this was totally spontaneous

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 6:24 PM |

jeannie, today marks your one year anniversary. miss you and love you.

tip and shout, indeed.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 10:59 AM |

i got one of these for christmas:



how exciting! burberry! thanks to one of my dad's old friends from the motherland.

the holiday has been sleepy and filled with lots of dvds. janice and i have made it about halfway through the freaks and geeks set. i also have family guy 1 & 2 to make my way through. the past 24 hours have been spent lounging around, watching tv, wasting time on IM, downloading music to my sister's ibook, receiving dirty holiday text messages from thelizabeth, playing board games with friends from high school at a fondue party (truth)..

new year's eve looms.. last year's was a depressing affair, let's hope this year's is a bit more spirited.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 9:54 PM |

i've spent all day wrapping presents, piling laundry, double-checking that i have my toothbrush/toothpaste/contact lens solution/eyeglasses/chapstick, drinking sweet delicious nectar (aka diet sunkist), eating munchies (no seriously, Munchies), burning cds for the drive home since the ipod is going on a cruise for christmas (i think i've burned myself less than 10 cds since acquiring an ipod), and wasting time on the internets.

since you asked.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 4:24 PM |

sleeping. yawning. video games. old ones. not that old. tony hawk. grand theft auto. sleeping. sleeping a lot. sleeping in late. going to bed extra early to sleep in extra late. movies. at the theatre. closer. incredibles. that was a good one. and at home. rushmore. royal tenenbaums. lots of wes anderson. lost in translation. sofia too. with popcorn. and butter. and giant diet sodas. christmas shopping. consumerism. seeing a lot of the mall. spend. spend. spend. wrap. rap. going to the dentist. leaving with a fat lip. getting a haircut. leaving with less hair and money. eating. lots of eating. junk food. thin mints. ice cream. ice cream! chips and things. i love doritos. mini-cheesecakes. amazing. homemade pizza. listening to music. a lot of music. catching up on things i didn't have time for. reading for leisure. calling up old friends. exploring the interweb. sleeping.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 2:26 PM |

it must be holiday season. somebody shoot me.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 8:48 PM |

my final exam for 2004 is in 12 hours. i'm halfway through my 3rd year, almost. it's time for christmas vacation. i just took a 90 minute "nap." i'm going to go for the all-nighter here, folks.

to commemorate (by commemorate, i mean completely distract myself), i present you with an early Chrismukkah (oh yes i just did) gift:


May or May Not, live on WLUW Radio One 12/16/04
(complete with between-song banter)

1. Who Was It
2. Best That You Can
3. Plight of the Navigator
4. Child of Silence
5. Gotta Get Out Of Here / In Space / Go To The Sun

(i don't know the song titles for parts 2 and 3 of the rock opera, so i made them up using the rule of Most-Obvious-Line-In-Chorus)
(favorite song is #4. favorite banter is after song #2, when stv says "and the world remains intact" and eric follows with a very unconvincing "all right")

enjoy them while you can, MOMN just sent me a cease-and-desist letter. i'm going to go study some mo', somebody start me a revolution. if anyone has any other MOMN live show mp3z hook me up at MOMNdood35349@aol.com thx peace

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 2:12 AM |

the fun doesn't end, i tell ya.

i got out of work early today. basically it involves most patients preferring not to allow male medical students in the room, and so i'll have 1 patient while the rest of the team has 5 and they're busy and i'm not doing shit, so i usually end up in the nurse's lounge reading. and since we've got our final on friday, my intern has been nice enough to send me home when she realizes that i'll be basically doing nothing all day. kind of a shitty way to close out the rotation, but theoretically this means that i won't have to pull an all-nighter on thursday. theoretically.

and i scheduled a haircut and a dentist appt today, i'm efficient. although i had to call about 5 different dentists (C*G*Z was all booked and marmar superstar's office was closed) to get an appt before 2005.

now i'm listening to the velvet underground and reading about gynecological diseases. reminds me of winter 2002, minus the gyney part.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 3:25 PM |

i've been pretty busy lately; last week i was on night float (read: working from 7pm until as late as 10:30am), and logged in about 75 hours from sunday to saturday. this friday we've got our shelf exam; they're keeping us on our toes.

so now i've delivered babies, helped with cesarean sections, watched twins get delivered (via c-section), then watched them being resuscitated by the peds residents, stayed awake well beyond my normal capabilities, and crammed in some reading here and there. today i had to take a nap from about 6:30-8pm just so i could function this evening (by function i mean keep studying). and tomorrow starts again at 4:30am. grrreat.

this past weekend was a nice break from all the baby-catching. saturday night lindsay and mollie threw a holiday party (i have never owned a christmas sweater and don't think i will be anytime soon), which was an entertaining affair, mostly because: 1) we drank $4/bottle pink champagne, 2) lindsay made these incredible mini-cheesecake things of which i would have eaten a million if nobody had been looking (but they were looking), 3) i played the drums in a basement, 4) chestnuts roasting on a grill outside in the butt-ass cold, 5) soup le loop and nate "i a dudes" bartley and 6) cops showing up across the street and everyone shushing and scattering like it was 1999. also there was someone dressed as santa claus and a french guy who had an accent (or so i overheard).

the next morning was spent at the come back inn where i didn't order corned beef hash for the first time in, like, forever. it just didn't feel right if ed wasn't there with his order too.

sunday afternoon, amy, caitlin and i drove down to meet up with the extended mchugh family and have dinner at a nice italian place in arlington heights. the food was excellent, the experience was memorable, the room was a bit small, i think everyone wore some sort of red, caitlin got carded (but got away with it). everyone ate so much bread and appetizers that i believe hardly anyone finished their entree (i finished mine for dinner today).

so we're in the home stretch. in a few days i'll be done with classes for the longest break i'll have until may or june, sometime. i need a haircut. i need to see a dentist. i think i might need an eye exam. maybe i'll ask for laser surgery to correct my busted ass retinas for christmas. that's realistic. i need to figure out what the dilly for new years eve. i need to finish christmas shopping. and i need to start thinking about finding a new place next year. the spot on westwash has been great, but 2 years is my limit. time for nicer digs.

all this, and i have to be up in less than 5 hours.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 12:33 AM |

4:45am: wake up
5:45am: leave for hospital
6:00am: arrive at hospital
11:00am: crash c-section (girl)
3:30pm: help deliver baby #1 (girl)
5:30pm: help deliver baby #2 (boy)
7:30pm: leave hospital
8:00pm: begin watching the o.c. disc 6
8:45pm: begin watching the o.c. disc 7
10:00pm: brush teeth; post on blog; academic guilt
10:15pm (projected): attempt to finish the o.c. disc 7; ignore guilt
11:00pm (projected): sleep +/- guilt
4:45am (projected): repeat cycle

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 8:38 PM |

yesterday was a full-blown, yuppies in suburbia experience.

i finished clinic just before noon and amy got out of work because they were overstaffed, so we had lunch with caitlin and watched a couple episodes of the o.c. (it was totally awesome). then amy and i embarked on our mission to finish as much christmas shopping as possible, which took us from downtown to west towne over the course of several hours. consumerism can be such a headache sometimes, but i think we were doing the christmas thing early enough that the shoppers weren't out in full force. i'm not really going to have much more time to do christmas shopping from here on out until after my exam, and that won't be until a week before the holiday.. and shopping is never pleasant that close to the date.

that being said, the downside of going christmas shopping with your girlfriend is that it allows you to buy gifts for everyone but your girlfriend. so of course i had her point out things she liked and began churning the gears in my head, trying to come up with something totally creative and surprising (and she's reading this post as i type). and now i have to think of a time i can sneak away and get all of these gifts when she's not looking.

then our goal-oriented shopping trip gradually morphed into a date - we went out to dinner (she picked friday's, which was funny because chuck and i used to go there when we had a craving for mall food. i miss their pieces of flair.) where i had a burger for the first time in i can't remember how long (when your girlfriend is a vegetarian, you become a vegetarian 90% of the time). it was so delicious. sweet delicious hot beef patty. mmmm. i'm hungry for it again. (it had bacon!)

the highlight of the night however, was after dinner when we went to go see "the motorcycle diaries." i have wanted to see that movie since it came out, and i was excited to finally see it. and OMG it was so good. really one of the best films i've seen all year (ever?), and should be required viewing for all medical students, avid travelers, spanish speakers, political activists, those interested in che guevara, humanitarians, and any other living breathing human beings. it was educational as well as entertaining, and one of those movies where you walk out and feel like you need to do something. yes yes, i've read that the movie glazes over parts of the book and pretties up certain aspects of che's life and character, but the overall feeling that the film leaves you with is most important. if a film makes you want to do more, to do something important, then that's a helluvafilm. this one makes the grade.

so go see it.

i have to go to bed early tonight; i begin labor & delivery rotation tomorrow, and must report by 6am. DAMN. sucksville, population: me.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 11:20 AM |

i went to a show last night.

jenna was in town to surprise her friend Matt the Bass Player of the band motion city soundtrack on his 26th birthday (she gave him pink and grey booty pants that say his name across the butt), so the gilmore silverman girls hauled me out to union south to check out the scene.

i felt so old. first off, nearly half of the crowd of underagers were wearing MCS shirts. i thought you weren't supposed to do that shit. back in my day, you wear the shirt of the band that's playing at the show you're at, that makes you that guy, and nobody wanted to be that guy (or girl).

second off, kids were MOSHING. the last time i think i moshed was when i saw the alkaline trio at o'cayz corral many many summers ago, and that wasn't even moshing really. it was being crammed shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other sweaty kids and we all sort of ebbed and flowed like a human ocean. the moshing, coupled with the sold out show (at $10 a pop! at club 770! freals!), made the entire place smell like a post-game locker room and felt like a sauna. it was pretty gross.

we actually didn't stay very long. amy had to be in to work at 7am and i have to be in at 8:30 so we needed to split. since there were 4 bands and MCS was last, we only stuck around for 3 or 4 MCS songs. i had no idea the kids loved them so much. i mean, half the crowd wore their MCS t-shirt/hoody TO the show.

(side note, it came out in conversation that Matt had heard of five dollar foundation before. i was a bit dumbfounded until i realized that jenna had told him. oh.)

p.s. if anyone knows the name of the song that's playing in revenge of the nerds while takashi is in the drunk tricycle race, let me know.

p.p.s. yesterday for dinner i had couscous and some pretzels and cheese.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 8:31 AM |

today i ate a bagel and an egg mcmuffin and a cup of coffee and a diet pepsi twist and a diet dr. pepper and 2 chips ahoy.

the o.c. is on tonight.

i downloaded a bunch of christmas music last night.

my toes are fucking freezing. time to put on socks! maybe eat another cooky.

this educational lesson brought to you by dr. j around 7:05 PM |