Fooding through grad school

Research is complicated

So maybe it is time for a career change

But in the meantime...

Europe extravaganza

So, after the hell that was Step 1.  I ran far away...

I have not been dead

I have been studying for step 1.

That's probably false advertising.

UCLA NBME: 200
NBME 13 after 3 weeks of lackluster studying (4 hrs daily with 1-2 hrs every 3rd day): 207
Conclusion: school NBME is largely a false confidence booster

morning NBME 12 after 1 week of panic studying (8+ hr per day): offline so guestimated score is ~225.
same day afternoon UWAS 2 (UWorld Self Assessment 2): 250,  ie 230 in reality according to forum people, the premier source of factual understanding of the USMLE pain.
Conclusion: I got better.

First "full" day of clinic

Yesterday was the first day that I was in clinic all day.  By day I mean 9 to 5 pm, so the shortest clinic day for the rest of my career.

More culinary explorations

For Chinese New Years, I made myself an arugula, mushroom, and cheese salad thanks to my balcony plant.  I've never tried balsamic vinaigrette with dijon mustard before, but I was glad to find that it worked well with the mushrooms.

Nothing more Chinese than reheated pizza and salad.

Unfortunately, the cilantro is now dead.  Mom came and aggressively chopped off all the cilantro because they've been ready for harvest.  This made a delicious meal, but made the plant all wimpy in the LA dry heat.

DineLA 2013

My winter DineLA experience was leaner this year than the last.  I just closed my eyes and focus on the future macaroon eating instead.

But no worries, deliciousness still happened.  (In fact, some were so delicious that they could not be captured before their disappearance.

May the LA weather help me keep these alive

Just this past week, four of my friends co-adopted an adorable cat.  And because I cannot allow my sense of grandiosity to be affected by such a vicious attack on my social standing (we are in Psychiatry block right now), I also brought home some new lifeforms today.

All from Hashimoto Nursery

Arugula mid-repotting

 

All set in their new home (and ready to be eaten)

Ode to Karen Millen and more fashion than you can shake a stick at

So I gave in and finally posted a review for Karen Millen on Yelp...and thought that I might as well also post some of the favorites from 2013 SS and resort designer collections.  Yes, that means seriously photo spamming if you click for more.

The end of the world as we know it

Now that even the Mayans have been proved wrong, it looks like we are just going to have to make our own futures happen without any hope of an end.

To that end, I'm sharing some of what I did to celebrate our continuing lease on life.