The medical schooling made me do it...

Soooo......

I would say since I've began medical school, once a year, I have an incident.

Not having anything to do with the hospital or patients, but rather...

A night of, what starts out as a good time, but quickly turns into an "I can't see straight because I drank too much" incident.

I don't do anything regrettable perse....

But during the aftermath of these nights I usually wake up (with my clothes and makeup on from the night before) with a "Oh Gawd I can't believe I did that" thought running through my head.

I think its because the lack of true hangover symptoms (I don't have nausea, vomiting, or splitting headaches), that I've had a repeat of this type of scenario each year....I'm just not learning.

2006 - Grenada, White House Party, too much Tequila. Passed out, roommate had to put my pjs on.

2007 - Windsor, G&Ps 50th Anniversary, too much Cognac and Slivo. Got lost/abandoned at bar, managed to get in cab to get home.

2008 - Park, Diana's 27th B-day, too much Vodka and Crown. Annoying phone calls next day.

2009 - FLL, Salsa Bar, too much Vodka. Annoying phone calls following 3 days.

The only real underlying association in all of these incidents is medical school. I can't say that its peer influenced, because there were different people at each event. Lets hope next year I'll be a better person, at least its out of the way for this year. Anyways, here's a pic from last weekend when all of my cranial nerves were intact. These are the two girls I met from Argentina and Columbia.

Haircuts and Hummus

First, let me start with the Hummus. While reading the nutritional information for Tribe Hummus, this was listed:

Well I'm certainly glad it doesn't have anthrax in it! Deep down inside I know all food has its own array of microorganisms, but talk about covering yer asses in this day and age of bacterial outbreaks in food....

Onto Haircuts:
For the last few years, I have been getting my hair cut/trimmed/maintained at the walk-in salons. This includes: BoRics, First Choice, and most recently, SuperCuts. As soon as I see who will be cutting my hair I can tell you whether or not I will be getting a decent cut (you can tell by the way they style their own hair). I go to these places for a few different reasons:

1) I have no source of income, and cannot afford a regular stylist that will charge me $35 + tip for a simple trim.
2) My schedule does not afford me to make and keep future appointments, and having no car means I have to go with whatever is close by.
3) I like to keep my vanity in check.....its just hair, right?
4) How badly can someone mess up a trim?

I would say that 60% of the time I can get a decent haircut from these places, with no complaints. The other 40% of the time my experiences have ranged from me going home and fixing a few areas myself, to returning the next day and having them fix it free of charge.

Today's trim fell in the 40% category. How is possible to leave a hair salon with your hair dirtier than when you started? I'll explain how:

- Entered hair salon the morning after hair was washed (hair is relatively clean).
- Hairstylist proceeded to spray my hair down with water, and then.....smoothed gel on just the top of my head (WTF? I'm just getting a trim)
- Then she asks why I only want a 1/4" taken off when "clearly I have uneven ends".
- I explain that my ends are not uneven, they are called "layers". At this point my mind is telling me to just get up and run, but instead I sit and smile and remind myself not to be vain.
- Then I see the lightbulb go on in her eyes "Ah yes, layers, I see!" she replies.
- So I get the 1/4" trim as requested, but somehow, only a third of my bangs were trimmed (something I'll be fixing when I get home).
- Lastly, a loonie (instead of a dime) size dollop of hair serum gets smoothed into my semi-wet hair.

By the time I walked home and my hair was dry, my bangs were an oily mess, and the top of my hair was stuck to my head from the gel. I couldn't help but burst into laughter at my newest 'hair shenanagan'. At least my ends are clean, and nothing a shampoo and bang trim can't fix.

And as a side note: Never ever ever ever get lowlights at one of these establishments.

My mouth is watering

You know, sometimes I can really sympathize with people that develop liver failure from chronic alcoholism. Although I'm sure they're not making stuff like this:

Skittles Vodka

Sara.....you know what were doing when I get back!

Thanks Chris for the link :)

Language Overload

In South Florida much of the population speaks Spanish, so I've been working on learning the basics with Rosetta Stone language program and what I pick up at the hospital.

And I've also been brushing up on my Serbian as I'm visiting the fam in May.

This morning there was a phone call, and someone wanted to leave a message for the landlady, but she only spoke French....which technically wasn't a problem as my understanding of French isn't too bad.

But in the process my basic French got very jumbled by the mix of newly learned Spanish. And for some reason the French I was speaking was preceeded by thinking the sentences in Serbian before I could verbally translate to French.

Very very confusing......
Plus it doesn't help that I'm working partial night shift right now, so the sleeping is a little impaired....

An Update

I've finally made it and settled into my destination in Weston, Florida. I first spent a few days in Clearwater with my Grandparents, before they drove me down here yesterday. I'm a little disappointed to report I did not see any alligators during the drive through alligator alley.

I'll post some pictures once I finish organizing my situation. But let me start by saying that I'm living in a 3 bedroom townhouse in a beautiful gated community......so please somebody come visit me and this sublime weather!

However dorky these next points may sound, these are some things that are very exciting to me:

1. There is a landline I can make and receive calls from and to Canada (woot! woot! I haven't had a land line phone number since I started med school!!!)

2. There is a functioning t.v. and basic cable inside the room I'm staying in (this is craziness - I got ready to the morning news!)

3. I'm sleeping in a full sized bed (this is a real treat as I usually end up in single beds).

4. Everything of necessity and beyond is within a one mile walking radius.

5. There is an abundant Spanish speaking population, so I feel I'll really be able to learn and practice my Spanish!

Anyways, other titillating events for me include:
- outdoor exercise in shorts!
- putting on sunscreen!
- a pool!

At this very moment things are fantastic. I formally start my rotation tomorrow, so I'll let ya know how I'm faring after I find out the call schedule haha.