Yes, I am alive

I've been meaning to post something, considering it's been over a month since my last post, but I never seemed to find the time to do it properly. And I would want to publish a proper post full of juicy news instead of a piddly little placeholder post. That last sentence was far more alliterative than I intended.

Anyway, I am back in Boston now, not doing any clinical rotations at the moment. It's nice to have so much downtime, somewhat reminiscent of the luxurious month-long winter breaks in college, and to be able to sleep in and engage in mindless activities. Lest you should be under the impression that I'm slacking off, I have undertaken the sizeable task of a major clean-up of my room at home. I realized that I had a lot of clothes, books, and random odds and ends collected over many years ever since I left for college, basically. And considering that I moved seven times in the four and a half years since graduating from high school, it's no surprise that a whole lot of junk had accumulated which I had no time to sift through. So, capitalizing on this rare event of having an extended amount of time entirely at my disposal, I decided to carpe diem. Thus, I generated several large bags of clothes and books to donate (just in time for the holidays! I'm such a good doobie), as well as many bags of pure garbage. The entire project is about 80% complete, the remainder consisting mainly of adequately storing my summer wardrobe and organizing my make-up and jewelry, the latter being a lot harder than it sounds when you're a make-up and jewelry junkie such as myself.

Now that I've bored you to tears with that, I can share more interesting updates which will remind you why you even bother reading this blog to begin with. The main focus of my life at the moment, besides the thrilling project described in excruciating detail above, is interviewing at residency programs. Foolishly, I was anticipating this ordeal as "fun," an opportunity to "travel," "meet people," and "visualize my future." I'm sure you can surmise from the exaggerated use of quotation marks that my naïveté was indeed just that. Not that it hasn't had its moments. It has been fun and informative to meet my future colleagues and to reaffirm why obstetrics-gynecology is the only specialty I can imagine pursuing. I am more glad than ever that I took a year off because I know I needed those extra 12 months to really feel ready to become a physician. It still freaks me out, but not to the point of wanting to run and hide in my mother's bed.

Those are the highlights of late. Theoretically, I should post more regularly now with all this free time on my hands. Now if only I could tear myself away from A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila ...

Building character

Do you remember the classic Calvin and Hobbes strip about "building character?" Every time Calvin's dad asks him to do a tedious chore, he justifies it as an opportunity to "build character." Well, lately at work, I've been building more character than I ever wanted to. It's kind of a crunch because we're all leaving by the end of June, except for one, so we have to shuffle things around and cover for each other until all the new staff are on board. So between me and Marisa, we will have to juggle six research studies and generally hold down the fort, which is easier said than done. As if that weren't enough, one of the doctors is writing a grant and I'm the one lucky enough to help her with it. *sarcasm alert* It just so happens with the timing of various departures that I'm the most flexible with my availability. Wooo. This would be annoying per se but it's an especially fun treat because this doc is probably one of the most anal retentive, OCD, super-anxious people I know. And trust me, that's saying a lot. The damn thing is due on May 29th, so I'm going to have to channel all my spiritual and meditative powers to stave off a psychotic break. Not to mention the large, stiff drink I'll need that night.

Anyhoo. My latest Netflix rental was Little Miss Sunshine and I absolutely loved it! That's a movie I could have bought at the store and kept. I'm glad Alan Arkin won the Oscar for his role - he was brilliant! I wish Steve Carell had won something too, though. He is incredibly talented. The whole story was very well written, acted, and filmed. I love movies like that which are like little glimpses into someone's world, kind of like being a fly on the wall for a little while. There's no big finish, no preachy moral, no melodramatic symbolism. Just a story, plain and simple. Next on the list is Miss Congeniality (pure coincidence that two movies based on beauty pageants are adjacent on my queue, I swear!). I would also like to get to the theater to see Shrek the Third sometime soon.

I also would like to draw your attention to the recent additions to my blog, namely links to my Flickr photos and my del.icio.us page. The former is a wonderful way to post, share, and organize pictures and images. The latter is a very handy place to store all your bookmarks and favorite links which you can then access from any computer. Both are free services (Flickr has the option of a paid account with more features and less advertising) and very easy to sign up for. And, as with most things, it's more fun when your friends are doing it. I haven't uploaded all my pics to Flickr yet, but there are a few from the wedding. The main way I am sharing photos right now is through Facebook, but I've been wanting something more permanent and user-friendly than Snapfish or Shutterfly. Check back often - hopefully I'll have most of my pics up in a few days!

It's good to be king... especially when you're hot

When I first heard about the new television series, The Tudors, I was excited and skeptical. How could a show with such a sexy portrayal of King Henry VIII possibly be historically accurate? Well. I'm no student of European royalty but frankly, the show is so hot, I kind of don't care. From whatever I have seen and read about the infamous Henry, so far it does seem to be faithful to true events. As Jonathan Rhys Meyers responded to the surprising depiction of an overweight, bearded old fart as a jacked, sweaty heartthrob: "The Henry that we portray is somebody who's a very, very athletic guy. But, if you were doing as much hunting, jousting, wrestling, running a country and having a lot of sex, you're going to be pretty trim." Well said. Of course there are certain liberties they take in order to make it a captivating show. Kind of like what they do in all the medical dramas - if they wanted those shows to be realistic, all you'd see is bleary-eyed residents sitting at computers checking lab results, attendings pimping medical students on esoteric biochemical pathways, and nurses taking vital signs. Not so thrilling. That's why they have floods and smallpox epidemics in the ER and people having sex in the operating room.

Speaking of which (the boring realities of medicine, that is), one of my NYC electives was approved! So I will be at the Beth Israel Medical Center in September. I will probably have to apply to another program in addition to Columbia as a safety because Columbia is playing kind of hard-to-get. In any case, I'm excited that I will be getting to try out Manhattan firsthand. I can't believe that I only have about seven weeks left of my research position at MGH. It feels like the year really flew by. I'm kind of nervous about going back to clinical work, but I know that it's just a matter of jumping in and then I'll remember how to swim. Whereas a year ago the prospect of graduating medical school was frankly terrifying, now... well, it's still terrifying but also a relief. I don't care what the media shows, med school ain't no picnic.

I'm also glad the weather is finally more conducive to outdoor activities. I've been able to go for my runs outside now, instead of slogging away on the treadmill indoors, as I prefer to do when it's below freezing. If you're an outdoor exerciser, you should check out this website which helps you map out routes anywhere in the country for running/walking. It gives total miles, elevation points, etc and you can search their database for routes other people have created. It's a pretty handy tool, and useful for traveling.

Well, that's all I have to say about that. Now I'm off to curl up with a good book and cup of tea on this rainy day...

YouTube and drugs

For some reason, I have only recently ventured into the procrastination heaven that is YouTube. By following various links on Facebook, I have stumbled across some of the most hilariously ridiculous filmed nonsense ever. Awesome. My faves thus far (click at your own risk - embarassingly addictive):

Shoes
Charlie the Unicorn
"My Humps" by Alanis Morissette

In other news, I'm currently reading "Hard Sell" by Jamie Reidy. It came out a couple of years ago and I think I heard of it back then, but was spurred to pick it up based on a New York Times article from a few weeks ago about doctors who are willing to sacrifice credibility as unbiased scientists in order to fatten their wallets. Reidy is a former top sales rep for Pfizer who lost his job after his book was published because it revealed the inner workings of the pharmaceutical industry. And, well, anything that gets someone fired/exiled/assassinated immediately piques my interest (e.g., Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses"). Anyway, Reidy's book is especially intriguing because he began working for Pfizer just prior to the company's introduction of Viagra to the market, which needless to say, rocked everyone's world *wink wink nudge nudge*. I can't put it down. I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever been prescribed a medication and anyone who writes/will write prescriptions. Which should safely include all of you. Unless you've never even had so much as an ear infection and/or hospitals gross you out. Read it anyway.

Happy teeth!

So I just made the switch over from the good ol' manual toothbrush to a fancy electric one. And I must say, I'm quite impressed. This might be TMI but you know that nasty sensation of plaque/tartar that you start to feel when you run your tongue over your teeth in the middle of the day? WELL. With this little gizmo, it is a thing of history! It's funny - because I moved around so much as a little kid and my parents had more pressing matters to worry about than our dental hygiene (like say, oh I don't know, repeating their medical training), I didn't start seeing a dentist regularly until I was in high school. Then we went all out - cleanings twice a year, x-rays, and of course, the requisite orthodontic work. I've been lucky to have a mouth of solid teeth so they weren't rotting out of my head by the time a professional started caring for them. The main reason I got the new toothbrush is because I am sans dental insurance at the moment and my mother preferred to invest in a high-end toothbrush rather than out-of-pocket dental care. She also made me promise to floss every day... if only there were an electric flosser...

In other news, this blog has already gone above and beyond its aims! Simply by announcing it I have heard from two of my dearest friends, Jennie and Shefali, both of whom I have been terrible about keeping up with. Check out Shefali's blog (also listed on the sidebar)!