Does it make me patriotic if I get Caffé Americano at Starbucks?

Well, I have to come clean… I have finally rekindled my love-affair with coffee. I know, I probably said somewhere along the line that I was giving it up for good, but as it turns out, that is just not true. I mean, I was on the wagon for a good two and a half months, which I am proud of. But I've realized that not only am I a happier person when I've had a little bit of java (that's pronounced YAH-va), I get a whole lot more done. I just thought I should share that… You were probably wondering what I was thinking this whole time anyway.

In other news, today we had our last actual lecture of first year. I still have to take another quiz, the microbiology final exam, and do my final history-taking session of the semester, but it really is winding down fast. In a good way. I mean, I love learning as much as the next medical student, but I REALLY could use a break. Which will be coming in about 6 days!

In other news, I registered last night for the Sunburst 10k here in town. I've never done a 10k before (I mean, I've ran that far, just not in a race), so I'm hoping it will be fun to try something new, and it sounds pretty sweet because it starts at the College Football Hall of Fame downtown, and ends at the 50 yard line of the Notre Dame football stadium. (I've heard that they even play "crowd noise" over the loudspeakers as people are finishing their races…) Anyway, I'm looking forward to that. And I have plenty of time to train, because it's not until the very last day of May, the 31^st. So, by that time I should be able to run 6.2 miles in just about 46 minutes… (just kidding, but that would be pretty sweet)

To bring this to a close (for those of you that follow politics), I will say that I am bitter. But instead of clinging to my guns or my religion, I'm clinging to my copy of "Clinical Microbiology Made Ridiculously Simple", the best book ever written (about microbiology).