paint it eggplant

Hello world...we have successfully had our house painted. Without realizing it we chose colors that match our purple ornamental grass. Here are some photos on a recent afternoon stroll...to the left you will find a very funny dragonfly perched atop an aloe plant. enjoy!!!!!!!!

San Jose to Arenal

Our accomodation in San Jose was very nice!! Hotel Gran de Oro was spectacular. I dove head first into Spanish, which I speak regularly in the clinic...but this time I could not bust into my daily canned-speeches about pediatric constipation. I was forced to actually communicate about rooms, taxis, and order meals; which is a different realm for me. I think I did okay, but Isabel bailed me out a lot. After a pleasant relaxing night in a quaint room and an awesome breakfast at the Hotel Gran de Oro (above pics); we headed for Arenal in a taxi with a few other folks...notably a young couple from NYC, who were nice enough to sell us a memory card for Isabel's new Canon Rebel XSi camera!!!

costa rica!!

Okay...it has been awhile. Anyway, we spent our birthdays and wedding anniversary in.......yes.....Costa Rica. We researched a bit on the internet and found that eco-interactive trips are all the rave. I found a wonderful guy named Kevin Peterson to set things up for us http://ecointeractive.wordpress.com/. So if you want an excellent trip, we highly recommend this pro. He is awesome and gave us the trip of our lives. We just so happened to run into Kevin on his return trip to CR from Seattle. He was on our flight heading out of Houston for San Jose, CR. We started off in San Jose at the Hotel Gran de Oro (above). We spent one night there before heading off the next morning for Arenal, the site of the most active volcano in Costa Rica

on being happy

One unanticipated side-effect of working at a hospital - and intensively on call - is that you face a lot of tragedy.

This fourth of July weekend wasn't so great for everyone in San Diego. Moments that are supposed to be whimsical or silly or romantic or nothing at all get brutally twisted around into profoundly life-changing or life-ending moments. What is a fourth of July then? It shrinks into something meaningless.

Or not?

On my way to work early this morning, there was a psychologist talking about her book on positivity. She had studied survivors of 911 in NY and found that those who did best were positive-thinking people. Common traits they shared were gratitude, awe, hope and a willingness to accept help from others. I thought about that. Tragedy isn't so unexpected when you work in a hospital. But it always feels like a senseless loss.

I think about these people, all twisted and broken. I think about their loved ones and their shock, their loss. And then I think about hope and awe and how easily they fill our hearts any time fireworks fill the night sky.

Second-Year Moles

I've sat down several times now intending to write something, since it has been so long. But that is precisely the problem: I've let too much time pass and so much has happened that it is hard to know where to start or what to call it. I went to Vegas with Sesha, we vacationed in Costa Rica, our house got painted, and we had visits from Naila, my sister and my mom, to name a few things.

Geoff promises to blog about our trip to Costa Rica, so I'm going to touch on something really recent: my becoming a second-year resident on July 1.

There was no easing into this one. I had the distinction of being the first person in my class to take short call, which means covering all of the studies from 3 hospitals, including traumas, between 5 and 8 pm, bridging the hours between the time when everyone goes home for the day and the time when the night person shows up. Sounds benign, right?

RIGHT!!

I'll spare you the boring details, but it was something akin to leaning in to take a small sip from a fountain and instead meeting a column of water aimed straight at your gaping, wide-eyed, and horrified face. You're left coughing and sputtering, bleary-eyed and blabbering, hardly sure of what just happened or what is going to happen, unsure of how you'll recover.

My residency class is a good one, but even with all the time in the world to peruse a study, we're still weak from inexperience. I guess that's why we have at least 3 years ahead of us.... So take our baseline handicap and then add the elements of STRESS and VOLUME and voila! You have the makings of a perfect storm.

As radiologists, we pass our time in the darkness. Doctors rely on us to shed some light on the studies they order. I'm not even sure where the light switch is....

So, I've cautioned you all before and I'll say it again - STAY AWAY FROM HOSPITALS, most of all in July! Your radiologist may just be new second-year resident, all stunned and stupefied, pawing through the darkness like a helpless mole.