Reunited! again! and again!

I met an old friend from Ottawa for breakfast this morning. Emily also ended up going to Queen's and I'll always be grateful for all the times she fed me. The other people at the table were also largely from Ottawa, and in not unexpected fashion, we all ended up being linked by much less than 6 degrees of separation.

Alison was possibly the very first person I met at Queen's. She was in my frosh group. I went to lunch with her and her friends to celebrate her successful completion of her masters. We went to a sushi buffet that also had all you can drink bubble tea. This is much closer to my vision of paradise than I would like to admit.

In the evening, I went to a dinner party hosted by Liz, who highland danced with me at Queen's. She's in the foreground in the picture. Gilly is the blur in the middle and Bonney is the blur on the left. They highland danced with me as well. A fourth highland dancer, Jill managed to duck out of the frame. The last time I saw some of these people, they were in kilts! We played board games until the wee wee hours of the night.



The thing about Toronto is that it's a bit of a hub. People tend to find themselves here, for jobs, for school, to visit. This leads to days like today, where I can catch up with long lost friends three times in one day!

Anyways, I have two thoughts.

I am amazed at the links between people. At how a friend of a friend of a friend will know you, or your sister, or whatever. We're all caught up in this social web. Our roots link us in such unexpected ways! We should work harder to cultivate and strengthen these ties.

The more things change the more things stay the same. Seriously. Everyone was just as I remembered. And from what I gather, I am pretty much unchanged as well. Which is odd in a way, because I feel I MUST have changed or matured at least a little. Maybe we all revert a little to who we once were when we're around old friends? Not that this means one can't change. Just that it's difficult. And that it requires conscious effort. And that it is uncomfortable. And that maybe sometimes, it's worthwhile. for serious.

Encore!

My research has been funded again!

I'm happy about this. I would have done the work even without the financial incentive.

I think a key to happiness (or maybe it's just my happiness?) is novelty. Winning a lottery is terrifically exciting, but would it be so grand if you won it on a weekly basis? Not that I'm saying that my being granted research funding has become a non-event. Not that at all.

Then again, simple, repetitive things can keep me happy for hours.

I suppose I'm just easily entertained.

Coatings

You know how people aren't what you think they are? Or rather, how first impressions can be deceiving? Or how you feel people are much different once you get to know them better?

I think that a large part of this may be our own faulty perceptions. I don't know how many people actually change as you get to know them better, or purposefully hide things about themselves if you don't know them very well. I think we categorize and assume things about people we don't know very well, and then they open our eyes and climb out of the boxes we put them in as we learn more about them.



I've get caught up in the nature vs nurture debate sometimes. My Aunt came to visit last Christmas, and both she and my mother showed up for dim sum in identical poofy white jackets, short bob haircuts and metal-framed glasses. Since they share both nature AND nurture, this picture really doesn't answer any questions. It's just kinda neat. (That's Cousin Jason in the foreground.)

Lunch at Greg's

Muriel and I went over to Greg's new place this past weekend for lunch. He can be seen stirring his butter chicken. The silver pot has cinnammon rice in it. I was asked to cook some rice, and in my attempts to be cuisinary, I emptied half a tin of cinnamon into the rice. I then proceeded to burn the bottom of Greg's pot, and melt the end of his spatula. I was summarily banished from the kitchen, and the afternoon would have been decidedly grim if not for the fact that my rice concoction tasted somewhat decent. In fact, Greg gave it "props". Even so, I doubt I'll be called to duty in his kitchen any time soon.



I don't know what Muriel is doing. Perhpas preparing the samosas? We had ice cream at this fun Dutch place afterwards.

I was reminded of the good times of high school by some of the pictures Greg had put up around his apartment. I really can't complain about my high school peeps. They were quite a group of peers to grow up with.

Another elective student has come on service with us. I think I've just started to really understand that I may not get what I want for residency. There are lots of us applicants, and so far, everyone I've met has been excellent. So it goes.

Simon Guides: How to Rollerblade to Work

I've been braving Toronto's big city traffic on my rollerblades for the past 2 weeks. Urban rollerblading is a tricky business. For one thing, you really can't learn to rollerblade in an urban setting. It's just too dangerous. The roads are rarely smooth, and there are obstacles and vehicles to dodge. I think ideally, you'd learn to rollerblade in a quiet place, and then gradually work your way up to big city blading. Sort of like how I learned on the quiet little streets of Nepean, then got used to traffic in the quiet downtown of Kingston, then got good at traffic in the busier downtown of Hamilton, and am now perfecting the arts of city blading in metropolitan Toronto.

Be that as it may, I do have tips for the aspiring:

1. Wear a helmet!
2. Use both the street and sidewalk! Go where it's smoother/less busy.
3. When going downhill or over rough patches, put one skate roughly 15 cm ahead of the other one.
4. Try to ensure that your skates are perpendicular to cracks and ridges.
4. If you can't stop, TURN!
5. Make eye contact with pedestrians and drivers to signal your intentions
6. Err on the side of safety. You may technically have the right of way, but this will be little solace when you're plastered by a car.

Teaching!

There was a 2nd year student with our team today. I taught her how to suture. It's nice to have more junior students around because it reminds of you of what you do know, whereas I'm typically reminded of what I don't know. I hope the medical student becomes some sort of bigwig surgeon. I'd totally take credit for it.

In another one of the cases, I was retracting a patient's lower eyelid with a tiny hook. When I was removing the hook, it accidentally slipped underneath the patient's upper eyelid!!! The surgeon almost had a coronary, and I almost wet my pants. I don't think I've ever had a scare like that in the OR before. Fortunately, the patient's eye wasn't damaged. I don't want to think about the guilt I'd have to carry around.

It's unfortunate that we have to suffer either misfortune or close scrapes to be reminded of the value of what's at stake.

The Crocodile Hunter Sleeps with the fishes

I was discussing the recent death of Steve Irwin this morning with my sisters.

Justine (or was it Sarah?) remarked on how unusual it was that a relatively harmless animal such as a stingray could lead to the demise of someone who had routinely handled "deadly" critters like 'gators and snakes.

But it got us to thinking a bit. Could the deadly animals the man known as the Crocodile Hunter routinely associated with really have killed the man?

Take your standard crocodile. Say one managed to clamp its jaws onto Mr. Irwin. I'm guessing that the fellows off-camera with the tranquilizer guns would act quickly to ensure that this event would progress no further, leaving our hero with brave new scars to show and brave new stories to tell.

Take your standard poisonous snake. If Steve were to find himself on the wrong end of a venomous fang, I imagine the fellows off-camera would act quickly to admister the antidotes to ensure that our hero could continue his swashbuckling ways.

In fact, when I think about it, the ONLY way I could see a member of the animal kingdom causing mortal harm to our Aussie friend is if one of them could figure out a way to pierce his heart with a sharp poisonous spike to cause a near-instantaneous death.

Crickey.

The Young and the Restless

I was in a lounge celebrating my friend Steph's birthday this past weekend. It also happened that quite a few of my friends from medical school showed up as well. As it turns out, people know people who know people, and many of my crowd from McMaster medical school were already well acquainted with Steph's UT medical school crowd.

I thought this was neat because I had debated between med schools for awhile, so long ago, and I realized that for this night at least, I would have been in the exact same place with the exact same people even if I had made a very different choice.

I'll be doing an elective at UT this month, so I reckon this is my chance to see a bit of what might have been. Living in the big city is alright so far. The bigger the city, the smaller your space.

I shall dearly miss living above my cousin's Chinese take-out back in Hamilton. I'll miss the plethora of currants that grew outside for me to pick at my leisure. I'll miss the wonderful Chinese sitcoms we watched over dinner. I'll miss dinner! I'll miss chatting with my neices while doing dishes. I'll even miss their overzealous guard dog who finally learned to stop barking at me. I'm very lucky to have the family I do!