More Weddings!

Wow. I've been so consumed by rotations that I had completely forgotten to post about 2 very important events that happened over these last 3 months! As much as I want to bitch, whine, and moan about surgery, this post is dedicated strictly to non-medical things. So here we go!

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July - Best Friend's Wedding

In early July, I drove 4 hours to my best friend's wedding. He's a recurrent character on this blog, though I forgot what name I gave him. His original "code name" was JW-M, so I'll stick to that, lol. This wedding was actually referenced months ago in this post. Over the years I had come to admire his intellect, his wit, his calm mind, and above all his inner child. He's one of perhaps five people who knows exactly what to say to put me in a great mood. Only a handful of things (death being one of them) could have prevented me from attending his wedding.

The lovely chapel.

Their wedding was short and sweet, perfectly suited to the newlyweds. Several of our mutual friends were invited to the wedding (or were part of it), and it had been so long since I'd seen all of them in one spot. The reception was quite nice as well and their cake was delicious (I expected nothing less from the dessert palate of my friend, lol). At the end of the evening they had a cookie bar. :-)

This cake is no lie! So yummy!!

The married couple cutting the cake. Showing the back to protect their anonymity.

The following day, several of us drove to the lake to hang out. Since I had gone separately from most people, I headed over to the lake about 3 hours ahead of everyone else. Though it was in the 90s, it still felt nice oddly enough.

Lovely beach area. :-)

Lighthouse!

Pirate ship on the lake!

Back wandering in town.

I was glad that I went. JW-M told me that I was one of the few close friends he had made in undergrad.
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September - Old Friend's Wedding

About 3 weeks ago I flew home for my old friend's wedding (I'll call him TR-M here as I think I had before). We had known each other since kindergarten and we were next-door neighbors for almost a decade. We stayed friends even after I moved to the other side of town. Like my best friend's wedding, this was one I couldn't miss.

I love stained glass windows.

The ring-bearers. They were SO ADORABLE!! Especially the younger patting the older one on the back in reassurance.

There were many people at the wedding that I hadn't seen since high school! It was a very nostalgic feeling to see them and what's happened since we all graduated high school. Aside from the wedding train, we all sat at the same table . . . at the very back of the reception hall next to the bar. Though we were annoyed at being seated so far away from the head table, we had fun anyhow. The most interesting thing about the reception was the distinct lack of a wedding cake. Instead, the newlyweds had an assortment of desserts that came around quite frequently. It was differently delicious!!

Table 16/20 at the end.

This is what I had instead of cake: hazelnut creme brulee.

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All these pictures don't do justice to the events. But of course there are many more pics that I took that I will refrain from including. I'm glad that I was able to make it to both these weddings. This makes the 3rd wedding I've been to this year! Wow.

---TANGENT---
Remember the hot gay intern I met at the one meet and greet a few weeks back? Probably not, but that's okay. I randomly came across him on Grindr. Alas it says that he's partnered. :-( Sigh, such is my luck ALWAYS.
---END TANGENT---

Amazing Week

So it's been a while since I last posted anything, and last week was a pretty awesome week, I must say.

Sunday: Went into the hospital at 6:30am and was done by 9:30am. Got the vitals (temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, ins & outs, etc) and saw my 2 patients all in about 35 minutes. Pretty epic efficiency there! :-D The rest of the day was all mine to do whatever, lol.

Monday: There was only 1 surgery that day and the other JMS (junior med student) scrubbed in. I took that time to do some reading and studying. Pretty chill day.

Tuesday: Unremarkable day of surgery. But afterwards I headed over to the LGBT student org's meet and greet at a faculty's house. How apt that it was on the day that DADT was repealed, lol. It was good seeing people and hanging out. I met an internal medicine intern who was so hot (and hilarious). I couldn't take my eyes off him after I talked to him for like, 15 minutes. We had some great conversations . . . basically bonded over our hatred of surgery, lol. After the social, several of us (said intern had to work the next day, bah) walked down to a nearby wine shop and had some wine. I came out to one of my friends there (it was loud enough there that I don't think anyone else heard, not that I really cared). Funny that she never asked me before even though we were both on the LGBT student org board the year before.

Wednesday: Long day of lectures. That's how Wednesdays goes. No surgeries were planned for the day so it wasn't like we missed anything. Later that evening I had a meeting with a friend to discuss one of the student committees we're both heading. Some good progress was made.

Thursday: I scrubbed in an open umbilical hernia repair. I successfully proved myself to the chief resident that I can, indeed, tie knots with 2 pairs of gloves on! Pretty short and sweet surgical procedure. I like these as they last less than 1.5 hours. Later in the afternoon I had a meeting with the Dean of Student Diversity, which was interesting as always. Thankfully I didn't have to return to surgery afterwards.

Friday: I scrubbed in 2 more open umbilical hernia repairs. I was allowed to close the wound with a subcutaneous suture after the chief resident started it for me. I must say, I did a pretty good job for not having done it since we practiced on pig's feet at the beginning of the month (and it was the most difficult suture for me to learn). The chief resident complimented me. :-)

After surgery ended (somewhat early), I headed over to a friend's place for wine tasting (the same friend I came out to earlier on Tuesday). We met up with her husband and another mutual friend. I hadn't gone wine tasting before, and it was a pretty nice experience with friends. After wine tasting, we headed downtown to this new place for dinner. It was delicious!

Saturday: Headed home and attended my friend's wedding. I had known him since kindergarten and we were next-door neighbors until I moved away in 7th grade. Had a great time, will blog about that in detail later.

Overall: Again, pretty amazing week considering I'm still on my surgery rotation, lol. Evil resident was on vacation all week so I didn't have to worry about her ruining my day with her foul attitude. Chief resident was awesome, as always. We rounded late (around 7am) most days because the chief resident was tired and didn't feel like waking up any earlier than she needed to. I certainly wasn't about to object! There were fleeting moments where I actually enjoyed surgery. Shocking!! o_O

Epic Wedding

This post is long overdue. A couple weeks ago I drove down to St. Louis, MO with Michelle for a mutual friend's wedding. Michelle has a relative who lives near St. Louis, so we crashed at his place for the first night we were there.

That first night, we went to the Mehendi ceremony where the women got henna done. The bride's henna was really cool all over her hands.

The following morning was the Christian ceremony (groom's side) at Graham Chapel at Washington University. Though we left early so we could get there early, the universe didn't want that to happen. The highway I took narrowed down to one lane at one point and we were stuck in pretty much stand-still traffic for a good 15-20 minutes. I took the first exit I could find only to find the bridge I had to cross was demolished. I just went back on the highway and surprisingly it was fine after that blockade.

The Christian wedding was pretty sweet and short. After that wedding and taking a few pics, we went to the hotel where the rest of the events were held to attend the luncheon. By the way, almost every meal was provided buffet style with Americano and Indian options. Both were delicious and I was stuffed after every meal without fail. Probably gained like 10 lbs from all that food . . .

Anyway, after the luncheon there was a couple hours' lull as they set up for the Hindi ceremony later that afternoon. Unlike the Christian ceremony, which was about 40-45 minutes long, the Hindi ceremony was about 1.5 hours long. It was really cool though as I had never attended an Indian wedding before.

Finally, after the Hindi ceremony came the reception, which was really nice. Throughout the 2 days, the bride wore a total of 3 dresses, 2 of them being saris. She looked so good in all her dresses! I was so stuffed from the food that I couldn't finish a small slice of cake and attempting to dance was painful. Oh well.

The following morning, Michelle and I checked out of the hotel and decided to see some stuff around in St. Louis before heading back. We first went to the Shaw Botanical Garden where a really awesome tour guide gave us a most excellent tour of the gardens. It was such a beautiful place.

After that, we headed for The Hill area for lunch. But being Sunday and in a heavy Italian district, most places were closed. We did find a pizza place that was open (which was delicious) and then topped that off by going to a gelato place afterwards.

Finally before heading out, we had to see the Gateway Arch, probably the most iconic symbol of St. Louis. We didn't go up to the top but we took plenty of pics around it. All in all, it was a great trip with a couple of minor bumps along the way.

Like a Fiend

So . . . how're you all doing? It's been almost a month since I last blogged. o_O

Been a brutal month, of sorts. Finished finals (passed all my classes, phew!), took the weekend off (mostly), then began studying like a fiend for the behemoth known as Step 1 of the USMLE Board Exam.

I've been slowly pushing past the burnt out phase - that lasted about 4 days longer than I could really afford. As is, I study probably about 6-8 hours a day, on average. That's not enough. I need to get upwards of about 12 hours a day. The exam itself is 8 hours long. Ugh. Only 2.5 weeks away, eep! I must resist the urge to reschedule my exam for a later date.

Other than that, nothing special. Took a couple hours off from studying to celebrate my b-day with a few friends a couple days ago. Had teppanyaki for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. It was good. :-) Now, what do you think 9 med students talk about when they're all studying for the same beastly exam? The exam, of course. That dominated our conversations. Yeah.

---TANGENT---
On a completely unrelated note, I saw the following commercial on TV today:


I thought it was pretty sweet.
---END TANGENT---

Will This Work?

So if you recall from like a year ago, things with Jay didn't work. In retrospect, that was probably for the best.

And while I met Drew a couple weeks ago, it looks like things won't work out with him either. Apparently he had gotten back together with his ex-bf - the same guy who brings him such great highs and such great lows (it's a rather bipolar relationship). Things were rocky and last week they've broken up, again. And within the last week, he's been dating this guy he seems to really like. They go to the same undergrad, so it's much easier for them to meet up than, say, with me. Oh well, I saw this coming. I'm not disappointed, per se, I'm happy for him. But man, I still can't quite get over him (which is odd, since we never really got it on to begin with). I think he's one of those people who can connect with almost anyone really easily.
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At the same time, a new guy started messaging me online a couple weeks ago. I'll call him Mel. He seems like a nice guy. Anywho, a few days ago we actually met up for a "date." I say "date" because he considered it a date, but it didn't quite feel like one to me (not that I'd really know).

While he goes to school about 45 minutes away, he had to stop by my area because there's an art store near here that he needed to get supplies from (he's a graphic design and animation student). So we met at a Barnes & Noble at the mall near me. He was wearing a black fedora and a black trench coat; eh, must not judge (but really, a trench coat?). We walked around the mall a bit, making small chat. He seemed nervous and shy. He had this habit of talking in small quick bursts in a low tone, kind of how my youngest brother talks sometimes.

After a few minutes, we went to a sushi place not too far away. It was pretty good, it had been a while since I'd had sushi. The place was pretty empty since it was still a bit early for dinner. We chatted some more. I felt like I had to initiate a few times and be more upbeat, because he seemed somewhat monotone. Once we finished, we went back to the mall to mill about for a bit before saying goodbye.

I don't know. I just didn't feel like we really connected. I mean, we could be good friends but I'm not sure if it'll go any further. There was an odd disconnect in person that I didn't quite feel when chatting online.
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What am I looking for in a person? What am I looking for in myself? Will this work?

I suppose I have more important things to attend to; that is, working out (I've been pretty slack on P90X and it's showing, ugh) and studying for finals and my Step 1 exam in June (I'm less than 60 days away, eep!!). Tick tick tick . . .

Operation: Dragon

Blue Dragon. by *Amisgaudi on deviantART

Spring Break never lasts long enough. I only achieved about 1/3 of what I set out to do. :-/

Anyway, "Phase 2" will soon commence. Operation: Phoenix was a partial success, but now to begin Operation: Dragon. In many ways, it'll be similar to Operation: Phoenix only more intense, lol. Goals:

1. Be in bed by 12:45am (12:30am apparently was not feasible)
2. Wake up by 8:30am (8:00am apparently was also not feasible)
3. Continue the P90X program
4. Actually be serious about my diet
5. Buy a Qbank for the USLME Step 1 board exam and begin hardcore studying
6. Other

So I took a few pictures on Day 1 of P90X and like, Day 42-ish. I didn't think I'd see a huge difference but I was surprised! Now, I'm nowhere close to the amazing bodies I've seen people accomplish on the program, but the progress for me was visible (if only a tad subtle). I also apparently lost about 6-8 lbs, which was kinda surprising too. Unfortunately, I've kind of taken the last 2.5 weeks off so I'm going to restart the program from the middle of Phase 2 (instead of going right ahead to Phase 3). I'm hoping for better results this time around! (Sorry, no before and during pics for you all, hehe - still pretty self-conscious about that.)

As for diet, sigh, my body's stupid. -_- I just had my physical check-up at the beginning of the week and apparently, my triglycerides are about 2x normal. Everything else is good though. How does that happen?! o_O Apparently, I should eat fewer sweets, fewer carbs, and drink fewer alcoholic beverages. But . . . I don't eat that many sweets (generally), I don't eat that many carbs (usually), and I seldom drink. Granted, I did eat a lot of gummy bears when I'm at my friend's place in the last 3-4 weeks and I did have a few beers to celebrate a friend's b-day right before break, maybe that's the cause? Hmmm. Weird.

I've really got to get on studying hardcore for the board exam. Got to buy a Qbank and do 10-20 questions a night until May, at which point I'll have to kick it up several notches. Also, I must review my books for that exam a bit more in-depth now.

Lastly, Drew is on Spring Break this coming week and my week is fairly lax. Meaning, we will (somehow) find a way to meet each other this coming week. I've promised him a back massage, lol. I did also take a rein-check on a blowjob he offered like 3 weeks ago, but I'm not holding him to that (not right now, anyway). :-P

NYC: In Pictures

This post will be long enough without my usual text, so I present (in pictures) my 2.5-day trip to NYC to visit a couple friends there one weekend.

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Day 1 - Flushing

World's Fair grounds in Flushing Meadows Corona Park

Hotpot for dinner!

Flushing's Chinatown at night

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Day 2 - NYC (Manhattan)

Times Square

M&M Factory

Columbus Circle

Central Park

McSorley's

Washington Square Park

(Cute) pianist and contortionist street performers

Tic & Tac - twin performers

Chinatown

(What's left of) Little Italy

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Day 3 - Brooklyn

Green-Wood Cemetery - entrance

Green-Wood Cemetery - Statue of Minerva (looking at Statue of Liberty)

Green-Wood Cemetery - Leonard Bernstein's grave

Grimaldi's Pizzeria

Brooklyn Bridge

Ikea ferry + Statue of Liberty (viewed from Red Hook)

Red Hook street food vendor (where we got pupusas)

Brighton Beach

Coney Island

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It was a whirlwind of 2.5 days, but it was well worth it. :-D

Summer Begins Now

Wow, it's been almost 2 weeks since I last posted. o_O Much has happened since, but I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

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1. Final exams finished last Friday. They were all surprisingly brutal, but I kicked ass on neurosci (thanks to my PowerPoint). I can finally put the "M" of "M.D." behind my name now, lol.

2. I got my pediatric externship placements. I'm doing peds ID (infectious disease) for 2 weeks, primary care peds for 2 weeks, and then peds rheumatology for 4 weeks. I didn't even rank peds rheumatology, so I'm not sure why/how I got that. I'm not entirely sure what peds rheumatology is all about even - I'm guessing a lot of musculoskeletal issues like juvenile arthritis. I also hear that it's pretty genetics heavy, so this should be interesting. I start with peds ID next Monday.

3. Henry, my roommate, and I took a weekend trip to Chicago right after finals. We stayed with one of my roommate's friends, who has an amazing apartment in downtown Chicago. I'm pretty sure I spent more during this weekend trip to Chicago than my 4 days in Washington, DC. Some places we visited include:

Millennium Park (see the Bean!)

Grant Park

Downtown Chicago

Navy Pier

Chinatown

We watched The Prince of Persia which was a surprisingly good movie . . . after I got past the fact that Jake Gyllenhaal isn't even remotely Persian-looking (though, he was quite hot in the movie). While watching the movie, I couldn't help but notice the sheer amount of parkour in it. We also had Korean bbq, which was good. The Korean waitress attending us got quite annoyed at us (quite possibly because we weren't Korean, lol).

4. Spent 4 hours with my co-president planning out all the 2010-2011 APAMSA events. That was an epic 4 hours.

5. Had dinner with my lab group in downtown. Fun times. One of my labmates is getting married in July and I finally sent in my RSVP, lol.

6. Made steak last night for the first time ever. It actually turned out really well! Hurray for merlot. :-D Next, to learn how to cook fish. Also, the Chinese bbq duck (that I bought in Chinatown) paired oddly well with merlot.

7. Will be having a dinner meeting with the LGBTPM board and one of the 3 faculty advisors in about 45 minutes.
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That's about all there is for now. Tune in next time for another post. :-P