Island Med Student

I am what you might call a list-aholic. I obsessively make “to do” lists, “grocery lists,” and just about any other list you can imagine. Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed by the volume of crap I have to get done, writing it all down on a piece of paper, and then crossing each off one by one as I accomplish them never fails to reduce my anxiety.

Several days after moving into my apartment in Brooklyn (which was one year ago), the towel rack in my bathroom broke. Basically, the screws came out of the wall and were just hanging there by a thread. Every time I put a towel on the rack, it would come crashing down and create a huge mess. So, “fix towel rack” has been on my “to do” list for the past year. I would have normally fixed it right away, but I needed a power drill, which I didn’t have with me in Brooklyn, and I didn’t want to buy a new one.

So, today I saw the superintendent for my building and I sweet talked him into letting me borrow his power drill. I raced up to my apartment, and a few minutes, sweat, dust, and loud sounds later I had a working towel rack in my bathroom.

You might be thinking, wow, this is a totally stupid post. And that’s okay, because it is. But there are two points I want to make:

1) After I fixed the towel rack, I went straight to my “to do” list, and scratched out “fix towel rack.” As I crossed it off, a huge wave of relief came over me. I don’t care if this is silly. But it made me happy.

2) I love power drills and fixing crap. Seriously, I can’t wait to move into my own house someday and do all kinds of renovations. I love building stuff. I love power tools. I love dirty, sweaty work. Mad props to my mom and dad. They raised me in a dirty, sweaty, building crap environment. Seriously, my parents do more building than some construction workers. There is nothing more satisfying than using your own two hands, two feet, (or one or none, if you don’t have any), to build, fix, and create. It’s the cat’s meow.

I have a bunch more “stuff learned” in cardiology to post. I will do so soon, I promise! But in the meantime, happy Friday!