North Side Social

There is a great coffee shop and wine bar not too far away from us in Arlington. It is actually the born-again version of the place where Kevin and I met. For the first two years of medical school the former shop, Murky Coffee was my go-to study location. I spent entire days there listening to lectures, memorizing charts, drinking way too much coffee, eating too many blueberry muffins and laughing with some of my best friends from medical school. I was devastated when it closed, although the place badly needed a facelift. It was sort of a dump but we loved it because no one kicked you out for sitting too long at a table or for bringing snacks from home. I may have even spent more time at Murky than in my own apartment during those first two years. Once it closed it remained shut for what seemed like an eternity - all through studying for the first step of the boards which was a huge disappointment since I had trained myself to do my best learning there. When it finally reopened with a new name, new owners and some serious bodywork I was skeptical. How could any place live up to Murky? I was afraid it would turn into a snobby wine place with coffee on the side where they hated people working.

Much to my surprise it is not. It is much nicer than the old Murky. It is possible to spend a few hours there now and not feel like you need to shower again. They have very tasty food and a much bigger menu and although the wine is expensive and the crowed a bit more dressed up, there is plenty of good study space and the staff are just as accommodating. Plus as the name implies it really is a great place to socialize. I seem to always run into people I know or friends of friends. I have come to love the cleaned up look and appreciate the updated and expansive menu. The customers may not be as quirky as before but change has done this place good. I am sure North Side Social or the NSS as we have come to call it will continue to be a favorite on our rotation of coffee shops at which to work.

I read an article in the New York Times last week about the changing atmosphere of coffee houses, moving away from the luxurious sit down place with comfy couches and lots of tables to a bar where people can refuel and leave quickly. I am not sure that in our fast paced society we need to rush things any more than they already are. It seems from the number of people at places like NSS others feel the same way. We are in an era where the laptop has become the mobile office and people have the flexibility to work from home, but there is something about having as sense of community that I think humans innately crave. Instead of making the daily journey to the office people make the daily walk to the coffee shop where they chat with those they meet, make friends and find the sense of comradery that working in an office once provided. Thanks for not disappointing North Side Social.

Fort Washington, Maryland

Somehow I was confused and thought that this weekend was Labor Day Weekend. I am supposed to cat sit for some dear friends Labor Day Weekend so I packed up some goodies and drove out to Fort Washington, Maryland ready to spend some quality time with their cat Pemba. Low and behold when I opened the door to the house there they were - in the middle of breakfast with company in town for the weekend. I was still in my pajamas, unshowered and a total mess. Labor Day is next weekend! Luckily for me these are some very close friends and they got up from the table, hugged me and said "we are so glad you are here." I took a nice hot shower and settled in to work on my residency applications on their patio overlooking the golf course. I love spending time at their house. They have such great outdoor space. A lovely table in the shade and true peace and quiet. They went about their day with their company and left me the patio for working. I am so lucky to have such amazing and loving friends. Hopefully I will get a good chunk of my work done today in this great location! And, of course I will be back next weekend to cat sit!

View from the patio!

Fort Washington

What's Cookin'

Food is my number one expense in life. I love food. Love to cook and love to share meals with loved ones. I have been trying really hard to do a good job meal planning each weekend so that I only have to shop once and can keep our food costs down. This is a challenge considering I live with somewhat of a human garbage disposal who appreciates good flavor. I just can never count on any left-overs. This week was the first week that I did it! Shopped once cooked 5 nights and the only thing we had to pick up from the store was some milk. Here is the menu for the next week. I have added quite a few new dishes but kept some old favorites in the mix.

Here she is...Aarti winner of The Next Food Network Star!

Sloppy Bombay Joes with Massaged Kale Salad  - Not sure if you have seen The Next Food Network Star on the Food Network but I loved Aarti from the start and am super excited to try this recipe. I've never tried to cook with Kale before but it is jam packed with nutrients.

Aarti's Roast Chicken with a simple arugula salad. I make this dressing all the time and it always gets rave reviews! So easy and the ingredients keep really well so I usually have them on hand.

Burger night - using the extra buns from the sloppy joes. I'll keep it simple with some baked beans and a quick salad. I always use the extra lean ground beef, grass fed of course.

Roast Chicken with Polenta - this is from the same Bon Appetit menu that we made at my friend Liz's dinner party. I am going to make the bruschetta again too!

Pizza - My mother gave me a pizza stone a few years ago and it is used on a weekly basis. Nothing makes for a more satisfying or quick meal than a fresh, homemade pizza. We've tried all of the prepared dough and Whole Foods has our favorite, Trader Joe's is good too but the Whole Foods dough puffs up more. This is a great way to use up extra veggies to make a loaded pizza. Plus we always top with some fresh basil from our urban garden.

Fish Tacos - I love to make home made guacamole. It's super easy and is all veggies. I usually use the following: 2 Avocados, 1/4 chopped onion, 2 cloves of garlic, juice of 1 lemon, 1 jalapeno chopped and seeded, good bunch of cilantro, 2 small tomatoes diced

Ray LaMontagne

If you have never heard the soulful voice of Ray LaMontagne get it together and buy one of his albums! Better yet make a pandora station.  He is hands down my favorite artist. No matter what one note out of his mouth and I am instantly transported to a better place. He has this amazing raspy voice and his lyrics are poetic and wise. He has a new album pictured above which we just started listening to. I am sure the songs on "God-Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise" will find a place on our most listened to songs playlist very soon. One favorite is "Beg, Steal, or Borrow", its about having the guts to follow your dreams and leaving what is known to step out to find yourself in the big world while finding the means to make those dreams a reality, no matter how difficult it might be.

Last year Kevin and I saw him play with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore. It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. I hope to have the opportunity to see him play again. He puts on an amazing show especially if you are watching him with the one you love. I am pretty sure that a whole generation of babies will be created to his beautiful music.

Women Vote!

Today is the 90th anniversary of the date the 19th amendment was certified. We live in a world today where it seems insane that 90 years ago women could not vote. My great-grandmother was born in 1902. When she died at 92 she had watched the world change dramatically. She even learned to use a word processor before she died, when she started her life she taught in a one room school house. Even though the right to vote for women may feel like an entitlement now there are still many fights for equality. I hope that someday my own children will look back and find it hard to imagine that there was ever a time when marriage was denied to two people in love just because of their gender or that a woman's right to choose was decided mostly by men who could never find themselves in the predicament of being pregnant unintentionally. I have to believe that things tend toward goodness. I am sure that the black leaders during the civil rights movement only hoped and dreamed that someday we would have a black president. Maybe one day we will have a gay-female-family planning expert as president. Hey, one can hope. And maybe one day there will finally be truly equal education for all children and safe homes for them to be brought up in. In 90 years we have come so far and I truly believe that in 90 more things will be more socially just.

I believe that the golden rule is still the most important rule. Do unto others as you'd have done to you. I found this posting on the Abortioneers blog enlightening. Many are quick to cast judgement or deny others a right they expect for themselves.

Death of a Tomato

I had been so excited about our urban garden and the promise of some home-grown Del Ray Central tomatoes. Yesterday I came home to find our one and only red tomato with a bug crawling all over it. It had split open at the top and looked like a total tomato reject. We have a few more tomatoes that are growing but I am scared that they will share the same fate as this one. So sad! No juicy tomato from the balcony for us.

Death

Hope

Kevin had a the idea well pipe-dream really, that we should one day have a vineyard. He even looked into getting some Norton Grapes which are native to Virginia. Not sure if growing a grape vine on our balcony will work but we might just try it. We are determined to grow as much as possible on our 10 or so square feet of outdoor space.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my step-sister and brother in-law's anniversary. They had a beautiful wedding on the shores of the Detroit river. I thought that in honor of their anniversary I would share some pictures from their big day! Happy anniversary Katie and Evan!

40 years!

This weekend we were up in New York for Kevin's parents' 40th wedding anniversary. We had a lovely dinner on the patio of the Half Moon. Kevin's mother said that the best part of her marriage was her three boys. I thought that was sweet. Not many people can say they've made it through 40 years of marriage. As with life I am sure there were plenty of ups and downs but there is something to be said about making it through the tough parts. I always knew that the most important thing was to find someone who would be a great partner in life. Someone who would be a great problem solver, who had similar goals and valued working together to get through the rough patches. Carol and Tim raised three pretty special boys. Both are teachers but some how their children ended up in medicine, two doctors and a nurse. I can only hope I see 40 years of a happy marriage.

Here are some pictures of Half Moon, borrowed from the website:

Remembering Gram

I thought that in memory of my grandma Doreen Audrey Burn, I would share the eulogy I gave at her funeral. We will always love and miss you Gram! 

Doreen Audrey Burn 1/28/1928 - 8/21/2009 

Each of us is here today because in some way my grandmother touched our lives. For me in particular my grandma was the strongest influence in my life that guided me on the path to the person I am today. From my very first memories I was my grandmothers girl. I am even blessed with her striking red hair.

In so many ways my grandmother passed on the things she loved to me. My grandma was the caretaker in the family. She was a nurse. She worked multiple shifts some days to help support her children. I loved sitting at grandma’s table while she drank her coffee and put on her face as she called her morning make up routine while she told me stories of taking care of her patients. In all honesty, I attribute these morning sessions and her life long encouragement as the source of my motivation to become a doctor. Grandma always said she wanted to make it to be there to watch me graduate from medical school, although she didn’t quite get there, she came this past April to Washington and spent a day as a medical student. My mom and Buzz wanted to skip class in the afternoon but not my Grandma. She wanted to be right there in the middle of the action, learning about what was new in medicine. I am so glad she was able to experience medical school. It was probably more meaningful than watching me walk across a stage.

My grandma also helped many others though out her life. She once cared for a boy with the stove-pipe legs and she had to put stiff jeans on him every day. She recalled how hard she worked taking care of him. After she retired and her grandchildren were in school during the day, she volunteered at North Oakland Medical Center in the recovery room. But her most loved charity was the Tutwiler Clinic in Mississippi. I had no idea as a child that not every family had a constant Tutwiler box going. This was the box where you put clothes that no longer fit and toys you had out grown. When full, the box was shipped down to Mississippi to help the families in Tutwiler.  My grandma told me stories of how in the 1980s she got on a plane and headed straight down there to help the Sisters take care of the people of Tutwiler.  I remember how much she loved getting letters from the Sisters or Josie the nursing student that she and my grandpa put through school.

I have so many memories of my grandma. And although we took many adventures together the most meaningful memories took place at her house and at Schuss. I always loved sitting on her lap as a small child and snuggling so close to her chest. She always smelled of perfume or chardonnay and in the winter of her fur coat. I remember how soft and warm she was how my head nestled perfectly on to her chest, how she would rub my back and sing songs to me.

Whenever I was sick as a child we went to Grandma’s house. Grandma always made me feel better. She would make the best oatmeal or chicken soup, let me watch Regis and Kathie Lee and bring cool cloths to place on my forehead. I remember having the flu as a child and my grandma sitting up with me all night as I was sick. She was the best medicine for any illness. She could instantly quiet any tears with her grandma sugars.  I loved sleeping over at grandma and grandpa’s house. I remember lying in bed between the two of them with the soft light on so they could read while I fell asleep. I am not sure how many grandparents let their grandchildren sleep in bed with them but mine sure did. There was no place warmer, safer or where I felt more loved the nestled in between my two favorite people on earth.

My grandma enjoyed the finer aspects of life. She loved to use fancy words for everyday things just to make things a little more special. The couch was not called the couch it was the divan. According to Grandma naps on the divan were more restorative than a nap on an ordinary couch. Grandma had quite a few collections, most memorably her doll collection. My childhood memories will forever include the Shirley Temple dolls. Each granddaughter got hers on her 12^th birthday.  Grandma and Grandpa believed in special holiday dinners and stays at the Kingsley hotel and trips to see the Nutcracker. Grandma always was willing to take us to the pool at Schuss or down to Pine Lake. It was as if her sole purpose in her life was to spoil her grandchildren rotten. I think we can all say she succeeded. 

But that is not to say that my grandma did not have rules, because she did.  First rule, you must like potatoes. If you do not like potatoes you are not invited for dinner and you are kicked out of the Irish club. Second rule, the most important holiday is St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick’s day and Ireland will be celebrated at all other holidays, especially at Christmas. We all love the now famous Irish Christmas Tree. Third rule, never dye your hair. I think this rule applied mainly to me but I am sure she told it to each her grandchildren when we reached that age where purple or pink stripes in the hair was trendy. Grandma also taught me to shop. Her advice on the stock market was thumbs up ok to go shopping that day. Thumbs down, that day you stay home. Back to school shopping with Grandma was the best.  My favorite part was coming home and trying everything back on to show Grandpa what we got. He always was so enthusiastic and patiently watched our fashion show.

My grandparents introduced me to travel. From family vacations to Schuss or Florida, to Disney World, horseback ridding in Tennessee, summers in Mackinac and of course colonial Williamsburg. Grandma always said that one day we would go to Ireland. Although we never quite made it there, for my 20th birthday Grandma and Grandpa took me on a cruise to the Bahamas. I am sure that Grandma would rather have seen the rolling green hills but at 20 I was more interested in the beach.

I am sure that at some point each person in this room received a letter in the mail from my grandma. She was a great letter writer and I will miss her notes terribly. They usually included a clipping from the paper of something that she thought I would be interested in. For me any article about a doctor was included. Always signed with and xoxo gram with some stickers. Gram usually put some money in the card with a note that said pretend you are having a cup of coffee with me. She took hers black.  

Although we will forever miss my grandma Dorie, each of us can continue to do the things she loved. We must remember each day to help those that are less fortunate. Keep those Tutwiler boxes going. We can put others before ourselves. We can maintain that fightin’ Irish spirit and never give up no matter how hard things may seem. We can remember to dance in the kitchen to Don Ho, drink chardonnay or hooch and even out the edges of the brownie pan. That sometimes you just have to stop and take a breathe.  ALWAYS celebrate St. Patrick’s day. 

Some favorite pictures: 

My Grandpa and Gram at their wedding

Four generations of first born women: Beatrice Anderson, Doreen Burn, Sally Brown and me

My Gram leaned to swim as an adult. She was so proud!

Gram, my sister Melissa and I in outfits she bought on a trip to Austria and Germany

At the Day in the Life of a Medical Student 

View from the Couch

I had a little minor surgery yesterday so I am resting on the couch watching movies. I did however find the energy to find some clothes to wear to Kevin's parents' 40th wedding anniversary dinner which we will be celebrating in Dobbs Ferry, NY tomorrow night. I ended up bringing home 4 different dresses not sure which one I will wear but hopefully we'll post some pictures this weekend of the dinner.

Our beautiful urban garden has started to bloom here are the updates:

Our first tomato is getting close!

Lunch before Kevin left for work. Pizza topped with fresh basil from our garden! YUM!

The Muffin Tin

There is a little shop in Alden, Michigan, population 1, 120,  called the Muffin Tin. They have the best muffins around. Summers up north are not complete unless you made a stop at the muffin tin. I loved waking up from a perfect nights sleep to the pink box from the Muffin tin on the schuss table. Alden was a bit of a drive from the Frankandor but it could also be reached by boat. When my mom and Buzz started dating Buzz bought a sail boat and named it the Irish Rover. A few years later, after many failed morning sails to get to the muffin tin in time for breakfast he broke down and bought a ski boat named The Muffin Tin Express. Now they could take the Muffin Tin Express to get some muffins in the morning and head back for sailing for the rest of the day. I can still to this day close my eyes and feel the crunch of the top of those muffins. My mouth is watering right now. The Muffin Tin makes the most delicious HUGE amazing muffins in the world.

One year Anthea, one of my best friends from high school and I ran the Alden 5K. The prize at the end of the race was a gift certificate to the Muffin Tin. We were so sad that we did not win. No muffins for us. I am pretty sure that a trip up north with Kevin is in order very soon. He needs to experience all of my favorite places on earth!

In fact I think I am going to make these Blueberry Muffins right now in homage to the Muffin Tin.

All things Up North

We are very close to the one year anniversary of the day we lost my sweet grandma. As I stared thinking of her I was drawn to our favorite place up north, Schuss. That place had character. Gathered over the 30+ years it was in my family. So much of my childhood was spent there that it is hard to separate the memories. Here is a smattering of images not the exact copies of what was actually up there but subtle details of our home and up north

My Gram loved cows there were probably thousands of cow items at Schuss. One of my favorites was a picture of two cows poking their heads through a window. The frame was built to look like an actual window. 

The infamous rooster lamp!

A favorite place to grab Torch Lake Lemonade and burgers right on Torch Lake. Pull your boat up to the dock and enjoy!

Groupon!

If you do not know about Groupon get with the times! It is a daily treat emailed right to your inbox. The deals are fantastic usually 50% off which when you are on a student budget is awesome. Kevin and I have been using the Groupons as a way to have affordable dates. Plus we try new places we might not have otherwise tried. Here are some of the places we've tried with Groupon.

Hook which started my obsession with fish tacos!
A one month membership to the YMCA for $20.
Nirvana Holistic Spa for an amazing couples massage right in our apartment. Josephina was the greatest.
$25 for a $50 gift card for the GAP.

Get your GROUPON!

North Cap and New York

On the way home from the major hospital center in DC one drives by a hotbed of drugs and prostitution at the intersection of North Capitol and New York Ave. There are always plenty of people milling around at the corner liquor store up to no good, conducting business buying drugs, drinking booze, hustling and dealing. On my drive home last night I noticed a mural  had cropped up paying homage to the many loved ones who had died or were incarcerated. It is a sad statement to the state of life in that area. Single motherhood has become the norm and males are often intermittently involved. This wall is covered with RIP message and FREE the incarcerated messages.

Banana Snack Cake

We went to a house warming party in Baltimore on Sunday for my awesome friend Megan and her fiance Scott. Their place is beautiful, over looking the harbor and boats. Megan is often my inspiration to get involved in things. She is a true leader in women's health, the president of my favorite medical school organization MSFC and will soon be recognized for her amazing talents in a major publication - serious snaps to her! I am lucky to know her and often in awe of how much she accomplishes. Before we left to go to Megan and Scott's I was trying to come up with something to bring. I have this great and easy recipe for Banana Snack Cake. The cake is moist, always tasty and a great way to use up overly ripe bananas. Here is the recipe.

Cake:
3/4 c sugar
1/3 c butter (unsalted, softened)
2-3 ripe bananas
1/4 c butter milk or substitute 1/4 c milk with either 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice
1 egg
1 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg

Frosting:
2 c powdered sugar
2 tbs butter
1 tsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix the ingredients for the cake in a medium sized bowl until well combined. There may still be some lumps from the banana. Pour into a greased 9x9 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool. While the cake is baking make the frosting. Melt the butter and mix with the powered sugar and vanilla. Slowly add the milk until the frosting is the consistency is frosting-like. Add more or less milk as needed. Frost and enjoy.

Picture from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary

Bon Appetit

Every so often some girlfriends and I from medical school get together for a Bon Appetit dinner party. It is a much needed break from our study/work schedules plus it pushes each of us to try a new dish. There are often complete dinner party menus in Bon Appetit and everyone picks a dish to bring. Tonight my friend Liz is hosting and I am bring the Bruschetta! It has been a rough 24 hours and tonight's dinner will be a welcome change. I am a firm believer in the power of smell and despite feeling pretty tired and low all day once I started making the bruschetta my kitchen was filled with the smells of garlic, rosemary and good olive oil. A few deep breaths and I was much calmer. Our apartment smells amazing right now. I am probably going to have to fight Kevin off to make sure I can bring most of these tasty treats to the party. Food is love!

My Bruschetta!

This morning I somehow managed to spill an entire bottle of ink a dink a pink nail polish on our balcony. I usually do not do things like this but I was going on about 5 hours of sleep for no good reason and there it was splattered all over our balcony. After using a few of the four letter words my mom taught me Kevin appeared with paper towels and promptly got to work trying to remove the ink a dink a pink from the home of our urban garden.

Scrubbing the balcony :(

Ink a dink a pink got my feet too as well as the stone of the balcony. It was some pretty serous modern art.

Cherry Republic

Northern Michigan: If you have never been you have not really lived. I was fortunate to spend a tremendous amount of time when I was growing up in a little town called Mancelona, population 1400. My teeny tiny New England college was bigger than that. To me, Mancelona was the gateway to the amazing world of Northern Michigan. There are so many beautiful places "up north" as any good native Michigander calls it. This blog is even named after my favorite lake up there, Torch.

Tonight I had dinner with Molly. We have been friends since high school and were roommates up until I moved in with Kevin this past May. She just returned from a last minute birthday escape to one of our favorite places in Michigan the town of Glen Arbor on the shores of Lake Michigan, population 788. I am pretty sure there are apartment buildings on my street with populations greater than this entire breath taking town. In the town is a world famous store, the Cherry Republic. Their motto: Life, Liberty, Beaches and Pie. It has been several years since I have made it up to the Cherry Republic. It used to be an every summer adventure. Molly brought back some of my favorite CR treats - sour cherry patches. 

I think my mother could write a book about great places to go in Northern Michigan. It is the best vacation spot ever! The beaches are beautiful, the water is not salty, its the cherry capitol of the world and we have the 3rd most beautiful lake in the world according to National Geographic (Torch Lake)!

YUM!

Love

There are things in life that speak to each of us in different ways. This week I was reminded of how important love is. I know its cheesy but it's true. On Thursday I came home to a surprise package. It was lost in the mail for a while but somehow made it to my door. Inside was the most beautiful handmade blanket. I lost my most beloved Gram about one year ago on August 21st. She was one of the most important people in my life. Each day I miss her. So much of her is still visible in my life. Every day there are little things that remind me of her. These memories I hold very dear, but she is still gone. I cannot call her on the phone and tell her in gory detail about my day. I don't get her cute cards and notes in the mail any more. I miss her laugh, how she smelled, how soft she was to hug. But I am so lucky because I still have my amazing, awesome, hero of a grandpa and I have another set of grandparents who have sort of adopted me. The beautiful surprise care package was from them, my non-blood related grandparents, Dee and Cal.

Dee hand kit each of the thousands of stitches that make up this blanket. It is all shades of blue and maybe from the title of this blog you might be able to tell I love blue! The first entry is all about beds and blankets and snuggling under soft things and how that to me is love. When I opened the package the first thing I did was wrap the blanket around my shoulders. My mind immediately jumped to all the wonderful nights or cold afternoons I would spend snuggled under this beautiful creation. Blankets are a thing of comfort. I always pick the softest most well-worn one when I am sick or sad or exhausted. I know that this blanket handmade with so much love will be a huge part of my life going forward. I am sure that someday I will spread this blanket down on the ground and let my kids have tummy time on it, maybe they will even crawl for the first time on it. I am pretty sure I will use it to tuck them in tight when they are sick and need that little extra bit of comfort. I could not imagine a more thoughtful or perfect gift. I am so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life. My dear Gram might not be here anymore but she has some amazing people filling in for her. Some people never get to meet their grandparents I was born with six living grandparents and along the way found two more.

Here is some detail the beautiful hand knit blanket that Dee so lovingly made. It is all new and shiny now but I actually cannot wait until it is worn in, a little softer from a tear or two, a runny nose, nights of late night laughter or deep restful sleep. Life will eventually get worn in between each stich making it all the more valuable.

Doctor-Patient "Privilege"

There are many aspects to taking care of patients. This whole doctoring thing has some pretty strange things associated with it. Each day when Kevin goes to work he sees people at their worst. No one wants to go to the ER, well maybe some drug seekers want to go to the ER, but everyone else does not. He sees people after they've been stabbed, shot, hit by a car, had a stroke or heart attack. It might even be the worst part of their week, month, year or life. No one expects the patients to be nice, they are sick, in pain, intoxicated etc. But each day the doctors, nurses, techs etc have to be nice, have to put on a smile and act like the only thing in the world they want to do is take care of the patient's problem. We are privy to all sorts of personal and family drama. As one patient told me today, some stuff is just "personal" and he did not want any one to get wind of his dirty laundry.

I had an interesting experience this week. I saw a patient with a major urinary incontinence problem. We are not talking about a small trickle, we are talking Niagra Falls. She clearly did not want to be at the doctors and the second we started talking about some behavior modification which might help her problem she pretty much told me to "F-off" with her body language and tone of voice. She was also a pretty heavy smoker, so the entire time I was in the room, trying to lead us in a lovely discussion about her health problems, whiffs of thick stale smoke and day old urine danced around me. Each time she moved it seemed like one of those motion detecting air-fresheners was going off although instead of mountain stream or fresh linen it was stale smoke and potent urine. The last place on Earth I wanted to be was sitting there in my short white coat having a chat with this lady and she certainly did not want to be there either. After she left, while I wiped down the chair with one of the industrial strength bactericidal handi-wipes, I started thinking. Why did this encounter even happen? This lady did not want to hear or even think about what my attending and I had to say. Neither of us particularly wanted to spend 20 minutes in a hot box of smoke and urine, that is for sure. So how did we end up there together? Why did she feel obligated to go to all the effort to make an appointment, ride the bus, wait for us to come see her just so she could get mad at what we were saying and torture us with her urine soaked clothing? Really what I think would have helped this lady more than anything is a hot bath, some fresh laundry and someone to help her manager her life at home. As someone who is also very stubborn I understand doing things your own way, but when I am older, I seriously hope that I am lucky enough to have people in my life who are still capable of making sure that I never leave the house in filthy clothes soiled from yesterdays urine.

Medicine is not all glitz and glamour and it is certainly not about make-out sessions in the call-room. It is really more about urine, feces, vomit, blood and ill-fitting scrubs. The Doctor-Patient Privilege is a complex one and once in a while neither party wants to participate. I hope that lady finds some new Warners.

High Efficiency or Not

One of the things I was most excited for when Kevin and I moved to our new place was the new appliances. They were all brand new and all high-efficiency. I have a weird love of doing laundry and probably do way too much of it. I love when the clothes come out of the dryer smelling great, all warm and soft. I am also into recycling and reducing waste. I get super annoyed when people throw away things that easily can be recycled. I was really looking forward to our new efficient and environmentally friendly appliances, until I actually started using them, especially the washer and dryer! The washer is one of the low water models and seriously the clothes come out of the washer maybe 1-4 loads not even clean. I've had to rewash multiple loads. I've tried smaller loads, different detergent etc and still things come out stinking of sweat or the hospital. Then there is our dryer. I have never had to iron so much in my life. Everything comes out a mangled heap of wrinkles. Pants are the worst! They come out looking like someone took each leg twisted it as tightly as possible and then put it back in the dryer. Even after intense ironing with steam the pants are not wrinkle free. The only way I've managed to get them even a bit less wrinkly is to dry them one at at time. Talk about inefficient. I've now resorted to hanging most of our clothes to dry then putting them back in the dryer for a little fluffing up. This is probably much better for the environment but seriously, if you are in a rush and need those scrubs ASAP some hard core ironing better be in your plans - and scrubs are not something that should have to be ironed! As much as I wanted to love our new washer and dryer, when we move to our next place, I am steering clear of any low water models and any of the we tumble your clothes in 250 directions type. I am sick of the clothes coming out in a knotted mess. I miss the days of warm fluffy laundry.

These high-tech machines may look nice but the clothes that come out of them do not!

Mousercise

That's Donald showing us how to do it. Clearly the pink tights, leg warmers and full on leotard were required. I am pretty sure I owned that outfit in 1987.

For my whole life I have been an early-riser. When I was a child my parents devised a system so that I would not wake them up at an absurd hour. They told me I could get up and watch TV quietly by myself. At 5 AM in the mid 1980s the Disney channel played Mousercise which was an aerobics class for Mickey, Minnie, Donald and all of the other Disney friends. I am not sure how many months or years my 5 AM Mousercise habit went on but I would get a bath towel, lay it on the floor and do some exercises right there in my pajamas along side Mickey Mouse. I guess I started my exercise habit early. I am not sure if you can still buy a Mousercise VHS and we do not even have a way to play but it would be awesome. As soon as I watched the opening video I was brought right back to my early morning routine. I even remembered the words and the last time I saw Mousercise was 20+ years ago at least!

Flash forward to modern times and I am still exercising, although my workout buddies are not people dressed in Disney costumes. I was super excited today because our building finally put in a gym. We've lived here for a few months now and I've been waiting patiently for it to be done. I no longer have any excuses not to sweat each day. All I have to do is walk down stairs to work out. It is not a fancy gym but the machines have a high-tech hook up for your ipod to watch movies or music videos. I was day dreaming of all the episodes of 24 I could watch while working out today; although, I am not sure what could be as thrilling as a spandex filled 1980's aerobics videos of my past. Get out those legwarmers and Mousercise!

Union Square Market

During a morning walk we strolled through the Union Square Farmers Market. I was struck by all the beautiful colors. I think in another life I would love to have a stand at a farmers market selling vegetables and herbs.

Here are a few of my favorite colors from our morning walk:

Beautiful purples and white

Hand dyed wool

Colorful tomatoes