merry Advent!

since it isn't technically Christmas season yet, merry advent season! I love this time of year very very much. You get to relax, spend time with (and spoil) your friends and loved ones, and bake ridiculous amounts of cookies all in honor of Jesus. Our family also makes a birthday cake for Jesus (we don't put candles on it for obvious reasons) this year I'm voting for funfetti. Here is our lovely tree:

Today my niece Anna Lee was dedicated into the Baptist church (Baptists do infant dedication and later baptism rather than infant baptism and later confirmation). It was a pretty service and I was in charge of the videography, which is as a result very artistic.

After church we went for Tex-Mex at Serranos and then Shannon and I made cookies:

seek and find: Chinese cookie, investment banker during a strong market, investment banker during a weak market, Wilma Flintstone, surfer couple, alien cookie, and the unfortunate cookie who realized he was accidentally walking around NAKED. Also notice that although the cookies aren't gingerbread, we made them the correct color to simulate gingerbread cookies. Essentially we turned the gingerbread man into an icon of the season, and reworked it as a different type of cookie. It's very post-modern.

can I have a bacon sandwich on challah please?

yes I did eat a bacon and grilled cheese sandwich on challah. It was wonderful, too. I liked it so much that I felt the need to take a picture.
One of my favorite things about visiting a new place is to eat the food. Within the five days I was in New York I ate Indian, Sri Lankan, Polish, Turkish, Chinese, and anti-kosher diner food. I also had coffee from probably seven different places within five days. Food is my favorite.
I also love wandering aimlessly and just looking at things. I was partially guided by some suggested walks found in the City Walks of New York card deck. I suggest the deck to anyone visiting a new city. It makes wandering slightly less aimless
Here I am with my gracious hostess Alexandria Winslett Owen in Rockefeller center. It was very pretty and ridiculously crowded. I liked it though. But I think my very favorite thing was Chinatown, mostly because I am a cheap cheap lady. cheap as in bargaining, not as in tacky. I hope. I got a meal that would have fed two people easily plus free tea for $5.60 including tax. that's awesome. The other awesomest thing about NY was Alex's company's Christmas party, where I filled up on beef satay, shrimps, and a decadent dessert buffet. That night we got temporarily locked out of the apartment and had the great idea to go to the roof and climb the fire escape down. Apparently we made a little noise up there because the girl on the top floor came out to find us, then let us climb down her fire escape to the apartment. it was fantastic.

my computer and my car are both broken.

my computer doesn't turn on, and my car no longer has a light up panel at night, so once it gets dark I have no idea what speed I am driving. luckily this does not matter at the moment because I am in New York visiting Alex and need neither a laptop nor a vehicle.  Pictures will be up when I have nothing better to do. 

if I want a coach... well, that probably won't ever happen again.

Today while I was riding my bike on White Rock trail, I passed an older guy. He was affronted by my hot pink jersey and quickly upped his effort to pass me, then eased off and slowed down again. I considered stopping to "tie my shoe" just so I wouldn't have to deal with the whole going almost the same speed but not together phenomenon. But instead I sucked it up and just put power on for a few minutes to try and get enough in front that ...but he eventually caught up and started yelling at me to work harder. Some random man cyclist on the bike trail told me to "shift the gear up and crank it!" WHO DOES THAT? did I ask for coaching? NO! I haven't desired a coach since the last one I had gave me arthritis in my spine and two herniated discs at the age of 19.
Later on I went to half-price books because I am an addict and books are my smack:afterwards, I taught myself how to play "The Sign" by Ace of Base on guitar. I'm planning to represent Sweden in the med school multicultural show (and I was looking for something else to do besides study for pulmonology).

snotty brat

Here's my Christmas wish list (because Shannon asked me to post it here. However, I feel a bit like a materialistic vapid snot doing so):

• world peace
• new earphones that stay in better while running
• cycling clothes + clips
• Brooks Men's Addiction running shoes size 11M yeah I know my feet are ginormous
• Wallet in trifold or french purse style (have had current wallet for 7 years)
• Starbucks in any form. Those sweet, sweet legal stimulants. yum.
• a massage.
  

I love Turkey. both kinds.

Now that I'm finished with this turkey (which was delicious, thanks mom!) and have already forgotten what relaxation felt like due to a too-short Thanksgiving break, I bought my plane ticket to go to the other Turkey over spring break!

Right now it is me and one other nerd but we're recruiting more to join. We're starting out in Istanbul for a few days to see the Blue Mosque, the Aya Sofia, the Grand Bazaar, and maybe a little cruise down the Bosphorous, heading west to see Troy and Gallipoli, then south to Ephesus (see: Ephesians, Paul's letter to the). After Ephesus, we're heading back west to Goerme in Cappadocia and then an overnight bus or train back to Istanbul. I've wanted to go to Turkey ever since I randomly signed up for an AMAZING class in undergrad about the Ottoman Empire. The only reason I signed up for it was that it was cross-listed under CulAnth and Religion, and it didn't meet on Fridays. And now I'm going there and it's going to be fabulous.
In other news, my CBC, metabolic panel, and thyroid function were all within normal limits, and that thing I thought was pharynx-eating staph was actually just benign normal oral flora. So now I know I'm perfectly healthy...except for the fact that I feel like there are little tiny men sandblasting my throat and nose right now. awesome.

the joys of self-diagnosis

I already know that med school has made my a hypochondriac... I've already diagnosed myself with pernicious anemia, Reynaud's phenomenon, and for a few hours I thought I might have meningitis (to explain, I had just visited a friend in the hospital who DOES have meningitis, so it was slightly less weird for me to worry about that possibility).
Today they let us swab our own throats and gram stain them to look for "normal flora". Only, instead of normal, I got this:Or something kind of similar. I probably have a staph infection. I got red blood cells, too! unfortunately, they don't award bonus points for these things. But I did decide that a possible staph infection was a sufficient excuse to skip the gym today. horray!
I got emails from the norcam ladies today and it made me feel sunshiney and fuzzy inside. We WILL have a reunion. I'll have T-shirts made and everything.

saving the grapefruits of the world

This is what I do for fun. Exciting, No?

jingle my bells

I have been getting completely burned out. I began to forget why I decided to go to med school in the first place. I hadn't seen a patient in a few weeks... I hadn't seen much of anything except the inside of a book. So I decided to email some people and get back in the OR. Wednesday I observed an ORIF of a pilon fracture. While in the OR I got the cold sweats and sat down just before I lost consciousness for a few milliseconds. I think it was a combination of not moving, being dehydrated, not eating a big enough breakfast, and being really damn hot. On Friday I saw an ORIF of a distal fibula and a lateral malleolus, as well as a couple of fixations of humerus fractures. On the second case, they let me sew, which was AWESOME. those eight stitches are probably going to save the patient's life.


Last night was the first annual "Jingle my Bells" holiday party at Ashley and Laurie's house. There were peppermint patty shots. We went dancing afterward at Obar and I got hit on by a guy who looked like he got into a fight with a bedazzler. Men should stay away from rhinestones. Unfortunately, my late-night festivities caused me to oversleep my clowning duties at the Neiman Marcus parade (6 AM for makeup!) but as it's fifty five and raining it probably wouldn't have been very healthy for me anyways.