I know it has been a really long time since my last post but I have no finished up half of my third year of medical school wow time flies. I was lucky enough to participate in a trip to Kisumu Kenya during my family medicine rotation this past month below is an email i sent home while i was there. Here is a link to my photos, and a link to a website of our group's updates.
Hey guys,
I am writing this email as we journey on our hour and fifteen min bus ride from kisumu to masara. We take a two lane highway that is pretty scary; bicyclists ride on the edge of the road without a bike lane and tour buses pass us nearly having a head on collision each time while running cyclist off the road. Children play in the trash and bathe in the streams naked as we pass. Most ecstatically jump up and wave with both hands as they see us shouting mzungu (white person). Their smiles are absolutely gorgeous as you can see they joy within them. Once we get to ahero we take a left off the pavement on to a dirt road. We stop and pick up some of the translators who crawl on top of the bus and hold on for dear life as we travel the bumpy road for about five miles. The road is very much domed so we spend a good deal of the trek driving at what feels like 30 degrees. The scenery is gorgeous women walking from market with baskets on their heads. Other women out in the rice fields working with their children in the far distance you can see the mountain ranges. The best part is when gazing upon the horizon there are no power lines to interrupt the beauty. I usually take this time each morning to listen to my iPod and treat it as a one of worship and can't help but look out and think how great god is and bow He created this for our pleasure so that we may subdue it.
We finally pull up to the clinic each day with several hundred people waiting for our arrival. There are probably 20 children running from their perspective huts to follow the bus. We usually have morning clinic for about 3 hours until we take a lunch break. The women of the village cook. Chapiti for us which is a piece of flat bread that is fried Almost like a pita. To drink we get a cup of hot tea with sugar in the raw. Yes it is 90 degrees outside and we drink hot tea. We will then finish clinic leave some pharmacy students behind to finish up filling some scripts as we make the journey home.
We are averaging about 300 pts a day at clinic, yesterday was our biggest day at 400. The cases consist of malaria with fevers of 105, diarrhea from parasites, asthma, allergies, arthritis, trauma, abscess etc. We have a wound clinic that we rotate through. My first day in wound clinic I injected countless knees for arthritis drained many abscess and even pulled some teeth.
I have yet to have any patients that aren't happy and content. Everyone seems so happy about everything. The children run around and play with anything they can find. One of my favorite toys is a metal ring they spin and run alongside with a stick that pushes it. Might not be the best description but that is essentially what they do. We pass out stickers to them every day and they absolutely love them. I get asked daily for my water bottle and my pens something they get to experience and play with once a year.
Sunday Bonyo's dad had a party for us at the village. We had live entertainment that consisted of a keyboard 5 cow skin drums a shaker and a man singing. Each song lasted about 20 mins it seemed. I made a complete fool of myself but the children loved it. We had the kids in a Congo line at one point. After watching the villagers dance they sat down and said it was the white peoples turn to dance so we stood up and tried to dance some more. I have never been laughed at that much but I believe they enjoyed it. We finished the party with a meal provided by the women. I went into their huts and watched them prepare the meal and will show you pics later. The huts made of mud with a tin roof had two rooms one for sleeping and the other for cooking. The cooking room had a wood fire in the corner with a pot of water on it. The women sat around a table and prepared the meal. Chickens roamed throughout the hut along with cats and dogs. So who knows what the meat was. It is custom that guest eat first and then they eat the leftovers. Makes you think twice before getting seconds or a lot off food and never will you not finish a meal.
I have many more stories that I hope to get into an email but I am now tired of typing on my phone. I hope you all are doing well and can't wait to get back and share stories and pics.
-Parker
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Mr. and Mrs. W. Peppard
This weekend I had the pleasure of using my skills I learned when I was eight for a wedding. What would these skills be? Well of course they would be acolyting (not sure if that is a word). My roommate CB and I were both asked to be acolytes in a wedding for two of our friends. He is an Aggie thus we were on the C team since we are we t-sips. However, I would like to make a notion that this is actually the best position you can have. 1) you have your moment 2) less responsibility 3) you get all the same perks.
Talking about perks the rehearsal dinner was very elegant with a great steak. The brides started of the T(r)oast perfectly with a talk about how "no man was good enough for his daughter" with cigar in mouth and all. He happens to be a lawyer thus he knows how to execute a speech to the crowd better than any. We learned all about how WP was a man by his sports knowledge of Michael Phelps pot and Lance Armstrong's breakfast. We also learned he is an engineer and can fix things.
The wedding went off with out a hitch and might be the shortest ceremony of all time. AP was very excited the entire time as you could see from her almost jumping up and down during both ets of vows and constant giggling. WP on the other hand lost it when she was about halfway down the isle. It seems like the times are starting to change most every wedding I have been to recently the guy has cried more so than the girl. We then booked it to the reception which was very much a party. After a few moments of chaos at the reception due to the overwhelming amount of people and rush for the food the dancing began. The couple decided to do all the pictures up front thus we were able to eat and then dance with the couple through most of the night. They buzzed a way in a limo at 10:30 but this seemed more like midnight because of how tired I was from wearing out the dance floor.
We finished up the trip to Waco with a stop at the Dr. Pepper Museum. If you have never been consider yourself lucky. First of all there isn't much to see there and most of it isn't entertaining. Second of all the Dr. Pepper I had at the soda shop was watered down and terrible. The only redeeming part of this experience is the picture below.
Talking about perks the rehearsal dinner was very elegant with a great steak. The brides started of the T(r)oast perfectly with a talk about how "no man was good enough for his daughter" with cigar in mouth and all. He happens to be a lawyer thus he knows how to execute a speech to the crowd better than any. We learned all about how WP was a man by his sports knowledge of Michael Phelps pot and Lance Armstrong's breakfast. We also learned he is an engineer and can fix things.
The wedding went off with out a hitch and might be the shortest ceremony of all time. AP was very excited the entire time as you could see from her almost jumping up and down during both ets of vows and constant giggling. WP on the other hand lost it when she was about halfway down the isle. It seems like the times are starting to change most every wedding I have been to recently the guy has cried more so than the girl. We then booked it to the reception which was very much a party. After a few moments of chaos at the reception due to the overwhelming amount of people and rush for the food the dancing began. The couple decided to do all the pictures up front thus we were able to eat and then dance with the couple through most of the night. They buzzed a way in a limo at 10:30 but this seemed more like midnight because of how tired I was from wearing out the dance floor.
We finished up the trip to Waco with a stop at the Dr. Pepper Museum. If you have never been consider yourself lucky. First of all there isn't much to see there and most of it isn't entertaining. Second of all the Dr. Pepper I had at the soda shop was watered down and terrible. The only redeeming part of this experience is the picture below.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Always state your intentions
This is a valuable lesson I learned recently. After spending some time getting to know a girl at school I decided she was worthy of a date. However when asking her I simply said I would like to take her out to dinner and then to our Boot Party for school. She was unable to go to the Boot Party because of her back but said that going to dinner sounded fun. YES! I was in like Flynn. I told her I would make reservations at a restaurant in Arlington and pick her up around 8. I went to Student Clinician Ceremony before hand where there was dinner served (didn't know that was going to happen), and then booked it from downtown to pick her up.
She lives in the back house of some friends so this made things tricky, I went to the front door of the main house which she was unable to leave from, so I had to make my way back to the car pull up to the back house that she lives in and then get out of the car and preceded to open the door for her. We made our way to Olenjacks Grille in Arlington to what I thought was a great dinner with good conversation. She ordered a grilled chicken salad with Russian dressing. I thought this was a great sign since girls always order salads on dates. After about an hour of conversation the waiter brought us the check. I immediately grabbed the check to pay; she reached for her purse and offered to pay for her portion of the bill. I thought this was odd but assured myself she was just trying to be polite. After a few more mins of conversation we left which I opened her door again and went to drop her off. We of course jammed to my favorite two Michael Jackson songs on the way home: Will you be there? (Free Willy) and Black or White. When I say jam I mean I was singing at the top of my lungs and borderline dancing as best as one can while driving a car. In my mind this date is going great. Now here comes the moment of doom. We sat in the circle drive in front of her house having some casual conversation to end the date, when she drops the dreaded F-Bomb. "Thanks for a dinner it was fun. But if you keep paying for your FRIENDS meals you are going to wind up broke and you won’t be able to pay for Africa." A million thoughts rushed through my head and I am sure my face lost all color, but somehow I quickly changed the conversation and left shortly there after.
I didn't state my intentions upfront and this lead to a huge amount of confusion. I came up with four things this could have meant. 1) She word vomited and didn’t meant to say it and was just awkward because she didn’t know how to end the date that I never called a date 2) This is the biggest hint of all time 3) She was fishing for my intentions and just gave me the big cheese down the middle (that I just looked at and didn’t swing 4) She said it and didn’t even realize it.
After a few minutes of freak out time I made my way back to the Boot Party and had to let all my friends know "how it went" since they knew where I was because I didn’t eat during the Student Clinician Ceremony. I then had to contemplate these thoughts and try to rationalize it all through the weekend. I finally had the talk of intentions (not to be confused with a DTR) a few days later in which, she informed me she didn't think it was a date, she noticed I got really quiet after that moment but didn’t think anything of it. So from now on always state your intentions and avoid all the confusion.
She lives in the back house of some friends so this made things tricky, I went to the front door of the main house which she was unable to leave from, so I had to make my way back to the car pull up to the back house that she lives in and then get out of the car and preceded to open the door for her. We made our way to Olenjacks Grille in Arlington to what I thought was a great dinner with good conversation. She ordered a grilled chicken salad with Russian dressing. I thought this was a great sign since girls always order salads on dates. After about an hour of conversation the waiter brought us the check. I immediately grabbed the check to pay; she reached for her purse and offered to pay for her portion of the bill. I thought this was odd but assured myself she was just trying to be polite. After a few more mins of conversation we left which I opened her door again and went to drop her off. We of course jammed to my favorite two Michael Jackson songs on the way home: Will you be there? (Free Willy) and Black or White. When I say jam I mean I was singing at the top of my lungs and borderline dancing as best as one can while driving a car. In my mind this date is going great. Now here comes the moment of doom. We sat in the circle drive in front of her house having some casual conversation to end the date, when she drops the dreaded F-Bomb. "Thanks for a dinner it was fun. But if you keep paying for your FRIENDS meals you are going to wind up broke and you won’t be able to pay for Africa." A million thoughts rushed through my head and I am sure my face lost all color, but somehow I quickly changed the conversation and left shortly there after.
I didn't state my intentions upfront and this lead to a huge amount of confusion. I came up with four things this could have meant. 1) She word vomited and didn’t meant to say it and was just awkward because she didn’t know how to end the date that I never called a date 2) This is the biggest hint of all time 3) She was fishing for my intentions and just gave me the big cheese down the middle (that I just looked at and didn’t swing 4) She said it and didn’t even realize it.
After a few minutes of freak out time I made my way back to the Boot Party and had to let all my friends know "how it went" since they knew where I was because I didn’t eat during the Student Clinician Ceremony. I then had to contemplate these thoughts and try to rationalize it all through the weekend. I finally had the talk of intentions (not to be confused with a DTR) a few days later in which, she informed me she didn't think it was a date, she noticed I got really quiet after that moment but didn’t think anything of it. So from now on always state your intentions and avoid all the confusion.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Dr. and Dr. Johnny V
This weekend I had the privileged of being a groomsman in two of my best friends wedding. The wedding took place at Nolte Farms in Seguin, Texas. I had to take my second board exam on Friday and was going to try and book it down there to at least make the rehearsal dinner. To my surprise I finished the exam really early and was able to make it down for both the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. The Dinner took place at the gristmill which is always a favorite. The night really got going once the t(r)oast began. Many of them were towards JV with an occasional shot at KV all in all a fun night with great memories. The next morning AG and I drove back down to Seguin from Austin to have lunch with JV and some others. Craig’s Sauté and Grill was a hit especially since we all know how much JV loves to sauté most of his meals. Then the delimina hit what am I going to do from 2pm until 5pm when pictures start? AG and I ended up driving down about every road in the town passing the car show at the square checking out the movie theater, the amusement park with the worlds largest silo climb.
It was now time for the big show. After a few pictures we headed over to the Biblical Garden and watch the crowds file in. The sun was beginning to set and the bell started to ring it was show time. The KV's and JV' mothers were escorted in followed by a small sermonette that JV and KV wrote. We finally made our way up to the front and then it was time for KV's grand entrance. This was by far the most moving experience I have ever had at a wedding. She was gorgeous, I looked over at the bridesmaids I didn’t see a dry eye and Johnny V was barely holding it in, and chills were running through my spine. The ceremony was so beautiful because even though they were the center of attention you could tell they were reflecting all of the glory to God, and his presence was definitely felt. The wedding proceeded with some laughs along the way and it was time for the party.
In honor of them I have decided to make a list of some of my favorite memories with them.
KV
-Diet Vanilla Dr. Pepper
-Rosa's
-Mus musculus
-Driving through Westlake looking for Andy Roddick's House
-Dominican Joe's and Mozart’s
-Singing and acting out songs in the Car
-Bringing you flowers at the airport
JV
-FEAST
-BYX Summit
-Long talks after cell group about Krista
-Steaks for O-Chem
-The talk about fathers
JV and KV
-Krista's Surprise Party
-Ya'll giving up Valentines night to be with me as I checked my Match
-Copeland when JV wanted to take KV dancing
I am sure more will come to mind and I will edit this as they do. I love both of y’all very much and couldn't be happier.
It was now time for the big show. After a few pictures we headed over to the Biblical Garden and watch the crowds file in. The sun was beginning to set and the bell started to ring it was show time. The KV's and JV' mothers were escorted in followed by a small sermonette that JV and KV wrote. We finally made our way up to the front and then it was time for KV's grand entrance. This was by far the most moving experience I have ever had at a wedding. She was gorgeous, I looked over at the bridesmaids I didn’t see a dry eye and Johnny V was barely holding it in, and chills were running through my spine. The ceremony was so beautiful because even though they were the center of attention you could tell they were reflecting all of the glory to God, and his presence was definitely felt. The wedding proceeded with some laughs along the way and it was time for the party.
In honor of them I have decided to make a list of some of my favorite memories with them.
KV
-Diet Vanilla Dr. Pepper
-Rosa's
-Mus musculus
-Driving through Westlake looking for Andy Roddick's House
-Dominican Joe's and Mozart’s
-Singing and acting out songs in the Car
-Bringing you flowers at the airport
JV
-FEAST
-BYX Summit
-Long talks after cell group about Krista
-Steaks for O-Chem
-The talk about fathers
JV and KV
-Krista's Surprise Party
-Ya'll giving up Valentines night to be with me as I checked my Match
-Copeland when JV wanted to take KV dancing
I am sure more will come to mind and I will edit this as they do. I love both of y’all very much and couldn't be happier.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
USMLE Meltdown
I took my USMLE Step 1 yesterday which is the licensing exam for medical students. The exam started at 8am and so I woke up at 6 to eat breakfast and get to the testing site early. I printed off the confirmation email and was out the door with my lunch pale at 6:45. I arrived at the site at 7:10 and looked over a few things in the car and headed into the building at 7:30. I waited in the line for about 5 minutes. I finally arrived at the desk and handed the young lady my id. She asked for my testing permit and I handed her the confirmation email. She then informed me this was not the testing permit and without the testing permit I would not be able to take the test. She told me if I could make it home and back by 8:30 they would let me take the test. I left in a frantic and found the nearest FedEx Kinko’s on my GPS and raced there. I ran in got on the computer and found the email with the testing permit. This email had a link in it to sign in on the USMLE website. Well I didn’t have my username and password. I tried to the "forgot username" page but this was no success so I called the USMLE people in the middle of listening to some menus I find my ID number on another email. I copy and paste this in to the box and start trying every password I know. None of these are working. I then realized when I copied and pasted the ID number I copied the space at the end. I then deleted the space tried a password and it worked! I printed shut down the computer ran out of the FedEx Kinko’s and drove as fast as I could back to the testing site. I got there at 8:05 and didn’t get into take the test until 8:30. Luckily another guy in my class was there and had not started the test either so that was relaxing. While waiting in the lobby I went and asked the young lady if I had been rude and yelled at her and she informed me that I had not so I was thankful I didn’t lose my temper with her.
I finally entered the testing site logged on to the test and the first question popped up. I knew the answer! It was Hairy Cell Leukemia and I was on my way. I remember a few questions in between as well, but my last question was a dreaded multimedia question of a heart sound. Luckily I knew that answer which was Coarctaion of the Aorta and I was done. I finished at about 2:00 and was relieved to be on my way home. Now I just have to take the COMLEX on Friday and then it is SUMMER.
I finally entered the testing site logged on to the test and the first question popped up. I knew the answer! It was Hairy Cell Leukemia and I was on my way. I remember a few questions in between as well, but my last question was a dreaded multimedia question of a heart sound. Luckily I knew that answer which was Coarctaion of the Aorta and I was done. I finished at about 2:00 and was relieved to be on my way home. Now I just have to take the COMLEX on Friday and then it is SUMMER.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Graduations, Boards and Rotations OH MY!
I know it has been a while since my last post, but honestly my life has been pretty boring. I take my licensing exams next week and have only one last week to study. So I have pretty much been just studying about 12 hours a day which means not a whole lot to blog about. Something I have been able to do though.
I went to my sister’s graduation for Texas A&M. I went to UT so I of course had to make fun of many of the Aggie traditions. Overall this was pretty fun, very rushed because I was really worried about studying the whole time but the break ended up being a great thing. I was able to see my grandparents from out of state that doesn't happen very often. I saw slumdog millionaire for the first time the other night. I thought it was pretty good. I didn’t really have any clue what it was about but definitely had heard a lot about it so I think the hype some what ruined it for me. I also went and saw up with the roommates JO and CB the other night. It was entertaining my lack of dog love also made this movie not as entertaining. I think I will have to stick to Cars as one of my favorite Pixar movies.
I have mentioned previously that I did some research in undergrad. So I decided to pursue a rotation during my fourth year in research, this ended up causing lots of problems as far as scheduling my third year rotations. My classmates all received their schedules about 5 weeks ago meanwhile I have been anxiously awaiting mine. Well today is the day I finally received it and it is as follows.
July 6 - Aug28 Internal Medicine
Aug 31 - Oct 23 Surgery
Oct 26 - Dec 18 Family Medicine
Jan 4 - Feb 12 OBGYN
Feb 15 - Mar 26 Pediatrics
Mar 29 - Apr 23 OMM
Apr 26 - May 21 Psychiatry
May 24 - June 18 Academic Medicine (Study Month)
I am pretty pleased with my schedule. Right now Internal Medicine is at the top of my list as far as specialties I would like to pursue, so having it first will help me make a decision for sure. I also am glad I will get a great foundation for the rest of my rotations. The other perk to having Medicine and Surgery up front is the back end of my schedule will be kind of light.
In other news after boards I will be heading down to Seguin, Texas for a wedding and then heading out to Vegas for a week so more to come on how those turn out.
I went to my sister’s graduation for Texas A&M. I went to UT so I of course had to make fun of many of the Aggie traditions. Overall this was pretty fun, very rushed because I was really worried about studying the whole time but the break ended up being a great thing. I was able to see my grandparents from out of state that doesn't happen very often. I saw slumdog millionaire for the first time the other night. I thought it was pretty good. I didn’t really have any clue what it was about but definitely had heard a lot about it so I think the hype some what ruined it for me. I also went and saw up with the roommates JO and CB the other night. It was entertaining my lack of dog love also made this movie not as entertaining. I think I will have to stick to Cars as one of my favorite Pixar movies.
I have mentioned previously that I did some research in undergrad. So I decided to pursue a rotation during my fourth year in research, this ended up causing lots of problems as far as scheduling my third year rotations. My classmates all received their schedules about 5 weeks ago meanwhile I have been anxiously awaiting mine. Well today is the day I finally received it and it is as follows.
July 6 - Aug28 Internal Medicine
Aug 31 - Oct 23 Surgery
Oct 26 - Dec 18 Family Medicine
Jan 4 - Feb 12 OBGYN
Feb 15 - Mar 26 Pediatrics
Mar 29 - Apr 23 OMM
Apr 26 - May 21 Psychiatry
May 24 - June 18 Academic Medicine (Study Month)
I am pretty pleased with my schedule. Right now Internal Medicine is at the top of my list as far as specialties I would like to pursue, so having it first will help me make a decision for sure. I also am glad I will get a great foundation for the rest of my rotations. The other perk to having Medicine and Surgery up front is the back end of my schedule will be kind of light.
In other news after boards I will be heading down to Seguin, Texas for a wedding and then heading out to Vegas for a week so more to come on how those turn out.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tour de Trinity
I finally decided to splurge on a new bicycle (pictured below). Some may say that cycling is in my blood. When I was a baby my mother had a contraption that attached to her bicycle that allowed me to sit behind her when she was riding around town, once my sister and I were toddlers my parents purchased a trailer that would carry me and my sister around behind the bike. My mother's father also is a cycling enthusiast who used to ride 60 miles to the coast of California from his home every weekend, and also participated in many rides across the state of Iowa. I have been a running frequently at the trinity trails that are about a mile from my house by the Trinity River. I would run the two mile loop and every time a biker flew past me as I was struggling to breathe I thought man I wish I was that guy. Well now I am.
Yesterday was my first ride I woke up at 6am to hit the trails early since I had class from 8-4 and wanted to make it to church that night in Highland Village. I mapped out my plan on Google pedometer and it was 8 miles. I thought to myself I better plan in an escape route in case I am about to die out there. I got to the 4 mile marker no problem and thought I am sure I can make it all 8 miles. When I circled back through the zoo I hit the hill of death. I switched down to the lowest gear and stood up to start peddling. I think I might have actually been going backwards when the runner passed me (oh the irony). I decided to dismount take a drink of water and walk the bike up the rest of the hill and then ride back to my house.
This morning my friend EJ and I decided to meet up and do the 8 mile track again. He has been riding quite a bit longer than I have so he attached his trailer to his bike and pulled his son along to that I could keep up. After about 7 miles we parted ways and I headed back to the hill of death. I tried to conserve as much energy as possible, because I was going to make it up this time no matter what. Well I did.....barely and this time I actually passed to runners. Luckily the rest of the way was downhill and I coasted back home.
Yesterday was my first ride I woke up at 6am to hit the trails early since I had class from 8-4 and wanted to make it to church that night in Highland Village. I mapped out my plan on Google pedometer and it was 8 miles. I thought to myself I better plan in an escape route in case I am about to die out there. I got to the 4 mile marker no problem and thought I am sure I can make it all 8 miles. When I circled back through the zoo I hit the hill of death. I switched down to the lowest gear and stood up to start peddling. I think I might have actually been going backwards when the runner passed me (oh the irony). I decided to dismount take a drink of water and walk the bike up the rest of the hill and then ride back to my house.This morning my friend EJ and I decided to meet up and do the 8 mile track again. He has been riding quite a bit longer than I have so he attached his trailer to his bike and pulled his son along to that I could keep up. After about 7 miles we parted ways and I headed back to the hill of death. I tried to conserve as much energy as possible, because I was going to make it up this time no matter what. Well I did.....barely and this time I actually passed to runners. Luckily the rest of the way was downhill and I coasted back home.
Friday, May 8, 2009
1/2 Doctor = Doc
Its official I passed my last exam in my second year of medical school and am about to begin the treacherous road of what is board study. I decided that I needed at least one day off before I begin tomorrow morning. So what did I do to celebrate this achievement?
First, an unofficial man day, generally my roommate JO and I have Saturday man days but on this rare occasion it was not possible since he would be at "work." What is the man day? Working in the yard, yep you heard me correctly! I bought my first home a year ago and now take tremendous pleasure in the stuff I hated and kid: Pulling weeds, Mowing, Weed-eating, and most of all watering the heck out it.
Second, MH, BM, JP and I decided an astounding cupcake fro the local joint, (that has cause my latest increase in 10lbs) The Cupcake Cottage. People always tell me they love sprinkles in Dallas and I suppose that is the "cool" thing to do but there is nothing like a local couple making fresh cupcakes every morning and knowing me by name when I come in. They always ask us how school is going ask me how I am enjoying the house etc. Maybe that is the small town kid in me coming out but I sure do enjoy it.
Third, our class rented out the Rahr Brewery today for some post-test inhibition of our ADH. Yes I am 23 years old and still have yet to finish a beer in my life, in fact I don’t think I have ever had more than 3oz, just one of those things that doesn't taste good to me. So why would I be excited about this? Well, I went to be supportive and celebrate with the fellow classmates. But upon entering I received a free commemorative glass so that I could drink all the beer I wanted for free, once again why would I care? Well I decided that today would be the day that i drank an entire beer. I ordered the blonde, I know its girly but I figured if I was going to be able to finish one it was that one. Turns out I was wrong, after three small sips I poured into to my buddy’s glass and just tried to look cool holding the empty glass.
Let the Board-Studying Begin!
First, an unofficial man day, generally my roommate JO and I have Saturday man days but on this rare occasion it was not possible since he would be at "work." What is the man day? Working in the yard, yep you heard me correctly! I bought my first home a year ago and now take tremendous pleasure in the stuff I hated and kid: Pulling weeds, Mowing, Weed-eating, and most of all watering the heck out it.
Second, MH, BM, JP and I decided an astounding cupcake fro the local joint, (that has cause my latest increase in 10lbs) The Cupcake Cottage. People always tell me they love sprinkles in Dallas and I suppose that is the "cool" thing to do but there is nothing like a local couple making fresh cupcakes every morning and knowing me by name when I come in. They always ask us how school is going ask me how I am enjoying the house etc. Maybe that is the small town kid in me coming out but I sure do enjoy it.
Third, our class rented out the Rahr Brewery today for some post-test inhibition of our ADH. Yes I am 23 years old and still have yet to finish a beer in my life, in fact I don’t think I have ever had more than 3oz, just one of those things that doesn't taste good to me. So why would I be excited about this? Well, I went to be supportive and celebrate with the fellow classmates. But upon entering I received a free commemorative glass so that I could drink all the beer I wanted for free, once again why would I care? Well I decided that today would be the day that i drank an entire beer. I ordered the blonde, I know its girly but I figured if I was going to be able to finish one it was that one. Turns out I was wrong, after three small sips I poured into to my buddy’s glass and just tried to look cool holding the empty glass.
Let the Board-Studying Begin!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
burntout?
Today I sat through 3 hours of horrendous lecture about alcohol abuse and the treatment thereof. This happens to be one of my favorite subject but today everything I have learned from undergraduate and at the library last night was taught completely wrong. Boy was I excited that my 6hrs of sleep was rewarded with this.
My senior year of college I decided I wanted to participate in some research, mainly so that I could boost my not so stellar CV to get into medical school. I browsed through some web pages that UT had for students who were interested in research and stumbled upon a professor (Dr. Duvauchelle) who was looking for an undergraduate research assistant in her behavioral addiction lab. She stated that they worked with cocaine in lab rats. This seemed interesting to me, (everyone else would think I was cool at least) so I sucked up read a recently published article of hers, which I did not understand at all and somehow I go the role. Without being too technical the project I was involved with addicted lab rats to cocaine over a 16 day period and then on the last day we injected another drug into their brain to see the effects of it on the learned behaviors of the rats. I say the best part was that I was able to surgically put a catheter into the jugular veins of these rats so they could self-administer the cocaine i.v. style. None the less after a year of this I fell in love with the research.
In order to make myself happy BG, MH and I decided to make a run to our favorite hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant, Rice-n-Noodle. Sha sha knew our order immediately MH and I gave her the head nod to which she smiled and wrote down our orders. I enjoyed my beef Thia rice, level two spicy, egg roll and ranch salad and both MH and BG enjoyed their chicken pad Thia level two spicy, egg roll and peanut sauce.
I returned to my favorite study room in the library with my fellow classmates. In order to be productive I left my computer and decided to go downstairs to read my book over sleep disorders on the comfy leather couches and an hour later I woke up to the same page. Irony? Pherhaps. Burntout? Definitely!
My senior year of college I decided I wanted to participate in some research, mainly so that I could boost my not so stellar CV to get into medical school. I browsed through some web pages that UT had for students who were interested in research and stumbled upon a professor (Dr. Duvauchelle) who was looking for an undergraduate research assistant in her behavioral addiction lab. She stated that they worked with cocaine in lab rats. This seemed interesting to me, (everyone else would think I was cool at least) so I sucked up read a recently published article of hers, which I did not understand at all and somehow I go the role. Without being too technical the project I was involved with addicted lab rats to cocaine over a 16 day period and then on the last day we injected another drug into their brain to see the effects of it on the learned behaviors of the rats. I say the best part was that I was able to surgically put a catheter into the jugular veins of these rats so they could self-administer the cocaine i.v. style. None the less after a year of this I fell in love with the research.
In order to make myself happy BG, MH and I decided to make a run to our favorite hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant, Rice-n-Noodle. Sha sha knew our order immediately MH and I gave her the head nod to which she smiled and wrote down our orders. I enjoyed my beef Thia rice, level two spicy, egg roll and ranch salad and both MH and BG enjoyed their chicken pad Thia level two spicy, egg roll and peanut sauce.
I returned to my favorite study room in the library with my fellow classmates. In order to be productive I left my computer and decided to go downstairs to read my book over sleep disorders on the comfy leather couches and an hour later I woke up to the same page. Irony? Pherhaps. Burntout? Definitely!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
unique just like everyone else
Today I decided to become unique just like the rest of the world and take ownership in part of the world wide web, so I started this blog (the second option was get a tattoo). I am a complete type A, non-creative, non-imaginative person, who couldn't make an A in a writing class if my life depended on it. So I hope this can bring out some of those characteristics in me and give the rest of you creative bloggers the taste of a square trying to fit into the blogoSPHERE.
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