Well hello there!
I am procrastinating. Just thought Id be honest.
First test in my first summer school class since sophomore year of HS tomorrow and my brain is spinning!! I chickened out and decide to take cell bio rather than try for the Ochem beast and at this moment I am so glad I did!
I have just run out of my giant pack of index cards and in my quest to memorize amino acids I keep calling Methionine “Methuselah” and Asparagine “Asparagus” at least that second one is almost…almost the right spelling.
And that’s my story for the day: )
I hope everyone is having a lovely summer!!!
This was my summer school studying today. Gotta love online classes!
Can I say “I hate you” without being misunderstood? It’s pure envy!
Kate
Hahahahaha!!! I love it 
Its 50 something and raining here so I am even more jealous
than I would usually be 
Looks like online classes have some nice perks!
Hey, Mallory --let’s see if I can remember my weird mnemonics for the amino acids.(what I couldn’t remember, I made up)
Hmm… If they are positively charged I think of a space station with positive pressure. If you heard a HIs (histamine), you’d put on your space suit to keep positive pressure, but (since there isn’t much water to bathe with up there) imagine your surprise when you find ARGh!! LYSe (lice)!! in your suit (Arginine, Lysine).
For the negatively charged, think of a mean trick another astronaut plays on your using (I beg your pardon ahead of time) “ASs GLUe”. It would be pretty negative to have your ass glued together (Aspartate, Glutamate)
Aromatics: PHEromones are aromatic, and strong enough smells can bring TYRes (tears) to your eyes: Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, Tryptophan
Nonpolar: back to the space station, orbiting in a non-polar orbit. The computer, hal, tries to crash the station but you are a PRO and GLYide it into low earth orbit AL-L VALiently
(Proline, Glycine, Alanine, Valine). You try to take him out of commission before he does something else by LEUsing (losing) the ISOLinear chips that contain his personality (Leucine, Isoleucine) .
Polar amino acids: Since the crisis, now the station is in a polar orbit, and it’s always toward the sun. You get a sunburn, SEaring your GlUts, and you need THREe ASPirin (Serine, Glutamine, Threonine, Asparagine)for the pain.
Or you might try a sulfur-containing antibacterial like METHIOlate if you are not a CYSsy (sissy) (Methionine, Cystine)
That was your moment of comedy. We now return you to your regularly scheduled forum.
Kate
This is fantastic!!! (I copied it to my desk top all ready to go for the next test in two weeks, by which time I will probably need it again! )
I love the story it appeals to my dramatic side and reminds me of last semester when I drew a cell that was happy on the outside (positive) but sad on the inside (negative) because she had a banana inside her (K) and people kept making fun of her (Na Na Na Na)…This was my version of the sodium potassium pump basics
Thanks Kate!
Like your cell! Happy if my little story helped. It helped ME.
Kate
So jealous of the pool-side studying. I’m spending the majority of my summer in a freezing cold chemistry lab 
I dropped out of my summer class the day after the class. It was physics. I wasn’t worried about that but when the professor said that we would not cover all the material…not even half…I was like “I’m outta here!” So I’ll have to double up in the Fall and Spring but better that than to kill myself over the summer and not get what I need for the MCAT.