Goal-Setting

FLASHBACK: June 8, 2009, a g-chat with MH, who I nominated for Time Magazine Person of the Year. (I don't think she won, but she would have made for a prettier cover.)

(Some minor editing employed.)

me: Em Ach.

12:10 AM This week.

You.

Me.

For a few hours.

Can't wait.

12:13 AM

MH: I told Bob in an e-mail what day you arrive.

?

:)

me: what?

you did

!

MH: I did.

I'm a brat.

12:16 AM he had e-mailed me about something else

and I said

and I quote:

I was hoping I would get to chat with you before you left. I had two aims:

1) to inform you that my dear friend R. arrives in CA on June 11 and will stay for about five weeks (which information you may or may not wish to have, and which you may or may not wish to use, which thing is entirely up to you. I will henceforward mind my own business)

I'm sorry, RM

will you forgive me/

?

(I'm only a little sorry)

12:17 AM me: you are not sorry at all

don't pretend

truth is

I am

actually

delighted

why not

inside of my head

I have been distinctly warming up to Bob

12:18 AM this of course

means nothing

since I don't really know him

BUT

I am receptive to the idea of him

so by all means

send him such emails

M.H.: yes!

I'm delighted as well.

me: the funny thing

of course

12:19 AM is that lots of people are for Bob

you

K.K.

J.B.

K.T.

the world

but what

I do not know

is

if

Bob

is for Bob

which

really is the key point

M.H.: an excellent point.

and likely quite true.

12:20 AM however, the world is often wrong

the world is sometimes right

but they are sometimes wrong

so you are free to do whatever you like

but I will shamelessly encourage until the option has been fully explored.

12:22 AM me: I suppose I will too

shamelessly encourage

what the heck

maybe he's funny?

is he funny?

I need a funny man this summer

I've decided

that if I go on dates

I will impose on them rules

I will make a rule

and allow the boy to make a rule

these rules could be anything

12:23 AM "You must sing along to every song on the radio"

or

"You must address the waitress by her first name."

or

"Lying is ok."

Mostly I like the lying rule

which is terrible

but could be funny

or merely

outlandish

so be it

12:24 AM M.H.: it sounds delightfully entertaining

and yes

i think Bob would rise to the occassion

on Sat

SP and CP

did a repeat of the Shakespeare reading

except this year they read much ado about nothing

12:25 AM instead of AMND

(and they let me read Beatrice! so fun!)

but the point is

Bob was Balthassar

who is the musician who sings the Hey nonny nonny song

and he brought his guitar

12:26 AM and sang this little hey nonny nonny ditty he had written

and it was totally awesome

and super funny.

he dresses like a leprecaun

he has to be funny

12:28 AM me: Oh good

I am on the market for funny

Person A asked me

what were my goals for the summer

I told him I had six:

1) Expect nothing.

2) Say yes to everything.

12:29 AM 3) Impose arbitrary rules on myself and others.

4) Fall in love.

5) Be fallen in love with.
6) Abuse the privilege of the beach.
7) Wear a skirt daily.

8) Love my students whole heartedly and without apology.

I don't think

that is what he expected

but that is what they are

M.H.: oh RM.

I love you.

and of course he wasn't expecting it.

12:30 AM me: Person A

he called me 3 times while I was gone

and then organized my going away party

and wanted to pay for my dinner and icecream

I don't think

I was appreciative enough

I stole his iPhone

and made him go the whole night without it

which was bratty

but

12:31 AM I can't stand iPhones

also

I let B. pay for my dinner

and didn't sit by Person A during the movie

but

I texted him the next day

to say thank you

12:33 AM Michelle: poor Person A.

He's just trying to keep up with those goals of yours.

He, I'm sure, has suddenly realized that you have slipped through his fingers.

He is baffled; he's not quite sure how it happened.

Dinner? I bought her dinner?

I called?

The going away party?

12:34 AM and then she took my i-phone?

He'll wake up one morning

and you will be gone

a faint scent of cherry blossoms hanging in the air

the imprint, the shadow

of a fiery streak of red

in the air before him

and he will remember

that you are determined

to fall in love

and be fallen in love with

and he will sigh.

12:35 AM me: And then he will know the meaning of the Japanese word "aware"

the beauty of cherry trees

12:36 AM the week after the blossoms have fallen

the loveliness of the sky

right after the sun has set

the wistfulness

of longing

the cry of the phoenix

as it has taken flight

but

it will be too late

for his red headed phoenix

will have met one of her own

a short one, to be sure

12:37 AM but with a cry

reminiscent of a guitar...

Mavis

This is Mavis and she is my newest Kiva lendee. Here is what Kiva says about Mavis:

"Mavis is a 25-year-old married woman and the mother of two children. Currently, one of her children is in school, while her youngest child is too young to attend school. She lives in a community in the western region of Ghana.

To earn a living, she is a trader who deals assorted products such as cooking utensils, plastic bowls, lunch boxes, etc. She generally sells her goods through "hawking" (i.e., house-to-house selling). She explains that she has been trading for three years now. With her good humor and kind demeanor she has attracted many loyal customers who purchase goods from her stand. She treks to Kumasi to purchase her stock of goods. Recently, she added food sales during lunch time to her business operations. Specifically, she prepares and serves banku with tilapia. Banku, which is a delicacy prepared from milled maize and includes hot sauce or pepper, is enjoyed by many people of Ghana.

She has been facing challenges with her business as a result of inadequate funds, which precludes her from purchasing additional inventory. As a result, she is requesting a loan in the amount of $700 to buy more supplies of products that are frequently in high demand. With the loan proceeds she believes she will be better positioned to generate higher profits in order to, ultimately, build her own store (and thereby do away with the need to sell her products by "hawking"). She would be grateful for your assistance."

See how awesome Mavis looks. I love her red dress and the blue wall and her expression in this photograph... you can almost see the good humor the article mentions. My brother E. is currently serving a mission in Kumasi, close to where Mavis lives. Cool! In his email today he mentioned he had malaria over the weekend. Not so cool. I was excited to find Mavis on Kiva because she is 1) around my age, 2) in Ghana, and 3) contributes to the local economy my brother is dealing with right now so lending to her makes me feel like I'm helping him out in a wee little way.

She still has a little bit more to go on her loan, so if anyone else wants to join in on her loan before it gets filled you can find it here:

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=154405

Kiva.org and my brother. Making a difference.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!!

31 years and counting!

(This picture was taken at Mom's graduation from ASU with her B.A. degree in Chemistry when my parents were 22 and still in their first year of marriage. She now has one daughter with a B.S., M.S., and pending Ph.D. in Chem, one daughter with a minor in Chem, and one son-in-law to be with a B.S. and pending Ph.D. in Chem. Note: she is wearing hoop earrings. My mother. Hoop earrings. Also, Dad's suit is green. And he has Iggish hair. Just pointing out the details.)

(Post edit: Dad's suit is blue. And Mom got a B.S. (I originally wrote B.S. but then looked at the picture and was deceived by the white tassel, as Mom noted.) But also this: Mom is wearing hoop earrings because DAD got them for her. DAD! Who once swore he would not propose to a woman with pierced ears. My my this is a juicy detail. I will bring my hoop earrings I have been hiding from the photographic record home for Christmas and wear them now for sure. Then Mom and I can match. How charming.)

My New Favorite Medical Treatment

When I lived at home, my bedroom was in the basement. The room was home to many things: me, about 2,000 spiders (including rabid wolf spiders), and a set of encyclopedias from the 1980s. Also about 2,000 Reader's Digest condensed books.

I made good use of these books. I always had one by the side of my bed, just in case I wanted it... to squish a spider. This is how I did battle with my 2,000 spiders. Encyclopedias or Windex-- depending on how much time I had.

Turns out Encyclopedias are even more handy than I had originally thought. Sometimes people develop bumps on their hands or arms or legs that look kind of like the body of a big spider. They even kind of have a spidery name: Ganglion cysts. No one knows exactly why they develop, but they are usually found around joints or tendons are are filled with a clear viscous fluid that is supposed to be kinda jelly-like.

If you go in to get this officially treated, either your doctor will do nothing, will pull out the fluid with a big fat needle, or will recommend surgery. But why would you go to the doctor if you can solve the problem at home with this simple solution:

Drop an encyclopedia on it and try not to think too hard about what happened to the spiders. *, **, ***


*People really do this! And it works! This is what I learned in medical school today.

** Don't drop the book from very high, you don't want to crush the rest of your hand.

*** You should probably not try this at home, despite what I say. You could hurt yourself, especially if what you have is NOT a ganglion cyst. But if you do get an official diagnosis and get desperate... I guess the worst thing that could happen is you end up with a broken wrist AND a ganglion cyst.

(I'm really loving medicine these days, can't you tell?)

My New Favorite Medical Diagnosis

POPSICLE PANNICULITIS

too many popsicles for babies results in fat necrosis and development of red, indurated nodules or plaques on either side of the mouth. treatment = no more popsicles :*(

Ad Astra Per Alia Porci!*

It's official. I may or may not have the swine flu.

Let's have a little history behind this:

Back in the day, when the government felt like they had a handle on the swine flu situation, the great legislature of the state of New York mandated that all health care workers receive the swine flu vaccine prior to October 30, 2009 or face serious consequences. Health care workers were not allowed to object to the vaccine on religious or personal bases, and could only qualify as exempt is proven to be allergic to a vaccine component. On the first day of class this year we were visited by the Dean Dr. Lambert himself who told us in no uncertain terms that we were to comply.

So we went about trying to comply. Problematically, there was no swine flu vaccine to be had. The seasonal flu vaccine came and went. We stood in long lines like cattle, sat stoically as flu vaccine needles branded our flesh and then were herded out, assembly machine style. Every week we would get emails reminding us that when the time came to comply, we would have to go back into another line. We waited.

And then we heard word that vaccination was no longer mandated, that we could object for moral or religious reasons. Fine. But still no vaccine. The emails stopped coming. Eventually, three days before October 30, when not a single clinic in the state of New York had access to swine flu vaccine, the legislature repealed their law.

In the meantime, my classmates and I were going around to clinics two times a week, diagnosing all sorts of children and adults with the swine flu and it was only a matter of time before we would start getting immunity through other means. Sure enough, we started noticing a few people were missing. Rumors spread-- "did you hear T. has the swine flu? He has a temperature of 104F!" "My third year roommate has been out and I think I'm coming down with the same thing!" Etc.

The emails started coming back again. "If you are sick, STAY HOME!" the emails said, but we mostly ignored them. Medical school is hard. We get pinged for missing clinic or small group. If we miss clinic one week, it means a doubly hard week the next week. People kept going out, coming to class coughing. The swine flu spread. Fifteen students in the first year missed anatomy last Friday, said the rumor. Ten second years were rumored to be out ill. Finally, in a spirit of desperation, the administration agreed to stream lectures live on the Internet (something they steadfastly refuse to do otherwise) to encourage students to stay home. Three days later they sent another email saying they couldn't afford it.

I guess they can't afford 400 doses of swine flu vaccine either.

Last Thursday my adult preceptor, who has managed to come across batches of vaccine, asked if I had been vaccinated. No, I said. She looked at me with that "You are a threat to my patients" look and asked if I wanted a vaccine shot. "Sure thing," I said and then the lady who taught me how to give me shots put a good one in my arm. I felt great, protected, happy. This was the day before the email about taping lectures. Had I known they would tape lectures, I might have refused. Everyone always wants an excuse to skip lecture in med school, esp. when you have a string of 6 hours of lectures a day for multiple days.

Then last weekend, right after I got my swine flu shot, R. came down with the swine flu and sure enough 48 hours after her, I started to get symptoms too. A productive cough. Malaise. Fever. Sleepiness. On the last day of taped lectures. Curse the day.

Now my poor little immune system is trying to battle killed swine flu and live swine flu both, is my guess. Who will win? It's possible that I also just have a common cold on top of it all. But it doesn't really matter what the diagnosis is. I still get to skip lecture today anyway, tape or no tape, stay home and sleep, and drink what is left of R.'s pulpy orange juice sitting in the fridge.

*-- To the stars on the wings of pigs!

Just A Scripture That I Love

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.-- Matthew 5