Fire Mike Davis

I had a really good week at school, but now I have lab work that I must catch up on. Sushi last night was outstanding, as usual. The restaraunt is Korean owned but is still a great place to eat. I particularly like the traditional Korean noodles and vegetables (Japchae). This is preceded by a small salad with garlic/ginger dressing and followed by Miso soup. After eating at Hisago weekly for a year, we have narrowed our choice of rolls to the 'perfect five'. Spicy salmon, ebi tempura, new york roll, hoosier roll, and oshizushi roll. Friday and Saturday nights also provide us with the occasional poorly sung version of James Brown's 'I Feel Good' echoing from the back room of the restaraunt where Karaoke is taking place. I have been laying around all day watching college basketball. IU lost again, I fear that we may not make the NCAA tournament, yet alone make the final four (as I predicted three months ago). Mike Davis is a great recruiter but absolutely cannot coach. We have to start winning on the road if we stand any chance at all of making the tournament. I have nothing in my fridge (see picture), sorry for the poor quality, it was taken with my phone. As you can see, I have water, milk, condiments, and the biggest tub of butter available for consumer purchase. I think I will grocery shop today, finish laundry, and read some nerdy dental journals/magazines. I will also try and rent Curb Your Enthusiasm, per Oz's request. One more thing, I rented 'Constant Gardner' two nights ago. I really enjoyed it, as I do most of John LeCarre's movies and books.

Two Step!

I passed National Step II!!!

Breaking News....New Diet Guaranteed to Work!

Another week of school down only 14 more to go! I was at Cottage Corner clinic all week. It is a nice facility that addresses the medical and dental needs of the underserved population in Indianapolis (mostly eastsiders). I really enjoyed the rotation, I had a lot of freedom in decision making and got a chance to see multiple patients. Pretty boring week. Unfortunately, due to circumstance, I can only set short term goals right now. I want to pass National Step II (I should find out in about two weeks), next I want to get my patients ready for clinical portion of NERBs, and finally I have to still complete my graduation requirements. I suppose after achieving these goals I will aggressively start looking for a job. I have a meeting with the Heartland recruiter on the 16th and am also in contact with a friend of a friend who practices in Sydney, Australia about possible opportunities there. I really don't have a single preference on where to practice. I suppose Louisville/Southern Indiana is always an option but Oz has three years of med school left (and endless years of residency left) and baby bro has a year of undergrad and three years of law school before they decide where they want to live. I will probably just end up associating for a few years and hopefully find a place to practice within the next five years.
Well, in early December I reported that I weighed in at a husky 198. Eight weeks later, with a little hard work, a little bit of heartbreak, and some dieting, I weighed in at 190 even! I am pretty excited, only 12 more pounds to go until my goal is reached. After reading the South Beach Diet, studying Atkins, researching the Caveman, cabbage soup, liquid, and Hollywood diets, I found one that works. Eat less and exercise more! I am doing something aerobic five times a week and eating about half as much as I normally do. I go to bed hungry every night, but it's worth it. Time to undo all that hard work, the weekend is here!

Rounds

I spent most of my spare time this weekend working on my final rounds presentation. I am so unmotivated these days and just finished putting together the worst presentation ever. I would like to think that in the past I have taken quite a bit of pride in my rounds presentations. I presented on 'Meth Mouth' before a lot of published articles were available (should have published my research, but I'm obviously way too lazy). I also presented on 'Treatment and Management of Medically Compromised Patients. As you can see, these at least sound like good presentations. Now, let me wow you with my most recent one. I will be presenting an antibiotic cheat sheet for dentists, an anesthetic cheat sheet, and a denture fabrication cheat sheet. Anyway, on friday I went to a local watering hole called 'The Working Man's Friend' (proud to say that I've eaten at 4 of the top 6 on this link). This place really is a hole in the wall, not to be confused with another establishment around town actually called 'A Hole in the Wall'. I still maintain that 'The Friend' has the best cheeseburger around. They also have great cheese sticks and battered mushrooms. I really haven't slept well in about two weeks. I am very stressed out with my impending graduation, not knowing where to practice, and quite frankly what to do in my personal life. I guess I will just do what I did last year when my life was in disarray; spend all my time at the gym. On wednesday I played basketball (and lost by about 30 points), thursday I played volleyball, friday was basketball again, saturday was a very intense workout and today is indoor soccer. I suppose if I keep myself busy enough my problems will either go away or I will be so involved with other things that I just won't worry about them as much anymore.

Nashville

I took an impromptu trip to Nashville with a couple of friends yesterday. I had a haunting suspicion that Nashville was a little country, but it was really country. We went to quite a few places on Broadway, 2nd Avenue, and Printer's Alley. We started at a place called Tootsies. From what I can gather, Tootsies is to the Nashville country music scene as CBGB was/is to the punk rock scene. Next we went to a bar/club called The Stage. This place was pretty big and had, as you might imagine, a really big stage. The sound system was insanely loud as evidenced by the arrythmia that I now suffer from. I recieved a phone call from a buddy of mine that left us some tickets for a show that he was opening for at a venue called the Wild Horse Saloon. This place was enormous, three levels, giant dance floor (for line dancing and other such activities), and tons of really attractive girls. We felt really cool because there was a ton of people wanting to get into this sold out show and we just walked up to the door and said we were with the band and got in. Okay, it may not have happened exactly like that, but we still had an in. Nashville was really cool in that every single place had live music (including street performers). Also, it seemed as though there was no place that wasn't at least 3/4 capacity. Tootsie's and the Stage were incredibly packed. The people that were out are also worth commenting on. There were college type people (from Vanderbilt I'm guessing), hicks, old (over 40), and young. I was rubbing elbows with hot girls with pointy shoes, expensive clothes, and designer perfume and mingling with guys in wrangler jeans, heavy starched shirts, cowboy boots, and brut cologne. By the end of the night I found myself watching the rodeo on TV and commenting "at boy kuh ride". For those of you that are unfamiliar with Nashville speak, it translates roughly to "that gentlemen is quite capable and adept at maintaining balance upon that unusually large, ill-tempered bovine". Needless to say, I had a great time and am looking forward to doing it again.

Hi Five

I had a very stressfull week at the emergency clinic. My brother now laughs at me because a stressfull week for me usually involves working at the hospital from 8-5:30, standing the entire time, taking med histories, and doing oral surgery all day. I had the worst patient on friday morning. She was HIV+ and didn't know her T-Cell count. She also didn't know what meds she was taking and what she was taking them for. Every 10 minutes she told me a new condition. Oh, I have neuropathy, and thrush, and I had alcohol poisoning two weeks ago, and depression. I could go on, but I'll stop and spare anyone reading this the agony. She has been positive for 11 years but when I asked her what her T-Cell count was, she promptly stated "18" (full blown AIDS is anything under 4oo, she obviously didn't know and was making up random numbers). Finally, I could tell that she was getting frustrated with the fact that a dentist was asking all these questions. As I occasionally walked out of the room to talk to the doctor I noticed that she would talk to the wall, her purse, and the x-ray hanging in the view box. When I walked back in with the doc, she cursed at both of us and stormed out. Good times.
Satisfied the usual friday sushi craving last night and then met BG and his fiance, JC and his lady, and MJ at Olives (the bar in the Omni). Right now I'm listening to Thievery Corporation and Kenny Chesney. I don't really know anyone else who has those together on a playlist. Quite frankly I'm not sure why I do either. I really like this picture. Pakistan may be the only place on earth where you could find a family of 8 on a 100cc motorcycle.

Yee Haw!

I had a pretty exciting weekend. I went to sushi at Wasabi on the north side on friday. After dinner we met up with about twenty other people for a friend of mine from IU who had a surprise 30th birthday party thrown for him. It was good to see some of the old crew from IU. They drove from Chicago, Nashville, and Columbus, it was a good time. On saturday a group of fourteen of us went to the rodeo. It was a lot of fun, but the highlight of the night had to be Whiplash, the cowboy monkey. They had a monkey in a cowboy hat, riding around on a sheepdog, herding cattle. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. Although it did also remind me a little of the monkey I saw in Pakistan that smoked, did push-ups, sat with his legs crossed in a chair, kneaded mock dough, and aimed a miniature rifle at you. After the rodeo we all went out to the usual dive. Sunday started out as one of my laziest days on record. I refused to anwer the phone until 4 o'clock as it sat ringing 18 inches from my head all afternoon. I finally got up to play soccer (we won 6-0 and I scored, but for some reason Real Madrid hasn't come calling yet), went for a run afterwards, and then tried unsuccessfully to do TaeBo with MP. I took it seriously, but she kept laughing at me and I kicked her dog twice accidentally. I'll stick to weights and sports. I am at Regenstrief Emergency clinic all this week. So I will be stuck with the unenviable task of trying to discern drug seekers from those who are in legitimate pain. I also have to start studying for my Jurisprudence exam on wednesday. Instead of listing all 1000 songs in the nano, I will just quote a line from a random song:
"To the extreme I rock the mic like a vandal, light up the stage and wax a chump like a candle"
Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby

Resolutions

My patient cancelled this morning, therefore allowing me time to write a few lines. I think I would enjoy blogging a lot more if it was like the medical profession. I wish I could sit with a tape recorder dictating and then have the tape outsourced to south asia and posted to this page. I recently took the North East Regional Board Exam (NERB). I felt a lot better about this test than National Step II. If I pass both of these exams, I may never have to take another written test ever again (at least none of any significant value). I partied with some friends on the 31st and have watched my fair share of college football this last week. I am very depressed in that I have to go to school again and deal with all of that nonsense. Now for resolutions:

1. Lose 20 pounds by early April (i'd be happy with 15)
2. Graduate on time (by Mother's Day weekend)
3. Figure out where I want to live
4. Find a job
5. Become more active (aerobic activity daily)
6. Drink more water (pretty lame, but I do need to)
7. Throw away all loose papers dated prior to August 2000
8. Give away all clothes that haven't been worn in over one year
9. Learn to ride (and buy) a motorcycle (Yamaha FZ6 or Suzuki SV650S)
10. Don't eat after 10pm

I think that is all the resolutions I came up with. I feel that I can and should accomplish at least 8 of the 10. Those were my reasonable resolutions. Here is my unreasonable resolution/wish list:

1. Travel to Spain, France, England, Italy, and Greece (includes sailing the Mediterranean in a chartered yacht)
2. Own 100 acres of land somewhere in the Carribean where I will eventually build a house and retire
3. Become the dentist to the stars, have my own show, get asked to star in movie along side one of my patients, become an international phenomenon (okay, this is just ridiculous, I'll stop now)
4. Get asked to be a consultant for Ferrari's F1 team (this wish also includes dating a model/actress which is a customary perk of the job)

Let me get back to my reality of travelling to the gym, owning a half acre in southern Indiana, becoming a dentist to the underprivelaged, and being a consultant for my soccer/volleyball team.

Elementary My Dear Watson

Just as I suspected! I got two text messages from Oz. The first one told a tale of visiting a jazz club and Oz complaining that coffee was five dollars. My brothers are so predictable. The second mentioned that the museums were nice, hotel was ghetto, and the clubs were open from 1 to 6 am. I don't know why he mentioned the latter. I know he is implying that this information is most important to me. Well it's not Oz, I'll have you know that the most important information is how much a flight to Ibiza costs! Anyway, I have somehow become enamored with the show Deal or No Deal. It is the stupidest, simplest show ever. Apparently, elaborate lighting and 30 hot girls is all it takes for me to fall into a trace like state and stare foolishly at the TV chanting 'No Deal, No Deal'. Anywho, the concierge at the hotel told me we were going to a game show, not we were going to be on a game show (I hope I didn't butcher that line completely as I am not in possession of the SNL Best of Chris Farley DVD). Back to studying. Upcoming posts: New Year's Resolutions and What's in the Nano. Peace and chicken grease.

Espana

My brothers are in, how do you say...ah yes...Spain! I am in the Ville studying. I would like to think that my brothers are seeing sights all day, meeting really cool people, partying all night, and having a completely outrageous time in Madrid. Alas, I know better, they are going to museums, historical sights, coffee shops (per Oz's request I'm sure), and clothing stores (per baby bro's request). I'm sure they are having a fun time and making fun of me for not being there. Wait a minute, they would be making fun of me even if I was there. After cutting my off my hair in the summer and then letting it grow back out in the fall, I have decided to cut it off again. This decision coincides with my diet and wanting to look more sleek and aerodynamic (and has nothing to do with the fact that my hair is thinning and my hairline is receding, I can thank Dad for that). Talked to BG today and he is surfing triple overhead in Santa Barbara in 74 degree weather. I am surfing triple browser windows in 34 degree weather. I better study now, peace out.

Lazy Day

Today I had a very relaxing day. I woke up early and went to the gym. I think I will stop keeping track of how many days I have worked out, even though my brothers love how quantitative I am. I did some laundary, changed the sheets, cleaned up the perpetually messy coffee table, and got my massage! It was very relaxing and much needed. Now I am watching Arrested Development Season 2 and 40 year old virgin. Laughter really is the best medicine!

360....Below Zero

One might wonder what a guy that just finished school for the semester did on a Saturday night. Did he party with his friends? Did he eat a nice dinner? Did he stay home and relax? No. Although I had the chance to take part in all of the previously mentioned activities, I chose to do something absolutely ridiculous. I somehow decided to wait in line with a girl who is not my girlfriend, to buy a gift that was not for me, for a holiday that I don't even celebrate! I forgot to mention that I waited outside Best Buy in the freezing cold from 12:30 am until 7:30am for an Xbox 360. It was insanely cold, 11 degrees Farenheit to be exact with 7 mph wind from the NW. I don't know about northwest but I can tell you that it was coming from under my chin and managed to blow in my face no matter what direction I turned my head. Anyway, we began posting up outside the store after watching King Kong. I had on two pairs of sweats, two pairs of socks, a thermal, sweatshirt, jacket, scarf, gloves, stocking cap, sleeping bag, down blanket and wool blanket. I was actually pretty warm except my feet didn't thaw out until about 10 o'clock this morning. When we arrived, we were the 35th people in line. The guy in front of us worked for Best Buy and was waiting to get one for his nephew. He informed us that the store only had 34 Xbox units to sell and that vouchers would be distributed at 7 in the morning. We decided to wait anyway because they were expecting a truck at 8 o'clock that contained 30 additional game systems. At about 2 in the morning a guy drove buy selling a premium system (he got it from work, Target) for 550 dollars. The guy in front of us decided to buy it from him. We were pretty excited because this meant that we were now number 34. At around 4 in the morining about 30 more people started lining up behing us. By 6:30 in the morning there were about 100 people. At 7:00 the manager came out and had us line up single file and my worst fear came true. There were people at the front of the line that were waiting as 'support' for family and friends who took a voucher after saying that they didn't want one. I think a few people also cut in line at some point during the clean up in the morning. There was no way to truly police the line. So, we didn't get voucher and neither did the two mothers and the couple in front of us. Some girl from the front of the line sold her voucher to one of the mothers in front of us for an undisclosed amount. To make a short story long, we needed there to be three more vouchers in order for us to have been able to get the Xbox. We were both cold and pissed off, but what can you do. Well, I better get a little shut eye and do a little cleaning.

Still Learning

I really haven't done much the last couple of days. I have been at the gym 10 of the last 12 days. I feel a lot better about myself, I will weigh in sometime in early January and see how my workout/diet is fairing. I have learned some really important things lately. These are lessons that I already knew but until I actually experienced them I didn't have a firm grasp on the importance of these lessons:
Lesson 1: If you go to bed hungry, you will wake up even hungrier in the morning. Don't eat at 5:00 pm if you are going to stay awake until 2:00 am, you will wake up craving everything and end up eating chocolate cake for breakfast and McDonalds for lunch.
Lesson 2: Be weary of letting friends use your computer. I was hanging out with the boys and BG was using JB's computer. After JB went to bed, BG and JC put an inappropriate picture as the wallpaper on his computer thinking he would wake up, see it and laugh about it. Wrong. JB woke up, put his computer in his bag and went to school. He proceeded to boot up his computer while he was talking to Dr. M (clinic director). They also pennied his bedroom door.
Lesson 3: Women are always right. Just do whatever they say, your life will be a lot better because of it. Eat whatever and whenever they want. Argue if you so dare, but apologize promptly or admit partial fault at least half way into your argument. Compliment them regularly and no matter what they say, they love for you to buy them things, anything!

My iPod is fully functional and I am loving it. I am still trying to get some good playlists together. Congratulations Oz for completing your first semester of medical school. Congratulations Baby Bro for a 4.0 (19 credits) this semester, now study for the LSAT and do well.

Coke Bottles

I finally got my new glasses today. I think it was about time for a change, I had the same pair since 1996 (I sound like my dad). I almost tried on every pair of glasses in the store, I am not kidding! I tried on every pair in the men's, children's, and unisex selection. I even saw a few monocles that suited me. I am very pleased with the frames I chose, I feel like a different person. The funniest part of the whole ordeal was when the optician saw my prescription and convinced me that I needed featherweight lenses because the sheer weight of the thicker plastic lenses may crush the bridge of my nose, or so she made it sound. I have been doing really well at the gym, but the diet still needs work. I had a piece of cake for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and another piece of cake for dinner. It's really not that bad, the pieces of cake were really small. The bad part is that I had a piece of cake for dessert after dinner as well. Oh well, I'm working on it.

Massage

It was a very exciting weekend for Indiana sports. IU beat up on rival Kentucky and the Colts continued their quest for perfection by beating division foe Jacksonville. The Colts seem to play better and better every week. My indoor soccer team tied today 3-3, we would have easily won had all of our players shown up. I guess that's what happens when you play at 10:40 on a Sunday night. After working out four of the last six days, I am really sore. I don't know what I expected, I haven't consistently worked out for the last couple of months and lately I've been working out like I've got a title fight approaching. The good news is that MP got me a gift certificate for a full body, deep tissue massage. Isn't she great! So I will continue to punish my body until I can't take the abuse any longer and then set up a time to get the massage. This reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite movies (Snatch):
Turkish: Why the f*ck did you put Gorgeous George into a bare knuckle boxing match two days before he had to fight the Bomber?
Tommy: He was half his size. I didn't expect him to get hurt.
Turkish: You put the man into a bare knuckle boxing match. What the f*ck did you expect? A grease down and a shiatsu?

This week is the last week of school before the clinics close for two weeks. I can't believe that I only have a semester of school left. What am I going to do? All I have ever known is school.

Holiday Party

We had a holiday party at our clinic directors house last night. No gift exchange, just food, conversation, and drinks. The highlight of the night was most certainly when a classmate, after way too much wine, spilled an entire glass of Cabernet on Dr. M's white living room rug. Needless to say the party came to a resounding halt after that. We decided to head back downtown and meet up with the rest of the crew who were all tipsy after going to the Neil Diamond concert. I am going to get a quick workout in and then watch the IU v. Kentucky basketball game. Go Hoosiers!

Need Sleepy

I am tired! Tired of school, tired of cold weather, tired of being broke, tired of being fat, tired of my dusty apartment, tired of my noisy muffler, tired of spending 80 dollars at the grocery store and walking out with deli meat, chesse, bread, and gatorade. I'm tired of standing water in my dishwasher, tired of traffic on the snobby north side, tired of the delapidated roads in Indianapolis, and I'm just really tired of being tired all the time.

I enjoy my profession but sometimes patients can really make you second guess your career choices. As MP so eloquently put it, "If my patients would have spent 2.99 on a toothbrush and .99 cents on tooth paste, they wouldn't be spending a day a week and a few thousand on dental work." I often wonder if my profession would even exist if so many people didn't have a toothbrush allergy. I actually had a patient today that came to her appointment eating candy and actually tried to sneak a piece when I got up to develop an x-ray. I wonder if she shows up to the cardiologists office with a double cheeseburger and fries.

I went to the northside today to get a gift certificate for my clinic director and sat in traffic for 40 minutes at 7:30 in the evening. I didn't mind the trip because we got our weekly sushi fix out of the way on the way back. I'm tired of writing!

Dunlap Disease

Boards are finished!!! I think I may have done marginally better on the second day, hopefully well enough to pass. I went to work out directly after the exam and was I in for a surprise. I had recently noticed that all of my pants fit a little tighter (I wear scrubs everyday so it is sometimes hard to tell), I'm also being offered diet soda an awful lot by servers at restaraunts, and I am having a lot of trouble breathing due to fatty deposits around my neck. One would think that these would all be very clear signs that I should diet or perhaps excersize a little more. On the contrary, I eat out more, work out less, and wear scrubs more often. As a matter of fact, I distinctly remember wearing scrubs at a restaraunt denouncing physical activity and healthy eating. I weighed myself at the gym today, in the nude (a la light heavyweight boxer style) to find that I now weigh 196.8 pounds! I don't know how many kilograms or stones that is, but its a lot. To put this in perspective, I weighed 180 pounds in late June. I was playing soccer, basketball, volleyball, and lifting regularly. In a mere six months I have gained 17 pounds and who knows how much body fat. Although I deserve much of the credit, I would like to thank my friends, family, and classmates for supporting me in my bid to reach unhealthy levels of obesity. It's the hard work behind the scenes that has allowed me to be successful. Things like the late night eating, forearm sized breakfast burritos on the weekends, 25 cent wings, the dollar menu, and economy size bags of BBQ potato chips are all to blame. So I am recommitting myself to working out and eating better. By April 1st I plan on being 180 pounds, healthy, and fit once again. No Oz, this is not like every winter since 1995 that I say "Man, I'm going to get ripped this summer", I just want to be back in shape like I was in June. I will post some pictures of past, present, and my progress.

Retake

I sat for eight hours to take National Board Exam Step 2. I have four more hours of the test tomorrow and then I will wait six to eight weeks before finding out that I have failed and must retake the exam. The test was extremely hard and I feel really stupid with my inability to answer so many questions confidently. Apparently I am supposed to know all of the information and the board exam is only a review of information presented previously in my dental education. Oh well, no point in worrying about it now. I better cram a little more information into my brain before tomorrow morning.

The Boys

I have been ridiculously busy. I have National Step II coming up in four days! I am not prepared at all, but oh well. This post will be in nothing but short fragmented sentences due to the fact that I have to study and need all available brian power to retain the information necessary for me to pass the boards. Watched monday night game, Colts dominated. The boys stopped by (BG, JC, JB). Dropped off a birthday gift for me. First gift, old t-shirt that was left at Brett's months ago. It was presented in the N-Sync gift bag that has been passed around now for four years at each birthday. Next gift, wrapped box (brita water pitcher box) containing 59 ounce can of chicken broth. No doubt purchased at Costco/Sam's Club. Underneath the broth was the real gift. Black 4 gb iPod Nano!!!!! (http://www.apple.com/ipodnano). Flippin' Sweet!
Went to IU/Duke game last night. 25th row tickets. Marco Killingsworth could not be stopped. Loud as I have every heard Assembly Hall. Coach K said it was the loudest place he has ever played outside of Cameron Indoor. Good Times! Would have been better had IU won. Will get pictures and links up once boards are done. Must study now. Must also hire maid to clean perpetually dirty apartment. Must also quit writing like this because it is thoroughly annoying.