Oh boy.

The kids got me sick.

There is this one baby who I loveeeeedddd and it was totally an epiphany moment. It won't be until many years from now, but there is actually a chance that I will have a kid and that never felt that real until the little baby I was holding was just so perfect. I was staring and staring at himand then he fell asleep and then I was still staring in awe of how amazing every little thing about him was. How, even though I've known this little fella for a week, I would do so much to have his health improve and want the very very best for him. I can't even imagine what it's like when its your own child.

Anyways. This weekend was me being sick, so at least that kind of slowed me down a tiny bit. Though I can't sit at home for more than 7 hours without exhibiting hardcore cabin fever...

I saw Off and Running, which was a documentary about an African-American girl who was adopted by two Jewish lesbians. There are also two other adopted siblings and it was very interesting and well done.

I also saw Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (LOVE IT) and (500) Days of Summer (pretty good).

I am still watching In Treatment, I am about to finish disk 5 of 9 of the first season. It's such a tradition to watch five episodes every weekend and it's something I look forward to during the week. I guess I'll have to find another show to replace the void that will happen in a few weeks.

So much for trying to update more.

I saw In Search of Memory a bit ago, a documentary/memoir-ish about Eric Kandel, a nobel peace prize winner in medicine. He oversees this huge huge neuroscience book that I oggled in undergrad so it was very cool to see the man that I had a nerd-crush on for 5 years now. And, well, his lab basically made a ton of advances in the biological basis of learning and memory that you totally take for granted when you're a student. So awesome.

I also started my drawing/painting class and it's going so well! Maybe it was just one good day, but still. I love it.

As for school, I'm on the pediatrics inpatient ward. I actually really like pediatrics in an academic sense (kids are rather not straightforward medically), but I am not a fan of sick kids, some of which will never get better. But overall it's pretty okay, the residents ignore us a lot which has its good and bad points and I am much more with it and MUCH better at presenting/writing patient notes now so it's nice to feel half-competent for once. I still obviously have a hugely long way to go, but I'll bask in whatever sunlight I can find. I just wish the day didn't start with a 5:11am alarm clock....

It's around the time to come up with next year's schedule and that is terrifying. BUT, I have it vaguely figured out and it consists of a lot of psychiatry in various institutions if they take me (hoping for Columbia, NYU, and U Washington in Seattle), core requirements at my school (ER, Medicine, etc), and a month or two away helping people, and a few months of a wicked awesome backpacking trip. Yes. But..... this MAY likely entail me moving back home at some point in the year to make this financially feasible. We'll see.

STAYCATION CONT.

Day 1 and I was bored out of my mind, so I'm going to philly tomorrow! To see a friend from college. It's only $20 for a roundtrip ticket, and the time spent on the bus will keep me from spending far more money, probably.

Speaking of money spendage, I went to Muji this morning, which is this Japanese store that has everything. It's main focus is on compact organization and thus I bought notebooks (ruled, unruled), a sketchpad, a tape dispenser, three mini-notebooks for my whitecoat, an eraser, and something else. They are so slick and small yet hold a LOT of writing.

I then proceeded to have some Butternut Squash and Apple soup with multigrain bread (mmm) and then watched Garbage Dreams, a documentary about Cairo's trash collectors. There is a town of 60,000 where everyone there specializes in trash collecting and recycling. They recycle 80% of their trash! Until the foreign trash collectors moved in and took over, so much of the movie was on how the Zaballeen (the older trash collectors) try to adjust to all that. It was totally mind blowing and eye opening. Who knew?

Then I went to Banana, Gap, Jcrew (all epic fails), and finally H&M to get my friends some clothes. I probably get too excited about buying mens clothing, but it is sooooo much easier. I got one of them a blue cashmere sweater (half off) and a black scarf and the other one of those hipstery checkered scarves. I loveeeeeee them but I don't know if he himself can actually pull it off....

And yoga was awesome, as usual. I am a little bit better at lowering myself from Chaturanga pose, which is a vast improvement. It's sort of like doing a push up.

I am about to watch In Bruges and drink red wine. I've seen that movie about a million times and it never gets old. British dark comedy with beautiful cinematography and a plot. Three things I enjoy!

Photos that are gonna be made into 20x30 posters

This is just a classic seattle landscapy picture, which will hopefully look good in big-form.
We had a blizzard a few weeks ago. Coincidently, this was the last time I was going to be in Wash Heights for awhile, since all of my friends have now moved out of there. (It was a huge hub of awesomeness for the past two years...) So, dark, gloomy, my fav.
Classic amsterdam canal photo.

This is in a nightclub in amsterdam. I love the colors (why isn't that done more in the US?) and the swooshiness of it. Possibly not in 20x30 form, but, well, maybe...

Not too awful for someone who literally only takes real pictures once a year or so.

STAYCATION.

Actually, I wish I had gotten my act together and gone somewhere, but alas.

Yesterday I saw Sita Sings the Blues and Antichrist. I actually wasn't huge into either, but Sita was so well done and Antichrist was... different.

Sita Sings the Blues was a musical animated interpretation of the Indian story the Ramayana. Basically there are two gods that are reincarnated as human beings and they have relationship issues and its juxtaposed with modern-day relationship issues. And its told from the female perspective, in a kind of feministy way, but I hate it when that word is used to describe realistic portrayal. So, yeah. And a lot of the music in it is Annette Hanshaw, a 1920s jazz musician. So, woah. Beautifully done, especially since Nina Paley did essentially all of it (voice, animation, writing, directing, editing). I can't even imagine the hours put into it.

Antichrist on the other hand was this fucked up sadistic gross, yet kind of great, story that probably had some biblical symbolism to it, but my religion-majored friend said no not really, so, I guess not. It wasn't enough of a plot or enough sheer grotesque in it to be really compelling, so, yeah. But it was fun to watch it with people in a living room for free, and pause and rewind certain parts.

Gym: Yesterday I also ran two miles (first run in three weeks, so was just gonna take what I can). Today will be yoga day with Jeff Scios (http://www.jeffscios.com/), this amazing amazing yoga instructor. It's one of the highlights of my week, by far.

The weekly plan for now is:

Run x 2

Yoga x 1

Rowing machine/spinning x1

Elliptical x1

Usually I am a solid 3 day a week kind of gal so let's see if we can bump it up to five....

Reading: Found lolita, read 30 pages. I can't read much more than that at a time so this will probably go very slowly.

Let's try something new. Categories.

Latest: We had a party last night and far more people than I was expecting showed up. I don't know why, but each time things like that happen I am just so thankful and blown away that people actually enjoy my and each others company.

I have the next week off! I am going snowboarding for some of it, which a bunch of friends, so that will be great. And possibly going to philly as well or going hiking or something. It'll be my last time off until May! No sick days, no personal days :(

Film/Media: Still watching in Treatment. It's slow and talky, in a great way. It's really good that I have netflix rather than the entire season in front of me, because I really would lock myself up for two days and just watch it.

Music: I've been listening to "Too Young" by the secret handshake CONSTANTLY. It's so sappy and pathetic, but I love it. And a little bit of the strokes as well.

Reading: Lolita, once I figure out where I put it.

Writing: Hiatus. I need to install celtyx onto the computer & work on Autumn Sun, the long one about the girl who's struggling through life.

Gym: Huge hiatus. Tomorrow....

I spent a bit of time in North Carolina last week over break. I helped a very dear college friend move down there (oh my goodness she has a ton of things :P) & during the stay met a bunch of amazing people and hung out with hers and her roommate's families a bit. The best was new years with a bunch of strangers, more or less. Zero expectations and thus zero disappointment. They were all wayyy southern and certainly know how to drink and be super friendly. And have lots of incredibly unhealthy food around thus ensuring that I felt totally fine the next day. Brilliant!

I miss them! It's surreal and kind of awesome that said-college-friend is living in an alternate universe with a whole set of new friends. In the end we are all similar, but culturally it is certainly a change.

I finalllllly got netflix, however not much has been viewed on it in light of an exam on friday. GROSS. I have season 1, disc 1 of In Treatment waiting for me though. And I saw Welcome to the Dollhouse, which I HIGHLY recommend.

On mondays I go to this yoga class taught by this incredible guy named Jeff. I've probably been about 8 times now, give or take. He knows his shit and is so completely hardworking and dedicated. I guess I just notice weird things, but the class has the perfect combination of easy and hard, balance, strength, and flexibility. The music is always on par to the what we are doing. Granted he teaches a ton of yoga classes each week in various places so he only has to do the prep work once a week, but still.

So today he talked about how the purpose of going to the gym and being healthy is to make something good of it. It sounds really obvious, but I just thought of how often I go with the thought of punishment and not with the thought of how it will make my body feel better. It's kind of sad, really.

Latest awesome download is The Bouncing Souls. 90s punk rock!