Happy Birthday to Me!

I am one happy gal. Today, I'm celebrating my 23rd year!!

And it's been wonderful! I started it all with hot chocolate & roses and a haircut. And then my momma suprised me with my very own Kitchenaid mixer! And it's yellow! hahaha I am sooo excited. At the time I was utterly shocked and it took me a good five minutes to realize what I had just received haha! But it's awesome!

And then I had potato & egg breakfast tacos which were delicious. Seriously, I don't know how the rest of the world lives without breakfast tacos! I remember when I first heard about them I thought it was such a weird idea but now. now, I can't imagine living without them! haha

I just realized that I'm using a whole bunch of exclamation marks. Sorry, but I'm just that excited. Yes, if you were talking with me in person, I would be exclaiming each sentence!

Then, after picking up some breakfast tacos, my mom & I picked up my sister and we headed out for a girl's day. Unfortunately, the weather decided to be 42 and rainy all day long... not the clear blue skies & 60 degrees that it has been all week...because today is such a special day afterall, the weather had to be special too! haha..so we headed to Northstar Mall to look for shoes, instead of our usual La Cantera. Didn't have much luck there but that just means I'll have fun swooning in the shoe department at Nordstroms tomorrow!
We picked up my grandma (Ba) and went to Red Robin where I decided to live off of ice cream for lunch and had a strawberry milkshake! And I got a birthday call from my guy (who I'm missing terribly since he's waay out in NM) so I stepped out in the freezing cold to talk to him. I guess ya really like someone when you'll step out into 30-something degree, cold & rainy weather just to chat with them :)



Then after lunch my Mom, sis & I went to see "It's Complicated", which was cute & so funny! And now, I am enjoying the one peaceful break in my day where I get to sit at home before we go to Sushi Zushi for my family dinner. So I decided to write a quick update to the world. while I sit here and hug my new mixer. Did I mention it's yellow? Just think of all the goodies I'm going to make :o

The Holidays

This was the first year I had really seen the trees change color! how pretty!

Last Week- - - Post MSF. Monday night.

And for the first time I've realized, I don't know what I want beyond getting my M.D.. For soo long, this has been the goal. For so long I had this general idea that I would grow up and get married and have a family and work. Now that I am confident in my ability to gain my M.D., I find that I don't quite know what will be next. And that is exciting. Incredibly exciting.

Earlier this week I was rejected from the International Service Program to go to Honduras, which was half sad. I kinda knew that I botched the interview but I wasnt terribly shaken by the news that I didnt get in (although I kind of expected I would)...my first response was "it wasn't meant to be". And I really believe that. I have such faith now that I am where I am suppose to be, that whatever comes my way, what I have and who I am is all a gift from the Lord. I am confident that I will end up where I should this summer, and I'm really excited to see what I'll be doing.

Recently my interest has been peeked in pediatric oncology (but maybe that's just from watching too many St. Jude's commercials over Thanksgiving break)... I still don't know if I would be able to bear it but it's an interesting idea. And I've ALWAYS been interested in infectious disease and pediatrics and more recently global health. After watching the MSF documentary, I came away realizing that MSF should not be my goal. It is a good ambition to have, to do that sometime in my life but it's not necessarily the next thing or the biggest thing. Right now, I just know it would be awesome to do one day, and hopefully I'll have that chance.



Today, all I know is that tonight I have to study head & neck to do well (hopefully as well as I did on the midblock ) on Friday's exams. In my future, I know that next year (and semester, the start of "Phase II") will be even harder. But I will adjust. Then I will probably be in Round Rock for my clinical years. Who knows who will be in my life then or after that. Hopefully I will be able to keep some of the great friends I'm making now, but I know the only thing you can be sure of is change. So for now, I am happy with now. What I have right now is perfect for now. And hopefully, I'll find some direction about where to go next, all in due time.

Oh and p.s. that documentary made surgery look awesome. Still don't think I would want that life but just saying...

and p.s.s. if anyone is reading this, I hope they do something that challenges them. Do something that scares you. It's quite exciting. Even if you end up getting owned by rock walls and walk away a little shaken up.

Heart!

I am so thankful for all of my blessings!

...like being able to be on this path to become a physician, really good cozy hugs from a really great guy, being able to help others with the school's angel tree project, acting like I was 5 and filling my cup full of three different flavors and 5 toppings at Spoon's yogurt shop, really fun Guster songs like "all the way to heaven", having two hyper little dogs running around, wearing cute clothes, my fun roomies and classmates and my wonderful family!




Today I went to the 2nd meeting of the Catholic Medical Student Association at our school. The father had some great pearls that I've been tossing around in my cabeza, and one of them got me to count my blessings in all the people around me! I also ran for and was unaminously (unopposed) elected to Community Outreach chair of the organization. Then I go the best hug from the best guy today (and two kisses!) then I went to a development of the pharynx lecture. From there, my roomies and I went Christmas shopping for our Angel Tree recipient. I am doing two angel tree gifts (with my tank group too) and doing Secret Santa! yay!... I still need to do my regular christmas shopping :o ...Then we went to Spoon's since it was across the street...yay! for a fun day :)

Weekend Vac-a

I had a wonderful 2 day vacation! The second weekend I have had off since August!! And it sure was swell :)
Friday--- it snowed!! Snow flurries started around 10am and my roomies and i standing around outside just staring at the sky. and then quickly remembering it was freezing...by the time noon rolled around, we were headed in to take our midblock test for head & neck and it REALLY started snowing! I mean it started coming down fast and furious which I haven't seen before!! It was amazing! At school, we played in the court yard as long as could pre-test...then we had the midblock exam. And sadly during that two hours, the snow went away but it was alright because the test was OVER! Post- test I found myself twittling in my thumbs until my amiga Riham called me to go to La Bodega. I hung out with about 30 of my closest m1 buddies there until around 7pm, when I went home to get ready for my date!
We couldn't remember, but I was pretty sure this was date #5... He picked me up from my house and took me to Luigi's, one of the nicest places in town (& one of a handful of italian places here!). The restaraunt had a christmas tree decorated with kitchen utensils and bags of pasta! too cute! Dinner was wonderful, for both the food and the company. Afterwards, we went back to his place and watched "We Own the Night" with one of his roomates and another M2 amiga.

Saturday--- i slept in! yay! then around noon my folks arrived in town! I was soo happy to see them...after giving them the tour of the christmas-decorated house, we went out to lunch and then shopping! We went to the mall and target and after dropping off the goods, went out to Texas Roadhouse and then to the movies to watch "Everybody's Fine". Back at the casa, my dad and I listened to the last 2 quarters of the UT vs Nebraska football game....and boooy did UT get lucky!! Seriously, a second left on the clock, to win the game with a 46 yard field goal?! Crazy stuff!
Sunday---I accidently slept in, somehow turning off my alarm this morning...but made it to morning mass at St. Mary's and then to HEB and lunch at Blue Baker! Then my parents headed back home :( So then I found myself some more of nothing to do... so I: took a warm shower, baked some delicious double chocolate cookies, played tug-of-war with Bella, watched "The Holiday" (sooo cute!!), prepared Linguine Zucchini, almost cut my finger off cutting up zucchini, ate dinner, researched my next camera, and theen went to see my guy and share my cookies with the household there :)

Oh yeah, and I do realize how silly this is but he no longer lists himself as single on fb. I know thats silly, but I was really excited to see that :)