Aetna Wants Colonoscopies Without Anaesthesiologists

Just another example how health insurance companies want to stick it up your bung-hole.

Good Karma Day

I watched a sappy romance movie last night with my friends as a post-exam celebration, and got SO sappy that I paid Darron a surprise visit afterwards to give him lots of hugs and kisses! I think today I must've gotten good karma because of it.

I got to see the sunrise this morning because I got up really early. It was so pretty! Then I checked my email to find a message saying morning classes were cancelled because the professor retired. What luck! How often does that happen?! So I took advantage and went back to bed until really late. When I woke up again, I took a shower by daylight only, not using the fluorescent light (my bathroom doesn't have windows, so it has to be late enough in the day that the sun can shine through my bedroom and then into the shower). It's such a nice, pleasant, natural-woman thing to do! I had a nice leisurely breakfast/lunch, and it was a gorgeous day so I enjoyed my bike ride to class and back home in the sun - not too hot, not too cold, just right. It was so nice that I wore flip-flops and a tank-top with my New Zealand fishhook necklace, and got some nice compliments! And then I got a nice little present in the mail from my mommy and daddy on their trip to Hawaii last week! =)

THEN I came home to find an email saying my summer research had been accepted for presentation in May at the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Conference in Washington, DC. The funny thing was, I thought the doctor who I'd done the research for had submitted the abstract for the Regional Conference. UC Irvine is hosting that one in March, and it'll be a more local, laid-back atmosphere because it's run by my department. But the DC one is the biggie, and I didn't even know we were submitting for that! So imagine my surprise at the email... and a little excitement and a little nervousness.

Oh and another good thing: I got an exam score back today, and I did even better than I thought I did! THAT never happens.

What a nice day! At this rate, I should give Darron lots of hugs and kisses more often. =)

Drinking and Driving

Our EMIG (Emergency Medicine Interest Group) pulled off a major DUI prevention event at a local high school yesterday, in an effort to keep little teenage drunkards from killing people. It started with a mock car crash, then an auditorium presentation by a doctor, then breaking the 400 students into small group discussions led by med students. Ironically, we were hoping to get good media coverage but they were all at Cal State Dominguez Hills for a report of a gunman on campus - big teenage sociopath trying to kill people. Maybe next year we should involve the Psychiatry Interest Group and have a mock shooting spree to talk about the dangers of being under the influence of psychosis. But, as it turned out, it was an ROTC student carrying his nonfunctional rifle out in the open to class. Daiiiii!! Even without the paparazzi though, everyone had a good time. You can imagine how much I missed my job that day!

Click here for pictures.

Lobby Day in Sacramento

So you might be wondering what I do with all my free time.
See for yourself - I'm in the very back row.