Thursday, November 27, 2008

Favorite holiday!

Happy thanksgiving to one and all!!!   May you feast and feast and feast until you can't walk anymore.  Then, may you walk lots tomorrow to make up for it. 

And may I mention that I love this holiday?  It's not religious, it doesn't commemorate any wars or famous people, and it's centered around food.  Food.  Did I mention that I love food?

Sunday, November 23, 2008

One more thing...

Is it too much to ask that my future partner for life be a good scrabble player?  One more thing to add to my "list," I suppose.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Shifting priorities

Last night, I went with my friend Cathal to the Human Rights Watch fundraising dinner in San Francisco and it was really inspiring.  Listening to the honorees (a journalist from Uzbekistan and a political organizer from Burma) talk about their experiences and their hopes for their countries made me want to be a better person.  I think that the reason why I am doing what I am doing can easily be lost in the shuffle of looking up lab values, writing orders, or doing post-op checks.  It's easy to forget that I went into medicine to make a difference, to feel like I have made my impact in the world.  Also, it is easy to forget that what I am doing and what I complain about is nothing compared to how others in this world have it.  Being inspired by the dinner makes me want to make a concerted effort everday, in everything that I do, to do my best and to really feel like I am living up to my potential.  Otherwise, why else do what I am doing? 

Going to last night's dinner was also good because it provided a break from what I do on a day to day basis.  Sometimes I feel lost in the world of the hospital and disconnected from the outside world.  The experience last night helped me reconnect and remember that I am part of a larger picture that continues to go on outside the walls of the hospital. If only I could do it more often.

Are you kidding me?

I nearly rolled over in my chair when I saw this on amazon.com.  Seriously, More than $2 (and that's stretching it) for rice paper is absolutely ridiculous.  Ridiculous.  Did I mention it's ridiculous? 
 

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Bummer

If this is true, I'm totally bummed.  Leave it to me and get my hopes up that the Secretary of Health and Human Services have actual experience working in either health or human services (ahem, Howard Dean).

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Reality television

I'm watching the Friends episode where Phoebe gives birth to her brother's triplets (yeah, if you aren't familiar with the plot lines, it can sound incestuous, but it's not). They show the delivery room and it's really hilarious, especially given my new perspective after spending many days and nights in delivery rooms.

I guess it's about time I realize that not everything I see on TV is reality.

Yum!

My dinner tonight, inspired by nothing at all as my local Safeway had no good veggies, other than some yams. So, I cooked up dinner from some staples in my fridge and pantry and came up with:
  1. Red leaf lettuce salad with green apple and sesame ginger dressing (really needs no recipe - just a salad, some sliced green apples, and some of Newman Own's Sesame Ginger salad dressing).
    11.18.2008 009

  2. Baked yams with salt and pepper (literally, peeled and sliced yams drizzled with a little canola oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, baked until soft and placed under the broiler for some caramelization).
    11.18.2008 005

  3. Chile lime shrimp (inspired by this recipe).
Yes, this is what I make when my fridge is "empty" - you should see it when it's full.

My own variation on the shrimp (serves 2):

Chile lime shrimp
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Serves 2

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  1. Peel about 10 shrimp (you can leave the non-tail part if you'd like, like I like) and cut down the back of each shrimp.
    11.18.2008 002

  2. Place in bowl with finely sliced garlic and a splash of fish sauce (instead of the salt in the original recipe).
  3. In another bowl, combine the lime juice (of 2 limes) and red pepper flakes.
    11.18.2008 001

  4. Heat up pan with canola oil on high heat.
  5. Place shrimp and garlic in and stir frequently until almost done
  6. Place lime juice and pepper flakes in - it will cook down really quickly (you can add a dash of water to keep moisture going if the shrimp hasn't cooked all the way through).
  7. Take off heat almost immediately and serve!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Exciting night!

In the last night, I delivered a 4200+ gram baby (approximately 9 1/2 pounds) who had such a large belly, I think the mother pushed harder to get the belly out than the head.  I also delivered two babies in beds within an hour of each other.  Great excitement and all in a day's work.
 

Monday, November 10, 2008

Ouch

I think I have an infected pinkie. I'm being my hypochondriac self and thinking of the possibility of it turning into sepsis, all through a hang nail (worse things have happened, I suppose). It's been throbbing all day, kind has this funky discharge, is warm, swollen, and red. That meets all the qualifications for something that I should be worried about, no? I'll wait a day or two and then I'll forget about it, I'm sure. Or, I'll develop fevers and nausea and vomiting and curse the day I took off that hang nail.

Shopping for dishes

I love shopping for housewares, almost too much. I love it so much that I can never buy anything. How does that happen, you may ask. Well, I can explain it through my adventures trying to find dishes.

Every time I go to Crate and Barrel, or Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, or Sur La Table, or any other store that may sell dishes, I fall in love. There are so many dishes and no doubt, I will like at least one set. However, I will stand there in the store, staring at the dishes for about half an hour. I ponder about prices, I try to imagine the dishware in my apartment, with my food on it, how it will fit in with my existing dishes, what it says about me as a person (yes, I think about this). After all of this, I will walk out of the store empty handed the vast majority of the time. It comes down to the ultimate decision to commit to a set of dishes, which I almost always fail to do. I keep on thinking, "What if I find another set of plates/cups/bowls at _next store down the line_ that I love? Do I want to be folksy, modern, simple classic, elegant, whimsical, etc?" So, because of the possibly of greener pastures with prettier dishes down the line, I end up getting no dishes (fortunately, I already have a set of dishware that are ok for the meantime. Note to self: never buy dishes with a metallic rim on them.), so it's not like I'm eating out of the palm of my hands.

So, I guess you never knew that I think about dishes so intensely. Yes, I need a life and perhaps more serious things to think about. However, as I was thinking about this the other day, I realized that I think of dating in an errily similar way (reread the post and maybe it will give you a laugh). In translation, I have commitment issues in relationships, as well as in dishware. I date (go shopping) a lot, but never end up commiting (buying) for fear that I'll miss out on something greater down the road. It's something I knew I always had to deal with, but the revelation that it parallels my shopping pursuits was just too weird (and gave for quite a laugh with a friend on Saturday, status-post Friday night date gossip).

On the other hand, I bought a fabulous set of bowls from Anthropologie that I'm in love with. I want to eat everything out of them.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Exciting day!

Besides the recent elections, which I'm totally psyched about (with the exception of Proposition 8 and a few other races), I got to be primary surgeon for the first time today! Not once, not twice, not thrice, but FOUR times. Read that - four times! I can't believe it. It was such a thrill. I never thought that I would really enjoy operating this much but it was so much fun and so thrilling. I got to do three laparoscopic tubal ligations and one cone biopsy (you can google it... but maybe you don't want to google the cone biopsy). By my third tubal, I was an expert and it took all of 12 minutes from start to finish - and I didn't even feel rushed. Though, I did feel the rush of being surgeon afterwards - and I'm still feeling it.

Almost makes up for the fact that I didn't leave the hospital until 9pm today and that I'm on call tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Disbelief

I just cannot believe that Barack Obama is the president-elect. I really cannot believe it. I'm in shock. Good shock, but shock nonetheless.

Go vote!

It's election day!! And I'm so nervous my TMJ is acting up.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Laughing out loud

I'm listening to This American Life on my iPod right now and their choice of music just made me laugh out loud. To end their story on regulation of the mortgage and banking industry, they started playing "Regulate" by Warren G and Nate Dogg, from the movie, Above the Rim. It made me laugh so hard that I rewound it just to listen to it again. It reminds me of 8th grade, when I found out that my crush at the time (whose name is still secret - I can still be embarassed by my 8th grade crush!) liked the movie soundtrack. Ah, memories.

Thank you, Ira Glass.

Reality check

The New York Times just published an interesting article on the parallels between the last two seasons of The West Wing and the current presidential election. It's fascinating and makes me want to finish the last two seasons before the election (which I won't, of course... I'm only on the beginning of Season 6 right now).

We'll soon see how this story ends.