Hello

Hi everyone, wow, it's been a week since I posted and seems like even longer since I read anyone's blog. Gosh I miss everyone's rants, raves and points of view.

I just finished packing--not only did I have to pack for the weekend, but I also packed to go back to Florida to study. I'm going to hate my computer connection down there (it's dial-up, old fashioned) but since no one lives in my parents house down there for a good part of the year, they didn't put REAL internet into the house. There is basic cable,so for that I'm thanful.

The isolation will do me good, as it did for my other exams. I don't really care for tropical weather (this will keep me at a desk). I don't know anyone down there, hence no going out for long dinners/cocktails. It's more conducive for studying. So all I'll bascially be a hermit and my only connection to the world will be reading your blogs--so keep me laughing and updated!!!

A Mini Vacation!!

Has anyone ever been to Top Sail Island? It's a beautiful little island off the coast of North Carolina. Not really sure exactly where it is, but I do know that it's gorgeous.

My aunt (Mom's sister) and uncle bought a home about 20 years ago there to vacation during the summers. It's a gorgeous home, right on the bay. Back in the 80's it was two condominiums, which they've since converted, renovated, gutted out into one big house. Since my uncle retired a few years ago, they've been staying there more permanently. They've invited a bunch of relatives down for labor day weekend and everyone they've invited decided to go!! Yay!!

I'm really excited because not only is it my parent's anniversary, but also my cousin's anniversary (they share they same wedding anniversary). So huge party will be thrown--and many boat rides. I'm excited and babbling.

I'll let you know how it goes!!!

When Do Worlds Collide

This is a continuation about my 13 year old "farting" nephew.

When we were done with the errands, we went over to my parent's house for dinner. The rest of the family had already gotten there and were waiting for us. He stuffed the farting machine into his 7 month old brother's pajamas. He then continued to press the button. I guess my brother and sister-in-law were already use to hearing that sound because it didn't phase them. Or maybe they were just famished and annnoyed that we took our time doing errands. My parents howevever kept looking around the room wondering what the sound was and where it was coming from. My mother even got up from the table and turned the television in another room off.

Anyhow, Thursday night my brother and sister-in-law gave the farting nephew a birthday/back to school bash at the country club. They hired a dee-jay (he is pretty well known and has his own show somewhere and he isn't from West Virginia. I've forgotten his name because I basically only listen to country music so I am not familiar with such popular deejays). I remember my nephew excitedly talking about this deejay for several days and also hearing some of his friends squeal with delight as the deejay was setting up. Some of the kids dared one another to go and get an autograph and also snapped pictures with their Razr cameraphones (another post will be why these kids have cameraphones and the girls have designer bags that cost more than a candlelight dinner or first class plane tickets).

I noticed how it may have seemed like there was a lot of mingling,but the room remained divided between male turf and female territory. Even when everyone was dancing or rather awkwardly convulsing (they certainly were not dancing by any means of the definition) they gave the illusion they were dancing as one, but there was still a division.

My question is, when do boys start crossing over the lines that girls draw around their personal space. For some reason I remember slow dancing with a chick named Beth pretty early on (it was seventh grade).

The Mind of a Teenager

I was driving to do some errands and my 13 year old nephew was in the car. He had just returned from a trip to the beach, so in an effort to multi-task (get some errands done and spend time with him), I dragged him along. Plus who else could I boss around to help me out.

Apparently, one of his aunts bought him one of those farting machine things and he started playing with it in the car. He would giggle and say things like "Oops, excuse me". He would then politely offer to roll down the window. This went on for awhile and then he finally said something like, "My stomach really hurts". I was thinking oh brother...and he kept making the little machine "fart".

I was amused that he thought he was fooling me. He even pretended to double over with discomfort. After awhile it got annoying, but I kept playing along. He asked me if I knew anyone who had gas as bad. I told him that some patients I saw during my clinical rotations did. He asked me what happened to them and I said that in order to assess the real problem, some of the consultants did full examinations on them,they had lots of tests done and that they're families had brought them to the emergency room.

He got quiet and asked if it would be my father or one of our other relatives who would do the physical exam,without having to go to the E.R. I told him that relatives, especially grandfathers, weren't allowed to treat relatives and it would have to be a doctor the emergency room chose for him. When we got out of the car, he said "Um Uncle this is what my aunt got me for my birthday..." and showed me the farting toy.

So first I was amused, then annoyed, then I felt bad that I scared my 13 year-old nephew. And he just became a teenager about a week ago--we've got a few more years of shenanigans coming.

Need A New Game

I bought Nintendo DS Lite about a month and a half ago--a few days after it came out. Anyway, the first game I purchased on it was Sims 2. I've been a Sims fan since they came out with it on PC. I even bought the game for my Gamecube. However this new version, at least for DS Lite sucks!!! I'm so disappointed. You go thru the game doing tasks and such. Unlike the PC version or the gamecube version, you don't really build friendships/relationships with other Sim characters and you don't do much except get a hotel going. Sure it was fun, but the fun ends when you defeat this one character Optimum Alfred. Yes, you defeat different villains while wearing a rat suit (I guess the town idol is Ratman--who has a rat cave in the hotel basement). So disappointed. I thought this would be a more updated version of the other Sims, which I'm going to get back to playing.

So does anyone know any cool games that I could buy for DS Lite? Maybe Missy will know--she's an expert at these gadget/game things!! But anyone is free to suggest.

Porno Break In

Yesterday I listened to the Paul Harvey show on a drive to the grocery store. Among some of the things he pushed was a treatment for an eye disease and also one of those pay as you go phones (something I don't believe in...but that's another post). And then he talked about a female from New Orleans who came home from work and found a stranger in her bedroom watching porn on the bedroom television. WTF?

I could hardly keep for laughing out loud. There was nothing apparently stolen, just the man sitting on the bed watching pornography. That's a whole new fetish, breaking and entering only to watch porn. At the end of the story Harvey announced that after taking DNA, they were able to connect several break-ins to this person. Hmm I wonder what kind of DNA the took as a specimen.

Music

Does anyone else get strong recollection or the delving of memories whenever you hear a song on the radio. Some of these memories are so strong that I can feel the feelings I felt then, even sometimes remember the aroma of the air around me at the time. It's weird, but somehow fantastic.

I can give a for instance, cause once the song fades away, the memory does too. But suffice it to say, that a lot of Rascal Flatt's first album does just that. It conjures up memories of a summer gone by--and meeting some of my friends which would have the biggest influence of my life. Babette the song "Moving On" always makes me think of how we held on to our friendship and moved on with certain aspects of our lives, how we continue to build our friendship and also grow. I can smell that funky cigar that Christopher (was that his name) would smoke between lectures.

It's funny how little things like this tap certain areas of our brain and conjure up such strong images and memories.

Our Children's Playground

I was astounded by a story I saw on CNN today. In the Middle East, a group of children were collecting shrapnel left by the recent bomb blastings. These children would go to nearby sites and collect the different shrapnel they found in the debris left by the blast.

I found it a little morbid that children are exposed to such disaster. Their father explained that maybe they did it as a way to cope, to remind themselves of what was going on the world. One of the children, a teenager, described hearing the whirring sounds as the bombs passed overhead. She pointed out a window to places where she saw the dust/smoke that were emitted by the landing of these bombs.

What is this argument really about? I have already forgotten why these two Middle Eastern countries started fighting. Don't most arguments end up a "who's right and who's wrong" tug of war? And no one really remembers what started the whole thing?