City Streets

I saw this for the first time on the Daily Dish and thought it was great. Then I lost the link to it and couldn't find it again. Then a friend sent it to me. And now since I don't want to lose it again and because I think it's worth sharing, here it is. It's a really cool photo project. Check it out.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

In an attempt to add more food to my blog (since it is a big part of my life), I'm beginning with a new chocolate chip cookie recipe. I found it when I was home for Easter and baking 10 dozen cookies with Molly. We were flipping through Cooks Illustrated and found this one. It's really great and definitely made fantastic cookies. Also, because it calls for melting rather than creaming butter, it works well for those of us struggling to survive without a kitchen-aid.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

1¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use a #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10-14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

My Bipolar Reaction to Rain

So I hated my trek to work this morning. It was pouring and windy. Walking to the train was a disaster--my umbrella was pretty much useless and all the water that my rain jacket prevented from soaking my upper body pretty much just ended up drenching my legs as it dripped (read: cascaded) off of it. The train was hot, slippery and humid. And the walk from the train to work was during even more of a downpour. Not good. But at least I was wearing shoes that kept my feet relatively dry.

However, getting off the train a few minutes ago and walking in the rain back to my apartment was amazing. I had my ipod set to a very upbeat Jukebox the Ghost playlist and I didn't even bother with the umbrella. I got drenched but totally loved it. I was practically singing out loud along with my tunes and honestly, really felt like having a good, exhilarated shout. Like an exciting sporting event shout, not a pent up rage shout. I stompped in quite a few puddles and now my hair is dripping and my clothes are soaked. But I feel great. YES!!

Before I Fall Asleep...

My last two evenings were spent enjoying live music--something which I don't get to do nearly often enough. The two very different concerts haven't left me with any deep or earth shattering thoughts but I just want to share the following:

Monday night I saw a show at the new Alice Tulley Hall at Lincoln Center. The concert itself was great (and featured some readings from James Earl Jones) and the new concert hall is beautiful in appearance as well as in sound quality. But perhaps even more enjoyable than the concert itself was the two hours I spent before hand sitting in the cafe in the lobby of the new hall. The space is spectacularly beautiful and acoustically impressive for a lobby. Everything had a muted quality that was very peaceful and sun was pouring in the south west facing glass facade. Definitely my favorite New York indoor space. I can't wait for an excuse to go back and just sit and drink a leisurely cup of coffee.

And tonight brought me to Bleecker Street for a show of two solo pianists playing works by Philip Glass. The music was spectacular and the piano-lounge-y space was pretty cool (truffle mac and cheese was also a treat). What made the evening even better was that I spent it with a new-ish friend from work. I love that I have people in the city to do things with and that I have new friends. I mentioned tonight that I felt bad that I'd been basically hibernating all winter but was encouraged by Mike's assurance that there is a lot more to do in the spring. I can't wait--I'm so excited about doing more new things with new people.

As positive as both of these experiences were, I can't stop myself from thinking that my time here is almost over. I've decided that a year in a new city is absolutely not enough. I'm starting to really really like my life and to come to love this city and even take it for granted. So although I'm excited about the next phase of my life and about the friends I'll be returning to and the new friends I'll make, I have a feeling I'll miss what I have now a lot more than I would have expected to.

Madness

I spent yesterday afternoon literally sitting on the edge of my seat. I was alone in the apartment, shouting at my tv, clapping like a maniac and hiding my face behind and screaming into a pillow. This is not normal behavior. Except in March. I literally have paid attention to no news in the past few days that wasn't related to basketball.

College basketball is almost certainly my favorite sport and I've been a Maryland fan forever. In the past few weeks I was almost totally overwhelmed with the huge decision I had to make. I wasn't consumed by trying to decide between Maryland and GW Medical but was consumed with who to put in my final four. Since I've been making a bracket, Maryland has either been really good and thus a clear choice for the overall winner, or they've been out of the tournament all together. A 10 seed, while unexpected and pretty awesome for this team, threw me for a loop. Ultimately I went with Maryland losing to Memphis after a first round upset of Cal. It was a really hard decision. Really hard. And I hope I'm not judged too harshly for it.

Louisville and Georgetown (my parent's alma maters) have always been my back up teams when Maryland didn't make the tournament. And this year, without gtown and with a fantastic Louisville team in the tournament, my Kentucky roots have me rooting for Louisville to go all the way. But it's not just about the Cards this year. Every single game yesterday was amazing. The great thing about March Madness is that really, any of these games could go either way so many games are edge-of-your-seat-yell-at-the-tv games. I know I might appear slightly insane to an uninterested bystander, but believe me, if they knew what they were missing, they'd be right there with me.

Spalding Gray on "Leaving"

In his essay in Celebrating the Life of Spalding Gray, Roger Rosenblat writes that Gray used to say, "You can't be present in the place you're in until you've left and want to go back."

I don't want to say too much more than this because I think this quote really speaks for itself and seems to define a lot of what I've been feeling lately. From missing my childhood to missing college and, as I look forward, to the expectation I have of missing the house I grew up in.

I was home this weekend to begin the process of saying good bye to the house where I was raised and to say hello to the new house my parents are building on the Eastern Shore. The old house officially went on the market this weekend and although I know that once it sells and once it is gone I'm going to have some very strong feelings, right now I can't seem to make it feel real. The closest I got was when I saw the "virtual tour" of the house on a real estate website.

Right now I haven't quite left and that house is still home. As soon as it is gone for good and when I know I can never go back, I expect the sadness to come and expect I'll agree with Spalding one hundred percent.

Coney Island Pics as Promised

NPR

In the last few weeks a number of things (including a friend's NPR blog post) have reminded me of how much I miss listening to NPR. Not listening to my favorite shows on a regular basis, and at this point, really not listening to them at all, is something I'm not happy about. Morning Edition, The World, All Things Considered, This American Life, Wait Wait, etc. used to be integral parts of my life. Not only did they keep me well informed about current events, but the stories were (and I assume still are) always educational, intelligent, memorable, moving or some combination of those things. They made me more aware of the world and gave me interesting things to think and talk about.

My very first memories of NPR are of sitting in the back of the minivan driving home from somewhere and listening in as my parents listened to NPR. I used to love falling asleep to the sound of the radio men's voices--they always seemed so peaceful. I distinctly remember the first story that I actually listened to actively on one of these rides with my parents. It was a story about road rage in New Delhi. It made me feel so adult to listen to and pay attention to talk radio the way that my parents did. I remember when I fell in love with A Prairie Home Companion and if we started an episode in the car and didn't have time to finish it before we got home, I would make my parents turn on the radio in the TV room so we could listen to the rest of the show. I started listening to NPR regularly in high school. I would listen to it in the car on the way to school or work during the summer. I have had many driveway moments. And every day after school, I would spend an hour listening to The World while I did my math homework making the claim that since math doesn't require reading, I could easily concentrate on calculus and news events at the same time (I pulled this off surprisingly well). In college my daily NPR intake went down, but I usually made time each weekend for This American Life and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. Every chance I had to borrow the car, I would tune the radio immediately to 88.5. I even remember driving home from College Park one morning and being so engrossed in an episode of This American Life that I deliberately missed a turn on the way home so I'd have an extra 30 minutes in the car.

In my current life, I have pretty much no time for NPR. Mornings are out since I wake up and usually only have about 20 minutes before I have to be out of the apartment. And even if I'm up on time, I have a sleeping roommate with no walls between us. I don't drive to work and can't listen to the radio on the train. I've considered downloading podcasts for the commute but as it stands I already am feeling bad about how little reading I'm getting done these days and I'm not sure I want to sacrifice reading for NPR. But before my bus ride down to DC this evening, I downloaded a bunch of podcasts (This I Believe, Story of the Day, This American Life, Wait Wait and Driveway Moments) and spent the 4 hour ride listening to NPR. It was wonderful. I literally laughed and cried. The episode of This American Life was all about the banking crisis and I learned so much! And a few of the This I Believe stories seem to be exactly what I believe.

Listening to the familiar anchor voices and remembering listening to these shows made me realize that I miss NPR not just because of it's educational value and the interest it added to my day to day life. I miss listening to NPR because I miss the times when I had time to listen to NPR. Thinking back to laying on my bed listening to The World with a page of calculus problems sitting before me and a cool spring breeze pouring through my open window makes me ache with nostalgia. It's because it was the room I grew up in and so remembering that happy time spent there leads into memories of other things. Remembering listening to NPR reminds me of feeling adult for the first time, reminds me of the freedom of learning how to drive, reminds me of commuting to summer jobs, reminds me of summer, reminds me of a time when I could just spend an hour in my room listening to the radio.

Coney Island

I don't tend to think of myself as a lover of beaches. I associate them with being hot and sweaty, sunburn and squinting, and sand being stuck to everything. But I love beaches when it's cold out. I spent Saturday afternoon at Coney Island. It was sunny and windy and chilly and totally fantastic. I had no plans for the day, my roommate was working and a trip to Coney Island has been on my list of things to do for a while. So I got on the F train and headed out to the southern-most tip of Brooklyn. It is a surprisingly long train ride (Brooklyn is pretty massive) but a lot of the ride is above ground through some interesting neighborhoods. (There is a massive and awe-inspiring cemetery that you can see from the platform at Bay Parkway that I really want to explore.) Arriving at Coney Island I was actually surprised at how many people were there. I was expecting it to be totally empty save a few beach combers but there was a healthy number of people and plenty of other lone photographers like myself. Although a number of people told me they were sorry I had to spend the day wandering around Coney Island by myself, I really didn't mind being alone and actually rather liked it. It was pretty peaceful and a wonderful setting for some quite musings, a bit of reading, and just absorbing nature. I took my shoes off and walked along the beach for a while. My toes were freezing but it was great. Just walking along the Atlantic was wonderful. I felt so far away from the City. Looking out to a horizon and feeling as though you can look forever is not a sensation you ever get in the steel canyon landscape that is Manhattan. Standing there facing south, the sun on my face, with my toes just above the wave line and watching the waves roll on to the shore was just the closeness to nature that I was looking for. For a couple weeks I was really feeling like I needed to escape the cold grey city, but now I feel refreshed.

I took more than 200 pictures, I'll hopefully get around to posting them soon!

Long Overdue Inauguration Pictures

Musical Interlude

Two weeks ago (I know, I'm slow at getting these things on to my blog)... Two weeks ago, the highlight of my work week came in the form of a somewhat surreal musical experience. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work in the basement of a church which serves a hot meal to homeless men and women around lunch time. When I find myself getting bored of work or if I'm having a particularly slow day, I usually find myself down in the kitchen hanging out with the chef, Mike--a really nice guy who lets me invade his sacred cooking space. The other afternoon, after lunch had been served and Mike was cleaning up, I was in the kitchen chatting and a friend of Mike's comes in. As I later learned, this guy is Brazilian and is just passing through the city. His dad is some well known Brazilian composer who went to school with Leonard Bernstein. Anyway, this friend makes a comment about us needing to hear this amazing violin he has. The next thing I know, he's playing these beautiful pieces on his violin in the kitchen. Everything else just sort of stops and I find myself totally absorbed by the music. The first piece I don't recognize at all but I'm totally enthralled by it none the less. The second, I do recognize but it is being played in a way that I've never heard before. With additional notes, riffs and key changes. Surprisingly, the acoustics in the kitchen were pretty good and I'm not sure how long I was standing just listening but the whole experience was breath-taking. I would venture to say that this guy's playing was genius-- but what do I know about violinists? Suffice it to say that it made my week and it is not something that I think I'll forget any time soon.

Post Obamanation Inauguration Blog Post

It's been more than a week now since I got back from my fantastic trip to DC for the inauguration of our 44th president. That it has taken me this long to write about it is not at all a reflection of the experience--I had an amazing time--but more a function of actually being super busy at work this week and lazy at home. I also want to post some pictures with this, but they'll have to wait.

Celebrating Barack Obama's election on the National Mall with just under 2 million other Americans was truly spectacular. So many moments made the experience unforgettable and the occasion we were celebrating is so momentous that I still don't think it has really sunk in for me. Barack Obama is the president of the United States. I just have to keep reminding myself.

Some highlights:

Waking up in Takoma Park with a bunch of friends at 3:45am, eating "breakfast" and piling on layers upon layers of clothes, grabbing blankets and our premade snacks and walking to the metro. We got on the train with the other early birds and headed into the city. The metro wasn't as crowded as I had expected and most people looked pretty tired (with the exception of the girl who got on the train yelling "Happy Obama Day!").

We walked to the Mall from the L'Enfant station (a good decision). There were tons of people at the station all walking to the mall. When we got to the mall it was already packed from the Capitol to 6th street. We found a spot close to a jumbotron and set up our blankets. The mood was excited, the air was electric, it was freezing and it was 5am.

A few hours later, the sky started to light up. Bodies that had previously been bundled up under blankets hiding from the cold began to stir. American flags were being passed around, the porta-potty traffic had begun and pictures actually started to turn out well. My toes at this point were moving between frozen and numb.

At some point the jumbotrons started playing the concert from Sunday. Flags were waving in time with the music, everyone sang along to "Lean on Me," and there was dancing and singing to "Shout"--it was fantastic.

Pretty much everyone I encountered the whole day was in a great mood. Everyone was cold but everyone was just so excited to be taking part in such a great celebration that no one minded. There were no incidents that I'm aware of and there were zero arrests the whole day. DC was just full of people rejoicing.

Following the replay of the concert, some time around when my feet started being painfully cold, congressmen, senators, dignitaries and ex-presidents (Bill looked amazing as usual) started arriving at the Capitol. My favorite part of this was seeing Dick Cheney being wheeled in his wheel chair (apparently he hurt his back moving boxes). It was just such a perfect image of a man fallen from the power he stole and abused.

Obama's arrival. The crowd goes wild. So many flags, so much cheering, hugs, smiles and tears. A woman in front of us had brought her two little kids. They were both freezing and bundled up. They were young enough that they may not remember this moment, but their mom made sure they were there. I'm glad I was.

Aretha Franklin sings in an amazing hat, Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman play, Justice Roberts messes up the oath, Obama laughs it off and delivers an inspired and inspiring speech. I'll end with some of my favorite quotes.

"On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics. ...

"Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply. ...

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.... Our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead...our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. "

A new era has begun. I'm expecting positive change. So far things have been going well--from repealing the Global Gag Rule to appearing on Al Arabiya to signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to describing an eight-day visit to the Middle East as a mission of listening "because all too often the United States starts by dictating"--Obama is changing the world. Today, I'm happy to be an American and I'm hopeful for our future.

GW Interview Reflections

I had my second medical school interview on Thursday at GW--some reflections:

Last year when I was selecting medical schools to apply to, GW seemed like an obvious choice for three reasons. First, I spent a year and a half volunteering at GW's hospital and really enjoyed the people I worked with there and the work I was doing. Second, GW is in DC and I, obviously, love DC and would really enjoy to spend my medical years in such an awesome city. And third, by the numbers, GW looked like a school I might have a hope of getting in to.

Needless to say I was really excited when I got my invitation for an interview, but leading up to it, I realized I didn't really know too much about the school. Walking into an interview knowing nothing about a medical school beyond it's location is a huge problem, particularly when they ask you (which they will) something along the lines of, "Why do you want to come to GW?" I did some "research" on the bus on the way down--pretty much just read some general stuff about the school on their website and came up with a few specifics I could talk about when asked.

I ended up totally rocking my two interviews but even more exciting about my day at GW was how well they sold themselves. I left feeling totally excited about their program and everything it has to offer.

To start off the day, the dean of the medical school came and talked to all of the interviewees that were on campus that day. Everything he told us sounded great--from the fact that the whole 6th floor of their hospital is dedicated to teaching through standardized and robotic patients, to their unique 4th year capstone course to prep students for their residency, to their course that uses standardized students to train their teachers to give better feedback.

Most impressive though was how connected GW seems to be to Washington DC. Turns out that 4 years ago, the current dean started something called the Office of Student Opportunities (OSO) which is dedicated to getting GW medical school students involved with health care outside of medical school by taking advantage of everything that is avaliable in DC. Every first year student meets with a representative from the OSO and talks about his/her interests and then can choose a track--health policy, community health care, global health, emergency preparedness, etc. Then they help you apply for internships and other positions that are available in DC. They have partnerships with the WHO, IMF, World Bank, embassies, lobbyists, think tanks and capitol hill offices. Every year they have a student who gets to work in Ted Kennedy's office and they have a ton of international opportunities for the summer--everything from working with the UN in Geneva to working in women's health clinics in the Himalayas in India.

I was inspired to say the least. The past few months that I've spent with AmeriCorps at the Institute for Family Health have gotten me really interested in health policy and the more I read about it, the more I want to learn about how these policies get made and get involved with this process. And I've always been interested in going abroad and getting involved with medicine in underserved areas. It is so exciting to hear about all the ways I'd be able to do these things in DC and at GW.

I wont find out if I've been accepted for 6-8 weeks and I'm not sure I can answer the question "Do you like GW better than Maryland?" They're different and each has different things going for it (not the least of which is that UMD is at least $18,000 a year cheaper). Luckily I don't have to make any decisions yet, but at this moment, it's nice to be really excited about a potential opportunity.

Moonlight New York

I fell asleep on the bus on the way back to the city tonight and woke up right as the skyline came into view. At 6pm the city was all lit up and looking magical from Jersey. And hanging right above everything was a huge yellow moon. As we continued to approach the city, the Empire State Building, the Chrystler Building and this amazing moon all fell in to line. I couldn't believe I didn't have my camera because the sight was truly awe-inspiring. Most times the city seems at war with nature, but not tonight. After a fantastic few days in DC, I always feel a bit sad to be heading away from my friends. But tonight, I'm also excited to be heading back to this temporary home.

Beyond Dx and Rx

I’m way overdue for a blog post on what I’ve been doing with AmeriCorps since I started my job in September. I can’t cover it all in one post, but I’ll start with this.

General overview—I’m working as an AmeriCorps volunteer with the Institute for Family Health in New York City. I am doing case management for four different health care sites in Manhattan which see mainly homeless patients. As a case manager for our patients, my role is to eliminate barriers to care. Basically this means I enroll people in Medicaid, deal with insurance problems, help patients get access to free or cheap drugs and help them with applying for different public assistance programs the city offers.

I really like my job. Day to day I’m dealing with patients one on one which I love doing. There are some moments when things are slow that I find myself without anything to do but those moments are more than offset by the amount of time I spend with my patients. I also really like that I’m working at the intersection of social work and medicine—it’s an area I find fascinating and the experiences I’ve had so far will certainly stick with me and hopefully make me a better doctor.

When I was at my interview at UMD I was talking with a fourth year student who was going to residency interviews for vascular surgery. When I asked him why he was interested in surgery he gave me a bunch of reasons but one really struck me. He said that as he was doing his general medicine rotation in med school, he felt like he was doing more social work than medicine—he didn’t like that he had to worry about how a patient was going to get his meds or where the patient would go after being discharged. In surgery you don’t worry about that. And that is part of the reason why I don’t want to do surgery. I am interested in and want to be part of the whole care of the patient. You can’t make someone better if that person doesn’t have access to food and shelter and treatment. I love being part of a team that has a doctor, a social worker, and a case manager—we care for the whole patient and looking at medicine from the non medical side of it has really made me aware of just how important it is for physicians to pay attention to the aspects of a patient’s care which go beyond diagnosis and prescription.