It's not Christine that makes the world go 'round.

Due to financial hardships, Mory's in New Haven is closing indefinitely. From GChat:

Christine: where will the old white men go now?

where else will they be accepted?

i mean, besides everywhere.

Paging Paula Deen

Warren has a recipe for you. From GChat:

Warren: dude on my work intranet i found a recipe for twinkie pie

me: lol

intranet

that's awesome

Warren: 1 box twinkies.....1 box Vanilla pudding......fresh fruit of your choice (i use strawberries, bananas, and kiwi). instructions...1. slice twinkies long ways and line the bottom of a pan (any size)....2. mix vanilla pudding and spread evenly across top of twinkies.......3. slice fruit and place on top in desired pattern. chill and serve.

me: omfg

it actually uses twinkies

that's disgusting

..................

wait, let me use more periods in the ellipsis.

............................................

that's what we call the horizontal rule of incredulity

Warren: hahaha

the longer the length of the period series

the more incredulous!

Sent at 4:34 PM on Friday

Just add some butter, and it'll be Paula-worthy.

Well, this can't be good.

I'm supposed to fly out at 7:30 p.m. tonight. Riiiight.


Update: Made it into Orlando at 4:00 a.m. My plane took off at about midnight.

Also of note: Logan is the worst airport of a major city that I've ever visited. There are no food options after 7:00 p.m. in one entire wing of the A terminal. After that, only the Wendy's and (an aptly named) Lucky's are open. And I think they close soon after.

"Tea with sack!"

I'm going to try to stay up and study tonight, so I may drink this "Java Monster" tea/energy drink that I bought at the Seven Eleven this weekend. The drink is called "Chai Hai" ("Hey" back at you, Chai!), and it's being marketed under the brand "Java Monster."

I've never quite gotten the "Monster" thing, but throughout college, my energy drink of desperation was the Monster Khaos, which is 50% juice (so er... obviously good for you). I'm not sure how well it worked, but I remember drinking a few of them during my senior year.

Having thought about genetics so much, I'm pretty much getting delusional at this point. I just got off of the phone with Nina, and I was laughing hysterically (broad ligament rumble!). Anyway, I have a feeling that this drink isn't going to make me much better given that the following paragraph is the actual marketing pitch for the drink--seriously:

HELL YES! Monster can do tea.

Not that powered junk or
the latest New Ave cure-all.
Not the tea that the Queen has
with her crumpets or the tea
little girls have with make
believe friends.

Chai Hai (tm) [HEY HEY HEY!] is more like the tea
guards drink in Turkish Prison--
Tea with sack not bags! [emphasis mine]

Imported tea, real cream,
Monster's spice and energy
blend... Guaranteed to
stoke the fires within!

Ok, where to start... first of all, what the hell is "tea with sack?" I guess "tea with scrotum" or "tea with labia majora" weren't as catchy. Am I supposed to be happy that my beverage has testicles? The masculinity is just oozing out of its SRY region. [insert guttural grunt and a chest bump]

Also, should I know what "Turkish Prison" is like? It doesn't sound like a very nice place, and I'm not sure that want to visit, quite honestly. Yeah, I think that I'll pass.

So the bottom line: I'm uncertain that drink will be as effective as that chocolate croissant from yesterday, but I guess it's worth a try...

Favorite Moments from Legally Blonde, Part I

In stream-of-consciousness form:

Elle: I worked so hard to get into law school. I blew off Greek week to study for the LSATs. I even hired a Coppola to direct my admissions video. All to get my boyfriend Warner back. And now he's engaged to this awful girl Vivian... so it was all for nothing, and l... I just wish... I just wish I had never gone to Harvard.

I'm not quite there yet, but I can relate ;).

Self-medication

This morning, I woke up with a cold. I think that I caught it from one of my classmates last Friday--I spent a good amount of time sitting next to his sniffling and sneezing on the T (subway).

So far, this illness has only had one major impact on my life: I am too tired to stay up studying. I constantly feel like napping. Unfortunately, with my genetics final on Friday, studying is the only thing in my life that is remotely important right now, haha.

These desperate times call for desperate measures.

So in an effort to get better, I've decided to self-medicate with pastries from Au Bon Pain. Between 10 pm and 11 pm, they are 50% off at the ABP in Children's Hospital of Boston. Now, this isn't even a case-control study--but I'll be sure to report the efficacy of this recently consumed chocolate croissant. (I think my temperature has gone down already!... Seriously.)

"Non-paternity"

Confused about an inheritance pattern? (Ok, so about 5 people who read this blog will ever say "yes," but humor me.) Consider non-paternity!

I was talking to the course director of my Social Medicine class last week, and he asked me how the Genetics block had been going. Somehow, the topic of non-paternity (aka, one or two people "stepped out") came up. Apparently, when this professor was at HMS himself, students were taught to assume a 5% rate of non-paternity. These days, we're taught that 10% of cases are non-paternity.

We are a nation of family values! And the show Cheaters.

Racial commentary from youtube

Daqueen 3: ehh, der chings but pretty good dancers.

jenairic: did you mean chinks? Dude if you're gonna get racial at least do it right.

Thoughts as I eat this strawberry-banana yogurt:
1. Wow.
2. "Der," heh.
3. Jenairic[a]. That's a pretty great throwback to Amy's firstborn. We'll wait for Eukneekw[a].

Those names would be easier to get onto a birthday cake than some others [credit: Shakesville for this bizarre link].

Flo-rida.

On Friday, I'm busting out of this joint and flying down to Atlanta. Instead of driving home, however, my family is driving south... to Orlando. (Surprise!) Honestly, I'm not planning to do too much during the first week of vacation other than sleeping and vegging out. However, one thing that I am looking forward to is the projected temperature difference between Boston and Orlando.

This Saturday:
Boston - High: 24°; Low: 9°
Orlando - High: 80°; Low: 62°

I can't even process this.

More life advice

From a college professor:

"You're going to be there [Boston/HMS] for at least four years. You may as well have some good moments."

Haha, I'm working on it!

Realization of the Day

On GChat:

Me: omg, i've used winamp for more than decade?
Warren: haha really it's sad

Opportunity Costs

The subject of an angry post a while back, Harvard Medical School's cancellation of medical Spanish programs has been a heavy subject on my mind. After some thought, I've decided that it may be worthwhile to use my meager savings from the Hunger Fellowship to fund an immersion experience. (Yeah, seriously. My savings from an Americorps-level-funded Fellowship.*)

I've lived pretty frugally this semester; with only 1.5 weeks until I go home for vacation, I still have $1,500 from my educational loans left to spend for cost of living alone. In addition, my end-of-fellowship award has earned me a whopping $8.41 in interest thus far. In other words, I'm obviously rolling in it.

However, if I extrapolate the current trend lines of my social life, I don't predict any significant expenditures in my immediate future. After all, medical school has precluded my engaging in any costly activities (or perhaps just any activities, haha). Thus, if I just take out my full loan next semester and continue to live la vida estudiantil, I may be just fine.

At this point in my life, my time is money (especially considering that this is my last summer!). Forcing myself to do "Spanish immersion" in Boston (seriously suggested by the school as an four-week, unfunded option) is (1) questionably efficacious and (2) possibly just as expensive as packing up and paying an outside program to teach me Spanish in South America. And the real immersion option has the added benefit of teaching me a thing or two about the world.

*While writing this post, it has just come to my attention that the Fellowship has raised its stipend this year to $14,500. When I was a Fellow last year, the stipend was $12,500. Surprise!...

Hope flies.

On GChat:

Christine: hope is the thing with feathers, david

me: http://static.flickr.com/27/256845995_c5afb1cf95_o.jpg

Life advice from Nina

"I feel as if you need to learn how to say 'yes' to fun."

There you go. I'm gonna SAY "YES" TO FUN.

The gift that keeps on Thanksgiving.

My mom sent me back to Boston with a huge tub of turkey and stuffing. I just finished it off today, and it was beautiful!

Also, one of these days, I'm going to get around to cooking for real. Until then... I'll keep dreaming about Thanksgiving fare.

Where'd that damned rabbit go?

From GChat, on a social life:

"i'm trying to conjure it up... out of like... a pile of anatomy flash cards, some cheap malbec, and a spark of hope or something (*rolls eyes*)"

Hello, prospective student...

There is a large, naked man in the communal bathroom on the north hallway of Vanderbilt Hall, 3rd floor.

I walked into the bathroom for the most predictable of reasons, and to my surprise, some random guy was drying himself off in the middle of the bathroom--stark naked. This development was surprising given that both showers are designed with a curtained changing area so that users can have some semblance of privacy in either wrapping a towel around themselves or donning undergarments. Given that it's almost December and I'd never seen this fellow before, I can only assume that he was an interviewee who didn't want body odor to impede his marathon of a day tomorrow. Bizarre.

In related news, the guy did manage to brush and floss his teeth for an obscenely long period, so there's probably a 70% chance that he's a dental applicant.

Peck peck.

I'm writing this blog entry from the Augusta Regional Airport... with my new iPhone. This functionality is hardly "necessary" for me, but I may as well take advantage of it :). I'm still getting used to this keyboard, but I already like it better than texting. More later!

Remember the Daily Grind?

After returning to grad school/professional school following one year of work, my friends and I currently have the following GChat status messages:

B.: "dying one paper at a time..."
C.: "i am terrible at life."
D.: "delirium setting in..."
Me: "I'm a MAVRIK(tm). A doctor who doesn't know anatomy. Or geography."

The grass is always greener, perhaps. But I want some fuggin' Miracle-Gro.

Well...

A lot of time has passed since I last posted.

My absence can be primarily explained by the craze of medical school. Simply stated, I've never studied this much before, and I'm still studying less than many of my classmates! However, as in college, I've managed to make above-average grades--not that they matter here--even though my mastery of the knowledge is inferior to that of my peers. What I can't seem to shake, though, is the feeling that I don't know the material well enough to be a good doctor.

Obviously, the solution is to... blog!

To add insult to inadequacy, I've concluded over the past few weeks that Harvard Medical School may not be a good "fit" for me. This institution feels too impersonal, too rigid, and too pompous. And I'm not using these adjectives to describe my classmates, who are amazing people. They've done amazing things, and they'll continue to surprise me with their abilities, passions, and accomplishments. However, what's noticeably lacking is the institutional support that nurtures excellence. Harvard takes pride in (and credit for) the accomplishments of its students and alumni. However, based on my two months here, I've concluded that it doesn't deserve this credit.

Why? The majority of excellence here is pre-existing. Harvard manages to attract ambitious people who are already "tracked" to be change-makers. This institution gets to ride on the coattails of its students and professors, who come and stick around because critical mass does build excellence. (Everyone knows that it's "hard to turn down Harvard.") However, this wealthiest of institutions is surprisingly cheap in supporting its students. Harvard can get away with a lot of things:

• Not teaching the information that's tested on Board examinations for residency? No problem! The kids who end up coming to Harvard will study that material on their own. And based on their previous testing performance, they'll do well on Boards and get you that much-coveted match list, which you can show off to applicants.
  
• Not offering any opportunities to learn medical Spanish? No problem! Your students are so ambitious that they will fundraise and offer their own Spanish classes. (Seriously.) They'll even persist in lobbying you to offer Spanish education despite your denial that sufficient interest exists. This behavior is interesting considering that the two student-run classes are filled to capacity and were unable to accomodate everyone who was willing to pay a $100 deposit (myself included).
  
• Strangely out of money to fund summer opporunities? Don't sweat it! Your students will come up with their own solutions and somehow still manage to get publishable data. And then you can brag about their accomplishments in your next viewbook.
  

Dearest Harvard, you can continue to insist on behaving this way. However, don't expect that the ambitious individuals whom you've admitted will sit around and twiddle their thumbs. They will push you to change your seemingly set ways because you can--and should--do better. (Comma.)