Shameless Self-Promotion

Okay... so I have to brag just a little here, cause I'm really proud of myself (nevermind that Mac makes making a website easy enough for a chimp). I just made and launched the new CMA website! And I think it's beautiful.... so I'm sharing my baby with you all.



A Note About Our Symbol: We decided to come up with a new symbol for our CMA and wanted to find something that represented not only medicine, but our commitment to Christ. Thus we designed the Christian Aesculapius. Aesculapius was the Greek god of medicine and healing, and a commonly used symbol in medicine is Aesculapius's staff (a staff with a single serpent). This is often mistaken for the caduceus, or "wand of Hermes" (a staff with two serpents). Although this is commonly associated with medicine, it is a false association, as Hermes is the "messenger of the gods, guide of the dead and protector of merchants, gamblers, liars and thieves", not things you want to think of when you think of going to the doctor.

My First H&K and WC Experience

Last night I had my first "Harold and Kumar" experience. It started out when my roommate (who got back yesterday, YA!) found out our friend was moving out of our apartment complex to a house with two of our other friends. When we went over to see him, we found his apartment empty and decided that we had to see the new place.

Thus at 10pm we made our way over to the new house... which by the way is pretty sweet-- it's a 100 year old house with a claw-foot tub. When we got there we got the tour, but there were about to start a movie. We were asked to join and we did... Enter my first experience with Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

When the movie ended a few of the people were like, "Ok, now we NEED to go to White Castle" and then Muki chimed in that the 2nd H&K movie came out today. Thus began our adventure.

At Midnight we left their place and drove 20 minutes to the nearest Meijer (those who do not have a Meijer are missing out on life), where they had to ask the sales lady to get them a copy from the back. We then made our way to White Castle.

Both my roommate and I have never been to WC before... so that was an experience in itself. The guys and my roommate got the Craver case to split while we watched the 2nd movie and I got mozzarella sticks (I'm a veggie... so, I guess you can say that I haven't really experience WC yet).

We then went back to their place and proceeded to watch Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

I must say that I enjoyed the first movie.... but the second movie left me feeling dirty. Hmmm. Anyways, there you have it: My first H&K and WC experiences.

Campity Camp

The week before my externship ended I was feeling the need to get out of the D and get back to nature, I called my mom and asked her if we were going camping anytime this summer. Within a few days we had it scheduled. We would be going up north to the Sand Dunes for 5 days and 4 nights... So, that's were I was since last Wednesday. And let me just say that it was amazing!

Mom and I went up early and went to our favorite campground, only to find that there were no regular sites available, only walk-ins. We were ready for this, as the campground tends to have waiting lines every morning to get sites. So we grabbed on of the last walk-ins, grabbed our tents and supplies (read multiple trips) and hiked into our campsite... which I absolutely loved.

Mom making bookmarks at the picnic table

Mom washing her hands at our water source.

The next day we moved to our more "permanent" site and spent a wonderful day at the beach. We ended the night with possibly the best camping movie ever (on my lovely little Mac): Dirty Dancing... also one of my favorite movies of all times.
My cherry red fingers... cherries are one of my favorite things about going up north.

At one point the car was in the water...

Clearly the GPS was confused... We were not off-roading and there is no water in sight.

On Friday my dad, dog and brother came up and set up the trailer... my brother and I continued to camp out in the tent. The next few days were full of putt-putt and kayaking with my brother, hanging out with my family, and the gloriousness that is the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

I love Putt-Putt... and so does my brother.

Please note that I got par on the back 9... and totally won!

Waiting for mom and dad to come back and get us after putt-putt. They had to make an emergency run to a nearby town to buy my dad a book.

On our 2 and a half hour river kayak trip, that we did in 1 hour and 45 mintues.

My brother on the lake that we kayaked through on the way to Lake Michigan.

I've uploaded some more pictures on my photoblog: http://drkatiedoesphotography.blogspot.com

New Goals

I have 2 new life goals:

1. Drive i-90 from Boston to Seattle

View Larger Map

2. Drive i-80 from NJ to SF

View Larger Map

Why? No idea, but it seems like a cool thing to do... You know, with all my free time. And then I can be like, "Yeah, I drove the two longest interstates from start to finish" at all the cool dinner parties I'll inevitably be going to in the future. :)

Random Update

1. I just saw the Batman movie... it is amazing, go see it! To say anything else would be an injustice.

2. I experienced a first today: one of my patients died last night. We knew it was coming, but it is still very sad.

A Wonderful 4th of July Weekend

Flower from my front yard.

Holidays tend to sneak up on me... for instances, last Sunday at church I was asked what I was planning to do on Friday. I answered, "What's Friday?"

Now I knew that the 4th was coming up, but in all honesty, I hadn't comprehended at that point that it was this week. Needless to say, this left me slightly confused as to what I was going to do for the 4th. And believe me, I was confused all week...
Come Thursday afternoon I still had no firm plans, but during the day I had this huge desire to go home (it had been a month since I was last home). So after work I called up my mom, or rather called her back, and told her I might be coming home.

Enter the most fun I've had in the last few weeks: 4th of July Weekend 2008.

Friday was spent at a local car show with my mom and "Uncle" Dan. We had such a wonderful time walking around a cute town nearby, admiring cars, eating ice cream, and looking at books. We also stopped into one of my favorite stores from childhood, where I found some amazing fabric.







And here's the amazing fabric... It was bought because I loved it soooo much and found an awesome pattern for a laptop bag (something I've been needing for a very long time). Thus starts my weekend project:


And here it is completed, less than 24 hours later:

I haven't sewn in such a long time, but it was so nice to break out my old friend (sewing machine) and put this together. I love the bag SO MUCH, which only adds to the awesomeness.

Other things that made this weekend amazing: Watching movies with mom and Dan, getting my hair cut and re-styled, being with my family, running around town on random errands, finishing another book, soaking up the sun in the pool, eating outside, playing with my dog, making smores in the back yard, and having a low key holiday.

Book Review #4

Book #5: House of God, Samuel Shem

Just finished the book today, after trying to get through the middle for awhile. To be honest, when I first picked up the book I was expecting to be appalled by the conditions of internship. But it was not until I got to the middle of the book, which seemed to drag a lot, when some of those expectations came true. The beginning moved quickly and I did not have a lot of sympathy to give "Dr. Basch".

Besides the plot moving extremely slow in the middle I did not like the style of the author much. Some sentences just did not read well, and at times I was just waiting for him to make his point. And also, the focus on the erotic fantasies got old.

However, it does still stand as the one book that all those going into medicine must read. I have been told that one should read it three times: once either before or during medical school, once during internship, and once when you are on the other side of it all. That being said, I will try and read it again... in a few years. Maybe then I will be able to appreciate it more.

Grade: B

Next up: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See.

July 1st

July 1st is a very important date in the medical world: It is the beginning of the new year. It is on this date that 2nd year residents become 3rd year residents and 1st year interns become 2nd year residents. But more significant is that newly minted MDs, who were (graduated) 4th year medical students yesterday become doctors today-- no longer can they hid behind the excuse of "Oh, I'm just a medical student, let me ask my resident"... now they get to use "Oh, I'm just an intern, let me ask my attending."

Consequently it is the day that the 3rd year students officially start 4th year, the 2nd year students become 3rd year medical students, and the date that officially makes us M1s officially M2s (kinda...)*.

That being said, I cannot imagine the stress and anxiety so many interns are feeling tonight, because tomorrow there is no hiding**. So, this post goes out to those new interns (and new attendings and M3s). Best of luck this year.

Oh, and to the rest of you - do not get sick in July, ever. At least that's what I hear from everyone else in the field.

*I say kinda for 2 reasons: 1) in my book, I'm not really a 2nd year until school begins (although, it's getting easier to just say that I'm a M2 than "I just finished 1st year), and 2) according to the promotions committee, we've officially been M2s since May 30th
**I'm not really looking forward to that first step myself, and it's 3 years away - on that note: how crazy is it that I'll be an MD in 3 years - this came up in a lunch conversation. Everyone once and awhile I find myself having this "re-epiphany" and starting to freak out a little.