Livin' On Tulsa Time

My Europe Trip- Hallstatt

2011-04-19T23:28:00.003-05:00

After navigating the Austrian railroad systems, we arrived in the tiny alpine town of Hallstatt. In making our Europe bucket list, one of the things we both wanted was to hike in the Alps. I added a stroll through a quintessential alpine village, and Hallstatt gave us both.

Hallstatt is this tiny little town, which happens to be one of, if not the, oldest continually inhabited locations in human history. The reason for this is a rich salt mine in the mountain above the village. They have found remains from thousand of years ago there. Since these stone age folk, the place has been used by Rome, various small kingdoms, and the Hapsbergs. They still mine the salt (which comes out pink) today, and Laura and picked up a few bottles.

Anyway, here's the town:

And here's a few pics from our stroll through the Alps:

After a few days, several bottles of great Riesling, and witnessing a genuine May Pole, we caught a bus through the Julian Alps and straight to Venice...

My Europe Trip- Vienna

2011-03-13T18:41:00.003-05:00

Now I can't really remember why we started with Vienna. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Anyway, whatever the reason, we embarked from Portland, Oregon (Where had just moved all our belongings 4days prior), and flew almost halfway around the world to Austria with only a backpack each. We only spent a couple of days in Vienna, but it was great. Amidst wienerschitzel, extravagant cafes, various kinds of wursts, and a sea of Arians, we took in the higher points of the city.

The first stop was the Belvedere, where we got to bum around and old Hapsburg-era mansion and check out Monets.

From there we meandered over to St. Michael's church, which was built in 1147. It has since been added on to several times, though not since the mid 1400's. There I lit the first of many candles across southern Europe, and we climbed the 350 steps up one of the towers, and got a bird's eye view of Vienna.

Before we left, we went to the Haus Der Musik. It's basically the OMSI of music museums, which means it had endless rooms of crazy hands-on music sound exhibits with a Euro-punk vibe throughout. The grand finale of the museum, though, was Laura getting to conduct the Vienna Orchestra through a full piece. The orchestra was a recording on a huge projector, but it went faster or slower and got louder or softer depending on your conducting.

The next morning we hopped on a train straight into the Alps...

My Match

2011-03-13T18:15:00.004-05:00

So, it's been a while since I've blogged, and a lot has happened.

I'll try to tell things in chronological order.

First, I matched in Oregon.

As an aside, this upcoming thursday is the 2011 match. It's so weird to be on the other end of things now. I would have been way way more nervous if I'd known just how arbitrary the whole decision making process is.

But, as fate would have it, I matched in Oregon.

Here are some pics from the celebration, which was on the top floor of the Mayo hotel in downtown Tulsa:

Here's the view from the rooftop, just outside the penthouse:

These are the other Tulsa folk who God smiled upon and matched in Portland:

Another shot of the Match Day festivities

Immediately after this party, Laura and I changed, jumped in the already packed truck, and took of for a cabin in the Ozarks. We hid out there without cell phones or indoor heating (Just a sweet fireplace) and planned our move to Portland and now possible trip to Europe.

My Tradition

2010-02-28T19:39:00.004-06:00

First off, let me announce that Laura and I sold our Ram. Though we had our ups and downs, it was a great truck to drive, and in the end we sold it for more than we bought it. And, it was of course way better than Zach's.

So in keeping with our tradition of only owning blue vehicles, Laura and I went on an expedition to Topeka, Kansas, and came back with this:
our new old Jeep CJ7! It's rough and bare, but it's ridiculously fun to drive.
Now we have to think of a name for her...

My Family Heirloom

2010-02-24T22:03:00.003-06:00

Tonight I was over at my parents' house, and my dad handed me this family heirloom:
This was my great grandmother's. Her name was Beatrice, she kept a spittoon under rocking chair, and she used to take me to the local grocery store to get Moon Pies.
Now, you may be wondering what in the world this is. Well, it is a printed extra long revival sermon explaining very clearly that alcohol is the tool of the devil.
Here are some excerpts I have stumbled across in my first five minutes of reading:

"The booze business is the best friend the devil has, and it is the greatest enemy the Lord has. A booze seller has locked arms with the devil... booze lies in wait for the unborn. Booze is a killer and a liar.
Yes, BOOZE IS THE BEST FRIEND THE DEVIL HAS ON EARTH."

[In response to a Pub owner saying that he sells alcohol legally and does not tolerate drunkenness in his establishment. He sells only to "decent people."]
"'Friend,' replied a Quaker, 'that is the most damnable part of thy business. If thee would sell to drunkards and loafers, thee would help to kill off that race and society would be rid of them.'"

"The booze crowd lives in the most fashionable houses in town.
The booze crowd rides in the finest cars in town.
The booze crowd sits back in their easy chairs while their patrons sweat.
The booze crowd wears the finest clothes in town.
The booze crowd eats the finest steaks.
The booze crowd's little children wear nice little warm sweaters and shoes.
...I MUST SAY JUST ONE MORE TIME- WINE IS A MOCKER!"

You can't make this stuff up.

My dream car

2009-09-04T16:34:00.002-05:00

This was parked next to the hospital yesterday.

My Poor Patients

2009-08-18T06:43:00.000-05:00

What not to say to the new mom who brought her 2 month old in for a checkup:

"Her name's Adelaide? That's a great name. It's what I named my dog."

My Clinical Example

2009-07-09T21:33:00.003-05:00

I've been studying for taking test #2 of 4 for my medical license. I'm pretty sure it's like 10 times harder than taking the Bar exam.
Anyway, this is an excerpt from a clinical example they gave for a lung abscess:
In fact, the most striking feature of his presentation is not his physical exam, but the fact that as soon as you enter the room, there is such a powerful, bad odor that you look under the bed in the drawers to see if a decomposing, dead animal can be found when suddenly you realize it's your patient's breath. No dead animals are found.

My New Chart

2009-06-18T19:33:00.004-05:00

For Zach.

This is posted on the wall of the residents' station in the hospital.
No joke.

My Garden

2009-06-18T19:29:00.002-05:00

Here's a few pics of my garden these days.

My Lunch Lady

2009-05-04T21:08:00.000-05:00

The lunch lady at the hospital had this nametag:

"Patricia Titsworth"

My amazing niece

2009-05-03T15:21:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we hung out at my brother's house for a Terminator marathon. When we got there, my adorable niece

asks if "Keesh" is coming. By "Keesh" she meant "Keith." She had met Keith the week before when we babysat her for a while. Anyway, we told her that he wasn't coming, and she goes, "Okay good, 'cause he was scary."
After we stopped laughing, Laura tried to explain that Keith wasn't scary. It went something like, "Keith isn't scary. He's just tall and really skinny. Kind of like a bean."
To which my niece replies, "Like a scary bean!"

Also, this is her making her Zoolander face:

My provost

2009-04-28T21:18:00.002-05:00

So the OUHSC provost, while in the process of developing a swine influenza task force for the zero swine influenza in Oklahoma, sent out an email to the entire OUHSC community which included the following list "basic personal steps" to stop flu transmission:
1. Wash your hands thoroughly and often with soap and warm water for 15 to 20 seconds, especially after you cough or sneeze.
2. When soap and water are not available, alcohol-based hand gels are effective.
3. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, and throw the used tissue in the trash. If you don’t have a tissue, cover your cough or sneeze with your shirt sleeve.
4. Suspend courtesy hand-shakes and kisses for the time being.
5. Avoid touching you eyes, nose or mouth. Try not to touch surfaces that may be contaminated with the virus.
6. Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
7. If you get sick with flu, stay home from work or school and limit contact with others

So now I can no longer give my patients courtesy kisses, nor can I touch my eyes, nose, or mouth. I must also be careful not to touch any surfaces that could have the virus on it- not a problem in a hospital. And my personal favorite, I, as a consciousness medical professional, need to avoid close contact with sick people.

Did I mention there are no documented cases of the swine flu in Oklahoma?

My Train Wreck

2009-04-24T09:15:00.004-05:00

When I got into the ED yesterday, they tell me that the Electronic Medical Records system is down. Since the health care field is moving toward using this, there are whole sections of the hospital that use only electronic records. The ED is one of those. So when they say that the computers are down, what they're really saying is that we have to write all our lab/x-ray/CT/consult orders by hand, and have couriers deliver them where they're supposed to go. And we have no way of knowing what the results are unless a courier brings them back. Take x-rays for example. The image is taken digitally, read on the computer, and the report is sent back to the ED in an e-mail-like fashion. When the system crashes, they have to find x-ray film, the radiologist has to do the old fashioned holding up to to a big light thing to read it, and then they have to send a hand written report back to us. The result of all this is chaos and everything taking hours instead of minutes.
On top of this, one of our three CT scanners broke earlier this week, and has not yet been repaired. Since three is barely more than enough, we've been making do with just the two, it's just slowing us down a little.
A few hours into the shift, the computers finally come back online. We all rejoice, and everyone goes into overdrive trying to re-enter everything in the computer systems. We're doing alright when, twenty minuted after the computers come back, the power goes out. Yes, we were sitting in pitch black in the hospital for a little bit. Of course, the hospital has generators that come online quickly, so people didn't die.
Now, this power outage did two things. First, it took the computers back offline. Not only did this mean we were back in our previous predicament, it meant that all those bajillion orders we were frantically entering just disappeared. The best part is, we weren't sure what made it through and what didn't. So for the rest of the shift we were getting half our labs back, or discovering that no labs had been done at all. Second, when the power went out, it scrambled one of the two remaining CT scanners. When I left, there was a 5-6 hour delay for anyone needing a CT, and the low-priority section of the ED had discharged only one patient in the last four hours because they couldn't get CTs.
The ED was a disaster. Since everything was going so slowly, our patient load backed up out of control. There were people laying and sitting wherever there was an empty space in the hallways. People were being treated wherever they were. It was like a war movie or something.
Hopefully today will be better.

My procrastination

2009-04-22T09:50:00.002-05:00

I realized yesterday that I haven't really done any of the extra work for ER. So, now I'm doing doing a month's worth of reading, quizzes, and case presentations in the next three days.

And I just spilled coffee on my crotch.

This is going to be great.

My time in the ER

2009-04-12T23:18:00.001-05:00

or "ED" if you keep up with fashionable new medical terminology.

Anyway, I haven't blogged in a while, so I'm combingin all my recent happenings in one convenient post.

Why I Love America
Guy has average/mediocre job in America.
Guy can't afford good health insurance in America.
Guy develops Schizophrenia.
Guy can't get adequate medical treatment in America.
Guy loses job.
Guy still can't get adequate medical treatment in America.
Guy becomes an alcoholic because the voices in his head aren't as loud when he's drunk.
Guy becomes homeless.
Guy gets jumped under a bridge.
Guy comes to the ER, gets stitched up, and still can't get adequate medical treatment because there's no one to pay for psychiatric therapy.
Guy gets kicked out of ER two hours later.

I love it.

ER Quote of the Day (For Jen)
"There's not that much that Percocet and Valium can't fix."
-my attending physician

I'm not going into ER
When I came to medical school I figured I'd go into ER. I thought I'd love the shift work, and love never being on call. I remember thinking the last thing on earth I'd want to go into was Family Medicine. I thought it'd be the crappiest, most boring field in medicine. Well, once I actually did Family Medicine, I freaking loved it. I loved being in the clinic, I loved keeping up with patients that I was treating, and I loved having a regular schedule. Still, though, I hadn't given up on ER.
All that changed on Tuesday. I was presenting a patient to my attending, and this guy was on insulin and four different diabetes medications. That's absolutely ridiculous. So, I bring this up to my attending, and he just looks at me for a little bit, and then says, "Oh, I was waiting for you to get to the part that I'm supposed to care about." Now, to be fair, he wasn't being a jerk, he was just pointing out that in the ED, we can't manage every aspect of a patient's health care because we don't have the time or the resources. That's just not what the ED is for. Anyway, right then it hit me- I want to manage this guy's medications. I cared about what would happen to him after I left, and the next day, and a year from now. I liked talking to my patients, and I liked looking at the big picture of their care. And I really don't care about doing some awesome procedure or managing a trauma patient.
Also, I really hate being in hospitals.
So all this to say that at that moment I realized that I am going into Family Practice, and I'll be probably be poor, and I'll probably take it up the butt from Medicare, but I will be happy.

My Life Really is Like the TV Shows
Keith came to town today. He starts his ER rotation tomorrow. Being the kind, even saint-like, friend that I am, I told him to come up while I was working tonight and I'd show him around. Right, so I do, and Keith leaves to go home and I walk back into the ED. As I walk in the door, paramedics blow through the outside doors with a guy on a stretcher getting CPR. The attending looks at me and goes, "Josh! Get some gloves on take over. Now." and so I rip off my white coat, grab some gloves, jump on this guy's chest, and start doing compressions. Unfortunately, the guy dies in the middle of this. So then we're backed up, and I turn right around and start seeing a new patient while my attending goes to break the news to the family. All in a day's work, I guess.

ER quote of the day

2009-04-04T17:06:00.002-05:00

Guy rushes into our section-
"Hey, is this the place with the ruptured orb? No? Oh, okay."
-rushes back out.

["orb" is in reference to someone's eyeball]

My first night in the ER

2009-03-31T08:44:00.002-05:00

Within the first hour I'm there, two people come come in with heart attacks.
A while later, this tiny Vietnamese lady comes in who speaks no English and hates doctors. She has this huge bleeding lump on her head that the family says has been there all day. The family swears she didn't fall, but as I'm sewing up wound, the CT comes back showing a significant subdural hematoma.
At the same time, this huge guy is brought in because he was found lying in the street, unresponsive, with white powder all around his nose. The rest of the shift was spent making sure this guy stayed very "relaxed" in a quiet room. With two police officers outside just in case we failed at relaxing him.
The rest of the shift was pretty laid back, until the end, when a really nice old lady comes in with all these crazy wounds. What happened? She was out with her tiny little old lady (or Zach Herbert) dog, and these two Great Dane mutts run and go after her little dog. What does this lady do? She grabs her dog and holds it above her head while these two dogs maul her. She had bites that seriously went to the bone. When neighbors came out and chased the dogs off, she was still holding her dog up. That's legit.

Quote of the day

2009-03-18T22:50:00.000-05:00

"Have you ever known a fat person who didn't like yellow?"
-Laura Reese

And so it begins...

2009-03-17T11:48:00.002-05:00

Sunday was a very busy day for me. First, I moved my home-brewed beer over to a secondary fermenter. I had this idea of brewing beer a couple of months ago, and it went something like this: "Well, I've made wine and I'm aging some whiskey, what other alcohol can I make?" and of course beer was next on the list. Since I've never brewed beer before, and it seemed like a fairly complicated process (which equals a high likelihood I'll screw it up), I decided to scale down the operation. A typical recipe makes 6 gallons of beer. That's a heck of a lot of beer, especially if it's messed up and makes you go blind. So I decided to scale it down to a single gallon and test it out. There are two problems already with this idea- first, it reduces the ingredients to an obscenely small scale, and second, I didn't have Laura double check my math. Nevertheless, I persevered and will have about ten bottles of beer just in time for the Crawfish Boil.

Second, and more the reason for the title, I also started a new batch of wine. This current batch is Pinot Noir. I'm excited, because this is our favorite wine, and it's normally pretty expensive in the stores. My fermenting it myself, it comes out to about 3 bucks a bottle. I'm also excited because I got to use smoked oak chips in the fermentation, which should be mind-blowing. Anyway, the thing about making your own wine is that it gets better with age. With our Reisling that we made before, it had to age at least three months. With a red like this Pinot, it has to age a minimum of six months, and should be aged about nine months. So, we'll probably break out our first bottle around Christmas. Be there. It'll be awesome.

My crazy mondays

2009-03-03T22:12:00.004-06:00

I'll start with last Monday. Last Monday was awesome because 1) Somebody died on our service, but I missed because 2) I got free sushi. So, basically, we have this chump of a Residency Director who wants to have weekly meetings just so we can listen to him pontificate for hours on end. Well, this rotation, he met with us only once, and thus felt obliged to take us out to eat. Since, he had to cancel this meeting as well, he told us to go out and the department would foot the bill. We all were craving sushi, and so we go this place where you sit an ovoid bar, and a train circles on top of the bar carrying various types of sushi. It was awesome. And while I enjoyed this delicious meal, a 40 year old guy died because nobody figured out his potassium was out of control.
So, this past Monday, I started my geriatrics rotation. I go in to see this sweet 86 year old lady who I met in the ER the month before. So, it was kind of weird seeing this lady so long afterwords and on a completely different rotation. Well, it was great, because we were like old friends, and come to find out, she's been having 2-4 glasses of wine each night. Since this constitutes alcoholism, it was my job to talk her out of drinking. When I started to talk to her about it, she goes, "Oh honey, this isn't bad. I finally gave up my Jim Beam last month." Needless to say, this lady is awesome. So, it all ended up with me getting her to drink 1-2 glasses per night, and me convincing my attending that a nice 86 year old lady who's stuck in her room all day deserves a few glasses of wine each day. I actually wrote an order for this lady to have a glass of wine at night.
I'm also going to count this morning as Monday, allowing its craziness to fall under this blog's title. Today I went to a nursing home/psych facility to talk to people with dementia and such. My first patient is some elderly guy who's bipolar. During the course of our interview, we get to talking about his roommate. Guess who his roommate was. It was the guy from this day. Yes, Mr. Anti-Christ himself was living there. Unbelievable. Well, I of course ask him what happened to the guy, and it turns out he left over the weekend, got on a bus, and took off for Canada. Of course. Where else would the Anti-Christ go?

Bad Case of the Mondays

2009-02-17T18:11:00.002-06:00

Saturday I was on call, which consists of me hanging out in the ER admitting patients to the hospital. One of the patients I admitted came in because she had abdominal pain and pancreatitis, which x-ray showed to be from gall stones. "No big deal," we tell her, "We'll just admit you, get pancreas to cool off, and then we'll take your gall bladder out. You'll be out in a few days."
Sunday I came in to check on her, and her labs are screwy. She definitely has gall stones, but it looks like something else might be going on. "Probably not a big deal," we say, "but it's better to be safe than sorry." So we order a CT scan, and call it a day.
Yesterday we come in and take a look at the CT scan. Turns out that instead of a liver, this nice lady a huge blob of cancer. "Hey, remember how we thought we'd just take out your gall bladder?" we say to her, "Well, it turns out you're actually going to die. Soon." So instead of surgery, we're giving her medication to try and make her comfortable, and sending her home to enjoy what little time she has left.

I really hate Mondays.

Adelaide at 5 months

2009-01-26T22:20:00.005-06:00

We've finally taken more pictures of Adelaide. We're kind of failing at this whole obsessive dog owners thing. To make up for it, I think we'll get some custom t-shirts made with Ada's picture on them. Anyway, here are some before and after shots of Adelaide at 2 mo. and 5 mo.
For the rest of the new pictures, you can look on Facebook.

Overheard in the Hospital

2009-01-26T11:37:00.001-06:00

Last night in the doctors' work area:

-Resident talking on the phone stops suddenly, and after a long pause-
"Is that my patient coding in the background?"

I love this place.

Have a cold one for Jesus

2009-01-18T21:21:00.002-06:00

I don't talk much about our church, but this is a great story I can't leave untold. Actually, it's two stories.

First, just before Thanksgiving, our pastor told a story in one of his sermons. This is the gist of it: A guy's wife's family likes to drink beer. This guy has always been told that alcohol is of the devil, so he doesn't drink, and so becomes the odd man out during Thanksgiving. He tells the pastor, who asks if he's a recovering alcoholic and if he likes beer. The guy answers no and yes, and so the pastor tell him to have a beer and Thanksgiving and see what happens. The guy comes back and tells a great story about how he had a single beer, and the whole family instantly warmed up to him because they no longer saw him as being "holier than thou." So that's an unbelievable story to hear from the pulpit in the first place, but here's the benediction at the end of the service: Go in His peace, and have a cold one for Jesus. Amazing.

Second, today our pastor goes off on a tangent about drinking. He says, "Listen, I'm from Wisconsin, and I like beer. I like wine too, but I like beer." He goes on to talk about how crazy the South is about alcohol. He says, "You know, the same verses that talk about drunkenness also talk about gluttony, but nobody here ever talks about how bad it is to throw back a ton of fried chicken. And on top of that, no person's solution to gluttony has ever been to stop eating. The solution is moderation. And that is why I'll still drink beer."

It's so great to hear stuff like this come from the pulpit. At the same time, though, I'm disappointed that the church (at least here in the Bible Belt) is so ridiculous, and that I get so excited to hear a pastor endorse drinking in moderation. It seems so adolescent sometimes. Nevertheless, I appreciate so much that my pastor has the balls to say this stuff. It makes Sundays okay again.

The greatest niece ever

2009-01-11T22:24:00.003-06:00

This is why my niece is the greatest:
1. She gets excited about watching old 60's Godzilla movies with me.
2. When she sits at the piano, she always sings this song: "Josh, Josh, Joooooooooosssshhh!"
3. She ends that song with "Ta-da!"
4. She's smaller than my dog, but still makes Adelaide sit.
5. She's the only person who makes a bigger mess than me when she eats.
6. She has a doll that she named Baby Naked Butt.

AIDS is so lame

2009-01-09T17:04:00.002-06:00

So this guy comes in with AIDS, and it's to the point where he has no immune system. Now, sometimes I exaggerate, but in this case I am not. He seriously had no immune system. When you don't have an immune system, you get all kinds of really crazy diseases, and this guy had some crazy kind of pneumonia. Also, when you don't have an immune system, antibiotics are, as my resident explained, like "pissing in the wind." So, we basically watch this guy slowly die over the past few days, and we can't do anything about it. And that is why AIDS is so lame.

On a brighter note, Adelaide is nearing 50 pounds already. Hopefully we'll have some new pictures up pretty soon.

My white Christmas

2008-12-24T12:52:00.002-06:00

So here's a great story about how God loves me more than Carl Zoch:
Once upon a time, two couples decided to go to Oregon for Christmas. The first family, the Zochs, decided to leave on Thursday. God smote the city with fog, and the Zochs had to wait till Saturday. After flying to Denver, God blessed Portland with incredible amounts of snow, and the Zochs had to stay in Denver. On Sunday, the Zochs, like the Herberts, turned their back on God and went to California. In holy retribution, God made the Zochs stay in California until He finally allowed them to go to Seattle, but not the beloved Portland. Meanwhile, the Reeses decided to leave on Tuesday, and God decided to test their faith, and so made them miss their connection in Denver. Luckily, the Reeses live in Tulsa and are therefore closer to God, so He allowed two, and only two, seats to open on the later flight into Portland, and the Reeses made it there before midnight. Also, to make it up to the Reeses, God gave them a free coffee at Starbucks in the airport.

So here in Portland, it's been snowing a lot, and it's still snowing, so we get to have a white Christmas. It's freaking gorgeous. Because it's the Northwest, there's awesome evergreen trees everywhere, and so it looks like a Hallmark card every time you look outside.

Finally, I have the most amazing wife ever. For Christmas, she got me a humidor. A humidor! And, and, she got cigars for said humidor. There were two, and she says, "Of course, one of those is for me." My wife bought us cigars, so that we can smoke them together for New Years.
This is the best Christmas ever, and Christmas hasn't even happened yet.

U.F.O.

2008-10-22T21:55:00.002-05:00

My brother and I were sitting out on the porch a few moments ago, pontificating- as is the custom of Reeses- when we saw a UFO. I looked up in the sky, and this large, shiny, grayish crescent went gliding over our house. Now, tonight was partly cloudy, and the wind was blowing the clouds west pretty quickly. This crescent was the same color as the clouds, but it was going north. It had no lights, and made no sound, and it was big. It was roughly the same size as the moon in the sky. A little later a plane flew over, and it was really high, but we could still see its lights and hear its engines. Not so with this UFO. We watched go through a few couds, and then we lost sight of it over some trees. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.

Fierce

2008-10-22T18:07:00.003-05:00

A quick video showing our dear Adelaide training for the Octagon last week. She's practicing with a life-size dummy of Jack Daniels.

Note the sweet spin move at the beginning. It's like she was born a ninja.

The Grand Adventure

2008-10-13T22:28:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, October 4th, at five in the morning, Laura and I embarked upon our Grand Adventure to get our puppy, Adelaide. Taking only a lunchbox, a travel mug of coffee, and a cd of Peruvian mountain flutes, we drove my parents' CRV the seven and a half hours to Conroe, Texas. On the way, we passed the statue of Sam Houston, and paid our respects.
When we finally get there, we find our dear little Adelaide dominating her two stockier brothers. It turns out that she is the alpha dog in the pack. She's also the only one with her coloring (the other three were white with brown spots). She took right to us, letting us hold her and following us around. In the past week, we've realized this is not her usual reaction to strangers. Anyway, after an hour of talking with the breeder, loading her crate and a fifty pound bag of dog food (That's a whole lot of dog food, by the way- and it's only supposed to last her a month and a half), we started the trip back home. On the way, we passed the statur of Sam Houston, and again paid our respects.
Seven hours later, we get to Joe's house, where Adelaide promptly peed on his yard because he never answers his phone. Along the way Adelaide never once whined, cried, peed or threw up. It was a huge success. We let her run around at the Ibanezes' for a while, and then she ate Keith Fischborn's car, because it is so tiny. Then, even though I'd long since lost all feeling in my butt, we got back in the car and headed for Tulsa.
We finally arrived home at 11:30 at night. Our arduous journey made me realize a few things about life. First, fifteen hours is way, way too long to spend driving a car. Second, one of the greatest things about living in Tulsa is that when you past that last QuikTrip in Dallas, you don't panic, because you know that you live just down the street from one. And finally, our dog is freaking awesome.
Here's a picture of her, expect more soon:

My life these days

2008-10-05T10:46:00.003-05:00

So, it's been a while since I blogged. I figured I'd give a quick update.
First, I finished my rotation in Family Medicine (Primary Care), and it was the best time of my medical school adventure. Usually, when I have a job, or I'm in class, or I'm hanging out with Zach Herbert, all I really do is watch the clock and endure until I get to go home. Not so with Family Medicine. I found myself wanting to stay even after they told me I could go home. Now, nothing's official, but if I go with this, it will mean a few things:
1) I'll probably enjoy my life, and have more free time
2) I'll definitely never make as much as Zach
I still have something like eight more rotations to go, however, so who knows what I'll actually end up sticking with.
I've also got a few quick stories:
-A while back I saw a guy who would describe himself as a "baller." He'd had a stroke which paralyzed the right side of his body, but was making huge strides in recovering function. This guy went from bed ridden to walking and performing daily functions in less than 18 months. That's pretty rare. Despite all that, this hardcore guy breaks down and starts bawling in the room because he can't afford to keep his gas on, and he really wants to cook for his family. Seriously, bawling.
-I met a guy who can't do simple things like stand up from sitting, or sit from standing, because he gets stuck trying to remember everything he did and said the day before. He can't make himself move until he's sure he has it perfect, which means he may sit in a chair for 4 hours straight, just trying to get up.
-On my first day in my Family Medicine rotation, a girl in her early 20's came in for a pelvic exam. My resident and I and a nurse are in this room, and the resident begins the exam, and then, with the speculum still opened in this girl, the resident stands up and says, "I need my attending to look at this also," and walks out of the room. He is gone for five minutes. No kidding- I timed it. Five minutes in the most excruciatingly awkward situation in the world, and you start timing it because the only thing you look at is the clock. After five minutes, he comes back in, and explains that his atending is seeing another patient right now. "Don't worry," he says, "this doesn't take long. It'll just be another five or ten minutes." I'm not even making this up. After another seven and a half minutes of staring at the clock in dead silence, he finally returns with the attending. How there is not a malpractice suit pending, I have no idea.
Welp, I'll end with that. I'm on Psychiatry rotation right now, which means I show up at 7:30, talk to crazy people, and then leave at 11. Yeah, before noon. It's awesome, except that I'm not a big fan of Psych.

My next post, which should be soon, will tell of the grand adventure that was getting our new puppy.

Nieces and puppies- both adorable

2008-09-13T22:22:00.006-05:00

So, first of all, I get a voicemail tonight, and when I check it, it's my niecesaying (semi-coherently) "Uncle Josh!" and then laughing. So I'm pretty pumped, because she's been having trouble saying my name, and it was fairly clear this time. I just figured that my brother put her up to this message to showcase this profound developmental milestone. When I call back, my brother tells me that in fact my niece took his phone when he wasn't looking, and then by chance speed dialed my number. When she heard my voicemail message, she -wait for it- recognized my voice, and then left that message. Yeah, my 18 month old niece just left me a voicemail.
Second, we got another picture of our dog, who still doesn't have a name. We still have 3 weeks to work on that. Also, we just found out she's hurricane proof.
And finally, a quick medical story. I'm seeing a patient, when her gigantic husband starts talking to me about how it's acceptable to eat animals that you run over. He tells a story about how he ran over a deer's legs. Not one to waste, he turns around, pulls up to the deer, and being gun-less but resourceful, cracks the deers head open with a pipe he has in the trunk. The story ends with the deer waking up in the trunk, running its antlers through the top, and the guy shooting it through the trunk with a rifle. Anyway, after all this, as I'm leaving the room, he asks me if I want to go bear hunting with him. I of course say yes, and then he tells me that we can't go with guns. I say, "Oh man, I couldn't hit anything with a bow." He replies, in all seriousness, "Naw, we won't use those. We're goin with swords."

Yeah, swords.

Peer pressure

2008-08-24T18:33:00.003-05:00

Today Laura and I finally gave in to the peer pressure we've been fighting off for over two years, and we put a deposit down for a dog. Yes, I know, we have now joined the ranks of young married couples who have dogs instead of babies. Anyway, we are getting an Akita, which means two things: 1) our dog will be way bigger than your dog, and 2) our dog will be bigger than Laura. We are getting a girl, and she was born on July 30th. We'll road trip down into Texas to get her sometime around October 1st. So until then we're going to be busy trying to figure out a name, buying all the eight billion things that a puppy needs, starting to read puppy training books, and periodically posting pictures of her. Here's the first, which was taken yesterday:
In other news, we finally put up pictures of our house on Facebook. Also, Laura and I are flying to Portland in two weeks, and miraculously, in the 39 hours we will be there, an REI used gear sale will be happening.

I finally found it.

2008-08-15T09:10:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I found the worst smell man has ever experienced. A rather large guy came in with a ridiculous mass protruding from his abdomen. Imagine if somebody put a basketball on top of your belly, and that's what this looked like. Anyway, it turns out that this was not a basketball, but a giant hernia. Now, the thing with normal hernias that is that sometimes a small portion of small intestine can poke out into them. This is worrisome because the intestines can get their circulation cut off that way, and then they die. Well, this guy had pretty much his ENTIRE small intestine poke out, and guess what- its circulation got cut off. So when they open this guy up in the operating room, they find this guy's intestines rotting. Yeah, you read that right. So imagine the smell of someone's entire small bowel rotting. Now, add to that the smell of all the feces in this small intestine. And we're not talking the semi-solid crap that we all know and love, this straight up diarrhea-style crap, and it's everywhere. To give you an idea about the magnitude of this smell, keep in mind that we are in a place where people routinely do surgery on limbs that have gangrene, and drain cysts full of puss, and no one really even flinches. I was in the room next to where they opened this guy up, and the nurses started putting vapor rub on our masks to try and block out the smell in our room just so we could finish our surgery. Then they went to the next room. By the end of this, the smell had cleared out an entire wing of operating rooms, and nurses were working in 15-20 minute shifts just to keep from puking. It was one of the most mind-blowingly horrific experiences of my entire life.

And then I went and got lunch.

I am J.D.

2008-08-07T16:48:00.002-05:00

One thing I have failed to mention about being at OU Tulsa is that I get free food in the hospital cafeteria. Now, I know that doesn't sound that awesome, but this also counts for the physician's lunch room which isn't too bad. It's also great because Keith Fischborn is having to pay for all the food he gets at the hospital.
So as you can imagine, it only took a matter of minutes for us students to figure out how to abuse this privilege. There are two major flaws in the free food system: 1) No one keeps track of how much you spend, and 2) They provide plastic grocery sacks at checkout counter. Yes, plastic grocery sacks- that we of course fill with all manner of packaged foods and beverages. So now our fridge is full of various Coke products and energy drinks, our pantry is full of every kind of chips, and Laura and I don't have to buy milk or orange juice any more. While it's not quite a trunk full of pudding cups, I thought it was funny how my life was just that much more like Scrubs.

My day in Hell

2008-08-04T18:46:00.003-05:00

So my morning starts off (at 4:45) with me interviewing a patient, and this was the conversation:
"Hi, my name is Josh Reese. I'm a medical student here to check up on you."
"Hi, I'm the Anti-Christ."
Apparently this is how he always introduces himself, and after dispensing with these formalities we had a normal interview.
Next, I head to the ICU, because that's where my rotation is this week. While there, I get to see an 18 year old kid who had jumped off a cliff into a lake. The kid wasn't stupid, and he made sure there were no rocks or stumps, and that the water was deep enough. For some reason, though, when he jumped in, he hit the water funny, and shattered his spine, bled into his brain, and stayed underwater for 7 minutes. So, they resuscitate the kid just so we can watch him die in the ICU.
Right before it's time for me to come home, I get a page on the infamous Trauma Pager. It described the incoming case as a 17 year old girl in a car wreck who was unresponsive. At the end of the page, in the "extra info" section, there was this pearl of poetic verbiage- "Head is mushy." No kidding, that's what it said. And you know what? They weren't lying either.
Meanwhile, as an update to my previous blog, the older gang-banger who got shot in the face is doing quite well except for a mandible the radiologist described as "pulverized."
And now, more than 14 hours later, I'm just getting home in time to eat dinner and go to bed, so I can start this all over again tomorrow.

Call night

2008-07-31T01:16:00.001-05:00

Summing up my night thus far in one phrase (this is what show sup on my pager):

Gunshot wound to the face- ETA 7 min.

A day in my life

2008-07-25T00:30:00.002-05:00

My day begins with waking up at 4 am. After taking a shower and downing a cup of coffee (Starbucks Pikes Place roast), I'm off to the hospital. I'll spare you the boring details of asking patients about bowel movements and farting, and jump to the more interesting. So far today I've spent 9 hours in surgery. In one surgery, the attending nicked the femoral artery, and everyone got showered in blood. I'm talking horror movie style blood spurts. Later on tonight I was taking out a thing that is basically an iv line in the femoral artery in the same patient, just the other femoral artery. What's supposed to happen is we pull this out, and I hold pressure for 10 minutes and we're done. What actually happened is that we lost the hole in this obese lady's fat rolls, pushed in the wrong place, and 30 seconds later this lady is laying in a pool of her own blood. Seriously, a pool of her own blood. after a couple of more minutes, we finally realize that something is wrong, and get pressure on the right spot. Don't worry, she's fine now. Also, I've given a rectal exam, placed a catheter, and started an IV tonight.
There's also non-blood and guts stuff. Today the kindly old lady whom I've seen every day since I started was discharged, and I never knew, and so never got to say bye. It's a weird feeling. Also, I met a lady with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) who lost the ability to talk 2 years ago. She now communicates with her family via text messaging. We had a text message contest, and this tiny little lady destroyed me. It was glorious.
Welp, it's now 2 in the morning, and I just heard a Life Flight helicopter fly in. It's too bad, because I could use a nap. I've already been interrupted three times since i started this. Anyway, I start rounds again at 4:45, and the day starts over from there.
And that's my life right now.

Surgery

2008-07-09T04:04:00.002-05:00

I start my third year of medical school with a surgery rotation. Right now it's 4:05 am, and I'm eating a quick breakfast before I head up to the hospital. I don't expect to get home today until sometime after five. Tomorrow is even better. I'll be leaving at the same time, but instead of getting to come home, I'll be staying up at the hospital all night as I am "on-call," and then I'll put in another full day, hoping to get home around five on Friday.
So, this will be my life for the next seven weeks. Don't you wish you'd gone to medical school?

No rest for the weary

2008-07-01T08:48:00.002-05:00

First, we moved, and it's awesome.
Second, we went to Chicago and then Oregon with Joe and Meg, and that was also awesome. We went hiking around waterfalls, went wine tasting through the Willamette Valley (and got a free bottle of pinot noir!), went to the beach, went for a night on downtown, ate seafood till we almost puked, etc. Here's my great story from the trip though: we were flying out Saturday afternoon, and the REI used gear sale (which is where I got my Chacos for $2.83) was Sunday morning. We sullenly got on our plane, and then Jesus Christ himself came down and broke our plane. Seriously, they got on the intercom and said, "Sorry, but the plane is broken." I guess they didn't mention Jesus because it's not PC. Anyway, I got to go to the used gear sale after all, and my life was complete.
Then I came home, and spent the next two weeks studying for the United States Medical Licensing Exam, Step 1 (I have to take two more of these before I get my license. Step 3 is two days long.). If you know me, you'll understand that having to spend two weeks studying was the worst experience of my entire life. My only consolation is that most people spend 5-7 weeks studying. Of course they'll do better than me, but I got to go the REI used gear sale and they didn't. Anyway, I finally got the test over with, and that's amazing.
Fourth and finally, I know have this one week to do all the projects on our new house. My projects include: putting in new fans, putting in a garden on the side of the house, putting in a garden with a pond and waterfall in the back yard, replacing some of the siding on our garage, rewiring the lights in our garage, painting, and planting a crap load of bushes.
Anyway, my two favorite things about our house right now are 1) last night Laura and I drank some port in our library and 2) right over where our waterfall garden will be, there is a mimosa tree which is blooming right now. Our entire yard smells like a flower garden. It's unreal.

Crap

2008-05-21T13:13:00.012-05:00

I seriously don't understand how Laura and I have accumulated so much crap in our place. You wouldn't think too much would fit into a condo, but we've already taken three truck loads of crap up to Tulsa, and we've been packing for the last few days, and there's still so much stuff! Next time we move, I think I'll just get rid of everything and buy new stuff when we get to wherever our new will be. Oh, wait, I'm in medical school, not law school, so I still won't be making jack when I get out.
As a side note, I have to take step one of the United States Medical Licensing Exam in four weeks. I have four weeks to master two years of med school. AND I'm going to Portland in the middle of it.
To top it off, I just spilled coffee on my crotch. Awesome.

You know you're an Oklahoman if, ...

2008-05-08T11:31:00.002-05:00

when the tornado sirens are going off, and the weathermen say there is a tornado a mile from your house, you run outside in hopes of seeing it. I know what you are thinking- "Oh Josh, you are so brave/awesome/foolish/sexual/pasty-white/Republican/valiant." But I want you to know that first, I don't think there was a real tornado. I think there was strong winds that some guy in a car four miles away thought was a "rain-wrapped funnel." I also put on my amazing new rain jacket that Laura bought me that, when they found my mangled body among uprooted trees, would have kept my torso dry. A dry torso is very important. Anyway, this "tornado" was right over Keith's apartment, but unfortunately he's still around to be Debbie Downer next weekend.

You also know you're an Oklahoman if you copy an old Jeff Foxworthy joke in hopes of being funny.

I almost don't hate OKC today

2008-05-07T11:12:00.002-05:00

Today it's raining, and I think it'll rain most of the day. I love cloudy days. Usually what happens here is that it starts out cloudy in the morning, and I think, "Oh, even though I'm in
Oklahoma City, I want to be alive today." But inevitably, by noon, all the clouds are gone and it's a bright, shiny, and sick nasty humid day, and I realize that I was so wrong about wanting to be alive. Not today though. Today is going to stay cloudy. Today is going to be perfect. I'm excited to be alive today so I can... study. Awesome.

We bought a house

2008-05-01T11:50:00.002-05:00

And by "we," I actually mean "Laura." Apparently mortgage companies aren't too fond of my gazillion dollars worth of school loans, so Laura got the loan, and so its her name on the house. I vaguely remember some guy from law school saying something about co-ownership of property in marriage, but all I know is my name's on the trucks. I think it's a fair trade.
So anyway, we closed yesterday, and we are officially the proud owners of 1135 S. Sandusky Ave. As of today, our lovely home has two chairs, a cheap bookshelf, and a box of books in it. What more could you need? Meanwhile, back in OKC, we are deep in the madness of deciding what furniture goes where, what walls need to be painted, and how I'm going to fit both my trucks in our one car garage (I still refuse to admit that it's impossible).
Oh, and here's the link to the "virtual tour" of our house:
http://www.tulsamidtownhomes.com/Tulsa/Oklahoma/Homes/730358/Beverly_Hill/Agent/Listing_1337022.html

Eggnog

2008-04-24T10:17:00.003-05:00

Yes, right now I am enjoying Pike Place roast with genuine Braum's eggnog in it. It is nothing short of heaven. How could I achieve such a glorious brew? Through the miracle of deep freezes. Now my one solace in the winter months is comforting me in this warm weather.
It sounds dumb, but eggnog is one of those things that always brings back memories for me, my nostalgia if you will. So, speaking of being nostalgic, we're packing and getting ready to move, and it's weird to look at everything around us and know that it'll be out of our lives in a few weeks. A full quarter of my life has been spent living in this city, wrapped in this Nazarene bubble. Laura and I haven't known each other while living anywhere else, and now we're leaving this all behind to go someplace new.
I can't wait.

On mute

2008-04-17T10:25:00.002-05:00

Now that I'm back from the Crawfish Boil and Pickle has left town, I have to come back to reality. I feel like that scene in Fight Club, where they've really started up the club and Ed Norton has to go back to work. He says that it sounds like someone has just turned the volume down on life around him. That's where I'm at right now.

In other news, Laura and I are for sure buying a house. They're doing repairs right now, and we close on the 30th. It is at once the most exciting and terrifying thing we've done since getting married.

What really matters

2008-04-09T20:39:00.002-05:00

Here I am, nine o'clock the night before an exam that is definitely going to rock my world. I've already been beaten down by two other tests this week, and yet I can't make myself study for tomorrow. I should be scared. I should be stressed. But I'm not. You know why?

Crawfish Boil

Yesterday we had inspections on what may be our future home. There were some pretty ridiculous things wrong, and they probably won't fix them, which means we'll have to start this process over yet again. I should be sad. I should be disheartened. But I'm not. You know why?

Crawfish Boil

Our secret is out!

2008-03-31T15:30:00.002-05:00

Friends, and by friends I mean a group of Nazarene white people (Yes Joe Ibanez, you count too), we have been found out. My wife, in all of her melanin-lacking glory found a blog called Stuff White People Like. Thinking it was just a joke, I checked it out, only to find every detail of my albinic life displayed in convenient blog format. You must check it out and be confronted with your own self-made stereotypes.
To save you some time, I want to highlight two of the posts:
For the Oregonians out there:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/87-outdoor-performance-clothes/
And for the OKC1st folk out there:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/82-hating-corporations/

It just blew your freaking mind, didn't it?

A day of letdowns and giving in to peer pressure

2008-03-26T08:57:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Laura and I went on a gift-returning spree. My extended family gives some pretty ridiculous gifts, and so most holidays are Laura and I faking a smile and then looking for the gift receipts. First on our list was Mardel's. I know, I threw up in my mouth just thinking about that store too. Anyway, we return a ton of crap and get the new Shane Claiborne book and Jon Foreman's CD's, which brings me to letdown #1: Foreman's Fall EP sucks. The lyrics are amazing, but the guy just drones on and on. It's like he dosed up on tranquilizers before he started recording. Right, well, next on our list was Bath and Body Works. Why? Because this year my aunt got us two fancy bags that are exactly like the bags she got us last Christmas. Anyway, these had price tags for $65 bucks each, and Laura and I thought we'd have candles to last a lifetime with this exchange, which brings me to letdown #2: we could only return the bags for 90% off. That's right, these two designer bags got us 13 bucks. Apparently these bags are from two Christmases ago. Awesome.

So, on to me giving in to peer pressure. It seems the thing to do today is to rant about Wal-Mart and how it is actually run by the Anti-Christ himself. While I think Wal-Mart can't hold this position as long as anything Apple is being sold, I still hate the place. It's not because of a company staying within its rights and recouping losses in a lawsuit, it's because of my dear Broken Arrow. Down the street from my parents' house, there was a Wal-Mart. It was convenient and beautiful. However, they decide to build a Super Center two miles down the road, and so they close down my beloved store. That happened when I was in eighth grade. Last weekend Laura and I drove past the still vacant store. It's been a decade since they closed that store, and they still won't rent it out because they don't like Target. Also, if you ever drive through Guymon, you'll see where they built a Super Center right across the street from the old Wal-Mart. Seriously, right across the street. It's like watching Starbucks come to town.

Why I hate lawyers

2008-03-06T18:45:00.002-06:00

Besides Zach Herbert's existence, malpractice suits, and three year degree programs, I hate lawyers because of ethics. We have to take this ethics class at school, and today's topic was end of life care. Of course, Oregon and its Christ-like allowance for doctor-assisted suicide came up. Now instead of allowing us to have a meaningful discussion, this lawyer/preceptor decides to talk about her stupid dog. She talks for fifteen minutes about how she loves her dog as much as her grandchildren, but the dog has a huge tumor on its bladder. After droning on and on about spending thousands of dollars on its treatment, she ends with this quote-
"It was a great relief just knowing that euthanasia was always an option for my dog. Isn't it weird that euthanasia is an option for treatment in dogs, but it's not an option for humans?"

You've got to be kidding me.

Remembering my childhood

2008-02-15T15:36:00.002-06:00

The other day Keith and I were having our usual Seinfeld-esque conversation on the way home from school, and we landed on the topic of childhood toys. Come to find out, we both had some of the coolest toys ever made: Starcom. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you've already failed at life. I still have all my Starcom toys securely stored in my parents' attic, so if someday you feel like filling that dark hole in your heart, I'll let you play with them. Maybe.
Anyway, I found this article today that perfectly articulates every feeling I ever had about Starcom, and it may be able to explain their majesty to you:

http://www.digitalmonkeybox.com/starcom.htm

Goin' home

2008-02-05T10:22:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a miracle. As I sat at home, loathing the fact that I have to study, I heard the rush of angels' wings. As I looked up, I saw the heavens open and the Lord standing with the Golden Driller, real trees, and a QuikTrip cup. He spake unto me, saying "Josh, cometh home. I shall forsake thee in the land of the heathens no longer. Thou shalt come the place of My dwelling, and thou shalt learn medicine in My embrace. And lo, thou shalt no longer pay for food, parking, or books, for thou shalt receive such blessings in the lands I have prepared for you."
And so, after six years of exile, I am finally coming home. Home to streets and highways that make sense. Home to cheap drink summers at QT. Home to trees and hills. Home to good restaurants with good food. Home to days without obscene wind. Home to life away from SNU. Home even farther away from Zach Herbert.

Honesty screws you every time

2008-01-11T01:01:00.000-06:00

Today I had a mock interview with a fake patient at medical school. I left out one little section of a half hour interview. I remembered this section literally two steps out of the door at the end of the interview, and cracked up because, well, that's the story of my life. Anyway, when I come back in for the fake patient to tell me how I did, I start off by admitting my error and telling her this whole story of remembering just a little too late.
"Oh, thank you," she says, "I had just given you full credit, but I'll make sure to mark that down and change it."
Being a "good Christian" or just being stupid? Sometimes the line just can't be drawn.

Home again

2008-01-02T10:59:00.000-06:00

After an unbelievable Christmas, we're finally home. There really is nothing like coming home after a long vacation in Tulsa/Oregon. Oh wait, there is- stepping in dog crap. I hate Oklahoma City.

And I'm sick.

All I want for Christmas

2007-12-19T13:34:00.000-06:00

Having just witnessed the near catastrophe that was Transformers, the best Christmas present anyone could give me is to be able to sucker punch Michael Bay. To explain why, I will give a brief synopsis of every Michael Bay film:
1)An enormous and amazing action sequence with incredible special effects
2)an hour of extremely lame dialogue interspersed with absolutely obscene product placement
3)An enormous and amazing action sequence with incredible special effects
4)an hour of extremely lame dialogue interspersed with absolutely obscene product placement
5)An enormous and amazing action sequence with incredible special effects, coupled with a five minute pathetic attempt to tie up all loose ends.

Now, let me clarify that tears of joy did stream down my face when Optimus Prime skewered a Decepticon's face with his sword. And what boy who grew up in the late 80's/ early 90's doesn't nearly wet himself when he hears that familiar transforming sound. These and the promises of Autobot City and Starscream's survival made the film a draw for me, but only just barely.

...DARY!

2007-12-12T21:15:00.001-06:00

The Christmas cards went out today! Only a few short days before their glory will make you rethink the way you live your life.

Calm before the storm

2007-12-07T23:59:00.000-06:00

Today was one of those overcast and cool days when that heavy fog is almost, but not quite, a mist and when that persistent Oklahoma wind is still for once. I live for these days. I seriously wake up every morning and hope that it's like this outside. And yet, when this day comes, I can't go outside and enjoy it. Instead, I sit huddled and unkempt in my room, poring over virology and pharmacology. In those brief moments when I am able to venture outside, I just stand, dumbfounded, like someone on the coast who can only sit and watch while a hurricane blows in. I know that after tonight it will be almost a week before I get a full night's sleep, stop that incessant flow of caffeine into my body, or do anything other than stare at endless medical jargon. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but I still hate test block week.

Legen... Wait for it...

2007-12-03T14:20:00.000-06:00

We are working out the final details for this year's Christmas cards. If you thought last year's was amazing, prepare to have your mind blown.

Belated Thankfulness

2007-11-28T22:53:00.000-06:00

For Thanksgiving Laura and I got to go home to Tulsa. There's nothing better than driving on those streets. Knowing the shortcuts, avoiding where the cops hide, and all those familiar places you grew up with, it's like being with family. Oh, and I guess I liked hanging out with my folks, too.

MySpace- Bringing Families Together

2007-11-20T00:25:00.000-06:00

It's after midnight, and I can't sleep. So, in this darkened home, to whom do I turn to assuage my oppressive boredom? MySpace of course! As I sign on, expecting the usual lame posted surveys and friend requests from already deleted accounts, I find a peculiar message waiting for me. Somebody is asking me about my family's progressive dinner plans for Christmas. Creepy internet stalker? No, it is in fact my long lost cousin! A cousin I grew up with, but haven't really talked to for years. Thank you MySpace. No more will I question the sincerity and depths of the relationships you foster. Perhaps now I can sleep, resting in the warmth of knowing that you are out there, tirelessly endeavoring to mend my family.