[CHECK OUT THE NEW POST FOR JUNE 6TH]

“Sorry babe, looks like this was a one-way ticket…”

The famous last words of Carson the hart-throb who recently proposed to Lisa in the genius that is Team America. I have now watched this particular film three times in the last few days. I am fully convinced this movie is absolute greatness. The more you look closely at the film, the more you appreciate the attention to detail. I expect nothing less from Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The sets are incredible. The puppets are extremely lifelike yet you never forget they are only puppets. The soundtrack is very funny and also remarkably good (as expected). The pyrotechnics are also very good. The same guy who did Armageddon and Independence Day did the explosions for Team America. And trust me, every scene in the film has an explosion of some sort. The guy who did the cinematography for Team America also did it for The Matrix. It’s basically a full action movie with puppets and also with the satire, political commentary, and actor-bashing we’ve come to expect from the South Park creators. It truly is one of the finer movies I’ve seen in the past few years.



I took a survey by the Harris On-Line group which asked me about the recent mad cow stuff. Here is my answer to the question “What have you heard and what do you know about BSE or Mad Cow Disease?” You should all know about it as well…

“I am aware that recently a downer cow (of considerable age) was found to have the disease after original tests were negative. This is the second (and first native) American cow to have tested positive. I have heard that ingesting meat products that contain BSE prions can give the disease to humans which is a CNS disorder called Crutchfeld-Jacob disease. However I know that the likelihood of contracting this disease is rare and that the 150 known people in Europe who have died from CJD are far fewer than the thousands and thousands worldwide who die from bacterial infections from undercooked meat.”

So keep eating meat but make sure it’s cooked. To learn more, I invite you to read this article from www.emedicine.com.

I’m going swimming now.

Please allow me to catch you up on my new life here in Springfield, MA.

Monday

I arrived here around 3 PM on Monday afternoon. I got some McDonalds’ fries (that’s a double possessive) with a Coke and headed to one of Baystate’s ancillary buildings to re-certify myself in Basic Life Support. There I was joined by several other new residents. I met of few of them including Hannah, Deb, and Juliana. It turns out that I interviewed with Hannah way back in November. I thought that was interesting. Deb used to be a high school science teacher and has a thick Brooklyn accent (and also went to medical school with Hannah in Vermont). Juliana is from Indianapolis, Indiana. They seem like a nice group. Be proud that I passed my BLS course and now have a new card in my wallet.

Afterwards, I drove to my new temporary housing where Jin lives. Jin is one of the current first year residents (I might sometimes use PGY1 which stands for Post Graduate Year 1). She is from Utah and also Korean. The Korean part is interesting, because one of the first things she mentioned is how much she enjoys Shaolin Soccer, which is Chinese (and the place I visited several weeks back. This provided us an instant talking point and things took off from there. Jin is very laid back and very fun. I told our residency coordinator that if the other residents are half as fun as Jin, I’m going to be extremely happy at Baystate. The best part about her is her kindness. She offered to put me up here without knowing a thing about me (well, she had mistakenly heard that I’m married with a child), who I was, or what I’m like. In addition, she’s loaned me books and given me plenty of advice for my new job which begins in six days. This is a very apprehensive time in my life, so I’m very fortunate to have some of the little pearls of wisdom she has bestowed on me in the past few days. Plus, she’s alerted the other current residents about me, which is very nice. When I begin on Friday, most of them will already know me. All that does is ease this transition even more. I really couldn’t have lucked out more in this situation. I immensely pleased that I have chosen a place where kindness is the rule instead of the exception.

Tuesday and Wednesday

I normally would have Advanced Cardiac Life Support, but I took that at UT so I had two days off. This allowed me to look for a new mortgage lender, because GMAC said no. I alluded to my hatred of this particular company a few days ago. Basically they approved the loan, but they need an official piece of paper which states my student loan monthly payment. Unfortunately, I won’t have that piece of paper until November due to the consolidation process and the fact that I’m in my grace period. Once the processing goes through, my payment will be calculated based on the outstanding interest and principle at that time. Of course, then I’ll apply for deferment which will last two years. So really I won’t even be paying anyway. The frustrating thing is that I can prove my loan principle, interest, term, and interest rate (if I were to start paying), because my application has been received and “locked-in”. So if they need to know my payment, why can’t they just plug it into their calculator and figure it out? Bank of America does it all the time. GMAC however isn’t that smart. So I started looking elsewhere. I did all the paperwork with a very nice gentleman named Lee at National City Mortgage. He talked to credit and underwriting, explained my situation, and basically told me the loan was a slam dunk (especially with my outstanding credit score). I also called Bank of America, and they seemed very positive they could also get the loan done. What an exciting two days.

Thursday and Friday

Today I started Pediatric Advanced Life Support. It’s just like ACLS but for kids. This went until Friday. In the evening, I got a call from my realtor with good news. Apparently Jewett didn’t feel very good that her own company (who she recommended to me out of convenience) rejected me while two other mortgage companies accepted me. So she called the regional vice president of GMAC Mortgage who looked at my situation and reversed the denial. So just like that I was back on the books. GMAC Mortgage is still is on my shit-list, because they had given up on me for no apparent reason, and it took my Realtor to stick her neck out and do the leg work. We’ll see how well they treat me to determine what sort of relationships I will have with them in the future.

In the 24-hours from being denied to being financed, the sellers flipped out (thinking they had lost a sale), canceled their movers, and moved their closing date for their new house. So my June 30th closing date was scrapped. In the end we settled on July 6th, so I only lost six days. I even got my movers rescheduled, and they will deliver on July 7th which is perfect. All of this has been the biggest nightmare in the history of mankind. However, it will all be over soon. And like I told Jewett, if this experience doesn’t kill me (we’re not out of the woods yet) it can only make me stronger. Thank God for Jewett Mathewson, or I’d be one lost puppy.

I ended up passing PALS. So now I’m certified in basic life support, advanced cardiac life support, and pediatric life support. In two weeks, they certify me in advanced trauma life support. There are many certifications to be had as a surgeon. More to come.

So howdy!

Oh my God, I watched Team America for the first time from start to finish this afternoon. The film is absolute greatness! Every moment is jam packed with hysterical comedy and satire. Apart from that, the puppets are incredible along with the special effects, miniatures, and puppeteering. I also watched the making of the movie and am utterly impressed with the amount of work that went into the movie. This is of course quite obvious from the quality of the film itself which has an excellent script and tackles a big political topic as Matt Stone and Trey Parker always do. I’m really impressed with this movie. Even the soundtrack is incredible. I don’t recall if any of the original songs were nominated for Academy Awards ®, but they probably should have been for completeness sake. Be warned however, it’s quite crude and something you don’t want to see if you aren’t into that sort of thing. (I couldn’t stop laughing.)

Today I also viewed Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle for the first time. Harold is played by John Cho of American Pie fame and Kumar is played by Kal Pen of Van Wilder fame. This script is also very good and the movie tackles several racial stereotypes. However, this isn’t a political satire like Team America is and is purely a yuck it up comedy for the MTV generation. I quite enjoyed it, especially with all the bull shit I’ve been putting up with lately. Besides, the cameos were incredible!

Last night, I finally saw my first viewing of the famous Chinese film Shaolin Soccer directed by the famous Chinese director/actor/screenwriter Stephen Chow (his English name). Now be advised when I say “famous” I really do mean that, as I learned this during my six weeks in China. This director is very big there and makes about one movie a year. His most recent work is Kung Fu Hustle, which I purchased while there and have yet to see. I can’t wait, especially if it is half as good as Shaolin Soccer. This movie basically asks the question, what if kung fu fighters played soccer? Well, they’d be pretty damn good! The movie is hysterical. I laughed out loud more times than I can count (and this is bad because the resident with whom I’m staying was trying to sleep and is on call today). I highly recommend you head over to Blockbuster and rent this movie. Get the subtitle version NOT the dubbed version so you get the entire effect. It truly is a wonderful film and the best of the three I’ve seen in the last 24 hours.

I need to clue you in on what’s happening in my life at the moment. Last Saturday I got up at 5:30 AM and headed for Raleigh, North Carolina. This location is more than half-way to Springfield and gave me a perfect opportunity to visit my buddy Travis (or Beef as Dad calls him…due to his extreme weight problem). Actually Travis isn’t all that fat anymore and is quite bulked up for the last few years. However, Beef is still appropriate. Anyway, I drove through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. I finally arrived in Anderson, SC at 10:30 and decided to call it quits after all that driving. I pulled into the Days Inn and spent the night in a clean room with free wireless access.

Sunday morning, I made sure to wish the three fathers in my life a happy father’s day (shouldn’t that be a sitcom title or something?). It was cool to drive past Greensboro, Highpoint, and Thomasville North Carolina, as that is where the big furniture market is held by-yearly. For as long as I can remember, Dad has been there twice a year. That was cool. I arrived at Travis’ place around 2:30 . We had excellent grilled grouper sandwiches at a local establishment in Cary, a suburb of Raleigh. Then we watched Mr. Campbell beat Tiger in the U.S. Open and then headed for a pool hall for some pool. We were at a table next to two Russians and two ladies, which was very weird. One of the ladies was quite beautiful and the other was T-RASH! It was hysterical! The pretty one was quiet, but the ugly one was loud and constantly fighting with her boyfriend. Both Russian gentlemen were equally of average looks, so I wonder why one got the good stuff and the other got the leftovers? Kinda interesting. Then Travis and I were joined by his long-time girlfriend Allison and we went to the Cary Pizzeria Uno for pizza. We tried to go to a local place called Sal’s, but they were closed. I went to bed at 11:30 PM after a great night.

Monday morning I got up at 3 AM (yeah, that’s 3.5 hours of sleep), took a shower, and hit the road. It was quite peaceful driving through North Carolina in the dark. I hit Virginia at 4:30 AM on my way to Richmond. I’m not supposed to have a radar detector in Virginia, but left mine on anyway and passed a state trooper about five minutes after crossing the state line. That was sweet. I hit Richmond at 6 AM then hit Washington DC at 7:45 AM. That was bad. I sat in traffic for at least thirty minutes which sucked. I called Nikolas and talked with him. Luckily he gave me alternative directions which I gladly took. I headed around the beltway and up into Maryland. The Starbucks in Maryland is WAY off the highway, but it had nice clean bathrooms, which was appreciated (if you know what I mean). With coffee in hand I continued on I-95 through Baltimore, past Philly, and through New Jersey. Finally I hit New York and the Bronx. I drove right past East Rutherford where the Giants play and also Continental Airlines Center where the Dallas Stars beat the New Jersey Devils in the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals. That was pretty sweet! I could see Manhattan in the distance with the Empire State Building towering over everything. I wish the WTC was still there, which really pissed me off about 9/11 all over again. Assholes. It was the first time for me to see New York City in my twenty-seven years of life. I can’t wait to return and spend some serious time there. I continued on (paying at least thirty dollars in tolls) and was quickly in Connecticut, the Constitution State. I breezed through CT and landed in Western Massachusetts and my new home, Springfield. That was eleven more hours of driving. I passed my Basic Life Support Class and went “home” to my new buddy’s apartment, a resident at Baystate.

There is much more to come regarding my new colleagues, how much I hate GMAC Mortgage and the Federal Government’s Direct Loan Program, and Sprint PCS. However there are many things to love which include my realtor at GMAC Realty (Jewett), Dunkin Donuts, the beautiful scenery and weather of Springfield, and most importantly my girlfriend Kayla who I will be calling shortly. Didn’t that sound like an introduction on Wheel of Fortune?

More on all of that tomorrow.

>>View the PICTURES<<

This here Las Vegas is incredible! I hope to have more this weekend, but in the meantime you need to check this out. Gambling isn't the centerpiece anymore the shows are. I saw The Blue Man Group two nights ago, Cirque's Mystere, and I'll see Dennis Miller tonight. Good times.

I woke up at the butt crack of dawn in anticipation of a day of fishing with Jerome in Galveston Bay. In case I haven’t introduced him to you, he’s a detective in the Houston area, loves to fish, has bachelors and masters degrees, treats his cats and dog like people, and is lovingly referred to as “Bubba” by his family. You get the idea. So I woke up at 4:30, showered, and was at Jerome’s by 5:25. We headed to his special kolache joint (he knew everyone in the store) and then headed out for the Texas City Dike, which is where all the boats hit the water for Galveston Bay. Here is the bit of history on the Dike:

“[The] world's longest manmade (5 miles) fishing pier, part of Texas City's flood control system and haven for local fishermen, boaters, and water enthusiasts.

Texas City Dike extends five miles into Galveston Bay with 600 foot fishing pier beyond tip of dike. Pier offers the deepest water for pier fishing in the state where anglers often take speckled trout, redfish, flounder, and tarpon. Visitors also find beach, boat launching, and service facilities, bait, camping, and motel accommodations.”

We were guided by Clint who was a younger gentleman who used to work for the oil companies until he figured out that being a fishing guide was more lucrative. With our Coronas, limes, water, sunscreen, tackle, rods, and boat we headed out on the bay.

I hadn’t ever fished saltwater the way we fished the bay. You use lures (rubber worms or bright shiny thingies) instead of live shrimp/fish or cut bait. The water in the bay is only 5-7 feet in most places so, you can’t have a huge boat and you don’t throw anchor. So we floated for a while using a cast and reel method trying to catch trout in a big area marked off for clam harvest. After we caught a few trout we moved to another location and another. Finally it was time to start using live fish, so Clint called a shrimp boat captain to get some of his leftover baitfish (caught in the shrimp nets). We obtained them and headed to another location were we were going to catch Jerome’s favorite—Redfish. I used shrimp and they used lures and live bait. Because all the casting and reeling was new to me (plus the boat was floating), I didn’t pay as much attention as I should. I often wouldn’t reel fast enough and the line would be under the boat, because I had way too much slack. At one point I was looking down into the water noticing how much slack I had when everyone started screaming HEY HEY HEY. I looked up to see that my cork had disappeared underwater indicating a fish hit the shrimp. I set the hook and nothing happened. So I reeled in the slack and set the hook again. This time I had a fish. I turned out to be a 24 inch redfish and was quite fun to land. Jerome caught one as well; although I must point out his was smaller than mine. In all, we caught a few trout and a few redfish. It was a pretty sweet day. I really enjoyed being out on the water with nothing to distract me but the sunlight and the fishing. That’s something I’ll need to be doing more often.

After fishing we headed so a Mexican joint in Texas City for a very good burrito. It wasn’t Freebirds, but it was good after a long day of fishing and no food. Then we headed home. I hopped in the shower which was awesome after a long day. Then Kayla arrived and we were shortly joined by Michelle and Krista. I decided to grill the fish we caught. I marinated the fish for a few hours with an Emeril concoction and I also put together a mango salsa along with coconut rice. Even the fish had toasted coconut on it. Everything also had cilantro along with a bunch of other stuff to give things a South American flavor. We also had very good freshly baked French bread and wine. The girls helped out in the kitchen and we all drank cocktails and had fun. I remember Angelina Jolie being on the TV in a movie called Gia or something. Dinner was served and was quite good as I recall. It was a pretty kick ass day if I don’t say so myself. Jerome is a pretty cool dude. He is yet another example of how incredible Kayla’s entire family is. I’m very lucky to know all of them.

>>View the PICTURES<<

This marks the first time I’ve ever seen Startrek: The Next Generation in an airport. Even if it’s all fuzzy, Worf still saved his son Alexander from certain death in bio lab four. Wheeew, that was a close one. I will now recap the few days in Springfield. I will try and get you graduation details someday in the future.

After arriving on Wednesday, I did very little. I went to the Chili’s across the street for dinner then drove around town for a bit. The Springfield area is incredibly beautiful. Then I went home and watched television. [Holy crap, MacGyver is on now. This also marks the first time I’ve seen MacGyver on television in an airport. I sure hope he’ll be able to make that jet engine out of toothpicks. And he’s playing ICE HOCKEY! It’s the only hockey I’ve seen all year.]

Anyway, the good stuff began Thursday. If you ever need to purchase a house, this is how the inspection goes. When I arrived at the house, the pool inspector had already checked out the vinyl-lined pool. He said it was in great shape. So I wrote his $100 check and proceeded to wait zero seconds for the house and pest inspectors to arrive. Long story short, if you ever have your potential house inspected, make sure you’re there for it. It’s a great learning experience. Every inch of the place is examined, and I learned about several things I didn’t previously know about. I learned that the meter socket needs to be sealed, GFCI circuit breakers are required for outlets within five feet of water and in the garage, if a crack in the wall makes a V and offset, you probably have signs of settling, basements that don’t smell musty probably don’t have water damage, water meters should have bonding jumpers, a sink needs a trap which is constantly filled with water so that sewage doesn’t flow retrograde into your sink where you’re washing asparagus, child safe stairs need those vertical posts, the temperature of water entering the bathroom should not exceed 111 degrees F, a bathroom vent shouldn’t empty air into the attic, it’s good to seal and lubricate almost anything (windows or garage door) with paraffin, incandescent lights in closets are possible fire hazards because they burn hot and can light things on fire, roofs need ventilation to help the shingles last longer—a ridge vent is recommended, and finally termites suck. Now you know what’s wrong with my house. The termite thing is the big problem. The pest guy didn’t find evidence of active termites, but there was damage. However the sellers treated the house in 1983 when they moved in. Why they didn’t repair the damage and was the current damage old or new is unknown. So it will cost me $2,000 to repair the damage and treat for termites then it will cost around $1,500 more to fix everything else and get the house up to code. In MA, the house only has to be at code when it’s built, not when it sells. This is different from Texas where each house must be at code when it sells. So hopefully the sellers will give me some extra money to help with the termites and the electrical work. If not, we’ll see what happens.

After that I ran over to the hospital to turn in all of my papers. I got out of a few preliminary classes which I took in med school and took care of all my scheduling and such. That was a good move on my part, as it will save me a bunch of time in a few weeks. I’m also happy to say that my Massachusetts license has been approved. This means I am now licensed to practice medicine in the Baystate Medical System and affiliated hospitals. Get ready for THAT world.

Friday was a breeze. I met up with Jewett to make the final addendums to the purchase and sale agreement. Then I drove into Northampton for brunch. I landed at this Moroccan café across the street from Fitzwillie’s. I had an omelet stuffed with feta, mushroom, and spinach. It was quite good with my cup of hazelnut coffee and my cup of cinnamon coffee. Then I started off for the airport and got a call from my mortgage lender that my loan rate had changed, because we hadn’t locked in the rate yet. This was because she was under the impression I was closing on August 1st, and one can’t lock in rates more than 60 days. This pisses me off, because now my rate is 5.325% instead of 5.125%. I will be talking with her next week to see about all that. My flight to Baltimore was quick and weird, because we flew through a continuous cloud which didn’t clear until we were 500 feet from the ground. The pilot touched the plane down very softly which ruins my theory about my recent hard landings. We’ll see what happens in hobby in four hours or so.

Sitting here in the terminal at Nashville’s Airport, I realize I haven’t written to this here blog in quite a while. I can assure you things have been massively hectic in the last few weeks. Before I give you the brief, brief recap I need to mention something about flying on Southwest Airlines.

Southwest is one of a select few airlines which actually make money. Even after September 11th, the company still made money. I learned from the CEO’s article in the in-flight magazine this is because of two factors: SWA’s employees and SWA’s customers. I certainly agree with the latter, but the former group makes flying Southwest fun. We had a lovely middle-aged southern belle running the show this morning. She was the usual pleasant SWA flight attendant. Just after landing, she announced that Chris, the 1st officer had just made his very first landing as a Southwest pilot. He had flown previously with Delta, so our flight attendant welcomed him to SWA. The passengers gave him a nice round of applause with cheers. I can imagine he’ll be telling his wife and kids about the warm welcome when he gets home. I’ve also noticed something interesting about Southwest pilots in the last few months—they land the aircraft at BLAZING speeds! I didn’t notice this when I was on the interview trail several months ago. There is something new going on here where pilots land the aircraft much faster and much harder than normal. I’ll look into this new phenomenon and get back with you. Maybe it’s safer or something.

Since I touched foot on American soil way back on May 11th, I’ve had exactly zero free-time. Who would have thought my first steps in Detroit, Michigan would be the beginning of the busiest period in my life.

Shortly after returning to the states after my fantastic trip to China, I took the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills exam. It was similar to the school exam I took at the end of the third year at UT. I plan on passing, but one never knows in these situations. Then a few days later I took off for Springfield, Massachusetts in search of my first home. During the stay, I had the opportunity to see much of the area including South Hadley and Northampton. The latter is a quaint college town with live shows, art galleries, and other stuff like that. We ate at a fantastic pub called Fitzwillie’s. In South Hadley, we toured around and ended up having a fantastic lunch at a place whose name I forgot. (Was that last sentence really necessary?) Everything here seems like a scene straight out of the John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace. The houses are very old; there are nice coffee shops, museums, and art galleries; the traffic is manageable; and the people seem very nice. Even the mall on the highway has everything one needs to survive away from the big city. The views are incredible. I can already tell driving the highway in autumn will be breathtaking. Springfield has turned out to be everything I wanted in a community and much more. I’m thrilled to be here.

My agent, Jewett, is incredible. She’s sort of become the sweet aunt every family has. (I already have several of them, just in case you’re wondering.) We toured Springfield for a few days, and finally Kayla and I decided on a very clean, modern but traditional colonial design on a quiet tree-lined street in Springfield. It has an in-ground pool (which will only get 12 weeks of use per year), hard-wood floors throughout, central heat and air, a basement, three bedrooms, and a lovely kitchen. It will require very little work before the move-in, but Kayla and I will undoubtedly upgrade the kitchen, repaint some of the upstairs, and a few other things. I think it’s going to be great living there…especially since it’s close to the hospital, and the neighborhood seems very nice. Plus the price is right, which is always a big plus. I think with a few improvements, I should have no problem re-selling the house when I'm all done. Let’s hope the real estate market keeps steady for the next five or so years.

After returning to Houston from my five-day jaunt in New England, it was time to pack up the house to get ready to move. Mom came to Houston and packed me while I drove around town taking care of graduation errands, shoring up my student loan consolidation, finding a mover, finding storage, finding a mover to take the stuff to storage, taking care of class business, disconnecting all the utilities, phones, and cable, rerouting the mail, and working with my realtor and mortgage company to make sure the “purchase your first home” thing was going smoothly. Buying a home is an incredible amount of work! There is so much to be done like getting your financing (getting all the supporting documents is a monster), finding an inspector, finding a pest guy, finding a pool guy, finding a real estate lawyer, and making sure the language in the purchase and sale agreement is correct. I’m getting tired just thinking about it. Anyway, the week progressed and things got done. I had two fantastic dinners designed to introduce mom to Kayla’s family. The first was with Buddy and Mary Kaye at a cool Latin place on Kirby. I had the Chilean Sea Bass salad, which was REALLY GOOD. We had a quite enjoyable evening. Then on Thursday we ate at Landry’s in Kemah overlooking the water. We were joined by Bubba, Michelle, and Krista. The food never stopped coming! It was also a very enjoyable affair from the first margarita to the last Kahlua and coffee. Oh, and the 50 pounds of seafood in between were awesome. Both of Kayla’s parents and their remarried spouses are wonderful, loving people. My integration into their families has been such a breeze. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s so very true and worth crediting them for being such great people. They all have been extremely kind and supportive to me (and Kayla of course), which is quite uplifting. They even gave me graduation presents which rock (which is quite surprising considering the short time we’ve known each other). All of this has meant the world to me.

Finally, Friday came and I was joined by the rest of my family along with Kayla, Omar, and David for dinner at the famed Lexington Grille a few houses down from mine. I’ve driven past this particular establishment for two years on the way to my house, but I never stopped in for a sampling. The restaurant is a converted house, which gives it a very warm atmosphere. There are always very expensive cars sitting in the small parking lot, so somebody must be enjoying the place. They seem to have quite a following of repeat customers. We all congregated there, took pictures, and had a delightful meal.

The next day was graduation. I’ll talk more later. This was a long one.