Arcade Fire!

I am so excited! Arcade Fire is kicking off their Spring tour in San Diego on 26 April! I'm definitely going to see them and thus, heal the raw, vicious wound that has hurt my heart since last year.


You see, I love Arcade Fire. I love quirky bands with lots of instruments and a lot of AF's songs are awesome-o. They were playing in Tokyo last February and I went to see them. I would have been fine going by myself, but I thought it would be fun to go in a group. But two of my friends were late (I found out later they were actually a secret couple for months so I'm guessing they were making out, which I can hardly begrudge them for), which I was fine with because really, do concerts ever start on time?


Yes. They do. In Japan (of course).


So, we only saw TWO songs after a ridiculous trip with many subway switches and one memorable walk along an expressway until we decided that it was definitely not.the.way. I was very sad. And a little mad. Not so much at my friends, but at that completely non-rockability of the whole thing. A concert that starts on time? No opening act? A band that only plays for a hour and a half with a BREAK!?!?!?! (I have been spoiled by Springsteen, a 50+ year old who goes for at least two and a half hours).


But, Arcade Fire, I have forgiveness in my heart and now I'm so EXCITED to see you in San Diego.


And yes, I will be on time. Although it will likely not start on time here. Things are way less prompt here in the States, which is more consistent with my nature. When I first came back though, I would be completely bewildered- "Where's the bus? The timetable says it should be here now and it's NOT." Timeliness is not something to mess around with in Japan and here? Well, maybe it's just a little more mellow in California. But Arcade Fire is Canadian (actually Quebecois if I remember right) so really, all bets are off.


P.S. I finally added photos from my San Francisco trip!

Laryngitis!

I feel like the biggest lame-o. I have laryngitis. I've never lost my voice in my life, although I have to admit I tried my hardest around 6th grade-ish because I thought it would be "cool." On Thursday, I steadily lost my voice until it was gone, with the exception of the occasional squeak. Really now, an ENT resident loses her voice. How ridiculous is that? Shouldn't I have some sort of magical power to fix my ailment? The answer: no.

Things are going well otherwise. The inservice exam is on the 6th so I'm studying hard for that. It's an 8 (eight!) hour standardized test given annually to ENT interns and residents as yet another gauge to see how awesome/terrible a person is. Much scorn or praise given in the next year is based on the exam results. So, yes, I'm studying away.

I'm also finally getting my stuff on the 27th! Hooray! I am so excited. Last week, my place was still a disaster area but I shamed myself into cleaning it up after I brought Jenny in to show her my deck. We had brunch at Hash House a go go that morning and it was delicious! I highly recommend it as a breakfast spot. We split a chocolate macadamia nut pancake (amazing! And 12 inches around and no, we didn't finish it) and a homemade hash that was pretty good- sun dried tomatoes, potatoes and ham. I'm still a total fan of the traditional hash and eggs that my Mom makes though (Hi Mom! Kisses!).

Housing

Where have I been?!?!!? I know! Well, I moved into a new place and I haven't set up internet yet. But really, that's not a good excuse since I can get to Blogger at work too. But let me distract you from my blogging laziness by telling you about my new place!

Well, the University Heights deal completely fell through. Really, it was a slow unravel that was slightly protracted by my real estate agent's unflagging optimism. But my mortgage application was rejected after the HOA documents were received and the complex was, in a word, a mess. No budget, no reserve fund, and half the units were likely going to be placed on firesale since the developers are going bankrupt. So, even though it was a cute place and really well-designed, I think everything worked out for the best.

BUT. I had no place to live for 6 days. I moved out of my old place on the 9th, went to SF until the 11th. Then I had no place to live and I still hadn't heard yes/no. I really felt like a moron. How could I be a gainfully employed working professional and be of no fixed address?

So, I lived in the BOQ for a few days and then cat-sat for the weekend for my co-PGY2 who went up to Monterey with his wife. By cat-sitting, I had a place to live, hooray! But by Friday of that week I was set. Once again, I love Craigslist! I had been perusing the ads all week and Friday morning, found a little text only ad for a basement "in-law" flat with its own separate entrance. Although text only should raise a slight flag, I had a feeling that it may have been from someone not completely technically savvy but still pretty cool. And he was! I am renting a small apartment in the basement of a really nice house on the border of Banker's Hill and Hillcrest. It's completely finished and has a full kitchen. It's beautifully designed so it looks huge. Best of all, I have a private deck that overlooks an undeveloped canyon. I already bought my table, bench and chairs to take advantage of the awesome view.

Now, I just need my stuff delivered! I have an appt Tuesday to arrange for a delivery date, which probably won't be until early March since a portion of my belongings are still in Ft. Belvoir storage. Whatever. I've been without it this long so it's no big deal. It'll be like Christmas when everything is delivered though!

Wonky eye

*Sigh*  I was so proud of myself a few weeks ago when I transformed my car from a broken Pididle (one headlamp out) to a fully functioning, street-legal driving machine.  Yes, that's how I think of my Hyundai Accent, with all 103 ponies racing under that crazy hood.  

Last week, when driving in the fog while trying to find a pizza place where this awesome artist was playing, I realized that my car now has a wonky eye!  I guess you could call it a lazy eye but really, it's pure wonkiness.  Boo!   I was reminded last night after some fog rolled in and the problem was revealed again.  Maybe I should buy my car a pirate eyepatch for those tell-tale nights!

San Francisco

I was delaying this post until I could get my camera cable unpacked from my car (another post), but now that almost two weeks have gone by without an update, I think it's time to talk about my awesome trip to SF last weekend sans pictures. I will post them to FLIKR though, promise.

Last Friday, I went to San Francisco for a facial plating course. The course was awesome and I learned a ton. The nicest thing about the course is that it focused a lot on biomechanical forces and technical considerations in choosing surgical approaches to various fractures. It complemented a course I took earlier in the year at NMCSD that focused more on soft tissue approaches to the fractures (translation: don't jack the person up even more due to your surgical intervention). So if you have any questions about lag screws, load-bearing/load-sharing osteosynthesis, and assorted plates- I'm your girl! Now I just need to get into the OR and actually do it.

But the best perk to the course was that it was in San Francisco and I got an extra day added to the weekend for my "travel day." So, I took the soul-crushing, intensely time-consuming 1.5 hour flight up to SF as early as possible so I could be an uber-tourist. I went to the Embarcado and Mission neighborhood. The Embarcado Farmer's Mart is on Tuesday, but there are some fixed shops that are open all week so I did eat some cheese from Cowgirl Creamery, which I had read about in Food and Wine awhile back. I had two delicious cheeses, one similar to Manchego and the other a semi-soft Italian truffle cheese. Both were great and it was such a treat to be able to have a little gourmet cheese experience. Then I went to the Mission neighborhood and saw a lot of murals painted on various buildings and alleyways. The artistry was pretty amazing, especially having such a high concentration of highly talented street art.

After that, Chris and I met up downtown at the hotel but not before I made a quick stop-in to Fiona's Sweet Shoppe, a lovely closet of a shop specializing in British sweets. I bought grapefruit gummies and anise flavored hard candies. Yum!

Chris and I then took the trolley to Fisherman's Wharf. We were initially seated inside the trolley (boo!), but I talked the conductor into letting us do a quick Chinese firedrill at a light and we got to spend the rest of the time standing on the side plank, holding onto the pole. Awesome-o!

We only spent a few minutes at Fisherman's Wharf, then we wandered into North Beach where we had the best!meatball!sandwich!ever! Chris said it was so good, he didn't think he could tell his Sicilian mother for fear of offending her. Next we went to Coti Tower, followed by a hike up Lombard St. After that, we were pseudo-hungry so we walked to Chinatown and had some (so-so) dim sum. After Hong Kong, I think I may be ruined for any dim sum stateside. (I know, I'm so worldly, it almost pains me). We were cutting it close to our next reservation time, so we took a cab and hightailed it over to Bo urban & Branch, a terrific speak-easy themed bar complete with password! Chris had a delicious old-fashioned, and I had a great Bourbon based specialty drink. Our second round was not as successful as our first but that's ok because at least we were adventurous!

At that point, it was time for bed. My room was lovely, the bed comfy, and I fell asleep in about 2 seconds after required water downing as preventive measures.

The next morning, Chris and I met for a delicious, huge, FREE breakfast spread included with our room plan. Then we were off to the course. On Sunday, we had a little time afterwards and went to the Presidio but we were still a little walked out from Friday, so we were much more chill. Then we made it to the airport (barely) and headed to SD.

Ok, next post topic? My real estate debachle, with a surprise happy twist at the end!

Santa, Unicorns, Shamu

"Um, the question is 'What do not [redacted]?' Alec"

EXACTLY! I don't think there are any impressionable children who read this blog (please, no), but still, I can't type out the question but you KNOW what I mean. Yes, you do.

And how did I find out about this? Well, the first two belong in the land of childhood minor trauma but I felt the same way at age 28 when I realized that Shamu is a STAGEname for all killer whales at SeaWorld and that the original Shamu died in 1971. Unreal! I thought something was up when they were throwing the name Shamu around rather generically with the 3 killer whales were performing tricks. I mean, I know they know their animals but why would Shamu be doing everything while the other two slackers float around and eat fish again? So, I Wikipedia'd it during the show (I know!) and found out the truth. While sitting in the "Splash Zone" because I live on the wild side, yes I do!

Working Out!

My first year of med school, I lived with four guys in an Adams Morgan house. The whole situation emerged from Craigslist.org and emails so I'm lucky that I didn't live with a group of serial killers. Overall, they were nice guys although the condition of the kitchen and general "permanent acquaintance" level of our living arrangement led to tension by the end. I mean, really, just because you can place a piece of trash on a carefully balanced mountain emerging from the full trash can without causing it to fall over, doesn't mean you should say, "Ha! Someone else will have to take out the trash. Sucker. In your face!" Playing Jenga with the kitchen trash is not my idea of a good time.

But anyway, back to the title of the post. One day, my roommate whom I thought looked like a male Olive Oyl because he was so skinny and tall announced he was going to the gym. "Have fun getting buff!" I said.

"Buff-ER," he said, woundedly.

Well, really, I don't think his feelings were hurt until he saw the look that crossed my face at the response. I believe it was an expression of complete incredulity that he would actually be serious in thinking buff applied to him in any way. I didn't MEAN for that expression to cross my face- it just did.

Anyway, my fitness routine has been a little lackadaisical during my time in SD. I never really tried too hard to fit it into my new schedule. I mean, I did workout, just much less frequently than before. Although there's no permanent damage, in the spirit of all that is New Year's, blah, blah, blah, I've resolved to be better about the whole deal. (I'm actually a HUGE New Year's Resolution fan, just not on a blog).

PLUS, I need to start training for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run! I am so excited! I have wanted to do this ever since running a baby Mud Run (still 5 miles) at Little Creek, VA during my internal med rotation as a third year. Today, I went for a run near Sunset Cliffs and Cabrillo National Monument. It was great but WAY hilly. There was a particularly gnarly hill smack in the middle of the run. But I got through it.

At one point though, my heart was beating pretty quickly. It made me laugh because a workout dvd I've been doing recently has one section where the woman states she wants me to work so hard, I should feel like I am "gargling [my] heart." Eeewwwww! I haven't quite gotten to that point anytime in recent memory. Really, the only times may have been high school cross country and during the mud run in 2005. Competition does that to me. Although I never ran so hard that I threw up. I've come close on a few occasions, but that's a line I completely refuse to cross.