Every year we devote too many hours of our lives to carving vegetables and this year was no exception =) Next: Gingerbread Houses!

I've also posted pictures of the the 1st and 3rd place pumpkins (we got 2nd =), both of which were amazing free-hand carvings of our anatomy prof/exam coordinator. Despite the fact that next year we'll be on the wards and absolutely exhausted, we're thinking of doing it all over again! Feel free to submit your suggestions!

One thing that I can never seem to get enough of is patience. Everyday I'm reminded of how lacking I am in this area and how easily little trials seem to get underneath my skin. One thing about medical school, you either need infinite patience or learn to be really good at covering up your emotions. You're forced into groups: PBL groups, PCC groups, anatomy groups, support groups, clinical skills groups and like it or not, you WILL get along with these people. You HAVE to get along with these people because they will be with you all. year. long. Some days the year could not seem any longer.

I got pretty snappy today with one of my colleagues, but this person wasn't a student or a resident, she was a doctor. An older doctor, a much more experienced doctor and it probably would have been in my best interests to just sit there and bite my lip and pretend that everything was fine. But this person just IRKED me. She irked me from the second she opened her mouth. She was the type of person who I avoid like the plague in everyday life.

I like to think of myself as an efficient person. Others might say rushed, stressed, harried, impatient, unyielding. I say efficient. And the speed at which this woman talked and her loooooooooong pauses in between sentences when she would stare off into nothingness and her complete inability to complete a thought. It...was...just...so...slow. And I felt the precious hours of my life ticking away as I forced myself to submit to the authority she had over me but I resented every single second of it.

Situations like this make me wonder about my complete inability to get along with certain types of people. Whatever their faults may be, whatever I may perceive their faults as being, something in my personality will not allow me to get over certain faults in another's. And no matter how much I may tell myself to let something go, no matter how often I say that I should love this person regardless, no matter the fact that I know this is MY problem more so than it is theirs, something in me just won't let go.

Baby steps: I made it through an entire patient history today without any criticsm whatsoever. Whoo...

Oh Ebay! It has completely overtaken my life. As always, my goal for Christmas this year is to buy my girls fantabulous presents! This year, an addendum to that goal is to do so without maxing out my student loans. As such, pretty much all of the time that I should be devoting to school is being spent hovering over my desired purchases like a hawk. I will prevail!

And to kick my week off to a great start, at 8:00 this morning I was practicing my pelvic/prostate exam.

Absolutely exhausted at the moment. I'm in the middle of a shadowing extravaganza. Last night I was in the ER at the Royal Alex, and Saturday and Sunday I'll be doing some Pediatrics here at the UAH. Seen a couple of really cool things. Saw 2 blunt head traumas last night - one unfortunatley lady whose store was robbed and a young Rambo who was clunked on the head with a baseball bat. He didn't appear at all worried by this, apparently it's a fairly regular occurrence. Last year these same people tried to hit him with their car. This year, he was in the process of having a few drinks in his apartment when they rushed in carrying pipes and bats and he got cracked on the head in the process.

I also got to do my first history on a REAL patient =) Yay hemorrhoids! The poor thing was very distressed at the idea that someone would have to insert a finger into her rectum. Luckily that person wasn't me.

As to my last post: thanks to those of you who care =) We all have days like that n'est pas?

Sometimes the universe just hates you. Some days I want to change into my PJs, open up a tub of Ben & Jerry's, close the blinds, grab my bears and watch Season 2 of Alias until my brain numbs.

Today is one of those rare fall days you wish you could put inside a glass jar. Some beautiful fall weather over the weekend, just cool enough that you might need a light jacket. A gorgeous view of the sun setting over the River Valley, a beautiful mix of greens, yellows and reds. One of the best cups of tea that I've had in a really long time. Enough work to keep me interested but not enough to stress me out. Throw in a late night game of innertube waterpolo and you have one of those perfect fall days that is made even more perfect by the fact that the snow will be here within a few weeks.

Wow, that Peanuts character thing makes me sound like a real witch huh? =)

You are Lucy!

Which Peanuts Character are You?

I don't want to go home this weekend. For starters, my family will be away on vacation, but even without them there, home sort of ceased to be home a while ago. I'm really proud of my high school friends, honestly I am. Almost everyone I know has done so well for themselves and is either working or is almost done school, and they're a group with so much promise. But we're also a group that has been scattered since the early days of university and have almost ceased speaking to each other entirely. I don't think we even made it past the first year of university before we all drifted our separate ways.

Some days I don't want to go to my home church when I go back. If I have to sit there and be a stranger I'd rather do it in a church where I truly am a stranger. There's a difference between the person who will see you, smile and sit across the aisle from you and then come up and talk to you for 2 minutes after service and ask you how med school is and the person who will TALK to you. There's a difference between 'oh we should go for coffee sometimes' and someone who calls and asks if you're free to go for coffee right now. I feel like I'm in high school, but sometimes it would be nice to have someone save you a seat.

This is my 5th year away from home. I have 2 more years here and then I plan on going back, but go back to what? And go back to who? Isn't it better to say that I'm going forwards?

Note to self:

Self, you are Asian. Along with being good at math and having poor eyesight, you're also a cheap drunk. What in the world made you think that you could drink wine, no matter how little you may have had, before trying to study for your GI Final?