Follies great and small

It was my birthday this week. After much ardent persuasion I got almost all of the AMP students to come out for ice cream at this awesome homemade sweet shop in Tarrytown.
Norm is giving us serious Face.

I was surprised so many people came because life has become Difficult. Everyone is spending so much time studying that they can't even afford to go to class, and half of the people in class are actually studying or reading scribes.

I guess there are some people with their act together. These must be the people responsible for Follies.

Follies is an annual sketch comedy concert put on by a mix of MS1s and 2s. All of the money from tickets ($3) went to the Children's Cancer Fund. I'd seen some of the videos from last year's performance so I had high expectations.
There were teacher impersonations, music videos, public service announcements, a cappella (NYMC's own Arrhythmias) and tons of "That's what she said"-style humor. When I walked out my face hurt from laughing so much.

The Baddest Mother on Campus

As I was checking my mail today a HUGE red-tailed hawk swooped down and took a swipe at a blue jay less than 10 feet away. I used to associate red-tailed hawks with literature from my childhood but now their name will strike fear in my heart.

Everyone has to make a 10-15 min presentation for their section of biochem at some point this trimester, and mine was today. I had to talk about weight-loss drugs like Olestra. I couldn't resist making one slide about incontinence:

Gray slush, even

There was some snow happening when I got back to Valhalla.
It is now slush, but there was almost enough the first day for a snowball fight.

For all the flack you hear about NYMC being near a prison I've always felt safe here. Security is ever vigilant and there are lots of guards around during nighttime. Some people got their laptops stolen from their rooms over Thanksgiving but they had left their back door open.
And now, emergency phones!


They're not workin' yet, but you're never out of sight of one. As someone who believes she is never more than 20 seconds away from being mugged/a zombie attack this comes as a great relief.