Sometimes Baking Helps You Get Through Dental School

It also helps to eat what you baked - with coffee. Thanks, Jenn and Goodie, for the recipe! I'm baking tomorrow!

Chocolate-Cherry-Almond Biscotti

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Kosher salt

3/4 cup dried tart cherries, coarsely chopped

3/4 cup blanched almonds, coarsely chopped

3 large whole eggs, plus 1 large egg white

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (essence)

1/8 teaspoon almond extract (essence)

Directions:

Position racks in the upper third and lower third of the oven and preheat to 325F. Line 2 baking sheets, preferably insulated sheets, with parchment (baking) paper. (We just used wax paper.)In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt until well mixed. Add the cherries and almonds and toss with your hands to distribute them evenly.In another bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg white, and vanilla and almond extracts. Pour into the dry ingredients. Using a fork, mix together the dry and wet ingredients, taking care to work all the bits of dry ingredients into the dough. This will take about 5 minutes. The dough will be (really) dense and sticky. Divide the dough in half.Place a piece of plastic wrap 18 inches long on the countertop. Transfer half of the dough to the plastic wrap. Lightly moisten your hands with cold water to prevent the dough from sticking to them, then shape the dough into a flattened log 12 inches long by 2 1/2 inches wide by 1 inch high. Lifting the plastic wrap and cradling the dough, flip the dough onto the center of one of the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough, flipping it onto the second prepared baking sheet.Bake the logs until they are dry to the touch and firm in the center when pressed with your fingers, about 30 minutes. They will spread considerably and may crack slightly on top. Transfer to wire racks and let the logs cool on the pans for 30 minutes. The logs will be slightly warm to the touch.Carefully transfer the logs to a cutting board and set the parchment-lined panes aside. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs crosswise on the diagonal into slices 1/2 inch wide.Arrange the slices, cut side down, on the lined baking sheets, placing them close together but not touching. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and using tongs or a spatula, turn the biscotti. Continue to bake until dry and crisp, 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer the biscotti to wire racks to cool completely. Store the biscotti in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 weeks. Serve with coffee or hot chocolate.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.~30 minutes prep time 60 minutes total bake time

Hmmm.

Anyone who says D2 is "easier", lies. I think they do this purposefully so that you will see "light" at the end of the D1 tunnel and press on to better things. Then you get there, and realize the light was really a LIE and you're trapped! It's too late! Then they get you all excited about getting patients in the spring, and even tempt you with things like probing your classmates' teeth, scaling your classmates' teeth, even scaling (in my case) your husband's teeth so that you get all excited about doing some real clinical dentistry and hold on tight and press on so that you can enjoy something new! Then you realize you just add that on to your lab load. Hmmm. By D4, you're just running for the door, you get out, and rarely look back.

I had a not really bad, but tiring week, and plan on sleeping a lot now.

Thank you, blog world, for tolerating my vent. I will be a happier person next week. I promise : ).

Sometimes You Gotta Wonder...

Dental school tends to draw people who are very detail oriented and then makes obsessive compulsive freaks out of them. Hence, the general distress when we turn things in to be graded. They scare you and use words like "automatic failure" and take extremely unecessarily long sessions to grade things leaving you wtih knots in your stomach as you prepare yourself for the worst. So when things turn out ok, well, in this case MORE than ok, you're left to wonder. Did I just get lucky? Were they undeservingly merciful? Did I just get the easy grader and won't know that I really suck? OR am I really not as bad at this as I think I am because they've made me an insecure freak? For some reason, operative has done that to me. Dental anatomy, totally different. I had a great outlook - I would leave my practicals, go study/eat lunch, come back, check my grade, put it in the drawer, and move on to more important things. I did fine and never freaked out. Operative leaves me at least 2 times a semester spending an hour trying to accept the fact that I probably failed, reminding myself that I get a drop and it will be ok, and then it turns out fine. Just fine. They let you know if you need help and apparently I don't. So please explain to me why a student with a B average in operative can't get over practicals!?!? I think I need a nice hot bath tonight to get over this. I'll use my fun new bath stuff I'm getting at the Bath Junkie social tonight! : )

Next time I think about saying, "I feel like I got hit by a truck..."

I'll keep my mouth shut. Tonight Mom, Dad, Erik and I went to the Dairyette to get a delicious hamburger and then run across the street to the football field at Bishop Lynch to watch my cousin Sarah march in the Terrell High School band. After halftime, we ran back to the car to eat our food and in the midst of dinner, the carhop got hit by a pickup. A lady ran over her feet and pinned her between two cars. After a lot of excitement, it all turned out ok...she actually walked away when all was said and done. Thank God her mom was there who is a nurse, so she was in good hands until the ambulance came (by the way, my mom called 911 and was put on hold...yes, on hold! My dad had to run across to the football game and get a cop who radioed (?) in for an ambulance!). It all happened when someone was basically really rude and impatient and it turned into a life changing night for that lady driving who has to live with what happened for the rest of her life. Yuck. We are so busy and so self-centered a lot of the time (at least I know I'm guilty) and we make rash decisions and don't think. So slow down. Be nice to people. Take a look at the big picture and enjoy life.

Getting in the Groove

This week was decidedly better, and I give it all to God. I also lend a lot of the mental health improvement to the lovely weather (also from God) and some good time with my family (again, God). I decided to be practical about getting work done - to use my time wisely in class, take advantage of the help you get from professors while in class, and only work outside of class when absolutely necessary. And only when you really know what you're doing. I haven't freaked out about tests, but took them seriously. And it's also been a good soup week in the hospital cafeteria, which is always a bonus.

On a side note, I went to my 10 year high school reunion on Saturday with Ellen by my side. What a great friend...I miss her so much. I also had lunch with Courtney last week, so two long lost amazing friends in one week is pretty good. Grounding, refreshing, challenging, Godly gals the both of them. It was so fun to catch up and remember good times with them and everyone else I saw at the reunion...it's also fun to be making more of them right now, which is so much easier to do when there is time to breathe in dental school!

Gotta Catch My Breath

I'm going to have a really long week. I sit down every Sunday and plan out exactly what has to happen each day in order to make it (let me emphasize "make it" - not get ahead). I also start my perio rotations this week, so I'm losing some of that "off" time that is now lab time since some due dates are approaching and I need to step up the pace. So I plan on being in the lab as long as it takes tomorrow to totally catch up with operative and fixed. And then there's removable...guess I'll have to stay late Tuesday, too. Unfortunately, I also plan to work through lunches, and I'm so miserably behind in path after that absolutely miserably embarassing practical, that every free moment will be devoted to catch up. And I have 2 tests this week. I'm just grateful that God will give me the strength to do all this...even if it's really hard. Because He knows I don't have it in me.

Lessons Learned

It was a really long week last week as I kept losing things. My ID badge never showed up and the card machine was broken, so I went all week long without until finally on Friday, I happened upon a working machine and the clinic director ready to help. Yay. I apparently left my Mx typodont in my sim head on Thursday as I was rushed out of the lab for the 4th years to take over for a progress exam. The guy in my spot took it with him and I was upper arch-less for the entire week. I spent perfectly good study time (and chilling time) on eBay looking for cheap replacements, but in the end my friend Regan who graduated last May was gracious enough to give me hers, which I picked up on Friday afternoon. Needless to say, typodont-napper fessed up and is supposedly going to return it to me (although I will probably have to get it myself...). Next was my mixing bowl, but that was easy as Alex and just packed one of mine up with his. Not bad. Next problem was that I left my handpieces out just in time for the next progress exam, but they were in their rightful place when I returned. Yeesh! I have got to straighten my act up! And I actually need to start studying. Really. I'm kinda behind....in everything but fixed and radiology : ) Cuz we have pop quizzes in those classes : )

Eh....It's Not Really that Bad

So after a week of insanity, I made some very important decisions.

1. It's ok to be behind. Just a little bit. Because then the wet lab will clear out and you won't lose your mind in the hustle bustle of the people that insist on being the first to get checked off. Who needs that? And there's PLENTY of time to catch up. Plenty.

2. Organization is key to success. Because success requires that you turn things in on time and don't get behind. 15 mins saved here and there can add up!

3. It's important to stop working and eat lunch.

4. Working in a group is always a plus.

5. Going in on the weekend is ok. Just for a little bit.

Top 10 Reasons I'd Rather Be Studying Gross Anatomy

10. You can study gross anywhere: couch, bed, Starbucks, bathtub.

9. You can watch the olympics while studying gross.

8. Studying gross anatomy doesn't involve the phrase "Crap, now I have to retake the impression."

7. The brachial plexus is way more interesting than scraping alginate out of your rubber bowl for the 15th time.

6. You can study gross while eating or drinking (well, except in the cadaver lab).

5. Working in the cadaver lab may smell funny, but does not smell like defeat.

4. Listening to Dr. Hutchins' sound effects is more entertaining than the screech of the trimmer.

3. My gross notes are way more organized than my lab station.

2. My sim head isn't slimy and wet, but he can't provide hours of endless dissecting fun, either.

1. Surgical blade beats buffalo knife anyday.

D2- Day 1

Today was good but a little crazy. It started a little early for me...6:15! I left the house at 7:00 and got to school around 7:30 with time to spare even though it was raining and there was a little traffic. I also broke my back windshield wiper - turned it on and it snapped in two! I parked in the D2 lot - what a blessing - so much closer to school and less 6 floors of parking garage to go up! - and lugged a bunch of stuff to my desk. I took a lot of it to Lauren's desk and left her a piece of brown paper and a note + the books she bought from me and some other goodies I just wanted to get rid of. Good fun. So then I rushed to grab some tea and a granola bar which I couldn't eat before class started so I hid them in my drawer and tried to catch my breath (they're really being sticklers about this no eating in the lab thing this year...)

Sitting way in the back of the room, I could get away with quietly transferring my D1 tackle boxes into my new ones since the old ones don't fit in these drawers (go figure!) Turns out Monday mornings will be a bit of a blow off and we'll actually get to sleep in some - YAY! We got out early and I had time to get my parking permit and a hole punched in my ID card. Went to make some hot chocolate because my new citrus green tea was uber nasty and got "caught" by Moira *roll my eyes* getting water out of the hot water tap in the D1 lab. Why can't we have a hot water tap in our lab? I miss it so much.

Next was 2 hours of pathology and I must admit...I dozed. Just a little during the second hour. I'm not used to sitting and doing nothing for extended periods of time.

A long lunch followed with a no show from Karen (probably stuck in clinic) but a lot of others came and joined. We then had fixed for an hour before group B got to leave early.

So, I went to Walmart. Needed a few office supplies and some more storage solutions and some bread and parmesan for dinner tonight. I lost my ID badge somewhere in the store and I'm hoping I'll get a call tonight that someone turned it in. If not, oh well.

A lot of us are a little nervous about jumping into all of this, but probably not as nervous as the D3s who had fillings and root canals to perform on real patients this morning. Yikes!

But I Don't Wanna Go...

Ok, it's not so bad. School hasn't even really started, and I've already loved seeing everybody again (we had a side-splitting, wrinkle-making get-together last night) and getting my STUFF ready to go. I'm such a sucker for organization. In fact, while I was up at the school all afternoon getting the insane amounts of supplies we got on Friday in some semblance of order, I noted that several of my classmates had gone and bought label makers. As crazy as it may be, I have always eyed and envied those little devices that print out those neat little stickers that can say whatever you want and stick on whatever you want. Every end-of-summer trip to Target consisted of a few moments in front of the label makers trying to justify the need for one in the lab *and it really would have been GREAT in the lab* and I would always back down and just buy more markers or scissors or something. So now I'm really tempted. I mean, really. So far, the term "orientation" in dental school means "we have 7 HUGE boxes of expensive stuff that you need to come and account for and then cram into the 2 lockers and 4 little drawers that we have for you." It's always a task to figure out which upperclassman to believe when it comes to what to buy, and I've done a pretty good job so far feeling out which way to go. I have a few things to return, but we'll see. I might actually end up using some of it since I can't use any of what I bought last year. But that's ok, too. See, I got to buy the really cool scrapbooking organizer I've also eyed for a while now. So this "Christmas in August" is over and almost all of my new dental goodies are carefully tucked away in the closet ready for me to play with them on Monday.