Life in PA!

Hello All!!
Ok, I haven't been keeping up with my blog, and I'm sorry about that.  The move to central PA has taken most of my time.  Lots of setbacks and short tempers but things are slowly shaping up.
Lemme splain...
1. The place I moved into was somewhat not ready for move in (some windows weren't working, some had no screens, all had no blinds, the place wasn't cleaned by the landlord, The backdoor doorknob keeps falling off, etc...)
2. The boxspring for my bed can't fit through the stairs, so right now, I'm just sleeping on the mattress
3. The Oven doesn't work!!!  It did before!  Now, it doesn't.  WTF?!
4. It took forever to connect my DSL, and on top of that, my wireless network (obviously both are fixed now).
5. ORIENTATION HAS STARTED!!! I got my own long white coat, my pager, and my ridiculous schedule and everything else that comes with being a new intern.  Quite overwhelming, really.

So I start next Friday, the 1st day of 4th of July Weekend, throughout the weekend! Umm...yea...no rest for the newbie.
On the upside, I enjoyed my downtime after graduation with my family and my girlfriend (miss you babe).  I've been slowly putting things together and cleaning things in my new place.  My landlord is working with me to get things all set up properly. And, I'm also enjoying getting to know my fellow pediatricians and the my new staff/faculty.
Good things.
This is a new chapter in my life.  Now that I'm connected again, I'll be more diligent (maybe) in keeping up this blog.
Until next time, ;-).

Song of the day: "Pumped Up Kicks" - Foster The People

First Weekday of Med School Freedom

05/09: And I spent it working on my loan repayment situation/apartment hunting.
It was quite depressing. The loan repayment situation, not so much the apartment hunting.
So far, I have organized my loans into groups according to which entities I will be making my payments to. OK, 3 so far. Not too bad. Now, comes the tricky part: which payment options to choose. Right now, I'm trying to figure out what my new cost of living will be in my new place of residence. More stuff to follow tomorrow.
Apartment hunting is going. The one apartment that I wanted, a school building rebuilt into a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom, new kitchen with brand new appliances (dishwasher, range, microwave, fridge), washer/dryer, with hardwood/tile flooring and really good natural lighting (open floor layout with lots of windows) is $1200. Unfortunately its not in my price range. Will be looking at much more approachable living accommodations on Wednesday.

05/13: Wednesday has come and gone. And sad to say, the other places still didn't pan out. It's either too expensive or the move-in date is too late. I fear, I may have waited too long and all the good places are rented. Still, I remain hopeful. I'll try again next Monday.
In other news, I floated the idea of doing a Tough Mudder event to my girlfriend earlier this afternoon. A few minutes ago, she told me that she has a tentative team ready and would undertake the next year to train for the August event in her neck of the woods. To make things more interesting, she "invited" or rather "challenged" me to join her team. I admit I am very intrigued at the prospect of training and getting fit for such an awesome obstacle course, but it is not without some doubt that I made my mind about it.
So here's to me and my big, fat mouth. :)
Hey, I got through med school...what's a little 12-mile run with 16 obstacles, right? Right???

Song of the day: "Serpentine" - Chris Bathgate

Week 1, dun!

One week down, 7 more to go, with call duty, step 2 and step 2 PE. Bring it!

Today, I pretty much tried to be as productive as possible. Got up early, read a bit, went to the local farmer's market, got some fresh produce and hightailed it back to the lair to cook up my catch all before 11am.  Not bad.

Once belly was full and amply caffeinated, I proceeded to hit the Q-bank with gusto.  Looks like I'm ready w/ peds and surgery questions.  IM, however is still proving to be a tough nut to crack.  did about 200 questions.  Will probably do 200 more tonight if I don't get all comatose-like after dinner. 

6pm.  Off to Whole foods to get more provisions that I wasn't able to get from the FM.  Big shocker: 13 bux for almond butter.  WTF?!?!  While it is fun to peruse the aisles for all the colorful, organic fare, the prices are just ridiculously out of hand.  Looks like I'll be sticking to my good ol' Shoprite for the time being.  I tell you what tho, I found this amazing can of butter beans, and I might just be tempted to go back, just to stock up on them.

A 1/2 hour later, it's off to the neighboring liquor store for some cold beverages.  This place had a crazy variety of local beers...I was so tempted to buy at least 3 different 6-packs.  But, good sense and lack funds did sway me back to sobriety, so I just bought the Sam Adams coastal wheat (wheat ale w/ California lemon peel).  I must say, I found a new Sam favorite.  This went well with the steak and bean-carrot-tater hash that I prepped for tonight's supper.

So far, so good.

Song of the day: "Rubber Duckie" - Ernie from Sesame Street

Hello world!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Just a regular update. I haven't been very good at blogging lately, mainly because I just feel uninspired to write. But I'll try to remedy that tonight.
So just to get things rolling, let us review some goings on in my life:

1. Finished Step 2 Board review sessions! Now it's just 2 more months until the big day. Again. That being said, I need to get my ass in gear like a month ago and do some more practice questions.

2. Bought my very first fishing rod and reel combo! Yay! Unfortunately nobody cared to inform me about the number 1 bane of fishing: tangled lines. So far, I've taken my gear out twice since I got it this past Saturday. And both times, I've had to untangle what seems like copious amounts of "bird nests." Yeesh. So far, only 3 fish were caught and all of them were quite tiny, the biggest being about a 6-inch smallmouth bass. Better that than nothing I suppose.

3. I dislike mosquitoes very much. Yet one more reason why I prefer the fall/winter.

4. I start my 4th year rotations tomorrow, unofficially. I signed up for 2 weeks of NICU and 2 weeks of Child Protection Program for the month of July so I could get some more experience for the August subinternships in Massachusetts (I hope). Not being graded in these first 2, hence the whole unofficial business. I start promptly at 7am. Woo. Hoo.

5. My back feels better, thank you.

6. Still on the fence about dating websites. Something about them just creeps me out and personally, I'd feel "desperate" if I were to join one of them. This is just my personal view about myself, not a generalization of those out there who are proponents of dating sites, so please save your snide remarks for some other time. Thank you.

7. I need to begin my personal statement and residency applications this week. Yikes. Kinda scary if you think about it. Just when I was just getting used to being a student all over again, now I have less than 12 months to apply for a job, get a job, and actually work...AS A DOCTOR! Growing up sucks balls.

8. Facebook depresses me. There's just too many people in there that I don't talk to or at one time have been my friends in passing and have since fallen out of touch. And then there are those people who just feel compelled to chronicle the minutes of their lives, which just drives me nuts! Perhaps it's time for an "unfriending" session. And a Settings update can't hurt either. If it weren't for the pics, I would have deleted my account a long time ago.

9. I'm going to a themed bachelor party next week. The theme: 80s. I need a costume. Something that is representative of the decade, but at the same time, easy to put together. Suggestions are welcome.

10. Musical ventilation is in order. That and a few glasses of scotch. STAT!

That's all for now. Stay classy, San Diego.

Song of the day: "When The Stars Go Blue" - The Corrs and Bono (Orig. song by Ryan Adams)

Ok...just follow me on this one...

Step 1: Get up and go.
I started the day out right. Had about 8 hours sleep, decent breakfast, Did my 3 S's and caught a little bit of the world cup goings on, all before 1pm.

Step 2: Errands.
Got some groceries, returned a few dvds from the public library (btw, the circulation desk librarian was looking mighty cute today), and even went to my eye doctor to pay my bill, personally. Pretty good so far.

Step 3: Caffeination.
Went to my school library to do a little Boards studying, but first thing's first: coffee. So I met up with one of my friends who's also studying there as well, and we hiked it over to the hospital next door for some joe. Dun and dun.

Step 4: Down to business.
Back to the library wherein I proceeded to crack open the books and fire up the ol' comp for some online tunage and Kaplan study gudnis (if you can really call it that).

Step 5: Cue distraction.
This step once more proves my original hypothesis back in college: I have ADD. And, being a competent student of science, I must have a null hypothesis which is: I'm a slut. To the point, new students for the med school, the nursing school, PT school, and Graduate school just happened to be in the same library with me. It's tough to keep your focus with all these new faces around.

Step 6: The incident.
So, finally going back to the studying, I decided to bust out my traditional gummy bears (my one study vice) as I slogged through the next round of internal medicine questions. As I chomped down on the first gummy bear, I hear my teeth crunch, loudly. A few things ran through my mind: 1. This gummy bear's stale as hell! 2. Since when did Haribo start putting prizes in their gummy bears? 3. I'm pretty sure gummy bears aren't supposed to have crunchy skeletons. 4. I'm rich! I can sue the gummy bear factory for having glass in their product! 5. Am I bleeding? Nope. No blood. Not yet.

Step 7: The realization.
One of my fillings cracked on the gummy bear. Upper right, 3rd molar from the front. This means, I have to go to the dentist. Some people don't like doctors. Me, I don't like dentists. I'm sure they're nice people, but there's just something sadistic about that bunch. I mean, they lay out all their instruments (of torture) right in front of you and they don't even have the decency to put you to sleep. And what is it with them and asking you questions while they're injecting a horse needle into your gums?

So aside from the cracked tooth and the potential visit to the dentist's, everything else was pretty cool, albeit I was quite distracted today. What's a single guy to do? C'est la vie.

Song of the day: "In The Summertime" - Mungo Jerry

Yesterday

I'm turning a corner. In a few days, I finish out another decade...the big 3-0. And there's a good deal of apprehension with my up and coming birthday. Things like, I aught to be fiscally/residentially independent, 30...that I should be in a long term relationship (hell, I'll take a short one at the moment), 30...that I should be a lot more confident in my skills, 30...well, all of these things are still in the works, but I feel like they should have been done a whiles ago. We all have felt the creep of time on us and unfortunately for me, I'm more aware of its pace more than ever.

Last night, I was hanging with some of my high school friends and they so lovingly pointed out that I'll be a "geezer" in a few days (old inside joke, but regardless, the meaning is none too obscure). Seeing as they're about the same age as me, it's almost like they're mocking their own selves with such quips, nonetheless, I am the first of the group to cross over the threshold. Turning 30...it's like what one of my professors said about growing old...it just sounds so bad, as if we've hit our expiration date...TURNING...I'm older so I'm slower, fatter, smellier, like milk TURNED sour after it passed it's prime. Used to be when I was younger that I reveled in the idea of me and my buddies going out to get wasted. Now, I can barely stand it to see them get blitzed on cheap beer, playing drinking games all night and randomly hooking up with the next blond with big tits. I think that way and I instantly feel old, as if the youth that has sustained me just evaporated in the summer sun. I feel so old, that I dreaded the idea that I'm to take 30 shots in my party. No way in hell I'm doing that. I've never been able to do that, but back then I'd at least give it a solid try, then puke all over the lawn. Now I shrink back with my non-tolerant liver against such a challenge. Granted, being able to hold your liquor is not exactly grounds for bragging in my book (millions of college kids might disagree with me on that one), but it certainly doesn't help with bolstering up the youthful image...bold, brash, invincible.

I feel like panicking. I really do. But that would only serve to make things even more pathetic. And that would just be an ugly site. No, I'll turn 30 with a grin and go through my rite of passage with gusto and hopefully not lose my dinner in the process. And if I don't make it to next Saturday's Boards review session, then look for me in my bed or in the hospital, cuz either I'll be hungover like a muthaf***a or dying, or worse. I pray that gin and vodka better play nice with me at my party.

Song of the day: "Vienna" - Billy Joel

and...Go!

First, it was a nice, quiet early birthday celebration with family, 2 weeks ago. As usual, mom made a wonderful dinner. I overdid it with the noodles (so good) and the steak (so better). Then the gifts and the cake. It's official...I'm 29. the rents gave me some cash, which is always helpful, and my sister and bro-in-law were very generous in getting me a nice-sized flat screen TV for my room. Muchas gracias, indeed.
The rest of that weekend was spent getting some things organized for the upcoming semester. Then it was off to my roadtrip...





Left NJ last Tuesday, the 16th. Arrived in the city by 7ish and had a nice barbecue on the roof with Yoni. His apartment is in the upper west side, which had a nice urbanite feel to it. The next morning, I did a lot of walking in Riverside Park and was playing with the new camera I bought from my brother. It worked well, except for the memory card...not enough memory (sheesh). Took lots of pictures of trees. They were better looking than the architecture. Had lunch at this hummus joint by 72nd street and had Shakshuka (tomato stew with poached eggs) for the first time. Very tasty and bright. Spent the rest of the afternoon just chillin' in the apartment...I think I pulled a hammy from all that walking. That evening, saw "The Hangover" with Yoni and his friend. Pretty damn funny. Later on, it was off to a bar for some more eats and drinks with his other friend, Andy. Congrats to him for getting the GI fellowship!


The next day, it rained, and it never really stopped. So I said my goodbyes and thanked Yon for his hospitality and the use of his couch. I was finally off to Massachusetts to go see Chris and Al. They had since moved from Boston to Waltham into this huge condo. Chris and Al got me some strong plum wine and 3 one-cup sakes for my birthday. Chris and I split one of the sakes before heading out to another party in downtown Boston. Al caught up with us later that evening from her work and we pretty much played pool and had pizza and wings, courtesy of Chris's work. Later that night on the ride back home, we all decided to go for more food @ this place called Shabu Zen. Very cool Japanese restaurant that specializes in shabu-shabu (translation: swish-swish). They give you raw food so you can cook it yourself on the boiling broth on your table, very much in the style of fondue. Everything looked and tasted amazing. I went home the next day and Chris had to go to Martha's Vineyard with his workmates. It would've been a great trip for him except that it was still raining. It never stopped. Al had to go to work too, unfortunately so we all said our goodbyes and I was off, back to Jersey.
That afternoon I picked up some CDs for the ride back home to Cherry Hill and met up with my other friend, Viv, @ Eclectic in Montclair for coffees and a late lunch. It was good to catch up with her.
And so ends my abridged New England roadtrip.

Yesterday, 3rd year officially started with our orientation. Back to battle...

Song of the Day: "Nothing But A Miracle" - Diane Birch

She's So choice!

And so it goes

So, it's been almost a year since last I wrote something in here. Lots has happened. New Orleans (Habitat for Humanity) was a lot of fun. Just being able to put in a good day's worth of work for the benefit of those needing lots of help was a good thing for the soul. And getting to play in the Bourbon St. nightlife was also pretty groovy. Thanks to Meg and Mirv for coming to NOLA and showing me the sights. Let's do it again next time =).
The Migrant Worker Clinic turned out well too. There were lots of patients to see and they were very grateful for even the smallest thing we can do for them. Really made me realize that healthcare should be more accessible to the public. On a brighter note, I got to practice my Spanish and my vital sign skills.
Teaching or at least, assisting in the Prematric program was a great way to make new friends and review my anatomy/OMM. Also, it made me realize finally that I'm not cut out to be a teacher. I hate...repeat...HATE grading papers.
The fall and spring semesters of 2nd year were nothing but one big sequence of trials...droning on and on. Endless days and sleepless nights of learning Path, Pharm, and Medicine...plus other peripheral classes...oh and don't forget to season the whole thing with the day-to-day drama (yes, life still exists out of med school). After review for Boards, I felt like I haven't really learned anything solid in the past 10 months of 2nd sem. It was like, ok, lets memorize for the test, then regurgitate. Rinse. Repeat. And now, it's Boards time. Just when I thought I was done shoveling 500 medical pancakes down my throat, I have to do it all over again for Step 1. I have less than a month left to prepare. Saddle up kiddies...it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
On the upside, I'm looking forward to 3rd year. Every day is a day closer to my goal. Yes, it's difficult now (hell, it's been difficult all year long, especially the end of the spring sem), but all of this is just prologue to the good stuff. So far I'm still alive, still standing and keeping myself open for better things ahead. And all the prep work/heartache/backache/sleep-deprivation I'm doing now is paving the way for all of that, so no worry about a t'ing cuz every lil thing gon' be alright.
Yea, I have good and bad days, but so does everybody. I figure, it's just another opportunity for me to make things right. And pretty much that's all I can do, for now.
There are ideas in the making...I'll keep you posted as things progress.

Ciao.

Song of the Day: "Caroline" - The Belleville Outfit