Don't Come Knockin'...

Where has my summer gone?! School started this past week. It's weird being back in town now that some of my friends have graduated (and moved away while I was gone this month). It's also a little bit strange to not have any classes anymore, now that I'm enrolled for research/dissertation credits only. So I'm still trying to settle into a good workday routine so I can have some structure and discipline in terms of efficiently dividing time between my home office, my med school assistantship, and my advisor's lab. Working from home is awesome and comfortable...but could possibly be dangerous if it becomes too comfortable.

It's just plain crazy that I have no idea what the coming year will bring. But {deep breaths} I can't go there yet and have to take things one day at a time. And the first order of things is to buckle down and seriously finish my comps ASAP.

Upon rolling back into town on Tuesday p.m., I discovered that my apartment had been accosted by Jehovah's Witnesses. Korean Jehovah's Witnesses, at that. This grinds my gears on several levels: 1) This isn't the first time they have come by and left flyers tucked into my door. 2) Because they're Korean Jehovah's Witnesses, it's clear that they're targeting my place, which further grinds my gears, because, how the hell did you FIND me? Granted, I'm in the university directory, and maybe my last name makes my ethnic heritage obvious, but, still. Isn't there a better way to spend your time that combing through the student phone book looking for names that look or sound a certain way so that you can target them? 3) Not that I'd be interested in these flyers anyway, but everything is written in Korean, so I can't make heads or tails of it and it might as well be Greek to me. It's like assuming that just because someone's last name is "Garcia", they need targeted advertisements in Spanish, or that someone whose last name is "Chang" automatically needs targeted advertising in Chinese. 4) The most fundamental (no pun intended!) problem I have with this type of stuff is that I'm also of the firm opinion that religion and spirituality (whatever beliefs a person has or doesn't have) is a very personal thing and not meant to be worn on one's sleeve.

Maybe it's that I just don't understand their mindset because organized religion doesn't play a big role in my own life. I'm honestly not trying to put down anyone's beliefs OR non-beliefs at all. I DO find aggressive proselytizing to be genuinely off-putting. The thing is, the people who go around doing this are also the people who would still try to convert people to become a Jehovah's Witness if they said they were already, say, Catholic, or Presbyterian, or Hindu.

Anyway...moving on from my rant...I've got a good feeling about the coming year, and am determined to make it a great one. I assume--or at least hope--that any school year that starts off with major dental work as well as an arthritis flare can only go up from there. But I'll save those for another day. (Must do some more work and then get plenty of sleep, for tomorrow brings....more work).

PS: I'm bummed that the days are rapidly becoming shorter as fall approaches. Boy do I miss the light evenings from the Pacific NW just a few short weeks ago! You can still play tennis outdoors at 8:30pm in August in Vancouver or Seattle or Alaska. Not so elsewhere anymore 'til next summer. :-(