this is my 100th post. i suppose i should do some sort of retrospective, where i cut and paste some of the best moments in the past couple years. but i'm not, cuz i don't have time, and all i really wanted to post was the link for my professional wedding photos:
www.kphotok.instaproofs.com
password: clouser
enjoy!
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
[insert clever title]
so, i'm a little tired, but i'd thought i'd write here. i finished all my basic internet lazing around. checked my mail, facebook, google news, hulu....got a little bored and thought i'd make a post. it's been long enough...
life has been ok. went and got married, had a honeymoon, came back to school. which has been intense. been mostly working 12 hour days, and working at least a half day on one weekend day. except for anesthesia week, that was the best. ahh, i miss thee, anesthesia...so i'm just over halfway through my surgery rotation, and i'm tired. luckily, i have my trusty better half to pick up the slack from my uselessness. which basically means that pete does all the chores. he's very sweet about it. and dinner's ready when i get home, and it's (almost) always really good.
so i've been busy, but most days are pretty good. right now i'm on pediatric surgery, and that's nice. mostly my days are in the OR, and the kids are really cute. very nice atmosphere. last week i was in trauma surgery, and that wasn't as fun. it all depends on the residents, and how they like to treat the med students. there's ones that like to ask you lots of questions, or get upset when you do something wrong (which of course just means doing it a different way than they would have, which usually means doing it how someone else taught you...), or get annoyed when YOU ask THEM a question. come on, isn't this supposed to be educational? i'm getting better with being asked questions, though. in med school parlance, it's called being "pimped." i'm not sure why, but that's what you call it.
one of the attendings gave us a lecture and gave some advice about how to answer questions: start general first. he talked about when he was in school, in a surgery, helping retract something, when blood started shooting out of the area. the surgeon asked, "what's that?"
"blood."
"from what?"
"an artery."
"which artery?"
"uh, the cystic artery." which was the name of the artery near where they were working...
the beauty of this approach is it gives you time to think, and you don't get stuck in the trap of anwering quickly with a random quess which then just gets you stuck when they keep asking you questions about your answer.
why do i want to do this again? i forget.
anyway, here's another pic from the wedding. hopefully i'll get the professional ones soon, they're ready i just need to get them!
have a good thanksgiving!
life has been ok. went and got married, had a honeymoon, came back to school. which has been intense. been mostly working 12 hour days, and working at least a half day on one weekend day. except for anesthesia week, that was the best. ahh, i miss thee, anesthesia...so i'm just over halfway through my surgery rotation, and i'm tired. luckily, i have my trusty better half to pick up the slack from my uselessness. which basically means that pete does all the chores. he's very sweet about it. and dinner's ready when i get home, and it's (almost) always really good.
so i've been busy, but most days are pretty good. right now i'm on pediatric surgery, and that's nice. mostly my days are in the OR, and the kids are really cute. very nice atmosphere. last week i was in trauma surgery, and that wasn't as fun. it all depends on the residents, and how they like to treat the med students. there's ones that like to ask you lots of questions, or get upset when you do something wrong (which of course just means doing it a different way than they would have, which usually means doing it how someone else taught you...), or get annoyed when YOU ask THEM a question. come on, isn't this supposed to be educational? i'm getting better with being asked questions, though. in med school parlance, it's called being "pimped." i'm not sure why, but that's what you call it.
one of the attendings gave us a lecture and gave some advice about how to answer questions: start general first. he talked about when he was in school, in a surgery, helping retract something, when blood started shooting out of the area. the surgeon asked, "what's that?"
"blood."
"from what?"
"an artery."
"which artery?"
"uh, the cystic artery." which was the name of the artery near where they were working...
the beauty of this approach is it gives you time to think, and you don't get stuck in the trap of anwering quickly with a random quess which then just gets you stuck when they keep asking you questions about your answer.
why do i want to do this again? i forget.
anyway, here's another pic from the wedding. hopefully i'll get the professional ones soon, they're ready i just need to get them!
have a good thanksgiving!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
oh,right, i AM in school right now....
i keep having to remind myself that i am actually in the midst of school right now. my full time job is not just planning the wedding, unpacking the new apartment, and hanging out with pete. i'm in psychiatry right now, which really isn't much of a job anyway. except now it's getting to the end of the rotation, which means i definitely need to start studying hard core. coincidently, i thought it would be perfect time to write in my blog. always there when i need it...
my last 4 weeks have been spent on the inpatient ward in the va hospital here. lots of grizzled older guys with ptsd and maybe a bit of psychosis, punctuated by younger grizzled guys with ptsd and substance abuse. i've forgotten that women and children exist, except for nurses. at first the ward was kinda scary. i mean, these people are crazy. i've spent my life rigorously avoiding them. but after the first week, you really just feel sad for them. they are dealing with things that basically can't be cured, and their life seems to be caught up in one really bad nightmare that they can't wake up from.
but i've definitely crossed off psychiatrist from the list. partially why i also forget that this matters, is i just don't particularly care that much how i do. and i get really bored when i'm studying. not quite as attention grabbing as neurology was. hopefully there won't be too many more rotations like this. i guess no matter what there won't be another one that is right before i get married...
did i mention i'm getting married soon? like, less than a month? pete and i went on an engaged encounter weekend, as advised by our officiant. it was sponsored by the catholic church, but i don't think we'll be converting anytime soon. kneelers are way too uncomfortable. we had a good time, though. good to get away from everything else, and just talk about being married.
there's the update for now. i don't have internet right now in the new apartment, so i'm utilizing the library. it's good for at least one thing...and i can see some leisure reading books out of the corner of my left eye....may wander over there now and see what i can find....the world is full of temptations if you only know where to look!
my last 4 weeks have been spent on the inpatient ward in the va hospital here. lots of grizzled older guys with ptsd and maybe a bit of psychosis, punctuated by younger grizzled guys with ptsd and substance abuse. i've forgotten that women and children exist, except for nurses. at first the ward was kinda scary. i mean, these people are crazy. i've spent my life rigorously avoiding them. but after the first week, you really just feel sad for them. they are dealing with things that basically can't be cured, and their life seems to be caught up in one really bad nightmare that they can't wake up from.
but i've definitely crossed off psychiatrist from the list. partially why i also forget that this matters, is i just don't particularly care that much how i do. and i get really bored when i'm studying. not quite as attention grabbing as neurology was. hopefully there won't be too many more rotations like this. i guess no matter what there won't be another one that is right before i get married...
did i mention i'm getting married soon? like, less than a month? pete and i went on an engaged encounter weekend, as advised by our officiant. it was sponsored by the catholic church, but i don't think we'll be converting anytime soon. kneelers are way too uncomfortable. we had a good time, though. good to get away from everything else, and just talk about being married.
there's the update for now. i don't have internet right now in the new apartment, so i'm utilizing the library. it's good for at least one thing...and i can see some leisure reading books out of the corner of my left eye....may wander over there now and see what i can find....the world is full of temptations if you only know where to look!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
40 days and...*
well, it's now 40 days, according to theknot.com, to my wedding. how crazy is that? how crazy am i? oh yeah, i'm "it's-only-forty-days-away"-crazy. which is the kind of crazy that tends to forget that i'm actually in school right now, and really should study at some point. because i have 683 things to do in the next forty days, and at least as many things to worry about going wrong.
honestly, i'm really doing alright. the big thing is now i'm past the point of favors/invitations/dresses and more at the point of apartments/marriage license/bills. which is so not as fun. i'm glad that most of the little decisions have been made, but the ones that are left are wicked annoying. the stuff you don't care about. or at least, the stuff i don't care about. kara, my super bridesmaid/wedding consultant (weddingplanningcentral.blogspot.com) was asking me what song i wanted for the bouquet toss. i had no idea that bouquet tosses were put to music. and that that choice was important for me to make. i still haven't made that decision yet...any ideas guys?
so i mentioned apartments, i might as well discuss that further. i'll be moving shortly to a new apartment, yay! i got the keys, and we already dropped off our shower gifts there. it'll be exciting. 2 bedroom, first floor apartment. hard wood floors, gas stove, basement....good stuff.
i seriously have so many details flying around my head right now that it's hard to even think about what to write. but i'll get it done. pete will help. as will my minions. i must say, this last weekend having my bridesmaids around made me wish i had a personal assistant in my regular life. seriously, i barely even carried my purse for myself this weekend. it was awesome. i love delegating. though i promised kara that i would always treat my assistants well. i hope i treated her well...
well, it feels good to get back into the swing of things on this blog. there's more to tell, of course, with pictures...but i don't have time for that right now.
*though this is being published on t minus 38 days, i started writing it on 40 days, so i thought i'd keep that
honestly, i'm really doing alright. the big thing is now i'm past the point of favors/invitations/dresses and more at the point of apartments/marriage license/bills. which is so not as fun. i'm glad that most of the little decisions have been made, but the ones that are left are wicked annoying. the stuff you don't care about. or at least, the stuff i don't care about. kara, my super bridesmaid/wedding consultant (weddingplanningcentral.blogspot.com) was asking me what song i wanted for the bouquet toss. i had no idea that bouquet tosses were put to music. and that that choice was important for me to make. i still haven't made that decision yet...any ideas guys?
so i mentioned apartments, i might as well discuss that further. i'll be moving shortly to a new apartment, yay! i got the keys, and we already dropped off our shower gifts there. it'll be exciting. 2 bedroom, first floor apartment. hard wood floors, gas stove, basement....good stuff.
i seriously have so many details flying around my head right now that it's hard to even think about what to write. but i'll get it done. pete will help. as will my minions. i must say, this last weekend having my bridesmaids around made me wish i had a personal assistant in my regular life. seriously, i barely even carried my purse for myself this weekend. it was awesome. i love delegating. though i promised kara that i would always treat my assistants well. i hope i treated her well...
well, it feels good to get back into the swing of things on this blog. there's more to tell, of course, with pictures...but i don't have time for that right now.
*though this is being published on t minus 38 days, i started writing it on 40 days, so i thought i'd keep that
Thursday, July 10, 2008
it's like a whole new life
i'm sitting here in the morning, thinking about getting to the clinic soon, and realized that this was one of the first blocks of free time i've had in a couple days, so i should probably write something.
to recap the last month or so, i took my big stinking exam, went to rhode island for some vaca, saw the red sox, biked and kayaked, then went home to connecticut where i finished planning my wedding. and then came back to school on sunday to begin third year! yikes. it is a scary thing.
the way med school works, is the first two years are completely book learnin', then they throw you into the giant hospital monster with very little help, and kinda leave you to learn the stuff you need to know while spending some long hours in the wards.
it's a little bit of a shock to the system.
so i'm starting to get used to waking up early. i switched my shower to the evening to save some time. and i think i'll make it.
the transition is so big, it feels like the first day of college from high school. that's really different. i can't believe that this is the same school, except that i recognize some people.
but things are going well. i'm doing my neurology rotation for the next 6 weeks, and it's really interesting. and two days ago i was not happy about neuro, but after seeing some real patients, and learning some new things, it's pretty awesome. i think i'm gonna like it here.
to recap the last month or so, i took my big stinking exam, went to rhode island for some vaca, saw the red sox, biked and kayaked, then went home to connecticut where i finished planning my wedding. and then came back to school on sunday to begin third year! yikes. it is a scary thing.
the way med school works, is the first two years are completely book learnin', then they throw you into the giant hospital monster with very little help, and kinda leave you to learn the stuff you need to know while spending some long hours in the wards.
it's a little bit of a shock to the system.
so i'm starting to get used to waking up early. i switched my shower to the evening to save some time. and i think i'll make it.
the transition is so big, it feels like the first day of college from high school. that's really different. i can't believe that this is the same school, except that i recognize some people.
but things are going well. i'm doing my neurology rotation for the next 6 weeks, and it's really interesting. and two days ago i was not happy about neuro, but after seeing some real patients, and learning some new things, it's pretty awesome. i think i'm gonna like it here.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
grace garden
my church here in syracuse, grace episcopal, is starting a garden this year, and it was on msnbc. here's a slideshow with the commentary by the priest, jennifer.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/24995996#24995996
this is her food blog, "cookin in the cuse," if you're interested:
http://jbbsyracuse.typepad.com/
you can see where i shamelessly ripped off the footage :)
on another note, pete moved to syracuse! he's at work right now, which is cool. it's his first day, we'll see how it is. this is kind of the beginning of the rest of our lives. no more long distance anymore! i'll see him tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day, etc.
really hope i don't get sick of him.... :)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/24995996#24995996
this is her food blog, "cookin in the cuse," if you're interested:
http://jbbsyracuse.typepad.com/
you can see where i shamelessly ripped off the footage :)
on another note, pete moved to syracuse! he's at work right now, which is cool. it's his first day, we'll see how it is. this is kind of the beginning of the rest of our lives. no more long distance anymore! i'll see him tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day, etc.
really hope i don't get sick of him.... :)
Saturday, May 31, 2008
nba-ness
i haven't watched an nba game in years, but i must admit that i'm actually a little excited about the celtics/lakers finals this year. i don't think i'll watch any games (i don't think i have the capability to, are they playing on one of the four channels i get? ), but i'll probably read the summaries the next day....or at least the headline....
really i just like ray allen. and their uniforms are such a lovely green.
really i just like ray allen. and their uniforms are such a lovely green.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
there's no excuse
hi folks! i'm sure you are all wondering why on earth i haven't blogged about only one of the most important things that's happened to me in my short life (also on the list: getting into school, meeting joy-lynne, learning to speak). well, it's one of those things when you haven't done something you need to do and then you feel bad you haven't done it which makes you dread doing that cursed thing and finally admitting you should have done it a month ago. so, i should have done this a month ago. i apologize.
does this mean i have to tell that "story" again? well, basically i picked out a ring and pete bought it and then gave it to me while on one knee in my apartment. that's the short version. the slightly longer version is that i thought he was going to ask on a different day, and got kind of freaked out that he asked on the night he asked on.
why, you ask? well, i had just had my last regular unit exam and would be starting my finals the week after. the first night after the exams i tend to go nuts, mostly because i've had to keep the insanity all bottled up so that i could study, instead of letting it out in healthy small increments, and then i just tend to explode with emotionally charged unreasonable actions. pete had misinterpreted my relative normalcy when he showed up on friday, april 25, as a good indicator of my mental state.
he soon discovered the truth.
so first, i freaked out when i realized that he was about to ask, and then wouldn't let him, and then finally let him ask, and then freaked out about that, and then saw that awesome ring, and decided that this wasn't really that bad of an idea after all. pete also said that i didn't have to tell anyone until the next day, which was very nice of him. odd how overwhelming the thought of having to call my loved ones to say that we got engaged was to me....
anyway, it all worked out and i passed all my exams hallelujah. and then went home and planned a wedding. no lie. there was a party too, note the cake above. that's actually a cupcake cake, which is pretty awesome, courtesy of big y.
if you want you can check out my wedding stuff at theknot.com, just search our names and you'll get to the webpage.
isn't cousin billy cute doing some light reading? those were the days....
Monday, April 21, 2008
sox v. blue jays at rogers centre, toronto
i haven't been to a red sox game since high school, so i thought i should see when they were going to be in toronto, which is closer than boston and a pretty cool town. and it's not that hard to get tickets. handily, my roommate lives there also, which means i got a place to sleep and someone to split the gas with. win win. sadly, the sox didn't win. but that would not dampen my spirits. 
look, there's jason varitek, tapping on his medial malleolus compulsively. i love him.
update time...
i thought that i would give a little pictoral essay about my weekend a couple weeks ago when i went up to toronto with my roommate. i spent the weekend with all her persian friends and family, which meant that i got very good at the left-cheek-right-cheek hello and goodbye kiss. i still only know about 5 farsi words, so it felt a little like being in a different country. or i should say, a country more different than canada.
friday night party with afarin's parents' friends. they were a wild bunch. a lot of dancing, loud music, booze...things that transcend cultural barriers. you all know that i had no problem joining in on the dancing...they were pleasantly surprised at my ability...
Friday, March 28, 2008
photos: sarah and the durosts!
two old roomies and baby!
sarah would not let her go.
pete meeting naomi. seriously, way too much cuteness in this picture...
mommy and baby!
photos: miami (cont)
pete and joy on our balcony in the keys. i'll have to keep my eye on them... ;)
joy on the beach (sounds like a drink...)
our henna tattoos!
nighttime in miami. yeah, it's blurry, but i thought it looked pretty cool.
photos: miami
pete and i's titanic moment. this is on key largo, we had dinner about 10 feet to the right. i had scallops, they were super good.
the view of the pool and hot tub outside our balcony at the hotel in key largo.
joy and pete at our picnic on the keys.
on south beach. it's nice bringing along an extra photographer, able to catch all the moments.
photos: new kitchen
photos: the cahills house
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
been a while, once again
hey guys. sorry i haven't posted in so long. things just got kind of busy i suppose. i guess i'll give the run down on my life, then post some pics.
1. afarin and i gave a party, which worked out beautifully. people came, they enjoyed themselves (i think), all was good.
2. i had another exam. it actually went pretty well. actually, i didn't really think so once i left the exam, but when i got my grades back i actually didn't do that badly. above average on two out of three. and the third one, behavioral science, i didn't really study as much for, so that was expected.
3. spring break! that's actually the most exciting thing that has happened recently. i went home for the weekend, got to see the new kitchen that pete helped put in, had some corned beef and cabbage, and then flew down to miami to see my favorite joy! pete and i lazed about in florida for a week, then came back up and hightailed it up to worcester to see jenni and phil and their new baby, naomi kate! and, which was also super awesome, my old roomie, and friend, sarah who's been in bulgaria in the peace corps since graduation, was there too! one big happy reunion. very exciting.
4. we got our schedules for third and fourth year! this actually just happened today, so i'm a little excited. they did it by a lottery system, where we each were randomly given a number, then we had to give our preference, then they assigned us in order to whatever our top choice that was still available to us. now, this whole schedule for our rotations next year, on the one hand doesn't really matter that much, but on the other, is a little important. like my roomie, who wants to do psych, didn't want psychiatrics to be her first rotation, but wanted it to be early enough so that she could schedule corresponding electives and that sort of thing. and you also want to figure out when you want breaks for electives, it's very confusing. and since i'm not really sure what i want to do, it made it a little difficult. but the crazy thing is that afarin and i are in the same track! so we'll have just about the same schedule next year. which is crazy, because this track was my third choice, and there's only 10 people in the track (there's about 120 in the class, not including the 30 who are going to a different campus, in binghamton, ny), so it's a little remarkable we ended up together. i think it'll be good, though.
5. well, that's been my life. not too shabby, i don't think. i still have to unpack from vaca, i hate both packing and unpacking. i think there may be a few more fun things in the next couple weeks. and, this is the last unit of 2nd year! another month of class, then exams....very exciting. it'll all be done by may 9. which of course leaves plenty of time to study for the glorious boards, step 1 they call it, which i'm taking on june 21. crazy!
1. afarin and i gave a party, which worked out beautifully. people came, they enjoyed themselves (i think), all was good.
2. i had another exam. it actually went pretty well. actually, i didn't really think so once i left the exam, but when i got my grades back i actually didn't do that badly. above average on two out of three. and the third one, behavioral science, i didn't really study as much for, so that was expected.
3. spring break! that's actually the most exciting thing that has happened recently. i went home for the weekend, got to see the new kitchen that pete helped put in, had some corned beef and cabbage, and then flew down to miami to see my favorite joy! pete and i lazed about in florida for a week, then came back up and hightailed it up to worcester to see jenni and phil and their new baby, naomi kate! and, which was also super awesome, my old roomie, and friend, sarah who's been in bulgaria in the peace corps since graduation, was there too! one big happy reunion. very exciting.
4. we got our schedules for third and fourth year! this actually just happened today, so i'm a little excited. they did it by a lottery system, where we each were randomly given a number, then we had to give our preference, then they assigned us in order to whatever our top choice that was still available to us. now, this whole schedule for our rotations next year, on the one hand doesn't really matter that much, but on the other, is a little important. like my roomie, who wants to do psych, didn't want psychiatrics to be her first rotation, but wanted it to be early enough so that she could schedule corresponding electives and that sort of thing. and you also want to figure out when you want breaks for electives, it's very confusing. and since i'm not really sure what i want to do, it made it a little difficult. but the crazy thing is that afarin and i are in the same track! so we'll have just about the same schedule next year. which is crazy, because this track was my third choice, and there's only 10 people in the track (there's about 120 in the class, not including the 30 who are going to a different campus, in binghamton, ny), so it's a little remarkable we ended up together. i think it'll be good, though.
5. well, that's been my life. not too shabby, i don't think. i still have to unpack from vaca, i hate both packing and unpacking. i think there may be a few more fun things in the next couple weeks. and, this is the last unit of 2nd year! another month of class, then exams....very exciting. it'll all be done by may 9. which of course leaves plenty of time to study for the glorious boards, step 1 they call it, which i'm taking on june 21. crazy!
Monday, February 25, 2008
home alone
i apologize for the break from posting. there just wasn't anything that interesting that happened. honest, you didn't miss anything.
so the title of the post refers to the fact that my lovely roommate afarin has been away this weekend, which is a rare enough occurrence that i'm actually enjoying it a lot. not like there's anything wrong with her, i just haven't had a lot of alone time lately, and it's nice to be able to turn on the tv and play music loudly and wear less clothing than normal around the apartment without having to consider anyone else. and it's been pretty good. i took friday off from schoolwork and just did a bunch of cleaning. my room was a pigsty, but now it's lovely. i'm most definitely the messy roomie so i took some time to clean up any bits of clutter that were around the front room, and cleaned up the kitchen pretty good too.
saturday was a pretty good day. i got some studying done, and then went to a rockin' party at a new friend's house. i didn't know anyone there, and i rather enjoyed that. just free to be myself as much or as little as i wanted to.
sunday morning started early, i had a shift at the peds ER as part of a class requirement from 8-11am. it was so fun. i like hanging out with doctors. they are so much cooler than med students. i wonder when the switch happens? i can't WAIT until we get to start spending time in the hospital in july. only 5 months until i'm starting third year. crazy.
after the hospital, i slept for awhile and did some studying. and then watched the oscars, which is not something i usually do, but it was on and i had the time. it was moderately enjoyable, despite the fact that i haven't seen any of the movies that were nominated for anything, except "juno," "ratatouille," and "once."
the most exciting part of the night was definitely when the song from "once" won best song. i whooped and cheered. glen hansard and marketa irglova are my heroes.
so i'm sure you all were really interested in how my weekend was. well, there you go.
so the title of the post refers to the fact that my lovely roommate afarin has been away this weekend, which is a rare enough occurrence that i'm actually enjoying it a lot. not like there's anything wrong with her, i just haven't had a lot of alone time lately, and it's nice to be able to turn on the tv and play music loudly and wear less clothing than normal around the apartment without having to consider anyone else. and it's been pretty good. i took friday off from schoolwork and just did a bunch of cleaning. my room was a pigsty, but now it's lovely. i'm most definitely the messy roomie so i took some time to clean up any bits of clutter that were around the front room, and cleaned up the kitchen pretty good too.
saturday was a pretty good day. i got some studying done, and then went to a rockin' party at a new friend's house. i didn't know anyone there, and i rather enjoyed that. just free to be myself as much or as little as i wanted to.
sunday morning started early, i had a shift at the peds ER as part of a class requirement from 8-11am. it was so fun. i like hanging out with doctors. they are so much cooler than med students. i wonder when the switch happens? i can't WAIT until we get to start spending time in the hospital in july. only 5 months until i'm starting third year. crazy.
after the hospital, i slept for awhile and did some studying. and then watched the oscars, which is not something i usually do, but it was on and i had the time. it was moderately enjoyable, despite the fact that i haven't seen any of the movies that were nominated for anything, except "juno," "ratatouille," and "once."
the most exciting part of the night was definitely when the song from "once" won best song. i whooped and cheered. glen hansard and marketa irglova are my heroes.
so i'm sure you all were really interested in how my weekend was. well, there you go.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
super sorrows
i know what people will think.
the super bowl is over, and i'm disappointed. being from new england, lived in massachusetts, etc, etc, big sox fan, i must be bummed the pats lost.
oh no.
my sorrows go much deeper, to the core of who i am as an american. what can be more american than american football?
i missed the commercials.
and not just didn't watch the game and so didn't see the commercials. no, with my new bunny ears, i can just get in fox. when i got home from a marathon panera session, i decided to buck up and pull out my salsa and tortilla chips and sit in front of the tube like most of america. and started to watch the game.
then the commercials started. i noticed something strange.
the commercials sucked. not good. not even mediocre. bad. they all seemed for either new york companies like kinney pharmacy or timewarner cable or for candidates for state senate or sherriff or something.
i coulda cried.
but then i decided that i should just do homework, and then pete called, and then the giants won (here's to you, joe), and then i finished my homework. and now afarin and i are watching fuzzy "sex and the city". things have improved.
i wouldn't have minded if the pats won, but i really didn't care. i more feel bad for my friends that must be very sad. but really, tom brady is still stunningly good looking and no silly super bowl can change that. but maybe it'll help with the arrogance thing. anyway, just my opinion....
the super bowl is over, and i'm disappointed. being from new england, lived in massachusetts, etc, etc, big sox fan, i must be bummed the pats lost.
oh no.
my sorrows go much deeper, to the core of who i am as an american. what can be more american than american football?
i missed the commercials.
and not just didn't watch the game and so didn't see the commercials. no, with my new bunny ears, i can just get in fox. when i got home from a marathon panera session, i decided to buck up and pull out my salsa and tortilla chips and sit in front of the tube like most of america. and started to watch the game.
then the commercials started. i noticed something strange.
the commercials sucked. not good. not even mediocre. bad. they all seemed for either new york companies like kinney pharmacy or timewarner cable or for candidates for state senate or sherriff or something.
i coulda cried.
but then i decided that i should just do homework, and then pete called, and then the giants won (here's to you, joe), and then i finished my homework. and now afarin and i are watching fuzzy "sex and the city". things have improved.
i wouldn't have minded if the pats won, but i really didn't care. i more feel bad for my friends that must be very sad. but really, tom brady is still stunningly good looking and no silly super bowl can change that. but maybe it'll help with the arrogance thing. anyway, just my opinion....
Friday, February 01, 2008
so how exactly is 2nd year going?
not that great. let me splain.
school is hard. it's really hard to do very well in the classes (i'm learning to settle with doing "ok"). and it's hard to live with the fact that there is always something else i should be doing right now. it's like having an around-the-clock job, that you can never get away from. every break feels a little like i'm stealing, and it's getting harder to enjoy them. because then i get guilty, and angry with myself, for not being more disciplined or for being weak- "needing" a break when i feel i shouldn't have to.
it's hard too with people. i've stopped hanging out with most of the guys, they don't do anything other than video games, and that just gets kinda tiring. i still hang out with kelvin and afarin, so that's good. but i'm lonely a lot. i wish that more family and friends were close, people that aren't in med school.
there's been some good things happening too. hulu.com has revolutionized my life. it's a place where you can watch a bunch of tv shows online, for free. since i've been doing that all year, for lack of cable, and with the writers strike, it's been great. they have some current shows and also some old ones like "arrested development" and "doogie howser". super fun.
also, i've been hanging out a bit with some other girls i know. i went to a semiformal last weekend, which was loads of fun, with some people i know but don't hang out with very much and wouldn't mind getting to know better.
and of course, i have to mention volleyball. we play every monday and wednesday, and i've started attending rather religiously. it is so much fun. my old high school skills are coming back, and i get excited every time my serves are consistent and my hits are good. people have figured out that i'm left handed, and have started setting me up in the right place. it's so great. however, i tend to get really tired after i play, and it's hard to go home and do work after. so i have to plan ahead for that.
i'll leave you with one very odd thing i found while reviewing notes. this is from a pharmacology lecture about malaria, talking about the possibility of a vaccine. i don't think the prof mentioned this in class, but it sort of disturbed me when i read it:
"irradiated sporozoites were delivered via mosquito bites to volunteers. When subsequently challenged with infected mosquitoes, the volunteers were protected."
in english, it basically says that people volunteered to be bitten by mosquitoes that had non-infective malaria in them. then they were bitten by mosquitoes WITH MALARIA to see what would happen.
now, most of you probably don't spend time reading about different studies, but this was an impressively crazy one. this isn't usually the protocol: trying to see if people catch a disease like this. if you're studying diseases, you might follow a group of patients for awhile and see what happens, and if there's a statistically significant difference in getting a disease between people with the treatment and those without, you take note. like with the new HPV vaccine, they gave the vaccine and then followed up x amount of years later to see who had cancer. they didn't give people the vaccine and then try to give them HPV or something.
granted, i have no idea how this study was conducted. this just might be the way that the prof decided to word the findings. maybe the volunteers weren't left in a room with infected mosquitoes until sufficiently bitten, as in the picture my mind immediately conjured up.
anyway, i don't usually talk about the material i'm learning about on here. what do you think? should i tell you the crazy stuff i'm learning about, or just the drivel you're used to?
school is hard. it's really hard to do very well in the classes (i'm learning to settle with doing "ok"). and it's hard to live with the fact that there is always something else i should be doing right now. it's like having an around-the-clock job, that you can never get away from. every break feels a little like i'm stealing, and it's getting harder to enjoy them. because then i get guilty, and angry with myself, for not being more disciplined or for being weak- "needing" a break when i feel i shouldn't have to.
it's hard too with people. i've stopped hanging out with most of the guys, they don't do anything other than video games, and that just gets kinda tiring. i still hang out with kelvin and afarin, so that's good. but i'm lonely a lot. i wish that more family and friends were close, people that aren't in med school.
there's been some good things happening too. hulu.com has revolutionized my life. it's a place where you can watch a bunch of tv shows online, for free. since i've been doing that all year, for lack of cable, and with the writers strike, it's been great. they have some current shows and also some old ones like "arrested development" and "doogie howser". super fun.
also, i've been hanging out a bit with some other girls i know. i went to a semiformal last weekend, which was loads of fun, with some people i know but don't hang out with very much and wouldn't mind getting to know better.
and of course, i have to mention volleyball. we play every monday and wednesday, and i've started attending rather religiously. it is so much fun. my old high school skills are coming back, and i get excited every time my serves are consistent and my hits are good. people have figured out that i'm left handed, and have started setting me up in the right place. it's so great. however, i tend to get really tired after i play, and it's hard to go home and do work after. so i have to plan ahead for that.
i'll leave you with one very odd thing i found while reviewing notes. this is from a pharmacology lecture about malaria, talking about the possibility of a vaccine. i don't think the prof mentioned this in class, but it sort of disturbed me when i read it:
"irradiated sporozoites were delivered via mosquito bites to volunteers. When subsequently challenged with infected mosquitoes, the volunteers were protected."
in english, it basically says that people volunteered to be bitten by mosquitoes that had non-infective malaria in them. then they were bitten by mosquitoes WITH MALARIA to see what would happen.
now, most of you probably don't spend time reading about different studies, but this was an impressively crazy one. this isn't usually the protocol: trying to see if people catch a disease like this. if you're studying diseases, you might follow a group of patients for awhile and see what happens, and if there's a statistically significant difference in getting a disease between people with the treatment and those without, you take note. like with the new HPV vaccine, they gave the vaccine and then followed up x amount of years later to see who had cancer. they didn't give people the vaccine and then try to give them HPV or something.
granted, i have no idea how this study was conducted. this just might be the way that the prof decided to word the findings. maybe the volunteers weren't left in a room with infected mosquitoes until sufficiently bitten, as in the picture my mind immediately conjured up.
anyway, i don't usually talk about the material i'm learning about on here. what do you think? should i tell you the crazy stuff i'm learning about, or just the drivel you're used to?
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
while the lecture loads
i'm in between watching a couple lectures i've missed recently, so i thought i'd pop on here and give a quick update.
i hope everyone had a good mlk day. i'm sorry that a lot of you had to work. i did not have class, so i took the bus out to boston, and got to visit with the lovely kara, up for a quick visit from tennessee. and things worked out perfectly so that we could hang out just the two of us for a little while on saturday night. it's not easy to make it on to her agenda, and it looked a little unlikely for a bit, but it all worked out beautifully. then sunday, after playing some super mario with pete and rich (major childhood flashback...though this time on a much larger screen), pete and i went out to dinner with our old college friends jenni and phil, who are about to have a baby...very exciting. it was good to see them too. then monday morning, pete dropped me back off at the bus station at some ungodly hour so i could head back to good ole ny.
and here i am. this is actually not too hard of a week, class wise, so i'm working on doing all that work that i thought i would do this weekend but never got to because that's what happens when you go away for a weekend. there you go.
tata!
i hope everyone had a good mlk day. i'm sorry that a lot of you had to work. i did not have class, so i took the bus out to boston, and got to visit with the lovely kara, up for a quick visit from tennessee. and things worked out perfectly so that we could hang out just the two of us for a little while on saturday night. it's not easy to make it on to her agenda, and it looked a little unlikely for a bit, but it all worked out beautifully. then sunday, after playing some super mario with pete and rich (major childhood flashback...though this time on a much larger screen), pete and i went out to dinner with our old college friends jenni and phil, who are about to have a baby...very exciting. it was good to see them too. then monday morning, pete dropped me back off at the bus station at some ungodly hour so i could head back to good ole ny.
and here i am. this is actually not too hard of a week, class wise, so i'm working on doing all that work that i thought i would do this weekend but never got to because that's what happens when you go away for a weekend. there you go.
tata!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
there is nothing cuter
more new years and some new kitties
here's liz and joe and part of joy in their new kitchen with the super awesome dishwasher. just so you know, they bought the house a couple weeks before christmas, moving day was december 22, there was painting and wallpaper removing all week, and then they hosted a new years party....see, i just wouldn't do that...
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