Friday Feature -- This Will Never Get Old

Can I profess my undying love to Pandora?

#1.  Who isn't in love with the opportunity to handcraft his/her own personal radio stations?  Mine are obviously filled to the BRIM with Katy Perry and every wailing pop hit produced in the 1980s.

#2.  Pandora will clue you in on jams you would have otherwise missed.  Like, I had no idea that my own heart was beating to the power ballads of the sister-duo Heart (uh, All I Want to Do is Make Love to You?  Epic.)

#3.  You can play it ANYWHERE.  Home, work, on your phone....  Score!  I mean, the opportunity to display my adoration of both Rhianna and Journey in the doctors' workroom and then in the OR minutes later with just the click of a button is a modern miracle.  (As a sidenote, I have no pride.)

Pandora -- that will never get old!

Friday Feature -- This Will Never Get Old

Anyone who exercises regularly knows that the hardest part of actualizing any given aliquot of exercise is getting yourself off the couch and out the door.  Seriously, if even one neuron in my brain thinks 'exercise,' it's like the couch deploys some sort of flesh magnet and I'm incapable of getting up before watching like four straight episodes of the Millionaire Matchmaker.  And, by then, I'm hungry, making it easy to rationalize that I can't exercise in some sort of horribly malnourished state, at which point I eat a snack, and then rationalize that 'I'm way too full to exercise...If I try to do anything, I'll puke for sure...Best go see what's on TV"...and the whole process starts anew.

Well, having gone through this song-and-dance about 23970572587320598 times before, I demanded that we buy an exercise bike for our basement as soon as we moved into our house last summer.  We got a real gem from Craigslist...and I was able to bargain the guy down on the price!

Basement Exercise Wonderland...?

Now, I'm not saying it's easy to work out in the basement, but I can do it while watching back episodes of Glee on my laptop, which is a pretty good motivator.

 

Being able to work out without leaving home -- that will never get old!

Friday Feature -- This Will Never Get Old

Here on DSD, we have previously discussed some of the highlights of dog-ownership.

Indeed, along with highlights, there are also some pitfalls.  For example, Matt and I can only fondly remember our halcyon pre-dog weekend mornings of lazing in bed till almost noon.  Now, our furry alarm clock makes sure we wake up the same time on Saturday and Sunday as any other day of the week... which leads to a favorite game of mine, called "Playing Possum," in which I pretend to be asleep until Matt wakes up and takes him out.  Granted, waking up Matt takes only slightly longer than it took to build the transcontinental railroad, so some patience is required.  (Marriage is not for the faint of heart).

Indeed, early AM wake ups aren't Mitchell's only specialty.  He also has an innate knack for puking in the least opportune places.  Our entire house has hardwood floors.  Seriously, we own about 30 square feet worth of rugs in a 1600 square foot house.  Yet, every time Mitchell has yakked in the last year, he has deposited his gastric bounty on some sort of carpeted surface.  We might as well be buying stock in Resolve carpet cleaner, as much as we go through.

Nonetheless, Mitchell brings us great joy, in terms of his love and affection, loyalty, hilarious antics, etc... BUT, let's focus on what's really important -- his physical appearance.  Mitchell is incredibly handsome, and that handsomeness is especially set-off by his four white paws and white tail tip.  I kid you not when I say that Matt and I mention four-white-paws-and-white-tail-tip almost daily in conversation. 

Four white paws and white tail tip -- that will never get old!

Friday Feature -- This Will Never Get Old

Welcome to this week's Friday Feature.

Today, I want to recognize my Android phone as being continually awesome.

As a medical student, I had classmates with smart phones...they were so slick and shiny, so useful for problem-solving on the go, so emblematic of post-modern coolness.

Obviously, I was desperate for one... But, they were expensive.  And I was a medical student -- which is to say, broke.  Well, broke implies having no money, whereas what I actually had was *negative money*, in the form of tons of med school debt.

As such, I couldn't justify adding an additional $100 on my monthly loan bill for a smart phone.  So, I made due with a really dumb phone... no Internet, no texting, a broken antenna, a spotty battery, the whole deal.  All the while, I promised myself that as soon as I got a job (started residency), I'd get a smart phone.

Three years pass, and the day finally comes.

I've had my Droid for 10 months now, and I remain continually in awe of all of its features and the myriad ways it has both simplified and enhanced my daily routine. 

Having a smart phone...That Will Never Get Old.

Friday Feature - This Will Never Get Old

I love hearing foreign accents.  I think it's because I crave novelty.  All people do, to an extent.  That's why we try new restaurants, why we dismiss the perfectly good old clothes in our closet, and why we tire of the hum-drum routine of our daily lives.

However, there are some things that will never get old.  In an effort to add some scheduled content to the blog, and to honor-roll those really superlative aspects of my life that bring ongoing joy despite being old news, I'm starting a Friday Feature called "This Will Never Get Old."

First featured item, my white coat waist band:

See, when you are a medical student, you have to wear a short white coat.  It's hip-length, and is a visual marker that you are still in training.  Lots has been written about short white coats, for example, here, here, here, here and here.  Like any blazer or similar-length item of outwear, there is no waist band.  However, as a medical student, your role in the hospital is essentially that of a Sherpa -- it's the price you pay for people higher up on the totem pole teaching you things; you are expected to have on your person anything that they might need.  On any given day, I would have the following, plus more:  ID badge, stethoscope, cellphone, 2 notebooks, 3 small reference books, 2 black pens, 1 blue pen, 1 red pen, 1 highlighter, 1 penlight, 1 black Sharpie, gum, a granola bar, paperclips, a small bottle of water, peppermints, silk tape, paper tape, bandage scissors, alcohol wipes, an OR cap, lotion, 4x4 gauze squares, 2x2 gauze squares, hospital progress notes, and an admission packet.

I mean, seriously, as a medical student, if I found myself alone in the Paraguayan wilderness with just my short white coat, I probably could have survived for at least 25 days...and maybe launched a satellite into outer-space to triangulate my location and teleport me back to civilization, all with the pounds and pounds of miscellany in my white coat pockets. 

Now, given that the coat was hip-length, carrying all this business in my pockets meant that my silhouette was approximately that of the Michelin man.  All of the female medical students bemoaned the way our bursting-ath-the-seams short white coats were so horribly unflattering; we all dreamed of the day that we would have long white coats (as full-on MDs) with waist bands.

All I can say is, it is as good as I thought it would be.  I still have enough stuff in my pockets to storm the beaches at Normandy, but I look about 40 pounds lighter with a coat that cinches in at the waist.  I still smile every time I see my reflection.

White coat waist band...that will never get old.