Goodbye 2009.....Hello 2010!

What a whirlwind of a year! In fact, as I think of all that happened in the last 365 days, I can hardly imagine that it all occurred last. So, I think I will take a few minutes to reflect back on all of the events.

1. Finishing my Gastroenterology Fellowship. It has now been 10 years after college that I have spent attending medical school, completing internship/residency, and finally completing a fellowship in my sub-speciality. And, on June 30th, I finally finished! Actually, I didn't even make it to June 30th because I took the last few days off. It was a tough road, filled with many long days and nights, numerous sacrifices, and obviously much debt! But, now I get to do exactly what I set out to do since college. Well, almost. I dropped the hepatology part and kept just the gastroenterology part. Endoscopies, colonoscopies, small bowel enteroscopies.....here I come!

2. Spending a Month in Bali. Ok, it was planned on a whim after Robin Leach broke my heart. I wanted to escape the world and indeed I did. Within a week of ending it with him, I booked a house on the beach complete with a maid, cook, gardener, houseboy, and driver and a business class ticket to Bali. Maybe the idea came from reading Eat, Pray, Love and realizing I need to reclaim a part of my life that had obviously disappeared in my relationship; maybe it came from sitting with Roger Hayes one night while he told me about all the deals to Southeast Asia. Regardless, I invited Roger (who happened to be my only unemployed friend at the time who could take 35 days off) and we have a great adventure. Bali, I am definitely going back....SOON!

3. Starting in Private Practice. If you think residency/fellowship is bad, just start in a busy private practice. The hours are much longer, the responsibility is much more, and the call days/nights are much busier. But, the pay is MUCH better! I couldn't ask for better partners or a better practice. And to think I seriously considered going with Robin to Virginia...I must have been out of my mind!

4. Passing my GI Boards. I knew I would pass and be board certified for 10 years. But, I kept dreading that off chance that I would actually screw them up and have to face my fellowship director (who happens to be one of my partners) every day for the next year in disgrace.

5. Moving on in Love. One night over sangria, I finally blew up on Robin and asked him to leave. I mean, if you cannot commit after 3.5 years, you will NEVER commit. In fact, I suspect the same thing happened in his last relationship. The crazy thing is that he left about half of his belongings at my place. Still to this day they are all crammed in my guest closet (clothes, books, shoes, crystal glasses, Wii, etc). Goodwill is about to be very happy! But, I will leave it up to my readers as to what I should do with his stuff.

6. Ms. Fabulous is Now Mrs. Fabulous. Though I missed the wedding, our own Ms. Fabulous had a fabulous Indian wedding at the Four Seasons here in Dallas. Now that I am back experiencing a fabulous single life in Dallas, I am definitely going to miss my partner-in-crime.

7. Saying F*%K You to Bank of America. After being raped with 29.9% interest for most of my training, it was a relief to pay off all of the credit card debt. When asked why I was closing my account at Bank of America, all I could say was, "Isn't it obvious? Do you really expect me to keep an account with an interest rate like that?" They offered to lower it, but I have now shifted all of my business to American Express. Who would have guessed that American Express was the only reasonable company in the credit card industry.

(more to come. I am on call tonight and have to go to hospital!)

Relationship Crash and (Painfully Slow) Burn!

* I wrote this over a year ago but am only now posting it. Hell, I guess I should have moved on when I wrote this!

Since I keep getting inundated with messages on my Facebook account noting the change in my relationship status to "single", I thought I would finally announce this to everyone on this public forum too. Yes, our relationship has crashed (think train wreck, car going over a cliff, natural disaster, etc.). I think the exact timing on this was around Christmas when Robin Leach could not make up his mind on the direction he wanted to go. And yes, as a result of that it has been a painfully long and slow burn over the course of the last few months. As Ms. Kung-Fu would say, "Your relationship has become the topic of a bad made-for-TV Lifetime movie". For those of you that don't watch Lifetime, the movies usually chronicle desperate women who fall for even more desperate men with plots that seem almost too farfetched to be true. Indeed I have had my share of bad made-for-TV moments. As for how I will categorize this relationship with Robin Leach....well, the jury is still out.

So, in keeping with the tradition of my past breakups, I will return to updating the blog and recounting the fabulous adventures I am sure to have over the next few months, years,.....who the hell knows! All I have to say now is that life is too short to waste your time on men who cannot commit 100%!

What Happens in Tampico....

....stays in Tampico! That is, unless I decide to publish it on my blog which I am obviously doing! I just returned this week from a 4 day adventure in Tampico, Mexico. Though I was there under the guise of "medical training", I must confess that I had a heck of a lot of fun on my Mexican adventure!

So, where is Tampico, you ask? At least, that was MY first question. Well, it is on the Gulf coast in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and serves as one of the main ports of the country. Apparently, back in the day, it was a tourist destination just like Cancun and Cozumel are today. But, when the oil refineries came, the tourist moved south and left the beautiful beaches empty. Enough about the city. Our group of about 15 met at the airport in Houston and made our way to Tampico. We checked into the Camino Real Hotel, which appeared to be the nicest hotel in the city (see picture below taken from my balcony). It took about 20 minutes before the group was at the bar, ready to partake in some of Mexico's finest.....tequila! I believe Don Julio was the tequila of choice, as we sipped drinks, ate seafood, and got to know everyone. And, I learned a very important Mexican custom...sipping straight tequila with a chaser of sangrita, a tomato/orange juice drink. I would have never guessed that was palatable, but I was pleasantly surprised. After about 4 of those, I was ready to hit the sack and prepare for my endoscopic training.

After 2 intense days of endoscopy, the evenings were our times to venture out and see the city with our host physician and his family. We had an Italian food extravaganza (in Mexico no less) at this wonderful restaurant called La Dolce Vita near the airport. Meals were European style, starting about 9pm and lasting several hours. But, the food was excellent. Though I was exhausted after doing the first day of cases, I was still convinced by a group of doctors to go out after dinner and have more tequila. We toasted the technology that brought us to Mexico, while
drinking more of the tequila/sangrita combination. After a few of those, I was ready to discuss my observation that most of the physicians in my profession are essentially nerds. The group disagreed, and a few have set out on a mission to introduce me to some "cool" doctors.

The second day, we had a fresh seafood fest at a restaurant located on Miramar beach, a 20 minute drive from our hotel. I was able to bask in the sun on the beach, which was almost desolate. The sand was white and the water blue. I rolled up the capris and went into the water, which happened to be quite warm. Below are a few pics of the beach and part of our group taking an afternoon siesta:

Luckily I was able to make it back to Dallas without Montezuma striking revenge. That was rather surprising given that I partook in all the local cuisine and beverages with the exception of bottled water. I suppose my good karma is coming back!

First MySpace, Now Facebook!

It seems that when I meet people these days, a question that invariably arises is, "Are you on

Facebook?" My answer up until the last few weeks was that between work, Robin, and my friends, I have very little time for social networking on the web and quite honestly, I am not one to sit around and surf the Internet all day like many people I know. I barely have any time to update the blog. So, the answer is no! After about a dozen of those questions, I thought I should log on and find out what this facebook thing is all about. I entered a bit disillusioned, having been inundated with spam once my MySpace page got up and running and having given up on the mode of communication. I searched for a few close friends (i.e. Lerxst and The New Yorker) and added my education to the page. Within the next week, people were coming out of the woodwork adding me as their friend. From high school buddies I haven't spoken to in at least 13 years to college sorority sisters I spent a lot of time with, I was reconnecting with and catching up on the lives of my friends and colleagues. Ok, I admit, I am logging on almost daily, though I have yet to actually put anything really interesting on my page. I suppose I am now getting addicted, anxiously waiting for friends that create new pages and seeing the pictures of my friends on the site change on sometimes a daily basis. My conclusions are this: Forget MySpace, facebook has you beat!

The Marvelous Martini Mingle - Third Time's a Charm

For the third year in a row, we hosted our Martini Mingle. The event, having grown over the years to now approximately 300 people, is our way to celebrate our friends and the beloved martini. This year, with a new assortment of co-hosts, was even more spectacular as we drank Mangotinis and Springtime Flirtinis and mingled into the wee hours of the morning. Yet again, another successful party. Here are a few pics from the night:

And the picture of the night....Albster, the appointed quiche cooker for the evening, was amazed at the number of quiches people were eating. This of course prompted him to say, "No more quiches!"