I WAS A FIRST-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT . . .

I was due for a crazy dream this week, and duly had one, complete with full hi-definition color and coherent conversation. Some highlights:

1. I got into New York Medical College without taking the MCAT or submitting an application for admission.
2. My friend AW "got me in." I don't know what that means.
3. I was the oldest first-year on campus. Yikes.
4. I matriculated on May 22nd.
5. I moved into my dorm, only to discover that someone was still in residence in my room, and she wasn't slated to leave until May 28th. Hmm. Tricky.
6. I sneaked into her/my room anyway to see how much space I had, and started making design plans . . . until she came home and caught me snooping around her stuff.
7. My suite had four bedrooms . . . but slept 22 women. It was like The Real World at Medical School.
8. My medical textbooks looked like law textbooks -- you know, red with the black and gold bindings. They were also incomprehensible . . . not unlike real law books.
9. I didn't know my schedule of classes yet, so I bought one textbook at a time, and read the required chapter in the hour before that class started. Oh wait, that doesn't sound all that removed from reality . . .
10. My first class was a class on phlebotomy. There was one other student in it besides myself, and he was the T.A. Our professor was certifiably nuts.
11. For the first phlebotomy class period, we took a road trip to the NIH's blood labs, where we watched a scientist stick her hand into a vat of blood -- without gloves -- and pull out some tissue samples. I think I gagged in my sleep at this point because I woke up coughing.
12. I fell back asleep and went right back into the dream -- this is a special talent of mine, particularly if I want to return to the dream.
13. I decided, back in my dorm, that I wanted to be really busy and involved on campus. Against AW's best advice, I decided to take on a full load of classes, work part-time at the local Dairy Queen, and enroll in no less than five campus activities, including the NYMC Circus.
14. Yes, I said the NYMC Circus.
15. Last scene: it's May 27th. One more day until I get my room to myself and can stop sleeping on the couch. I still haven't bought all my textbooks. I'm afraid to go back to my Phlebotomy class. I need to pick up my Dairy Queen uniform and paper hat.

Yikes.