I just turned 26 a few days ago. Thanks to all of you for those lovely birthday wishes. Life's pretty good right, even as an intern. I was able to spend the past weekend in DC... I certainly didn't get to see everyone I wanted to, but I had a great time celebrating my birthday early with a few close friends...












This week I'm pretty sure I will clock 90 hours:
Monday-Tues afternoon (on call): 30 hrs
Wed: 10 hrs
Thursday: 9 hrs
Friday: 11 hrs
Saturday- Sunday afternoon: 30 hrs
And that doesn't count the hours I'm spending dictating discharge notes on patients. Well, work is going well. The non-call hours don't kill me and I feel like I'm getting better and more efficient at what I do. However, I do get super-grumpy (at least on the inside) between the hours of 2am and 5am. I have been praying each time for a Godly attitude, but to be honest, it definitely hasn't happened yet. I feel so robbed when I am working at those hours, having already worked since 7am that previous day! Working the night shift is one thing, but working 30 hours nonstop is something else. Fraternity hazing comes to mind. What makes me grumpy is the realization that I would never impose such a schedule on someone else... how can it be so easy for them willingly place us under that?

Anyways, life outside of work is pretty good. I'm meeting my fair share of interesting people and finding some neat little places to hang out. I will post more pics when I get the chance.

Goodbye, Florida
I'm finally moving away tomorrow from my home of 14 years to start interning in Grosse Pointe, MI. The last time I moved away from home was 8 years ago-- for college. I still remember getting up really early that morning to fly to Duke. I went with my mom and youngest sister, and the other sister woke up to say goodbye, and started crying. It was so sad, and at that moment it really hit me that my life was about to change. That same sort of feeling finally hit me this weekend, as I said goodbye to a ton of people that I care about deeply. Why do goodbyes never get any easier? Although I will only be in Michigan for a year, I wonder if things will be any different when I leave there.

I'll be driving up to Atlanta tomorrow with my mom, clothes in tow, and stopping overnight in Atlanta to visit my sister Angela. By Wednesday evening, I should be in Michigan.

What else is there to say? I guess I'm ready, physically and mentally rested (too much so?)as well as I can be for a year of hard work and less sleep than I'd like. Luckily, I'm starting off on general inpatient wards and not the ICU. Keep those prayer requests coming! God bless!

Some very random thoughts about the roles of fathers/husbands at home

Father's day is just 6 days away. Is it just me, or do dads tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to celebrations, compared to mother's day? I'm not saying that it's wrong this way. Traditionally, of course, moms have always been way more involved in the lives of their children/family than fathers have. (Certainly true in my family). However, our generation may stand to be different.

For one thing, girls are smarter than boys. Yes, it's true; girls are excelling in higher ed and graduating at a higher rate than boys, to the point that some universities are starting to affirmative action-in boys just to make the #s look good, while we (the XY's) sit on the couch and eat potato chips. As these educated females win a greater share of the prestigious, higher-paying/longer-day careers, the possibility of men taking on a higher % of 'domesticated labor' should increase. There's still a huge stigma associated with being a stay-at-home dad (I don't actually know of any), but as women's liberation enters another generation, there lies impetus for democratization of home chores.

As for myself, I love watching sports, the outdoors, cars, playing football/basketball etc just as much as the next guy, but I can't lie; I do have a soft spot for kids (a recent gift from the Lord, perhaps bc I'm still one at heart ;), cooking (def hasn't gotten old yet), and on rare occasion, cleaning. Sure there's a lot more to it than this, but it's a start.

I wonder what our past generations were like. How much of the 'work-at-home burden' was assumed to be the responsibility of the wife? Was the typical guy going into marriage thinking that his job was just to bring home the paycheck and then sit with his feet up after 5pm? And what were a husband's attitudes towards that work which needed to be done at home?

I'm not even sure why I'm asking these questions. I'm about as far away from marriage as a guy could be, yet they just randomly pop into my mind from time to time. Not knowing a thing about what my future wife's work sched and domestic proclivities will be, it's hard to know what part of that will I bear. As a team game, I sure hope I "draft" an awesome teammate.

Here's a neat Kirk Franklin video that I recently found... hope you enjoy. God bless you today.

Annual retreat to Lake Yale
Once a year, most of the major FL Chinese churches retreat to the boonies of central FL (Leesburg) to enjoy and learn about God over memorial day weekend. I could only stay for 1/2 of it, but for those that missed it, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed what I experienced. They had around 300 youth/young adults this time, and a great separate speaker (from a Boston church) for the college-and-older crowd. Yes, it is growing; lots of workshops this time, forcing you to pick what you wanted :) It was great to see some of you there, hopefully we'll have more chances to meet in the future.

Visiting Detroit
I'm gonna be in Detroit this Tuesday/Wednesday to look for housing and to do a physical. Please pray for God's blessing... 24 hours is about all I'm planning to spend there until I move up :)

Saying goodbye
I'm still about 4 weeks from leaving Tampa and I'm already saying the 'final' goodbyes.... Angela (my sis) just left for the airport an hr ago and Emily (my other sis) is leaving tomorrow... I have no idea when our family will next be all together again And  I've already said final goodbyes to a few of my close med school friends, and will be doing more of that soon too.

Laptop recommendations anyone?
I'm looking to spend around $750-$1k tops for a laptop; I've been considering the macbook ($999 w/ edu discount). Looking for a well-built lappie < 5lb, 13.3", windows or osx (no linux etc), dvd, web cam, and core2duo or amd equivalent.