Blog Archives
Ultimate Coffee Date – August
Hey everyone! The last (and only) one I did was back in May; I had to miss the last two coffee dates due to boards studying, but…I passed, so it was all worth it!
Coffee is rampant everywhere I go. (Luckily, hospitals/clinics/pretty much every place we go to understands that we’re all chronically sleep-deprived individuals.) I actually haven’t had any yet, but I’ve only just finished my first week of clinical rotations, so there’s definitely still time!
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, I’d just like to say that I really, really love being out in the real world and getting to interact with living human beings once more. It’s a wonderful feeling, especially after the last 2 years of somewhat-solitude from my various study hibernations. That is not to say that it’s no longer an uphill battle anymore. Life in terms of constant-book-studying is over…in a way. In its place is learning “on the job.” This is good news to me because I’m very much a kinesthetic learner; I retain information much more easily if it’s something that I can actually do (hence, why the last two years were such a struggle). My preceptor’s really great about explaining things to me, the nurses are super helpful, and the patients are really sweet. They bring in fresh vegetables and home-canned foods for the staff. :] Our break room looks like a cafe, and drug reps come in and feed us 2-3x/week!
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, despite how awesome this is, I can’t shake the feeling that I feel like I know nothing. I feel pretty incompetent–there’s so much that I feel like I should know, and I’m sure my being nervous plays into it when my preceptor asks me questions that I don’t answer correctly, even though I definitely know the answers to them. But it’s just the first week, so as long as I continue to improve, mayhaps it’ll be okay!
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, I’d tell you that even though it’s difficult, I really love this. My preceptor started sending me in to do H&P’s for patients on Wednesday, so I’ve been getting a lot of practice in and learning a lot. Not knowing the answers motivates me to look things up so I’ll never get it wrong again. I’m getting better at asking questions (something I never used to do). Even though I feel like I don’t know anything, her patients seem to really like me, so I’d like to think I’m doing something right. :] Yesterday, one of the ladies told me I would make a great doctor and also told me that I was really pretty, haha.
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, I’d tell you that I’m getting really fed up with GoogleMaps. While it’s never failed me in the past, I guess there has to be a first for everything. Whilst trying to get to the hospital, I was led to the middle of two train tracks and it told me I’d arrived. There was a car dealership on the other side of one set of tracks, and a row of very small, fairly run-down houses on the other. (I wish I were kidding about this.) I’m going to a psych clinic in a little over a week, so I figured I’d prevent myself from getting into such a predicament again. (I wasn’t late, but that was not a fun experience.)
After sending me on a narrow and frighteningly pothole-ridden road through a cemetery…
…this is where Google sent me. At a population of 12k, this town is 4x the size of the one I came from. No, Google, I am not about to believe that I’ve arrived at the medical clinic.
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, I’d tell you that…I’m famous again! (This is what I meant about #6.) Hooray hooray!
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, I’d tell you that I’m secretly envious that my preceptor’s wearing jeans/flip flops, and it makes me wonder if that means that I don’t have to dress up every day either. I am notoriously low-maintenance (to a fault). My idea of dressing up is changing out of my yoga pants/sweat pants/shorts to a dark pair of jeans and a t-shirt, so for me to put on dress pants and a nice shirt or button-down each morning is a struggle. There’s only one thing that’s not true on this list, and it’s because I don’t drink beer (or any alcohol, for that matter).
(Seriously, this is my life.)
So there we have it! I hope everyone’s been doing well! Things that I’ve been wondering lately:
- What’s an absolute dealbreaker for you when you’re choosing your doctor? (Or something you absolutely would not tolerate with an established doctor?)
- What’s something your doctor has done or said to you that made you feel much more comfortable with them, and that s/he was really just there to do whatever s/he could to help you get better?
- What’s something you think your doctor could improve upon?
This linkup is hosted by fellow GGS ambassadors–Nikki, Jill & Lynda!
Foodie Friday: Caprese Salad with Roasted Beets
Welcome to our weekly Foodie Friday link up! I’m linking up with Montana from Pretty Lil Mudder, Annmarie from the Fit Foodie Mama, Emily from Whatever Floats Your Oats, and Esther from Chocolate Runner Girl to create awesome healthy recipes each week! Today’s theme is Perfect Picnic (since summer is great for enjoying picnics + the awesome weather :D ). Make sure you hop around to check out all the amazing recipes in this link up and feel free to add your recipes as well!
I’m generally not a fan of turning on my oven in the summer, but my spoils of war from my midnight raid were calling. I needed to find a use for the beets, beet greens, tomatoes, and fresh basil, so I decided to do a little twist on one of my favorite salads. However, it kinda sucks to turn on your oven just for the sake of roasting one beet, so you can either make them in bulk, or if you have any other veggies you’d like to roast, they might as well join in on the fun! (I roasted several eggplants + 2 beets. To save time while I was waiting for those to be done, I prepared the rest of the salad and also made a beet green + egg scramble.)
Caprese Salad with Roasted Beets
This (obviously) isn’t the whole recipe. I was trying to artfully arrange a small portion of it, but pretty much gave up. :x
Ingredients:
-2 large tomatoes, sliced
-1 large beet
-fresh mozzarella, shredded
-fresh basil, shredded
-generous drizzle of EVOO
-generous drizzle of red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar
-freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 375.
2) Cover beets in aluminum foil and drizzle with red wine or balsamic vinegar and EVOO. Let it hang out in the oven for ~1 hour.
3) Slice tomatoes and shred mozzarella + basil into a bowl/plate.
4) When beets are done roasting, dice them and let cool, then add to the other ingredients and mix well.
5) Sprinkle with pepper and serve!
This is the rest of it (with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and…without the beet because I hadn’t diced it yet)!
Interested in getting to know more about any of your super-awesome co-hosts? :]
- Farrah | blog | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
- Montana | blog | facebook | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
- Annmarie | blog | facebook | twitter | instagram | pinterest | bloglovin’
- Emily | blog | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
- Esther | blog | facebook | instagram | pinterest | twitter | bloglovin’
Together, our first initials could spell out E-FAME. heh heh heh.
(…Alright, I’ll show myself the door. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Next week’s theme is smoothies! Hope you’ll join us!)
Very Inspiring Blogger Award
I was nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award by Montana over at Pretty Lil Mudder! Thank you so much! :] (Check out her blog for super awesome race info and workout ideas!) We’re also starting up a recipe linkup soon with a few other ladies from Girls Gone Sporty. Stay tuned (Fridayyy)!!!
According to the post, the rules are:
- Thank and link to the person who nominated you
- List the rules and display the award
- Share seven facts about yourself
- Nominate 15 other blogs you enjoy, then comment on their posts to let them know you have nominated them
7 Random Facts About Me
- I get called upon by the guys (HBLers + 1) to help move things [aka furniture] around. I find this very flattering. The last time this happened, my friend’s mom happened to overhear and protested, “Don’t ask her to do that for you!” (M: No, Mom, you don’t understand! She’s really really strong! She does powerlifting and holds a state record for deadlifts! She’ll be fine. And we can’t move it without her.)
- By the time I graduate medical school, I will be in about a quarter of a million dollars in debt. This does not include interest and also depends upon me continuing to live on <$10k/year, so mayhaps you can see why I get a slight bit annoyed when people say that we go into the field of medicine “for the money.” (I really don’t think I’d be picking the least-paying specialty if that were the case.) But one of my life-long goals is to be able to spend my life doing something that I love, so here we are.
- My goals when/if I ever swim out of my student loan debt are to pay off my parents’ house, take them on a cruise, fund no-kill animal shelters (Please Save A Cat + Friends For Life are biggies on my list) and donate to the clinic I used to volunteer at. I’d also eventually like a house with an awesome kitchen, fruit trees + an herb/vegetable garden, and a room with high ceilings that can be a dance studio
- The only time I willingly call people is when I’m driving (relax, I’m using a headset/just one earbud)…but I still usually hate talking on the phone (#25 of 25 Things You Didn’t Know). This is probably why long-distance relationships would be a bad idea for me. (Y’know, other than the fact that I’d only be able to pencil him in once every couple days in probably-10-minute-intervals.
- I can fall asleep anywhere at almost any time, within a matter of minutes. The floor, a couple chairs, standing up…you name it. (Sometimes, I seriously think I have narcolepsy, but it’s more likely just chronic sleep deprivation…?) Symptoms of narcolepsy include:
- Excessive sleepiness or sudden muscle weakness
- Cataplexy
- Sleep paralysis
- Hypnagogic hallucinations
- Automatic behaviors (like driving home and not remembering how you got there)
- Disrupted major sleep episode (disruption of the longest sleep episode that occurs on a daily basis)
…and now that I think about it, my dad can do the same thing. Crud. (Nooo, orexin, stay with me!) Even if I really do have it, I’d like to think that I’m a pretty effing high-functioning narcoleptic. :O
- I’m not very good with improvisation, or being extremely articulate with words (spoken, anyway). Given the opportunity, I plan it all out to excruciating detail before I start talking. More on that on Saturday. :O!
- If food is in front of me, it tends to disappear. Especially if I’m preoccupied with doing something else. I spend most of my day thinking about food, eating, or planning my next meal(s).
Unofficial #8: I’m really, really terrible about nominating people because I always feel like they’ll feel obligated to respond even if they’re super busy (also because all[?] of the people I wanted to nominate have already been nominated already! Go figure. What can I say? We have good taste in people. Can I just…ask you, my dear readers, to share random facts about yourself? :]?
JUST KIDDING. I’m nominating the ladies I’ve been doing Fitness Fridays with because they are awesome and have not in fact been tagged yet (as far as I can tell, anyway)! ;)
I’d also just like to note that Trish is wonderful and awesomely amazing. <3 She went to the farmer’s market over in Ithaca earlier this(? I’ve lost track of dates) month and got me some pepper jelly! 3 homemade blueberry muffins using blueberries she’d picked herself! (Super jealous. I wanna go berry picking!) I’ve been enjoying it with a smoked jalapeno cheese spread and maple chicken sausage patties stuffed with a beet greens scramble (recipe will be up in a couple days) in a pita bread pocket. <3
Fitness Fav on Friday | Inspiration
I can’t believe it’s nearing the end of July already. Where did all the time go?! This marks the last of this month’s Fitness Fridays.
This week’s theme is on where (or what) we draw our inspiration from.
My first two years of undergrad were frighteningly unhealthy, mostly because of my course load (let’s just say that I had enough units to graduate by the end of my second year) and the fact that I didn’t know any better. Granted, I’m sure it could’ve been worse. I ate healthily (usually), but in large quantities. (Alright, fine. This really hasn’t changed too much. ._.) I didn’t drink alcohol, but I didn’t exercise very often. My second year was the worst. I was slaving through organic chemistry and very heavily questioning my life choices. A typical day consisted of many, many cups of green tea, Nature Valley Oats n’ Honey granola bars throughout the day (I consumed over 500 that academic year. I am unfortunately not exaggerating.), and some sort of hopefully healthy-ish dinner. To this day, I can’t eat those granola bars anymore because it reminds me of ochem.
If you’ve ever happened upon the “fitness” section of my frighteningly long “About” page (forgive me; I love to write), you’d know that once upon a time, I made the glorious decision to change my major from Biological Sciences to Exercise Biology. It was easily one of the best decisions of my life, and those last two years of undergrad still remain as some of the best times of my life.
I absolutely fell in love with the major, and also had a little more freedom with my schedule, so before I knew it, on top of the Tahitian + hula dancing I was already doing, I was also taking kickboxing classes, abs/back conditioning, archery, tumbling, learning to lift weights, running…I tried it all and loved most of it (I really did try with long-distance running, but my apparent lack of type I muscle fibers just makes weightlifting so much more appealing). One of my most recent pipe dreams would be to be able to compete for WBFF, but given the amount of time and dedication it would take (coupled with the current road I’m taking), I don’t think it’d be a viable option. :[
I love the way lifting weights/exercise makes me feel, and it’s great to set state records and be awesome and all that. I will admit that I draw part of my inspiration from my dreams of badassery…but what matters more to me goes beyond that.
I want to lead by example. My hope is to go into family medicine (possibly sub-specializing in sports medicine) and to really be able to show my patients what I mean when I counsel them on incorporating exercise into their life, or tell them to start or maintain a healthier diet. I’d like to be able to give them concrete examples and tailor it to their individual needs. (I basically did this throughout the last two years, even though all my patients were fake.) I learn best by doing, so the past two years of medical school were really difficult for me. Matters were not helped by the fact that we were the guinea pig class to the new curriculum, but what matters is that we made it through. (I like to refer to our class as the “spirited survivors.”)
I’m always the first to admit that I am definitely not a genius (nowhere close :[ ). I got to where I am today because of my persistence and determination. I hope that continues to pull me forward, but for now, LEMME BASK IN THE GLORY OF NEVER HAVING TO TAKE THIS MONSTROSITY AGAIN. <3
I get to start my clinical rotations and start seeing real patients on Monday! Words cannot express how ecstatic I am right now. :]
This marks the last of Fitness Fav on Friday–go check out jvkom next week for a Feature Friday!
Fitness Fav on Friday (Places)
This week’s linkup is on our favorite places to get in our fitness, so here’s one of my favorite places ever!
My favorite gym in the world is the ARC (Activities & Recreation Center) back at Davis. I was massively spoiled there and no other gym I’ve ever been to since then has not compared. I also love being outside. If I could move a squat rack outside (and perhaps a giant truck tire!) to work out, it’d be awesome. :D!
Fridays have apparently become my time to provide life updates, so…I’ve moved, yet again. I’ve lived in …8(?) places since 2007. ._. This apartment complex is quite possibly the nicest place I’ve ever lived in. It’s also the most expensive, even with the $45/month discount my friend managed to get for me, but if I keep pinching pennies like nobody’s business, I should be okay.
I got to Kentucky on Sunday evening. As it is, I’m only about 1/3 of the way moved in because my Tetris-ing skills unfortunately have not transcended to unearthly levels. I’m currently leeching wireless from a network called, “get your own” (yepyep, very fitting), but hopefully by August, I’ll be done! I’m hoping I can share internet with Hira, and also may or may not have left a somewhat creeper-y message on my neighbor’s door. (…It was to ask if we could split the wifi bill if it didn’t work with Hira.) The creeper-y part is because I don’t actually know my neighbor, but…does it make it any better if he’s also a student, but a year above me?
Minimalist living. Mike found out I didn’t have a bed and loaned me his extra for the week (he’s returning it on the weekend).
Orientation was throughout this week. We had a wholeeee ton of information thrown at us on Monday, but I’m super grateful that we’re in this region. Our dean and site coordinator really seem like they care about us. :D
Our first ice-breaker involved “2 Truths & a Lie,” which I always find kinda fun. :D For people who know me, the lie is pretty easy to detect.
- I’ve been living at a cat shelter for the past 2 months.
- My favorite subject in high school was biology.
- I hold a state powerlifting record.
None of my non-friends suspected that bio was not one of my favorite subjects in high school. (English, journalism and treble ensemble!!!)
We got fed lunch and there was enough left, so I got dinner too!
We had a couple team-building exercises. One of them involved using the 6 pipecleaners we were given to create “something medically-related,” but we were only allowed to use our non-dominant hands. Our group immediately opted to make Borrelia burgdorferi.
It’s beautiful!
Most of the other teams made stethoscopes, and her dean has dubbed our class as the least creative group she’s had thus far. (Noooo! :'( ) Past classes have made an ambulance, a wheelchair, a bunch of teeth with braces…etc. She said she liked our Lyme disease creation though, but she can’t display it in the case or it’ll get smushed.
fairyburger 