Picnic at Crissy Field

It was a beautiful weekend last weekend and several of us decided to take advantage of it - and some yummy yummy cheese from Switzerland direct! Yay! From the lovely views to the yummy food to... wait! some kid peeing with dad's help not 10 feet from us on the beach???

As you can imagine, an afternoon not to be forgotten. :D

A little belated but still so sweet...

The pics say it all...




(heehee, steelers fans are the best-est!)

ahhh, work.

About to start work again after 2 weeks of being off. Should be interesting.

Bt as my vacation comes to an end, I was looking at how much of a slacker I was at updating this blog! Oops. My bad. I'll try to be better about updating it in the future. I didn't realize 2 months had passed!

But, although extremely busy those 2 months, I did manage to have some fun - in Sonoma! Very exciting for me as I normally always go to Napa Valley. Napa is still a great place and my fvaorite wineries as still over there, but, I gotta admit, it's a bit pricey to taste wines over there. And that makes me sad.

Sonoma, while it may not have the big name wineries, has some good places that I have found through wine pairings at dinner in the city. And the maximum tasting fee is $5 which is quite awesome.

Here is my friend Shannon and me at a winery:


Yay vino!

One of the wines that I really like, especially for the price, $24 a bottle, is from Dashe cellars. It's the Zinfandel L'Enfant terrible and it's in the Beaujolais style of wine, so it's young but very drinkable now. We also tried the Papapietro Perry Winery and they had some nice wines too. And they were super nice - they gave us bottles of water!

I'm off to more Dry Creek wineries today. Hurray!

Vacation!

Boy, did I need it, especially after I was essentially out of commission from a serious URI the week before vacation (thanks kid - but I still think you're cute!) and then just general non-goodness during that week. But, after lots of sleep and lots of pampering from the parents (thanks mom and dad!), I think I am mostly recovered.

I had a fun trip, first heading back to DC, then off to Pittsburgh to see the boss and friends, then back to DC for sleep and friends. And... the Steelers vs Redskins football game for Monday Night Football!!!



Woohoo! It was made all the sweeter with an awesome Steelers victory!!!




My poor dad, a Redskins fan, was a little shocked by all the Steelers fans and their Terrible Towels at the game (I had mine too!)

The 2 Audreys

Didn't I mention there are two of us in our intern class?



Asian Audrey and Blonde Audrey. (And we both have PhDs!)

Although apparently people try to be PC and call me Brunette Audrey or Brown (really? brown? that kind of makes me sad) haired Audrey. Really - what's wrong with Asian Audrey? I am asian for goodness sakes!

A little behind the times

I was in the UCSF shuttle last month and noticed one of the signs:


If you can't really see it, it's a sign for the cafeteria and special menus for February and March, celebrating... The Year of the PIG!!!

Methinks they need to do a little signage updating...

I've been bad...

... about posting. I know.

1. I am sort of a black cloud. How unfortunate. It was a crazy month.
2. I really hate Windows Vista. Not enough to switch to Apple, but if my computer continues to crash every month, I may have to reconsider.
3. I just really need sleep. It's amazing what it can do for one's health.
4. Yay! My paper was accepted! (My boss rocks!)
5. No so yay! I still have to write another paper! And technically, another one after that.

So. No pics unfortunately, but hopefully that will change soon.

By the way, GO STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No more spam!

Hallelujah! No more spam from my previous medstudent email account! I was getting up to 70 a day. What a pain!

Otherwise, I have been remiss about posting, but just been too busy on this rotation to write and have a life. :D I promise, stuff coming up soon, maybe even tomorrow!

Poll Alert!

Check out the left sidebar! Hope you have fun guessing! :)

The continuing saga of my broken computer...

Well, not broken, but, you know...

I am scared to death daily that I am going to lose all the data on my computer, so I invested in an external hard drive. I ended up going with the Western Digital 250 GB external hard drive.


In black. I really wanted to buy the cute pink one, but for an extra $20, I just couldn't justify it. So I compromised. Sleek black hard drive (look how tiny it is! Well, not the tiniest, but pretty small and easy to tote around or store) and cute pink case. :D


And it fits like a glove.

My Saturday

... started off post-call. It was one of those call nights where you are woken up enough that sleep is meaningless and where every time you lie down, you can't really sleep because you just KNOW that you are going to get paged. So. I got home relatively early, 9ish, had breakfast, turned a little zombie, but no sleep, and then my aunt came over and we hung out. Very fun.

I got these delicious dumplings from Kingdom of Dumpling - OMG, so good (well, if you don't have the time to make your own, which I don't). I ate ... well, uh... too many to detail in about 3 sittings and needed to buy more. :)

We also drove by the beautiful St. Marks Cathedral today. So pretty!


And then, we tried out this ramen noodle place on Geary - Katana-ya. Very authentic and delicious. Thanks to Dylan to turned me on to this little gem! And they had the cutest paintings on the wall of their restroom of all places (very clean, BTW)! Check it out (the painting, not the clean restroom):

The darned MUNI

What kind of help is the MUNI when this happens?



Imagine this. You expect the train in 14 minutes. You go out to wait for it and 14 minutes later, it's still 14 minutes away, according to NextMuni. 20 minutes later, you see what I saw above. So, the train was over 40 minutes late. And, it turns out, if you didn't get on that second train (which was supposed to be 15 min behind the front train), you were waiting for another "25" minutes. Right

My niece!

I got to see my puppy niece this weekend!!!! I was a little apprehensive - because I was used to the big excited welcomes from her where her entire butt wiggles big time (it's so cute, she looked like she was going to tip over with the force of the tail wagging!). I wasn't so sure I was going to get that this time because she's growing up so quickly! But when I saw her, I found that all my worries were for nothing. One of the happiest and most loving welcomes I've received!!! She's soooooo cute!

Answer to Poll: Audrey's on delivery call tonight, and it's 8/8/08 starting at midnight! How many ASIAN babies...

...do you think there will be delivered from midnite to 7 am?

A. 0
B. 1-3
C. 4-6
D. >6

So... turns out the hospital I was at doesn't have the highest Asian population, but still, I expected some babies! In reality, between midnight and 7 am, there was only 1 asian infant. And for the entire day, I think there were only like 3! Weird, hunh? There went my theory!

Back on the blog!

My lack of writing has been most hindered by my computer blowing up (ok, not really blowing up, but certainly many many problems. Basically, I needed to reinstall my operating system - darn that Vista! - and hope that my c: disk error is really only a problem with Vista and not really a hardware problem. Cross your fingers!) but also the Olympics and me just being lazy. :)

Well, it also doesn't help that I don't get NBC by my fancy 20-30 year old rabbit ears. But thanks to my dad, I can get it on my computer and so for the last two days, I have been glued to my computer watching the Olympics! Yay! So exciting, between the gymnastics stuff (btw, women's all around tonight - Nastia Liukin totally deserved the gold!) and Michael Phelps.


So, hopefully more blogging sooner than I have been in the last week!

Poll Alert!

check out the new poll on the left!!!

go 8/8/08!

Grrr Bluetooth

Is now magically not working on my computer. And 2 hours on Level 1 customer service did not do anything to alleviate the problem. Will look forward to my next 2 hours on the phone with Level 2 this next time. Argh!!!

So, sorry, no new pics. No new funny stories either at this time. :( Maybe after the weekend!!

Funny things I saw this week

Seriously? Cup o' noodles are now "healthy"?? Apparently Kaiser thinks so.


This was in UCSF. If you didn't guess already, this used to say "public" as in public restrooms. Ahh, kids (or adult, who knows?)...

Mini Rant about Healthcare

Not about the providers, I mean, I AM one. No, I am talking about the business end of it. And I guess I was spoiled because, man, UPMC ROCKED in terms of their health coverage, benefits, and the ease by which it was all done. I unfortunately can't say the same for my health plan here in SF.

Problems getting a PCP, then who could actually be my PCP, now, getting my prescriptions filled. AGH!!! Why me?

I miss UPMC.

Pet Peeves 1 and 2

#1 - people who stand in the MIDDLE of the street to see if they see any Muni coming. Umm, hello, it's downhill with NO obstructions. I know you can see it coming just as well from the sidewalk.

#2 - kids who have obviously learned no manners - like the teenage girls today who ripped open their McDonald's Pokemon toy and threw the plastic trash on the ground. Hello? the trash can was not 4 feet away.

The strike

At UCSF this past week, the has been a strike from the service workers. Every day, they congregate outside the hospital, bang their drums, chant, walk in circles protesting their low pay. (Note: We residents calculated our salary per hour and frankly, we make close to the same amount. Scary, hunh?) It's affected the cafeteria (no grill??? no fair!) and shuttle services (purple shuttle? what? I was confused enough about the shuttle routes and now there are new temporary ones. grrr.). Hopefully, they settle soon...


And because of the heightened police presence to these potential trouble-makers (I don't get it) and their general increased level of boredom, one of my fellow interns had a little run-in with one of these cops. It's actually a funny story (nothing bad happened!), but you have to know my friend to really get the hilarity of it. :)

The Big M

There's this billboard in the Inner Sunset which is rented by McDonald's. In the 2 months that I have lived here, this billboard has been defaced at least 5 times (I don't always walk past this billboard) and each time, McDonald's has to re-post their billboard. It's actually kinda funny. (Note: I don't condone vandalism!)

In any case - here's the newest graffiti:

Ahh, gotta love those vegans and vegetarians!

in case you can't read it, it says, "The Joy of Soy"

It makes me sad that I am allergic. What kind of asian am I???

Fooling the kiddos

...and me too I guess.

I really was very very bad about taking vitamins. I mean, a big pill? No fun. So I never remembered to take them! Then, my sister introduced me to the wonderful world of gummi-vites. SOOOOOO delicious. (You have to get the Cosco ones. They taste the best. The Trader Joe ones are good too. Don't bother with the ones from Whole Paycheck (Foods) - patooey!) And, the best part is, because I am older than 4 years old, I can have DOUBLE the daily dose, which means I get 4 gummies instead of 2! Woohoo!!!

France is celebrating with me!!!

I saw this today and it made me smile. I have to admit, I am a bit of a francophile...


And, more, France is celebrating my bday with me!!!

I HEART my new rice cooker!!!!!!!!!

This is true love:


It makes rice perfectly and without burning the bottom! Hallelujah!

Cooking Frenzy

I woke up early this morning despite the fact that I could technically sleep in. Oh well. It probably was a good thing as I was out of coffee beans (!!) and I needed to go and get some. Since I had to go out in any case, I decided I might as well stock up on groceries since I hadn't gone food shopping in a couple of weeks. AND, I am still missing some staples.

Luckily, Andronico's is open at 7 am, and I finished all my shopping in 30 minutes. $120 poorer, I headed home and made myself some breakfast and coffee. I had also decided to make this a cooking day at home and on the menu for cooking was salsa, sweet pepper tomato sauce to freeze, for dinner, thai green curry, and a crustless quiche for tomorrow morning. Phew.

As I started to roast the onions and tomatoes for the salsa, I realized that I hadn't quite gotten all the ingredients! I forgot a key item: vinegar. So off I went to the grocery store again. On the way there I saw the most beautiful hydrangeas:


Back at home, I started to cook up a storm. It was so great! Here is the making of the tomato sauce.

21st century TV

I LOVE TV shows that actually post episodes of their TV shows on the internet. Let's be honest, it's the 21st century. And I don't have cable or a DVR or a Tivo. So, I rely on the good ol' fashioned internet to get my TV shows (my hours suck). I hate companies that try to make you pay to watch the show you missed that week.

So this summer, I'll be watching The Closer, Burn Notice, Monk, Psych, and Eureka.

Yay!

Missing Mochi

No, it's not what you think...

I got home yesterday and what did I find in the mail? A postcard, advertising a missing dog. Someone really loves their pup, a little thing named Mochi. Unfortunately, this missing dog is in Pittsburgh. A little ways off from San Francisco. I don't mind keeping an eye open, but somehow I doubt she's here...


If you're in Pittsburgh though, keep an eye out, will 'ya?

Life in SF and on call

So, I realized I had been remiss in my picture taking! Well, actually in my picture posting!

The other day I was walking to work and realized I am constantly randomly spotting random things on the side of the road. Like these:


And a sweatshirt.

But the other day, my friends and went out downtown and on the way back, they needed to pay to ride the MUNI. Well, the machines don't take anything but all change for the $1.50 fare, so you have to go to the nearby BART machines to get change. Well, little did we know we would be getting all of the 3 bucks in NICKELS. Here is one fare rider's payment:


Note: apparently, those machines aren't so sensitive and if you dump in nickels, you really only have to pay, like, $1.25-$1.40 to get in! :D Quite a savings, yes? :)

And when we got back, we were reminded of the infamous SF weather. Near the bay, at the ferry building, the weather had been clear and beautiful. This is the weather not 10 min later in the Inner Sunset:


Foggy!!!!

And last, but not least, (drum roll please) me actually getting some shut eye on call!!!! Woohoo! I am not sure I actually liked getting sleep as I feel I was more sleepy the next day and a bit more groggy. But, we'll see!

First paycheck!!!

Well, turns out I really did received and get to hold, my first paycheck! I thought I was supposed to have direct deposit, but something happened, and I ended up getting a paper check in the mail. Oh well. I must say, even though not too much $$, it was still very satisfying to hold my first check in my hands...

Yay me! I am actually gainfully employed!

Tomorrow is my first continuity clinic... Should be interesting!

Drumroll please.... Answer: Poll - Gas bill

Fooled all of you! You (and I was) will be surprised to find out that the answer was...

A! Actually, $38.31 to be exact.

Kinda crazy, hunh? I must admit, I was super happy as I had been bracing myself for a $100 bill. Woohoo!

Problems with Poll on eBlogger

So, I thought I was the only one having probs with the poll. It was driving me nuts! Apparently, this is happening to many people...

So, instead, let's just have everyone type their answer in the comments section below:

Q: How much did Audrey spend on her PG&E bill for last month?

A. $40 - man, this is cheap!
B. $80 - well, i guess that's reasonable.
C. $120 - eek! I need to invest in some more blankets!
D. $150 - hmmm, I can live like an eskimo year round. Really!

Happy voting!

What I looked like post-call

I seriously DO look out of it!


So apparently, lots of residents have woken up THINKING that it was time for sign-out again the next day, but the farthest that any of them got was to their front door. I am the only one who has gotten all the way to the work room. Lucky me!

Being post call really IS like being drunk!

So.... I was post-call the other day and it was a real call, no sleep, emergency in the middle of the night. I got off at around 2 pm and headed home in a daze. Once home, I was out like a light bulb within an hour. All of a sudden, I woke up - wide awake and in a panic. I had heard one too many stories this week from the other interns about how they almost missed getting to sign out because they slept through their alarms, etc. I glanced at my phone and saw 6:23. Holy crap!

I ran around my apartment like a chicken without a head and ran out the door, down the hill and pretty much all the way to UCSF, up the elevators and into the resident's work room. I plopped down next to Dylan, the on call intern, very out of breath, but there, at 6:55. He looked at me and said, "What are you doing here?" At this point, I realized, MUCH belatedly, my mistake. "Don't even tell me that it's 7 pm and not 7 am."

Of course, all the residents burst out laughing at that point.

What can I say? Totally an Audrey move. I don't think I will ever live this one down! :D Hey, it provided much amusement and levity to the rest of the interns the nex morning, the REAL 6:30 am sign-out.

Exhausted

Well, day one is over... It was long, mostly because trying to get used to a new hospital system is crazy. Oh, and because when you lose an admission H and P in the last half hour of your work and you have to redo it all, it is just a bit maddening!

Ok, gotta go and study so I don't look like a moron tomorrow and then I just want to sleep...

Golden Weekend - Napa

I technically started on Saturday and already had a golden weekend (no clinical responsibilities)! On Saturday, a group of 8 of us in the intern class decided to head out to Napa Valley to sample some wine, enjoy each others' company and generally try to enjoy our weekend off!

We got of to a slow start, but that was okay... And the weather was sunny and HOT! So, perfect wine tasting weather. :) We started off in downtown Napa to get food, not wine, as we were all starving.


It was actually cool because there was some kind of bike race going on and we kept seeing small pelotons swing by (I was too late to capture it on film!). Then, we headed off to Taylor's Automatic Refresher and luckily this one was definitely not as crowded as the one in St. Helena. With my friend, we tried the cheeseburger, mint chip shake, and sweet potato fries. Overall? It was okay, I wasn't really wowed.

Then, off we went to our wine tasting. We started at Girard, which was off the main drag of 29, and we luckily all got complimentary tastings thanks to a website coupon that I found and printed. It was actually a nice tasting room and our pourer was friendly and helpful, really teaching the basics of wine to those in our group who knew less of wine. In the end, I did get a bottle of red, so it couldn't be too bad, right? :)

Then, we were headed off to another winery only to realize that it was already 4:30 and that place had already closed its tasting room! So instead, we detoured to V. Sattui for a wine tasting. It's gotten a bit pricey at $8 (or 2 for $15) for the classic wine tasting (6 out of 9 choices) and $15 for the better wine tasting. I think that they liked some of it.


And unfortunately, they were already out of the Keefer cheese! Drat! But I did get to see the cutest cat that was passed out in the shade at the winery - I guess he got too hot also!


On the way back to SF from Napa, only one of us passed out:


Normally, that's me! :) But not this time! And that was nice, because we got a beautiful view on the way back...

Orientation is over!!!

Which is good and bad. Good, because it really was very exhausting! Useful at times, but still, LONG. But what does this mean when I am so tired from orientation and work hasn't even started? :) Well, we'll see what happens, because I start on Moffitt wards on Monday. Eek!

As for the rest of orientation - I got to know my fellow interns a little better, but I think we all agree that we will really get to know each other as we go through our rotations. It was also very very warm this week in San Francisco, unusual for June in the city. Here's a photo of the recent prettiness of the weather/city:



The limitations of phone cameras:

The other night, we had a happy hour planned and when leaving, Joslyn, Jason and I walked to the MUNI together. I wanted to get a photo of us. It helps though f you check your camera to make sure it is on the right setting and then again, remember that your camera phone works best in the sunlight...

1. Oops. Forgot the camera was on 5x.


2. I'll forsake my vanity for the sake of this photo series. I looked like crap in this photo so we tried again.


3. Oops. Camera on 3x this time.


4. This is actually from a passer-by being nice enough to take our photo. Perhaps a real camera would be better.

Day 1 of Orientation

It was soooo boring. I understand the need for it, but honestly, blah. And most of it was geared towards adult doctors. I'm a kiddie doc!

:)

Oh well, at least it let out relatively early. I got my ID badge and I don't hate my photo! Yay! The last time I got photographed, I unwittingly lived with that photo for the NEXT 9 years in which I looked like I was 12 years old. No joke. I think I look about 20 in this one. :D

On my way home to do homework (modules, modules, modules!), I saw a bear keeping guard over UCSF!


Tomorrow's all of us Peds interns being oriented. It looks to be a long day... *sigh* And then I am supposed to schmooze at night. *double sigh*

Oops - typo on the wine

from dinner the other day. I mistakenly called it "Happy Llama". I hope no one tried to find it cause it is actually "Funky Llama". And after being vacuumed for about 5 days, it's still pretty darned good.

I'm soon-to-be gainfully employed!

Ok, the nervousness is starting to kick in! Soon, I will be responsible for my patients, little kids! Agh!!! But I am excited... It will be very cool to actually be a practicing (even if in training) physician.

This week is all about being oriented to the new system. And then luckily, as I found out today, I actually get another free weekend before starting work on the wards! Phew! I think I will need that time to calm down before I start!

I really do heart the farmers market

I love it because not only do you get great fresh produce, but you also get to see/hear cool things and get pretty flowers.

We went down to the FM this Saturday and it was gorgeously sunny out. I even got a cute photo of the three of us together.


And when we actually got there, I got a yummy breakfast from Primavera which I hear a lot about. I ordered the chilaquiles and it was spicy and yummy, but at $9.50 a plate (enough for two people), a little too pricey to eat alone. But the best part of breakfast? Sitting near this guitar player who was very talented. If he's there again in the future, I may have to buy his CD.


And check out how pretty my new flowers are (a flower that started with the letter S and Larkspur):


BTW, my flowers from last week, the godetias, are still beautiful and going strong.

Twins?

How funny is this? My sister and I met up tonight for dinner and we just took one look at each other and laughed - we were wearing pretty much the same type of clothes and color palette! Except my sister was all gussied up and I was totally dressed down. Check it out...

From our jeans and shoes:


To our similar khaki jackets:


And we were both wearing brown tops. How funny.