Exciting things!

First Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th, celebrating with family & friends. I will be celebrating in Philly and no I will not be going to see the Liberty Bell, but will be sure to see fireworks!

There is more for me to celebrate, because this is my 1 weekend of summer! Yesterday marked the end of my 3rd year of medical school (assuming I passed the test I took yesterday). It's kind of scary that this time next year I will probably in a hospital on call, wearing a long coat, taking care of patients, with an M.D. behind my name and have some actual responsibility! Ahhh....
Until then 4th year shall be amazing. I will write more about the amazingness of 4th year later.

The other excitement in my life is .... I have a new roommate! We've only lived together for a week and so far, so good. I'm super excited for my new roommate who is Arabic and can cook and bake like a 5 star pastry chef. Seriously he (yes I said he) makes the most AMAZING chocolate cake with caramel filling and chocolate ganache that I have ever had. Of course he makes everything from scratch. I'm still trying to convince him that in the future he needs to make my wedding cake (which he has done before). I've had one cake baking lesson from him last year and there are many more in my future. Below are pics from the my first lesson (it tasted much better than it looks)

1st layer of chocolate...


action shot of my roomie spinning the cake & cutting it so the edges are all even!


ta da! Afterwards I practiced my writing skills to finish the decorating.


I actually have a list on the fridge of all the things he needs to teach me how to bake. I'll blog about them as it happens. He brought with him the greatest kitchen tool of all time...




And of course since he is a guy that automatically equals a TV larger than anyone truly needs & lots of speakers. Apparently my house now has surround sound and a playstation 3 on which I can watch Blue Ray DVDs assuming I can figure out how to work all of the remotes! The new roomie also told me he almost died when he saw the number of channels I have...14. Hey, it's basic cable what do you expect!



So there is the excitment that is happening in my neck of the woods. Anything exciting happening with any of you? I'm sure there is...fill me in :)

Day Dreamin'

Sief dreamin' about the muscle car he someday hopes to own. A 1969 Pontiac GTO convertible to be exact. I could go into the details on why a 1969 vs a 1968 vs 1970, etc but I won't bore you.




This weekend we went to the Carlisle GM All Nationals Car Show to check out the "Pontiac Pavilion" and any GTOs we could find.


Pictured above is a 1968 GTO. - it looks better in person

Sief's dream car will be a dazzling midnight blue with white interior and a white top.




And while we're dreamin'. . . I imagine myself sitting in the passenger seat top down, wind blowing through my hair (since Sief can't imagine that part ;) ), blue skies, driving down the pacific coast highway, a dog in the backseat, and not a care in the world.

Neon vs. Benz

VS.



Which would you rather be?

Today one of my surgery attendings informed me that family doctors are like Dodge Neons and specialists are like Mercedes Benzs. He believes as do most Americans that the health care system has to change, but he feels specialists are the way to go. Because if we rely moe on primary care physicians then the standard of care will have to go down. The American people will have to be willing to accept a lower quality of health care. Most of the time a Dodge Neon will be just fine and can get you where you need to be, but sometimes you need a little more. How can a family doctor handle all these different problems, there is just too much to know. They end up refering to specialists for every little thing and don't do more than give their patients hugs. Anyway this went on for what felt like forever and being unable to do much else except for meekly insert my opinion every now and then (careful now he is grading me), I just sat there and took it. Asshole.

So, I guess today my skin got a little thicker. My skin has grown thicker over the past year. The 3rd year of medical school has a way of doing that to you. My attending did remind me of the passion & love I have for primary care. The way I want to know my patient's, spend time with them, provide comprehensive preventative health care. Yes, I will have to refer my patient's to specialists when needed, but I will be the one who ensures that they as an entire person, not just one organ system is taken care of. I could have sold out for the money, but I prefer to put up with the occasional ignorant doctor for the respect I will someday recieve from my patients. If you cannot respect me, well then I guess I just lost the little respect I granted you.

9 more days of surgery! The hating on family medicine won't stop, but I know what I believe and where my principles lie.

And if that means being a Dodge Neon then so be it.

slumber party

Remember when you were a little kid and the goal of any slumber party was to stay up the latest or all night if possible? I attempted that feat so many times and failed, all but one. The first time I was up all night & able to see the dawn was at my friend's Caitlin's slumber party. I don't remember how old I was, but I do remember being outside in her driveway on a pogo stick at 6am as the night turned into day.
Today/tonight I took surgery trauma call and I feel as if I am in that same boat again...attempting to stay up until the sun. I woke up yesterday morning at 6am and won't be leaving the medical center until 6am. It is currently 4:26 am as I write. Maybe you're thinking why aren't you sleeping in an on call room? Well, I could be but I want to be able to sleep tomorrow during the day and...it's harder to get up and run to a trauma if you're sleeping. Maybe it sounds silly & it is partly because I only have to do this for one night and then I have tomorrow off (except for lecture at 3) and then it's the weekend & I can catch up on my sleep.
I also could still be coming off the adrenaline rush of close to 4 traumas coming in around 11pm this evening. I was able to be involved in 2 of them. One kept me in the OR until at least 2 am - I was just watching, but it was a crazy, surreal experience. The victim had multiple gunshot wounds that had to be explored. The gunshot wound entry points were much smaller than I ever imagined them from the movies and tv.
Once all the excitement in the ED settled down, myself & 3 of my classmates (also on call) went to the student lounge & hung out... joking, laughing, talking about whatever...you know silly stuff that only happens when you are really tired at 3am. good stuff
ok, time to go lay down on the couch to wait and rest...

STRAWBERRIES!!!!

Strawberry season is finally here! Strawberries are my absolute favorite fruit. Each year I try to find strawberries as fresh and as sweet as the one's I can get at home in Chico, California from the little roadside stands. And...Friday I found a place that came in pretty close. There was a little farmer's stand on my drive back home from work that had a huge sign saying "STRAWBERRIES!" 5 minutes later I was back sitting in my car with 3 quart baskets full of small, but super sweet strawberries by my side :) :) :)


In my excitement of the strawberries, I thought I would share my favorite strawberry dessert recipe with you :)

Strawberry Pizza
Crust:
- Combine 1 cube butter (softened), 1/2 c. powdered sugar, & 1 c. flour
- I find it easiest to mix the above ingredients with my hand
- then pat the dough into a pizza pan....or onto a cookie sheet
- Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes
- Cool - spread 8 oz cream cheese over crust



Topping:
- Clean 2 baskets of strawberries & sweeten with 1/2 c. sugar
- let set, drain off juice (if there is not enough juice to make 1 c. add water)



- pour into saucepan - add 1/2 c. sugar (you can omit if the strawberries are really sweet), 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly (it will turn to an almost gelatin consistency)
- remove from heat & add 1 tablespoon butter
- let cool, stir in strawberries
- turn mixture onto crust




Ta Da - thin, crispy, flaky crust, smooth cream cheese, and sweet sweet strawberriness!

I've copied below the recipe so if you want to copy, paste, and then print it - you can do so without all the pictures.

Strawberry Pizza
Crust:
- Combine 1 cube butter (softened), 1/2 c. powdered sugar, & 1 c. flour
- I find it easiest to mix the above ingredients with my hand
- then pat the dough into a pizza pan....or onto a cookie sheet
- Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes
- Cool - spread 8 oz cream cheese over crust

Topping:
- Clean 2 baskets of strawberries & sweeten with 1/2 c. sugar
- let set, drain off juice (if there is not enough juice to make 1 c. add water)
- pour into saucepan - add 1/2 c. sugar (you can omit if the strawberries are really sweet), 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly (it will turn to an almost gelatin consistency)
- remove from heat & add 1 tablespoon butter
- let cool, stir in strawberries
- turn mixture onto crust

Congratulations are in order!

Sorry I have been out of touch for a little over a week. I would like to say that I have been busy, but....I was on breast surgery for the past 2 weeks which was actually rather chill. I guess I was just being lazy & not blogging - well...I was also catching up on sleep and trying to get some studying done.
I also managed to go out to dinner to a Lebanese restaurant with the boyfriend and then watch a movie in the park. Shank Park had a big screen put up and showed the movie Madagascar 2 on Saturday (good movie!). It was unexpectedly cold. We watched the movie from the grass lying atop a blanket. You could also watch from your car parked on the grass, but I prefer being out in the open. I was the lucky one sandwiched in between Melanie and Sief - curled up in too few blankets. Next time we know - more blankets & pillows to rest our heads. The next movie is in July and it's ET! (i think it will be fun to watch that movie outside - i'll try & remember to take my camera)

Ok enough about me...on to the CONGRATULATIONS.

First - Congrats to my cousin Rachel and her fiancee Scott. Recently engaged on her birthday :) We're all happy to welcome Scott to the family.



Second - Little cousin Colby for her graduating from high school! No more cousins in the family in high school - man that makes me feel old.


Yeah! WOO HOO! DONE!
(and Colby can't get mad, because I have pictures more embarrassing than this one that I could post)


It's that time of year - graduations and weddings galore! Happiness & love fills the air of spring as it turns into summer. Get out there and enjoy!

Spring time!

Nothing better on a beautiful spring day than....a dipped cone. YUM!