Newness

After falling off the blogging bandwagon, I will get back on track at the following address:

www.BeckyGoesToCalifornia.blogspot.com

Wholesome Goodness

Even though I had a lot of fun at Charity Ball in 2009 and 2011, I decided to skip the event and babysit instead. I spent the night hanging out with my mentor/attending’s kids. We played the Game of Life (thanks Sarah and Paul!), ate pizza, read two-minute mysteries, and watched some Kung Fu Panda. I miss my babysitting days!

In another return to the good ol’ days, my friend Sarah threw a 90s dance party. We chased waterfalls, walked in spider webs, found things ironic, and were genies in a bottle. After bringing Backstreet back, I tried to bring my booty back- in shape, that is.

Revathi and I kept up our gym routine and tried to eat healthy. We checked out the new lunch hotspot across the street from the gym and realized with just a couple bites Local Foods was worth the hype. I continued to eat local with a trip to the Rice farmer’s market. The ginger granola is the perfect complement to Greek yogurt.

I must have been on a ginger kick because the Thursday trip to Double Trouble involved spicy, handcrafted drinks like a Normandy Mule and an Angela Lansbury. Mike, Revathi, and Anand helped me celebrate my final day of clinical requirements as a medical student when my stint in the dermatology clinic ended. The celebrating was short-lived because Apex started just a couple days later.

Apex is a 3-week lecture-based class to help all the graduating fourth-years prepare for the start of residency. It was fun to reconnect with all of my classmates who had been scattered around the Texas Medical Center for the last two years. After classes one day we went to happy hour at Black Finn downtown (above). A smaller, highly fashionable contingent went to City Centre for an event at Elaine Turner where they practically gave away amazing new handbags!

Rain on My Parade

Because everyone should experience NOLA Mardi Gras at least once in their lives, some medical school friends and I made a run for the Texas-Louisiana border. Following our Friday clinical obligations, we headed east for a weekend road trip. We crashed at a resident’s house and spent all day Saturday on the streets of The Big Easy.

We started the drizzly day off with breakfast (crab and brie omelet) and cupcakes at Cake Cafe then hit the finest establishments of New Orleans. We waded our way to Frenchmen Street and then slowly made our way down Decatur where they really let anyone belly up to the bar.

Finally, we made it to Canal Street for the parades. Beads were flying everywhere! Thankfully, it was far too cold outside for anyone to “earn” necklaces, so it turned out to be a relatively PG affair. After being hit in the face with stray beads and elbows, we nursed our wounds on Bourbon Street. Though the line was far too long for an official Hurricane, we did detonate some Hand Grenades.

We also did some serious damage on the dance floor before calling it a night (or should I say early morning?). We made it back to Houston on Sunday night- just in time for me to join Sarah for the Rodeo Bites food extravaganza. By the time the real Fat Tuesday rolled around, I was already back to behaving myself and working in the dermatology clinic at the VA.

To Days Gone By

I returned to clinics in February with an anesthesia rotation at the VA. When I wasn't intubating, starting IVs, or learning about narcotics, I tried to keep up appearances with friends and put my gym membership to use. Sarah and I tested out the new contemporary Japanese restaurant and Austin transplant Uchi. The brus­sels sprout kimchee was absolutely phenomenal.

In an effort to beat the winter blues, Brandi and I warmed ourselves with high tea. I threw together tea sandwiches, crackers, fruit, and cheese while Brandi brewed a mean pot of tea. Little Thomas provided entertainment from his high chair and all was right with the world.

With my Valentine roughly 1500 miles to the west, I settled on celebrating the 14th with med school friends Mike, Anand, and Revathi. The four of us comprise the Double Trouble crew with our weekly Thursday get-togethers at our favorite midtown hotspot for coffee and cocktails. For Valentine's Day we headed to Onion Creek in the Heights for chili dogs and chocolate wine.

Hearts and cups were filled again just two days later at Teresa and Dane's engagement party. We congregated at Volcano to celebrate the next big step in my former roomie's rock-solid relationship with her college sweetheart. Congratulations!

Gather Up

As January came to a close and interview season wrapped up, I had a chance to celebrate the coming of the end of med school with friends. We ate tapas at T'afia...

...enjoyed our Symphony tradition with the Pops' "Best of Spielberg and Williams" followed by dessert at the Hard Rock Cafe...

...played cricket/darts at Cecil's and toasted to the fourth and final year of medical school!

Family Ties

One of my favorite parts of interview season was visiting family across the country. For my final interview run, I made a snowy journey up to the Midwest. First stop: Uncle John and Aunt Sherri's place in St. Charles. We ate a wonderful dinner at Francesca’s by the River and shared a relaxing, peaceful night at home. I interviewed at the University of Chicago, which had an amazing emergency medicine program, then drove up to Madison.

I ate dinner with the welcoming residents at the University of Wisconsin then made it to the Brehms. Joe and Sue also made the interview trail a bit more friendly and homey. After my interview at UW, I met up with Uncle Steve for coffee and great conversation. Then I drove to Milwaukee for another resident dinner- this time at Cafe Hollander in Wauwatosa. The day wrapped up with a nice comfy bed in Oconomowoc at Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue's place.

Following my visit to the Medical College of Wisconsin, I sloooowly drove back to Oconomowoc in a snowstorm. Uncle Dave, Aunt Sue, and I ate some fish and chips for dinner. The next day we took a trip to Madison, ate dinner at Dotty Dumplings, and watched a Badgers hockey game. It was also great to catch up with Lizzie, who is finishing up her degree in finance. Before I knew it my Midwest tour was over and I was on a plane bound for the Bay Area.

After arriving at the Stanford campus, I had a bit of free time to visit the Cantor Art Museum. The evening social with the residents at Old Pro Sports Bar was a bit chaotic because the 49ers lost to the Giants in the NFL playoffs. Nonetheless, I had a great interview day at Stanford and loved a lot of things about the program. The best was yet to come as I boarded the train bound for San Francisco. I met up with my cousin Beth at her awesome home. We ate a lovely dinner, exchanged stories over wine, and finished the visit with a mini tour of her neighborhood the next morning.

Taste Tests

January was a month of exploration- investigating new places and new food. My dear sister Sarah sent me a magazine clipping way back when that included a reference to a new local meat market in the Heights called Revival. I enjoyed an awesome pulled pork sandwich with a side of ginger lime slaw.

Interview season continued with another trip to southern California. Adam and I got to see each other again and celebrated with some conveyor belt sushi. Adam gifted me Scene It 2 for my birthday, and we enjoyed playing games and relaxing. Then it was back to business for interviews at UCLA-Olive View and UC-Irvine.

The post-interview dinner at UCLA was one of the highlights of the entire interview trail. The assistant program director (a former writer for the show ER) invited all of the applicants over to his home for a bountiful Mexican dinner including brie and papaya quesadillas, carne asada, roasted corn and poblano pepper salad, and more. The sopapilla cheesecake was incredible.

Next stop: Portland, Oregon. Everything about my stay in the Rose City was super cool. No rental car needed in this easy-to-navigate public-transit-friendly city. I ate a tasty lunch at Blueplate consisting of juicy Northwest sliders and a chai bomb soda float. I'm salivating just reflecting on it! Anyway, I then met up with my gracious host Desiree (Chelsey's friend, a nurse at OHSU).

The pre-interview social happened at McMenamins Bagdad Theater and Pub. I really enjoyed my visit to OHSU, including the scenic trip on the Portland aerial tram. Everyone seemed so happy and healthy in the fun and funky city. Later in the evening I reconnected with a couple interviewees for a night on the town. We crafted ourselves a little pub crawl through Portland's downtown area.

We had spicy Mexican dinner at Santeria that just happened to share a bathroom with another Portland specialty: a strip club. Crazy! Just when I thought the night couldn't get kookier, I stopped by Voodoo Doughnuts for some unique pastries ranging from Double Bubble to Cap'n Crunch to Maple Blazer Blunt. My trip wrapped up with an early morning bus ride sitting next to a pleasant older guy who looked like Ben Franklin... and wore a pink skirt and heels. Amazing.