“This is how we say good-bye… in German.”
Well – it’s official. The higher ups of the US Army have spoken and, starting this summer, I will be spending my next three years practicing medicine in Germany. Months ago I had been told I would probably “get Germany” no matter what, but I was unsure of exactly where and was quite pleased when I got assigned to the actual medical center. (Rather than some distant small clinic, of which the US military has many in Germany). Yes, I will be spending my days at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. (Info here) You may have seen it on the news – it’s where all the Iraq medical evacuations go to first. Even better, I will be practicing actual Internal Medicine, rather than just doing sick call for a bunch of healthy 19 year olds.
Landstuhl is a major referral center of the European region for the US. And though my chances of going to the “great beach with no ocean” are unchanged, I’m glad that my time at home will be spent doing actual medicine. And so in one sense I’m officially pumped. In another, I’m hesitant. And that is because it is once again time to begin the mentally and physically arduous process of relocating entirely. Again.
Since high school, my life has run on 3-5 year blocks. They all end with a massive change that I think I’m ready for…only I’m not.
Here’s the quick recap:
Birth through age 14: Connecticut and New Jersey
Age 14-22: San Diego (various locales, with a high school to college transition)
Age 22-26: New Orleans
Age 27-present: Seattle
Age 29-32(?): Germany (+/- 1 year in Iraq)
And there it is. My life history.
More on what it all means to me (to be moving again) in a later post.
For now, I’m tired, and trying to get to bed on time. ICU this month has been rough – not the most fun month at the end of the third year. Sick patients and lots of call. (And I still have another month of ICU left in May!). Ugh.
But ICU is better than the wards. It’s nice to step back, here at the end of residency, and finally feel like you have a good grasp of what’s going on at the hospital. I enjoy kicking it on rounds and watching the interns struggle where I once struggled – it’s a good measure of progress. And by golly – I haven’t been wasting my time these past three (er, seven) years!
My lack of blogging is a direct effect of the ICU month. Two more weeks to go. Most of my non-call nights consist of coming home, maybe working out, eating dinner, and then either: a)Madden, b)Counterstrike, or c)watching flix with Gwen. Other than that, not too much else going on. (Future post topic – how being in a stable relationship has made me boring.)
More as it comes. I’ve toyed with the idea of blogging from the hospital while on call, guerilla-style, with lots of quick hits as stuff happens. We’ll see if that comes to fruition. I’m on again tomorrow night (Tuesday). (I seem to have a real problem with “quick blogging”. I.e most of my posts I spend half the time proof-reading and rephrasing sentences to make the writing come off better. I suppose that’s against the idea of a blog. ‘Whatever comes to mind’ should probably be the rule. But I digress. And FYI, tonight’s block is rapid fire style, for once.)
For those interested, the WCD Madden season is still on the burner, though time is limited. I’m halfway through the week 4 game write up – it’s a great game, but the write ups can be painful. It’ll get done when it gets done, I guess.
Till then, lates.
A lot more to come down the road – about everything.
Maybe see you tomorrow?
Back from Vacation
And back to work. Got home last night (Sunday). I'll give a more in depth Whistler update (with pics!) later on this week. For now I'll just say it was good fun had by all. I loved my new board. Snow was adequate if not spectacular, and the night life was certainly enjoyable.
Now I'm back to work, in the ICU for a full 4 weeks. It's back to every fourth night on call with the sickest of the sick. In other words, time to bust out the medical "A-game". Furthermore, I have to be at work every day by about 6:30. And I have a 45 minute commute. Ugh. I just don't function well that early.
Gwen and I watched Collateral tonight, starring the cock-sure movie megastar Tom Cruise. And man was he cock-sure in this one. Overall, the film held my attention. But it started out better than it finished, and it just plain unraveled at parts near the end. Tom Cruise plays the same damn guy in every movie. Unbelievable. But watchable, I guess. I'll rant more on the spoiler details if anyone's interested.
And that's it. It's Valentine's day. I'll spare all regarding my feelings about the Hallmark holiday from hell. But luckily, Gwen and I feel the same way about it. How romantic.
Out.
And back to work. Got home last night (Sunday). I'll give a more in depth Whistler update (with pics!) later on this week. For now I'll just say it was good fun had by all. I loved my new board. Snow was adequate if not spectacular, and the night life was certainly enjoyable.
Now I'm back to work, in the ICU for a full 4 weeks. It's back to every fourth night on call with the sickest of the sick. In other words, time to bust out the medical "A-game". Furthermore, I have to be at work every day by about 6:30. And I have a 45 minute commute. Ugh. I just don't function well that early.
Gwen and I watched Collateral tonight, starring the cock-sure movie megastar Tom Cruise. And man was he cock-sure in this one. Overall, the film held my attention. But it started out better than it finished, and it just plain unraveled at parts near the end. Tom Cruise plays the same damn guy in every movie. Unbelievable. But watchable, I guess. I'll rant more on the spoiler details if anyone's interested.
And that's it. It's Valentine's day. I'll spare all regarding my feelings about the Hallmark holiday from hell. But luckily, Gwen and I feel the same way about it. How romantic.
Out.
And things are well with the world
Does anyone know the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl Record?
I do. Tonight’s game has changed the Eagles from potential world champs (I still shudder when I type that, but not as much) to the mere footnote at the bottom of the page that tells the story of the NFL’s latest “dynasty”. And yes, the dynasty talk has been beaten to death and is annoying as hell, but regardless, its how all this will be remembered. The Eagles are nothing more than fodder for the league’s newest fairy tale. And I love it.
With that said, the season is over. As long as the Eagles didn’t win, I was to be content. And thus I am. I watched the game in my apartment with Gwen, shunning the party 45 minutes south of me (near work). I watched with an intense calm, just wanting the Patriots to win and it all be over. The Patriots were the better team, and they won. And it’s done. And with that, I’ll say no more of the team that I hate. (I’ll save some of that venom for a little return email I owe one E. Randall; a chap who may or may not have foolishly sent me a taunting email last week…)
Life without football season has arrived. Though it will go on in video game form thanks to Madden 2005, which is possibly the best video game ever. Or at least until next year’s version.
Vacation Time
Tomorrow George, Pete, Pete’s brother, Pete’s taint, Gwen and I will take a week long trip up to Whistler for some snowboarding and relaxing. It should be fun and I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t had a vacation since the fall and I haven’t really traveled anywhere since October.
Thanks to one Liz Randall and her pro form, I have a new snowboard for the first time in over five years. (Major props to Liz!) It’s a Burton Canyon 168; I got it dirt cheap, it looks and feels sweet and I’m ready to try it out. I threw some Ride bindings on there and have some new Vans boots and I’m all geeked up to go. Unfortunately this has not been the greatest winter for the pacific northwest. Whistler, though spared from the majority of the warm spell, has not been having a banner year either. Regardless, the mountain maintains a reasonable 50-inch base currently and got a foot of snow two nights ago with some light stuff predicted over the next few days. And either way, vacation is vacation and there will be much fun to be had. The Whistler village ski area is by far the coolest set up around a mountain I have ever been to and even if the boarding isn’t great, the nightlife, restaurants, and general scene will be. Furthermore, I’ve always found that doing anything in Canada merely adds to the fun because hey let’s face it – Canadians are funny, whether you’re laughing with them, or at them.
Last Few Weeks
It’s been a couple of weeks since I bliggity-blogged, but not too much madness has been going on. I’ve been doing rheumatology this month in the hospital, which is a sweet month. Last weekend Gwendolyn and I went out to dinner with my cousin Heath. Following that we went downtown to some club which could have been fun except that the intense volume combined with the ear splitting treble made it literally painful to be in the place. So we left the club at about 1 am and went home. Maybe we’re just getting old.
I’ve seen a few movies the past couple of weeks. I’d update Mick Flicks, but let’s be serious. I saw “Amelie” for the first time, which was very nicely given to be my Adam and Diana. I definitely enjoyed the film, and the cinematography was some of the best I’ve ever seen, but overall the overpowering sense of whimsy was too much for me to take it all that seriously. It’s as if they tried to define every character with a single item, be it a hobby, a wink, a look, or some similar trait. Overall the effect made the film seem so superficial. None of the characters seemed all that real, least of all the main character. Regardless, it was well done and I still enjoyed it.
I also saw the movie “Finding Neverland” in the theater a week or so ago. Gwen and I are trying to get to all the Best Picture nominees, (even if it means seeing “Ray”. Ugh.) and we had only seen "Sideways" of the five (nominees) prior to this. As always, Depp delivers on his role and it’s not hard to see why the picture was nominated. I thought it was a good film. But nothing made it stand out as spectacular in my mind. I definitely enjoyed watching it if nothing else.
Other than that, we recently Netflixed (new verb) a cool documentary about the Rolling Stones (called “Gimme Shelter”) made in 1970. It was about their chaotic 1969 American tour and it was kind of an unpolished set of footage just sort of following them around. The 1969 tour, of course ended with that nightmare concert at Altimont speedway in California, and some of the footage was really powerful. Overall it was definitely a cool thing to watch. Mick Jagger was so young, but it’s not hard to see the budding rock star. Keith Richard is an absolute freak, which I found hilarious throughout. And finally, I feel justified after watching “Cable Guy” so many times and seeing Jim Carrey allude to it. (“We just had a baby born on the left side of the stage, ladies and gentleman…”) Now that scene will have even THAT much more meaning for me...
Other than that, we’ve spent our DVD time finishing up the first season of “Arrested Development”, which is entering the upper echelon of comedic shows I’ve ever seen. Hilarious stuff. Rent it, I say, if you get the chance.
Nerding it Up
So the Emerald City Comic Convention was in town this weekend. Gwen had seen ads for it in the newspaper, and mentioned that she had never been to one (a comic convention) before. So just like that, after I got back from some more sweet touch football yesterday (Saturday), we decided to go. And thus Gwen was baptized fully into the world of nerds. It was pretty cool to be nerding it up again, I must say. But unfortunately the Emerald City Comicon can’t hold a candle to the famous San Diego version which I have been to a few times before. It was maybe a fourth of the size and certainly didn’t have the same amount of people at it. It also lacked the sizzle of the San Diego juggernaut, with a lot less videos, bells and whistles, people dressed up, and stuff just flashing everywhere. It was still fun to go to, though, and there’s more.
Gwen had played some Magic the Gathering online (nerd!), and I had played the old card game (nerd!). So, on a whim, we decided to buy a set of mixed set of 75 cards from one of the expansion sets, get 2 booster packs a piece, and then do battle with our random cards. It was kind of weird at first, I had to get back into the groove of the game. But it was also a lot of fun, playing head to head and teaching Gwen and relearning myself. I foresee us playing again some more in the future. "Did you get a load of those two nerds?"
And with that, I think I’ll take off. I’ve got a trip tomorrow. Before I go, here’s some cool pics of the city that I took from my roof back in January. My dad got me this cool new 5.0 megapixel camera that rocks. (And it brings you WCD games…)
Till next week, lates!
Does anyone know the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl Record?
I do. Tonight’s game has changed the Eagles from potential world champs (I still shudder when I type that, but not as much) to the mere footnote at the bottom of the page that tells the story of the NFL’s latest “dynasty”. And yes, the dynasty talk has been beaten to death and is annoying as hell, but regardless, its how all this will be remembered. The Eagles are nothing more than fodder for the league’s newest fairy tale. And I love it.
With that said, the season is over. As long as the Eagles didn’t win, I was to be content. And thus I am. I watched the game in my apartment with Gwen, shunning the party 45 minutes south of me (near work). I watched with an intense calm, just wanting the Patriots to win and it all be over. The Patriots were the better team, and they won. And it’s done. And with that, I’ll say no more of the team that I hate. (I’ll save some of that venom for a little return email I owe one E. Randall; a chap who may or may not have foolishly sent me a taunting email last week…)
Life without football season has arrived. Though it will go on in video game form thanks to Madden 2005, which is possibly the best video game ever. Or at least until next year’s version.
Vacation Time
Tomorrow George, Pete, Pete’s brother, Pete’s taint, Gwen and I will take a week long trip up to Whistler for some snowboarding and relaxing. It should be fun and I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t had a vacation since the fall and I haven’t really traveled anywhere since October.
Thanks to one Liz Randall and her pro form, I have a new snowboard for the first time in over five years. (Major props to Liz!) It’s a Burton Canyon 168; I got it dirt cheap, it looks and feels sweet and I’m ready to try it out. I threw some Ride bindings on there and have some new Vans boots and I’m all geeked up to go. Unfortunately this has not been the greatest winter for the pacific northwest. Whistler, though spared from the majority of the warm spell, has not been having a banner year either. Regardless, the mountain maintains a reasonable 50-inch base currently and got a foot of snow two nights ago with some light stuff predicted over the next few days. And either way, vacation is vacation and there will be much fun to be had. The Whistler village ski area is by far the coolest set up around a mountain I have ever been to and even if the boarding isn’t great, the nightlife, restaurants, and general scene will be. Furthermore, I’ve always found that doing anything in Canada merely adds to the fun because hey let’s face it – Canadians are funny, whether you’re laughing with them, or at them.
Last Few Weeks
It’s been a couple of weeks since I bliggity-blogged, but not too much madness has been going on. I’ve been doing rheumatology this month in the hospital, which is a sweet month. Last weekend Gwendolyn and I went out to dinner with my cousin Heath. Following that we went downtown to some club which could have been fun except that the intense volume combined with the ear splitting treble made it literally painful to be in the place. So we left the club at about 1 am and went home. Maybe we’re just getting old.
I’ve seen a few movies the past couple of weeks. I’d update Mick Flicks, but let’s be serious. I saw “Amelie” for the first time, which was very nicely given to be my Adam and Diana. I definitely enjoyed the film, and the cinematography was some of the best I’ve ever seen, but overall the overpowering sense of whimsy was too much for me to take it all that seriously. It’s as if they tried to define every character with a single item, be it a hobby, a wink, a look, or some similar trait. Overall the effect made the film seem so superficial. None of the characters seemed all that real, least of all the main character. Regardless, it was well done and I still enjoyed it.
I also saw the movie “Finding Neverland” in the theater a week or so ago. Gwen and I are trying to get to all the Best Picture nominees, (even if it means seeing “Ray”. Ugh.) and we had only seen "Sideways" of the five (nominees) prior to this. As always, Depp delivers on his role and it’s not hard to see why the picture was nominated. I thought it was a good film. But nothing made it stand out as spectacular in my mind. I definitely enjoyed watching it if nothing else.
Other than that, we recently Netflixed (new verb) a cool documentary about the Rolling Stones (called “Gimme Shelter”) made in 1970. It was about their chaotic 1969 American tour and it was kind of an unpolished set of footage just sort of following them around. The 1969 tour, of course ended with that nightmare concert at Altimont speedway in California, and some of the footage was really powerful. Overall it was definitely a cool thing to watch. Mick Jagger was so young, but it’s not hard to see the budding rock star. Keith Richard is an absolute freak, which I found hilarious throughout. And finally, I feel justified after watching “Cable Guy” so many times and seeing Jim Carrey allude to it. (“We just had a baby born on the left side of the stage, ladies and gentleman…”) Now that scene will have even THAT much more meaning for me...
Other than that, we’ve spent our DVD time finishing up the first season of “Arrested Development”, which is entering the upper echelon of comedic shows I’ve ever seen. Hilarious stuff. Rent it, I say, if you get the chance.
Nerding it Up
So the Emerald City Comic Convention was in town this weekend. Gwen had seen ads for it in the newspaper, and mentioned that she had never been to one (a comic convention) before. So just like that, after I got back from some more sweet touch football yesterday (Saturday), we decided to go. And thus Gwen was baptized fully into the world of nerds. It was pretty cool to be nerding it up again, I must say. But unfortunately the Emerald City Comicon can’t hold a candle to the famous San Diego version which I have been to a few times before. It was maybe a fourth of the size and certainly didn’t have the same amount of people at it. It also lacked the sizzle of the San Diego juggernaut, with a lot less videos, bells and whistles, people dressed up, and stuff just flashing everywhere. It was still fun to go to, though, and there’s more.
Gwen had played some Magic the Gathering online (nerd!), and I had played the old card game (nerd!). So, on a whim, we decided to buy a set of mixed set of 75 cards from one of the expansion sets, get 2 booster packs a piece, and then do battle with our random cards. It was kind of weird at first, I had to get back into the groove of the game. But it was also a lot of fun, playing head to head and teaching Gwen and relearning myself. I foresee us playing again some more in the future. "Did you get a load of those two nerds?"
And with that, I think I’ll take off. I’ve got a trip tomorrow. Before I go, here’s some cool pics of the city that I took from my roof back in January. My dad got me this cool new 5.0 megapixel camera that rocks. (And it brings you WCD games…)
Till next week, lates!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)