Here in center frame, here there's only air... and just enough space to fit

Clarity, Jimmy Eat World’s release in 1999 (before they exploded into the pop music scene) is my favorite album of all time. I remember in high school hearing this great song on the radio that went something like “you’re not bigger than this, not better, why can you learn?” and I fell in love! But what was the name? Who was the band? The mystery song made it onto a mixtape I took to college, radio static and all.

Skip forward a few tracks to junior year of college. I remember being at KWUR and popping in an old Jimmy Eat World CD. I thought, “wow, I like their new stuff, I wonder how their old stuff sounds.” The last DJ who reviewed it gave Track 2 the most stars so I cued it up. Just as it started playing I had the most awesome flashback to when I first heard it. That was when I fell in love with Jimmy Eat World, and their album Clarity became timeless to me.

And I’m not alone! Last year Jimmy decided to play Clarity in its entirety at five shows across the country to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its release. Unfortunately, the last show was last March and I realized this last June. Blast. But... yesterday I found out that they recorded that show, and it’s on sale! Since April of last year. I may be the worst die-hard fan of my favorite band ever.

Go here to hear/see/buy it!

And for your listening/dancing pleasure:

Rainbows

Hello world! It has been a while.

To update on last year’s resolutions… lets just say it was not meant to be! I’ve seen lots of bunnies and continue to celebrate their existence. This year has flown by, I’m hoping the next 4 months will continue to fly by. My weekly pediatric neuro clinics feel like getting dunked in the most refreshing pool of water and coming up to sunshine!

True, some of the kids are really sick and some of the moms are (understandably) basketcases but it’s so different from taking care of adults. This year we have to watch so many people slowly die. I have nothing but respect for Adult Neurologists, but man does it tug at the heartstrings. I still get a little weepy when I have to explain to a family that a patient has Parkinson’s, or ALS. Or a giant brainstem stroke where they likely may not recover any function. And I get even more weepy when the 90-something year old patient’s 90-something year old spouse (with a little dementia of their own) says they’ll do everything they can to help the patient through this. This is Love!

What really made me write was this gorgeous scene I saw on my way home from work. It was right after my in-service exam and it had poured all day. A really nice steady rain. It eased up as I drove home, and I saw an opening in the clouds with sun rays lighting a part of the highway about a mile away… the road looked like it was glowing! with a rainbow coming out of it! As I got closer, the water on the road sprayed up from the tires of the cars in front of me, and the water caught the rays so there looked like there were about ten miniature rainbows coming from the tires of the cars. After a lot of googling, I found this pic... it's kind of close:




Of course it was more beautiful being there... picture the above with more cars, a road that looked almost metallic, brighter light, and a bigger rainbow! Where's a camera when you need one!

And finally, This year's Resolutions (it’s never too late!):

1. try not to be so cranky post-call.
2. stay on my surfboard!
3. learn Spanish
4. juego mi guitarra mas (see #3)
5. cook more (things that involve more than two steps)
6. visit the newborn nursery more often. I have just gotten clearance from the nurses that I can feed all the babies I want!

Peace out!

Thanks King George!

Many of you acquainted with me know that I'm a strong supporter of A1 Steak Sauce, and hold that it's the only condiment that can make anything better. It beats out ketchup by a long short, and narrowly passes Salsa. (Salsa is good and yummy too, I wonder if they can be combined to a super-condiment.) I never really questioned the origin of A1, but CNN had a fun story on condiments today.

Isn't that the coolest? My sauce has history! And I have no idea what hollandaise sauce is, but now I kind of want to try it.

Bunny count has been restarted, it's now at 8. The bunnies here in California are different from St. Louis and San Antonio bunnies... they're a lot less poofy. With longer ears.... but they're still cute! Especially when their noses twitch while nibbling grass, and even more when they start hopping around. Next time I'll try to stick a picture in. Yay!

Ode to Water, Power, and Music.

Holy goodness... a lot has happened. Galveston was pretty much annihilated from Ike. Boo Ike... BOO! But now I know my neighbors since we were powerless for a week afterwards. The older man who lives next door to me is a professional violinist in the Houston orchestra and in a band that plays “a kind of Egyptian Jazz music.” He says that in this awesome European accent... I totally love that I can hear him practicing through my walls.

It is kind of neat that despite camping out for so long the atmosphere in houston and the hospitals was pretty upbeat the whole time, even with all the Galveston residents relocated here who lost their homes. I guess such a strange/sad situation can be pretty uniting! Apparently I qualify for some sort of government reimbursement but it’d kinda be lame to ask for it since my place was fine, I was stranded in LA of all places (yay!!), and this gave me an excuse to mooch of my friends in Houston with apartments much nicer than mine. But now a lot has changed--all the stoplights work and I don't need to leave for work an hour early anymore! I have POWER and WATER!

The music festival in Austin was awesome! There was so much good music, and much of it was new to me. The most impressive thing about ACL this year was that they really improved the sound leak between stages—that was very annoying in years past. Outside water was allowed in, and there was plenty of power... so much that my Sprint cell phone kept switching between eastern and central time! It was political at times with many artists giving shout-outs to both candidates. I was surprised when bands who mentioned their support for McCain were rewarded by silence (given that I was supposed to still be in TX) but I have to admit it was pretty funny. I do think they need to sell fewer tickets as there was very little space between crowds around stages at opposite ends of Zilker. Also, the Frisbees we threw around seemed to hit people more often. Unless you're a Russian guy with superior aim whose discs only go to Siri.

My fav: The Swell Season, with Glen Hassard and Marketa Irglova from the move ‘Once,’ who played Friday. I still can’t believe I got to see them... they sounded beautiful. I think what made the night was Glen Hassard’s attempts at philosophizing. His speeches/song explanations were usually accompanied by wild guesturing, and while some of it might be over my head he did say one profound thought. I am paraphrasing, with hopefully less rambling. "Sometimes when you have an obstacle in front of you that’s like an endless wall… and you can’t go around or over it, I've learned sometimes you can walk away from it... and keep walking so that eventually you walk around the whole f*ing world and find yourself where you wanted to be in the first place!" Genius.

Other favorites: Tristan Prettyman, Erykah Badu (this woman is phenomenal. she's also very pregnant!), Jose Gonzales, Jenny Lewis, Okerville River, Beck (yay!), and Manu Chao mostly because I figured that anyone new I saw after the Swell Season wouldn't be able to hold my attention, but I was wrong--Manu Chao was freakin amazing.. yo yo yo! I also loved a three minute moment during the Foo Fighter’s encore where they busted out with ‘Big Me,’ only after butchering my favorite Foo Fighter song ‘Monkey Wrench.’ And let's talk about this Monkey Wrench thing. I was SO looking forward to rocking out to that fun yelling thing he does at the end of the song... but where was it? Oh after the false ending and weird creative drumming and... lets pretend we're stopping the song again... oh wait no here's the rest of it.... and yes, here is that fun yelling part only I'm not going to yell with the music... and I'm going to cut the stage lights again. Not that I'm bitter. :-)

But then they played Big Me... it's the sweetest song of all time! My love is regained!

Who knew?

According to CNNMoney.com, my parents are set! No need to move anywhere else to retire in style. Check it out... my hometown is famous!

#7 America's best small cities: Round Rock, TX

I was a little disappointed that there was no mention of the world famous (I like to think) Round Rock Donuts... so I am going to mention them now. I even stole this pic off the internet, where any good world famous donut picture would be located:

Mmm! The address (if you'd like to GPS it from your respective starting points) is 106 West Liberty, Round Rock, TX, 78664. The cherry bismarks are delicious!

Also, it was an even nicer surprise to see where my new home for 2009 and beyond was ranked:

#4 America's best small cities: Irvine, CA

Score! (Ignore the fact that I am going to be very, very broke for quite some time) :-)

Rocket-Science ;-)

Watching the Rockets play is like watching little kids playing with art supplies… sometimes they figure it out and it’s brilliant, but sometimes they try to get creative and end up with a giant mess…

That said, I’m a new Rockets fan! Secondary to the Spurs of course, I can’t help being an NBA fan after living in SA for 4 years. The Spurs make the city so happy! And I want to hug Tim Duncan everytime I see him play. Since they always win games and usually play great it's always fun to cheer them on (except for one loss to the Rockets earlier this season which I’m still a little bitter about, but have chosen to overlook for now.) The Rockets, however are another story. No one is really sure how they made it to the playoffs, but they’re sticking in there! I’m watching game 6 now… Utah has a big lead and I think the Rockets are starting to get nervous. C’mon Rockets! Ummm they can come back from Utah’s 26 point lead right?

I’d also like to celebrate my new footwear addition—new running shoes again! These are light blue Nike’s which have really nice padding in the front… never really appreciated how great sprinting can feel when your toes have something to bounce off of! Not that I’m a sprinter, but if I were ever to flee an attacker, I know I’m well equipped. These are the bounciest shoes ever, and if you look closely you can see little hearts and stick runner figures on the laces. Wooo! I heart you Nikes! (don’t tell my Adidas shoes…)

Holy goodness!! The Rockets have tightened it up…. pretty freakin incredible! So I’m going to get back to the game. But here are my pretty shoes!

Next time I'll try and add some more hospital stories. I'm at MD Anderson in the Oncology ward, after a month of Infectious Diseases. After last month, I probably know more than I ever wanted to know about diarrhea, just short of experiencing it myself (thankfully!) Moral of ID month: Don't play with live crawfish, and wash your hands. This month will be good, especially from a pedi neuro perspective... though emotionally it will be quite the test with the terminally ill patients. Cancer sucks.

Hmm... and speaking of sucking the Rockets are doing that thing again when they're getting outscored... I think they need my full attention now. Since this might not end so well tonight (unless they surprise us...) here's a happy pic!

This was from StL (home of the lovely April daffodils)... reunionizing was awesome and I really miss the ones who couldn't make it... so here is a daffodil for you! :-)

All Day I Dream

Today I had to fill in for the intern in the nursery… we call this position "the mole” because you sort of disappear from everyone on the floor. The mole's job is to do 20 or so newborn exams in 3 hours, try not to lose babies (it happens!) and then discharge them while the nurses are all yelling at you to go faster so they have space to admit more babies. But I have to make sure he has an anus first! (yes that happens too.)

Anyway so to take my mind off what was almost an embarrassingly disastrous day, I am going to think of what makes me happy. Another one for the list:

3. Go running in cool places, especially if I’ve never been there before, and especially near large bodies of water

I bought new running shoes not too long ago. My old Nikes were fun, and did well for my feet this past year. No major injuries. Some great runs around Town Lake in Austin, a few by Corpus Christi’s bay, Forest Park in St Louis, and my personal favorite, by the bay of Bengal in Pondicherry- during sunrise! They also helped me hike/run up the foothills of the Alps in Füssen, Germany so that I’d have enough time to see the Neuschwanstein Schloss (castle), absorb its beauty, and book it downhill to catch a train so I wouldn't miss my flight to Rome.

Even San Antonio had its surprises; once I came across a little beige stucco house in the Alamo Heights area with the same color scheme as its flower garden. Totally worth planning a run/bike around, I think it's on Cambridge street. Purple shutters to match the purple flowers! Oooooh.

Yes, those Nikes have given me quite the memorable year. They were there in times of frustration, doubt, and even when I was starting to feel like my heart had a “kick me” sign on it. Post-run ice cream coupled with good friends can work wonders as an emotional analgesic, and I’ve come to realize that this world is full of kind souls (no pun intended) after all. :-)

But as it is, I’m an Adidas girl at heart. Running in this new pair of shoes is like falling back in touch with an old friend. Blue, lightweight, soft, sweet. A whole new six months-to-a-year of memories. Muy Perfecto!

Thunderstorms

There’s something so soothing about thunderstorms and listening to the rain… of course having to drive home in it sort of sucks, but when you’re contained in something dry it’s very calming. Residency has been fun so far, I can’t believe I can feed babies whenever I want. I should make a list of all these theraputic discoveries I've stumbled upon...

If I start to go insane because of residency/life I should:
1. feed babies
2. listen to thunderstorms

I’ll add more eventually. On a sadder note, my beloved canine family member of 14.75 years, Hershey, passed away in his sleep on June 29. It kind of took me a week to process, and I’ve repressed enough emotion so that issues about this will probably resurface in 20 years. But that’s ok, I’ve got my list--it’ll be huge by then!

To anyone I’ve talked to (or refused to talk to) about Hershey… thank you for being here. He was a loved old man. :-)

I'm Here!

I’m in the process of moving into my new place in Houston… and it’s fantastic! It’s in an older apartment complex with trees actually taller than the three-story buildings around it (a rarity in TX). The complex also has its own convenience store, which I should check out. Seriously this place looks like I’m in the northeast… I will definitely miss my old roommates and our westward facing balcony (with spectacular sunsets nearly every day) but man. I have so much space here too! And I have a new fellow UTHSCSAn partner-in-crime Diane! YAY!

Prepare for some amazement. I bought this alarm clock at Target for $14.99. I’m totally still skeptical, but this thing has an auto-time setting system!! After it's plugged in, the time, date, and day of the week show up. I just had to set it to the central time zone. The clock has an internal computer that keeps track of everything—including daylight savings—even when the power is off! And if we lose power at night, the “mini buzzer” will go off instead of the normal alarm. I wonder what the macro-buzzer sounds like. It says it has a "crescendo alarm"... like mitral stenosis! But, hopefully much more kinder on my heart. :-)

And if that wasn’t cool enough… it has a PROJECTOR. I press a button and it’ll project the time on the ceiling, or at any wall I point it to. So this means I can wake up to check the time without moving!! And the projected image can be red, green, or blue. Did I miss something in the advancements of alarm clocks?