Memorial Day= Meat + Fire

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and it is amazing that Armand and I both have the day off! Of course it's not really a 3-day weekend, when he's moonlighting both Saturday and Sunday and I have a boatload of presentations and various projects that occupied much of my time on both days too.

But as we memorialize those brave young fellow citizens... we will be enjoying a backyard BBQ at Casa de Mama and Papa Chang. For a much needed break, I changed out of my PJs finally and walked to the grocery store (yes, walked!!!).

And now begins my little rant... The beef patties come in a bag of 10, but the burger buns come in a bag of 4 or 8. The brats come in a package of 5, but the hotdog buns come in 6. How does this make sense?!?!? I think it must be the bakery people conspiring with the meat people, but I'm annoyed.

Quarterly update?

I'm procrastinating and decided to update my much-neglected blog. :)

Life has been good here lately.

We've gone whale-watching and enjoyed a beautiful sunset out on the water.

We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday with El Salvadorean food and a cake from the famous Porto's bakery.

I almost failed my "Genomics and Bioinformatics" class but managed to make a huge come-back for the final exam and ended up just fine. (Maybe shaved a few years off my life and had to pull out a few grey hairs, but oh well).

I went to a baby shower for one of our favorite nurse practitioners and here I am with my co-fellow and favorite hematology attending.

I've been to Brooklyn for a friend's wedding, which allowed me to catch up with old friends.

We booked our trip to Turkey in August for 2 weeks. Woohoo. Can't wait to visit the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque and much much more! This will be our first big trip since our New Zealand honeymoon. (Canada doesn't really count).

Coming up... I'm almost a third-year fellow! Scary. Time has really flown by this year and I'm not exactly sure what the Future holds but we shall see! Every time I get super stressed out, I think to myself "I'm too blessed to be stressed!"

Totally worth it

I got a holiday card and a huge cake from one of my dear patients today.

"Thanks so much for always being the positive and loving human being all the times I've come into the clinic. I just want to let you know how much I appreciate your help from the time I was whithering [sic] away to being healthier and in better shape than ever before."

Makes my job, not a job, but a passion.
and my life, TOTALLY worth it.

I have a lot to be grateful for this year.
Merry Christmas, everyone!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to everyone!!

Armand and I were both off for Thanksgiving day. Amazing.

We went over to my parents' house and cooked up a feast. We had:

two 17 pound turkeys

bruschetta

green onion and cheddar cheese puffs

sushi

cranberry sauce

green bean casserole

brussel sprout hash

roasted garlic and chipotle mashed potatoes

koroke (fried mashed potatoes with ground beef)

butternut squash

two homemade pumpkin pies

two store-bought pumpkin pies

pumpkin cheesecake

chocolate chip walnut cookies

pumpkin stew

jap chae noodles

black bean and basil salad

apple cider

I think that was our entire menu... needless to say, we were STUFFED.

We were joined by my mom's extended family, Patrick and his dad, Armand, and my dad's co-worker.

After dinner, we played wii MarioKart, which I am now obsessed with!

What a great holiday.

and while I'm making lists, I'm thankful for:

Armand, who is working hard being a pulmonary critical care fellow

my parents, who are continuously being supportive of both of us

my sister, who makes things fun and sane

my research, which gives me a huge break from becoming depressed

all my friends and family... especially those that are far away... I miss you!!

The other coast

I was in Washington D.C. a couple weeks ago for a conference and brrrr, was it COLD! Half the days, we had lows in the 30s and highs in the 40s, and a couple days we had highs in the 50s. I was there was less than a week and my skin became super dry and my eczema started acting up! I think I'm cold-intolerant.

Despite the cold weather, I managed to have fun, hanging out with a good friend from HS, walking around Georgetown, shopping, and eating. :) Oh and I went to a few good talks too.

We also celebrated a couple important birthdays over the Halloween weekend, by eating of course. :) We finally got to Pizzeria Mozza! I've been wanting to try this place for years. I indulged in the pizza with goat cheese, leeks, scallions, garlic and bacon. It was SUPER delish. We also enjoyed fresh buffalo mozzarella... which is something I never buy at the store because it's so expensive! Whatever they do in that special region in Italy... it's magic.

Doctors as Patients

I always think it's weird being on the other side, as the patient.

A couple months ago, I decided I should go in for a regular check-up. My doctor was super sweet. But she basically told me that I needed to lose 15 pounds, exercise, and take in more Calcium and Vitamin D. Then she proceeded to order a bunch of lab tests to make sure I didn't have high cholesterol or signs of diabetes.

I felt somewhat vindicated when my labs were super perfect, but I'm trying to cut down on my snack intake and I'm trying out yogurt as a way to increase Calcium/Vit D. The really hard thing for me is exercise... I hate working out, at least in the traditional sense. I hate running. But I do love hiking... and I would go biking along the beach if I owned a bike.

And on a more fun note... we celebrated our second wedding anniversary at Red O, cuisine by Rick Bayless, whom I adore. This is the cochinita pibil, one of my all-time favorite dishes. It was divine, as was the rest of the meal. yum yum.

Thought I would be posting more...

Hmm, I thought once I entered the lab years, I would have more time to blog... Sorry you've been so neglected! Lots of exciting things have happened in the last couple months!

Armand started his pulmonary critical care fellowship.
My sister got engaged.
I turned 30.

Plus, life in the lab is pretty great. I'm learning a lot and I even wrote a couple programs in python. yay.

Another exciting thing that happened was that last week, I got an email from the editor of Pediatrics...! Inviting me to be a reviewer for a hand-off paper! WHAT?!?! I guess they think I'm an "expert" in the field... which is kinda sad for the field. :) I wasn't sure if I should accept but after talking to my mentor, she convinced me that I should and that she would help me. So yay! I will review my first manuscript for a pretty major pediatric journal. I'm honored.

I published a Glanzmann Thrombasthenia article for emedicine and I have two case reports that are submitted for publication. I think I've been fairly productive.

However... I worry that I'm not accomplishing enough, quickly enough, in the lab... the learning curve is steep but very very long and I have been taking a long time to get through things that would take other people a day. I try not to think about it in that way and I try not to get too frustrated, but sometimes it's hard because I like being efficient. I'm also going to get a masters in Bioinformatics, hopefully, if everything goes through... so while it would be great to have some coursework to lay the foundation for my research, the classes will also slow me down a bit, in terms of progress in the lab. Stress!!!

Luckily for me, I have a two week vacation coming up next week. We're going to Chicago for my best friend from medical school's wedding. YAY. I'm so excited. My bridesmaid dress totally doesn't fit because I've gained weight, but oh well. It's not about me, it's about my friend, and it's going to be a blast to celebrate with her. Then, we are hopping on over to Toronto, going to explore a bit around there, taking a day-trip to Niagara Falls, then up to Montreal, where we will hear a lot of French being spoken, and eat crepes from street vendors.

Stay tuned for pictures!

A new life

Hello, World!

I am still alive, under all that sadness, stress, and bitterness. I'm officially a second-year peds heme/onc fellow and I love it so far.

My schedule these days consist of sleeping in (relatively speaking), going to the lab, sitting in front of my computer with two screens (screen space is considered real estate in this new 'business'), work until I'm hungry, eat, work some more, and leave whenever I want to. I can run errands in Westwood Village in the middle of the day if I need to. I can make phone calls in the middle of the day if I need to. I can make my dentist appointment in the morning and just come in a little later that day. It's so wonderful.

I have to admit... it's not all that easy. I'm working on sequencing the genes of a patient who was born with leukemia... this generates billions worth of base-pairs, and the trick is learning all the computer tools required to process the data and then to eventually analyze it. The amount of data that I'm working is mind-boggling... and it's all encrypted in these weird symbols that mean nothing to me yet... so I'm learning the command line and eventually I'll need to learn a computer language (Python), etc. I'm a little overwhelmed with how little I know (the more things change, the more things stay the same!), but I'm excited to take on this new challenge.

Most of all, it's a welcome relief from being fully clinical. I love my patients. They are the reason why I get up in the morning and go to work at all. But I can't see them every day, watch them relapse, watch them go through bone marrow transplants, and watch them die. It's too hard.

Now I see patients in clinic a half day per week and occasionally on weekends. It's the perfect balance. If there is a patient that I really want to see, I can just head on over to the hospital and visit for a few minutes. It's really nice.

I have much more to report... but I'll have to save it for later!

a little busy

I hope to get back to regularly or semi-regularly posting again, at some point. It's been a crazy few months, but really, it's been a crazy year. I have this week off as "vacation" then I have two weeks left of being a first-year fellow. I can't wait. It has gone by really quickly, but not quickly enough. I've been traumatized and scarred for life, but I have learned SO much!

How about a recap in pictures of what I've been up to, when I'm not in the hospital...

This was at The Counter where you can basically make your own gourmet burger! Yum. But not as yum as Umami, or even Father's Office.




















This was at the Griddle Cafe in Hollywood where they serve the most ridiculously yummy and ginormous pancakes... I was having leftovers for a week, literally.




















Then I parked my car out on the street in front of our apartment complex for SIX hours when it got side-swiped by a 1800-plumber van... A kind bystander left a note with a partial license plate but we've been unable to crack the case.












My sister graduated from law school and is now furiously studying for the california bar.












My co-fellow, partner-in-crime, and I finally went out for drinks at an awesome bar called Copa D'Oro. It's like a speak-easy but with a great happy hour!













Then we flew to Seattle for a friend's lovely backyard wedding, overlooking Puget Sound. I had about 36 hours in Seattle and of course we had to squeeze in some good food. This was pork belly.

Pharm Farm

Don't judge... because I've been going to a couple pharmaceutical-sponsored dinners lately. It's through Armand and his hospitalist friends, but it's actually not as bad as it sounds. There's no powerpoint, no formal presentation, just interesting conversation about different antibiotics mainly from this infectious disease doctor who Armand works with, and that's it. Time for dinner.

The first one we went to was at Craft in Century City... and we saw Conan O'Brien there, having dinner with two other women. He didn't look very happy.

The food was brought out family-style and it just kept coming and coming... we ate so much! This is me having the amuse bouche. Can't remember what it was, but it was jelly-like and tasty. Then we had a platter of prosciutto and cheeses... then a salad... then chicken and john dory. Normally I don't order chicken at restaurants but this chicken was amazing. Best chicken I've ever had. Dessert was huckleberry tarts and ice cream. As if that wasn't enough, they brought out little chocolates and gave us all little bags of granola to take home!

Then, this week we went to Providence. This place has two Michelin stars... I don't think I've ever been to a restaurant with even one Michelin star... (not sure if Charlie Trotter's has been rated...?) Anyway, it was this beautifully decorated room and this time, we got to order right off the menu! Anything we wanted! I started out with an asian pear martini that was delish. Then I had the Hawaiian yellowfin tuna, lightly seared...

Followed by the perfect duck. It was prepared just perfect, flavorful, but not overdone or overwhelming. With blood oranges and spinach. SO GOOD.

February

Wow I haven't been very good at "blogging." :)

February was our month of visitors. Our friend Patrick came from Chicago. The visit was during the week so I was lucky enough to spend all our dinners with him. We went to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. SO YUM. and all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. Armand and Patrick got to see a taping of The Price is Right, which was amusing.

Then, our good friend from medical school/one year of peds residency Sam came to visit from up north. We went on a really great hike in Malibu, to see the area where M.A.S.H. was taped. We also gorged ourselves on great food- a wonderful Himalayan restaurant near our place and more Korean BBQ.

Let's not forget an important day in February is Valentines Day! I know a lot of people think Valentines Day is a made-up Hallmark holiday... and so what if it is? I still think it's important to have special days to appreciate our loved ones. My mom's birthday also happens to be on Valentines Day, so we all went over to the house and made dinner for the family. My parents then left for a two-week trip to Costa Rica. So Jealous.

As for Armand and me... I was actually on-call the weekend of Valentines Day and the rest of that week, so we are celebrating tonight! :) Which works out better anyway since we don't have to pay extra for the hype. We're going to dinner at Akasha in Culver City. I can't wait!

Even better, I'm actually starting another week of vacation today! It's a little close to our January vacation because Armand happens to not be working Monday-Friday. We're planning to take a roadtrip to the Grand Canyon, possibly stopping by Sedona and Las Vegas on the way back. FUN! :)

Vacation!

I just got back from my first real week of vacation since our trip to New Zealand last year. THANK GOODNESS. I really needed a break so it couldn't have come at a better time!

We flew to Denver, Colorado to visit the in-laws, friends, and go skiing.

We went skiing up at Copper Mountain and stayed at Armand's uncle condo in Silverthorne. We hadn't skiied in several years and boy, did I feel my age... My legs were killing me! But we still had a blast and only fell a couple times. Luckily, we escaped with no serious injuries. :)














In the evening, we hung out with my college friend and brand new fiance! We had a home-cooked meal, warmed ourselves by the fire, and played Bohnanza- the bean game! It was awesome.

Everytime we're in Denver, we usually consume large amounts of amazing food, and especially meat. Here we are with baby-back ribs made in the smoker and then placed on the grill. Yum.














We had some serious business to do while in Denver which involved visiting the State Capitol and being introduced at the Legislature since Armand's mom is a State Representative! Here they are at the State Capitol office.














We made another little side-trip to Boulder, Colorado to visit friends, see the CU-Boulder campus, and enjoy a free tour at Celestial Seasonings!!














We packed in a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing everybody. I'm sad that vacation is already ending and tomorrow, I return to the grind... 150-something more days left until my first-year of fellowship is OVER!

Dear Merry Christmas

I can hardly believe Christmas has come and gone already.
It's been a year of many firsts... having moved back to the city where I grew up.

Christmas has always been a relatively minor holiday for us because growing up, we spent every Christmas away from the rest of our extended family, up at Mammoth, skiing and having fun with some close family friends. We stopped having a Christmas tree and Christmas dinner was usually whatever was easiest to make at the ski lodge. So for the last three years, I've had to spend Christmas in Chicago. Armand's parents would come up and we'd have Christmas at their family friend's house in Homewood. I have fond memories of amazing food, often Swedish, and an assortment of tasty cookies. There was usually snow on the ground and I'd be exhausted from having just come off a 30-hour shift, or exhausted thinking about going shortly into one...

This year I have 4 whole days off. Four sumptious days. It's been amazing. Like a vacation. Christmas eve dinner was spent at my parents' house. I made mushroom/asparagus risotto, Armand made a minestrone soup, and my dad made steaks. Then to top off the night, I resurrected one of my favorite Wellesley traditions: peppermint ice cream pie with chocolate syrup. YUM.
We watched The Nightmare Before Christmas and then came home to our cozy apartment, as Armand has had to work every day this past week. On Christmas day, my parents wanted to golf, so we hosted our dinner without them. Armand made a prime rib roast, perfectly medium rare, with lots of flavor. I made pesto pasta with zucchini and tomatoes, and green beans. We started with butternut squash soup. For dessert, we had gingersnap cookies. To work off all those calories, we played our brand-new wii and Small World and Jenga.

and the best part is I still had two more days off. tomorrow, brunch with high school friends, dinner with armand's college friend. it's been wonderful.

but I do miss my other friends who I haven't seen in a while. Love you all. Hope the new year will bring much happiness and peace.

Winter in LaLaLand

We went to a Kings game last week at the Staples Center. I haven't been to that particular part of downtown ever, growing up here in LA. But boy was I surprised. It was all lit-up and decorated and had tons of restaurants and bars... almost like a REAL downtown! I couldn't stop laughing at these icicles though...

Thanksgiving 1.5 weeks later...

Another thing to be EXTREMELY thankful for???

passing the pediatric boards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

minor (i mean, MAJOR) miracle. seriously. considering i only really studied the week leading up to the exam. thank you thank you thank you.

Thankful

in no particular order...

i'm thankful for:

being able to have Thanksgiving day off and have dinner with my large, extended family, for the first time in NINE years

a wonderfully supportive husband who has been so good to me, especially this year with all our (my) challenges/transitions

my fellowship, despite all my gripes, i'm humbled by what our patients and their families go through every day during their fight with Cancer

being able to be in california, near my family, it's been so great to do laundry at mom and dad's house, but more importantly to have dinner with them and spend time with them and sister

nice, non-crazy in-laws who went above and beyond when they moved us out here, driving the moving truck and armand's car 2,000 miles

my friends who have been there for me and say just the comforting thing when i'm feeling down

pictures to come... ! i hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving weekend, filled with food and most of all, love.

Dribble

Happy one day post-Halloween!

This morning, bright and early, I dragged myself out of bed and attended the 2nd annual "Dribble for the Cure." I'm told that it involves the UCLA basketball team, but I didn't see any players. It's a fundraiser for pediatric cancer, and even though I'm going through a bitter time in my life, feeling like I already donate enough of my blood sweat and tears to this, I showed up with Armand's basketball, paid my registration fee, and dribbled around campus.

Here I am with the other first-year fellow, looking chipper. :) It actually ended up being pretty fun and we got a large goody-bag filled with chips, salsa, cookies, water bottle, t-shirt, and beach ball. Down with Cancer!

Mission Partially Accomplished

I got myself a fabulous pair of sunglasses from Coach. Actually, I lie. I was too cheap to buy these for myself... instead I somehow finagled my sister into feeling bad for me and getting them for my birthday. :) I'm so excited to wear them! Thanks Nancy!

coming clean

I should be doing a million other things instead of updating my blog, but Oh Well. :)

These past couple weeks have been pretty nightmarish. The week before last, I was on call x7days. I actually had a few good nights... but the rest were painful. I was paged about every 30 minutes the entire night and still had to work full days the next day. This past week, I was back on-service taking care of the inpatients and our census has EXPLODED. On average, we have 15-20 patients. This past week, we got up to 26. And because residents have rules on the number of patients they can see each day, I'm responsible for picking up the rest. This means that I've been getting to the hospital at 6am and not leaving until around 9:30-10pm every day. And on most days, I don't have time for lunch.

People keep asking "How are you doing???" and "How can I help?" and I know that they're just being nice but really, I resent these questions. I'm actually really unhappy these days and I feel like quitting often. and there's nothing anyone can do to help, except give us more manpower to take care of these sick patients, but nobody wants to do extra time on-service.

I'm sure it's not this bad all the time but I'm exhausted. Hopefully my next post will be cheerier because this isn't who I want to be.

Trajectory

Wow it's already been about 2 months since I started at this new hospital and in this new position. Overall, it's getting better... but every day is different. Some are good and some are really bad. Mostly, I'm exhausted and frustrated and confused at work.

This is my last week of being off before I take a week of call starting this coming Friday. Those weeks are rough. Not looking forward to it.

We try to squeeze in as much FUN as we can... last weekend, we went to the beach finally! we drove down PCH, in the late afternoon, found a parking spot by the shopping area in downtown malibu, and walked to the beach. it was wonderful. just the PERFECT temperature and we relaxed in the sand, played briefly in the water, took a walk to the pier, and had dinner at Duke's of Malibu. I've always wanted to try this touristy trap but I have to say... it was fairly disappointing as far as the food goes, but the VIEWS are amazing. gorgeous. We felt like we were on vacation!

The next day we went to the Willard Wigan exhibit in Hollywood. He's a "micro-sculptor"... and makes these microscopic sculptures that you view through a microscope like the one below... this is a picture of the special lighting and on that yellow ellipse is the sculpture, suspended at the tip of a sewing needle.

This is a scene from Alice in Wonderland. He made special tools to do his work... and he paints the sculptures using hair found on flies...

This one of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is my favorite, but came out blurry... they were all AMAZING.

I'm still alive

I know you had your doubts, but I'm still alive... we made it to LA just fine and then everything was so whirlwind... fellowship started... armand's job started... catching up with friends and family with the little time that I have.

I just finished up a week of being the inpatient fellow, taking care of the 15 or so hospitalized patients on the oncology service. It had its moments but overall, not as bad as I was thinking. but that's only because I was bracing myself for the worst... because this past month has been the most difficult month of my medical training, thus far.

Every day, I feel like an idiot. I just finished my pediatric residency, and after 3 years, even though I know there's still a lot to learn, I felt competent. and confident.

Now? Every day, there's so much that I don't know and the expectations are so much higher. So that's been hard... going from knowing a lot of general pediatrics, to knowing basically nothing in hematology/oncology. I know that's why I signed up for this fellowship, to be trained, and all, but it just doesn't feel that way when I show up to work.

The other challenging aspect is that the hospital I now work for is completely dysfunctional and the way our department is set-up, with all the budget cuts, etc., is also very dysfunctional. I can't even get started...

To say the least, I really miss Chicago and the University and all our friends back "home." It's been great to be back in LA, but I do miss Chicago a lot.

The good news that I got yesterday was that our paper has a conditional acceptance to our first choice journal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe it's true... I keep checking the email to make sure. :)

goals

i have a few goals for the next couple months, once i get to LA.

1. find a fabulous pair of sunglasses... i have never splurged on sunglasses and i need a good pair now that i'll be living in a place that actually has a lot of SUN!

2. build my work wardrobe... i haven't done a whole lot of shopping over the years recently but now that i'm a "FELLOW" i need to have fabulous clothes and look even more professional. plus, the weather will again, be different, so i need sunny-weather appropriate clothes.

3. lose 10 pounds... my weight is mostly stable but it's been up and down by about 10 pounds in the last 6-8 years. this past half year, especially, i feel like i've given into my bad habits and cravings more than usual. i fell off the flamin hot cheetos bandwagon. i've been drinking more soda again. etc.

4. figure out a study schedule for the pediatric boards in october... this is supposedly a VERY hard test; with a significant portion of people failing it every year. i really don't want to fail.

5. develop my teaching skills... now i will have residents and medical students to teach! i need to work hard at this very important endeavor.

6. i'm sure there a lots of others that i'm forgetting right now...

"graduated" again

last weekend, we had our residency "graduation" dinner... there wasn't a real diploma involved or anything, but it was to celebrate the end of our general pediatrics training. it didn't feel like a momentous achievement, like medical school, but in a lot of ways, it means even more than just getting to write the M.D. after my name. i am supposedly capable of practicing general pediatrics on my own now! i feel ready... and yet SO UNPREPARED at the same time.

I feel even less prepared to be a fellow in hematology/oncology in just a few short weeks. i have no idea what this is going to be like, in a new hospital, with new residents, new everything!! so when people ask me "wow, you're moving soon, are you excited???" i'm not really sure how to respond to that! yes, i'm totally excited, but i'm so sad to be leaving Chicago and i'm terrified that i won't know enough to be a fellow. gosh, transitions are hard!!

We are packing up, slowly, but surely... selling off our furniture... the apartment is starting to look more barren. I'm in denial and it still hasn't FULLY hit me yet!

Here's our class photo... I am really going to miss all my friends and colleagues.

7 years

Summer of 2003, we took this picture after the summer research presentations. In the middle is our research mentor and friend... who has been amazing to us and who has definitely shaped me (and my career). She is a nationally-recognized expert in residency duty hours and sign-out communication. When I first met her, she was just finishing up her masters in public policy and we worked on one of her very first major studies, involving the effect of night float on intern sleep and fatigue.

I couldn't think of a better research mentor when it came to my current project on physician communication and sign-out effectiveness. So the picture below is one taken in front of my poster (my first!) at the 2nd Annual Pediatric Research Day. We've come a long way!

nearing the end

we had some time left on the meter a couple weekends ago and decided to wander about. we need to go to the modern wing of the Art Institute, before we leave. i love chicago. how i'm going to miss you!!! it's less than one month before we pack up our lives here and move... *tear*

i have always really liked the American Gothic painting... and this is a larger-than-life representation that we saw downtown chicago the other night!

the view from the new modern wing bridge...

the newest addition to the Art Institute! even the gift shop is worth going to.

Go Lakers!

I love the LA Lakers! :) The western conference finals are especially sweet because it's the Husband's hometown team against LA. I think we all know who's going to win in the end, but the games have been so intense and fun, in a slightly stress-inducing way. :)

New Zealand, Part III

In Rotorua, we experienced more of the Maori culture by going to a performance and traditional hangi dinner, which they cook in the ground for several hours.

The performance was a mix between music, dancing and folklore from the Maori.

The food was delicious! There was chicken, lamb, potatoes, kumara (sweet potatoes), and then assorted veggies, which may or may not have been totally authentic.

The picture below is from Wanganui, which is the newest thermal park in Rotorua, formed back in 1920 or so, when the volcanoes erupted. It was very cool... hot boiling water forming these colorful rivers and lakes; steam everywhere making the park look surreal.

New Zealand, Part II

New Zealand has a lot of offer in terms of adventure... the first ever bungy-jump was off the Eiffel Tower, and was a New Zealander. He then founded the first commercial bungy-jumping company, and the Kawarau Bridge jump is it. It's 43m in height, and is just outside of Queenstown. We decided to do the tandem jump together and though I knew it was going to be scary... it was about 100 times scarier than I thought. I was so not mentally prepared for it! (Not sure if anyone could be!) We got to the ledge and looking down at the blue turqoise river flowing beneath us, I thought I couldn't do it. But before I even had a chance to change my mind, they were counting "3-2-1" and we sort of fell over the edge and were in a free-fall.

The rush you get is so much more intense than a rollercoaster... I think having your entire body's blood pooling into your brain helps. :) We have a couple other shots but I need to scan them in...

After cruising Milford Sound, seeing waterfalls larger than the Niagara Falls, rainbows, dolphins, seals, and fiords, we took a short helicopter ride over the mountains and landed on a glacier! See how deep the snow is (up to our knees!)

This is what we saw when we looked around...

New Zealand, Part I

I have wanted to go to New Zealand for as long as I can remember... so when airline prices took a huge plunge, I was so excited to go for our belated honeymoon.

Words are just not sufficient to describe New Zealand. I've travelled fairly extensively and other than Alaska, New Zealand wins the prize on untouched natural beauty. Sure, Machu Picchu in Peru was breath-taking, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is incredible, and the Great Wall of China is mind-blowing, and I love the Spanish architecture of Gaudi... but the entire country of New Zealand is an ecological wonder.

Rainforests, beaches, mountains, glaciers, thermal parks... they have everything.

This was the view from our B&B in Queenstown (Queenstown Chalet):

This was the view of Queenstown after we hiked 75minutes up a steep incline, because we were too cheap to pay for the gondola ride. :)

This is Peter's Pool that reflected the Franz Josef Glacier... one of the most amazing views of our trip.

We finally see the Fox Glacier after hiking for 1.5hrs and climbing 700 steps!

Baltimore/D.C.

I know I've been neglectful... so here are a series of updates! :)

From where we left off...

I went to Baltimore for the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting, earlier in the month.

This was my first national meeting and it was awesome. It took place at the convention center. It was a little overwhelming and the schedule always had multiple sessions going on that were interesting... it was so hard to pick! My talk on physician communication during signout went well, even though I was so nervous, I could feel my entire body shaking! There were lots of good questions and it was, in the end, a huge honor to talk in front of so many program directors, etc.

Another bonus for the trip was hanging out with my best friend from HS. On Friday, I went to D.C. to have dinner with her, and on Saturday, she came over to Baltimore for dinner. This is a picture from Nacho Mama's, which had the most delicious (you guessed it!) nachos. We stuffed ourselves. mmmmmmmmmm.

Immediately after my talk, I booked it to the train to get to D.C., then super-shuttled it over to the airport, to fly to LA for the start of what turned out to be an amazing vacation.

flurry of activity

There's been a flurry of activity around here lately...

Last week, I went to florida for a pediatric research symposium. I was mostly dreading it at first... I really hate being forced to make small-talk and "network"/"mingle" with strangers, but it actually turned out to be a really enriching experience. I got a lot of helpful feedback on my research and presentation style, and I got to hear about all these other cool projects that peds residents from all over were getting involved in!

Tomorrow, I'm flying to Baltimore for the peds academic societies meeting at which I'm giving a platform presentation. scary!!

Then, on Monday, we fly to New Zealand! I'm so excited, I can hardly contain myself... I don't know how I'm going to get through this weekend...

Oh, I know how! One of my dearest friends from HS lives in D.C. and we are going to stuff ourselves with good food and spend some time catching up!!!!

When I get back, I will have lots of pictures to share!

new era

i just got an email from another fellow in the program who is making our schedule for July to July. looks like i will have thanksgiving day off. and likely a whole week off for christmas! woohoo. in order to arrange this, she sent us an email asking us if it would be okay to have call weeks closer together than usual. ideally, we take a week of call at a time, about once every 6 weeks. but there's a stretch where we have to take a week of call about 3 weeks apart.

seriously? i don't even care. i just feel so lucky to have time off for the holidays! this will be the first thanksgiving i spend with my family in 11 years!! eleven!

i'm willing to do just about anything to make this happen. :) so excited.

children of pediatricians

in the last 2 days, i have seen 3 children of doctor/medical student parents.

in clinic, i saw the toddler of a medical student. with an ear infection. *already on antibiotics!*

in the ER tonight, i saw the toddler of another medical student with a stomach virus. and a baby of a family medicine resident with a viral infection.

all those kids?
definitely did not need to be seen by another doctor.

which brings me to thinking. what kind of parent will i be?
first of all. i clearly love babies. but i can NOT imagine myself having a baby any time soon, if ever. seriously.
secondly. i don't think i would ever take my kids to the emergency room. unless they like, were dying of meningitis.

and even then, it better be bacterial meningitis. we can deal with viral at home.

squeezing in time

Still on this endless stream of night shifts in the ER... I was deathly ill on Sunday, with a fever to 102, and thought I either had strep throat or the flu. I had a co-resident do a strep test on me which was negative, so I'm fairly certain I had the flu. I have never been that sick in my adult life. Other than that one time I got sick with gastroenteritis in Ecuador and couldn't get out of bed for 3 days.

So. it's been busy. But I wanted to share two things.

I went to the Oriental Institute for the first time since I moved to Chicago. They had an exhibit on a mummy named Merasamun, who they recently put through the high tech CT scanner at the hospital. We were amused. It was a really interesting exhibit and they have a lot of other cool permanent exhibits there!

Last night, we finally went to North Pond. The Husband got a gift certificate for his birthday, and we tried to go for Valentines Day but he got sick. So even though I'm recovering from the flu, I felt well enough to venture out there last night. It was so worth it. We went with the 5-course tasting menu. and here are some pictures.

this was the amuse bouche. an oyster that smelled funny and green apple jelly with pureed cauliflour and mini-cavier. not my favorite.

this course was yum. it was lobster tortellini and crab, in broth. couldn't get enough.

this was scallops and pork belly. the scallops were okay but the pork belly was fabulous. so fatty and extra crispy skin. mmmmmmmm.

this was the "main" course of grass-fed beef. a little chewy.

this was another highlight- coconut foam and passionfruit custard.

and the grand finale dessert- chocolate wafer and milk ice cream with chocolate flakes. yum.