What? For real? Get OUT!

So around the time of my graduation this May, I'll officially be closer to thirty than I will be to twenty.

What? For real? Get OUT!

I'm not kidding. I'll be closer to middle-age than I will be to youthful days (daze?). This thought hit me while I was sitting on the floor of a hotel room in Edmonton this afternoon.

I'm... grown up.

What?

I'm... mature.

For real?

At least I should be.

Get OUT!


Now this doesn't mean I want to lose my youthful optimism, my zest for life, or my oh-so-endearing boyish charm. But I'm thinking that since I'm all old and whatnot now, I should be able to dial back these qualities (as difficult as that may be) and turn on the mature when warranted.

Maybe it's just me ruminating after my very first residency interview, but I think I've reached the point in my life where the ability to appear professional, to appear polished, and to do it all with appropriate gravity is very important.

I can do that. Piece of cake. For real.

Mocked

I had a mock interview today.

The career counsellor actually filmed it and then we watched it, to examine for areas of weakness etc...

It's odd to see yourself on film. I think I would act very differently if I had consistenly been shown video footage of myself.

See, I think we all have a pretty good idea of what 'cool' is. We all know the cool kid in a movie when he appears. We all know who the cool guy in school is.

The point is, we all know what cool is, so I'm pretty sure that most of us act in a way that we think approximates cool. It just turns out that some of us are better at it than others. What you think you're like can be a far cry from what you're actually like. Perception is a tricky thing.

For example, why didn't any of you tell me that I have this tendency to bob and tilt my head? I look like a giant budgie or something. Seriously. What's up with that?

The Snowbirds and Me

I sat next to a very pleasant set of retirees on my trip to Toronto yesterday. They were going to Toronto to take a flight to Florida. They also were the very first people I've met (other than myself) who own a flight pass.

As we all marvelled together at the wonder that is a flight pass, it occurred to me that I was likely to meet many people in this age bracket in the next little while. Especially on my Tuesday flights. See, the flight pass restricts travel to Tuesdays and the weekends. Not many have a lifestyle that will accomodate such a travel schedule. Just snowbirds like us!

Londone + Sleepover chez Krobertvilla

My rotation in London finished this past Friday. Now the fun really begins.

Special thanks to Vops, who not only drove me to London, he found a place for me to stay, made sure I went out AND introduced me to top notch shawarmas. I saw a lot of familiar faces from Queen's while I was in London. It really is a very small world.

I flew into Ottawa (flight pass!) on Saturday and went out that evening with Kroberts, Caro and their crew. Judging from the good times that they are having, I have decided that wherever I end up, I will look into joining in on local Queen's alumni events. They are definitely partying harder now than they did in undergrad. We went to a rather random house party, which was unique in that the majority of the males present batted for the other team. I was rather late in discovering this, and was actually entertaining thoughts of introducing one of my new acquaintances to one of the girls when snippets of overheard conversation quickly put that thought to rest.

I relayed this story to my parents the next day along with tales of the ensuing night on the town and general good times. I think it may have been too much for them.

Surfing in Costa Rica!

Snippets from surf camp.

Ah, the memories.

Speaking of which, I think Richard gave me whatever he was suffering from in Costa Rica. I shoulda been more sympathetic to him. Karma got back and bit me.

London

I'm spending some time at Canada's premier site for hand and upper limb surgery. How awesome are the surgeon's here? Let's just say that tomorrow, Michael Moore is coming to interview one of the surgeons here for his upcoming documentary. For real.

In other news, one of the patients I was chatting with today couldn't get over how much I resembled one of the contestants on Beauty and the Geek. I'm guessing they weren't talking about the beauty. I had to console myself by eating half a birthday cake that had been brought in for one of the nurses.

WINGS!

I am the proud owner of an Air Canada Flight Pass!

What it means is that I can fly ANYWHERE (well... almost.) in North America on Tuesdays and Saturdays from Jan 9 to March 6. Isn't that crazy super awesome? Say I want some good home cooking. I can FLY in for lunch and FLY back to school that same evening. I can make day trips to the Smithsonian, Broadway, Fenway! The sky's the limit. Literally! I think Gaby was saying it was sort of like having an airplane buspass.

It's not. It's way better. It's like having a magic carpet.
It's the coolest thing I have ever owned.

So if any of you out there are hankering for a visit from yours truly, let me know. I'll be there in a jiffy.

Fade to Black

Happy New Year!

Neither Dickie nor I brought flash cameras on our vacation. This was due to our cheapskate ideals (the flash-free disposables were cheaper), and also to the fact that our friend Yonny had assured us that she had had no need for a flash camera in her Asian adventures earlier this year. (btw, Hope the new job is going good, Yonny!)

The result of this is that our 24 exposure cameras returned less than 24 photographs. They simply didn't develop those that were too dark. Some of these gaps I can account for. The frantic and frenetic (and ultimately dimly lit) moments that we attempted to capture at the rodeo yielded zero photos. But many of these moments slip my mind.

I think I'll wonder at these lost photos in the coming years. These lost images that were dimly lit in life and now go completely unlit in my memory.