Back in the world of cardiology at work today. Life is busy.

Here is the situation with my commitment to the military. After residency, I can: (residency ends July 1, 2005)

1)Go straight out without any more training (i.e. subspecializing aka fellowship) – I will owe them 4 years at that point and then be done. I could be sent anywhere and likely Iraq. Estimated get out year: 2009

2)Apply for fellowship. If I GET IT ( a big if), then I do the fellowship right out of residency. Depending on the length of the fellowship (which of course depends on what the fellowship is), I would likely do the fellowship (either 2 or 3 years more right after residency) and THEN, at that point, owe the army another 4 or 5 years, respectively. All fellowships are in Washington DC or San Antonio. (I’ll let you guess where I’d rather be…) Estimated get out year: 2010 or 2011

3)Apply for fellowhip and DON’T GET it – I can either default to number one above or I can reapply the next year/years. If you don’t get the fellowship straight out of residency (but skip time in which you are not in training), then the rules change for the worse. I won’t explain that fully or why that occurs (I’m not even sure I could), but essentially I would get out either in 2013 or 2014 if that happened.

So there’s a lot to think about. And I have to start thinking soon. Or thinking more soon, since all I do is think.

In another bit of news, it looks like I will be spending the entire month of July in Germany doing an ICU rotation at Landstuhl where they are evacuating all the messed up peeps from Iraq to. Apparently it’s a pretty crazy month. A lot of cool medicine, but a lot of heartbreaking stuff too (i.e. 22 year old kids with limbs gone or hanging off or severely burned). I’m looking forward to it (at least medically) – plus at the end of the month, the last few days, I’ll have 4-5 days of leave before coming back to the US to travel. I’ll likely pick a single city (I’m thinking Prague, right now) and go there. It’s essentially a fully paid for trip to Europe, though most of it will be working. So that’s interesting, at least….

I’m still undecided on moving to Seattle. Also a work in progress.

I’ve updated Mick Flicks with a couple of movies. I was absolutely blown away by 2001 – a space odyssey. Thank you, Stan “the man” Kubrick for another sweet effin’ movie. That guy rocks.

I’ve also toyed with a new Madden season on all-madden level. It’s uh, not going so well as my blowout wins are turning into blow out losses with essentially the same team. The kick meter moves at about mach 6 so every kickoff is out of bounds and every punt a side foot shank. (Having a rookie punter doesn’t help). Every errant pass becomes a pick. The computer breaks tackles all over the place. After 2 games of this, I’m really wishing there was a middle ground on the levels. Oh well, I shouldn’t be playing stupid video games anyway….

Lastly, today is Cinco de Mayo. I have nothing to say about that. I haven’t celebrated it in years. Today is Monica’s birthday. We chatted for about 10 minutes on my ride home from work. It’s the first time we talked since she dropped the marriage bombshell on me. Not a bad conversation, but clearly we are drifting further and further away – I welcome this. This is also the first time I talked to her since I knew she was pregnant. That’s right – pregnant. Crazy news, but I’ve known for some time, and I’m really quite ambivalent about it, in all honesty. The days of mourning for Monica are, thankfully, behind me. Happy Birthday Monica.

And with that…bedtime for Bonzo – come on kids….