Booyah!

June 15th...and then I was 28. That's right, another year down "and miles to go..." or so the saying goes. Thank you to all my awesome friends and awesome family for the awesome presents, awesome birthday wishes, and an awesome good time. You're all Awesome. Thank you to my dog, Stitch, for throwing up on my lap on the ride down to Rachel's place. Thank you, Chris for lending me your pants because mine reaked of doggie spew. And thank you, MacGuyver for showing me the importance of duct tape.

Tatay, Happy Father's Day. Your present is forthcoming...sorry about the delay =)

!Si! Hablo espanol.

Ok, the 2 weeks of intensive medical spanish is winding down and thank goodness for that. Getting up @ 7 in the morning to be in school till 5 (sometimes 6) in the afternoon is seriously por los pajaros. But I know a little more spanish, more medical commands (I now know how to say "bend over..." and "this is going to hurt a lot" in Spanish) and hopefully I can put them to good use with the upcoming volunteer migrant health clinic in June. Then it's off to New Orleans for a week with Habitat for Humanity then teaching anatomy to the Prematric 1st years until the end of July. No rest for the weary!

Motivational speaker...not quite

So we had our standardized patient lab for the first time today. What it entails is we get to play doctor with patient actors in a staged doctor's office. Normally we get videotaped so that we can assess our performance, but since we're newbies, they let us off the hook this time. Needless to say, it was still a little nerve-racking once you get into the thick of things...it's not so much as approaching the patient, it's the "knowing your lines" part that got to me. I studied, I read the articles, I memorized the steps...to no avail. Under the militant resolve of a 17-year-old girl, my approach to getting a person to quit smoking folded like a cheap suit. I mean, this girl just won't budge! I don't know if she knew I was nervous or if she was just playing hardball, or maybe both, but I was at a loss for words when she told me that she enjoyed smoking...I had no comeback for it. I told her all the good things that come with quitting and all the bad things that can happen with continued smoking...with no effect. I tried to justify it to myself, "she's an adult, almost...she has a mind of her own...," but somehow it's not good enough. I didn't convince her. And it's pissing me off that I couldn't even do that...

Down to business

OK, Anatomy Memorial and Cultural fair are done. I did the choir thing and the Filipino dance thing as well and now it's down to business...dirty, dirty business. God help me if I should survive this week of Micro, Neuro, and Anatomy...oh don't forget Prevention for 3 more weeks...1st year is almost over, and yet it's not. So close...

Requiem Aeternam

So this semester has been one big blur and a ginormous pain in the tuchus. As if I don't have enough to do, I decided to add one more dish on my plate. There is going to be an anatomy memorial for our cadavers sometime either @ the end of April or beginning of May and I thought it would be nice to do something special. In light of many special people that I've known who had gone before me, I felt compelled to perform such a task to honor their memory alongside our gracious cadavers. And so, I picked a doozey. For the next month or so, I will attempt to get a bunch of first year med school students to sing a requiem song called "Lux Aeterna" by John Rutter. "How" you say? Good question...I've been asking myself that for a while now. I hope I'm not in over my head. Questions, comments, snide remarks...prayers...send them my way.

Here's what I'm up against...

Ab workout

It seems that I am slated to participate in the cultural festivities at our school sometime this upcoming spring. And part of the celebration is to perform a traditional Filipino dance involving coconut shells and banging on them as "warriors did hundreds of years ago..." like warriors actually fought with coconut bras and such.

Needless to say, I will be doing this without a shirt and that means exposing my not so flattering midsection.

Enter the Ab workout. I started today. Ran 2 miles and then did my routine on the exercise ball (20 reps, 3 sets regular crunches, 20 reps 3 sets oblique crunches on each oblique). If I want to be cut by spring, I think I ought to be doing more.

Why couldn't I do the tinikling instead...

2008

New Year. Let's make it better than the last one.
"Surprise yourself..."