Island Med Student

Life has been a blur lately. I drove down to Baltimore on Friday night, incredibly sleep deprived and tired. I woke up Saturday morning, drove to Virginia, rented a Uhaul truck, and with the help of my parents and Micah, loaded up most of my items out of storage on the farm into the truck. Micah and I set sail from the farm around 3:00 p.m., and stopped once in Baltimore. By midnight, we were back in Brooklyn. We unloaded all of our stuff from the truck into our apartment.

Everyone always told me “just wait until you do peds…you’ll get sick!” But I thought I had been incredibly lucky and superhuman. I didn’t get sick one day during my peds rotation. However the day AFTER the last day of my rotation (Saturday), I noticed that I was developing a sore throat and dry cough. By Sunday, it had developed into a full blown cold. I feel like a steaming pile of poo.

I’ve been hopped up on cold meds for several days now. It’s been non-stop raining for several days now. I’ve been unpacking and arranging for several days now.

I just now got to a good stopping point, so I decided to eat some veggie chili. Somehow, the chili, combined with the fact that I’ve quit taking the damn cold meds, has made me feel a lot better. The medication-induced haze is beginning to lift. Now if I could just coax the sun to come out long enough for my doggies to take a poop.

Photo is the beginnings of my new “office space.” It’s so good to finally have a desk again!

This weekend was quite pleasurable, and it really got my creative juices a’flowin. My partner Micah is in art school in Baltimore, Maryland (pursuing an MFA at MICA), and he’s been working on his thesis project, which will be installed in the Decker Gallery this month. I’ve been helping him work on the project (more than he gives me credit for…:) ) for the past few weeks. Last weekend we shot some footage in Times Square and Arturo’s restaurant in Manhattan. This past weekend involved a trip to Coney Island, climbing up to my apartment building’s rooftop, and recording footage during my bubble bath.

As you can tell, this is going to be an amazing project! I think I might even be more excited about it than Micah is.

In other news, the weather for the past few days has been AMAZING! Sunny, and in the high 50′s. Yesterday I went for an absolutely lovely run, and today I’m planning on taking the doggies to the park, and maybe spending some time at an outdoor cafe.

Yes, it’s Monday, but I don’t have to be at the hospital today. The next two weeks I will be working in the pediatric emergency room. I only have to do three 12-hour shifts each week, so you’ll likely be hearing a lot more from me. This will be a vacation compared to the 80+ hours I put in last week!

Oh yes, and happy birthday to my little sister Corina today! And belated happy birthday to my daddio yesterday!

I’m back in Brooklyn after visiting Baltimore and Luray, Virginia for the holidays. I had a fabulous time visiting my family and friends. Micah and I are currently dog-sitting for some friends on holiday in Israel, so we are up to 3 dogs and 2 humans in my studio apartment. I will have some great videos and stories to share soon. But in the meantime, please enjoy the photos with this post.

1) My sister Julena feeding her dog Paige and my dogs Scope and Molly.
2) Scope and Molly in the backseat on the trip back to New York in their new Christmas scarves.
3) The three dogs and one human (Micah) chilling after the voyage.

From Brooklyn to Baltimore and now to Luray, Virginia! Merry Christmas everyone!

Over a year ago I went on a photographic escapade with my Diana camera. I had the film developed but had been putting off scanning the film. I finally had some time to work on it today, and I was very pleased with some of the images. I made prints of 6 of the photos and uploaded them and a few more that I liked. I am so excited to be working with film that I plan on going out as soon as possible and buying more film for my Diana and my Holga. I wish I had thought to bring them both on my holiday!

Click here to view the pics

Lately, I’ve been running 30+ miles a week. A full marathon is 26.2 miles (42.195 km), so I’ve been running at least a marathon a week. This has been very easy to do since I’ve been away from the hospital for residency interviews. I start back at the hospital on Monday. I have made a goal to try and run a marathon a week for the next year. When I start residency, this is going to be a very challenging endeavor, but I’m going to give it my best. If I run a marathon a week for the next year, that will be 1,362 miles in the next 52 weeks. Luckily, I have the very sweet (I highly recommend it) Nike + iPod running system, so tracking my mileage is a breeze. All the data is even uploaded to a website that is already tracking my goal and displaying super neat graphs. I really do love this system (thanks, Micah!)

The photo above is me with Scope right after I just got back from my 8.5 mile run today. It was 64 degrees and sunny in NYC today, so I had an absolutely wonderful run. The photo below was taken by Micah in Baltimore for me yesterday. Thanks Micah for supporting my dead baby stroller addiction!

I’m officially back in Brooklyn. As much fun as I had out of town, there’s something wonderful about being home again. I have some more interviews coming up this week and then it’s back to the hospital on Monday. Micah and I have finally begun a project we’ve been trying to work on for a while. We are converting all of my family’s old and mold-covered videotapes into a digital format. Micah has been watching my old home movies all day and sending me hilarious updates. He just sent me the above photo which was a screen shot of a video he was converting. At first I thought the picture was from LATFH.com, but then I realized it was me as Scrooge when I was around 11 years old. Apparently I was a hipster way before hipsters were cool (well, not-cool, in my opinion).

Perhaps the coolest thing my parents’ ever did was buy us a video camcorder. We didn’t have cable television and we lived in the middle of nowhere, so one of the things we did for fun was make movies. We recorded random events and also re-made blockbuster hits including A Christmas Carol and The Princess Bride. I will definitely give my kids a camcorder (although it won’t be an old school VHS one), so that they can get creative like we did.

In other news, I turned on the Christmas lights in my apartment. I’m not a very Christmasy person, but I actually do really enjoy the lights, and my apartment now feels all cozy and fun.

I’m tired from traveling and unpacking so I’m about to go soak in a super yummy bath with the wonderful soap that Laura gave me while I was in Baltimore. G’nite!

I had a fabulous time at the farm for turkey day. Micah and I headed back to Baltimore last night and then had a yummy dinner at his parents’ house. I woke up this morning ready to go on a long run to shed off my turkey-day-indulgences and realized that I’d left my running shorts in Brooklyn. After freaking out for a few minutes, I went to Target and bought a crappy substitute. I felt my anxiety level rising as all I wanted was to go on a nice, long run. I realized how much I need my runs. I could feel myself becoming super cranky and anxiety ridden. However, once I opened it up outside with my two doggies and some awesome music, all was well again. I could feel the anxiety dripping off of me in the form of my sweat, and life once again became manageable. It sometimes scares me how dependent I am on my runs for de-stressing. I am scared of what would happen if I was no longer able to run!

Anyway, enjoy the photos with this post. One taken on the way out of NYC, one of Scope wearing my “Life is Pain…anyone who says differently is selling something” t-shirt for beddy bye time, and one of my sister Bruce and her huge doggy, Chesney at Thanksgiving.

It’s time to take a shower and then figure a way to go back outside and enjoy the beautiful weather today!

I left Baltimore on Saturday morning. I plowed through heavy rain all the way to Staten Island. It finally let up as I entered Brooklyn. Since it had been raining non-stop for 4 days in Baltimore, it seemed as though Brooklyn was my rain-free oasis. Finally, I could escape from the endless life-sucking droplets of water.

For the record, I actually do like rain. But I don’t like rain that doesn’t stop for many days. That just starts to depress me.

Last night, I watched the movie “Rainmaker,” and this morning I woke up to MORE RAIN. It seems that Brooklyn is not immune to these horrible grey clouds, and the rain has followed me North. I am the rainmaker.

In other news, I plan on catching up on errands today (laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, etc.) and not a whole lot else. This rain is beginning to suck the life out of me.

The photo at the top of this post is the “Floppy Fantasy,” which is a squeaky toy that I had to buy for Molly while in Baltimore so she would stop stealing the squeaky toy from Bessa, the other dog who lives in the house. The second photo was Scope’s makeshift bed in the Baltimore house. I’m happy to be back in Brooklyn, where Molly has all of her toys, and Scope has the couch to call his bed.

The next 2 weeks are for residency interviews and elective rotation applications. More to come soon!

Well, I am still in Baltimore. I’ve spent the last two days catching up on errandy items. I think the weather is out to taunt me. During my whole 6 weeks of ob/gyn, the weather was gorgeous – sunny, relatively warm fall weather. Since I’ve been in Baltimore and NOT been trapped inside a hospital 24/7, it’s been absolutely yucky! It’s rained every day, all day, and hasn’t gotten out of the 40′s.

On Wednesday, I helped Micah set up his art installation in a gallery. Afterwards, I passed out on the gallery floor (see above). That photo pretty much sums up how I feel right now. Cold and tired.

Tonight we will go to the gallery opening, and then tomorrow I’m traveling back up to NYC for another residency interview. Weather, please give me just a few more warm and dry days. I really need it!