March Madness

It was so amazing to be in the auditorium with my classmates today.  Matt was with me.  The room quiet at first, electric with excitement, and then all at once, a ripping-open of envelopes.  Smiles, and tears, and phone calls, oh my!  (Matt wondered if cell phone networks get clogged every Match-Day at noon, just like in some sort of catastrophic event.)  In my envelope was a dream come true -  my first choice: Cleveland Clinic.  That had been the program I fell in love with back in September, back when I submitted my applications, and today, here I am, pulling their name out of my envelope.  I felt like singing, "I've got a golden tiiiicket!"  Matt and I did our happy dance.   I called Mom and Dad.  Cue waterworks.  25 years of their support, 4 years of medical school, and I've finally got myself a real job ... as a doctor.

{ so shiny! }

So Matt and I will trek off to sunny Cleveland, OH next year, and we couldn't be more excited! The Cleveland Clinic is a world renowned hospital, and I am honored to train in a setting of such excellence.  Meanwhile, the housing market is really affordable there, and Matt has already begun finishing the basement of our first house in his mind ... something about a "man den."  

Now you may be thinking, wait a minute, you said "next year," but I thought you were graduating this May.  Before radiology residency training, I have to complete a one-year Internal Medicine internship, which I also learned today will take place at Beth Israel Medical Center here in NYC.  So before any "man den," there will be a cramped Manhattan studio. But only for a year, and then it's Cleveland .... ROCKS!  (You knew I'd say it eventually.)

By now you've noticed that my "March Madness" title was not referring to basketball.  Au contraire!  The other excitement for us today - our alma mater, Binghamton ... versus Duke in the NCAA tourney!  Off to watch the game now!  Gooooooo Bearcats!

Radiology Eye Candy for Nerds

*Sigh* I love this!


Inside The Jaymis: Skeleton Animation - Wide Time from Jaymis on Vimeo.


Inside The Jaymis: Squishy Bits Version from Jaymis on Vimeo.

(Via MAKE and Create Digital Motion)

Have a great weekend!

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match

A week from tomorrow is Match Day.

Lots of friends and family have asked me - "where are you going next year?  Did you choose yet?"  The truth is, graduating medical students don't get to choose their residency training programs, the way, for example, that graduating high school students choose their college.  We don't get a slew of acceptances and then a chance to say yes to one.  Instead, there is a magical, mysterious tradition called ... *ominous drum roll* ... "The Match."

  

For my non-medical friends, here is how The Match works (with a little cynical embellishment on my part):

1. By the beginning of senior year, a medical student, now a pitiful, downtrodden version of herself, completely ravaged by the system, chooses a specialty.  
   
2. She researches hospitals which offer residency training programs in the chosen specialty, and applies.
   
3. Residency programs pick up her phonebook-sized application packet, throw everything away except for the page that has the exam scores, and decided whether or not to interview her based on this.
   
4. Pitiful medical student cleans herself up, buys a fancy monkey suit, and goes on interviews - a butt-load of 'em.  In this process, her face muscles become fatigued from all of the smiling and talking about how hard she loves to work, her wallet becomes empty from all of the hotel fees and airfare, her suit pants become tight from all of the free food used to seduce applicants, and her dry cleaner wonders why this strange girl wears only that one outfit.
   
5. Once interview season is complete, the medical student thinks about which program had the best free food, and ranks her favorite programs in descending order.  
   
6. Hospitals also make a list, although their list is in order based on that one page of the application with the exam scores on it, and then they just cross people off who were really weird or didn't smile enough in the interview. 
   
7. Both of these lists are entered into a state-of-the-art computer, which *beeps* and *boops* and *processes* the lists for about a month until a match is made.  Meanwhile, the medical student becomes afflicted by a very severe case of a disease known as senior-itis.  For the first time in 3.5 years, she gets plenty of sleep and eats 3 meals a day.  She begins to look like her ol' self again.   And she occasionally goes to class.
   
8. On the third Thursday of March every year, "Match Day," all of the graduating medical students across the country open an envelope.  Inside the envelope is the name of their match: their future residency program.
   
9. Come July, the young doctor, a student no more, starts residency, where she may learn her specialty and become pitiful and downtrodden once more.  
   

The end.

Wish me luck next Thursday!

Me-likey: Dish Bunny

If there is any way of actually enjoying doing the dishes, I think it might be this:

Ok, so probably a dishwasher would make me enjoy doing the dishes even more, but this is a start.  And way cuter.

$25 at Dutchbydesign.com

Dream House: Crate Flooring

Today, I kick-off a new, totally self indulgent series called "Dream House," in which I document awesome details that I'd like to see incorporate into our house some day ... after paying off my mortgage-sized student loans, that is.

First up, a flooring idea.  I've always loved the idea of reclaimed barnwood floors, but look at these!!!  

(via Remodelista)

Wine and fruit crate floors from the german company Parador!  Totally.  Awsome.  Drool.