Got genes?

(By JPC)

If you were to come to our house these days, you would probably be surprised at the state of disarray. There are dry clothes hanging on the drying rack, waiting to be folded and put away. There are piles of dirty laundry on the floor waiting to just begin the process. There are messy beds, messy carpets, messy bathrooms, and one somewhat messy baby.

And last, but certainly not least, are the hundreds of flash cards (500 is our best guess), pages and pages of notes, files and files of lecture materials, and more genetics books than I thought I owned.

The reason for all this is my upcoming board exams. There is so much to learn and regurgitate that, although I have studied most days of the week for the past several months, I have now been off of work since Wednesday. I am studying 10-12 hours a day and am awfully sick of it. Who knew that 46 tiny chromosomes could generate so much?!?! I've seen and analyzed my own - they didn't look like much under the microscope! :-)

My exams are Wednesday and Thursday of this week so I am in the home stretch. And I think that my family is almost as relieved as I am. It breaks my heart every time I tell Ellie that I'm going upstairs and she pouts but says goodbye and gives me a hug. And Lori has had to bear the brunt of child care and upkeep of our home.

After the exams are over, I have a 3-4 month waiting period before I find out the results, but we have celebration plans for this weekend. No more studying! We're planning a babysitter for Friday night so we can go out for a celebratory dinner and then we're going out of town for Saturday night while Ellie stays with Mimi and Boppa.

I can't wait for this to be over! I will be a much saner and less distracted version of myself come Thursday afternoon!