HOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

1. Had an awful day Friday. A certain person went to a baseball game and I, sick of trying to find a good roadbike/SS for the past 6 months and sick of talking about it, decide to go take out a bunch of money from the ATM and drive almost to Pennsylvania to buy this bicycle I found on Craigslist. As I'm parallel parking on a ONE LANE ONE WAY STREET near the ATM, this new white Merc drives by and scrapes itself across the front corner of my car. The driver, angry that I "hit him", jumps out of the car and then we have to do the whole insurance information etc shit. Ugh. One more thing to deal with. Traumatized, and now late, I start driving up to this bike guy's house. It's 9pm now and I'm still about 20 min away and now I'm lost. Trying to turn around in this dark parking lot, I jump the curb and bend my wheel and flat my tire. UGHHHH. I realize I don't have a flashlight so I can't change my tire myself, I end up calling AAA, which is kind of pathetic. So I hobble home on my poor gimpy car and fortunately make it safely. As I'm sitting at my desk, making a list of things to do, a text box shows up on my computer screen that tells me "Irreparable damage to the battery has been detected. Replace the battery with a new one." Awesome. So now, I have a non-functioning 1.5 yr old battery, NOT, as Lenovo tells me, covered by warranty, and NOT covered in their failing battery replacement program. How something 1.5 yrs old that spontaneously fails is NOT covered by warranty escapes me. Also, I find out a new steelie costs about 80 bucks, and the trade-in value of my car is 172. Just think about that for a second. I drink by myself and go to sleep.

2. Saturday, I get some of my crap done, then go to someone's house for an incredible swordfish (no pictures gahhh), skinny green beans, and veggie couscous dinner. I drink too much wine and on Sunday,

3. wake up with that persistent sore throat I have been fighting for the past week that I think I got from my upper level, and feeling kind of dry from drinking the night before. Em had moved apartments on Saturday and is sore from that, so unfortunately, Sunday's "20 mile run" is a painful, painful 10 miler. Then I eat some cheesecake. Since we're on the topic of running:

gross!



4. Thank god Monday is "Registration day" and does not actually require me to start my clerkship. Ron drives me to the Apple store to exchange my Amp+ that has died (yay!) and we eat Chinese food at the mall (sin!). Do some more school stuff. A friend drives me to Arundel Mills to see the bike I tried to see on Friday (the owner has graciously offered to meet me there since he works in the area, so that I don't have to relive a traumatic drive to his house again). I'm a 79cm inseam and thought a 52-53cm would be a good size, but the bike he brought was a 54cm. Fortunately, it seemed small for a 54cm, and more importantly, I think I have fallen in love.

HELLO SEXY







hello, carbon fiber!



hello, Cannondale CAAD3 frame!





water bottle holders! painted to match!



and just in case your short term memory is so poor that you've already forgotten (I know some of you have this problem)



We bring the thing to Nathan's, and he helps fiddle around with the handlebars, which are a bit wide, but then we realize we don't have the right brackets to fit on a smaller one he has lying around. Things get put back together, but the bike gets its yellow handlebar tape taken off and replaced with nice new white tape to match the saddle and the pedals. The frame is maroon, which matches the wheels and the painted-to-match water bottle holders. Sharp! Seat height gets adjusted, handlebar angle gets leveled, and I get a crash course in clipping in and out. All I need now is:

-handlebar bracket thing which I've already kind of forgotten the name of
-cleats
-shorts

And did I mention this bike was an excellent deal?! It's like I bought the frame, a seat, and one pedal, and miraculously all the other parts just showed up. It's like I GOT AN AMAZING DEAL. And also I got to buy it from a really nice person, which is always a really pleasant experience. Oh, I guess I'm kind of paying a lot more when you factor in the car fiasco.... Oh well.

What's more is that when I get home, a certain person has dinner in the making. I make a salad with mushrooms, strawberries, dried cranberries, Parmesan cheese, and heirloom tomatoes. The main course turns out to be delicious home-made-original-recipe grilled salmon with lemon/vinegar/mustard seed/black pepper marinade. Spectacular!





This week is starting out well :) I'm content.

GOING ON A DIET

IT'S TIME TO LOSE THE THREE POUNDS I GAINED LAST WEEK BY EATING LIKE I'M RUNNING 50 MILES A WEEK WHEN I'M REALLY ONLY RUNNING ABOUT 30. THEY SAY THAT ONE POUND IS EQUAL TO ABOUT 3000 KCAL. THAT MEANS, LAST WEEK, I ATE 9000 KCALS MORE THAN I NEEDED TO. THAT IS LIKE EATING MORE THAN 3 TRAYS OF OREOS. DAMN.

Adventures of the orange soccer shirt that was STOLEN from me! slash photo dump

b bistro:



fried oysters on greens with a something aoli



medium rare (not mine, obviously)



caesar salad with my favorite croutons and a goose-sized piece of steak (rare, baby! bring it, prions!)




trip down to VA for pizza and a milkshake (forgot to take pictures :( ):




clementine in balto, what a find!:

lime and basil iced tea thing



crabby soup



coho salmon with crab and rice and veggies



XXL drop biscuits with crab... This is what I want to eat every day when I go to Heaven



escargot and shiitake moushrooms with toast points! (mine, obviously)



sad I am too full to keep on eating




random artsy bonus upload:




ra (my shrimp tempura udon was too blurry even by my low standards to post...):




my shrimp tuna clam garlic tomato pasta sauce on spaghetti:

Dream life

There is this woman whose blog I read sometimes, who is somehow living my ideal dream life. I am incredibly jealous.

1. cute greyhound
2. Minnesota (okay, so not Madison, WI, but close enough)
3. modern home she built with her husband?/significant other
4. they race bikes, of which they own a crapload. Ducatis. hott!
5. their living room looks directly into their amazing garage, which is full of motorcycles, leathers, etc.
6. from what i can tell, she spends her time designing cool stuff for her house (her bathroom was featured in the NYT!), designing and sewing cool stuff she sells, and cooking.

What the deuce am I doing in medical school?

SWEET

I think only William and Helen read this blog, and I know both of you are actively interested in the status of my toenail, since I've consulted you both on what to do with it. Here are some update pictures!

Aww, bruised toe!



Here, for the first time ever, you can see a part of my toe that has never been exposed to direct sunlight before!





The other reason to be excited is that Matthew sent me my bird t-shirts he made! I will post pictures when I get some time to lay them out and photograph them.

byebye!

Good run/Bad run

Went for a great run yesterday with my fav running partner Emily at Loch Raven Reservoir. So many motorcyclists! <3 One end of the park had been closed off, so we ended up parking at the way bottom of the new dam. We tried running counter-clockwise around the lake, but then we turned onto this busy road with no shoulder and we weren't getting enough room from the speeding cars (although we got a whole bunch of waves from a group of motorcyclists), so we turned back because we didn't want to die. We went uphill for about a mile, then rolling hills, then another big hill, and then we turned around when the road ended. A total of 80 min, probably about 10 miles. My left foot was kind of bothering me, but it was okay. There's a nerve that runs over my maybe-bunion on my left foot that has been irritated by my stupid Danskos, and when you press on it, I get pain and numbness in my big toe. Then, what I think might be tibialis anterior has been really tender and weird-feeling (almost like it's a nerve problem too) where it crosses the angle of my ankle, and the tongue of my shoe has been kind of pressing on it ever time my ankle flexes.

SO, I meant to go out to do some LSD around noon, but my tendon/nerve in my ankle was hurting so much I ran around the block and had to go home. I got into my car and drove down to Fells Point to what I thought was the Falls Road Running store. Turns out, they haven't had that location in a year. So I drive all the way up to Pikesville, spend a whole bunch of time at Fleet Feet, and and as usual, spend a ridiculous amount of money on shoes and a sports bra. I almost bought a top, but I resisted. I stopped by the Falls Road Running Store on Falls Road since I was kind of in the area already, but it didn't have anything good. So I went home, had a REAL crappy run, and that was it. WHAT A WASTE OF AN AFTERNOON! sheesh! But at least I get to add these guys into the rotation:

Brooks Infiniti



I'll let you know how they go.

Having a good week ^_^

What a ridiculous week! School has gotten a bit better I think as my bad attitude towards 90hr work weeks is improving. I'm so over the 80hr week this week it's not even funny, and it's not going to stop probably until end of next week when I have a 1 day weekend.

Sat: 0500-2130, net 16.5h
Sun: off, net 16.5h
Mon: 0530-0130(that is 0130 on TUESDAY), net 36.5h
Tue: 0500-1630, net 48h
Wed: 0530-
Thurs: -1300, net 79.5h
Fri: 0500-? probably 1800 (it's clinic), net probably 92.5h
Sat: 0530-? probably 1500 (last case scheduled till 1430)
Sunday: ON CALL AGAIN WTF?! 0600-
Mon: -? probably 1200ish.

My attending is a operating BEAST. I thought I would be miserable because of working so much, but I am kind of ambivalent. I was hoping doing this SubI would help me make a decision, but now I'm almost more unsure than ever. I was hoping I'd either love it or hate it, but now I don't know... I love being in the OR, but there is just so much bullshit waiting you have to do, and soooo many houurrssss. I am tired and unhappy and falling asleep during the day and I come home, eat some random stuff and fall asleep immediately. I don't have time to do my residency app stuff, and if I do, I'm too tired to concentrate. But given the circumstances, I'm not THAT unhappy to wake up and go to school in the morning. And looking back on the past week, it was pretty good. I don't know. ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

(Speaking of working hard, I was talking to one of the anesthesiology residents after a case today and he was talking about how hard anesthesiologists work because they put in 12hr days and they are working hard the whole time. I'm not mad at them or anything, that's cool if you like anesthesia, but I would have to disagree with that statement. I'd like to point out that my attending hasn't gone home before MN in the past week except Wed, and I just got a page that apparently the fellow is with him in the OR right now, and the senior res is still admitting patients. Now I feel bad for going home post call :( )

ANYWAYS, I should stop complaining because I actually had a pretty good week. Had a nice weekend, saw some cool stuff in the OR this week and the team is starting to trust me more to do more things. I'm being pretty helpful to my intern by taking call with him and carrying a bunch of the GI cross cover pagers. The other day I had 4 pagers on my scrubs and they were pulling them down! At least I'm not on the other surgical team that, although they take call q5, have to carry 6 pagers, hahahaa. They look like pager superheroes because the whole front of their pants are taken up by this belt of pagers. Running has been more sporadic and painful because of lack of sleep and poor diet, BUT I did 18 on Sun, I just had an amazing 11 miler just now in the pouring rain, and I'm getting faster! I'm tempted to buy these, mostly because they look so cool:

The adiZero Tempaya 2! Anyone know anything about them?



And since I'm on their website, I might as well get this too:




THEN, I came home the other day and my bf had made me dinner!!!!!!!!! Delicious. Mmmmm... mushrooomssss....



And I checked my LLS fundraising site today AND I'VE MADE MY GOAL!!! I cannot thank everyone enough, and I'm so excited, I can barely stand it. And, the sketchbook I thought I lost... FOUND IT!

So all in all, a pretty sweet week. Except for clinic all day tomorrow and this:



Dammit I think it's going to fall off after all...

Edit: It's Friday, I just got home, and I'm going back in a couple hours for an awesome spit fistula slash esophagectomy, possible gastrectomy on a guy with the most badness filled CT I have ever seen!

Yipee!

What a great day! For some reason I thought Em and I usually leave for our long runs at 7:00, but apparently it's 7:30... Whoops... So I woke her up extra early, and we drove to the Sparks stop on the NCR trail. We were both pretty tired and the first couple mins were painful and slow and I was really worried that the run would be miserable. Fortunately, we settled into a good moderate pace, the weather was beautiful (cool and dry) and I felt pretty good until about mile 12. Miles 12 to 18 got kind of painful because my hip flexors were getting sore, so I did take 2 100-step walk/stretch breaks, which helped a TON. Em also really encouraged me and helped me not slow down too much, meaning we ended the day with a solid 18 miles behind us. ^_________^ Then, it was off to: Wegman's, study, countryside drive, and now work again. I'm pretty happy with how today turned out. Sorry no pictures, I am lazy.

Best part of the day: beautiful weather and scenery
Worst part of the day: forgetting Vaseline and the subsequent chafing that ensued at mile 16+