You may be wondering if my momentum from the first two weeks in my new house have continued over the last 8 months of working 60-80 hours a week.  Well, I would say it has slowed but not stopped.  Here are some update pics of the major rooms, move-in day compared to now, and the projects still to go!



Move in day... very yellow.



I'm digging the crooked light fixture



Love the big window.



Today



Slightly after move in day...

Painted, got a bed, added ceiling fan

Curtains, shelves, etc.

Move in day... empty.

Move in day... note the missing outlet covers.

Today, walls painted, mirror up, new(ish) bedding, cat.

Today: Bedside tables, white ceiling fan.

Today: Stuff on walls, curtains, lots of sunshine (it was nearly 70 today!).

Move in day: Wooden fireplace, pink/orangy walls, big picture window

Move in day: Kinda tunnel-like, missing outlet cover.

Today: White fireplace, new sectional, coffee table, rug.

Today: Bookshelf, picture window, entryway.

Move in day: Green metal cabinets, broken sink hose, old linoleum floors.

Move in day: lots of bisque appliances.

Today: White cabinets, new stove, trash and recycling, new faucet/hose, new hardware, new light fixture, old floors are still there.

Today: Shelf painted white, wine rack, extra counterspace, homemade window treatment, awesome mixer.

A few weeks back, another resident and I had the opportunity to serve as the IAFP Physician(s) of the Day for the Indiana General Assembly.  Basically, you hang out at the state capitol and treat another with urgent or emergent medical problems.  There's a little medical office with supplies and an exam table, and you get a pager so you're not tied to the office if there aren't any patients to see. 

Things were relatively slow that day medicine wise, so we spent most of the day wandering around the capitol and eating free breakfast from the Indiana Soybean Alliance.  No, really, the ISA provided a delicious (non-soy based) breakfast for Senators, Representatives, their staff, and apparently a couple of "you don't look old enough to be a" doctors.  Go figure.  Drug companies can't provide free pens because they might skew our prescribing practices, but the Indiana Soybean Alliance (and about 100 other interest groups) can provide free breakfast, and maybe some informational pamphlets, to our lawmakers.  Hypocracy if you ask me.  And yes, I did take an ISA pen off the table.

Anyway, part of being Physician of the Day is that you are introduced in both the House and Senate when they convene.  The Senate's meeting for that day lasted about 2 minutes, and sounded more like an auction than lawmaking.  But it was certainly interesting!  Our stint in the House was a little more dramatic.



Excuse the sideways-ness of this picture.  In trying to fix that, I almost threw my computer on the floow, so I decided to just give up.


So, one of the perks of being POD is that you actually get to stay on the floor of the House (or Senate) while they're in session.  Really no one other than the Representatives, the occasional staff member, and the Minister of the Day get to do that.  Normally, I'm sure that's a pretty pointless perk.  There's a gallery that any Joe Schmoe off the street can sit in and overlook the session... and the day we were there, there were a LOT of Joe Schmoe's sitting up there, as well as a lot standing outside the doors of the House.  We just so happen to have come on a day that the house was voting on "Right to Work" legislation, which deals with whether or not an employee can be required to be a member of a union.  I don't really get unions all that well, so I don't have a great opinion of this legislation.  I do know that a LOT of people were very worked up about it.  Looking at the debate (which lasted about 4 hours that day, involved a fair bit of yelling, chanting, and some stories that made absolutely no sense), in the pure sense of a debate, I would say the republicans (who wrote the legislsation) won, hands down. 

Either way, it passed, to later be voted on by the senate and signed by the govenor.  It was very exciting.

I think this was a slightly atypical day as POD, given the high profile legislation that was being voted on.  However, I still think it was a cool opportunity and would love to do it again!

Peace out,
Kari

PS.  Yes, I do realize it has been over a month and a half since I posted anything.  I'm terrible, I know.  I have lots of things to share, though, so be on the lookout!

After living in North Carolina for 4 years, my winter weather wardrobe was somewhat depleted when I arrived in Indiana.  All fall, I was looking for a pair of winter boots since I was told there' lots-o-snow up here near Lake Michigan.  Pretty much the only specification was something that will keep my feet warm and dry without weighting 47 lbs.  I ended up with the Sorel Suka II. 

Finally, it snowed.

I'm so happy.

That is all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Wyatt sees thrilled, doesn't he?

I have a tale to tell you... a tale about my Christmas tree.  I REALLY wanted to get a real tree from a Christmas tree farm, cut down with my own two hands (and a saw, of course).  That planned flopped a couple times, and on the last day I was going to try to get there, I had a water pipe leak in the ceiling and instead of a Christmas tree, I got a plumber.  Wop wop. 

I didn't want a fake tree because we always had a real one at home, I love the way they smell, and I just wanted one.  But in the end, I decided I'd rather have a fake tree than no tree at all... so I broke down and bought one.  It didn't hurt that I waited long enough for them to be 50% off either...

Even though my tree is nothing special, I needed something to hang my ornaments on... because they ARE special.  Some people pick a theme for their tree, and totally change the look each year.  My tree's theme is "I've been getting ornaments every year since I was born and I want to show them off".  It's the theme I use every year.  I got a bunch of them from home this year (although not all, I'm sure), and added some simple blue and silver balls to fill it up.  Here are a few of my favorite ornaments...


The bad news:  I have to work on Christmas Day... and the day after Christmas... and the day before Christmas... and New Years.  That make it challenging (ie impossible) to make it home to PA for Christmas. 

The good news:  I got this stocking in a box of presents from my parents today...


Why, yes, that is a stocking made out of a paper bag with actual stitching filled with Christmas goodies.  Thank you for asking. 

At home, I have a hand-made cross stitched stocking that I've had since... forever.  Being as it's at home in PA and I am in IN, I couldn't hang it from my mantle.  So I got a cheapo sustitute.  And then I got this one.

The paper bag stocking is WAY better than my replacement.  A little taste of home (the peanut butter balls I got in the same box also taste a lot like home...) even though I can be there.

Thanks mom and dad!  For the stocking and other presents I haven't opened because it's not Christmas yet and that would be cheating!

Merry Christmas!
Kari

This morning, I spent a tremendous amount of time going through, cleaning out, and organizing files.  Lots and lots of files.  I hadn't put ANYTHING away since moving 6 months ago, and decided it was high time I find my desk under a small tropical forest's worth of paper.  Mission: accomplished.

In all the wading, I stumbled upon lots of old things I hadn't read in a long time.  Letter from friends, cards, old graded papers and tests.  Among those things, I also found my AMCAS application for med school.  I submitted that application on 8/5/2005, just after my 20th birthday and shortly before starting my junior year in college.  In the 6+ years since writing it, lots has changed.  And lots hasn't.  I was only halfway through college when I wrote this personal statement, thinking I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon, traveling the world, figuring out who I was.  I actually wrote it on a plane flying home from South Africa, using a little journal of handmade paper that only halfway opened, and a red pen.  I thought about writing a big analysis of how my life is now compared to what I expected of myself back then, but I decided it would be more fun to just throw it out there and let you all make your own judgements.  Enjoy...

(ps...  I didn't edit this at all, even though I wanted to change some grammar and wording.  That would have been cheating...)

In his book, "God Has a Dream", Bishop Desmond Tutu writes about a way of thinking known as Ubuntu theology.  He claims that all people are connected, that "I am because you are."  This summer, I had the opportunity to travel to the small country of Lesotho in southern Africa.  It was in Lesotho that the meaning of Tutu's theology challenged by dreams for my future.

During evening discussions, the students and I questioned one another in hopes of understanding our experiences.  I struggled with the injustices of the poverty I witnessed that threatened the lives of my new-found friends.  If Tutu is right, and "I am because you are", what is my role in changing the injustice facing humanity?  What can I be to help the "you"'s of the world in their individual struggles?

When I first thought about these questions, my nicely planned life was rapidly turned upside down.  I thought that in order to be the person Lesotho and its people inspired me to be, I would have to make some frightening, dramatic, and unknown shifts in my future plans.  The impact the people of Lesotho, their stories, and their reality had on me was unfathomable.  I participated in a worship service with over 300 people, momentarily oblivious to the fact that, statistically, over thirty percent of them were HIV positive, and most made less than $300 a year. 

Reflecting on these realities, I began to question my own path, my own future.  I could not continue to be ignorant or apathetic to the plights of those with whom I share this world.  I took on a hemisphere's responsibility in a single evening and did not know what to do or where to start.  My mind and heart wrestled with Tutu's, "I am because you are".  What if I am the "you are"?  Do my thoughts, decisions, and actions directly impact human reality?  Is the status of each orphaned child and homeless family in Lesotho a result of who I am?  The lives of real people across the world may rest on my incapable shoulders.  I struggled with how to handle that realization.

I could not at first see how my pursuit of a career in medicine fit into this quest for justice.  I didn't know how living out my dream of being a surgeon could balance the equation of the Ubuntu theology.  But as I began to explore the possible meanings of Tutu's words, I came to the realization that they are fighting words, a challenge calling every person to the responsible for the whole of humanity.  "I am because you are."  The wrongs of the world can only be changed by magnifying and utilizing the individual gifts of every person.  We, as members of a global community, are blessed with gifts as diverse as the people who possess them, ans as important as the power that provides them.  These gifts allow Ubuntu theology to work.  If I am who I was meant to be, you can be who you were meant to be.

In an ideal world, people would discover, understand, and utilize their gifts to the highest potential.  However, this world is far from ideal.  Some are not given the opportunity to be who they are meant to be.  The injustices and inequalities of life in Lesotho and many other countries across the globe stifle the unique potential of each human being.  Simply being born in a certain place robs them of a choice, traps them in the life of generations before them.  at the same time, equally gifted men and women take their opportunities and choices for granted, and sacrifice their gifts for prestige, status, and appearance.  In an ideal world, choice would be standard and injustice would be rare.

I was faced with the sobering reality that my choices, these decisions about my life, were my chance to change the world.  Ubuntu theology had led me, though on a disturbing and challenging path, directly back to that overturned life plan.  Because I am who I am, I have a choice.  And because I have a choice, I have a rare chance to embrace my gifts and make my life what if can be.  My gift, my passion, is medicine.

People have never been shy about telling me how they think I should life my life.  I have been told I should be a teacher, paramedic, researcher, even a minister.  While each of these vocations would utilize one of my abilities, they fail to capture all that I am and who I can be.  My personality requires interaction with other people; an exchange of ideas and feelings and skills and hope.  My mind craves constant challenge; technical and difficult, new and always changing.  I am a problem solver; social, scientific, and personal.  The only career, the only future, I can see for myself is medicine.  While I was in Lesotho, I had a spontaneous desire to stay and make things right.  However, sacrificing my passion and gifts for something more "helpful" or "righteous" might be as harmful as choosing to remain ignorant would have been.  Where exactly medicine will take me is as uncertain as the future of Lesotho.  But I do know that if "I am because you are", I am meant to be a physician.  I cannot choose to ignore that gift.