Life was proceeding along pretty well upto my last update with interspersed periods of quiet and loneliness. All of my friends are deeply immersed in finals, and all of my 2nd year friends are deeply immersed in studying for the boards. All of which are prospects that I dread. Certain events on Monday, however, rewound the healing process a bit and sent the loneliness scale a little higher. The week was generally cloudy and rainy, so I can't say that that helped either. Still, I was able to ride almost everyday, with the exception of Friday when I drove down to Boston. Strangely, I felt incredibly fast on Wednesday. I was big ringing it up moderate hills at well over 20 mph. On Thursday, though, likely due to lack of sleep, I felt like I was getting sick again. That also drove me towards the bluer side of my emotions. I figured it was the right time to get out of town.
In other news, I've selected a roommate for the fall. Karl is the son of two docs over at the hospital, one of whom works in my group. Karl got into DMS, so I contacted him as I was beginning the roommate search. Though I don't think that he is quite as OCD clean as me, his personal skills are top notch. He might be one of the best listeners I've met in a long time. Word got around that I was considering him as a roommate, and V. Lyons, my anatomy prof and pseudo-DMS mom, immediately emailed me to say that she had interviewed him and that she thought it was a perfect match. Karl is a local and a cyclist. I'm excited. I sure hope it works out like we both think that it will. I felt bad turning away the other guy, who was also great and, as it turns out, a childhood friend of Laura Wagner.
Work is starting to ramp up as we enter the beginning stages of our giant practice-based research study. Its nice to feel like I'm able to keep the group moving in the correct direction. I was beginning to get a little bit bored of the slower pace at the beginning.
And a couple of last news-related notes before I review the weekend's activities. First, keep an eye out for all of these health policy NYTimes articles that involve research up here at Dartmouth. The school of public health, The Dartmouth Institute, is doing leading research on healthcare costs. And DHMC is leading the charge towards the medical home. All of this is all swell and good, but somebody needs to alert Obama that no medical students are going into primary care anymore. Don't get me started. Second, in reading all of these articles on the election in Iran, did anyone get a little flavor of the 2000 election here in the US? I love how it is the crazy, fundamentalist conservatives making Iran an international pariah and rigging elections over there too. Perhaps Iran and the US have far, far more in common than we realize. Just keep all of this in mind when judging a country like Iran. There's an entire population of perfectly normal, perfectly moral, perfectly sane people that are unwillingly represented and controlled by a regime of crazy egomaniacs.
So, to the most recent activities. I took off early from work on Friday to head down and visit the Eklunds! This time, though, Andy was home for the summer! I haven't seen him in forever. In addition to seeing Andy, another highlight was clearly my introduction to Heidi, their 12-week-old dachshund puppy. I had a great time and was, of course, fed well. We had a wonderful dinner together on Friday night and played the typical games. On Saturday, Andy and I enjoyed perfect weather as we completed the perfect New England tour of suburban Boston. Of course, our route was meticulously laid out by Marion. Beaker visited many attractions, such as: Walden's pond, the Old North Bridge, and Dairy Joy. In the afternoon, Andy, David, and I visited the Boston aquarium. I was too pooped to drive home last night, so I had an early departure this morning in the pouring rain. We're enjoying perfect blue skies now, so I'm trying to wrap up all of my weekend chores in time for a nice big ride.
Thank you again to the Eklunds, my family away from family.
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