witty?

i participated in a bike ride today about an hour north of houston. it was a good ride. let me expound.

of course i had to get up at 5:15 to get there in time. it is always a little hard for me to set my alarm clock on the weekends. i normally only sleep until about 7, but it is the principle! i got to the site and the first thing i noticed were the ugly yellow t-shirts. (i am now a proud owner of another nightshirt/gym shirt). there were a good mix of hard-core bikers and recreational bikers.

before leaving, they had a moment of silence for those people who had been hurt or killed on a bike. that was encouraging as we set off! i instantly realized that this ride was going to be different than rides in galveston or houston. there were 2 main differences: no humidity and lots of hills. as i shifted down for the first big hill, i immediately thought of the Hilly Hundred. Angie and i tried to do this during grad school. we did the first day's ride (50 miles) and didn't come back for the second. it was rough. see picture below.

there was a big pack initially since there were 4 different race lengths. i chose the 65 mile ride and eventually the road got pretty sparce. it was then that i realized i need a tape recorder with me. i could record my ridiculous thoughts in route and then laugh at them later....needless to say, i'm pretty funny on my bike! of course, now, i can't remember much.

i did wish i had been counting roadkill. i did see 2 armadillo on the side of the road. only in texas! by water bottle cage flew off because of the bumpiness so i had to fix that...i still have the grease in my fingernails to show for it!

all in all, it was a good ride. i have decided that north of texas is very pretty. oh, one of the things i kept batting back and forth was whether i'm a city or a country girl. the jury is still out....

bugs

man, i wanted to make this cockroach HUGE...it won't let me! i guess you all (the three of you that read this) lucked out.

i killed a cockroach before work this morning....i killed one about 3 weeks ago too. they are fast critters! i always thought that roaches were found in dirty places. now, i can't claim that i'm spotless, but i'm not living in filth! i think this is a southern curse....thank goodness i'm not scared of insects!

private student loans.....check!

as of last night, i have officially paid off my private students loans. it feels pretty good, but i still have a good chunk of federal student loans. i'm still on a great path.

i'm sure some people from my class would be shocked to know i have that much paid off (on one income), but it all comes down to living below your means. i choose to live in a place that is extremely simple and small so that i can put that extra money away. i haven't gotten a lot of material possessions since my move. i, oddly, take pride in the fact that i could still pack up my house in my car at any moment.

i'm just excited to have it paid off soonish so that i'm completely free! yippee!!

on a side note, my first article was published this month. you can check it out at: http://www.jaapa.com/Carcinoma-of-unknown-primary-Searching-for-the-origin-of-metastases/article/141067/

it is exciting because there are no co-authors. i'm currently working on 2 others....hopefully to go up on the journal level. that journal is for physician assistants and the article is written to the general practitioner without any oncology experience.

philly

Okay, this post has a lot of pictures like promised. i apologize for how this is going to lay out on the screen!

I went to Philly for about 36 hours on Friday/Saturday. on friday i had a meeting, but i decided to stay through part of saturday to see a little of the town. there is SO much history in this town!

to the left is the first courthouse of the united states...the home of the judicial branch. below that is a picture of independence hall. all three branches resided there.


the horribly awkward self-portrait below, has the "ghost house" of Ben Franklin. basically, it is exactly where it was before and the white posts are the outline. on the floor, it outlines where every part of the house was located.


there was also an underground museum to ben franklin...he was a creative man! i swear he created the first lazy boy!

the sepia picture is an attempt to be artsy....this is the city hall...gorgeous building!

i'm pictured with the statue to the right....this is richard dobbs. he was one of the signers of the constituation. i took a picture of him because he was only 29. can you believe that? the majority of the men that were involved were in their 30's and 40's. there were a few in their 50's and then ben franklin who was 81. young people can do anything!

everyone needs to see some bloomers in philly!

the liberty bell.....a must see.

Observations in Philly (these are completely random and they might not really be true reflections of the city):

1. i noticed a lot of smokers---i commented on this to my driver on the way to the airport and, of course, he is a smoker. it was actually a good conversation!

2. it is extremely diverse...really like no other city i have seen.

3. there are a lot of homeless people around at all areas of the day and night.

4. there are great parks at every turn.

5. it seemed pretty dirty.

6. i loved being able to walk everywhere again.....being in a REAL city (aka Houston doesn't count)

7. history is EVERYWHERE!

8. the Wall of Freedom at the Constituation Center was interesting...and sobering. people can place sticky notes of what you would do with freedom. the sobering part was that a lot of people wrote really selfish things.....power, control the world, make money, get things. i decided to write "give generously". it isn't profound, but i think it would be a step in the right direction!

and i'm off again

i'm headed out to philadelphia tomorrow. does it feel like i get on a plane a lot? sometimes.

my goal for the weekend: to take some pictures to upload to this site. i know that they are needed!

more about pictures, take a look at this link:

www.worldpressphoto.org

these are some of the best pictures from the last year. click on the winner's gallery and there are a ton to sort through. april and i ran into this presentation in amsterdam. i looked at them when i got home and some just rock your soul....for me, that is the majority of the ones that are international. seriously, take a look.

i got some info on hospice africa from my college organic chemistry lab partner today. i love the concept, so it will be interesting to learn more about the organization.

this story is inspirational...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8175795.stm

i love the africa portion of the bbc website...U.S. news is so exclusive!

relaxation

this weekend has been a little retreat from the real world. my life isn't difficult; i know that. i do have a difficult field that can have a very high burnout rate. even though i'm fortunate enough to get away for weekends relatively frequently, they are usually full of dashes from clinic to the airport parking lot. this is followed by a plane flight and then time with people i haven't seen in awhile. sometimes it is relaxing and sometimes it isn't.

i'm house-sitting for my attending physician this weekend and it is the perfect getaway. not only do the have a gorgeous new house, they also have a pool. i'm just grateful for the space...i plan on doing a little baking tonight. yesterday was just ideal spending time reading by the pool. it has been super relaxing. i also like having more thatn 4 channels on TV.

i hope all your weekends have been as good as mine!

the weekend

some weekends i feel like a don't deserve them. most weekends i do though....this one is so needed.

i spent last weekend in minnesota with my extended family. we had the memorial service at the gravesite for papou and yiayia. there were ups and downs of the trip...it was very evident that all of the cousins are now adults (me included!). on the whole, it was really good to see everyone. we also got to see a good portion of dad's family as well since minneapolis is their mecca, of sorts.

to make a long story shorter, i took a bump on the way back to houston. i had time, but i gave up my direct flight for a route through memphis and a $300 voucher. i thought it was worth it at the time....it probably still was. basically, i got to memphis late and then sat on the tarmac and ended up missing my flight to houston. i waited in a reaaaaly long line to get another flight late the next morning. i was not very interested in taking a day off to spend it in the memphis airport. after talking with multiple agents and trying to find flights through austin, new orleans, and san antonio, one rude lady got me on a flight for 5:45 am on a different airlines. my question is...why didn't they offer that from the beginning?

i ended up getting my hotel covered and actually took in a Rice University student that was stranded too...i know, it was odd. i slept horribly for a short time and was back in the airport on my way home. i hopped over to work and was exhausted by the end of the day.

what did i learn from this experience?
---always look for another option if you are stranded...think outside the box
---always carry an extra pair of underwear...i happened to do this
---make sure you pack a brush. i didn't have one...my hair was gorgeous at work!

how many of you would have trusted a person that offered you to stay in their hotel room? i was surprised she agreed, but it was obvious she hadn't traveled much. i certainly wouldn't have!!

gross

i just opened up an english muffin. i was going to put peanut butter on it for tomorrow morning....but alas, some bugs walked out of it. gross!

will write more later...i've had very spotty internet coverage.