Nostalgia

I miss college...
Roomies!

This is a test ... who remembers what we were doing here? And who is hidden under the pillow?

Chocolate...Yum Yum

Middle School Dance Party!!!

Halloween

Our J bottles - purchased by our new found friend Dan :) and drank by the girls


NIOSA

Shared Birthday Party

Writey Drawey

80's and a big piece of gum

Ummm...I just hope Nava doesn't kill me for this one. Let's just say we made her do it

Girl's Night Out...
We built up the courage to ask for a hot waiter at the Cheesecake factory and sadly we were disappointed :(

Fall Break - A trip to the (closed) Renaissance Faire hahaha

21st bday!

Middle School Dance Party part 2

Mojitos to celebrate the last day of college! Perhaps it was 6:30 pm and perhaps we had drank a few too many...or just enough :)

End of the year celebrating!

Pandora

I've recently discovered a new way to listen to music on the computer. A friend told me about this a while ago, but today was the first time I checked it out. I told some other people and apparently I'm totally out of the loop because everyone seems to know about it, but...if you are like me and not "with it." Pandora radio - is awesome. You can sign up for a free log in and then you type in an artist or a song you like and the website will automatically start a play list with similar music/artists. As the song is playing you can tell the website if you like it or not and it will adjust your play list accordingly. You can make multiple "stations" that will be saved under your log-in.
So if you are like me and are in constant need of some background noise or just in the mood for some new music check it out: Pandora Radio

Dr. Paul Farmer! :)

Last week - THE Dr. PAUL FARMER came to lecture at Penn State. Who is Paul Farmer, you ask? He is THE current face of global health.

Tracy Kidder wrote a book about his life, "Mountain Beyond Mountains."

Dr. Farmer is a medical anthropologist. His life started out living in a bus and a trailer park. His intelligence landed him a spot at a Harvard Medical School. While going to med school Dr. Farmer made frequent trips to Haiti and was working with the poor there. He started his own clinic there and from this eventually grew his current organization, Partners in Health. This organization has done amazing work in the past couple of decades. Dr. Farmer has pioneered new community-based ways to treat multi-drug resistant TB in Peru and the Russian prison system. He has also founded community-based programs for AIDS treatment in these 3rd world countries. His work has expanded and includes his passion Haiti along with Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi. Dr. Farmer has also written books about health, human rights, and the role of social inequalities. He believes in health care equality for all. He truly is an amazing person.
There are many physicians who participate in global health by volunteering their time for a few weeks to month, occasionally even a year. (I too hope to someday participate in global health). Paul Farmer on the other hand LIVES and BREATHES global health. He is outside of his home country more often than in it.

Paul Farmer believes in self-sustaining organizations. The clinics and hospitals he sets up in these countries are run by local people. Training and jobs are provided for helping not only to make people healthier, but also the community as a whole.

A brief overview of Partners in Health (PIH) quoted from their brochure
"PIH is a nonprofit corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1987, PIH is committed to working with partner organizations to improve the health and well-being of people living in poor communities. PIH believes that health care is a fundamental right, not a privilege. To this end PIH provides technical and financial assistance, medical supplies, and administrative support to partner projects in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Burundi, Mexico, Guatemala, and Boston. The goal of these partnerships is neither charity nor development but rather "pragmatic solidarity" - a commitment to struggle alongside the destitute sick against the economic and political structures that cause and perpetuate poverty and illness."

It was an inspiration to hear him speak and have faith that one person really can change the world.

S-P-R-I-N-G-!

It's finally here! Springtime!

It's time for - tank tops, skirts, and sandals!

Green is reappearing where white winter snow used to be!

Flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping!


My favorite part of spring is spending hours upon hours outdoors, enjoying the beautiful weather. That and wearing skirts and flip flops!
What's your favorite part of spring?

Those crazy Texans

They want to secede and become their own country!

Follow the link below if interested:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/16/texas-governor-says-secession-possible/

Enjoy!

Jen the psych patient

I've now spent 3 days in the psych hospital and... well I sort of feel like a patient. No I'm not crazy, well maybe a little - I think you have to be a little nuts to voluntarily subject yourself to medical school.
Anyways...I feel like a patient, because my day is structured very similar to theirs.
In the morning I go in and talk with a few patients and then do some paper work or have a report from the nurses on how the patients are doing. Then at 10 am we have group. Groups is a time when most of the patients get together with the counselors and have some activity planned. I attended and participated as well (my participation is not as in depth as the patients, we are here to discuss and work through their issues, not mine). Then I busy myself with reading, etc until lunch. After lunch, group therapy. Off I go. I missed the later afternoon group because we were rounding today. Of course that was the coolest group session of all --> PET THERAPY! That's when a dog comes into visit the patients.
Just like the patients I busy myself until group and then off I go to participate. The only difference is I get to hang out behind the nurses desk and I have a key that lets me out of the building at the end of the day.

Welcome to Psychiatry!

Welcome, Welcome to your 3rd year medical school Psychiatry Rotation.
Here are a few rules to abide by during your 4 weeks with us.

1. If you are in a situation and your gut tells you this is not good or that you shouldn't be there - leave. Listen to your gut.

2. When in a room with a patient, NEVER let the patient occupy the exit. Never let yourself get trapped in a room with the patient between you and the exit!

3. Never touch your patients. If they are sad and crying - no hugging, no touching their hands, no sitting on their beds. You never know how the patient will interpret such acts and you don't want to get into a he said, she said battle.

4. After shaking your patient's hand, wash your hand - you never know where that hand might have been.

5. Never trust your patients. They are not your friends, they are not supposed to be your friends, do not give out any personal information and never let your guard down.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

And the NYC subway system. That was pretty much my Friday. I didn't get on a plane though, but Sief did. He headed back to Cali for a month to do research at UC Davis. I headed off to New York City to see my old college roomie - Ryann!
We had a great time and I'll just do a quick summary of our expeditions, rather than writing for days about it.
Friday night - we went out for dinner, drinks, and catching up.
Sadly Saturday was rainy - so we headed to the Museum of Modern Art.

(above) Andy Warhol

Next up on the list was to head to Times Square and buy tickets for a musical for the same evening. There is a place underneath "the red steps" that you can get them 30-50% off face value. They don't sell every musical though.

That was the line we waited in. After talking with some people who work for the place we decided to buy tickets for "The Fantastiks." Which "they loved." One lady described it as "Romeo & Juliet meets comedy" Tickets bought!
Down to little Italy for some yummy Italian pizza. Then back to the room, quick change and off to the musical. Which was much smaller than we both expected, but was still really good. Since the theater was so small everyone was pretty close to the stage which was neat.
Sunday - down to Chinatown for Dim Sum before heading to Central Park to walk around until it was time to go.

Not all the lines or places to get on the subway are opened on Sunday, so I decided earlier in the day rather than mess with the subway & 3 train transfers I would have to make I was just going to get a cab to Penn Station to catch my train back to Harrisburg. Well, the subway ride back from Central Park took a little longer than expected and....so did the taxi ride. I'm worried I'm going to miss my train. We pull up to the intersection near Penn Station and I pay the cab driver & say I'll get out here. I open the door, 1 foot steps out and the cabbie says - the cars are moving (so we could pull closer) - he starts driving (slowly) and I climb back into the taxi van with the door still open. He stops again - I say good enough jump out and start running. I jumped out of the cab at 3:05, my train leaves at 3:13pm. Mind you I have no idea where I'm going once inside Penn Station - which is a huge hub for a lot of public transportation. I ran like a mad woman and did make it! whew!

Ry and I had a great weekend. It reminds you that even though there are always lots of things changing in our lives some things thankfully never change!

A Little More Nature

My Aunt Edwina works at the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge near my hometown. She works in the office, but occasionally gets to go outside and do exciting things. Other times nature finds its way inside.

Below is a picture of a couple day old baby owl that she got to help feed.


Her job was to hold open the baby owl's mouth while her friend Jackie put in cut up pieces of....




baby mouse! ewww...

The Perfect Last Day of Vacation

Yesterday was the official last day of my vacation month and it was awesome . It was a beautiful spring day and I knew that I had to spend some time outside enjoying the weather. So I gathered up the gang - Sief, Oday (his brother) and his friend Kim to join me at a new park, Wildwood in Harrisburg. I'd never been to Wildwood so this was an adventure. As we walk up to the start of one of the hiking trails Sief says "I hope there aren't any ticks out here. I don't want to get Lyme disease." Jen, "What are the chances of that happening?" Well...Sief points out that the disease is endemic in the area, but we trudge on.

AS you can see from the picture - spring has not really sprung at Wildwood and if you look carefully you can see that it's really not that wild - note the highway in the background. Don't get me wrong it was a nice little park, just situated near a freeway. I think in the fall when the leaves change color it would be beautiful.
Anyways...back to the story.
We hike and then stop to take a short break at a picnic table. There is a tiny spider crawling across the table. I decide to try to get a close up picture of the little guy.

See his 4 beady little eyes looking at me. As I'm taking his picture the spider decides to jump at me and can you guess my reaction...I scream and jump out of my seat from this teeny tiny spider. I tried to play it off that the spider looked much bigger when looking through my camera.
Then we continue our hike. Sief stops to look at some shelf fungus

only to feel something moving on his ankle...dun duh duh
"A TICK!!!!!!!!!" It was definitely was a tick, sadly I do not have a picture we were too busy shooing it off of his leg. Thankfully, the tick had not bitten Sief and was just running around on his leg.
We started the hike back to the car and heard rustling in the leaves.
This time we saw a SNAKE!

If you look you can see the snake. Not really a scary snake - it's the same kind of snake I had as a pet in biology class in 8th grade.

That's the summary of our day in Wildwood Park. After that we headed to downtown Harrisburg and just walked around a while. We stumbled upon the Whitter museum and decided to catch the IMAX movie "Monsters vs. Aliens" in 3D! It was pretty cool - the 3D effect was neat, but the screen felt too close to my face.

The evening ended with making dinner at home and watching the movie Bedtime Stories! (Which was exciting because I got it from the RedBox before it's actual release date!)

Back to Reality

My vacation officially ends this Sunday, but I'm heading back tomorrow to allow myself a little time to unpack and prepare for the week ahead. I also have a family medicine meeting in Philly I need to be at on Saturday. I can't believe a month has already passed. My month long rotations feel much longer than this!
In a previous post I mentioned some of the things I wanted to accomplish during this break. I did accomplish most of what I wanted to, some of the research and looking into residencies I did not do as much as I wanted to, but....

I did learn how to bind so I was able to finish my quilt!

Notice my nice hand stitching here around the edges!



I also finished 4 books and will likely finish another one on the plane ride tomorrow.



"The Thing About Life is That One Day You'll Be Dead" - this was a book that looked at the life cycle from both a psychological and physiological perspective. It was ok - not quite as good as I had hoped for. I think I have a new fascination with the aging process and learning as one ages. This is partially due to seeing elderly patients, many of them very sick and me being more aware as I age. Even though I'm still young at 25 - I feel like I finally starting to have some real life experience behind me. I guess is this why the new book I'm reading is titled How to Live: A Search From Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth) - I'll let you know how it is.


Alive (which I also watched the movie) - this is the telling of a rugby team's plane crashing in the Andes mountains and what they had to go through to survive. I thought this book was great, but I almost always like true survival stories. Also, watched the movie based off of the book.


Mermaid Chair - written by Sue Monk Kidd who wrote The Secret Life of Bees (great book & great movie) - I also really enjoyed this book! I would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed her first novel. I would also say that it's probably worth re-reading sometime later in my life.


Walking in Circles Before Lying Down - my dad got this for my birthday and it's a fun read about a lady whose can understand what dogs are saying to one another. It was an easy fun read, but not as good as I had hoped.

I had my fill of Mexican food and enjoyed a blackberry margarita with my cousins last night! Today I had a nice last full day in Chico with my Grandma and some other members of my family! And then my mother and I tried to play an April's Fools Joke on my dad.
We were at the bank and he drove by, we waved, but he didn't see us.
Jen-"Mom where's dad going? Isn't he supposed to be at work?"
Mom-"He's on a break, probably running to Longs to buy some Absolut on sale"
Jen-"Do you have keys to the civic?" (the car my dad was driving)
M- "yeah"
J- "Let's go get in his car & move it to a different spot and watch him as he looks for it" :)
M-"OK"
M&J - "giggle, giggle, giggle" as we run from where we are over to the Longs parking lot

We find the car get in and move it. Then we are sitting in the car watching and waiting for him to come out.
M-"We'll wait for him to walk by and then we'll get out of the car and to get a closer look as he tries to find the car"
J-"maybe he'll think someone stole it - haha" (trust me no one would want this car)
Then we hear Dad - "HEY!"

He walked out of the store while we were driving and then figured he forgot where he parked. In looking for his car he sees us sitting there. So we didn't get him as good as we had hoped, but mom and I sure had fun in the process!