it was drizzling outside, and we weren't allowed to bring umbrellas through security. My friends and I got seats -- not bad ones, either -- and we waited 'til the Secretary of Commerce came out at around 11:15a.m. It was decently punctual, since the program was technically supposed to start at 11a.m. He gave his speech, then we waited a bit, then a UMCP student came out and gave her speech, and introduced the President, and there he was!

It was a great time. He's a wonderful speaker, eloquent, and definitely knows how to play his audience; his speech catered heavily to the college crowd. At one point, you could hear a girl in the audience yell out, "I love you!" and Obama paused in his speech to reply, "I love you back!" Of course, the speech was of special interest to me, since I'll be working in health care for pretty much the rest of my life. There are still holes in his health care plan. He's very idealistic about how he's going to implement it, and somehow not add a single dime to the federal budget/deficit, which is a great goal to strive for, but an extremely difficult one nonetheless. I remain cautiously optimistic about it. The health care system is in desperate need of a serious overhaul, and if anyone can bring it about, it's Obama. One of the best choices I made, skipping class Thursday morning.

In other news... SECONDARIES, the current bane of my existence. Not only do I have business classes with group projects and whatnot (ok, a relatively lighter semester than usual, but still =P), I have 18 frickin' secondary applications to do. Not that I have anyone else to blame but me; I did choose to apply to all those schools, after all. Three of them have been submitted; another one is ready, pending my friend reading over the essay; another two are currently in the works as I write. Gah.

Goal: Have them done by the end of the month. Come on, ET, you can do it! Self-pep-talk does work, on rare occasions. I hope this is one of them.

Any volunteers for reading boring old med school app essays? You're allowed to say no -- it's a thankless task, after all. It just helps keep me from sounding like a total retard to the faculty I hope will be teaching me a year from now.. *halo*

Umm... oh yea! Last order of business. I know, I know, I still owe MAJOR updates from my month-long vacation to India and London. It will happen, I promise! As will uploading of pictures. Honest! I just.. have to get through secondaries first, before I can think about anything else in my life. Maybe if every now and then you all sit there and think really hard about speeding bullets and Superman (and me), I'll finish that much faster for it. It's worth a try, right?

Fun fact: "Autopsy" comes from a Greek word meaning, "To see with one's own eyes"