i'm continually struck by how different the lives of me and my friends have become, after having shared pretty much the same daily schedule throughout our elementary, junior high, and high school years. i just received an email from my old friend tess, in which she recounts the progress of her life as a med student at uiuc. "now I'm moving on to the kind of medicine where there's no slicing, stapling, brain picking, or baby popping involved," she writes. wow...if i get to a point where i can list off as many bizarre or extraordinary daily activities in so flippant a manner, i think i'd have to throw in the towel afterwards. that's enough for me.