Behind the White Coat

Guess who’s back… Back again…

Aloha people. So I feel I have neglected my blog long enough this month. My two loyal readers from NYC were complaining of my absence, and I read the last comment from an anonymous reader that made me realize that people actually read this thing, so I must go on. I have been MIA for a few weeks oddly not because I’ve been busy, but because I’ve had absolutely nothing to do. Match day was Thursday, March 16th, and the festivities lasted through Sunday night. Ever since then I have been pretty worn out. I also have nothing to do this month but sit on my ass. So that’s pretty much what me and my roommates have been doing when we are not out hanging out in the city. We sit on our asses, watch DVDs, watch TV, drink, smoke, stay up late and wake up late. So I pretty much have contributed nothing to society this past week or two, but I figure when else will I be able to do absolutely nothing enjoying a non-professional life? Gotta savor the moment.

 

On match day I found out I matched at Montefiore/Einstein Internal Medicine program. Now even though I had realized earlier this would be the more likely result of my residency placement., I still had the little bit of hope of getting my first choice. So I was naturally a little upset that I did not get it. Perhaps it was worsened by seeing how well some other people matched, especially those who I think are... well, not as capable as me. There were some extremely happy people, and I kind of wish I had that elated feeling, but you can’t have it all I suppose. I mean, it ended up being my #2 choice, and I am definitely happy I can stay in NYC. If I had ranked the other programs higher and ended up in\ Cleveland or St. Louis, even though they are great programs, I think I would have been a lot more upset. All in all, our school matched very well. After having gone through the process and finally reached the end, I have learned a lot about the process, and know a lot of things I would have done differently, but that is a post for another day… I also noticed this quote I have above my desk that I almost forgot about: “Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.” --Theodore Roosevelt. Strong words Theo.

So the Bronx is where it is gonna go down. But now I have become happy about it now and am getting psyched. I am going to be a doctor... That is some crazy shit!  Monte is a great program, just that it is in the Bronx.  But ’ll live in the upper east side of  Manhattan (my old home) and suck up the commute and it’ll be all good. One other thing I did find out is that one of the most annoying people in our class is going to be a co-intern with me. Lovely. But it’s a big program, with any luck, I”ll never have to work with them… Let us pray.

Post Hawaii

I have been home in the bronx for a week now since I came back from Hawaii, and I definitely have post-trip depression.  After a month of acclimating to the tropics, I am hit hard with cold weather, dismal surroundings, and angry people.  I have been compensating this by going out and partying on most nights, which has left me withered, exhausted, and broke...  Good thing I took a break on Saturday night, but oddly that is when I caught a cold.

As another welcoming gift, in the snow/ice storm a few days back, I got rear-ended by some asian lady in a SUV.  She hit me and I hit the guy in front of me. Just great.  Good thing it was all her fault. She was some hematology fellow at montefiore.  I may have to deal with her next year even, so I decided to be nice about the whole thing.  She offered to pay for it outside of insurance, which is fine by me, so I had to go get a quote on the damage.  Now my car is already beat and battered.  The new damage was a huge welt in the back bumper, and dents on the hood from hitting the car in front of me.  I already had a front bumper that was cracked and half falling off... But they didn't know that.  So I reacted to the damage in the back and the front like it was all brand new!  She wanted to keep the insurance company out of it and told me to get a quote.  I got a quote for the rear and front bumper, and the hood, which was a whopping 3200$.  My car aint evevn worth that much!   So I don't think she is going to pay, nor can she even afford that.  So I guess we'll see what happens.

Now I'm here, at home in the Bronx with a cold.  Tomorrow is Monday, which is the day we find out if we matched or didn't match.  I don't think I am not going to match, but there is alwyas that sense of fear.  Then thursday is the big day..  The nerves are kickin in. 

Cliffs, Lava, and Coming Home

So I am back in cold ass nyc.  No more wearing flip flops and shorts and putting on sunblock everyday, surfin, beaching, and enjoy the sunsets.  It is still damn cold here, so it's still about the coats, scarves, and beanies.  One month really flew by fast I gotta tell you. Well time to get back to the real world.  Match day is amazingly less than 2 weeks away, now that is damned scary!! 

I still didn't talk about the trip to Big Island.  The Big Island, which is the island of Hawaii, is a lot different than Oahu.  The whole thing is basically one big volcanic rock.  You see volcanic rock and soil pretty much all over the island in between the hills and greenery..  It's much less touristy, pretty chill and quiet, but there is a lot to do, so we had to pretty much pick a few things but I think we got the most of it.  The first thing we did was drive down to the South Point, which is the southern most tip of the United States.  You can climb down to this hidden green sanded beach, which is supposed to be quite beautiful, but we had another purpose:  To jump of a cliff. It was pretty damn scary.  I went first, and it took me like15 min to jump.  It is a ways down there, and once you leap you feel like you will never hit the damn ocean!  The worst part was the climb back up the shoddy metal ladder to the top of the cliff.  Anyway, I put some photos below.

It sure is high.

view from the water below.

Me taking my first plunge off the cliff.

Ed takes the leap.

The ladder back up.

Then we drove eastward along all the cliffs and land on which you can see the old areas of lava flow with black hardened rock all the way from the hills to the oceans.  We got to the park around 5ish, and had to drive about 45 minutes down chain of craters road to as close as possible to the active lava flow.  From the end of the road, you see the beginning of old areas of lava flow, by the land just covered by hard, sharp, shiny, crackly volcanic rock.  It almost felt like you were on some other planet as you can see in some of the photos below. Once we hit this rough terrain, it was a 2 hour hike for 3 miles until we reached the areas of active lava.  You could see the flowing trails from the top of the mountain oncce the sun began to go down, and in the distance the glow and thes smoke bellowing from where the flow dumps into the ocean.  Most people would see it from a distance, but others will take the rough hike to get as close as possible.

The sun recedes behind us as we trek across the volcanic terrain.

The far site of rising steam is our destination.

It was about 8ish when we finally got to the sight of flow.  We pretty much felt the heat intensely as we got close.  Then when you look down, underneath the rocks we were walking over and in the cracks was the glow of the molten lava underneath.  A few hundred feet ahead is where we finally saw the oozing lava right in front of our faces!  Some people went right up to it, but at about 2 or 3 feet when the winds shifted, I could barely take the heat.  It was visciously hot!  We managed to get close enough to get some pictures and some great video footage.  It was truly an amazing site.  Watching it ooze and flow in front of your feet.  When you see it on TV, it does no justice to such an amazing thing of mother nature.  Then we walked a few hundred feet to the side of the cliff, where we could see the lava flowing into the oceans like waterfalls, hearing the crash of the waves and the hiss of giant fumes of rising steam.  I don't think I'll ever see anything like that again!

Sweating bullets as I try to get close to pose w/ the lava!

Oozing and solidifying, these guys tried to light a cig. (nuts)

Hard to see, but the amazing scene of the lava flowing down the cliffsidde into the ocean.

The hike back was the worst.  Total pitch blackness, barely any other people around.  We just walkeed in the blustering winds, and the sounds of the crashing waves in the nearby cliffs.  in the strange surroundings of a scorched earth.  It was like we were on mars or some strange planet.  I gotta admit, it was kinda scary.

Roomate Drama

So if you've read the prior posts, you'll know there was a little drama with my feisty, pampered and somewhat anal roomate.  So I figure I'll update the story on the living situation courtesy of craigslist.

I was on my way home from Big Island and I got a phone call from my roomate "Ali, are you coming home today? I had to move some furniture into your room..."  This can't be good...

It started with the redoing the walls. Some shifted furniture, scattered painting supplies, and coming home everyday to a shirtless man scraping, filling, and painting the walls.. Not exactly my cup a tea.
But.. I let her go by, even despite the cursing me off, and eating my chips  Even despite using my room for her and her cousin to get massages for over 4 hours one day!.  Granted I did lose the elevator key somewhere on sunset beach--but I paid the $100 to replace it. But she shouldnt't get that much leeway for my inconvnience should she?  Im paying the girl for rent!  But, in my new found kindness in the Islands,  I figured I could let this slide. 

Then when the painting was near completion, there was talk about the carpeting being all torn out and replaced with tiliing.  Hah!  She's mad.  Besides, that would be maybe a week later after I'm gone.  Right?  Not even two days goes by, snd I find myself coming home to the same guy tearing up the carpets from the floors.  Are you kidding me?  I was pretty annoyed.  Now I have my room but no living room, maybe access to the fridge, and can't even use the lanai!.  But, at least I was going to Big Island for a few days.  I was hoping by the time I got back, this project would be done and I would have my room clean, and with peace and quiet for my last few days in Oahu!

Now I get home from my 2 day trip to Big Island, I walk in to a bare room (once upon a time the living room) carpeted with white dust, plaster cans, and hundreds of pounds of stacked cement tiles scattered around all over.  As I step in, I hear a loud piercing noise, and I come to face to face with another man (also shirtless) on the buzz saw, grinding away at a tile, showering dust into the air--I almost expected Bob Villa top pop out in his red plaid vest.  I somehow maneuver into what was once my room, but has now become storage for what used to be in the living room... Oh and also the cardboards layed on the floor to access the bathroomthrough my room to dump shit in the tub.

Now most sane people would complain and be like wtf? I even cracked the bag she lent me to go to Big Island, and I felt bad and was gonna try to at least hide the damage, but after coming home I changed my mind.  Hell I may break it some more.  The bitching out, potato chips, massages, the workers even drank my last 2 heinken!  And now THIS.  This is out of hand.  So I have to spend my last few days of Oahu, barely able to access my clothes, dirty carpets in my room, a bathroom dirty and full of crap, not to mention the tub filled with some dirty grout and plaster crap.  How the hell am I even gona shower tomorrow?  Plus, the "contractors" are these 2 guys she knows who are slaving for dirt low prices it seems.  Come to think of it, all her friends are really weird older white men.   Who knows....

Well that's what craigslist is all about--hit or miss.  I figure there is no use arguing now, it aint gonna change anything  (quite unlike me to be passive, but like I said, the islands have de-newyorked my attitude for the time being).  I'll save my bitching for when I leave to avoid unnecessary drama from the nutty roomie.  My God what kind of softy have I become???  Check out some pics of the carnage.