2003-01-09 - 12:17 a.m.
2003. i havent wrote 2003 yet and we are 8 days in.
maybe because i have been hiding out in los angeles with my mom, dad and deepu more or less extending my vacation for two days. it has been ridiculously fun. eating and talking and my mom and dad telling stories. what brought on all the stories was my father's father life story that he wrote down before he died. i started to go through it and my mom and dad would add their own stories.
i get mileage tix so i keep changing them with no penalty and since i didnt technically have to be on campus till this morning i took the red eye from LAX to JFK last night.
I feel like i am in a new mental space for the new year. its bordering on a up beat-ness without rhyme or reason. which is the best kind. the alone passage from coast to coast to ice cold to empty room and empty fridge tested it a bit today. we'll see how it holds up.
i exercised, showered and sat silent for a good 30 min after coming home from Lady of Mercy hospital in the bronx. my second year preceptor started there today. we have to master the skills of taking a complete history(social/present illness/sexual/family)and do a complete physical exams. i am a little lost on the physical exam part but our doc only asked us to take the patients pulse, blood pressure and oscilltate the chest which i can do reasonably without goofing up.
patient was a black 28 yr old man with pancreaitis after drinking too much on new years eve.
i am reading the journals of thich nhat hanh from 1962-66 Fragrant Palm Leaves. the guy is an inspiration, fo shigadale. right now he is in the united states in early 1963 remembering the days in the hills in vietnam where they would yield themselves to the awesome vietnamese forest and spend time building the monostary and eating and drinking and talking. he aint no austere monk neither. running through the forests and yelling and yelling as he runs.
all his friends and him scurried in different directions after the corrupt vietnam govt listed them as dissenters. he is in princeton as a teaching fellow and the longing for the hills and a homeland and a people is so strong. its interesting to see this now super revered guy recount real time his daily doings when he was an unknown monk with only a pen and a will to speak and live truth and trying to push a buddhism that was distinctly for the people. for that he is still in exile in france.
with his descriptions of detail of nature i am becoming more aware of my own lack of keeness. and aware-dom is necessary for any booming live life or sometime writer.
not to mention a supposed med student.
sri
