Adverse Reactions

I'm 72 hours away from being an MD.  I also recently wrote a novel.  I thought those were 2 separate events, but I'm getting  a lot strange feedback from people who think they are highly correlated.

Adverse reaction #1:  On the back of my book, I wrote a pretty funny "about the author segment".  Part of it implies that I came up with the plot of the novel while daydreaming during medical school lectures.  Another part says that the book is best read when you are drunk (it was all written in jest). Funny, right?  Well one person had already told me that I shouldn't have implied that I daydreamed during lectures, because if a patient read that then they would lose faith in me.

Adverse reaction #2: I wrote the book in a month.  So there are typos. And grammatical mistakes. And misspellings.  But it says,  on the very first page of the book, that it was written in a month- so I tried to warn my readers beforehand. Again, someone told me that there are high expectations of any book written by someone with as much education as me, and that all  of the mistakes reflect poorly on me.

I am proud that I wrote a book.  I don't think my MD should hold me to any higher literary standard than you would hold anyone else with zero writing training.  Now, if I had written about an appendectomy and said that it was on the left side, then I should be held accountable. But if I occasional change tense mid-sentence, cut me some slack.  I wrote 90% of the book on airplanes between residency interviews, so my attention was usually in 6 different places at once.

Also, I will fully admit that I daydreamed in lectures.  And if anyone wants to question whether or not I learned everything I needed to learn, I've got some stellar board scores that I'd love to show you.

I'm already looking forward to writing my next novel in November.  It's going to rock.:-D

Goofy Goofy Boys

These are the last three pictures on my phone- of three different boys who are too goofy for words.

99 Cent Kindle Version and Amazon Paperback Available

I promise this is my last post about my book.  For those who actually know me in person, I cannot make any such guarantees about yapping about it.

The Kindle version is available for $.99 on Amazon.com
So is the paperback version for $9.99 on Amazon.com

NOVEL!!!

I wrote a book!!   It's in my hands!!! I'm in love with it, and I'm never going anywhere without it.

Would you like to buy a copy?!?!  BECAUSE YOU CAN!!!!!!! It's available for direct purchase through CreateSpace (the company that prints it) at this link https://www.createspace.com/3535974.  It'll be up on Amazon in 3-5 days.  It's listed at $9.99 on each site, which grants me a whooping $2.43 commission on each book sold (CHA CHING!!).  I actually get a little more commission through the CreateSpace site than through Amazon, but I think that Amazon will give you free shipping if you have Amazon Prime.

The bottom line is that you should buy the book if you want it, but don't do it to help me get rich.  Give me $10 if you want to give me $10.  I'm counting the whole thing as a success is I make enough cash to buy a Chipotle Burrito.

I should also put out a warning to my fans who are under 18, and my fans who are genetically related to me.  There's a sex scene.  Chapter 31.  When it starts to get steamy, just skip right ahead to the next chapter.  You won't miss anything in terms of the plot, and I think we'll all be more comfortable at the next family reunion.

State of the Hutch Address

Stemware racks added!

Modern Family Mother's Day Episode

I'm not a very sensitive person, and I don't get offended easily.  So maybe I was just in a funny mood the other night, or ate some bad shrimp- but I found the most recent episode of Modern Family about Mother's Day sort of incredibly offensive to women.

One of the major plotlines of the episode is that one of the gay fathers, who stays at home full time with their daughter, is treated like a mother on Mother's Day, and resents the implication that he is "like a woman".  He, and his partner both spend the entire episode making these really offensive comments like, "There's nothing we (gay men) hate more than being treated like women.  We don't have a special time of the month, and we don't want to come your baby shower."  They say it with such disgust in their voice, as though being compared to a woman is the most terrible insult you could possibly utter.  And they keep harping on it the WHOLE episode.  I almost expected them too look at a moldy piece of bread at some point in the episode as gasp, "That's so disgusting!! It's almost like... like... like... a woman!"

I found it all very offensive.  Can you imagine if the episode was about a dark skinned Caucasian going on and on about how insulted they were that someone mistook them for an African American (implying that being African American is so utterly despicable...)?  Or if someone who was straight flipped out about being treated as if they were gay?  Isn't this the main reason that society has moved away from using "gay" and "retarded" as adjectives?  I also hate how the episode "redeems" this plotline- by telling the insulted character that "it's ok to be compared to woman, because women are so nurturing".  Apparently we're back to 1950's when our only worth is as a mother/homemaker.

Anyway, I'd love to hear other people's thought on the episode if they've had a chance to watch it.  It's on HULU if you're super interested. 

End of rant.

HGTV'd!!

If I've learned anything during the 4th year of medical school, it's that HGTV is amazing. I'm eager to start decorating my new Chicago apartment- but I can't start buying most of the stuff that I want yet since it doesn't make sense to buy it here and then move it.

But I decided to makeover our ugly dining room hutch today, since a pretty hutch doesn't take up any more space than am ugly one.

Here's the BEFORE picture:

Did you notice the 1970's gold-leafed design on the outermost 2 glass panels? And the ugly hardware? And the overall depressing feel? It had to go.

First step was taking off the paint from the side panels. After quickly googling "How to Remove Paint From Glass", it seemed like the most universal element was just taking a razor to the glass and chipping away at the paint. That was exactly as fun as it sounds.

Next, I went to Home Depot to find pretty new hardware for the cabinets. I was greeting by this ridiculous amount of selection...

... only to be informed that the handles I was replacing were a VERY old style that didn't fit any conventional sizing. Bummer!! So none of the pretty handles would fit what I needed. So instead, a nice man told me that I could spraypaint the existing hardware for MUCH cheaper than buying new ones anyway.

My last big change was to wallpaper the back of the hutch.  This is something that I've seen done on HGTV a lot on bookshelves and cabinets to add color, and I always thought it was such a cool idea.  So here is the final product!!  Well, almost final.  I ordered some stemware racks online, which I'm going to hang on the inside of the ceiling, so that I can hang my pretty wineglasses in my pretty new hutch!!

I'm SO excited to fill it with all kinds of goodies once I get settled in Chicago.  I really like that it'll provide a mix of storage for pretty things (behind the glass) and not-so-pretty things (in the fabric bins and the cabinets underneath).  I also found some cheap recessed lights that I might buy to put inside.  That will depend partially on how much lighting there is already in our dining room, so I'll probably hold off on that.

Here's the total cost for the project
-Ugly Hutch from Salvation Army -$40
-Can of metallic spray paint -$5
-Patterned white wallpaper- $12
-Stemware rack- $13

Total: $60.  Not bad, eh?