stuff

Chris leaves for Boston today, for a one week review course for his exams. Which are in April. And which he's already mega-stressed about.

::sigh::

Anybody out there who knows anybody who wants to become a doctor... please, please, please talk them out of it. It's a miserable career. There's some very, very good reasons why 60% of doctors claim that if they had to do it over again, they wouldn't go into medicine. The figure is a little under 50% for specialists and 75% for GPs. They're probably the same reasons that the majority of doctors (sorry, I don't have a figure for this one) claim they would discourage their children to go into medicine.

And any parents who are thinking it would be great to have a doctor in the family, and are pushing their kids to consider medicine... if you like your children at all, stop it. Unless you believe the thrill you'll get from being able to say, "My daughter/son, The Doctor" is worth their misery, and that of their spouses and children.

Well, enough of that.

Hoping to go swimming with ninja_kat today. Hoping the baby comes soon, too. She's not having the best time right now, is in a lot of pain and basically mostly housebound. But. She's past the 37-week mark, so hopefully the blessed event will happen post haste.

On the schedule for this week: my classes start tomorrow (both of them - heh), Daniel will go to Anne's house, and Justin will go to Laine's after school. Daniel starts Cubs on Tuesday, and Justin starts Beavers on Wednesdays. Tuesday is also the day to sign up for Justin's ballet class, so I'll have to do some fancy footwork with babysitters to get around that one.

Looks like a busy week. And yet I'm looking forward to it :)

September 11

Why is it still hard for so many of us to put into words everything we feel about this day?

I've been thinking about it, on and off, especially since a couple of days ago when I came across an lj entry from a Canadian who says will no longer visit the US - not out of antipathy or hatred, but because she just doesn't feel safe or welcome there. And of course I've been thinking about it in relation to Katrina and all that Katrina's tied to - September 11, Iraq, global warming, Dubya, racism, blah blah blah.

And, as always, I've thought about it in relation to the Chilean coup of September 11, 1973. Which certainly changed my life, as we basically went into exile shortly thereafter and I got to grow up in Canada instead of Chile. It also permanently coloured my opinion of America, as the coup was in large part backed by the US. Because Chile was getting uppity and threatening American economic interests, so it had to be brought to heel and taught its proper place, to the tune of roughly 3,000 Chilean citizens tortured, murdered and disappeared and many more exiled.

This day brings out such completely mixed and often contradictory feelings towards America, around the world. Empathy and antipathy, admiration and disgust, hope and fear.

I keep hoping that some day, it'll only mark the day that roughly 3,000 human beings died, and be able to stand as a day of mourning and respect for the dead and their families. I keep hoping that some day it won't also engender anger at what that grief has been perverted into by Bush and his government. So far my hoping isn't bearing much fruit, but then I think of (most of) the Americans I know personally, and hope stays alive.