Hitting the fan...

So I came on here because I was anxious beyond anxious, which is a daily occurrence with this move. Honestly, I am not very optimistic about it... But, now its two hours after I woke up, which is two hours spent doing my ritual of calming myself down, so, all good for now.

The ritual is laying in bed and counting my blessings, email/facebook/google reader for blogs, then reddit.com for interesting things [there are always tons], then four seconds of an article about how to make long distance relationships work [typically one of the two google hits, I've read it 9 million times], then counting my blessings again, then trying to think that these worries will probably be silly long-term (I hope), and then reminding myself that worrying about it isn't actually conductive to anything. Although I guess it's conductive to being able to relate to my future patients, which on a serious note might actually help me (and more importantly, some of them).

I think it'll be a little better once I'm actually there. The worst is anticipation, I think.

Anyways, I remember starting this so that I can do artsy fun things and document it as a way of not going completely crazy in med school. I should probably be true to that and value things like that more. Yesterday I put a huge pile of amazing movies in my netflix cue with the help of newdirectors.org/film-archive and the archives of www.moma.org/explore/films. Yay!

And I saw 101 Reykjavik yesterday, which is the first Icelandic film I saw. Since going to Iceland in April, I'm completely and utterly obsessed with that little country. Maybe there will be more on that later, once I go back and retake a million photos. Anyways, about the movie... It was pretty dark, but hilarious in the "did that just really happen?" sort of way. And it was calm and glided through and yet the plot was still twisty. This is an actual readable review.

I also ate at two amazing places this week, for different reasons. Bal al Yemen  in Bay Ridge Brooklyn and Rouge Tomate on 60th and 5th.
Bab al Yemen is this authentic as hell Yemeni place, which is amazing and cheap and perfect and homey. We had these spicy kidney beans, which were good but a touch too dry for me, and this pan with meat on the bottom of it and then runny eggs and tomatoes on top, which was amazing (or the eggs were, I didn't eat the meat). They also gave us salad with this spicy-ish dressing, lamb broth soup (I actually tasted it! it was good), and huge huge fluffy bread. A hybrid of naan and injera?? 
The servers were the friendliest people ever and engaged us. They showed us their family
dagger and belt, which is olddd (it has a compartment for a scroll and ink)! And Bab al Yemen is the gate into Sana, the capital of Yemen, so they gave us a keychain of it! That and desert and tip came out to $31. Really.

Then, on the opposite end of price is Rouge Tomate. I had a yelp deal, $50 for $100 worth of food. I should have gotten two because even $100 for two people is kind of stingy. The portions are small in the sense of you really can't just order an entree and bounce... it's meant for you to order an appetizer, entree, and maybe desert. We split an app, ordered entrees, split desert, and split a bottle of (amazing) wine and it was a comfortable amount of food. I don't know what to say about this place except that it's the most amazing food ever. It's more or less all organic and sustainable (they even compost on site!) and they combine flavors like no other. Everything is complex but perfect. Yep....

Tonight is the big lets drink a lot because I am leaving party. Should be good!