desperate housewives.

as many of you may know, i have recently been expressing interest in abandoning medicine and becoming a housewife. unfortunately, i'm not married, nor do i have plans to be any time soon, and thus am lacking a way to feed and shelter myself while paying back the tens of thousands of dollars of debt i racked up becoming a doctor. fine.

'but mary', you say. 'i've been to your house. it's... how do i say this? it's not clean.'

ahh, but you haven't been to my house recently. you haven't seen the coffee table that actually has room for your coffee, with coasters just begging you to set your mug down! or my newly cleared desk complete with message center and my new fish bowl. the thing is, when i have nothing to do, i actually like to clean.

side note: meet ginger.


but this is neither here nor there. by this time next month, callie will be buried under a pile of journal articles that i'm going to get around to reading one of these days and ginger will be peering out of his bowl into the pile of possibly-dirty or possibly-clean clothes resting on my desk. in the meantime, perhaps you'd like to see the couscous-stuffed peppers i made for dinner tonight.



they're baking right now. i had some regular old store-bought couscous mix lying around as well as half of a can of chickpeas. i threw in a little zucchini that i sauteed with the tops of the peppers and garlic, and some parmesean cheese. i think it's going to be tasty. i'll let you know. not that you care, but doesn't the pepper-zucchini-chickpea mix look so lovely in the skillet?



now, back to medicine.

day one.

today, i received a host of things that i do not think i deserve. these include:

1. an office. (to be shared, but nonetheless it had my name on the door.)
2. a box of business cards. not someone else's. cards with my own actual name on them.
3. a 14-hour day. nobody deserves that.
4. this:
hah.
still, as nice as all of these things are (well, 3 of 4), they pale in comparison to the day when i actually get paid.

still here.

hello? hello? is anyone still there?

i've been thinking to myself, 'keeping that blog in india was kind of fun, and people actually seemed to read it.' and, with my emailing time about to be very limited and friends scattered across the country, maybe it would be a good idea to keep it up. so here i am.

for those of you playing along at home, orientation starts tomorrow. i'm facing this with a heavy dose of denial. since i came home from mumbai, i've been living a life of leisure. jaunts to vegas, assorted other weddings, drinking on boats in boston harbor (thanks, tori!), and wading into knee-deep mud in formalwear in williamstown (so fun, by the way). and i've been doing things like growing herbs and making pancakes and orzo salad. (again, so fun.)

also, in that time, i managed to graduate. see below:



i've also accomplished a lot of less fun things, like going to the dentist. perhaps i should have done this two years ago, and then maybe i wouldn't be scrambling to schedule fillings on my postcall days before my teeth fall out of my head. but whatever, i was busy. let's not even talk about how supposedly my cat needs dental care. someone tell me when i'm supposed to fit that in?

which leads me to wonder, as i struggle to keep the panic at bay, how do residents ever go to the doctor? i mean, i'm not really a sickly person, except for my hypochondriasis, but how will i ever go to the dentist again? am i doomed to be scheduling my dental appointments and physicals during vacation? that doesn't seem like a vacation to me. someone who's already done this, please advise.

well, anyhow, i just wanted to let you know i'm still here, and might intermittently be for the rest of the year. maybe even with funny, hippa-compliant, stories. check back!

xoxo. mf, md.