Random thoughts

I have vacation in less than a week. Yay! Fortunately I have made plans, otherwise I wouldn't know what to do with myself, since work has eaten my life. Blogging is probably the only hobby I have left.

Speaking of work, more than one of the girls I work with (and likely some of the boys, but they aren't as willing to admit it) have talked about how this (residency) is the first time they've had to pay bills, or do laundry, or function as adults. One of them actually called off her wedding because she felt like they were just two kids who had no business getting married yet. This whole first time on your own thing is not really something I can empathize with, since I've been doing all that stuff for a really long time now. My thoughts are more along the lines of 'are you serious?' (yes, they are). I've had to explain to at least one of my fellow interns that she can't buy shoes until after the electricity bill is paid. Its mind blowing that anyone could reach their mid-twenties and never have had to be an adult.

We've got some lovely fall color here; I'll post some pictures when I get a chance to take some (soon!).

I've been thinking about food, and our relationship with it. A lot of us, especially in the US, eat a lot of food. We are eating constantly. So much sugar, snacks in between meals, and to miss a meal is death... In the hospital its the most obese people who complain the most when we ask them to not eat so they can have a procedure. Skipping one meal, barely long enough to notice you missed it, results in whining like they can't last another minute on their own body fat, when in reality, they could last several months on their own body fat. They are convinced that they should never experience hunger. But hunger doesn't kill you, at least not for a long time, and there's actually a growing body of evidence that says its a lot healthier to live on the hungry side than on the well-fed side. If you don't believe this, I can show you half of the people currently admitted to my hospital, who are morbidly obese and have a lengthy list of health problems to show for it. And who will whine if we tell them to not eat for more than an hour.

My own gut troubles have greatly influenced by eating habits. My stomach is less likely to give me pain signals if I don't put much in it. Its less likely to feel like its punching me from within if I don't ask much of it by way of digestion. Before this, I looked on missing a meal as not quite the intolerable calamity that some people see it as, but I definitely felt that each meal was important, and should not be missed. Now, what with my stomach not wanting food put in it, and not really sending me many hunger signals, and whining at me if I do eat a regular meal, I have been freed from the endless cycle of anxiously planning for the next meal. It is incredibly liberating to be busy and to realize its probably dinner time and then realize that, no, I don't need to go eat something. Incidentally, this is also a good cost-saving measure.

On other cost-saving measures, when I moved to Cleveland and decided the city water tasted disgusting, I bought a water filter, the kind that attaches to the sink. It was never 100% satisfactory, as it was very slow, didn't yield a really good-tasting result, and had a malfunctioning status light (its supposed to let me know when the filter needs to be changed). Instead of knowing when the filter was exhausted via signal light, I went with the three month estimate, and sucked it up and bought a new filter, which was not that cheap but way more cost-effective than bottled water. For some reason, this new filter is way better; it works quickly, yields a better tasting water, and ... no, the light still doesn't work :) You can't have everything, I guess.