Danielle Zappile (grad 09)

Toy Shopping

As I do not have any children, I never realized how intense Christmas shopping for toys could be! I wanted to purchase some toys for my neighbors, a little boy and a little girl. So thinking this would not be too difficult, I decided to brave the toy aisle at Target. I literally thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown in the toy department! In the car aisle, there were so many different options of toy car play sets, I think I stood there about 20 minutes dumbfounded. Some sets came with cars and some didn't, some had batteries included and not others, some cars did not fit into certain sets! So, I got fed up and went to the girls doll department thinking it would be much easier to pick a gift. Well, it turns out I was wrong! Who knew there was such a variety of little girl dolls. Some were packaged as being true to life, some cried, some went to the bathroom, some talked, some drank fluids, some needed batteries. As I am sure you know by now, I was so overwhelmed I had to leave!

Two weeks later, I brought a friend with me to help purchase these gifts. My friend has children and was able to spend less than ten minutes in the toy department! We found a Hotwheels car set for the little boy and a dress-up and doll for the little girl. I don't know how my friend was able to do this so quickly and he made it so easy for me! I think that next time I go to the toy department at Christmas, I am going to have to take a deep breath and not take toy shopping so seriously! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Family Tradition

Over the past few years, it has become a new family tradition to have a Christmas party! After the family dinner, on Christmas day, all of our friends and neighbors make it a point to stop by. This party is my father's baby. He makes sure there are endless liquors and desserts and that everyone is well supplied with anything they could possibly want! The crazy thing about this is that there are so many desserts that you could not possibly attempt to taste everything. He usually orders the desserts from the Neiman Marcus catalog and several local bakeries. And of course, the party would not be complete without my italian grandmother's delicious cookie trays!

What is sad, is that this year, we have had to scale back! My father has recently had double knee replacement surgery! He is doing so well but it would just be a little too much for a party on the scale he would like. Although we will not celebrate the same way we have in the past, the tradition will be back again next year!

One Thing After Another

PT classes started again this Saturday. Honestly, these classes are not what I had expected. I really thought we would be getting into more therapeutic techniques and I am somewhat disappointed that up until this point we have not learned too much about that. Anyway, they are taking attendance very seriously. Apparently because the students that are taking this course have to take a national board exam, we have to sign in and out a total of 6 times per day. I personally see this as overkill but these are not my rules. Another thing that strikes me as funny is that the doctors who are taking this course do not have the same attendance requirements. I find this odd because don't these doctors who are taking this exact same course have to take the same national board?

Anyway, today we decided to go to the restaurant at the hotel for breakfast. As it turns out, this was truly some of the worst service I have ever received! We watched as my breakfast sandwich sat at the counter for approximately 20 minutes while the rest of the food was prepared. Then, I watched in awe as the waitress and chef argued over his cooking and how he was not following the order that she had placed. He claimed that he only worked two days a week and that putting peaches on the peach pancakes that were ordered was not his job??? So, we decided to leave! Honestly, I expected more from the Marriott in downtown Spartanburg and I am very disappointed!

Just Another Day

It is day two of our PT class! I have to admit that I am extremely tired and we still have one week of 12 hour days! We have been learning a lot about various modalities so I am hoping to retain all of this information by the time I take the boards. I am considering taking this exam along with the part II board exams in March but that will be quite an amount to study within the next three months.

I have to admit that I am thrilled we only have one week left of classes. I am really looking forward to the Christmas break. Seeing that I have to be in Spartanburg an additional week for the PT class, it is nice that we have the extra week of vacation this year . As we are on the quarter schedule at Sherman, we go to school year round and have one week breaks in September and March and two or three week breaks in December and June. Therefore, as far as time in school is concerned, we are pretty much here most of the year. As a result, we always look forward to our vacations!

Early Mornings

Yes, I am awake at 6:30am on a Saturday! I have to be at school at 8:00 for my PT class. Because we need to get in 120 hours by December 22, we have to have full day classes today and tomorrow. It looks like there will be no real weekend for those of us taking the course.

We have one full week of school left before finals. There isn't too much for us to accomplish although we will be having an alternate adjusting test and the diagnosis review test we were suppose to have got moved to Tuesday. I am happy about moving the diagnosis review test as I am still having trouble retaining all of the information from the chapter! I didn't realize how much memorizing would be required at chiropractic school. I figured there would be more analyzation but I was definitely wrong. As I am not one to memorize, I am at a definite disadvantage. Although I understand the need to memorize facts about certain diseases, neurology tracts, etc. I will definitely be thrilled to be finished with those classes.

I hope everyone is enjoying the season as has a wonderful weekend!