Forever....For Ever

So basically, another member of Baylor College of Medicine's 'Minority Row' has done got herself hitched. Tamisha and her beau Cleveland finally tied the knot. Not to anyone's surprise of course, but is amazing how that sinister and elusive pressure to get married comes up. As a young intelligent and eligible bachelor, the concept of 'until death do us part' is as scary as it is incomprehensible. But yesterday, the bachelor's paradigm of lifelong commitment to was affronted by the vows of Tamisha and Cleveland. As they relate their vows to an audience of their friends and family, scary melts to hypnotically inviting and incomprehensible to perfectly logical.

At least for a moment.

Then came the reception


Perhaps it was the open bar's devil-water or simply a flush of neurotransmitters courtesy of the amazing steak, but a room full of gorgeous (albeit a bit forlorn) women itching and able to do the electric slide certainly became the moth to a flame. One particular woman caught my attention. Via the obiquitous black folk grapevine I found out she was in fact Tamisha's old roomate at Berkeley. Given my knowlege of Tamisha, I'm sure if the got along so well in the Sunshine State that she'd fly to Tamisha's wedding she must be cool. Add a very feminine fit and finish and a nice Chinese character adorning an attractive shoulder and you'll need is a big 'I'm a Democrat' sign to make a young Maryland bachelor mad. Or rather I should say she was a bit mad. Not mad in the poor Southern Christian voting for the big-business Republican Party sense, but in the any movie that Samuel L. Jackson has starred in mad. I got the distinct impression she had been man-hurt in the past and was not looking to mingle. Sarcasm abounded, and even the common courtesy of the benefit of the doubt was painfully absent. Besides this of course, she didn't like Washington, DC which is reason enough to abruptly halt conversation. No matter however; I had extra cake and I was looking exceptionally man-pretty that day. In any case Minority Row led in a particularly vigorous Electric Slide much to the delight of many a wedding attendee.

Still ready to mingle.

Time for table tennis

Imagine that. Much to my delight, my attending physian, that guy that I follow around the hospital all day, had to be at another hospital this morning. Between that and our 'feedback session' for our surgery rotation and of course that godsend of LACE (Thursday afternoon medical fieldtrips) I had a very very light day. Its always nice to have one every now and again.

Today I had the pleasure of a nice vigorous game of table tennis. Of course Shaheen had the better of my game for the most part. My excuse was that I hadn't eaten lunch. I'd nearly forgotten how incredibly entertaining the Cecil-Shaheen duo can be. 8th grade humor and hardy laughs abound. We gathered the attention of a not insignificant number of Asian researchers who made there way into the student lounge. It eerily reminded me of our ping pong days in China. Two of observers (one of which mind you brought his own bat) engaged the Afro-Persian and he certainly held his own.

Afterwards I make my way down stairs and who should I find but Victor. He's Caroline's fiancé's Peurto Rican roomate in BCM Graduate School. He and his pipette friends graciously introduced me to that devil's elixer known as an Irish Car Bomb some weeks ago. He and another graduate student were complaining about their current state of affairs, something that I can certainly relate to given my current rotation. "I have to peer review these abstracts for my lab" equals "I need to find some papers on the efficacy of carotid endarterectomies versus stents." "I need to start my experiments. I haven't done anything today" equals "I don't even have time to get a decent meal." Lastly, "Man, if they didn't pay us, no one would do this. Bitches" equals "Man, I can't believe we pay to do this; to be someone's bitches."

In any case I'm out for the day and tomorrow is my last day of pediatric surgery.

Pedi Surg

So here's the thing. My life now revolves completely around medical school. There was a time when when older, let's say more seasoned, members of my future vocation warned of a hellish, pain-lusting period of life known as medical rotations. Until recently, I could wholely say without a doubt, "Its not sooo bad. I'm sure things were much worse then."

Sigh, today I didn't see the sun. The infamous Dr. Minifee, that pediatric surgery hipster, related medicine (surgery specifically) to a mistress. "Everything is fine just as long as you give her all the attention she wants. But just as soon as you start to neglect her, that's when things go wrong." I'm more than positive that Hempstead, Texas' finest was censoring himself given his emphatic brow raising and "you know what I'm talking 'bout" glances and the unfortunate fact that talks of extramarital activities are generally less socially acceptable in the elevators of children's hospitals. Que sera.

In any case. I'll miss the colorful Dr. Minifee. Perhaps I can get a fancy recommendation out of this. After all he is my aunt's husband's, 2nd cousin and naturally his wife's college friend was my mother's dance group partner at the same university. I should start calling him uncle.

Speaking of which, the parents roll through tomorrow!