Mon Mal

Okay, so I haven't been updating so often, I know. But its not my fault, promise. I've been in a tireless streak of orientations, departmental get-togethers, dinners, and happy hours. So, alas, today is the last day, and I begin real life on Monday. I WILL update properly I promise, but in the meantime, I've gathered the following information during this week.
1. I've got free healthcare insurance!
2. I'll be working hard. HARD for the next two years of my four year residency.
3. I'm going to LOVE my fellow residents, they're hilarious, fun-loving and incredibly interesting.

The rest will fill itself out. In the meantime, gotta get back to the orientation.

Whoa

First day of orientation. Its mere minutes before I head out for the first of five days of orientation (read insatiable boredom). Though there are some butterflies in my stomach that feel remarkably like the first day of school circa 1994. This time, however, I have neither a hypercolor shirt nor watertight Trapper Keeper to take the edge off. Wow. A doctor? Me? Here we go.

UPDATE: I love my fellow interns. This is going to fun. Hectic, but fun. More to follow in a bit.

crw,sr.

Happy Father's Day dad. May your days be filled with endless outdoor projects, and well oiled tractors. Love you.

Havenwood

Wow. So this deserves note. The strangest drunk dial I've ever received.***

First some background. As many of you know, I had quite the nomadic childhood. At the end of college (which is probably the last bit of childhood I can squeeze out) I'd lived in about 7 states and a Canadian province. Fresh from the Ottawa winter of 1994 I arrived in Huntsville, Alabama. Yeup. The Rocket City (so called because the insane number of rocket scientists and ballistic missile programs of the US Army). With a flattop and my best Hypercolor shirt we moved to Havenwood Drive, right next to who would become my best friend in the neighborhood Raj.

Raj was cool. We would hike on the mountain where we lived, catch frogs, play in the rain, and compete in any number of Sega or Nintendo games. During the blizzard of 1996 we spent the week sledding down our driveway with terrible abandon. We discovered that Raj was immune to poison ivy and I was not. We also had the most amazing games of Frisbee football on Havenwood's beautiful asphalt. So why all the Raj talk?

Raj just drunk dialed me from a bar in Birmingham. Nice eh? Thank you Facebook. Seeing a 256 number flash on my Razr, I of course thought it was my cousin David returning my call at an appropriate 1:30a. Nope.

"Hey man. Its Raj. I'll be in Houston in the next six months. I'm at a bar in Birmingham. Let me let you talk to Ian."

After talking to a very bewildered Ian, and recommencing my late night snack and Soul Train viewing (God bless Soul Train), I realized we live in a crazy crazy world where 8th grade friends can drunk dial you at 1:30a a decade since you last spoke.

As a random tangent: Given the recent flurry of weddings I have been delighted to attend I must say that I have been thinking about what my would be like. I've decided it must include a Soul Train line. This necessitates a Soul Train Scramble where various wedding attendees would unscramble the name of music artists currently playing on some sort of festive board.


***With the notable exception of a 2002 drunk dial received from a Spelman College Caribbean native.

Isla Africanos

Ribka and Aman's wedding. I've finally whittled my 700 photos (yeah, I know I have an addiction) down to a manageable 200 on my site. Just follow the link here. As this was a Jewish/American/Ethiopian wedding in Isla Mujeres, México it was more than a bit unusual, engaging, and no less than amazing. I'm not sure words would ever be able to describe the incredible collection of people, conversation, and emotion. Apparently one of the taxi drivers on the island said, "Muchos africanos hoy." Yeup. That's us.

Jewish Ethiopian Eritrean Weddings in Mexico

Much more to come after oodles of uploading.

Sushil! Chai kabe?

Another amazing weekend in a painfully overcast and mercifully cool Atlanta. What was on the agenda?

1. Wedding reception: Ayan, his Asiastani family, his friends, and of course yours truly came for a great reception. Its was soooo wonderful to see my Kolkata family who christened me "Sushil" five years ago. MUST return to Kolkata. How I miss them.
2. Temorary Insanity: Skydiving? Yeup. More on that bit later, but needless to say its been crossed off the list for now.
3. Obscenely priced (in my last-minute favor) hotel rooms + upgrades: I'm SURE I didn't pay for an apartment at the Georgian Terrace. But I'll take it.
4. Morehouse Redux: Rawle, Shanoor, and I together again. Oh the fun. Old haunts, and new eats.

More to come on this weekend after I get done running around.