viva las vegas

our vacation tales continue...

i felt compelled to document our "duk bo sam" moment, all the way out in michigan. andy's aunt has never heard of or eaten the "california"-version, but came up with her own recipe, a blend of vietnamese spring rolls with a veritable cornucopia of fresh veggies and tasty organic beef. as you can see, the park men enjoyed it quite a bit (as did everyone else). i was really glad we got a chance to see andy's extended family, especially his adorable little cousins. i grew up blessed with an abundance of awesomely generous older cousins (and aunts and uncles) who took me and my siblings off of my parents' hands on many occasions to babysit, go to the movies, amusement parks, etc... many, many happy childhood memories with special thanks to j., dean, brenda, and my e-mo (as in aunt linda, not the genre ;) ). anyhoo, i've always wanted to return the favor, so to speak. but seriously, i don't know how they did it- i make excuses for myself by telling myself that i don't live close enough to any of the madly cute cousin-spawn to be there for them... *sigh*, all this to say that i hope to be a better older cousin/sibling/relative in general, in the future. so we ended up taking the kids out to a movie- "horton hears a who"- and i think we enjoyed ourselves more than the kiddos ;)

so then we prepared ourselves for VEGAS... but first, we needed to get there. easier said than done.

this is why i cannot live in detroit, or any state that requires "de-icing" of aircraft prior to take-off. i just don't have the patience. on our outbound flight, the plane came in about an hour late, then we boarded and sat on the runway for about an hour, got "de-iced" for 30 minutes, sat for another 20 minutes or so until we were told that the plane "due to mechanical problems" would NOT be taking off that evening. meanwhile, the snow that had NOT been falling all throughout our stay decided to make its way down to earth with a vengeance. after another hour of limbo in the terminal (are we canceled? delayed? catching the next flight? getting another airplane? where's our luggage?), we were given hotel and food vouchers and told to come back early the next morning, with the same boarding passes. by that time the snow was really coming down, so calling andy's parents back out to the airport was not an option. we spent the night, sans luggage, in a dinky room where the bathroom light was broken (andy put one of the bedside lamps by the sink) and returned the next morning only to find out, after waiting in a long security line, that our boarding passes were no longer valid, despite seeing various other people FROM THE SAME FLIGHT entering through the same security lines. long story short: OUR AIRPORTS ARE NOT SECURE, PEOPLE!! the TSA folk were frustratingly unhelpful, not to mention inconsistent with whom they were letting through. i tried another security line after being turned away initially, just to see if our boarding pass would work, and voila-> i was through. andy tried the same line, and was turned away. EH, you say??!! yes. sigh. but now i have spent a great deal of energy on my tale of airline/airport incompetence which is just depressing so ... ON TO VEGAS!! ... one last note. our flight to vegas was also one hour late. with a wailing, inconsolable baby who cried for nearly the entire flight + delays. the system is broken... like so many others in this country. ok. i'm done griping.

ok, so pictures of a decidedly happier time. i had a tough time deciding where to eat out of the myriad possibilities of haute cuisine in vegas- joel robuchon? mario batali? jean georges vongerichten? wolfgang puck? anyone who has ever appeared as a guest judge on top chef has at LEAST one restaurant in vegas- including tom colicchio. it's like a foodie-groupie's dream. i chose the most affordable (used in the loosest, most relative form of the word) yet totally formal of the 2 michelin star restaurants out there- PICASSO. how often does one get to eat with priceless works of art hanging behind one's head??? or, for that matter, how often does one get to EAT pieces of art?

one of the lovely offerings from the pastry chef. i would comment more on the food, but i'm thinking of saving our food reviews for a later post in which i shall unveil our new restaurant rating system- andy and i fancy ourselves to have fairly discerning palates, but more for our sake than anything else we thought it would be fun to have some sort of record of good eats to which we can refer in the future... given that the months of inpatient service as an intern tend to drive out all other peripheral knowledge like, the particular fish dish we loved at that one restaurant. we're debating between "parks" and "forks" and "stars" for the rating scale. ;)

here are some of our more touristy pics of the strip. at this point i should probably mention that hotel-hopping, though fun and informative, is definitely energy-consuming. we stayed at 3 different hotels during our 4 1/2 day trip- the platinum, the bellagio (pictured on left), and the signature @ MGM. all excellent hotels, though our favorite was definitely the signature. LOVED the nonsmoking (non-casino) lobby, in-suite kitchenette complete with cookware/flatware/silverware, and bathroom tv. sadly, no pics of said tv. you'll just have to believe me.

here are a couple of pics that are a continuation of a series i shall refer to as "hubby contemplates menu". our foodie tour included bobby flay's enclave- mesa grill (on left) and daniel boulud's self-named bistro (on right). again, food reviews *may* follow but in brief, i shall say-> thumbs down, and thumbs up. can't beat the restaurant design in vegas, though...

ah, and here- one of the FREE exhibits on the strip-> the MGM lion habitat. i wish i could have captured the scale of the lion vs. andy's head a little bit more clearly on camera, but suffice to say- that's a big cat. after spending a pretty penny (or two or three or thousands) on food, we were pretty loath to part with our cash for the various galleries, aquariums, etc... available on the strip. thus, another example of a FREE tourist attraction :

M&M heaven!

but lest you think we spent our days eating and finding cheesy free tourist traps, we also found a new hobby. cirque hopping.

this pic is from le reve @ the wynn, which was the second of two cirque du soleil shows we watched, back-to-back. the previous evening, we watched O @ bellagio. two gorgeous, brilliant, inspiring and oh-so-entertaining but different shows, despite both being cirque du soleil, created by dragone, with lots of water involved. i was telling andy that i'd love to meet the brain behind these shows- such interesting themes of good/evil, heaven/hell, madness, love, marriage, gender, sexuality... but even without my psych imagination going wild- the shows were amazing, and truly a celebration of the human canvas.

our stint in sin city ended not a minute too soon- we ended up getting sick and spending our last few days sniffling in our room, so we're both quite happy to be finishing up the convalescent period of our colds in the comfort of HOME. i'll be starting MICU, and andy starts his last medicine month as an intern soon, so most likely there will be another long period of silence to follow. but then, after MICU month, i'll have two psych months to go until 1/2 of my internship is finished!! woohoo! i can't believe it- seriously, it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating match day with everyone... and now i'm congratulating the new graduates- and interns to be. time flies. i heard a line the other day on an old episode of ER that i thought was pretty funny- "med students want to be residents, residents want to be attendings, and attendings... just want to be left alone." they got it wrong though... this intern just wants to jump to retirement. ;)

vive le reve!!

i'm dreaming again, big fantastical dreams about tidal waves, dinosaurs, castles, glittering dance routines... so glorious. and why? because... i'm on vacation. YAAAAAY! though my last two weeks of work were hardly strenuous (sports medicine) and thus sort of a pre-vacation, i realize that there really is no substitute for a REAL vacation- when the pager comes off, and i can prance around fancy-free without worrying about patient prescription requests and calls. *sigh* life is good.

we're currently in michigan with andy's folks, eating lots of healthy greenery which has done wonders for my *ahem* intestinal regularity and enjoying what they call a "warm" spell of winter with temps in the 30s and snow still lying unmelted at the sides of the roads. andy took me on a "this is your life" type of tour, including sites like his childhood home, junior high, and of course- high school. we almost passed up the high school, but then andy remembered something...

HIS BRICK!

turns out andy has his name carved on school property for all eternity, thanks to one of his myriad high school accomplishments. talk about overachievers ;)

we've also had a chance to catch up with his michigander friends, including rich and daniel - his two best men! it's been very strange indeed to look back and realize- hey, we've been married for almost a year~ well, 10 months and counting. SO much has changed since then... out of our wedding party, two got engaged with weddings coming up in june (sharon) and july '09 (rich), one's got a baby on the way (eli)... the relentless wheel of time, with new celebrations at every turn. it's beautiful, man.

next up on the vacation itinerary: VEGAS!!! many exuberant photos to come. :)

REAL scutmonkey dreams

scutmonkeys don't dream of rockstardom. or at least, this scutmonkey does not. not on medicine months. no, this past month, i dreamt of scut.

i've been at the VA, caring for our veterans and generally not caring about anything else. it's consuming. i'd wake up before my alarm at ~4:30-5am in a blind panic, having just had a nightmare about an unsigned order or missing a "panic value" in a lab, etc... i'd go to sleep thinking about how early i'd have to get there the next morning and running through all the things that i'd need to check up on, or all the things that may have been happening to my patients. i know they say that most medicine folks have some OCPD traits, but sometimes i wonder HOW that could possibly be a good fit-> it's an anxiety-provoking profession to start with, so is it really a good idea to have anxious people in it??! sigh.

so now, i sit here at a coffee shop and have the time to type away at something other than CPRS. actually, CPRS is also up- typing off service notes. it never ends. ANYWAY- the point is, i'm slowing peeling off the tentacles of the VA, one by one. it's the emotional suckers that will be the hardest to rip off. gosh, but i do really enjoy this population sometimes- the nicest old guys you'll meet. sure, i had my share of mean meth-using alcoholics, but by and large the veterans are very appreciative and, i suspect, particularly nice to me as a young Asian-American woman.. i try not to think of the memories of "native" women-past that i might evoke, but i'm not above using it to develop a rapport of sorts ;) and i have to say, working at a hospital where people know my name is ... kinda nice. i like the community feel, though believe me i cursed it plenty over the weekends when i would give my left foot for an ultrasound tech or MRI or radiologist to read said unobtainable MRIs or ultrasounds. i've had such an array of experiences here, and right now they're jostling about in my head fighting for attention... so i'll just have to let them out one by one over time.

instead, i shall describe one of my proudest non-medicine accomplishments this past month... i got myself a library card. YAY!!! in a moment of shiny optimism, i borrowed a bunch of books on my day off and started reading... i've never finished a book so slowly in my life, but i guess that's what happens when you have to read snatches of a chapter in the brief moments of lucidity before passing out at night. so, i'm 1 of 4 and very hopeful going into my sports medicine rotation that i'll make some good progress with my "must read" list. thinking back, i guess i was inspired by shomir, my "co-intern" for the month who recommended "the kite runner". he tossed me the book one day, and i DEVOURED it. this was earlier this month when the patient census was decent (as opposed to the indecent wreck i left). and then i just had to keep reading, because i missed it so much. now if only i could feel the same away about, say, THE GYM. ;)