R-rated post below

Fireman: find 'em hot, leave 'em wet

Stupidest looking dog ever?

Heather's dog, Mugsy, in a car seat. Actually, heather just reminded me that I'm wrong. He looks ever stupider in his raincoat and shoes!



-- Post From My iPhone

Mobile blogging

I just downloaded a new iPhone app so that I can do some mobile blogging. At least for the next couple days, i'm spending a lot less time at my computer. So, we'll see if this helps with blogging frequency, which I know has sucked lately. Although in a couple days, I'll be spending a lot of time studying by my computer again, so frequency will probably go back up.

In any case, still not much exciting going on. I have been back in the gym and back to tanning though, so I'll finally stop looking like a ghost. Seriously, it is not safe to look at me in direct sunlight right now, so I'm really just getting tan for your safety. It's also been very nice to be back at Federal Hill Fitness, which is easily my favorite gym in Baltimore. I have to drive 1/2 hr to get there, but I think it's worth it. Nothing exciting at the firehouse either. I've gotten a bunch of calls, but nothing exciting. I suppose nothing exciting for me is good for the community, but boring for me nonetheless. Ok, I'm up way too late, so time to go for now.


-- Post From My iPhone

USA update

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I probably won't be blogging every day over break, since there really just isn't that much interesting to say. But, I will keep blogging, so people don't think i've disappeared. Mostly, I've just been enjoying the delicious food that I've missed while in St. Maarten, the technology which is non-existent there, and the amazing roads which do not age your car 10 years in 2. When I see things like the brand new Whole Foods market and Bed Bath and Beyond which were just built by my house, along with all the additions to the already very nice Annapolis Mall and all the other construction that's been going on, I really don't know what I did with myself for nearly 2 years. It's very easy to take for granted how great things are here, until you see how things are somewhere else.

In any case, I spent the other day (and night) back at the firehouse. I'm trying to remember what calls I ran, but there really wasn't anything that exciting. I did treat one rather intoxicated man with chest pain. The alcoholics are always tricky because it's sometimes difficult to tell if they actually have something going on, or if they're just suffering the side effects of being an alcoholic, or both. This particular guy had a normal 12-lead EKG and seemed in a much better mood than most people having an MI, but he also had anywhere from 2 to 6 stents put in anywhere from many years ago to a month ago. I know that sounds awfully vague, but he was a pretty lousy historian. He was also taking some medications which led me to believe that he had more of a history than he was aware of. So, I just did the safest thing I could and treated him as though he were having an MI. If he was, then I may have saved his life. If he wasn't, then he still had improved blood flow to his heart, which is rarely a bad thing.

Oh...and my luggage finally came, at some ungodly hour of the morning. It actually did make it on a flight the day after I left, which is what they said would happen. But, since flights from St. Maarten typically don't get in to Baltimore until late at night, it seemed like it took 2 days to get here. After a very long day yesterday of emptying 5 overstuffed bags of luggage, my room is finally back together and actually is looking like a decent place to live.

Home!!

Well, I am back home, for good! Of course, it wouldn't have been a complete trip home if St. Maarten didn't give me one final screw you before I left the island. This time, in came in the form of not having my luggage...still. This was definitely partially USAir's fault, but St. Maarten contributed. USAir sent the wrong plane; it was supposed to be a 757, but they sent a much smaller Airbus. According to the flight attendant, that plane cannot handle the load and has no business in the caribbean. Well, she was right...the plane, not even full, was 7,000 lbs. overweight! But, here's where St. Maarten comes in!

Usually, they would just remove some fuel from the plane and get a more direct route from air traffic control. But, naturally, St. Maarten either lacks the desire or the technical capabilities (maybe both) to remove fuel from the plane. I would think that it would be a fairly easy procedure, and it's apparently routine at pretty much any other airport, but not in St. Maarten. So, instead, they removed EVERY bag from the plane and said they'd ship them out the next day. Again, not surprisingly, they apparently didn't ship them yesterday. So, I got to spend my first night home in Philly, which honestly wasn't that bad since I got home early the next morning, but I still don't have my bags! Oh well...I'm home now, so I don't have to worry about any of that anymore. Hopefully the bags will show up today.

In other news, I took care of some very non-St. Maarten things yesterday. Namely, I got my new TV installed in my room with Verizon FIOS HDTV, got our internet speed upgraded to 20/5 for free (which is insanely fast), and got the iPhone 3G, with a real AT&T rate plan. Today, I need to pick up some stuff for my car, and then it's off to the firehouse to save some lives (or more likely, taxi some people to the hospital).

New (far more accurate) Microsoft commercial

A much more accurate version of what a MIcrosoft commercial would be, if they weren't paying actors to do them.

Goodbye, St. Maarten!!!! Basic Sciences....DONE

Today, I passed the Kaplan comp, which was the final exam we had to pass to leave the island. I use the term "pass" loosely, since a 45% was passing, and I really didn't do much better than that. For those who have not taken the Kaplan exam yet, it's HARD, like twice as hard as the NBME comp. Fortunately, as long as you pass, it counts as nothing. So, having passed that exam, I am out of here at 2:15 tomorrow afternoon!

It feels like yesterday, that I visited the school and the island for a week with my dad to check the place out. I was even jealous of the first semesters, because they had at least been accepted and were on their way. When I got here, I couldn't believe I was finally in med school, but still jealous of just about every semester ahead of me. I could not imagine the day that I'd actually finish basic sciences and leave the island for clinicals.

Well, I'm done basic sciences, and tomorrow, I leave the island for clinicals (after a much needed break and lots of studying for the step). At times, it seemed like a very long 20 months, which I thought would never end. But really, time here does go by very quickly. When I look back through my notes, or take comp exams, I really can't believe how much information I've managed to pack into my head in the relatively small amount of time. I still have lots to learn, but when family or friends have a medical question, I know the answer way more often than not. And, not only do I usually know the answer, but I could usually go on for a couple minutes about why that's the answer.

For now though, i have yet to pack anything. Since I'm leaving the island pretty soon, I should probably get on that! I will likely not blog tomorrow, but I'll try to get back to it as soon as I can. Unfortunately, i probably won't have much interesting to write over break, unless you're interested in ambulance and fire calls.

oh yeah...

3 days left!!!

The world may be coming to an end

I have found something in St. Maarten that I do not think has an equal in the US! I never thought I'd say that, and I can't believe I'm putting it on the internet for all to see, but I think it's true. I went to the Sunday brunch at the Westin today, and I have yet to find another buffet that can even come close. It's $50 per person, but really not at all hard to get your money's worth. Instead of telling you about it, I'll just show you (with crappy iPhone pictures)

Oysters, muscles, crab claws, and huge shrimp


Typical breakfast stuff, but much better than usual (eggs with or without cheese, thick sliced bacon, pancakes, french toast, etc.)


Omelet station


Breads, donuts, pastries, fruits, deli meats


Sushi!


Fried rice station and pasta station


Indian food, beef stroganoff, various other things that I don't remember


Lamb carving station


Wilbur the suckling pig (they also had a baked ham carving station next to the pig)


The view from the restaurant


All you can drink champagne and mimosa (we went through quite a few of these). By "quite a few," I mean probably most of these bottles.


Amazing dessert buffet


Chocolate fountain with plenty stuff to dip in it. They also had white chocolate on the other side


Basically, amazing. Not a bad way to spend my last weekend on the island! We sat there for nearly the full three hours that the buffet was open, taking about 1/2 hour breaks to digest, and then eat more. I'm not sure that I'll eat again before I leave on Wednesday.

All you can eat sushi in SXM!

For those of you who enjoy sushi, The Stone in Simpson Bay has all you can eat sushi for $25 on Sundays. It's not the best sushi that I've had in my life, but it is still very good, and much better than I would have expected from all you can eat. it's made to order (not buffet), so that helps a lot. For $25, you get seaweed salad, miso soup, and all the rolls you want. They've got probably about 20 rolls to choose from, including spicy tuna, salmon, and shrimp, shrimp tempura, eel, yellowtail, california, salmon and cream cheese, etc. The rolls are big and it's really not difficult at all to get your money's worth. They run it from 11:30 - 3:00 PM on Sundays and I'd definitely recommend the trip.