Papi is Back!

Yeah... I'm a Sox fan. Who do I root for? The Sox, sometimes the Twins, and whoever's playing the Yankees. (Old joke that never gets old)

I think Youk should have punched Chamberlain in the head. I know Beckett was ready to go. I think Bucholtz looks like he's 12. I think Lester pitches a mad game. And I'm glad Papi's back and in working order. He's a major offensive threat, he's a stand-up guy, and he keeps Manny in line. With Papi back in the line up, they have to pitch to him or Manny, and for some reason, Manny hits better with Papi around. What do I think about Manny? He's not going to be traded by the deadline, he's too much of a hassle. He produces from time-to-time when he's actually in the game and he causes problems off the field. What do I think the Sox should do with him? Keep him until the end of the season and don't pick up the option. Let him go. He's been great, so was Nomar... but let it go. Frees up $20mil for other players (like another bat, or some mid-relievers). But you know what... I love Sox Baseball. Thank God I have a slingbox for next year. I don't know what I'd do without baseball and college football for another year. Good thing I can study with sports on in the background, eh?


Marathon Week #5: 7/21-7/27
This was the first week I was actually on schedule for my runs. As such, I was reminded of how much I hate Thursdays. Friday is a rest day, Monday is crosstraining, so it's not actually a day off. That means that by the time Thursday rolls around, I haven't had a break for 6 days. If I'm not on schedule (ie: I took a rest day on like Tuesday because of a sore muscle or rain out), I may not have had a day off for 10 days. That's what this Thursday was... the 3 miler that should have been cake was brutal. Plus, I've started weights on Mondays and Thursdays, so my muscles are adjusting to that too. Good news, Bad news time. Good news: I ran every day this week that I was supposed to. Bad news: my Sunday 14-mile run didn't happen. I had to call it at about 7 miles due to rain (and I don't mean that it was sprinkling... it was an absolute downpour about 5 miles in. I had to wait it out because I couldn't see... then I cramped up because I was standing still as the temp dropped about 5 degrees... so I called it at 7 miles when I got back to my car). I think I'll divvy up those extra 7 miles over the rest of this week to cover them. But I really need to hit my long runs. I think this week is like 15 miles... rock.

USMLE Update:
I've been working on my Resp med since that's what I really suck at (according to NBME) I've thrown in a little biochem here and there where I've been able to tolerate it. I think this week i'm going to focus on some Cardio... I'm still having trouble studying. It doesn't help that I'm between houses and putting up with various scheduled fix it moments. My pets are very demanding. And I'm very easily distracted. *Sigh* But there's only 5 weeks left. Time to kick it into high gear.

Summer Soundtrack:

1. Life in a Nutshell - Barenaked Ladies
2. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
3. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
   
4. In Da Club - 50 cent
5. Handlebars - Flobots (I think I really like this song... I haven't quite decided. There are moments that are very tongue-in-cheek and extremely American. So, until I decide whether I love or hate this song, it's going on week 5 of the summer soundtrack)
   

Ups and Downs

Well, it has been an eventful week.

First, I spent last weekend in Michigan. First, hanging with my lil'bro Joe at his new rocking pad (sponsored by Google). I am now a fan of Guitar Hero and Rock Band... this does not bode well for my studies. If you don't know my lil'bro Joe, he's a cool guy. He really is. It was great to spend time with him (even if I had to go to Michigan to do so)... He promised me that he pisses on the Michigan campus all the time. While there, we caught a Detroit Tigers vs. MN Twins game at Comerica Park with the lovely Colby and Tim. Sadly for them, the Tigers lost. But that meant that the Twins won. Go Twins! (We know I'm a Sox fan, but it is the hometown team). Saturday was dedicated to Emilie and Kurt. Joe drove me out to Leonard, MI... I still don't really know where that is, but it's the middle of nowhere. Then I met a ton of Kurt's family and friends. It was an absolute blast. It was so wonderful to have the opportunity to meet Kurt's "people." Sunday, Joe and I both nursed our late night lazy with Zingerman sandwiches, Speedracer at the dollar theater and Pizza from a small place near his apartment (that was AMAZING). So... While I may not be a huge fan of Michigan, I had a good time :)

I spent Monday driving through Michigan (which did nothing for my opinion of the state) on my way to Chicago. I took a quick pit stop at ND to say a prayer at the Grotto (and if you've never seen the Grotto at ND, you may not understand, but it's a beautiful place... especially in the summer when it's nice and quiet) and to drop off something for the ACE 15 year celebration. Since I can't be there, I thought I'd leave a little something for my class. Then I was off to Northbrook to meet Adam for lunch (thanks for a lovely lunch!). I came back into downtown Chicago to crash with Pete and have a birthday dinner (yay good Mexican food!) with Vito, Shannon, Pete, and Nick (and thanks for a lovely dinner!). So basically I celebrated my birthday a day early, met Tim for breakfast (I owe you dinner now) and spent Tuesday in the car driving from Chicago to Minneapolis. There was some disappointing traffic and a number of cops that slowed the trip a bit, but it was great to roll onto highway 100 and speed home.

Fast-forward to Friday, I helped my parents move house. We haven't sold the old one yet, so my lil'bro Mike and I are living in house and my parents are unpacking in the brownstone. It's a little weird to have these random empty rooms here and be slowly moving my stuff into a new room, but I study at the house and it's nice and quiet. I went out to breakfast with my dad. Resurrecting an old tradition of father-daughter Perkins trips, we had a nice long breakfast and chat. I love my dad. After the move, we had a joint birthday dinner for my mom (her birthday was Friday) and me! Yay! It was a really fun, silly, fancy dinner (lacking Joe... we missed you Joe), with good food, good conversation, good times. I love my family. PS: Dan... you're still in the hole for knowing about shows on lifetime. And my dad lost a bet to Mike over the actress playing the daughter in Commando (in case you don't know who it is, don't bet on Terri Hatcher and don't bet against Mike, I think he majored in "Young girls in movies").

Marathon Week #4: 7/14-7/20
I was supposed to run 31 miles this week. And this week, I ran... (duh duh dah!) 31.5 miles! WOOT! I still have a running debt of like 35 miles (thanks to my travel laziness), but I ran 13 miles today. I'm unashamed to say that took me nearly 3 hours, but I was on a running clock, meaning that I didn't stop my watch for anything (except when I was in the act of drinking from a fountain). So, it's fairly respectable. Plus, I'm good for 6 miles cold now... it's about 1/4th of the marathon distance, and I'm 1/4th of the way into training. I think that bodes well. We'll see if I can chip away at that running debt at all in the next week, but I'm quite happy to be logging 30+ miles in a week.

USMLE Update:
According to NBME, I'm suited for Psychiatry and that's about it. I took my first practice test, and I passed... by like one point. I figure it's my first try, and that's not terrible, but I need to do better. I need to buckle down and really work... Boo... The good news is that I'm doing really well in Behavioral Sciences, GI, and Anatomy (thank you TF). But my worst go was Resp... surprise surprise. So... here's to studying a lot of Resp, and no more BS studying... at all.

Summer Soundtrack:

1. Life in a Nutshell - Barenaked Ladies
2. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
3. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
   
4. In Da Club - 50 cent (It was my birthday week... and this reminds me of my 21st, rocking out on a party bus... Go Shorty! It's yer birthday! We gonna party like it's yer birthday...)
   

Traveling makes me stupid

Well, that's not entirely accurate. I just don't do what I normally do when I'm traveling. I seem to have so much less energy... Plus, I feel like if I'm away from home, I'm on vacation! And who doesn't need a vacation?!... I do, I do.

Since I missed the Sunday update, I'll just give the abbreviated one here and a big one this coming Sunday. Questions, Comments, Concerns? There's a brickwall ah-that-a-way.

Marathon Week #3: 7/7-7/13
This week went well... until I left town. I could blame the thunderstorms in Ann Arbor, I could blame the heat and humidity, but really... I was lazy. Lazy and on someone else's time. And I don't like to be an inconvenience. But I will say that I was great Monday-Thursday :) Go me! Looking to get back on track ASAP.

USMLE Update:
I am officially in a fight with Biochem... Perhaps we will no longer be friends. Instead, I'm giving two days to Behavioral Sciences so that I can feel better about myself as a person (look at all the diseases I DON'T have!) and then I'll take my first NBME practice test... fun times. Here's to another 6 weeks of this.

Summer Soundtrack:

1. Life in a Nutshell - Barenaked Ladies
2. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
3. How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty (Mini tribute to the GEPs and the fact that we're basically 1/2 way. Also to all the good friends, old and newish, that I got to hang with this past week... I mean, if I knew you in college, that's at least 5 years, in high school, that's at least 9 years... Dude, we've gone a long way, right?)

Hugs!

So, just before I left Dublin, I was walking down Grafton street and was "accosted by huggers."

I kid you not, there were people in the middle of Grafton holding signs that said "Free Hugs." While that might be otherwise disturbing, one of my friends told me that it was just about the best hug they'd had in a long time. I have three things to say about that:

1) Mad props to the people giving away free hugs. It's a great idea. It's friendly and warm and happy and makes me think of puppies, kitties, rainbows and carebears. (CareBear Stare!)

2) How sad is it that we get better hugs from strangers than from the people we know?

3) I give great hugs :)

And here's a video of people doing something similar around the world...

Getting Back in the Swing

Now that I've had a bit of time to adjust to being back in the States, I have a few things to say about it:

A) Driving is just as fun as I remember it... I like driving fast with the windows down and the radio up. Now I just need to get to Detroit next week and pick up my car. I'll be cruising back through South Bend, Chicago and Madison on 80-90... Sweet! 10 hours of rock out drive time.
B) Prices in MN strike me as so much more reasonable than in Dublin. Perhaps it's the lack of exchange rate, but I'm glad I can afford to buy coffee from Caribou every now and again.
C) American news is as self-centered as I remember it, and that makes it somewhat hilarious. And the dominating news story is whatever the latest media outing of the presidential candidates produced, which is normally very little and pointless.
D) Burgers, Pizza, Hot Dogs... Done better here than in Ireland. Guinness... totally not drinkable here. I feel that this is a balanced trade.
E) 4th of July - a national holiday where we grill burgers, drink beer (my family plays "extreme" croquette and boccie on our very hilly front lawn) and then we light shit on fire! "Celebrate the freedom of your country by blowing up a small piece of it!" Canada has a similar celebration on the 1st. But I'm not totally sure what they're celebrating. The 4th is about throwing off the oppressive shackles of the British (especially their obsession with Tea... seriously... wtf). Now, since Canada never actually distanced themselves from England, I suppose it's a celebration of... being not quite British, not quite American, but just all-around nice buggers.
F) Red Sox Baseball... that is all.

Ok. Random picture time. Here's the my cousin and her new husband in their first dance. She looks amazing! This is what I want in my wedding, cause let's face it, I won't get married until I'm in my 30s either. But it was one of those great, elegant events. And the black and whit just adds an excellent touch.

I had a really fun 4th of July. It's rare that all 6 of us are together for anything, but we did our annual Extreme Games on the front lawn. There a little bit of casual competition involved, but it's "Extreme"
because the lawn generally isn't cut for the week leading up to the 4th (it gets rather long and rough... and it's impossible to see the Boccie jack when it's tossed), plus the steepness of the slopes makes the croquette a bit of a challenge. And as always, the games are complicated or made better by what my brother refers to as "Talent Juice" which comes in a wide variety of flavors. Anyway. 2 hours of games then off to ICC for dinner and fireworks. The fireworks this year were expressly impressive with the addition of a rotating firework turret. Bill was quite brave to join us, but it made the teams fair... even though I apparently suck at croquette.

Marathon Week #2: 6/30-7/6
This week went well. I covered 25 of the 27 miles I was supposed to, running 5 days, resting one, and xtraining the other. It's pretty much all on schedule. The weather was perfect for running, except for today (hence the 2mile deficit). There was no way I could run the 11 miles. It was nearly 95 degrees when I left the house, but I'm sure the heat index was much higher. It was humid and perfectly still with absolutely no cloud cover. I don't want to say how long it took me to cover the 9 miles, but it was a brutal with a bunch of walking involved. One week of running and I've already gotten all my freckles back (I have yet to rid myself of the stupid biking tan-line though).

I mentioned a hill last week that I thought was evil... well I have one here that I'm going to call Brenda. Brenda is a bitch. She's demanding and inconvenient and in the middle of every run. Eyeballing it, she's about 250 yards at a 45-50 degree incline, and appears around the corner of a gradual 300 yard uphill. I hate Brenda. And this week, she has been in every run. That'll change next week, but my overall goal is to make it up without stopping. The tough part is that it's up hill on my way back, so always about a mile before the end of my run. I'm sure my hatred for Brenda will grow over the course of the summer.

I suppose I should mention that I'm training with Hal Higdon's Intermediate II program (if you're curious you can find it at www.halhigdon.com ). He's of the philosophy that you need to clock the miles to finish the marathon. I like that policy. I don't like struggling with times and strange workouts. Plus, it helps me prove to myself that I can do the distance... and after 18 weeks of running, you can be damn sure I'll finish that marathon (more because I've been running so much to do it than because I'm prepared).

Week #2: Good week. Not a 5-star performance but I hit all the runs, and the distance will come with time. Goals for Week #3 = cover all the miles (even though I'm traveling).

USMLE Update:
I've set my test date for August 29th. I sortof started to study this week... like, I opened a book a few times, but I was still stressed over the OSCE (which I passed). Now that I can safely assume I'm headed for Senior Cycle 1, the USMLE is the only thing on my plate. Study starts tomorrow with some biochemistry for about 3-4 days. I'm going to need some time with that one, Micro, and Pharm most of all. Then I'll hit up the systems. I'll keep you in the loop as I go.

Summer Soundtrack:

1. Life in a Nutshell - Barenaked Ladies
2. Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne (This had popped up on my shuffle almost everyday this week, and I've had it in my head during all of my runs... it has a good beat, right? I'm sure it won't be the most shameful thing that ends up on this list)
   

Home Sweet Home

And I'm Home.

After a rather uneventful two weeks on Respiratory medicine (uneventful not due to my team, the team was awesome, but because the hospital is slowing down for the summer and the DANGER-Intern flip day), I had my big OSCE during which I was given a personal demonstration of proper DRE technique. Let's not talk about that. I drank on Friday, almost missed my alarm on Saturday morning, flew to NYC, drove to Greenwich, and watched my cousin get married.

The wedding, which my mom referred to as a "mature" wedding (I guess unlike the weddings I have been attending of late? True my cousin is about 10 years my senior) was lovely. We sat the Irish on one side of the church, the Dutch on the other and had a lovely little ceremony. The reception was in the Greenwich country club (beautiful location), and I started to drop sharply just after the entrée arrived. I did last through the speeches, which seemed aimed at taking pot shots at Beck (but in a nice friendly way), and through the first dance and parent dances. But I didn't stay to boogie on the floor with the fam. Quite a night though. We wrapped up with brunch at the yacht club the next morning (I was a little more awake for this, though a few people were a little green around the gills). Kate arrived to applause, only to leave again, seemingly having forgotten Beck and needing to retrieve him. I'm sure she told him to get in the car, he must have wandered off :) The brunch was really family time, and the Larkin cousins are planning a trip or something... Danger. But we had more time to catch up and chat, time to wish the newly married couple well (they're off to Bali! So Jealous!), and time for more hugs all around.

After brunch, it was back to the hotel to pack up, to the Westchester Airport (which was a pleasant change from JFK), and flight back to MN. The flight was a bit delayed coming into NY, then we were delayed sitting on the tarmac because of lightning, so we didn't get home until 9ish... and I was among the walking dead at that point.

So, I've been home and "alive" since Monday. It feels good. I'm just hanging with the fam and taking it easy. Hard core studying starts next Monday (woot) and I'll be keeping a bit of a running commentary on the USMLE (or the u-smelly according to Tom) here in the blog. Also, to keep me honest, I'll be keeping track of my marathon training here as well (see below). And the final thing, I'll be keeping track of my summer soundtrack here. Basically, there'll be a song every week that somehow has become my anthem for the few days. There'll be a running list of that.

Marathon Week #1: 6/23-6/29
Ok, I don't want to say that this week was a total bust, but it kinda was. I didn't do any running (like any at all) until Sunday... which was a lovely 4 mile (6am) run around Old Greenwich. I had found a "route" on mapmyrun.com (which I highly recommend using when you travel... or when you're at home) and proceeded to miss one of my turns. I didn't get lost, I'm pretty good at finding my way, but it did provide some lovely scenery. It's nice to be back running where there are tons of other runners around... rather than people walking and giving you strange looks. It was hot and humid (something I haven't had the pleasure of running in in quite some time) and I felt a little like Jello, but I'm blaming the jet-lag.

But Liz, why didn't you run till Sunday? Well, I thought it would be a good idea to spend my time biking in and out of school. It's a little over 8 miles each way (up hill in, down hill back). The mornings were lovely, sunny, no traffic (because I'd leave around half 6), and even though they were up hill, they were bearable. Plus, there is something nice about getting to Blanch, showering, and being fresh (the bus always leaves me with that less than fresh feeling). The afternoons... well... I didn't like them as much. The Quays were always traffic heavy, and there's nothing like feeling as though you're about to die to keep you from wanting to do something. The second day, I was absolutely drowned in Phoenix Park. The downpour was so bad that I had to stop and wait for it to let up, because I couldn't actually see anything. On Thursday, Ed rode with me, God bless him. I'm slow on a bike (especially a bike that isn't mine and is far too big for me). But he patiently waited for me at the stoplights and went slowly through the park. He even introduced me to a better way home (better except for one hill which I will henceforth call evil hill of death). Friday was the OSCE... I wasn't going to ride in, because that would merit a drunken bike home and would certainly lead to bodily injury.

Overall: Biking=Good IF you have a bike that's built for you. As Richie said, "Sure you wouldn't do surgery with a sausage... I mean, you need the right equipment, that's all."

Week #1 = Meh... Not good by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't a total bust. I'll catch up on the miles I owe. Goals for Week #2 = Actually run.

Summer Soundtrack:

1. Life in a Nutshell - Barenaked Ladies