Reasons to Love Washington

Fred Meyers... nuff said...

Only true one stop shop ever. This place is like Walmart only if they weren't the evil empire and have cheap shit. This place has great quality, great prices. I can't believe Kim could leave WA knowing there was no FM in Cali. I don't think I could survive without this store. Kim and I shopped everywhere for her DS and Brain Age, the whole time I kept saying, it's ok we'll check FM. After Best Buy, 2 Gamestops, Sears, and Game Krazy... we went to FM... and found everything we were looking for, for cheaper. Along with PSU for the Ps2 on clearance. Along with everything else we've gotten at FM, I don't think anyplace in the World Compares to FM. You can keep your Galleria, Montebello Mall, and Walmart... I'll be happy with my FM. Oh yeah... and you can get a refund hasslefree... in CASH.... takes like 20 seconds.

Costco.... nuff said...

Seriously... this is where Costco originated... can't get any better. Along with the fact that Kim and I went on a Sunday afternoon and waited... oh... 4 minutes in line (because I told her to go to a different line but she didn't), seriously.... 4 minutes... IT'S GREAT!!

Joe out...

Sick and Sicker

Damn, got a nasty bug or something. Can't breathe for shit and spitting up phlegm, and blowing my nose about every 2 minutes. Think this weekend is gonna suck since I have to work a big wedding tomorrow.

Oh yeah, just a side rant... never fly united dammit, flight got cancelled, then they moved me to an impossible flight to catch on the other side of the airport with 40 minutes til the plane leaves and I have to go through TSA. Missed the flight and had to be waitlisted for the flight after that. Didn't get home until about midnight, so yeah... I'm very angry at the airports right now. I spent about 20 hours in them this past holiday, FOR DIRECT FLIGHTS!!! Add that to my 5 hours in the air... that totals to an entire day.... I hate this crap, remind me to stay home next year this time.

New comics come out today, so I guess I'm in good spirits since it's also pay day... WOOT!!!

Other than travelling, this christmas was a nice one, got to see bender and my family and watch AVP:R which was a helluva lot better than the first AVP. Nothing like watching little kids get rocked by aliens in the first five minutes of a movie.

Joe out...

CS

I took my step 2 CS today, so I'm on my way to becoming a doctor, I guess. It was cool to run into 3 of my classmates at the test. It definitely was not as painful as CK was last week.

Signs that I'm getting old. Losing control of the ole sphincter. I farted in front of my standardized patients. I heard it through the stethoscope in my ear, so I'm pretty sure that my patient heard it. I tried not to laugh, and she had her eyes closed and didn't flinch. Maybe she didn't notice. whatever.

-bender

Steppin' to step 2

haha. Sorry about the cheesy title. I finally took the multiple choice portion, ck, for step 2 of my boards. Taking the boards is definitely not as bad as working all day under the sun doing manual labor, but it's pretty bad. It's like playing a really bad bopper/slasher game. Like a really bad teenage mutant ninja turtles game, where you just go around beating people up by pushing one button. It actually feels a lot like that. The only catch is you can't stop playing until you beat the game, i.e. 9 hours is up. It's pretty mind numbing and I'm glad it's over.

-bender

Heed the lessons of pre-clinical years

So I've got this earwax thing going on. Pretty bad. Word on the street is that colace works wonders in removing waxy buildup from your ears. I scored some colace from the peds nurses when I was on EM. Anyhow, the colace had been sitting out for a while, so it was really cold. No matter.

I got a 1mL pipet and got to work flushing out my right ear. I immediately started to get really nauseous and remembered, it's not a great idea to put cold liquid in your ear. I thought, hey, maybe it'll get better once I put it in my other ear. Bad idea. I got super sick and almost yakked all over ma girl's bathroom. There was red strawberry flavored colace all over the sink and I was drowning my head in warm water to try to counteract whatever had occurred in my vistibulatory centers.

Yea. wow. Once you mess with your balance centers, things don't go back normally for a while. I lied around in bed for 3 hours feeling nauseous, said screw it and drove down to LA overnight once I realized that it wasn't going away. I took some tylenol. I still have a headache.

-bender

Game Over

16 christmas parties, in 13 days... that is my very definition of tired.

So on my second days rest in a row, I only slept for 14 hours. Damn, it was the sweetest thing in the world, ever...

I don't know what I hate the most about the holidays, the nagging from family or the presents. As a child I loved the presents, as an adult I hate them, they cost too damn much, take too much time to find, and basically a month after giving them, the person forgets and tosses it to the side. Seriously the stupidest investment ever. I think next year I'm donating money in everyones name that way it's going to a good cause, not the garage or closet in a month or two.

So I'm going home for the holidays, 4 days to be exact, and it's going to be the most tiring affair ever cuz I have to make sure to see both sides of the familia, and if I don't spend enough time, that means I don't love them, blah blah... seriously, it's like I tell Kim, I fucking hate this time of the year cuz it's not even close to what it was supposed to be. I feel like charlie brown right now.

Joe out...

El Pollo Loco

I had my first taste of el pollo loco in San Diego, a couple of weeks ago when I got a drumstick to stave off my hunger. It was mind blowingly good. I dragged ma gal out by the airport yesterday to get some of that zesty limey chicken with the awesome salsas and tortillas. Wow, it was awesome. I can't believed I went all these years without it. Joe, how come you never took me to this place? It's been one day and I'm already craving it. Mouth-watering chicken goodness...tasty.

-bender

p.s. So Joe, we watching alien vs. predator 2 for christmas was it? We should get some el pollo loco, or get that peruvian chicken that you're always talking about.

I love craigslist

I really should be studying for my boards, but...

To the Man in the Motorized Wheelchair

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Date: 2007-11-27, 6:45PM PST


You have restored my faith in humanity.

Lamentably, I work in the Lloyd District, and the largest assortment of food offerings in one place is, in fact, that true testament to the Portland Ghetto zeitgeist, The Lloyd Centre Mall. As I was walking toward the down escalator near the cinemas, having procured my foodstuffs, I noted a group of kids in front of me that should, undoubtedly, have been sitting in class in their middle school and were probably reveling in their shared truancy. As they walked, you came zipping around into their path in a motorized wheelchair like the place was the Portland International Raceway.

The quartet of young punks either did not notice or did not care enough to cede the right of way. That did not seem to phase you. No—you plowed right into the middle of them slammed to a stop, and grouchily shouted something akin to, ‘Jesus Christ! Move, motherfucker!’ out of your toothless maw.

I assure you that the profanity was utterly delicious.

Then you shoved down on that chair’s joystick and took off at a speed that indicated that the world had damned well better move for you.

The kids looked on in disbelief. I think on some level they were too flabbergasted to be offended.

Is it wrong that the cockles of my dark little heart just warmed at you schooling those young punks? And is it wrong that I then thought of myself in my old age shouting at kids to get off my lawn? There is hope. There are young punks a-plenty, and it is my most fervent wish that I get to plow down as many as my heart desires when I’m flying around the mall, my colostomy bag blazing like a standard.

Sir, I salute you. Huzzah!


-bender

This is what it all comes down to...

I finished my last interview at UC Davis. It was nice to see a lot of familiar faces. I love the residents at UC Davis, one of the greatest bunch of guys that I have ever worked with. There is one that is slightly odd, but even the one that I thought was shafting me for my research...he turned out to be the man. He was having some serious disputes with some faculty and he was trying to shield me from the fights - shield me from his opinions of the faculty and save me from association with him. He is gonna put my name on two of his papers from his research period. I really had a nice time out with the guys last night. Now it's time to struggle with my match year and sweat it out until Jan 22. Anyhow, this year has treated me very well. People have hooked me up with great advice, info, research, etc. Lots of thanks to everyone who has supported me through this process. Ma familia, ags, joe, rabbit, hibiscusfire, lonecoyote, and everyone else. y'all have always had my back. A couple quick specific shoutouts...

Dr. Joan Hartnell at the VA. During my family practice medicine, she warned me not to go into primary care and literally dragged me by the hand to the urology office of Dr. Lars Ellison. All dick all the time. My intro to urology.

Lonecoyote - if if weren't for your phone call/advice to switch up my 3rd year schedule to do surgery early, I wouldn't have had enough time to plan out my year, research, letters, make contacts, etc. Thanks y'alls.

-bender

Chicago - Day 2

On my free day in Chicago, I figured it was my one chance to see what the city was all about. I've always wanted to watch "Wicked," so I figured what better place than Chicago. I loved the theater in LA, but never thought the shows in norcal were as good as the ones down south. I signed up for lottery tickets for the show. I didn't win, but a sweet lady who was by herself hooked me up and I got to sit on the first row. I was blown away. I was balling the whole I watched Les Miserables, but I thought Wicked was even better. Amazing story line, great talents. Plus, it was a real treat watching the lil kids ask the guys in the orchestra pit questions.

The next stop took me to Millenium park, where they have the cloud gate. I'm not exactly sure what it's supposed to be, but everyone affectionately refers to it as "the bean" because really, it looks like a big metal bean.

I swung by the Chicago Institute of Art to check out their art collection. Seriously, their collection is sick. They've got a huge collection with Monets, Van Goghs, Picassos, etc. It's not the Louvre, but then again, what is. It's like a scaled down version of the Met in New York. It was nice, but it's been so long since I've studied art history. I couldn't really appreciate the art. It wasn't as amusing without the backdrop of the artist who got sued, or got bad reviews for knocking up the art critic's wife...that's the good stuff.

For dinner I swung by Portillo's Hot Dogs. As far as hot dogs go, this place was damn good. Either way, I got hungry again late at night, so I trekked out again for some more pizza. I got lost, but as luck would have it, I walked into Pizzaria Due. The story behind these restaurants is, the chicago deep dish pizza was invented at Pizzaria Uno. The restaurant did so well, they opened Pizzaria Due across the street. The guy even opened up a mexican restaurant called Su casa because he missed his tex mex. The question being, if Uno is the original, why did I got to Due? Well, I didn't know the story until after I ordered my pizza and started reading the menu. Anyhow, my take on chicago deep dish pizza. It tastes almost idential to Zelda's pizza in Sacramento. I shit you not. The sausage and cheese is a little higher grade, but otherwise, we're not missing much out at sac.

My thoughts. New York is great, but I love Chicago and would head out there in a heartbeat if I got no love from Cali urology.

-bender

Chicago - Part 1

My first day in Chicago was a bit rough I must admit. After interviewing in Irvine, I red-eyed it into O'Hare, changed in the ER bathroom and was ready to rock and roll.

The first program on the Trail was Loyola. It's an awesome clinically oriented urology program in the suburbs of Chicago. Liked the program. That night, I met up with the University of Chicago residents. The guys were freaking awesome and I had a blast pounding it down with them in a dive bar on the southside. The next day I trekked out to U of C. I've gotta say it's the most fun I've had on an interview day. We broke out the putter and practiced putting as part of the interview. I loved their program and I left the interview day thinking I could be really happy in Chicago.

After the interview, I finally had some time to cut loose and enjoy the city. Hotwire hooked me up with rooms in the Swissotel on the first night and the Hyatt Regency on the days after. I had an awesome room with views overlooking the river.

It was good times from there on out. On my first night out the first place I headed to was a pizza joint called Giordano's. It's a Chicago pizza joint famous for serving up pizza pies. It was stuffed to the brim and less cheesy than the pizzas on the west coast. Unfortunately, I've gotta say that I still think Zachary's in Berkeley makes the best pizza pies.

After dinner, I took a stroll down the magnificent mile. I've gotta say, it's an amazing place if you like to shop. It's a mile lined with all the stores that you can think of. It's the closest thing to the Champs-elysees that I've seen in the states. Wides sidewalks for walking, people out late at night - to see and be seen. My impression of Chicago is that it's like a cleaner version of new york. There aren't as many neighborhoods and it's got a little less character, but it's a lot more liveable. You can own your own place, have a car, yet have access to great culture/diversity.



At the end of the magnificent mile, I stopped at the Hancock center. Got an amazing view from the 95th floor, toasted my good fortunes and called it a day.

-bender

Against the grain....

Soooo...

Just sitting here, recuperating on my day off, guzzling down my second corona for the afternoon. I promised Kim I'd keep my drinking toned down, not everyday, maybe 1 or 2 times a week and never to cope with stress.

It's not that I'm an alcoholic, or even close, hell we never even drink.... she just gets flashbacks of her ex boyfriend that I guess I have to deal with since I knew what it would be like getting into this thing.

It's really weird, but somehow drinking this corona is a slap to the face, of my content life. I am the angry mexican.... it's what I do best, reverse racism and lofty goals and aspirations. If I become content with enjoying my day off drinking a beer instead of bettering myself, I'm just a failure. So instead of getting off my ass and doing something about it.... I'm blogging to be a little bitch and whine.

HAHA... you gotta love self realization and what we do with spare time on our hands.

So while Bender is off exploring the options and various places that can potentially cack slap him into residency bitchdom I'm here being a slave to the hospitality world. It was funny, cuz the other day I was subbing in for a sick bartender and a bunch of doctors who were having a party in our facilities started bitching about our alcohol prices. Now, I understand my role and everything and this is probably why I should hurry up and open up my own shop but I couldn't help but put this guy in his place. Ph.D, M.D. or whatever, you are a tool just like everyone else, money or not.

So I just ignore his first complaint, when he comes back for the third time and complains about the price I tried to help explain to him about costs. He replied with what do you know? I said, well look at it this way, does it really cost 100 dollars for me to wait 2 hours in a smelly lobby for a doctor to come in and read a chart tell me to cough then write a prescription for an overpriced medicine that costs less than a shot of vodka to produce. He apparently didn't like that and asked to talk to my manager. I explained I was the manager, he asked for the hotel manager (who was working security for the party) so I brought him over and the doctor explained what happened, and the manager said... well the prices are the prices, I'm sorry if you didn't like the explanation but we can't do anything about it.

Douchebag: 0
Paul: 1

My gripe is this, everything is overpriced, doctors, booze, food, clothes, hookers.... everything... so shut the fuck up and pay like everyone else, its not too bad when you're wearing cologne that costs more than my fucking computer so shut your face.

joe out...

P.S. Bender if you ever become a jackass like that I'll fucking cut your balls off and spoon feed them to a wild racoon.

The last stretch

Looks like I'm almost done with the interview trail. 10 down, only 3 more to go.

Today I went out to visit UC Irvine. Their office is pimp - the penthouse of a gorgeous skyscraper. The view that the office overlooks is pretty amazing. I started the day off in typical bender fashion. The meeting room had a glass wall . I totally forgot about the glass wall and went face first into the wall leaving a nice grease impression of my face for all to see. Whatever.

Thoughts on Irvine. Cool faculty, residents that I wouldn't mind shooting the shit with. The chairman of this program is essentially the father of laparascopic surgery as far as urologists are concerned. The only problem is, people come from all over the world to be operated on by this guy. In virtually all cases, he is compelled to perform the surgery because that is what people are paying him to do. It means the fellow drives the camera and the resident watches. Not so great, but you get to work with a great guy. As part of the interview, we were required to tie knots, throw stitches, string needles, etc. We got to do it open, laparascopically and robotically. Open is easy. Lap is ridiculously hard. I failed. Robotically was awesome. I got to spend 30 minutes playing with a 1.5 million dollar robot. Even better than driving a Lamborghini. The only part that sucks is I went straight from irvine to LAX, taking a redeye to chicago and rolling into my next interview. Right now the weather seems to be holding steady so that my flight isn't delayed. 25F, feels like 16F with some light snow. I'd like a hot shower please. I should've invested in some thermal underwear...time to undergo some serious shrinkage.

-bender

What I've Learned

This is more or less my first time being out in the south and the midwestern part of the United States.

What I've learned: In general, people are friendly, more or less, if given the chance.

Things in the midwest are similar, but very different. You can't get a jalapeno burger or fried zucchini at Hardee's. They had incredible service and the presentation was fantastic. But yea, the only thing Carl's Jr about it was the star.

Next, I really like how they decorate trees on the East coast and the midwest. On the west coast, they just wrap the lights around the trunk. In other parts of the country, they start from the branches and follow them out. I know people who have very strong feelings about this. Yea...I guess it looks nicer.

-bender

We'll leave the light on for you

I've been staying in Motel 6's all across the county and I've got to say that they're all remarkably similar. They all have the cheesy motel6 comforters, thin carpets and lack of any amenities. The only variations that I have seen are the showers (some are tubs, while others are corner showers with showerheads that come out of the middle room and face the corner of the backroom). After staying in motel 6's for the greater part of the month, I must confess that it's become an oddly comforting site. Despite the new locale and the hordes of blond applicants, some things have stayed constant throughout my travels. Thanks motel 6.


Thoughts on Michigan. Once again, Ann Arbor is an awesome place. I was a little annoyed when I walked into a sports bar and they kept calling me sir and didn't check my ID. Anyhow, it was amusing being indoctrinated into the religion of Michigan football. We talked about finding a new coach for 5+ hours. It was madness. Otherwise, the program is hands down the best program in the midwest, possibly the nation. They have a urology powerhouse in terms of faculty, research, patients, etc. It was actually kind of intimidating to see all of the tools at their disposal. I really couldn't find any weaknesses in the program. BLUE, GOLD. sorry, it's catchy.

Next I flew out to San Diego for a Friday interview. Ironically, of all the places I've been to - rochester, michigan, iowa, etc. San Diego had the worst weather. It was pouring all over the place, the wind was out of control. All of the applicants got completely drenched and my hair was crazy when I interviewed. They didn't have a room set aside for the applicants as we waited, so we all huddled under an open shelter outside. We all smelled like wet dogs because of our wet suits. Aside from the weather though, it was a good day. Met a lot of cool/fun people. I felt sorry for the 1 girl there, because it was completely a dude fest - 16 guys, 1 girl. Urology tends to be a little bit like that. UCSD is definitely an up and coming program because of the new chairman and the young vibrant faculty. It's hard not to see oneself being happy in "sunny San Diego." haha.

Anyhow, ma girl flew down for the weekend and we had fun hanging out with her older sister and her boyfriend. We did the sea world thing on Saturday. We had a blast, but it was a really bad idea to go on a ride where you get soaked early in the day. We never dried up and it was unbelievably cold, but I had a blast. It was worth it to see ma girl smile when she fed the dolphins. There was a lot of food involved too. Got some great pho, lots of fish tacos, extraordinary desserts and some spicy ass thai food. I got to cheer for the chargers (football) to boot. The sister/boyfriend are hard-core charger fans - they have season tickets and make us dress up for the games. Next time we're gonna get lighting bolts painted on our foreheads like harry potter for the game.

Time to start studying for the boards, again. Next stop Irvine, then chicago. Gonna go get me some deep dish pizza and some portillo's hot dogs.

-bender