Scrambled Eggs on Rye

Super Busy Summer

2009-09-12T08:31:00.001-07:00

So it has been a while since I posted anything and that would be due to a super busy summer. There was a trip to Rome, grants to write, M--- had orientation and began residency, and general summer goofing around. Now that things are getting a little calmer going into the fall semester expect to hear more from me.

Tax Day

2009-04-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

It happens every year, tax day rolls around, and instead of being reminded of the annoyance that is filing taxes I am reminded of M---'s proposal. That's right, my husband proposed on tax day, and I will always remember it that way. However, M--- always tries to convince me that other important things happened on April 15th. Here are a few of my favorites that have come up over the years or are from Wikipedia and just humorous/informative.

Leonardo da Vinci - born 1452
Henry James - born 1843
Emma Thompson - born 1959
Milton Bradley (Cubs Player) - born 1978
Emma Watson - born 1990 (odd that is the day as Emma Thompson)

Insulin becomes generally availible to people with diabetes - 1923
William Wordsworth was inspired to write "I wander lonely as a clound" - 1802
Rand McNally published first road atlas - 1924

Abraham Lincoln - death 1865
John Paul Satre - death 1980

And lots of other less interesting events. Feel free to comment and add to the list.

Easter, Easter, Easter :)

2009-04-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Easter this year was actually really pleasant. M--- and I went to Easter vigil service at St. Paul's Catholic Cathedral which was absolutely beatiful. The music was amazing and from 3 different sets of performers including a brass ensemble, organist, and an amazing choir. I have to say I was really impressed. Further more the cathedral looked really beautiful during the candle light portions of the ceremony. I did have a good laugh after the service when I heard the priests in training talking about how they are going to "sleep for a week". I suppose they stayed up since Good Friday till Easter Vigil in meditation, as is the custom for priests. Overall the dioceses of Pittsburgh put on a really nice vigil service.

The following day, the few students still in town for Easter, had a potluck lunch at our place. M--- made a really great ham with a cherry port glaze and deviled eggs. I threw together green bean casserol and everyone seemed to bring desserts. However, some sweet potatoes and cesar salad did make it into the mix. Although, there were only 8 of us left in town we had a really nice time. It also gave M--- and I a chance to break out our wedding china, for the first time. It was a really nice spread and good company. We also did apartifs with dessert. For those of you not familar with the French tradition an apartif is a small amount of liquor served with or around dessert. Thery are usally very sweet and include port, chambord, grand marnier, and anything by godiva. Those went over very well. I have to say I did hear that the event got really nice reviews from all who attended, which always pleases the hostess. I think to date this is one of the most pleasant Easter's I have had (despite the fact that I had to go into the lab twice that day...boo).

Free Lunch Guilt :(

2009-03-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday there was an event in the lecture hall next to my office and they had extra free lunches....a lot of free lunches. They naturally offered them to the poor starving graduate students and we naturally took 2 each (again there were lots and we were told we could take more than one). On my way out I ended up talking to one of the guys who told me that it was a seminar for single payer healthcare. I immediately felt guilty because I currently don't support a single payer system, at least not a system similar to those in other countries.

Although I completely agree that people should always have access to healthcare and that a serious illness should not bankrupt a person, I currently can't get behind a single payer system. This is for a variety of reasons. First. among my reasons is a personal experience I had in a hospital in Brighton, England. On of the girls who was studying abroad with us got a very bad stomach illness and couldn't keep anything down for 2-3 days. She was getting pretty dehydrated and was in need of medical attention so we took her to the ER around 6:30pm. When we arrived the ER was clearly overwhelmed and we waited for about 2 hours to see a check in nurse. During that time there we noticed a complete lack of triage and proper treatment of some issues. Most significantly, a 2-3 year old boy came in with a clearly broken leg. The hospital was unable to treat the boy since the radiologist only worked set hours and won't come in after hours. (After being married to a medical student, I realized MDs get so little free time that you become very defensive of your time at home with your family.) This shows a flaw in the single payer system...budgets that are too small to fully staff a medical facility 24hrs a day.

Another reason Americans won't like single payer systems is that in other countries with single payer systems people age out of procedures: hip replacements, organ transplants, heart valve replacements, etc. M--- has reported stories of 85 year olds recieving kidneys when it is clear that it will only prevent death, at most, for a few years. This would never happen in courntries with a single payer system, as evidenced by residents from Europe. Americans view death as a failure instead of as inevitable and being told that life extending procedures aren't availible would not go over well.

Americans have a real desire for acute care and do very little for preventative care. Take gastric bypass surgery, an advent of the 21st century, for example. All those individuals could have prevented their surgery by simply eating less and getting more exercise. Eating less and getting more exercise are the only scientifically proven ways to lose weight. There are many other examples of preventative healthcare that Americans fail to take part in.

Finally, the closest thing we have in this country is failing and that is medicare. Many doctors won't even see medicare patients anymore. Mostly, because medicare pays very little and by diagnosis, and that is both for the tests and the doctor's time. Many doctors won't see medicare patients anymore for 2 reasons, first there is no incentive to order confirmatory tests and fully understand a patient's condition, and second doctors put a dollar value on their time and medicare doesn't pay doctors enough. Doctors spend 4 years in college, 4 years in medical school, 3-8 years in residency, and 2-5 years in fellowship. After all of that training and a need to pay off student loans which are on average $160,000 a doctors time is worth a lot in dollars and cents. Short changing doctors in a single payer system is only going to drive future medical talent away from the industry and into industries where their talents and desire for education will earn a comparable amount of money.

This list of problems aren't addressed by current single payer systems or by proposals for single payer systems. Most single payer system proposals are short sighted and will probably only work well for a few years before becoming another tax burden on the rising generation. Currently, I think the best option is private insurance reform, and a small level of government insurance for the uninsurable. However, governement insurance shouldn't be expected to live up to the value of private insurance and should focus on preventative medicine and condition managment, not big expensive procedures with a short return time. Overall, the system is broken but it short sighted fixes aren't going to take care of it.

Kissing in the lab?!?!?

2009-03-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

Today I returned to the lab around 8pm to finish a protocol when I found my lab mate and her boyfriend (both good friends of mine) making out in the bacterial culture room...YUCK!!! If I had to make out in the lab it definitely wouldn't be in the bacterial culture room. The bacteria room is small, not very clean, and often smells of, well, bacteria. They were clearly embarrassed when they were found out. I'll have to be on the look out to see if they do it again and perhaps M--- and I will have to try it in the future.

On a similar note M--- recently received an email from the medical school implying that a couple got caught having sex in the on call room. The email further cautioned people from attempting to have sex in the on call room in the future. Apparently, the administration will now be keeping an eye on it. I do have to admit there is something kinky about sex in the on call room after seeing Scrubs and other medical dramas. You'll have to stay tuned to find out what happens with my residency based fantasies.

Match Day 2009!!!!!

2009-03-20T19:07:00.000-07:00

M--- matched to....

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center!!!!!

Which means that for the first time in our marriage we will be living in the same city long term and possibly acting like an average married couple. This is very surreal right now since it is something we have been working toward the past 3 years. Ever since I took a 1.5 year leave of absence during which we were married and this year we have been doing the back and forth between Nashville and Pittsburgh matching to UPMC was always the culminating goal.

I have to admit I did not realize how stressed I was over the situation until after the match. During the match families accompany students to receive their match letter in front of the entire medical school...students, deans, program directors, etc. They then announce their chosen specialty and read where they matched. I told M--- that I wanted to be the first to know where he matched and that he couldn't announce it until I read the letter. I remember reading it once and not knowing what I read, collecting myself, reading it a second time and not letting myself get excited, and finally reading a third time to a feeling of great relief.

After match we called our respective parents and siblings and it was when I was talking to my mother that I realized how happy/relieved/thrilled I was with the result. I haven't been happy enough to cry since our wedding day and I started tearing a little when I talked to my mom. It was just like being married a second time becuase for the first time we get to spend our lives together uninterupted.

The match video can be found at
match video and M--- was called pretty early on around minute 18.

How has it been 3 months!!!!

2009-03-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking on and off that it had been a while since I posted anything but I didn't realize it had been 3 months...yikes!!!! I will make time to update everyone about what is happening in my life and has happened in the past few months. Updates that are coming will include a recap of the X-mas holidays, details about our rambunctious cats, cadaver ball 2009 Fast-times at Vandy Med/ M---'s birthday, Residency match (this is what is keeping my stress level up), and details from the crew in Pittsburgh. Stay tuned - a marathon of writing and updating will commence soon.

Cadaver Ball/ M---'s Birthday

2009-03-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

M---'s Birthday landed on Cadaver Ball this year and created a very fun celebration. Cadaver Ball is the formal event thrown at Vanderbilt Medical School each spring. The celebration is put on by the fourth year students for the first year students in celebration of the completion of anatomy. The story goes that is was once a raucous party and the university stepped in when a couch went out a 2nd story window with or without a 1st year student on it. Since the early 80's Cadaver Ball has been a formal event at the Opryland Hotel complete with dinner and entertainment by the students.

This year in celebration of M---'s birthday and near completion of medical school we decided to get a room at the opryland and really make an evening of it. Begining with the 4th year suite party, mixed drinks, beer, and mingling. Followed by a sparse dinner (we think the opryland is cutting back) and excellent entertainment. Mad props to the 4th year students they did an excellent job with cadaver ball. More suite party action, this time with jello shots, and finally dancing and bed - whew we were exhausted :) The next day we celebrated the earth circling the sun one more time for M--- with lunch with family and friends.

The only downside was missing ChemE recruitment weekend at CMU. I have always heard great things about recruiting weekend, from the poster session (which I had to decline), to the open bars and after parties. However, due to the economic slow down I heard things were scaled back and not as wild and crazy as before, so I think I made the better choice by going to cadaver ball. I'm looking forward to exciting events next year both at UPMC and CMU.

Holiday Parties

2008-12-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

Its that time of year, when people get together and rejoice in the birth of Jesus (several months early) and drink. This year has been pretty good for holiday parties. Firstly, there was the decorating party - a party to decorate for another party. A group of friends (Kaytlin, Ben F., Reza, Roco, Ethan, Chris, James, and others) got together at Ben M.'s place to paint holiday murals (Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Calvin and Hobbes (done by M--- and I)) on the walls, hang lights, string popcorn, decorate the tree, and make paper chains and snowflakes. Somehow we got all of this done despite the drinking and carrying on. This party we pr-epared for was the "Happy Birthday Jesus" party that was on Tuesday.

Happy Birthday Jesus started out pretty tame until the introduction of the flaming fire tongs punch (a German collegiate tradition) - thank you Katarina from Germany!! - followed up by who-shots (an American collegiate tradition). For those of you who don't know that is when you watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and take a shot every time they say who - that is about 6 beers in 30 minutes - and yes some of my friends tried to do the whole thing - silly kids. I left shortly after the who-shots feeling very contented with myself and heard that the party started to go down hill within 30 minutes of who-shots - probably because people were getting so shit-faced.

The following night at our usual Rock Bottom Wednesdays where Good Brother Earl plays, I got the recap for after I left and I was glad I did. Apparently, things turned to flip cup where some of the more polarizing personalities in the group came out, and Ben M. started licking people's faces (glad I missed that one). Ben M. didn't make it to RB since he was still home coping with the amount of drinking he did the night before. GBE even played a Christmas song at our request (Merry Xmas (The War is Over)) this Wednesday- yay. It was kinda sad to say good buy the GBE guys and Lauren (best waitress ever) till the next year - but we'll be back on January 7, 2009. Its time to get back to work - Best wishes to everyone in Blog land for the Holiday Season.

Halloween Party - A little late

2008-12-07T14:06:00.000-08:00

I was chatting with M--- when I remembered a funny thing that happened at this year's CheGSA Halloween party. I was dressed up at candy corn because it was festive and fun. My costume basically consisted of a white foam hat with candy corn written across it, an orange shirt, yellow mini skirt, and tall socks with yellow stripes. I think I was pretty cute and apparently so did some of the guys at the party.

One of the guys I was chatting with even gave me the worst pickup line I think I have ever heard. He walks up to me and notes that I dressed as a candy corn and then proceeds to ask "Can I eat you?". At this point I was with some of my friends and did not want to embarass the poor guys so I pushed the conversation forward. Later in the evening he noticed that I was wearing a wedding ring suggesting two things to me: 1. He was hitting on me and 2. hw is looking for a long term relationship. I will admit that I greatly enjoyed the flattery and the fact that I have a new worst pick up line. Maybe someday it will be topped.

Thanksgiving - At the Inlaws

2008-12-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

kiThanksgiving this year was with the in laws - which meant no turkey and very little Thanksgiving like food. This was for two reasons 1. M---'s father has a series of dietary restrictions and 2. M---'s weirdish orthodox brother was having a fast. Basically, this resulted in a fat free Thanksgiving with no turkey. Dinner consisted of salmon, mashed turnips, yams, rolls, green bean casserole, and some relishes (different ones that I am used too). Again - no turkey or stuffing.

I think what made it worse was that I knew my family were feasting on turkey and stuffing. Oh well, it is just one meal and the majority of the trip was very enjoyable. On Friday we celebrated M---'s father's birthday and gave him a copy of the The Glorious Sounds of Christmas which is an album of over orchestrated Christmas songs. I think we were upstaged by the orthodox brother's religious books and his mom's gift. Oh well, I fail to understand or connect with the religious people in the world so I often keep them at arm's length often for fear of showing what could be interpreted as ignorance or being thought ill of.

This brings me to Saturday when M--- and I went to Science and Industry to see the Christmas trees around the world display and the U505 submarine. The museum was incredibly crowded seeing that is was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and I wish I had realized this before it was too late to reconsider. Unfortunately we were slightly too late to see the submarine as tickets to see it sold out as we were standing in line to purchase admission. This will continue to remain as the only permanent exhibit I have yet to see at the Museum of Science and Industry. The Christmas trees were neat and I appreciate that many of the countries suggested what a Christmas tree may look like since those countries did not traditionally have Christmas trees. Afterwards we had lunch with M---'s dad and orthodox brother at The Nile restaurant.

Lunch proved to be very awkward for me. Over the course of the meal M---'s father once again appeared as holier than thou due to his comments about the secularization of religion. The conversation began by questioning the necessity of secular chaplains at universities when there is counseling available. I have to admit that I also don't understand the role of chaplain's on a university campus. But this relatively benign topic quickly turned to bad mouthing people who want to worship but according to M---'s father apparently screw up religion for everyone by secularizing it. This seems somewhat counter intuitive to me. Since religions want to grow one of the best ways to do this would be to become more secular so why he things this is so bad isn't something I really understand. I'm not going to argue with the man since I'm sure he would essentially belittle me into submission - that seems worse than yelling.

By keeping my mouth shut I survived yet another holiday with the in laws and hopefully I wasn't too mopey. Apparently I was mopey at Christmas in 2007.

Game Night

2008-11-23T07:58:00.001-08:00

Saturday night was game night at Agnes' place. A bunch of MD/PhD students were there and a good group of ChemEs. Amir, who I met for the first time, was a real trip, he was clearly competitive when playing the games (Balderdash, catch-phrase, jenga). To me that seems incredibly indicative of anyone pursuing an MD. Even M---'s most "chill" friends are still ultra-competitive. I guess it is the medical school environment that does that to someone.

I never wanted to M--- to develop that wicked competitive streak so I always cautioned him against it and would call him out when I think he was being competitive. At times I wonder if my desire for him to be relaxed and less cut throat than his friends may have held him back from being a surgeon. But at the the same time I know I don't want that lifestyle for us because I actually like spending a moderate amount of time with my husband. Doug, who is about to be married, thinks that being a surgeon a few hours away from where his wife is in school is an acceptable lifestyle. After having done the long distance thing and the married thing I think they should reconsider their chosen lifestyle. They rarely see each other as it is and once they are married they will want to be together (I don't think they realize this), but instead they are going to see each other maybe once a week. Best of luck with that lifestyle.

Long story short:
game night = fun
MDs = ultra-competative (and in some cases more focused on career than family and their happiness)

Too Many Keys

2008-11-19T11:26:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure if I have too many keys or if my school and home lives are inseparable, but I continually find myself trying to unlock my office with my apartment key and my apartment with my office key. Perhaps I just have too many of the little brass keys that look alike. Both my apartment key and all 8 of my CMU keys are brass and maybe its just hard to tell when you are in a hurry to get in the door and away from the massive number of undergrads or the smoker who lives downstairs.

The smoker who lives downstairs is always outside in the snow chain smoking but yet the hall and occasionally my apartment smell like his disgusting habit. I have taken to leaving him notes and it has yet to be effective. I think I will call Walnut capital soon to have them deal with the health issue he is imposing on the rest of the building... anonymously. We'll see what happens, but hopefully the situation will be remedied soon.

Lock Out

2008-11-17T05:29:00.001-08:00

M--- is in town this weekend after being in Nashville at Vanderbilt Medical School (VMS) for 3 weeks studying cardiology consults. He is in town for his University of Pittsburgh Medical School (UPMC) residency interview which I am sure he will knock out of the park. On Sunday night I went to All University Orchestra (AUO) practice as usual with intentions of going to the lab to freeze and passage cells afterwards. AUO practice went well and I think our concert in two weeks is going to go smoothly both musically and logically. However, my plan to go to the lab after the rehearsal did not go so well.

I entered the office quickly checked my email and selected the appropriate plastic covered protocol from my notebook. I was so concentrated on determining my experimental plan that I failed to realize that I left my office key and my ID card (which gives lab access) sitting on my desk until I felt the thud of the door close behind me in my stomach. Great... my cell phone, computer, keys, wallet, coat (btw, it was snowing that evening) and everything else I use on a daily basis are locked in the office with no hope of getting it until tomorrow mid morning (graduate students sleep late) - but I do have my protocol and no way to access the lab.

After the realization that nothing would be accomplished that night I go in search of someone with Verizon so that I can call M---. I found an undergraduate in the physics lab with a verizon and called M--- for an early pick up. Oh well, I will get stuff done on Monday when someone can let me back into the office. Yet, another unproductive night in graduate school.

Cats

2008-11-07T14:57:00.000-08:00

M--- and I have two cats - Enrico and Marie. Enrico is a brown and white tabby and Marie is a brown tabby. They are very friendly with each other and can often be found napping together and stalking/chasing each other. They love their jingle balls (small plastic balls with bells inside) even at 4am when I take them away and hide them in the bedside tables. They also enjoy batting my hair when I pick them up or will make efforts to attack my head when brushing my hair.

Probably the best thing about the cats is that they are always happy to see me walk in the door. They sit up in the kitty condo, stretch, and then walk over to get petted. They are the best welcome home party I have ever had and I thoroughly enjoy them. They are also willing to nap with me on the couch and occasionally will sleep with me (and behave themselves).

First Blog

2008-11-05T18:43:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog so I'm going to try and keep in light and think on something funny every few days worth telling the world about. I currently have two cats, Enrico and Marie, and they have a love of water. As a first time cat owner I always thought cats hated water, but my cats are mesmerized by it. Marie is always splashing the water out of her bowl while Enrico is always sitting under the dripping faucet in the bath tub. They both come out with wat paws that leave little tracks on our tan couch and tan carpet. This always seemed to be very unusual cat behavior.