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|  Merry Christmas all! i know it's been forever since i've last blogged but i'm thinking of making a comeback... i figured i should blog at least once during the 2006 calendar year...
and for the first time in a long time, i've had an inkling to blog... my stimulus is my new obsession - this Korean Romance/Comedy series called "Full House"... my aunt and cousins got my parents into it when they visited Australia last month and my parents brought by the 8 DVD - 16 episode set and now i'm super hooked on it... i'm through 4 DVDs in 2 days and can't wait for more... i wish it didn't have to end... and i'm just praying that Han Ji-Eun and Lee Young-Jae find a way to be together in the end... why can't Young-Jae see how adorable and great Ji-Eun really is?!?! that moron - it's his stupid long hair getting in his eyes.... get a haircut, u hippee! i still have faith that they will end up together... they have to... i'm really counting on it! sigh... i want to stay up all night and watch the rest but i won't... if anyone knows the ending, please don't ruin it for me... in other news, i'm still trying to decide on which specialty to choose... i have to decide like 5 months ago... i'm still torn between Physiatry, Psychiatry, and Family Medicine so i applied to all 3 specialties and 24 programs in total for our residency matching service... but it's physically impossible for to attend 20+ interviews so i'm hoping to come to a decision over the Christmas break... ah well... what can ya do? maybe i'll quit medicine and enter the Korean TV match - hopefully, i'll match to "Full House"... sigh, a boy can dream, can't he? | | |
| i'm back! wow, it's been a while since i've blogged... i've been terrible at keeping up... but i'm going to try to stage a come-back and will make a concerted effort to make more entries from now on and also, do a much better job of keeping up with your blogs as well... i miss reading about your lives...
 anyway, last night, for the first time in my life, i partook in the construction of a house - that is, one of the gingerbread variety... Michelle and i did this in a collaborative effort and though there were some initial creative differences one contract dispute, and a delay with the building permit, we managed to work through the issues and produce an architectural masterpiece... here is a picture... believe it or not, i managed to take 47 pictures of the gingerbread house (many at night +/- candlelight - but i opted to go for a daytime pic because of the better angles and close proximity)... i was originally going to showcase 4 pictures, 1 of each of the front, back, and 2 sides but i think the single front picture gives u the gyst... the back door is a little more plain but is similar to the front...
my favourite part is the sprinkles that edge the roof - that was the most labour intensive part of the process that i personally did but i think that the results were well worth the blood, sweat, and tears that wept from my body during this undertaking... Michelle's favourite contributions of her own are the candy cane sled in the front yard and the snowman with the cane constructed from carbon fibre candy cane... since his body is 95% snow, his mobility is compromised... with his cane and sprinkly hair, he looks quite dapper and is the toast of the town or so the tree and the man in the front yard tell me...
in other news, medicine has been running the majority of my life this year... this is my clerkship year, meaning that it is the first fully clinical year of my life... so far, i've done 6 weeks of Paediatrics, 6 weeks of Ob/Gyn, and 2 weeks of Geriatrics... i'm onto Oncology beginning monday... and i've enjoyed everything so far... some highlights include learning that i actually really, really enjoy working with kids, sleeping through 8 pages in 2 hours while on-call, delivering a baby in Ob/Gyn, working with one of my favourite doctors of all time (a Gyne Oncologist who remembered me from a 1 hour conversation we had at a career night in first year), and taking 3 hour histories from elderly people...
unfortunately, i don't think i can escape medicine - not even in my sleep... apparently, as Michelle tries to wake me up, i often utter some medically-related phrases in half-lucid stupor including , "we need an IV bolus of insulin - STAT!", "(to Michelle) - do u have many wet accidents? i'm sorry but i have to ask all my patients with incontinence these questions (i really did think that Michelle was incontinent at the time... this is only half true... just kidding)", and my personal favourite, "the broomstick in my car is the best surgical assessment i can do..." i'm not sure what i thought i was doing with that broomstick but i'm sure it wasn't good... | | |
|  i'm not sure why i don't blog about sports very much because sports are a huge part of my life... if i could do anything in this world, i would be a professional athlete... but unfortunately, i'm not nearly good enough at any sport to do so... i mean - i like medicine and all but i love sports... with a passion... there are many athletes i love... Andre Racicot, Rickey Foggie, Barry Sanders, etc. but my favorite tennis player of all-time is Andre Agassi... i didn't start watching tennis until i was in my mid-teens but from the first interview i saw with Agassi, i was hooked... he had me at "hello"... he was just so classy and sportsmanlike... and so humble... and a terrific tennis player...
and tonight, i watched one of the most entertaining tennis matches i've seen in recent memory... Andre was playing James Blake, a very talented young American, in the quarterfinals of the US Open and was trailing Blake 3-6,3-6, 2-4 in the 3rd set... down 2 sets and a break, it looked bleak... but i think the hallmark fo a true fan is the fact that they never stop believing in their athlete or their team no matter what the circumstance... blind faith... and i never stopped believing that Agassi could do it... if anyone ould come back, he could... i'd seen him pull off remarkable comebacks before and i believed with all my heart that he would... and sure enough, he pulled it out in a thriller 3-6,3-6,6-3,6-3,7-6(8)... even when he went down a break in the 5th set and Blake was trying to serve out the match at 5-4, i still believed that Agassi would break back... and he did... it was absolutely awe-inspiring to watch and i still haven't come down off the ceiling an hour after the conclusion of the match... Blake deserves a lot of credit for playing as well as he did but i couldn't cheer for him on this night... with Agassi on the other side of the net, i can't cheer for anyone else... i still believe that he can win this major... sure, things have to go his way... but i believe... just like i believe that my beloved Montreal Canadiens will be the ones to sip from Lord Stanley's Cup this year... but that is another matter... for now, go Andre!
anyway, i'm dead tired and it's only 2 days into pre-clerkship... the real deal starts on monday... i begin with Paeds in St. Thomas... i will be making the 40-45 minute commute which means even less sleep... though i'm tired just sitting in a classroom over these past 2 days (largely due to the fact i've been sleeping like 3.5 hours a night), i have a bad feeling i'm gonna learn the real meaning of the word "tired" this year... i'm a little excited and a lot nervous... but most of all, i don't want to be back to work at all... this does not bode well for the next 52.5 weeks... sigh... why couldn't i be a professional tennis player? oh, right... because i suck at tennis... | | |
| sometimes i feel like i'm making genuine progress when it comes to cooking... but just as my confidence begins to grow, i do something ridiculous to set me back... with Michelle being away for 3 weeks, i've had plenty of occasion to experiment with cooking over the last little while and i got a little adventurous and tried a couple of new dishes which turned out ok... but then i went off and did something idiotic after that to re-affirm the suspicions that i am, in fact, a doofus in the kitchen... observe:
on the left - my attempt at a Satay beef variant of Vietnamese pho... it didn't quite turn out the way i expected it to but it was actually not bad... i got the recipe off the net, edited it a bit with my own take on it, and was pleasantly surprised... not the best pho ever but decent...
on the right - my sister and i collaborated on what was supposed to be a play-it-by-ear Thai-like red curry but ran out of red curry paste so we had to add in another type of curry paste... it turned out to be a weird type of curry but it was alright, too...
sooooo - my confidence was at what was almost an all-time high but then i got stupid and the following happened:
WARNING: people who have a high affinity for French Toast may find the following picture disturbing, nauseating, and just dag nasty...
 in the picture on the left, is what happens when a good idea goes horribly wrong... i thought i'd make some French Toast one night (had a craving) and thoguht i'd wing it... no need a recipe, nosiree Bob-ski... the result? - what is probably the worst French Toast in the history of mankind... now, i know what u're thinking - u're thinking, "hey, who cares how it looks as long as it tastes ok?" well, there's nothing ok about the taste of this debacle... it tasted like liquid/solid death... crispy on the outside, liquid on the inside... i think i messed up the ratio of ingredients in the batter and soaked the bread far too long... it collapsed on me... sigh... oh well... bad things happen to good bread...
in other news, it turns out that i'm going to have a poster presentation on some work i did this summer on the Rehabilitation of the Neuromuscular Manifestations of West Nile Virus at the 12th Annual Academic Day for Physiatrists in glorious Toronto... ok, so it's not Paris or Rome or somewhere exotic but let's be honest here - my work isn't good enough for fancy places... looks like all my *cough* hard work *cough* this summer has paid off... and by hard work, i mean half-ass job... not bad for a med head who loathes research... | | |
|  i'm having a pretty zen day today... and i attribute much of this to the fact that my car battery died friday night and i hafta wait until at least tomorrow to get it replaced... so i've been car-less for the weekend... and not wanting to bother people for rides, i've had to walk to places i've had to go... and it's been really nice... nice to be able to take things slow which u hafta do when all u have is two feet and a heartbeat... instead of the frantic rush that i'm usually in to go nowhere... it's a little odd because i do get outside and jog everday but i guess i'm moving faster and am not thinking about enjoying life... i wish i took it slower more often... i was able to enjoy the beautiful day more... and enjoy the little bits of Mother Nature scattered throughout the suburbia that is where i live...
another thing that helped is that i had coffee with J, a friend from undergrad... she's a really cool girl... there's this calm about her that's unique to her... she's one of the kindest, most sincere, truly good people out there who always makes me feel better about life because knowing there are people like J out there in this world, gives me hope for mankind (that's not to say my other friends who i don't mention enough aren't also terrific people because they really are - i'm so fortunate to have surrounded myself with such good people  - J just contributed to my zen day and hence, garners mention today)... talking to her often puts things in perspective for me... that and she brought some of the best biscotti i've ever had... of course, we had Illy coffee...
i also had a very nice conversation on the phone with my Dad... one of the longest ones we've ever had... and he didn't even once ask me when i was taking out my earrings today... as we get older, we're growing a little closer, i think... and it's nice... and i'm starting to understand where he's coming from a litte more... coming to appreciate all he has done for me... he is a good man... sure, he's a crazy brown man too... but a good man, nonetheless... and that's all i hope to be...
and to top it all off, i'm currently listening to a version of one of my favourite pieces of classical music - Pachelbel's Canon... apparently, it's wedding music but i don't care... so intricate and complex and yet so simple and clean at the same time... so beautiful... it's quite the departure from my usual punk rock fare but i think it reflects the more peaceful mood i'm in today... i've also tried to post pics that i find calming... one is of the night sky just after sunset which i find to be one of the most serene and most beautiful things on this Earth and the other is a pic of Niagara Falls taken on a trip last summer...
 so as i hopefully get my car back on the go tomorrow, my life will resume the usual hustle bustle, take-things-for-granted-type pace it usually takes because when it boils down to it, i'm a shmoe... but i'll try to remember to take it a little slower and enjoy the simple, little things in life... but if that fails, i guess i'll always have today... and today, i realize that my "problems" aren't really problems (one of my favourite quotes of all time is, "someone in the third world would kill to have my first world problems" - it's so true)... today, i feel truly lucky to be alive... today, i realize that life isn't so bad... in fact, it's pretty damn good...
if u've made it this far, i know what u're thinking - i'm thinking it too... i'm such a fruit... | | |
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