The Holidays

Last Friday, I heard my first Christmas song on the radio. One of the local stations 100.9 played Christmas music all weekend long. It was great!!! Well for me anyway, I love Christmas music.

Yesterday was a long awaited Thanksgiving dinner. This years dinner was held at my cousin Peachy's home. Her kids (my favorite nephew Marc, God-daughter Nikki and Lauren) all insisted that it be a completely traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Filipinos have a way of modifying things to suit their taste. While I went to medical school in the Philippines, even the McDonalds was not traditional McDonalds. They had this burger called the McDo, which tasted like---I have no idea what, and then they also served rice with some of their meals. Anyway, my wonderful nephews and nieces asked that there be nothing on the table that wasn't served for the first Thanksgiving dinner. So Peachy obliged.

The food was awesome. The turkey, basted well and a ham, which was to die for. Lauren made a greenbean casserole (with the help of Cambells cream of mushroom) which I had several servings and now I need to run off. We also had apple pie and pecan pie for dessert.

The best part of it all, was getting to spend time with my cousins. Yes, I know a cheesy ending to a story which ran in different directions. But my mind runs in different directions, so I always digress.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy birthdays to my dear Simi Bhullar M.D., who celebrates today! A Happy Birthday to an old college buddy Jamie Sterenberg who will celebrate his birthday on the 28th.

Commentators

I'm not knocking the sport of ping-pong. Everything that one does has some sort of skill involved with it. Maybe I'm just being prejudice because I love the sport of tennis so much (I can't play worth a hill of beans, but I love it none-the-less). But after Andy Roddick's match today on ESPN (great match to watch--Andy always keeps me at the edge of my seat--especially when he let's his opponents get so close), ESPN did live coverage of a ping-pong match. The table looked so diminutive compared to the tennis court and the stance that the players took while waiting for the ball. I'm not going to say anything mean...I'm sure they can find loads of my faults which to jump upon. But come on? Live coverage with commentators that say things like "Wow, he threw his opponent off with such skill" (something to that effect). I'll stop. Maybe it's cause I don't think of things like ping-pong as a sport. To me, ping-pong is a basement game played during childhood. It was also a college past-time. My buddy Chip Chipouras' dinning table was partly a dining table, study table and on some afternoons a ping-pong table. James Sterenberg, his roommate could often be heard screaming "I'm king of the mountain" when he won a game (I've got a picture of one of his victories. So when I think of ping-pong I think of basements and that dining room on Jones Avenue in Morgantown, West Virginia.
I've babbled again haven't I? I'll stop. I have no idea where I was even going with this entry.

Annoying Commercials

I just had to write. I have the radio on in the background while I study, it helps break the silence which can be nerve wracking during a stressful period of reading something I can't memorize or find a way to understand in a more simplistic way. However, tonight I can't get this annoying jingle out of my head. There is a lawyer, I'm not sure if she is from Charleston or not, but she has these commercials which have been playing for awhile, with a jingle (I have no idea why she approved of it) that is quite ridiculous. Anyway, because of the jingle, I've decided that if I ever need a lawyer, she will not be it, based on the fact that she couldn't even discern a bad jingle from a good one. My friends and I have often wondered what pushed her to choose this commercial. It's a topic of conversation that comes up whenever we talk about anything that gets on our nerves.

Okay, enough negative stuff. On a more positive note, my friend Mondeep wrote a really good blog entry about how kind her New York neighbors have been to her. Her entry can be found at www.mrslug.com/mondeep/blog/

Ladybugs

My bedroom has become infested with these little orange ladybugs. No other room in the house has these things, just mine. They are on the ceiling, in the windows and in some of the corners. I have gotten rid of some of them, but when I wake up in the morning, it seems they've doubled. I can't stand them, they fly around, bang into the ceiling light and make this ticking noise while they crash into the lightbulb, it's enough to make me seem schizophrenic.

My friend Saritha said it's a good thing. She said maybe they are attracted to a good vibe from me. She has them too, and is handling them a little better than I am. Of course she has her cat Furley to keep her company. However, Furley is not really into the ladybugs. He sits crouched, waiting to attack them. I'm with Furley!!!!

Other than that, nothing else has been going on in my life. I got to spend time with my niece Isabella this weekend. She's at this crawl/walk stage. Her crawl isn't exactly a crawl, it's a crawalk. She straigtens out her legs while pulling with her arms. If she can grab hold of furniture, then she walks along it. So I think she's going to go straight from sitting to walking, almost by-passing the crawling stage. This is unlike my nephew Xavier, who for the longest time preferred to crawl. I would set him on his feet and for the few steps that he would take, would be so tortured by having to walk, that he would cry with every step. He finally learned to fully walk at about 14 months of age. Now he won't stop exploring.

Maybe Xavier will explore and get rid of the bugs in my room! He is also fascinated by "bugs". Anything that crawls or moves along the floor is a bug. And he points this out to us all the time. He doesn't do anything to the bugs, just watches them until something else grabs their attention.
Unlike me, I can't stay focused on anything in particular. Everything seems to grab my attention these days, except for my medical books. And when it comes to those, I have A.D.D.

I'll Buy Anything

I'm the fool who will buy whatever samples they have at the supermarket. Today, while shopping for celery, peanut butter, and batteries, I also bought a box of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Sandwiches things. There was an elderly man who asked, "You wanna try a fish, it doesn't have scales". So of course, I tried and then put a box into the basket. I've tried using one of those basket things because it fits less stuff and I think I can walk away with less stuff. Nope, no avail, it always gets filled and heavy.

I'm also worse at the check-out line. If they've got some sort of display going, I am one of those fools that buys right into it. Not worse than my colleague Saint Adeogba though. I was with her at Walmart once, to buy notebooks and in the check-out line, she proceeded to open a bag of beef jerkey nuggets, just because she had never had them. So her notebooks, after her tally, ended up costing about $40. But I do get sucked into the samples, the displays (especially if they are colorful), and also any new gimmick. Just send it my way, it will add to the cupboard clutter. Thank God for nephews and nieces--they usually end up eating the crap. Especially my nephew Chris, he'll eat almost any sort of junkfood.

A Happy Birthday to my niece Danielle Lauren Lee (the 11th, so it's belated), fellow physician Jo Michael Chu, and friend Biva Minosa!!!

Video Kills Word Of Mouth

One of my latest junk-emails received was "beautiful virgins being banged". Now, first of all why would so girl say, "I'm a virgin, film me being banged". Second of all, how would anyway know otherwise just by watching whether or not the girl still has an intact hymen and unchartered territory? Not really interested in watchng something like that.

It reminded me however of one of my friends telling me that his friend sent him a video of his banging a girl. Why would you send a video of yourself via e-mail doing some chick? Is word of mouth not good enough in this realm? I mean if any of my friends ever decided to send me something like that, my reply would be, "I got laid last night would have sufficed". Really, to place a mental image in my head would be way too much information. I would not be able to look you in the eye, ever again. My head would sway back and forth whenever we engaged in conversation, much like Stevie Wonder's does when he is singing, just so I could avoid eye contact. I don't want that kind of information.

What kind of person--mentally--does it take to send a visual letter like that. First of all, you either never got laid and wanted proof, or else you have no respect for yourself, for the girl or your friends. I definitely wouldn't show my naked ass to my buddies bouncing in rhythmical gyration. Number one, I would hope that none of my buddies want to see my ass, and secondly why would I want them to see my orgasm face?

Remember, prose always beats a painting. A picture maybe worth a thousand words, but most peopel would rather draw the mental picture themselves!

Late Breaking or None of Our Business

I was quite shocked to hear on the news (not going to say which channel) that Mrs. Edwards was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Is this really considered late breaking or is it none of our business. The family was just getting use to the election results and then to announce on television that she had breast cancer. Did the public really need to know this? And what about her family members who found out along with the public and not through the Edwards family themselves. This was a really horrific news story and really not one which needed to be broadcast. The news came a day after the concession speech given by her husband and Senator Kerry. Not at all appropriate.

Speaking of the elections, why do dirty deeds suddenly seem to appear during the eleventh hour. And are these other tabloid stories belong in the newspapers? There are stories of affairs or even other wrong doing by candidates. I say as long as their personal lives don't affect the way they do their jobs, then does it really matter?

I think that journalists need to find other stories... much more appealing stories, the kind that really matter. Maybe then my buddy Saritha will start watching the news again.

5 K Run

I did my first 5 k run. Yes, I know, it's only 3.2 miles. But I've never really run in my life. I've done like one or two miles a day, since I bought my running shoes--early October. I do one or two miles and then walk the rest of the five. I do five miles a day ( a combination of a job--and that's only one or two miles and walk the rest). So it wasn't like I was breathless when I finished. I finished 139th out of about two hundred. My brother-in-law came in at 166, so I know I wasn't last.

I don't remember what I thought about during the run. Oh yes I did, I know that I didn't want certain people to beat me. I didn't know these people, but I know I didn't want them to beat me. Whether it was the way they looked or the attitude that they exhuberated (is that a word? and if it is, did I use it in the right context?). Anyway, that was part of my motivation to finish. The other was the music I was listening to. You know, an iPod is a great tool to have for a run like this. I was able to switch music without juggling. And music can get you going. My brother-in-law told me that at one point, I just took off. It must have been the music. It does help.

You know what was cool? I saw a lot of teenagers and young children running. This is great. West Virginia has this stereotype of having overweight, unhealthy people. Well, we've got some young-uns that aren't going that route. I'm glad to have seen them out there sweating it all off.

On Thanksgiving Day, I'm doing another 5 K run. I'm excited about this one too. I'm forcing myself to run longer and a little faster to get myself ready for this one. My goal is to finish higher than 139th.