Wednesday, May 29, 2002

Yea! I finished my first year of medical school! It's summer vacation finally!!! To celebrate, my friends and I went shopping at the GAP because Christina had a 20% discount coupon that had a $50 minimum. I didn't really find anything I liked. Then we went to Macy's to look for swim suits and I found a nice one but it was $40 and I'm sorry but that's $20 more than I ever intend to spend on something I rarely get to wear. My friends tried to convince me that $40 is a reasonable price but that didn't work. I miss Target, I got my last suit there for like $18. Cheaper yes but it probably will last longer than the Guess suit at Macy's. KMart here I come! Though target opens here sometime in June so I guess I can wait for that happy event. Anyway, my plans were to go shopping then head to the condo to clean the carpets with a rug doctor (it looks like fun) and swim. But the weather had a different plan. Here's the thing, the past 2 or 3 weeks have been absolutely beautiful and yet I spent the time inside studying (the outside world is too distracting to me). And the one day I was free to do as I please and swim in the pool at my condo, it rains. No, it poured! Very very loud thunder and frequent lightning to be exact and the streets were flooding in parts where potholes were deep. And since I hate thunder and lightning, I decided not to drive out to Metairie and go to the class luau (really just a party with yummy food at a bar but these folks call anything a luau to make it sound fun - which it was). While I did have fun, it stopped raining 5 minutes after we got there and was absolutely beautiful. So basically, tomorrow I have to clean the carpets and then drive back and forth between Deming and Metairie bringing stuff. I still need to buy the couch (I decided to get the nice $200 futon at the place I bought my mattress) and a coffee table, a dinner table and chairs (will double as my desk), a tv stand/cable modem stand, something to hold my computer printer, bookshelves, and probably other stuff I just haven't thought of yet. Oh, and I still need to call the phone company. So much to do! I guess I better get some rest since the partying continues tonight at another bar. I didn't get drunk this afternoon even though I had a few beers and a couple mixed drinks. Maybe my tolerance is increasing...It's going to be awhile before I post again so have a fun time while I move. Oh, I found out today that one of my classmates (and former anatomy lab partners) is going to be my neighbor in the condo. I told him about the place a long time ago and the house they wanted to buy didn't go through. That's all!

~me~ at 6:47 PM

Tuesday, May 28, 2002

I came back today (actually yesterday since this got dated for tuesday instead) from my shortest visit home ever! It took about 20 hours to and from Hawaii to New Orleans (not including a brief overnight stay in LA) for a 29 hour visit home but it was worth it! My oldest brother, Kevin, got married to Jodi. They had been together for a very long time and so now she is officially part of my crazy family. It was a nice ceremony. I had to walk down the aisle in the church to my seat and all I kept thinking was, "smile, don't fall, smile, look at the guests, don't fall, smile for the photographer, don't fall." Hey, I was wearing heals, something, I don't wear very often and don't plan to wear anytime in the future unless it's a special event. In fact, after we got back to the hotel for the ceremony, I had to go up to my room to get my comfy sandals and a couple granola bars because I was starving! Well, I had to put those other sandals on because that seemed more dignified than walking around barefoot. But I decided that when I get married, once the ceremony is over and we get to the reception, I'm putting comfy sandals on or white tennis shoes (gotta match the dress I guess). And we'll serve all my favorite foods - chicken katsu, ume maki, tofu (which they did have), broccoli (they had that as well), rice, potatoes, kalua pig, spaghetti might not fit in, curry, and other yummy stuff. If it weren't for the melting factor, I would opt for an ice cream pie type wedding cake but oh well...If you can't tell, I had more food than I could eat this past weekend. And since I'm currently in survival mode in terms of eating because of exams (survival mode= eat when hungry and eat what ever is cooked or is made by the friendly folks at Campbell's - much better than progresso soups), I wasn't quite prepared to put very much food in my tummy at one sitting. I forgot the tupperware. But back to the wedding...it was very nice and I'm glad I was able to go home to see my brother get married. If only stupid Dr. K and the physiology dept (hell, let's include Dr. B and the biochem dept too) didn't feel the need to have a stupid final exam, then I could have stayed home for a few more days since I would have been done last monday after the block 4 biochem exam and could have stayed home until monday or tuesday (have to move out of deming so I would have had to come back anyway). Oh well, I guess this is the kind of life I signed up for when I decided to go to med school. So here's a general announcement for anyone I know who might be getting married (and feel inclined to invite me), I'm free next year for spring break and christmas. Any other time I'll have to make sure I don't have exams. And then don't get married anytime between June 2003 and July 2004 since I'll be too busy in clinical clerkships to go anywhere. 4th year looks good but don't quote me on that one. And then, assuming I get into a residency right away (cross you fingers and start praying for me now), that 1st year might be impossible. This kind of applies to anyone who wants to visit me in New Orleans and actually hang out with me. If all you want to do is use my place as a hotel, then be warned, I don't cook real meals for anyone so if you come, you have to go shopping for whatever you plan on cooking since chances are all I'll have is rice (the good, nonsmelly kind), frozen chicken breasts, frozen veggies, turkey burger, turkey bacon, pesto, noodles, tater tots (topped with cheese and salsa - yummy tv snack), and granola bars. Eh, there might be more if I feel domestic during your visit. I discovered that laziness is the best way to lose weight. I'm too lazy to cook meals with high fat content and other weight gainer foods so I end up eating slightly healthy foods because it's really easy to make a salad. And now that I have to walk further to get to school from the parking lot I was assigned to, I won't have to worry about exercise once school starts again. And for weight training, I'm moving out of deming. Silly people who buy expensive memberships to gyms. Pay me, I'll let you move my furniture around. Okay, it's bed time. Tomorrow is the last study day before the exam and then school will be over!!! And I can start my last summer vacation before I retire. Geez, that sounds depressing...

~me~ at 12:06 AM