Wrapping up

 

I flew to Colorado on Saturday, and am flying home tomorrow. It's been a quick trip, that's for sure. Have kept it pretty quiet this time so that I can maximize time with family. It's hard to believe that I won't be seeing the family for a year. 8 weeks and counting.

 

I have some great pics, but they will have to wait until I get back to Massachusetts-I forgot to bring the cable to connect my camera to the computer.

 

 

The Flask

It's weird the things you pack when you're headed away.

I'm half way through packing up the kitchen. And I came across my flask.

Ironically, somebody had a flask at dinner last night. (I'll just let you use your imagination on that one). And I kind of wondered where my flask had migrated off to. I hadn't used it in a while. Oh wait, the last time I used it was backpacking... Whiskey (Jameson) on the Appalachian Trail with Johhny K. Ah yes...

So, there it was, hiding in the cupboard.

Before Johnny K, the last time I had used the flask had been in Ireland. It was in my suit pocket at a med school function. I am almost too embarrassed to admit that the flask was used to add whiskey to coke. Those were the poor years. Mixed drinks were expensive.

Why did it even make it to Ireland? Because it was a gift, from a very dear friend, whose wedding I participated in 2 days before moving to Ireland. I basically flew back from that wedding, spend a day in Denver and then flew to Ireland. The flask was just part of the luggage at that point.

Over the past few days of packing, I've been setting things that need to go to SA in a box. Books. Certain photos (most photos are now on the computer). My extra phone. Foreign money. My passport.

And tonight, I put that flask in the box. It seems silly to take the flask to SA...

I can only hope that at some point in the coming year, I find myself in the Drakensberg Mountains, sharing my flask with new friends, while remembering the great friends who have supported me for many years.

Running

I'm on the run.

I'm making a real effort to start running regularly again, and not to just codes in the hospital. I forced myself onto the treadmill, once, and on rare occasion twice a week during the winter. That's a total lie, I can think of one week where I was on the treadmill twice.

Anyway, this past Tuesday was beautiful. I was done at a decent time, and decided to escape away and go for a nice trail run. I picked a gentler path than normal, and ran for about an hour, covering just over 4 miles. And paid the price. Oye pain on Thursday. But, no pain, no gain.. right?

I'm hitting the wall today.

In my post-call-mental-slumber, concentration seems to be lacking. I only have 2 goals today. Get some packing done, and finish a presentation I'm giving tomorrow morning. Packing has been a minor failure. I can't quite part with some books that I haven't opened from med school. The books are all packed. The storage closet has been emptied. Basically all that remains is sorting through clothes. Moving day will be Friday.

I can't resist the pull of the beautiful sunny afternoon.

I'm going to have to give in and make a break for trail run #2. Surely it will hurt less than earlier in the week!

Wild Things

Yesterday was a tease. Offering what the summer will bring, but also what I will have to give up for a while.

Temperature in the 70s. Blue sky. Off of work by 4. As was KZ. So we met up, she picked up the kids and we went to the park. Got to hang out, playing on the swings, going down the slide. And then going for a stroll on dirt paths around the park, in a very cool wooded area. Darn, forgot the camera.

Bedtime rolls around, and the priceless moment was getting to read Ian and Emily their bedtime story. Emily was in my lap, Ian was propped up hanging off my side, and both were grabbing and turning pages. Growling. Showing fangs. Hoping that I get many more nights like this before I leave, and hoping that there is a day when I get to read bedtime stories to Ryan, Jordan and Haley too. Wishing that all the kids in my clinic had parents who would actually read to them at night...

Have Visa, Will Travel

Well, much to my delight and surprise, I got my passport back today. Have stamp allowing multiple entries as a temporary resident for the next year!

I am headed back to SA!

SHIT!

I have microwave popcorn..... AND NO MICROWAVE!

Let me think about this for a minute...

How did this happen. When I bought microwave popcorn, I had a microwave. Oh, that's right, I'm giving away what I can, and I freaking gave away my microwave! MORON! I don't use it all that much, but now, dammit, it's 1am I am wide awake (for reasons that are unclear to even me), I have the munchies (and a lack of food). I have no chocolate stash. I have no ice-cream stash. I don't want health food at 1am, that doesn't satisfy a craving for badness. Popcorn would have done it..

I'm going to go experiment in the kitchen.. certainly the kernels don't know they are suppose to only pop in a microwave, I'm going to try and pop them in a skillet with oil...

Wish me luck.

My Rorschach Inkblot Test

"An Iraqi army soldier looks on as a woman picks up rice at a checkpoint in Sadr City, Baghdad. The Shia suburb is suffering food shortages as troops clash with the Mehdi Army militia."

-BBC-

What's your reaction???

My Verdict on Pike Place Roast

I understand why they did it. Getting back to the purity of coffee. Getting back to the fundamentals of what makes a good coffee, or coffee good.

Fresh roasted is best. Blue Bottle knows this. That guy built a coffee company with fresh being the core concept. Coffee older than 48 hours is not fresh, and he gives it away. Starbucks started out small, with fresh roasted coffee, then exploded into a coffee empire, offering pure roasts, exotic blends, and a confusing array of lingo and ordering styles. You're average Joe gets his cuppa and likely ruins the taste with splenda and soy. Wait, I mean the average Joe uses milk and white sugar, carbo queens go for the splenda and soy..

Joe likes the whoosh of a can, not the whirl of a grinder. Joe doesn't care if the coffee is from Latin America, or if it's a Yemen. (Yemen, being my all-time favorite coffee).

Starbucks proved that they can master blends and roasts. They are good, but mass production of blends can't be best, because by the time you get those coffees to a consumer, they are no long have freshness. Local coffee roasters offer freshness.

The idea is great. Mass roast one blend, and bring back freshness. The Starbucks I visited yesterday had coffee roasted on 3/29. That's pretty decent.

That one blend is Pike Place Roast. I think it is very mediocre. But that's what they needed to do. Find one blend that east coast coffee wimps would drink, but not too dilute that hardened west coasts fanatics would avoid. I think Pike Place Roast accomplishes this...

That's my opinion.

Random Thoughts

1) This morning, I packed up my book shelf, and dismantled the kitchen table. I have to be out of the apartment in 2 weeks. Reality bit me in the ass. 3 boxes of books. Sadly, there are about 5 books to be read still, and I kept those ones out. I'm not sure these boxes will be unpacked. When I moved to Ireland (almost 8 years ago), I packed up 4 or 5 (maybe more) boxes of books, thinking someday I would be back and unpack those books and display them in my home. I'm not sure when I'll ever really settle down long enough to unpack all these books. And maybe I should just learn how to part with books...Or *gasp* use the library.. Maybe I should just ship these boxes to Colorado to join the other boxes of books.

2) VISA. Applying for my South African Visa tomorrow. To me, this is the real final step. There are some small things like getting an international drivers license, applying for medical indemnity coverage etc, but this makes it real.

3) I would drink Animal Dung Coffee.

4) My hair. I am growing it out. And right now it is in that frizzy annoying short-long phase. If I hear one more person tell me that the grey makes me look "distinguished," I am going to develop even more of a complex and may consider getting my hair darkened, which is a total waste of money, but I don't want to look distinguished. Actually, if I want to look distinguished, I'll wear my glasses. Shit, maybe I am more vain than I realize.

I am going to bed now.

Sundays

Heather, my old flatmate from Dublin came for a visit this weekend. It's been over 2 years since we've hung out (when I went to see her in Pittsburgh). It was like old times. We reminisced about the simplicity of life in Dublin, and the things we took for granted there. We had dinner at The Blue Heron (one of my favorite places) Friday night, and then a drink at the Montague Book Mill, and then made our way home and watched episodes of Sex and the City. Saturday we went to Brattleboro and Shelburne Falls, the two places here I would move to in a heart beat, except they are too far from the hospital. This morning we went to Karin's for brunch, and had a great time hanging with her and the kids. And like that, the weekend is mostly over. Weekends are going fast these days...

JR

Last week the ER resident called me to admit a patient. "I have an eight-year-old boy with pyelonephritis. And he has rash." Interesting, I remember thinking, you don't really get a rash with pyelonephritis.

I made my way down to see JR. As I knew I was already going to get out of work late, I decided to take my time and make some small talk with JR and his mom before I asked them all the medical questions.

So, I asked him about what he liked to do. And he told me he liked to knit. I was taken aback. What 8 year-old boy likes to knit?? He told me how he has knitted scarves and also a hat. This was no normal 8 year-old boy. We talked a bit more, and the more we talked, the more inferior I felt.

"So, JR, can you drive a car?"

"No, I can't reach the pedals." Well, I was glad to know that there was one thing I could do that JR couldn't!

Even before asking him or his mom any questions, it was very obvious that he did not have pyelonephritis. As we talked, I was looking at the rash on his hands, looking at the injection of his conjunctiva, and looking at his red cracked lips. It was time to stop the chitchat and get down to figuring out what was going on...

After taking a history, examining JR, and looking over the labs, I suspected that he had something more serious than just pyelonephritis.

I talked to JR's mom and told her that I was concerned about what was going on. She asked me to call her partner, who worked in health care, and discuss what I thought was going on. And I told them I suspected that this was Kawasaki's. But it was too early to make a diagnosis.

I explained to mom #1 that they would have a new residents taking care of them in the morning.

"But, we like you. Will you please be our resident?"

Our team size was alread a little unruly, but how could I turn down taking care of this cool kid, with two moms, and an interesting/complex medical condition.

JR had a rough course. There was disagreement about whether he had Kawasaki's or some infectious cause. He failed initial treatments. And on day three, he was looking worse. We had multiple family meetings daily discussing his care, and what more we could/should do. We called the Kawasaki specialists in Boston, and were on the verge of transferring him. Thankfully though, he responded to the second course of treatment, and went home a week after coming into the hospital.

When I went back to work on Monday, they have left me a card with their number, and an invitation to come over for knitting lessons...

They were the coolest family that I have taking care of, and if I ever have a family, they would be one of my role models.