Behind the White Coat

San Diego

I am exhausted right now... This has to do with both my busy ass work schedule  as I wind down to the last week of my month as a resident on the medical wards, and also my tiring adventure to San Diego...

My interview in SD was Friday starting at 8:00am.  My flight was to leave JFK at 8pm on Thursday for Las Vegas, catch a connecting flight from Vegas to arrive in San Diego at 1am.  I had a rental car, hotel, all paid for and booked, ready to rock and roll.  Too bad I never saw either of them.  I still remember buying the ticket online, wondering if I should just suck it up and take a non-direct flight (never again), and in the end, I settled.  I should have realized that the connecting flight from Vegas was the last flight of the day, and the 45 minute layover could potentially get me into trouble, and alas, it did. 

By the time it hit 8:00pm in JFK, my plane hadn't even arrived.  The US Airways "gate crew" (what are they called anyway?) told me not to worry, that I'd make the connection. Bullshit. I knew then that I'd be screwed.   The flight ended up leaving at 9:15pm, I figured I'd take a chance, having failed in hunting for an alternate way to get to San Diego from Vegas (looked at other airlines, and even a freakin bus!).  Of course when I arrived, the flight was long gone.  The next flight arrived Friday morning at 11am in San Diego.  Great.  That would do me no good.  I almost considered gambling all night, and just catching the flight back to NYC, but after some probing, they found me a flight on Southwest arriving at 7:30am.  I could make it work.  They gave me a check for $180.35 made out to Southwest, gave me a hotel room, some meal vouchers, and said to show up in the morning.

I must have waited 1 hour for the "free shuttle" to the Emerald Suite Hotel/Motel complex, right behind the Orlean's casino (off trip, pretty ghetto).  By the time I got there, I had 2 hours.  Too bad, beause the room was a huge 2 bedroom condo practically.  After a 1 hour nap, I put on my suit, and head back for the airport.  I hopped on the "open seating" flight by Southwest.  I gotta say the plane was nice, leather seats, with more legroom in economy than usual.  The hostesses were very pleasant as well.  The experience definitely did their great commercials justice.

"Welcome to San Diego, where the weather is overcast, and 55 degrees." You kidding me? What a great start.... To add to the losses, I obviously had no use for my hotel, and skipped on the rental car, but I still missed the first 30 minute intro session.  I did manage to make all the other interviews.  Everyone knew my adventure, both faculty and interviewees, so it was somewhat entertaining, even though I was with blood shot eyes, exhausted, in a wrinkled suit.  I somehow made it through the day (not without lots of caffeine).  Did I mention it was pouring rain in San Diego?  The one city that has supposedly the best weather in the United States year round, and I get there when it rains. (The same day it became 70 and sunny in NYC)  Lets just add to the bad luck shall we?

After surviving the day, I caught the red eye that evening back to JFK (via Phoenix this time, which sucked because I really wanted to play some more of that Wheel of Fortune slot machine that I lost $20 on my way there).  Thankfully Saturday, the day I arrived, I was off, but it was so goddamn nice, I had to enjoy the day.  So I basically slept 8 hours the entire weekend.  Ahh what a life!

All in all, I really liked the program there, and the interviews went well.  But San Diego is no LA, and certainly no NYC.  Perhaps if I knew someone there I'd be more motivated, or if I was married.  But I am single, and I don't think I can live without the hustle bustle of the city.  It'll have to go a few slots down, because I think ye ole NYC is going to have to be my priority....

Staying out of jail

I was thrilled to learn that I was not the only one hit by the glitch in turbotax last night!  They granted turbotax filers an extra 2 days to file.  It's a good thing too.  You know I asked around, and nobody really could tell me what the penalty is for filing your taxes late.  The infamous tax deadline is just something everyone makes extra sure they try and make... I guess I would not want to mess with the IRS anyway.  Especially since I am Pakistani.  I'm sure the anti-terrorism agency would find it adequate reason to throw my ass in jail, and release Jack Bauer's double on me... 

Tomorrow I interview at Cornell, then have to stop by the hospital, then I go to JFK to catch a flight to San Diego for an interview on Friday, then I return on Saturday evening, and will be on call Sunday.  I can't wait...

Taxes

So I been MIA for a bit... Being a resident on the medical wards will do that to you. Especially when I'm going to interviews two to three days a week!  It's getting tiresome now, but my stress is also growing since "match day" grows closer and closer...

So I get home today after a half day of interviewing, and another half day of work...  I get myself some shrimp from the market and cook myself up some shrimp scampi with pasta, and have a glass of wine, ready to relax before my on-call day tomorrow.  I'm watching Anderson Cooper reporting on the Korean college student-turned psychopath who killed those 30 people at Virgina Tech.  I honestly cannot believe that story.  What kind of world do we live in?  I feel like every year there is something worse that seems to occur.  The incident is equally frightening as it is sickening.   Some people were trying to lay blame on the campus police, who did not act aggresively enough, or people who knew of the gunman's strange One could not have predicted such a tragedy of this scale based on anything, and it is truly heartbreaking.  I am almost inclined  not to put all the blame on the gunman as well.  I mean this was such a heinous act, it was clearly the actions of a seriously deranged and disturbed individual.  No mentally sound person can do what he did.

Anyways, as you can see I got caught up in the news and some other random things.  Then about 9pm I realized, holy shit.... I didn't file my tax return!!  Fuck.  I been putting it off for days and weeks.  And now I am here, 1.5 hours from the deadline.  I actually managed to finish it online (thank God for turbo tax!), and despite my shitty refund this year, as I try to submit the file, it tells me "we are experiencing unusually heavy demand. Please try again later."  No shit man, everyone is trying to submit their taxes!!!

So I am just hoping I can submit this thing, or else.... Actually I don't even know what would happen.  I should probably look it up....

Seronegative!

I am looking out my window, and first see one, then another, and eventually a steady fall of snowflakes drift towards the ground.  It is sunny, it's April, and yet a fleet of snow is flying in all directions, and I am talking nice big juicy flakes too, not tiny little flurries.  It looks like one of those snowy villages. There is something wrong with this scene, particularly when it's in the freakin 30's!  I will say that it wasted a perfectly great Sunday that could have been spent all day in Central Park... But instead we get screwed.  Where did Spring go?

On another note, in reference to my last post, all the tests for the patient I suffered the needle stick from came back negative.  What a relief!  I definitely had to have a drink after getting that over with.  I only took the meds for a couple of days, but damn it was not a fun experience.  Guess it lets me take a peak into what people go through while taking all these meds that we prescribe so easily.  Not very fun.  But i'll certainly have to be a little extra careful in the future.  Despite all sorts of safety measures, random accidents do happen... But for now, here's to seronegativity!

I'm back on the medicine ward these days as a resident running my own team, so it is quite busy, and a little hectic with all my interviews, but it is also fun.  Less scut, more time for learning and teaching.  I got two interns, a sub-intern (fourth year medical student), a 3rd year medical student.  Unfortunately my hot Columbian sub-intern is leaving us, and being replaced by another student.  Hopefully she'll be as... well, proficient in Spanish as the one who is leaving.  I'm sure I'll have some funky stories to tell about our service as the month goes on...

I have nothing more to say right now... Though I will leave with another phat beat you can feast your ears on... Thievery Corporation - Warning Shots.mp3 (5905.4K)