gobble gobble all the way home

ahhhh thanksgiving. time for glorious, guiltless consumption. it's fast becoming one of my favorite holidays. this year, we were actually able to take a little 4-day vacation to socal and spend t-day with my folks. my bro and i were responsible for the dinner:

he took the meats (turkey + roast), and i took the sides (cornbread/hawaiian bread stuffing, mashed potatoes/parsnips/rutabaga, mushrooms + green beans, baked acorn squash

thanksgiving football!

the thing we were most thankful for? having a home. here are some pics of the ravaged shrubbery around our house...

here's to many, many Thanksgivings to come at home :)

stigma

a family medicine colleague of mine curbsided me on a patient of hers... it's such a familiar story- on meds, but unknown dosages, hasn't been taking them for months but actually does really need them... then she mentioned that the patient had "schizophrenia?" in their medical history, though it was not obvious on exam... she asked, why would someone put that on their chart if she didn't have it? to which i answered, well some people just don't know any better... and then she asked, why would someone do that if she didn't really have it? it must be so hard to get that off her record, that's so awful... i thought, well yes it's not appropriate to have an incorrect diagnosis on one's chart, but what is so bad about schizophrenia as opposed to something like 'palpitations' or an incorrect drug allergy that one would want to get it off their medical record as soon as possible? oh yeah... it's a mental illness. and not the "ok" kind, like depressive disorder or anxiety. it's one of those that you don't want anyone to know about. because you wouldn't want people to think you were psycho or crazy.

*sigh*

the freeway complex fire

i was just about to doze off on a lazy saturday afternoon when i got a call from my mom, calmly informing me that they had just evacuated my house and that the hills in our backyard were ablaze. needless to say, i wasn't sleepy anymore. let me just give away the punchline right now, and say- my family is safe, and against all odds, our home is still standing too... this story has a happy ending, though incredibly improbable and unexpected.
i talked with my brother, who described a frantic dash out of the house with embers flying in the air as they rushed into the cars. watching the shrubbery burn through his bedroom window. my family drove away that afternoon thinking that our house was gone- a lost cause. up in our neck of the woods, i was frantically trolling all of the socal tv station websites, watching the live feeds and hoping that i wouldn't see my childhood home razed to the ground.
we don't know exactly how our house was spared- like in many other areas, the damage was seemingly arbitrary. our neighbor 3 houses down the street was not so lucky. however, some family friends of ours did report seeing some heroic neighbors fighting a blaze on our hilltop with garden hoses... by the time my parents drove back to help, after hearing that people were trying to save our house, everyone had left but our house was untouched. our hills were scorched, with layers of ash everywhere, but... THE HOUSE IS STILL THERE. by the grace of God and good neighbors.
i guess it's a common mental exercise- "what would you take if you had to evacuate?" and i realized that the things that i worried about the most, after i knew my family was safe, were memories- the piano that suffered through years of painful dissonant practice, our photo albums, my summer cooling spot on the living room couch directly in line with the AC vent, the collection of disney videotapes that helped us survive the years without tv. i can't even imagine what all of those who lost their homes this past week must be feeling. but there is hope- those phantom neighbors really reaffirmed my faith in humanity... we'll all pull together and rebuild.

at long last...

i chose a winner. after years of feeling disenfranchised, and in fact never getting the president of my choice for as long as i've been able to vote... years of feeling disgusted, discouraged, and actively considering a move to another country...

finally.

yes we can.

obama/biden '08

lovin' (and missin') the life of leisure

ahhhh vacation. those glorious 2 weeks that make me question why sloth and gluttony are considered 2 of the deadly sins. the hubby & i are now readjusting to work, but it's very difficult after having such great fun and getting oodles of sleep to get used to the residency lifestyle. *sigh* someday, a balanced life? anyhoo, for your viewing pleasure, a pictorial timeline of our carefree frolicking in socal & hawaii...

the hubs had never been to knott's berry farm, so i decided that we needed to take a little trip. twas literally a ghost town, as most folks apparently would rather be scared out of their minds at knott's SCARY farm instead of the wholesome attractions available during the day, so we were able to hop on rides without waiting... as pictured above, one of their newer rides where you get on a little plastic pony and are shot forward at great speeds. unfortunately, my partner is somewhat vestibularly challenged, so we limited the wild rides... which is good, actually, because i think my favorite part of the day was visiting the knott's chicken dinner restaurant for lunch and indulging in some fried chicken with biscuits. twould not have served to have a queasy belly.

we were able to meet up with jayon, one of the groomsmen and now medicine resident who's been slogging away at his program in LA... ate at pizzeria mozza, my first sampling of mario batali's fare, for dinner (tasty but nothing spectacular, though as a bonus we did get to see dave grohl & wife dining at an adjacent table) then hit up the ktown pinkberry where we found these PARK ON 6TH signs. so there you have it. a Park on 6th ;) though i was sorely disappointed (again) to find that the strangely milky new taste of pinkberry as experienced at another store previously was now THE taste of pinkberry everywhere because of a recipe change. NOT cool. so what if the original recipe wasn't "real" yogurt??!!! it was TASTY, and ADDICTIVE- they didn't call it crackberry for nothin. now it just tastes like red mango. boo. i'm planning a petition.

here's me and my sis in front of the santa monica pier- we wandered the promenade and the pier, sampling yummy cupcakes, and got a lot of sun...

...then met up with my bro & mom for some good eats at the water grill. and by good, i mean very expensive but superbly tasty. the occasion for the family dinner (minus my pops)? a belated and early bday gift to my siblings- MUSICAL TICKETS!!

i know, i know, not exactly the first thing that one would expect, especially for my bro, but hey- i think they enjoyed it. loved allison janney in it.

but then it was time to go to hawaii. to stay here:


thank you costco travel for a great deal @ the fairmont orchid, an excellent hotel which has only served to prejudice me even further against any non-luxury accomodation. we were at the big island, which is good because as island vacations go, it seems that bigger really is better because we found ourselves going a little stir-crazy towards the end of our ~1 week stay. twas nice to have a LOT to explore, and explore we did. north, south, east, west, all the coasts.

here are all our exploits at the volcanoes national park- walking through a lava tube, trying to see the lava flow (it doesn't flow all the time, who knew??!!), sulfurous steam that creates "vog" (volcanic fog) coming from the craters... and some pretty flower.

the hawaii spirit. love it. except when it comes to the hawaii style of driving. i'm all about getting from A to B in as little time as (legally) possible. driving in hawaii, not so much about efficiency or speed. luckily, andy drove.

then, on the east side, we visited hilo: ate authentic saimin @ nori's saimin and snacks, a yelp favorite. ate rambutan (a cousin of lychee?) from the hilo farmer's market. wandered through some japanese gardens. visited akaka and angel falls.

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park down towards the south, past Kona.

we enjoyed a couple of gorgeous sunsets... oh and so many other things i was just too lazy to photograph, like visiting both a macadamia nut and coffee factory, kayaking at our resort, eating at ridiculously excellent restaurants like merriman's (twice), alan wong's outpost @ the four seasons, etc... good times.

but we couldn't leave hawaii without seeing our good buddy jonk. we stayed in oahu just for a night, but got the abbreviated culinary tour including malasadas and bubbie's mochi ice cream. many thanks to captain kim.

and finally, right before we caught our red-eye back to reality, we had to eat at alan wong's one more time.

we spent the last precious weekend in socal with family, visiting andy's sister in loma linda (and discovering an awesome board game- Settlers of Catan), getting my hair cut & permed (a semi-annual occurrence), eating delicious korean food, and dreading monday. why is it that one has to work to get paid? *sigh* it was wonderful to see all our friends and to spend time with family, but it's back to the grind for now and hopefully i'll remember what's so great about this whole medicine thing soon.

flight of ideas

battling the bulge aka freshman 15+ is HARD. particularly when i've let myself slide into an unprecedented state of deconditioning. and why is it that there are so many cute clothes that just don't accommodate a poochy belly?! but i digress... one of the reasons why it's so difficult to shed pounds- trips to APPLE HILL!!

andy and i decided to take our annual trip to Apple Hill earlier this month, and were happy to actually find APPLES on the trees... and fresh apple pie with homemade ice cream, and the delicious apple cider doughnuts that go oh-so-well with fresh apple cider.

that little blue speck is andy, wandering through the orchards looking for the perfect unsullied fuji apple. citing puffy insect-bitten feet (that's another story), i lingered behind and snapped away.

after a hard day's work of apple-picking, we found sustenance. Schnitzel and bockwurst!

so random... our very own Oktoberfest ;) sans beer.

here's a pic of some combined (family med or internal med + psych) folks- we got together for some soondubu .. twas a nice distraction from the daily grind of internal medicine @ the VA.

in other news, made my first pie (with hand-picked apples from Apple Hill)... it's pretty difficult to make something taste bad if you add lots and lots of butter. and sugar. but dang, pies are no joke. much respect to the bakers of the world. no longer harboring dreams of opening my own bakery... unless someone else is going to be rolling out those crusts.

omg, jon stewart just compared john mccain to gollum. awesome.

totally looking forward to vacation. counting down the days, in fact. 8 more days. 3 more calls. bring it.