My lovely husband has lent me his anatomy colouring book, a souveneir from past days in art school, to help in my medical school preparation. I am not sure that I am learning anything but it makes for a good relaxation tool.

Speaking of my lovely husband I have been getting a strange reaction as a new married female medical student. I guess it has always been around but it seems to be more prevalent now that orientation is looming. It seems like the general feeling is a profound sympathy for my husband for being hitched to someone who has decided to leap back into school for another 3 years of overeducation, combined with suspicion that the act of hitching was motivated by the handy financial obligations that come along with the 'in sickness and in health'. I was told yesterday that my husband must be a very understanding man. In this case I am not sure that the 'understanding' extends to 'letting' me go to school or by letting me aspire to have a career at all. I know that I am awfully insulated but I thought people would think that my husband would be lucky to be married to a smart ambitious person that is choosing to use her talents to help people. This is definately not a universally help opinion.

I am not usually privy to these discussions but my husband has been regaled by a number of stories of opportunistic women who have dumped their husbands shortly after finishing the medical training these hapless men helped pay for. I keep telling him that he is the best husband I could have, but if I was going to marry purely for money I could probably do better. I live in one (possible the) fastest growing cities in North America; real estate here is going up hundreds of dollars a day; millionaires are being made every quarter thanks to the high oil and gas prices. Frankly I am a little insulted that these story tellers think I couldn't find a fatter wallet; if that was what I was seeking. I really think a better husband couldn't be found but I could probably enslave a better benefactor if that was my marriage goal. I am insulted that these people think my motives are so unpure and I am further insulted that they think I am not better able to fullfill these base goals.

To help in my efforts to become at least somewhat qualified to be a medical student, one of my labmates lent me his medical physiology textbook that he has as a result of his zoology undergraduate degree. I am only a couple of chapters in but I am dismayed at the lack of pictures. Not since my class on partial differential equations have I had a text with less figures. I don't remember anything from that class. I have always been what one would call a visual learner. Maybe I should get on that anatomy thing first to make myself feel better.

I was hoping to keep the frequency of this blog to every few days, twice a week at least. I have obviously not kept up to this, but I was on vacation. A good excuse if you ask me. I went on a roadtrip to the West Coast for a little more than a week, after finishing my corrections and turning in my thesis. There are still a couple of papers hanging over my head, but I am determined to get those out of the way before orientation starts the first week of August. Between that and the stuff I want to sort out here at home I will be busy for the next couple of weeks.

I am also thinking that I should start looking into doing some extra anatomy ond other studying in some of my weak areas, which is all of them. I am not really sure where to start but my artist husband does have the anatomy and physiology colouring books. Probably as good as any. Given that my understanding is at a kindergarten level a colouring book is probably appropriate. Besides, it gives me a reason to get new pencil crayons. New crayons and markers were always my favourite back-to-school supplies.