Try Me

November 10th marked the start of the interview trail for me with a visit to Harbor-UCLA. While in southern California I spent a long weekend with Adam. We ate lots of tasty food, went shopping for guinea pigs (just looking for Adam), and picked up some tasty Taiwanese breads and taro pops.

After my interview and the visit, I returned to Houston and went straight to friend Revathi's birthday party. Her party theme was the ever appropriate Mobster Lobster (see costume below). After the candles were blown out, I took Revathi and Anand with me to Houston's Risotto Festival- all made possible by friend and foodie judge Sarah. Soooo good!

More eating took place in a tiny town between Houston and Galveston; this time with cousin Alison. Temporarily in town for the cruise ship season, Alison was able to break away from work to catch up with me over Mexican food. It was great to connect!

CultureMap Associate Editor Sarah hooked me up yet again with a sneak peek at Nabi, a new restaurant in the Montrose area on Westheimer. They served up sweet saki cocktails and some interesting food like brisket gyozas, pork buns, sushi, and an entire roasted pig. College roommate Teresa and I also found some time to hang out- shopping in the Rice Village!

Sparks Fly

In the beginning of November, I enjoyed some of the Rice homecoming festivities. Though I did not attend the game, it was fun catching up with some visiting alumni and having a picturesque volunteer brunch atop Hotel Zaza.

I must have been on a real brunch kick, because I also joined Sarah and her co-worker Caroline for a late morning meal at Benjy's on Washington. From the chocolate chip bacon waffles to the white peach mojitos, it was a delicious treat!

On Saturday, November 5th, I got a surprise phone call from Brandi inviting me to join her for a Taylor Swift concert. In one of the final stops on her Speak Now tour, she rocked the house and was truly fantastic. I especially got a kick out of trying to decipher the quote inked on her arm. That night's signature lyric came from Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now: "It's love's illusions I recall, I really don't know love at all."

For the latest installment of the Houston Pops 2011-12 season, they presented the music of Paul McCartney. Though the resemblance is a bit striking, the band was only a cover.

One of the highlights of the night was watching the subscriber appreciation video. If you watch closely, I make a guest appearance right around :59. Check it out!

 

Costume Change

Halloween 2011 turned out to be a three-day extravaganza. Baylor celebrates the costumed holiday with a talent show called Coffeehouse. Inspired by a cardboard box, I went as a Rubik's cube. For the night before Halloween, I joined forces with friends for a Montrose pub crawl (and a stop at Yogurtland). Costume #2 was a maid, which paled in comparison to Peter as a nevernude or Teresa and Dane as a glowing Tron.

Finally, Halloween proper involved a laid back trip to 13 Celsius, a favorite wine bar. I threw together some sort of a Ronald McDonald costume- thanks to the help from an old red wig my beloved sister Sarah passed on to me. Despite all of the dressing up, it was back to business as usual for the start of my final core clerkship rotation on psychiatry.

Catching Up

Though I have back-dated this blog, I'm actually posting it a few months after these events transpired. As 2012 kicks off to a start, it's time to get back on track with the blog. Ready, set, go!

Thanks to a Rice wedding, my college buddy Jenn came into town for a visit. We enjoyed catching up over ice cream at Amy's. Robert and Jenn are looking forward to finally living together in the foreseeable future as they couples match in emergency medicine and psychiatry, respectively.

As my sub-internship in the surgical ICU came to a close and my psychiatry core clerkship got underway, I was able to squeeze in some musical theater with friend Sarah. We saw the traveling Broadway show Memphis, which I thought has some fantastic numbers. Very reminiscent of Hairspray, this fun and energetic musical hooked me from the beginning.

My amazing medical school classmate and dear friend Brandi successfully defended her Masters thesis at the end of October. Despite graduating with an English Major from Rice, attending medical school, getting married, having a baby, and publishing countless papers in the field of cardiothoracic surgery, Brandi found time to make waves in the field of bioengineering. Good job!

Trivial Pursuits

Baylor's Emergency Medicine Interest Group held its second annual Trivia Night at Hans' Bier Haus on October 6th. Though my team came in a close second, the night was a lot of fun and a fundraising success. The bonus bucks went directly into the hotel fund for our block of student rooms at the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Annual Conference in San Francisco.

Baylor brought a group of over a dozen students to the meeting this year. Though we didn't have much time to get out and explore the city, we enjoyed views of the city's skyline at the Texas EM mixer. My personal favorite event of the weekend was the residency fair at the med student symposium. I had a chance to visit with several of the programs where I have applied.

Unfortunately, I had to skip out of the conference early Sunday morning to make it back for the highlight of this year's Pops season: Idina Menzel! Her wide selection of songs included: Wicked's I'm Not That Girl, For Good (a capella and amazing!), the quintessential Defying Gravity, Rent's No Day But Today, the Glee version of Gaga's Poker Face, her own song Gorgeous, lullabies for her baby boy Walker, Annie's Tomorrow, and more. Though she didn't stay after the show to sign her CD, she did share a strawberry lozenge with me during the performance! In an attempt to prove she was soothing her sore throat and not popping pills, she passed a candy to me in the front row!

When I wasn't bonding with my new BFF Idina, I hung out with other friends (mostly of the med school variety) during this Oktoberfest month. Robert and Ian held a couple pizza making and beer brewing get-togethers. Inspired by our San Francisco drinks of choice, Revathi hosted folks at her place for some martinis- a little dirty, two olives.

Get Your Kicks

September came to a close with a few fun and educational events. I led a CPR class for some BCM students and got a kick out of showing the American Heart Association's new instructional video for bystander CPR (highly recommended- check it out). My mentor Dr. Fisher had a bunch of emergency medicine groupies out to her house in the Woodlands, which was fun (see above).

With CultureMap foodie friend Sarah, I enjoyed a couple special meals. We savored some succulent selections at Le Mistral's 10th Anniversary Celebration and took in the chimerical courtyard ambiance (obviously I am working the thesaurus here to broaden my vocab). During the day we kicked off our shoes and picnicked in Hermann Park.

Speaking of kicking things off, the month of October got off to a great start with what has become an annual trifecta of events: Race for the Cure, Christ the King's Blessing of the Animals, and Free Night of Theater at the Houston Ballet (see 2010, 2009). Wentworth really wore himself out at church this year and was too tired to maintain his bladder control. I'm still paranoid about any lingering hint of cat pee odor in the Camry. Sigh. Time to get a new car? (kidding!)

Bebop and Rocksteady

On September 16th, the Rice Women's Resource Center celebrated its 15th anniversary! As a two-time student director of the RWRC, I was very excited to see what the center is up to these days. After a nice reception in the Brown Courtyard, I took a sneak peek at the new digs. More photos from the RWRC anniversary can be seen here.

The very next day, I enjoyed a bit of the Museum District Day festivities. I loved stopping by the Contemporary Arts Museum, which had two exhibits on display: The Spectacular of Vernacular and Perspectives 175: Marc Swanson: The Second Story. I joined several hot-glue-gunning children on the lawn outside to make my own art car. Then I paid a brief visit to the John C. Freeman Weather Museum.

That night a group of folks gathered at 13 Celsius to celebrate Amy's birthday. We sipped on wine and ate cupcakes before heading to the gayborhood/midtown club F-bar. Switching gears a few days later, I attended another birthday party-- this time for my classmate and friend Anand. Over beers at Flying Saucer, we toasted Anand and relished in our status as fourth-year medical students.