Halloween and a Hurricane

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Casey and I went to a friend's Halloween party last weekend dressed as Clark Kent and Dorothy - couldn't come up with a good couple's costume with the time we had to put it together. People really liked Casey's costume, and seemed impressed with themselves when they figured it out. He got lots of "Hey! It's Superman!" comments from strangers. The cashier at Walgreens called him Superman no fewer than 15 times. Here are pictures from that night: 

I was looking for shoes like this, but could only find them online and didn't have time to order them...

Clark Kent saving the day with Keystone

Hosts of the party: Captain America (pre and post injection)

Our friends who hosted the party also had pretty unique party favors: they gave away goldfish to all of their guests. They had been at a restaurant earlier that day that was having a carnival-like day and was giving fish away as prizes. The restaurant ended up with too many fish, so our friends took home about 40 extras, which became the party favors. We named our fish Chester.

Chester, our new pet goldfish

Switching gears now... the reason I'm writing a post today (on a Monday) is because class was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy, aka Frankenstorm. Which is really fortunate because we were supposed to have a histology practical today (that I wasn't at all ready for) that will be postponed until later this week. Casey gets to stay home from work too, but still has to actually do work. We stocked up on a few supplies early Saturday morning, and a few other people had the same idea, but the store wasn't all that crowded. Yesterday evening, however, we went to the grocery store to get some fish flakes for Chester and found about 20 people in line per register! It was crazy. The shelves were essentially empty and everyone was a little on edge. One elderly woman was yelling at an employee and flinging her cart around wildly. We decided that Chester could eat bread crumbs for the time being until the storm passes. 

It's interesting to see the range of responses people have when bad weather is about to strike. The city shut down its transportation systems last night to prepare for potential flooding and other damage caused by high winds. The hospital and medical college were quick to send out their disaster-preparedness plans, and to tell everyone to stay home and safe unless they worked in an emergent setting. They cancelled all elective procedures as well. Old women at the supermarket were yelling and throwing around large metal objects, possibly trying to get a head start on causing damage before the hurricane hits. And then there's the financial industry. Casey's company was expecting people to come to work as of midnight last night. Never mind the fact that the city put out warnings telling people who lived above the 11th floor to consider staying somewhere lower due to high winds (he works on the 44th floor). They decided that people could work from home only after hearing that the stock market would be closed today (the first weather-related closure in 27 years). They were kind enough to check in on him though - to make sure that his home laptop was functioning and that he could still make the necessary calls to get his work done. Ah, priorities. 

The weather isn't too bad right now - there's just a little wind and it looks kind of gloomy outside. The streets are eerily quiet, which is a rarity for NYC: 

Ghost town

I'll post more pictures as the storm moves through if anything cool happens. They have evacuated certain parts of NYC that are in low-lying areas, like Coney Island and parts of Brooklyn. Our area wouldn't be evacuated unless the hurricane was category 3 or 4, and large parts of Manhattan wouldn't ever be evacuated at all. I guess they're pretty confident in the strength of their skyscrapers. Probably the saddest part of Sandy is going to be that I never got the chance to take pictures of the fall leaves in Central Park, which will likely all be stripped after the 40-50 mph winds tear through. Oh well, there's always next year! Stay tuned for anything exciting. 

Anniversary Trip to Vermont

Hi family and friends!

First I'd like to apologize for my gap in posts. Casey and I have been a bit busier than we were anticipating, and I let the ball drop. I wish I could say that I wouldn't let it happen again, but that's probably not true. Now, on to the updates.

I started med school in late August, and it has been a total whirlwind. I have been enjoying classes (to the extent that any sane person can enjoy biochemistry) but have been a little overwhelmed with the workload. We've had 5 tests already and have our 6th in a week and a half. Each test seems to cover as much material as a semester-long class in college would cover (it's probably not that much, but it seems like it). And what's lovely is that all of the tests have been on Mondays, so my weekends are typically spent holed up at my desk pouring over reaction pathways and how cytoskeleton is constructed.

We did get a chance to get away for our anniversary a few weeks ago though, which was awesome. We rented a car and drove up through upstate New York and into Vermont, just kind of driving aimlessly and being happy that we could see trees. The fall foliage was just about to get into full swing. It actually turned out to be a good time to go, because the trees were starting to change, but the hotels weren't completely booked (I only had to call about 6 to find an open one... which had just gotten a cancellation). On our prior trip we ended up sleeping in the car one night because all of the hotels were full. Here are some pictures from that trip (repeats of what's on facebook, sorry...):

As you can see we went apple picking and basically did a lot of driving around looking at trees. It was great to be out of the city for a weekend, and I'm hoping we'll get to go again soon.

Also I started a new part-time job around the same time school started. I'm working with an affiliate of New York Presbyterian Hospital and the Medical College that develops minimally invasive surgical devices. It's been a really cool experience so far. We're a small group, so I've been able to work with the engineers, surgeons, and business folks all at the same time. I have a concept of doing something similar down the road in about 35 years when I actually know something, and this has been great exposure to the process of getting a device to market.

Casey has been enjoying his job more lately. He recently went to San Francisco for a tech conference on OLEDs (the stuff new fancy TVs are made out of) and learned a lot of things that I don't understand. He'll have to guest write to explain it all.

We're going to a concert tonight - will post more pictures and updates later!

And also, I wanted to include a little snippet from one of my clinical observations. As a part of the medical program, we're in doctor's offices once a week and get the chance to take patient histories and medical records, and we are supposed to reflect on experiences that we have with patients. Here's a piece of what I wrote:

"I really enjoyed speaking with Ms. G this week. After speaking with Dr. N about my interview, I realized that her move to Manhattan was quite tough on her socially and that her children wanted her to live closer so that they could spend more time with her, but that they ended up being too busy to do so. She lives alone and can’t have any pets due to her complicated bronchial disease, and wants to go back to work but hasn’t been able to find a part-time job that she is qualified for – mainly from a physical perspective. To me, she did not appear to be depressed and seems to be handling her life and living situation very well. However Dr. N indicated that it had been an ongoing challenge for her to adjust to life in Manhattan, and that it probably still is.

After interviewing Ms. G, she said that we should have lunch sometime since we actually live in the same part of town. After struggling through biochemistry, histology, molecular biology, and the other subjects I've been buried in for the past two months, it was really nice to hear a patient say something as simple as “I enjoyed speaking with you today” and that she wanted to get lunch. I love that every patient has a story to tell, and am excited to get to someday be involved in people’s lives from that totally unique perspective that comes from being a physician. It’s also interesting to me to see how people handle disease and how some are still just as happy as they would have been if they weren’t sick. I think it says something about the strength of the human character to have such resolve over keeping a positive attitude, and is something that I hope to learn from my patients and apply to my own life in the future."