The Lunatic

Is she not the cutest dog you've ever seen? This is Luna..whom Mom calls "lunatic" because she's so hyper. Sometimes she has to shake her head just to get her brain organized... (not that there's much up there. we've deduced that she has only one neuron which feeds back on itself, allowing her to perseverate on birds as she does..)

Aphrodite's Child-Rain And Tears

This song haunts me still... after seeing a great flick several months ago up in Anchorage, entitled 'Three Times'. After seeing the movie I kept wanting to hear the song and hunted down it's location on YouTube, GO FIGURE. Three Times is SUCH a good movie. And this video?? Yeah, it's just kinda silly...but the song is addictive. Enjoy!

Time and The Self

This itty bitty picture doesn't do this oil painting justice...but this Picasso work called "La Salchichona" (Barcelona 1917) spoke to me above and beyond any other artwork/architecture I saw in 'Barce' over the past week. It surpassed even the Sagrada Familia's Passion Facade, Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, AND Parque Guell...and that's saying something!

So what is it about this painting?! It was painted toward the end of Picasso's cubist period, supposedly when he began experimenting with different painting styles and bright colors after a period of Analytic Cubism which he had removed some of the brighter tones. I admit I am no art scholar, so in general, I tend to view art for the visceral reactions it brings to me, and for the insights into the human state. To me...La Salchichona is a snapshot in time of what we must all look like...to eachother, to God, and even to ourselves (if we're able to give ourselves a bit of compassionate self-reflection). Here is a woman unfinished. Some areas have been elaborately colored and shaded (parts of her dress and mantilla), while some are mere sketches. Future splendor is suggested, but hasn't been fully illuminated.

And what's more...there seems to be no predictable pattern for the progress of the painting. Picasso didn't, for example, start from her head and work his way down...nor did he start from her eyes and move outwards. Instead we see patches of color and completion rather than a united and coherent finished work.

I find this painting, then, articulately portraying the human condition. We all have super-shiny finished parts, and we all have lack-luster, sketched aspects; and they're all collected together like a bizzare patch-work quilt with pieces which don't fully interlock. Further, I find no logical explanation to which parts are completed first or last. I suppose that's all part of the grand mystery.

This entry is getting long, but I must add this. During my 20 hours of flight-time yesterday I read "The Time Travler's Wife" and found themes which intersect with Picasso's above work. Basic premise: Henry is a "chronologically impaired" time-traveler and his star-crossed lover is Clare. The story follows them through their life together, with the added element of seeing one another at different ages through Henry's time traveling. For example, Henry makes visits to Clare as a little girl, knowing they'll marry someday. Clare later meets the Henry of her own age, but knows him as a more-finished product and has to tolerate his immaturity as he slowly becomes the man she knows he will become. The story plays on the evolution of "who-we-are"with the passage of time; and Henry and Clare are lucky enough to see the whole picture of who their partner was, is, and will be. Maybe that's why they fall in love so fully and deeply?

Or maybe it's just a story.

At any rate, both the concepts of living as a Woman Under Construction (La Salchichona), as well as a person who is mutable by the passing of time (Time Traveler's Wife) are comforting to me as I attempt to transform into the person I want to become.

And hopefully that wasn't too abstract. (sorry about all that, yikes!) Happy New Year, and Happy Transformations...

Quite possibly the WORST travel luck...

Yep. so I´m still in Barcelona. It´s been sooo wonderful...actually SO wonderful, that they´ve decided to keep me for one extra day. Yep, that´s right: Delta Airlines, in all their bankrupt glory, is putting me up for a SECOND hotel, this time here in Barcelona. Major bummer for me and my parents, as our time together will be cut short once again, but all the same it´s another day here in BCA with Ellie and her friend Heidi. We had a lovely Christmas dinner and are heading back to the posh hotel Delta has paid for.... Feliz Navidad...and SORRY MOM AND DAD!! :(

Barcelona or Bust

In keeping with my typical travel stories...I had yet another near travel disaster yesterday. Actually, it WAS a disaster, for a while. :) Got to the airport for my BCA flight yesterday at 5:30am. Proceeded to stand in line for 3.5h just to check in for my flight. Then stood in line at security forEVER, but made it to my plane. However, the plane had been delayed because MOST of my fellow passengers were actually in line behind me at the ticket agent. The plane finally left 3h late, putting me into JFK International Airport 20 min past my connection to Barcelona. That means spending the night at the Ramada Inn and missing an entire days worth of activities in Spain. This was most upsetting for a while.
HOWEVER. I made the most of it by having probably one of the best solo adventures I've had this year. I decided I couldn't just sit all cooped up in this silly hotel all night, so I made some phone calls for great salsa places in the city. Next I took three different transportation modes (hotel shuttle, AirTrain, LIFF) in order to get downtown into Manhattan from Queens...got a great view of the city on the way in...went to a wonderful salsa club called Copacabana...met up with an old friend from CVV...was out until 4am...etc. It was a GREAT night all in all...and I'm thankful that if I had to be delayed in a city...NYC is a perfect stopover!
Now just keep your fingers crossed that my flight tonight goes off without a hitch.
Barcelona or Bust!!

The Low following the High

So my manic feeling is pretty much dissipated right now, and here's why:

1. My definitive feelings about Ob/Gyn have been shaken severely by the allure of Addiction Medicine.

2. I lost my BRAND NEW cell phone. I couldn't even sleep last night because I couldn't find it. F*$#. And I can't believe how disabled I feel without it.

3. Oppressive forces of school starting to push on me...with surgery looming ahead and a presentation to put together, I'm feeling like quitting and going to nursing school instead.

4. I found a new artist I love, Regina Spektor, but her songs make me want to cry.

And yet...

"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know that just to be alive is a grand thing."--Agatha Christie

My Current Mania

There are so many gosh-dang things to look forward to over the next couple of days, weeks, months, years...I can't even stop myself from being excited right now! I'm having a fabulous time at work...every day is full of compassion and intrigue...and my dancing life couldn't be happier either. Tonight for example, there's a whole slew of participants coming out...and furthermore I've convinced my parents to come out on Saturday night at Century... And then there's the whole issue of being insanely excited about travel to Barcelona and Guatemala...and then the whole concept of knowing, for the first time in my life, what I want to do after med school....I feel maniacally blissful. :) I can't wait for life to go on...

Crystal, Tina, Crank, Ice, Tweak and Yaba

It's a snow day here in Seattle (at least so far, the clinic is closed due to icy roads), so I'm working on my presentation for the end of this rotation. My proposed topic? Current strategies for helping patients with methamphetamine addiction. I did a Google Search for related websites and came across this interesting article. Before this rotation, I had no idea about the co-morbidities between Crystal use and HIV infection. Check out the below link...

http://www.positivenation.co.uk/issue110/features/feature3/feature3.htm

[Oh yeah, and don't forget that World AIDS Day is this Friday, Dec. 1st! Show your support by going to http://www.lighttounite.org/ You can light a virtual candle there, and for each candle lit, Bristol-Myers Squibb will donate $1 (up to $100,000) to the National AIDS fund. You can also read testimonies when you click on the candles on that site. Pretty cool.]

Delightful Thanksgiving...

...this place setting is evidence of the central role my three little cousins played in making this a Thanksgiving to remember. The Turkey Trot on Thursday morning was a blast. My parents and I traded off the role of pushing one of the two strollers with my cousins inside. The best part was watching my mom exhibit her crazy driving as she darted between slower runners... :) Fortunately there were no fatalities this year.

And now only a few short weeks and it's off to Barcelona!

Chlorophytum comosum 'Variegatum'

THIS is the Spider Plant that I have been waiting over three years to see. Back in my Denver days (see the CVV link on the side of this blog), when I was a case manager, my co-workers and I had the sensible idea of giving each new family a tiny spider plant as a symbol of a new start and new growth. It quickly became my job (and specialty) to take cuttings from the one spider plant in the 300-bed shelter, get them to grow roots in water, and then plant them in little styrafoam cups in the windowsill of my office. I LOVED seeing them grow right along with me as the year of service went on...and hoped that someday I would be given a cutting from someone else's spider plant to keep for myself. I was recently given this lovely plant by an unnamed angel who was able to read deeply into the spiritual draught I must've been portraying. Fortunately for me I now have a spider plant of my very own...(I hope I don't kill it!)

First people to speak up can have a cutting of their very own... :)

Back to Seattle

Ohhhh how nice it is to be back in Seattle. Already have a few fun nights under my belt, too. Exhibit A: A pic from the evening of what I'll call the "Bender Bash." This is post-dinner, post-guitar game, and pre-HaLo for a group of over 10 of us. Pretty hilarious crowd of us making our way down Broadway. Here, Crystal is feeling a bit chilly, and the good boys alongside her have given up their jackets.... :) :) A wonderful evening indeed!

One can't learn much...

I'm starting a book which begins with the following oh-so-appropriate quote: "One can't learn much and also be comfortable. One can't learn much and let anybody else be comfortable." ~Charles Fort, Wild Talents
The quote has many levels of meaning in my life...but most recently it applies to the Peds rotation I just finished. I didn't have a single day at work in the past six weeks that I felt mildly at ease. I was constantly on edge, always being asked to do something I wasn't wholly comfortable with. But I learned a whole heck of a lot of pediatric medicine in the process. It's funny that it wasn't until I was driving away from Pocatello yesterday that I realized that the rotation was actually a GOOD one. Most days I was plain miserable! And now with it behind me, I can begin to see its merits.
On a different note, here's a picture of my Dad's tomato plant...he uprooted it when it began to freeze, and now he's brilliantly letting the remaining fruits ripen "on the vine." :)

Lava Hot Springs...mmmm!!

(For those of you who are following along...yesterday's little comment at the PALS course was followed up with new rounds of humiliation at this morning's session. Awesome.)
Last night Young-Me and I went to Lava Hot Springs, which is about 30 min southeast of Pocatello. We'd been told there was a great little Thai restaurant there, and that the hot springs pools were great, too...so down we went. The food was pretty decent, but made me miss Seattle!!
The HOT SPRINGS, though, were amazing! The place was in really great shape, for a town the size of three large families, and the pools were astonishingly clean and well-maintained. The water was hot, hot, hot, crystal clear (and not smelly) and you could see bubbles coming up from the natural-colored black gravel at the base of the pools. It was so hot that my heart rate was elevated by at least 20bpm! (yep, I counted.) When we got out, it felt like we had just had an hour's worth of massage therapy...that lovely tingly feeling all over. Lava Hot Springs was an unexpected surprise, and a wonderful one at that! So if you're ever driving down I-15, make a Left at Hwy 30 and see it for yourself!
Who'd have thought the Pocatello region would have so much to offer??

There is nothing so humbling...

...as taking a PALS course (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) with a couple of NICU nurses, a paramedic, and a fireman. Two years of medical study hold not a candle to the experience they possess! Today, Young-Me and I took on the course, not knowing exactly what to expect. They gave us these large text books that we were supposed to, ahem, "read" before the class. We failed to find time. At any rate, toward the end of the day, we found ourselves in front of the classroom with an 8-y.o. mannequin which we were attempting to resuscitate. We decided that we needed to give epinephrine. Our examiner said, "Okay, how will you give it?" Hmmm..... We hmm'ed and haww'ed for a while...suggested a peripheral IV, a central line, and intubating and giving it through the endotracheal tube. Our examiner was clearly looking for another answer. Young-Me and I looked at each other, unsure of our next move.
Exasperated, I suggested, "well, there's that scene from Pulp Fiction where they just give the Epi right into the heart...." My comment was followed by unanimous laughter, including my own, ha ha!! (After we all hooted for a while, the real answer came out: an Intraosseous Line.) I left feeling glad that I could entertain all of those highly trained medical personnel, but also a bit incredulous that my brain could resort to cinema for answers to life and death situations. Yikes! Scary, eh?!

Denise Austin STINKS!

If y'all could've seen me this morning at about 5AM, you'd have felt my pain. Due to the fact that it's getting cold and dark out in the mornings, and I have to be pre-rounding in the NICU at about 6:30am, I've been substituting exercise videos for AM jogs. Now, I know that sounds crazy, because maybe you can't see me doing step aerobics or Billy Blanks Bootcamp, but I swear I used to do kickboxing and hi-low faithfully in undergrad! Anyway, due to my love of dance, I thought I'd try to find a video that combines Dance and Aerobics. I went to Amazon.com, read all the reviews I could find, and made a relatively well-informed decision (or so I thought) about a Denise Austin video called "Burn Fat Fast: Cardio Dance and Sculpt." BIG mistake. This morning I drug my butt out of bed only to find myself wiggling around like one of the two year olds I see in clinic...that whole butt-sticking-out, asynchronous, ridiculously silly dancing of a groovin' toddler. Yeah. I actually tried for a good 25 minutes to get into this uber-cheesy workout. Yikes! Good thing I remembered to close the blinds on my windows!

The Grand Tetons: A respite from Pediatrics

Young-Me and I finally made the 3-hr drive to the Grand Tetons National Park for a personal viewing. It was another lovely fall weekend and we hiked upwards of 9.5 miles! Great views, fresh air, and delightful conversation were some of the highlights. The lowlights?? A rather UN-helpful ranger telling us the road to our initial destination was closed for the day. We made do with a hike around Lakes Taggert and Bradley, and all the way through the Lupine Meadows. Jackson, WY didn't disappoint later, either: we had some tasty calzone with whole wheat crust..mmmm.
For those of you wishing to actually see a picture of the Tetons, I tell you: I would've put one up, but none of them did the peaks any justice whatsoever, and this picture is cuter, anyway!

Yet Another Reason...

...that Pediatrics is less likely and Ob/Gyn is more likely: I have really cold hands. Cold hands are a very, very bad thing to have when you're examining infants. Especially infants in the NICU. Those little wee ones don't liked to be touched in the first place, let alone by someone with cold hands! I have YET to get a decent abdominal exam on any baby less than 29 weeks gestation...they start clenching up their little tummies when they feel my cold digits and the game's over. I guess they haven't gotten the "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" Memo. HOWEVER, pregnant ladies happen to run a little "warm" in general, and I haven't met a pregnant lady yet who wasn't thrilled to have my cold hands on her hot little belly!

At least Pocatello does Autumn well....

...because otherwise it's not impressing me much lately. (Granted, I'm not available to be impressed much these days.) Fortunately I had the good luck to find myself on a beautiful trail in a nearby state park for a solitary hike. It was just the thing I needed to clear my head after a quite "rough" (to put it mildly) two weeks of Pediatrics.
It's not that those little kids aren't cute: they are! they are! It's just that I wasn't expecting such a demanding rotation here. At any rate, the rotation's rigor will only help me be a better physician someday.
But oh! I love the Fall. The lighting, the leaves, the crisp mornings and warm afternoons...little kids starting school again, and Halloween, of course. I like the way the fall makes you start wanting to huddle into warm places and drink hot cider, and the way it signifies fresh beginnings (i.e. a new school year). Most people probably assume Spring is the hallmark of new life...but I find the fall to be altogether more welcoming, so I designate it as my new life season. Take this leaf, for example. It's dying, sure. But look how it dies!! In a show of bright color and brilliance! What other living creature makes such a beautiful show of its demise?

Casino Rueda Salsa

MIT Casino Rueda Group at Ryles in Boston

Obstetrics and Gynecology....over too soon!!!

Finish second rotation, check! I can't believe that another six weeks has passed, and yet I've done so much during my rotation! Here's a rap sheet on the goings-on at Anchorage's OB/GYN rotation...

SAW:
Leiomyosarcoma
Bartholin's Gland Tumor
PID/Tuboovarian abscess
superlong Endocervical polyp
Endometriosis/endometrioma
Paget's disease of the breast
20 week size uterus with leiyomyomata
Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor complete with clitoromegaly
Cushing's Disease in Pregnancy w/Adrenal adenoma
ADENOMYOSIS (inside joke...yeah..)
Anti-phospholipid Syndrome
Mastitis
The hugest vulvar abscess you'll ever see..
HELLP syndrome

DID:
4 endometrial biopsies
removed an endocervical polyp
removed an IUD
cauterized Nabothian cysts
opened twice
closed fascia twice
performed myomecomy
clamped and cut large vessel pedicle
put in staples (yeah yeah)
a couple of deliveries, episiotomy repairs
inclusion cyst drainage
the usual: tons of pelvic exams, tons of breast exams, etc.

The list goes on. I can't even believe how much I was able to see and do while I was here, and I absolutely loved every part of OB/GYN. I loved the normal, healthy deliveries, and I loved the complicated high risk patients. Surgeries were fascinating, clinic was moving....I really wish I could just stay here for a bit longer...but, ya know...I gotta move on to Pediatrics. I'd say that I know for sure that I'll go into OB/GYN, but I know I still have more to see this year. However, whichever specialty manages to get me MORE excited than OB/GYN does (if that's even possible!) is going to be amazing. So we'll see. Off to Seattle now to cram for the exam....

"Wear camping gear...in case we go down..."

Yep. That's what our OB/GYN/Pilot told us this morning as we planned for our afternoon plane ride. However, he also suggested that we bring some cookies for the ride, so my level of concern dropped a bit. :) It turned out to be an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day for flying, and we saw more of the mountains today than we have any day here in Anchorage. We flew just northeast of the city, up through several valleys where you could see glaciers below that stretched for what looked like miles. This state never ceases to amaze me in its vastness. LUCKY!

Saving Grace

These days, it's easy to forget to smell the roses...since we're constantly moving around like madmen/women...so I have become ever-so-grateful to this furry friend named Ruby, who is a neighboring pet from the apartment above us. I love seeing her romp around in the mornings as I'm getting ready for work. Today after I came home from rounding on a few patients, I opened my window to air out our very smelly apartment and Ruby came and stuck her whole head in. Actually, she tried to crawl through the window, but thankfully I caught her before she took the plunge. (She had very muddy feet and would've landed directly on my bed.) How could any day be bad when you get to pet this adorable face?!??!

Prince William Sound

No adventure to the "last frontier" is complete without a boat tour of some of the resident glaciers, so my fellow classmates and I went down to Whittier for a 6-hour long tour of some of Prince William Sound's best and iciest. :) Here we are, Breanne, Jeff, and me, in front of one called "Surprise Glacier." Good thing it's an easy-to-spell one (wink, wink-you know who you are). It was a beautiful day, despite the fact that I was post-call! Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone!

Activities in Anchorage

My time in Anchorage has been busy professionally, as I'm working on my OB/GYN rotation. Two weeks have passed already, but don't worry, my experience here has far from fruitless, even outside of the hospital! Despite the fact that it has rained nonstop since I arrived (except for the last two days), I and my colleagues have managed to see some of what Alaska has to offer. To prove it, I give you two pictures; one is from the the carnival ride "10,000 Naughts" (or whatever it's called) and is a view of the Alaska State Fair. The other is a shot from a 14 mile hike taken yesterday to the East of Anchorage, along what's called the "Powerline Trail." It really is beautiful up here!! Now, off to attempting more OB/GYN...I need to figure out what goes on in the following procedures...LAVH, TVT, AP repair, supracervical hysterectomy, and a D&C with a hysteroscopy. Whoo hoo!

Wedding Bells

This weekend I was lucky enough to witness the wedding of two very fine, very kind and wonderful people...that of Crystal and her fiance Adam. It was a beautiful night...absolutely gorgeous, at the Arbor Crest winery on a bluff in the north side of the Spokane Valley. I've known Crystal for something like ten or eleven years; we met showing quarter horses back when I was in high school. And look at her now! She's absolutely gorgeous, uber-talented with her artwork, and has now married a man who seems to be 100% high-quality. (I got to chat with them both at the airport: I was heading to Anchorage, they to Hawaii for their honeymoon.) Congratulations, you too!! :) And thanks for inviting me and the fam to join in your happy day!!

From Hippocampi to Uteri

Yesterday as I sat in our team meeting I caught myself dreaming off somewhat, and it occurred to me that my psychiatry rotation is coming to an end after what seems like a ridiculously short period of time. Six weeks flies by, and this has by and large been a hugely challenging and rewarding 6 weeks. Although some would argue that psychiatry is one of the very easiest rotations, I found that it was challenging and powerful in its own way: it's arguably the one field in medicine where a physician is armed only with his/her own therapeutic "touch" to help a patient. In an outpatient setting, antipsychotics and antidepressants rarely take effect during the time a patient is in the hospital, and it truly is the therapeutic efforts of the team: the docs, the nurses, the staff (what we call the "milieu") which makes a difference in the course of the patient's stay. So it's been moving, to say the least. I like to try to simply aim to make patients smile once or twice in my encounters with them (especially with depressed patients) because smiling in itself can make a person feel much better, all other variables held constant. That's my little contribution to their healthcare at this point in my training, and I hope it helps, even just a little.

Anyway, after six weeks of focusing on hippocampi (the area of the brain where learning and some emotional pathways reside and an area under study with respect to major depression), I move on to the North and will try my hand at the uteri: OB/GYN is up next on the list. Here goes!!!

Psychiatry through Art History

I never would have expected that the didactics portion of my first third year rotation could be quite this interesting...the informal lectures presented by our chief resident about Major Depression, Mania, and Schizophrenia have in fact been a foray into the minds of artists past. Whether observational or autobiographical in nature, I've been enthralled at each lecture at how vividly diseases of the mind can be portrayed in artwork. For example, yesterday's lecture focused on mania and schizophrenia. Our Chief, who is an art history major from years past, lead us through the art of British artist Louis Wain (1860-1939). Wain suffered from schizophrenia in his later years, and many psychologists believe that his art (which almost exclusively consisted of cats) became more deranged as his mental status declined. Our group ventured to say that perhaps the cats in Wain's later art represent the delusions and visual hallucinations a schizophrenic might experience. The lines between reality and illusion are blurred for a schizophrenic just as they are in the painted cats.

At any rate, it sure is refreshing to think about mental illness through artwork and the lives of people. I'm so glad to be out of T439's lecture hall that I can hardly stand it. Hallelujah, halleluja.

Cabo San Lucas

Let's just say this wasn't the only pair of margaritas I shared with my little sis Ellie. It was a great time: a delicious blend of relaxation with a twist of craziness (but don't worry...there were only a few nights that got really crazy, and mostly those involved a waiter and a few spare drinking straws). Cabo's a nice place...but NOT a nice place to visit during honeymoon season. We found a severe paucity of eligible bachelors. Ah well, it's not as if I was looking. Really, I wasn't!!
Highlight and Lowlight (in honor of my mother, who always asks this question):
Highlight: Snorkeling, by far. Not that Cabo is particularly known for it's underwater delights...but for the first time I actually got the breathing right, and when that worked, I took right off and swam all over the bay. Last time I was in Cabo, the snorkeling was my ultimate defeat: I kept hyperventilating when I tried to breathe in that tube. Maybe the swimming lessons this spring helped me breathe better?!? (wink, wink)
Lowlight: THE HEAT. Chugging water only to sweat it out minutes later is NOT my idea of fun weather. However, a Seattle tan has nothing on a Mexican one, so I'm not complaining. (Even if it means I am peeling a bit at the moment.) Plus, the margaritas are just that much better when it's sweltering.
Happy Fourth of July, y'all.

Post-Boards at Spirit Lake

Ahhhh....what more could a burnt-out girl ask for? My test is OVER, thankfully, and I was granted the freedom of a 350 mile drive up to Spirit Lake, ID, where my family has a cabin. It was a blissful yet crazy weekend. This is a picture of me and my dog Luna in the back of our '89 Malibu (yeah!), just before my Dad and I get into a waterfight with the on-board warm shower. (Yes, that's right...all the amenities for our little pink and purple boat.) And now, less than 72 hours after finishing my test, my sister and I are headed off to the great land of Mexico for a week of vacation/wildness. We've decided to just stay up all night tonight since there's no point in going to sleep: we landed in Seattle at 1:30am and our flight leaves from SEA-TAC at 6:30am. What's the point?!?! :) Here's a picture of my Dad and I AFTER our little water fight. See who still has the hose in her hand?

In the very least...

In the very least, I can't complain that I don't have beautiful scenery in the locations in which I toil. University of Washington's Suzallo Library is second to none, in my opinion. Now I just wish I could have some of the wisdom that it holds from all its students to carry me through the test on Friday! (Come on, absorb, ABSORB, brain!!!)

This is My Life

The month of June, summed up by an exemplary page from my First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 book. Sigh. I can't wait to be finished so I can have a life again!!

ONE MORE WEEK.

Raving Ravens

So this morning (and yesterday morning) on my run I came across this certain spot on my route where I have been repeatedly dive-bombed by neighborhood crows. I don't know if it's the barette I put in my hair to hold my bangs back or what, but I seriously thought I was going to be killed!! (I'm trying not to take this too personally.) And for some reason, a couple books I've read recently talk a fair amount about crows...so I'm wondering if any of y'all have any suggestions of fiction/non-fiction books that might enlighten me to the culture of crows...?

Always Assume the Worst

I've learned a new lesson which I believe my friends and family might want to take heed of. "ALWAYS ASSUME THE WORST." Many astute psychotherapists might say that I'm globalizing in making such a statement. Maybe. But take my experience in dance class last night. I was standing with my hands in my partner's, waiting for the instructors to count us down into our next move. I noticed that my partner was staring intently...into my eyes? at my nosering? a huge zit I hadn't noticed? These are the things I assumed he might be staring at. But no. It wasn't until we rotated partners that I realized the true meaning of 'the stare.' My partner, you see, had let out the most rancid SBD (Silent, But Deadly) I've ever whiffed. And the whole time he was staring at me was really because he was frozen in horror at his creation.

Wow. Like I said. Always assume the worst.

Casino Rueda?!?

Uh oh. Here we go again...only this time I think I've done it for good....is it really possible for a third year medical student to be taking three dance classes per week? Maybe, and if anyone is going to try it, I WILL. The newest obsession on the list?? Casino Rueda. It's like square dancing for latin lovers: one dancer calls out the moves, and everyone follows suit, and switches around. What a whole lot of fun. And now, all I need is a group of people who will want to practice this with me... :) Check this site out for a demo. http://www.ruedausa.com/

Who wouldn't love this man?!?!?!

Okay, okay, I know!! I haven't done much with my Blog. But here's an entry for today. Since I've been thinking about my Dad since Father's Day is coming up, I thought I better post a pic of him at our Lake Cabin. Always hauling something or other around, yet still the cap-donning sensitive artist that he is...I'm thankful for having him in my life. Even just yesterday he saved my butt from a disastrous afternoon of despair: who would have thought that a quiet afternoon with several Boards Review books could set me precariously leaning towards a spiral of worthlessness and unproductivity?!?! Happy Father's Day, Dad!!!

Tangles in Tango

I recently decided to augment my salsa dancing habits with a bit of Tango. Unbeknownst to my novitiate mind, this dance is NOT as easy as it looks. In fact, I think the easier the particular dance move appears, the more difficult it probably is to learn! Our instructors make Tango look deliciously smooth, yet my classmates and I struggle mercilessly for an hour a week. However, last night we learned a move called the Molinete, in which the lead pivots in on one axis as the follow traces a circle of grapevines around him. I've honestly never been so dizzy in my life. Except for maybe after some of the exams we've taken this quarter....ha! Anyway, I'm newly motivated to learn Tango....as tangled up as my equilibrium is, it's so controlled and graceful that I feel compelled to continue......

First Entry

Ahhh....a forum upon which to subject any innocent bystanders who happen upon this page to hear all the gory details of my life....HA! And you thought you were going to get details. We'll see how this shapes up.... To Be Continued.