Surgery begins

I apologize for not blogging more recently. I had planned to and even had taken some pictures that I will post later.
My surgery rotation has officially started. Orientation was from 7am-5pm today. Tomorrow I have to be at the hospital at 6:05am. We'll see if it gets earlier than that. I have no idea when my day will end. I am on the plastic surgery service! It's supposed to be good - in that the people are nice and that they let you do a lot. I can fill you in on the types of surgeries later, but I have heard it's skin grafts, breast reconstruction, etc.
More to come later.
I will make this my excuse for the next 8 weeks if I slack even more in my blogging. I will try not to, but let me tell you sleeping is more important than blgoging.

More to come - I'll try to post on Sunday (the one day a week I'm guaranteed off! :)

Happy Birthday Auntie Ed!

Here's a post dedicated to my Auntie Ed, was the lucky aunt who got stuck with me when my parents went on vacation most of the time. Aunt Ed's house was always so much fun, I don't even remember missing my parents. According to my mom, when they took their first big trip without me, they put a book together with a map and things that would show me where they were each day. They were in Singapore. Apparently, my Aunt Ed showed me the book once and that was it... I didn't need to see it again.

Life lessons from Aunt Ed:
- that ketchup on mac & cheese is pretty good
- bad words (unintentionally i'm sure)
- eat scrambled eggs when you have a hangover, it's easier if they come back up
- be quiet when fishing, or else you'll scare the fish away (j/k - she tried to pass on this piece of advice, only problem was I didn't listen, kept talking, and was the only one to catch a fish)
- how to squat and not pee on my pants
- how to play cribbage
- and many more!



memories of times together:
- throwing popcorn at a snake in the middle of the road
- slamming my thumb in a locked car door, and her not believing me until I started to cry
- putting wienie dog puppies into socks
- losing Scattergories to Gene every single game!
- riding the tea cups at Disneyland
- good times camping and girls weekends!
- Yummy homemade marshmallows
- watching goonies a thousand times
- just learned today - examining a dead gopher on a shovel after Cal shot it (because I wanted to see it, apparently)
- and so many more...just a few of the good ol' times with Auntie Ed.

Love you!

New Hair

It was time for a summer cut! bye bye long hair....



Now I have to figure out how to do my new Do! Thankfully, it still fits in a ponytail!

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?