Happy 70th Birthday, Grandma!

  My mom and I went down to San Diego to visit my grandma for her very first birthday party ever - her 70th!  She was thrilled to have us, and though it can be frustrating being so different from parts of my family, overall it was a good time.

A Quarter Century of Life

   Recently, I turned 25 years old.  It's weird because in some ways, I can't believe I'm already 25.  I feel like the past 5 years have flown by.  In other ways, it's weird that I'm only 25.  The field of medicine forces you to grow up really fast, and a lot of times I feel much older than 25.

   Since 25 is considered a milestone to some, I figured I'd write a post capturing a snapshot of my life right now.

Who I Am at 25:

• someone who knows who I am and what I want
• someone who is not afraid to stand up for things I believe in
• someone who still needs reassurance from time to time to feel good about myself - I'm still working on this
• 4th year medical student
• pro-choice feminist
• gung-ho about OB/Gyn and anything women's health related
• in a wonderful relationship with my best friend, living together in a super cute house
• loves to cook, loves to eat even more
• addicted to spicy food, macaroni & cheese, and taco bell
• secretly wants to meet Honey Boo-Boo really bad
• co-owner of two silly, fluffy kitties, and one adorable golden retriever
• loves to garden, take pictures of people, and make crafts
• loves to blog

   So here's to 25 years of life! I hope the next 25 are just as fun, and can't wait to see what happens next!

How Will You Spend Your Last Birthday?

   There was a patient in the ICU, who was brain dead, with no chance of meaningful recovery.  I didn't know her that well, but just listened when we rounded on her as a team.  The residents were getting annoyed because the family was dragging their feet on withdrawing care.  Not that they were obligated to withdraw care, but they had decided they were going to withdraw care, but kept prolonging the date they were gonna do it.

   Our attending remarked, "You know, as young physicians, I understand it is very hard not to be judgmental of patients and their families. But please, you must try to understand what they are going through.  This woman is somebody's wife, somebody's sister, somebody's daughter.  And this is the last moment in her life.  Just think about that.  Think about what it'd be like to be in their shoes.  The husband hasn't been sleeping for weeks.  He's a wreck, and he is understandably having a hard time dealing with this, so let's give him a little compassion."

  And as the attending gave his speech, the nurse walked in and began hanging pieces of paper around the room.  As I looked closer, I realized she was hanging signs with a picture of a birthday cake saying "Happy Birthday".  I almost lost it.  Here this woman was, laying in a coma, surrounded by doctors and med students she never met, with tubes and wires coming out of every inch of her body, while her family was at home agonizing about letting her go, on what will be her very last birthday.

Another Year Older, A Teeny Bit Wiser?

   It's my birthday tomorrow, and I was sure that being on my surgery rotation meant that I would just have to forget about having any sort of festive celebration this year.  I was completely surprised, however, when my friends/BF pulled through and made it absolutely amazing.  Two of my sorority friends from LA showed up at my door, which completely caught me off guard.  I didn't even know they were in town!  Then, later I went to dinner at a BBQ restaurant which has my favorite mac and cheese, and all my friends showed up!  What an awesome surprise :) and BF put it all together with my friends.  I'm so lucky to have such an amazing BF and friends!

  I really wasn't expecting anything to happen this year, which is fine, but this was just so fun.  Watch this video my friends took of my surprise to see how shocked I was:

Rosemary Scones With Lemon Icing For My Partner-In-Crime's Birthday

The other day it was my friend/study buddy/partner-in-crime's birthday, so a few of us surprised her in the morning before class with cake and scones!  I made the scones, and of course I made rosemary ones with a lemon icing.  I tend to make everything with rosemary in it these days.  I got the recipe from good ol' Giada.

Was zesting the lemons and accidentally zested my finger...

Getting ready for the surprise...

SURPRISE!!!!

21 (again)!!!

A Year Older, Can't Say I'm All That Much Wiser

Sometimes I forget how old I am. It's like I just lose track of time. When people ask me how old I am, I have to pause for a second and think about it. I'm 23 now. And not that I think that is old, but it definitely reminds me of how I signed up to put much of my life on pause while I pursue my dreams. While some people my age are getting engaged, married, having children, buying homes, etc, I am still living off student loans and spend most of my time studying or taking a break from studying. In medicine, we tend to opt for "delayed gratification", putting in all of the hard work now in hopes that someday it will pay off and we will be living some sort of dream life. Well, I really hope life has something special in store for me later on.

You know what... Who am I kidding?! I love my life now! It's just different from other people's, that's all. I am so lucky to be where I'm at - so grateful for the opportunity I have before me. I love where I'm at.

Anyway, for my birthday I had a few friends over for a dessert potluck, and here are some pics!

I survived my first med school test! (kinda)

So yesterday we had our first quiz (more like an undergrad midterm).  It wasn't TOO bad, and I passed all subjects except one (oops)!  It's okay though, I have plenty more opportunities to make up for the few questions I got wrong.  I definitely feel like I studied enough, but the questions I got wrong were just really tricky and threw me off.

Moral of the story: I survived!

Other than that, everything else is pretty much the same.  Loving life!

Oh yeah, I had a GREAT birthday this year.  Went to dinner with my family, got a very nice surprise from Omar in the mail, and my friends threw me a mini surprise party/study break!!!  It was so awesome and I was legitimately surprised!  No one has ever surprised me before so it was really cool.  I can tell I have made some really good friends here :)

:)