Taco Tour!

Alicia and I rode in the Taco Tour on Friday, which was definitely an interesting experience. It was organized by Bike Ypsi, a group of enthusiastic and eclectic cyclists from Ypsilanti (and a few from Ann Arbor like us). The weather didn’t look overly promising, but we pushed onward, having been assured by cyclists who participated in last year’s event that it was more fun in a torrential downpour. It ended up only raining lightly for a little bit toward the start of the ride.

Because we were riding through lots of parts of Ypsilanti, the traffic and road quality varied, though the organizers did an incredible job of selecting lovely roads for us to use as we biked between taco locales. Overall, I think the ride was about 20 miles, with only a few hills. I was tired by the end and, as always, resolved to bike more during the week to avoid the weekend exhaustion/weakness.

The tacos were clearly the highlight of the tour. We started at Los Amigos, which served a hard shelled taco with lots of shredded cheese and cilantro. I had a bean taco, and enjoyed it. The shell wasn’t great, but the cheese was delicious. After a long-ish trek out to Ypsi Township for
Los Amigos, we headed back into town for Dos Hermanos, a Mexican market in Ypsilanti that carries an amazing array of delicious goods. I thought their tacos were the best – small fresh tortillas with spicy beans and pico de gallo. After several other places that fell somewhere in between both geographically and in terms of their food, we arrived at La Fiesta Mexicana, a restaurant I know and love right near Depot Town. They served a delicious potato taco in a freshly fried (and thus hard shell) tortilla. Anything that has been recently fried is delicious, which I thought gave them a rather unfair advantage in the voting.

Finally, we headed back toward the start of the ride and united at the Corner Brewery for some chips and salsa beer brewed specially for the Taco Tour. It was not delicious. Alicia rightly suspected that it would be awful and ordered one of our old standbys. I made her share with me, and help me drink my small glass of really spicy beer. I’ve concluded that beer should not be spicy. It is not refreshing to have your drink leave a hot burning taste in your mouth, especially when you can’t bring yourself to eat something salty with it because you’ve already eaten six tacos…

It was a great day, and we left with spoke cards and t-shirts to show off around town.

Baby Bunnies

My neighbor pointed me in the direction of these tiny bunnies yesterday morning, though my ability to take good photos was hampered by my dying camera. You can still tell how cute they are though! Later in the day I only saw two of them hopping around the grass. I’m choosing to believe that the others found a less conspicuous hiding place…

Does balance exist?

A year or two ago I overheard two faculty members discussing the start of another busy semester.  One said to the other “Every semester I think it will get better, but it never seems to.  I find myself with just as much work, even though I vowed to cut back.”  This is a bit of a paraphrase, but you get the idea.  These were not junior faculty.  They were not disorganized faculty.  They were not unaccomplished faculty.  In fact, they were the kind of faculty I aspire to be when I grow up.  Which brings us to today’s question: is balance between work and family/life/play really possible?  The answer has to be yes, but at what cost?

Some doctors I’ve spoken with choose to prioritize their lives outside of clinical work, and often make conscious decisions to be excellent clinicians while acknowledging that they will neither be experts in their field, nor will they publish papers about their work.  They see patients, often in generalist clinics, enjoy their work, and lead happy lives.

Others, who hold both research and clinical positions, manage a small generalist clinical practice while engaging in collaborative research projects.  They are able to prioritize their lives, but often at the expense of being organized and having a sense of control over their lives.  This is my sense, at least, looking in from the outside. 

Few even manage to truly escape for a few days or a few weeks in the summer and really rest and recharge with family and friends.  Returning to the “real world” after that seems almost impossible however, and things are missed. 

Nearly everyone that I’ve talked to has struggled with balancing their work lives (whether research based, clinical, or some combination their of) with their personal lives.  The two options I’ve described above are simply two strategies for carving out time.  It’s clear to me that the hours in the day are finite, and that the opportunity costs of any choice are high.  I suppose what it comes down to in the end, however, are priorities.  Where do expertise and prestige fall in comparison to sleep?  How do children and home life compare with patients and paperwork?  What kinds of work are reimbursed in what ways, and how does that limit the choices we make?  Are there other rewards that motivate us beyond fame and fortune?  Apart from family and friends?

There is no easy answer, and I’m finding this term as difficult as any other.  What must unite us all, however, is that we keep struggling.

Really?

Today:

11-12 Lunch with students

1-2 Discussion

3-5 Coffee time with students

5-6 Meeting about the class

6-6:30 Meeting about my observed class time

?:??-?:?? My work

The first day of fall…

The tiniest tinge of fall color...

Having googled autumnal equinox, I’ve discovered that fall in the Northern Hemisphere actually began at 5:19am this morning. The link will lead you to an enthralling National Geographic discussion of what equinoxes are, and will also explain that “the true days of day-night equality always fall after the autumnal equinox and before the vernal, or spring, equinox…”

Official or no, it does NOT feel like fall. Last week we had some lovely crisp days and chilly nights. This week, it has been muggy, thunderstormy, and terrible – it’s like we are getting the bit of July that we missed earlier in the summer. Temperatures are forecasted to be in the upper 70s and low 80s this week, but I’m hopeful that it will cool down after this.

Tour de Troit

As promised, Alicia and I rode in the Tour de Troit today. Aside from a little frustration due to a riders angering our police escort by riding on the wrong side of the road, and some slowdowns due to who-knows-what, it was wonderful. The weather couldn’t have been better, and we both had a great time!


The ride started in front of the old train depot – long abandoned, and tragically empty-looking. I’ve heard that there are talks about how to best use the space, and I hope that they are able to keep the original building intact and repurpose the structure as it stands.


We rode through a lot of different neighborhoods, guided by the numbered list of sights to see on our map of the route. Notable among them were Corktown, the Ambassador Bridge, the Heidelberg Project and the remains of the old Tiger Stadium. It was sad to see how empty so much of the city is, even on a Saturday afternoon, but there were a decent number of folks out watching the riders. I heard that there were 1800-2000 riders today, which is amazing!


About halfway through the ride (~17 miles), we stopped at F. Gabriel Richard Park, which is right across from Belle Isle. It seemed a lovely symmetry, given that we started our summer of Detroit biking around that lovely little island. We ended the ride (~30 miles) back at Roosevelt Park (outside the train depot), loaded the bikes back into the car, and had lunch courtesy of a number of restaurants in Southwest Detroit – Organaman’s Catering (delicious burrito – sorry, no website) and Moo Moo’s (black bean patty and corn/something salsa).

Overall, it was a great day, and a fitting finale to our Summer of Detroit.

Really the end of the summer of Detroit

With a few last hurrahs, Alicia and I are winding down our summer of Detroit. We’ve enjoyed it a great deal, and are likely to continue with Detroit through the seasons as long as we are in Ann Arbor. I don’t think that enough folks really take advantage of all of the cool stuff that goes on in the D…

Here’s what we’ve been up to:

Ra Ra Riot: They are an awesome band out of Brooklyn, and they happen to be playing at the Polish Festival in Hamtramck over Labor Day Weekend. While definitely not the same as the City of Detroit, Hamtramck is entirely within the city limits of Detroit, so I think it counts well enough. We’ve been pretty liberal with our definition of “summer of Detroit” thus far, including Grosse Pointe, so I think this still fits. Anyway, I hadn’t heard much about this band before Alicia mentioned them (nothing new there), but they had a really great and tiny cellist, which I always admire. I even took a photo with her – she is super tiny!

Matt and Kim: Another Brooklyn band, another great concert. This one was at the Magic Stick, a smaller venue attached to the Majestic Theater right on Woodward Ave. It was especially exciting to see them right after the Video Music Awards, at which they won an award for their amazing video streaking through Times Square. The show was great and the crowd was crazy, though it made me wish even more than Michigan would go smoke free. It just seems wrong that someone could just stand next to you inside a really crowded venue and smoke. Keep your fingers crossed and contact your legislator!

Tour de Troit: This event is still upcoming. On Saturday, Alicia and I will be riding in this 30 mile ride around the fair city of Detroit. This ride has been going on since at least 2002, and they always have really amazing routes. I’m looking forward to getting to see a new part of the city (or a familiar part from a different vantage point). I’m a little nervous about the mileage, as I’ve been off the bike a bit. I’ve been riding this week though, and 30 miles isn’t too bad, so with any luck I’ll just be a bit sore the following day!

Day 1

Classes haven’t started, but I had my first day of proficiency exams and orientation meetings for my GSI (graduate student instructor, or TA for those of you at institutions that use that acronym) position.  It was a little crazy, going from not really having spoken Spanish in a while to interacting almost exclusively in Spanish all day.  It was a bit of a transition, and I was definitely “cometiendo errores” all day…  Thankfully I was examining others on their proficiency and not being examined. 

For those of you not in the know, I am teaching the discussion section of an advanced introductory Spanish course this semester.  This means that I’m not teaching grammar and vocabulary (they have that in the mornings), but that I’m helping them navigate readings, essays, and other activities to help them immerse themselves in the language.  I also have lunch with them a few times a week and attend several coffee chats during the semester, at all of which I will engage them in lively chatter exclusively en espa~nol.  (The ~ is the closest I seem to be able to get…  Sorry…) 

I’m pretty excited, though I know that it is going to be a lot of work.  I have enjoyed my previous teaching positions, and this one has the added benefit of qualitative evaluations rather than letter grades.  I teach 4 days a week, but so far it’s fun.  The faculty who run the course are dedicated and interesting, so I anticipate having an exciting semester. 

Hasta pronto!

Cupcakes (and a wedding)

Last weekend, Alicia’s mom got married. It was really beautiful and everyone had a great time. True to form, my favorite part was the dessert. A wonderful friend of the family had made an array of delicious cupcakes that were so wonderful and beautiful. They were stunning to look at, and even more stunning to eat!

Actually, my favorite part of the wedding may have been meeting Bud, Alicia’s grandfather. As a public health and medical student, I spend a lot of time learning about everything that can go wrong as a person ages. We discuss at length the isolation and difficulty that can accompany reaching the mature age of 89 (if one reaches it at all!), but often forget that there are lots of dynamic and active older folks who should inspire us all to get moving and keep our senses of humor. Bud is one of these! Still hilarious (at least I thought so – he tells people he would be 90 but he was sick for a year), still golfing, and still catching a ride with a nephew to see his daughter get married, I’d be pretty happy if I were doing as well as he is when I get to his age. I don’t know what the lesson is here, but I’m convinced there is one. Maybe it’s that laughing keeps you young. Maybe it’s that we need to raise our expectations for the later years: absence of disease is not necessarily health. Maybe it’s that articulating the lesson doesn’t matter, just keep laughing, eating cupcakes and living your life.

Did someone hit "whir”?

I know that it feels like fall outside.  It’s been cool and crisp, and I can see tiny bits of brown and red on the edges of the still green leaves, but it is only September 1.  That’s practically still August, which everyone knows is decidedly not fall.  In spite of this, things seem to be ramping up quickly.  Working through my various e-mails this morning I had the distinct feeling that on the little blender that is my life, someone hit the “whir” button.  Suddenly there are September bills, preparation for school starting again, and clear evidence in my e-mail that everyone is back from their summer breaks and ready to get going… 

Time for a few deep breaths, and then a big one before diving in.

Amazing salad

I read about Mark Bittman’s simple summer salads on a blog I follow, and I was motivated to find the list for myself. The list of 101 Simple Summer Salads appears on the NYTimes website as part of “The Minimalist” column. So far, I have made salads #1, #2, #6, #14, #21, #23, #33, and #40. None of them have been bad, and some of them have been truly amazing. I would definitely put salad #2 at the absolute top of the list. The text describing this salad reads:

2. Mix wedges of tomatoes and peaches, add slivers of red onion, a few red-pepper flakes and cilantro. Dress with olive oil and lime or lemon juice. Astonishing.

I never thought I’d describe a salad as astonishing, but it was incredible. Simply amazing!

(I adjusted the exposure and contrast on this photo after taking it... Both of the bright photos I got were blurry.)

Discovered something cool

I’ve started tracking the length of my knitting…  It’s in the sidebar!

You can get your own at www.knitmeter.com! 

Getting ready for fall?

It’s hard to believe it’s already August 21.  Really hard to believe…  The summers always seem to go slowly at the beginning, while I figure out what I’m doing for the summer and really get started, and then go so quickly at the end. 

This year was a little bit different because of prelims.  I had a wonderful two weeks of writing and doing little else.  (The little else is what made it wonderful – I had totally blocked off that two weeks to work and discovered that when I’m not engaged with 12 million other tasks, I quite enjoy my work and some time off when it’s done.)  After that I realized just how fried I was after all of the grading and prelim prep of the winter semester, and spent a while trying to work but not accomplishing anything, and then another little while working on my various summer projects.  After I got my prelim rewrite I discovered the negative of having prepared for the whole semester leading up to it: I had absolutely zero desire to ever see the document again.  Having overcome that (but wasted a lot of time trying to work in the meantime), I finished the rewrite.  I was finally starting to get productive again when I was struck down with the flu (as I posted earlier).  Ironically (though unsurprisingly to everyone who knows me), this bug was actually exactly what I needed.  I slept, read complete novels and memoires in mere days, slept more, and drank lots of fluids.  Even though I was tired and physically ill, I felt great emotionally!  Once I was able to walk around again (and dropped that lovely hacking cough), I got back to work, but that was only a few weeks ago.  I’ve been getting things done since then, and can hardly believe how the summer seems to have flown.

I suppose, in retrospect, that this summer really is no different from previous ones.  The formula tends to be:

1. get totally burned out during winter semester
2. pretend not to be burned out and attempt to work at the beginning of the summer
3. recognize burnout and relax a bit, maybe even take a vacation
4. get ready for fall because it’s almost here

Someday I’ll learn, and maybe even avoid the burnout, but I doubt it…  It doesn’t seem to be in my nature.  

Fun in Ann Arbor

Here are Alicia and I enjoying ourselves at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase.

Sometimes I find myself getting a little down on Ann Arbor. This is the beginning of our ninth year here, and it’s not that big a town. That said, there is more to do here than I give it credit for. We went for their open mic night, not sure of what we’d find. It was definitely worth the $5 ticket (and the $2.75 bottomless popcorn). They schedule the evening well, with the newer folks toward the beginning and more experienced folks toward the end. Everyone was pretty good, and we had a nice time. They also host touring comics who are often quite hilarious – we’ve seen a few folks there – and I’d recommend checking out the schedule when you’re in town.

Back to the blog

I haven’t posted here in a long time, but I’m coming back.  I still post on the medical school blog, but I feel strange posting my random thoughts and ramblings on the medical school’s admission’s website.  I’ll try to transfer my old posts over to this site (and back-date them!), but everything new will go here. 

Welcome back!

Not even the cool kind…

Where I’ve been recovering for the past few days, with the thinly veiled dog hiding from the camera.

I’ve been home sick for the past few days, and I think that I’ve actually had the flu. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I had a flu shot back in the fall, and it’s not really flu season any more, but when it all started happening there didn’t seem to be any other explanation. On Wednesday, I woke up with what seemed like an oddly fast-progressing cold. I didn’t have any head congestion, just this cough and crazy fatigue. The next day, it continued, and I cancelled my blood donation and lunch with a pregnant friend in the interest of not exposing them to my bizarre cold. When I called the Red Cross to find out whether I could still donate, I was asked whether I had a fever. I glibly said no, but after hanging up realized I hadn’t actually taken my temperature – turns out it was actually just below 100 degrees F. Now, in all fairness this is a low grade fever. And it only got a little higher over the following few days. But it seemed so odd for a cold.

Like any good public health student, I hopped onto the CDC website to check out their info on flu and colds. The fever, rapid onset cough, tiredness, and lack of other congestion pointed me toward the possibility that I actually had influenza. At that point, I started to get excited. Could I have swine flu, I asked myself? I was on a plane from Washington DC just a few days before I got sick, so this bug could have come from anywhere. I read further on the website, however, and it became clear that without the diarrhea and vomiting that seemed to accompany swine flu, it was unlikely that that’s what I was experiencing. I have to admit, I felt a bit cheated. I’ve been feeling pretty crappy over the past few days and I’d hoped that if I had to go through this, I would at least come out with a great conversation starter – “How was your summer?” “Oh, you know, okay, but I did have swine flu.” Alas, I simply seem to have had a mild flu strain that took me down when I was most vulnerable (read: tired).

As I write this, it’s Saturday, and the worst part of having this is missing BeerFest, an amazing event happening in Ypsilanti this afternoon. Alicia is there with some friends, but I’m doing my best to maintain my house quarantine (only for 5 days rather than 40). If I had to have a flu, couldn’t it at least have been the cool kind?

More summer of Detroit

We’d talked about going out of town for the 4^th of July, but it just didn’t seem realistic after I’d been gone three out of four weekends in June, and we’d both been gone the weekend before, boarding the dog at the vet to head out to Minnesota for my aunt’s wedding. I was drained from all of the traveling, and we felt like it was unfair to leave the dog with the vet again, even though he seems to have a great time and is never sad to head back. In light of all of this, instead of heading out of town we headed into town.

We actually started our day in St. Clair Shores, which is distinctly not Detroit. It is a distant suburb on the eastern edge of the state that has a lovely shoreline. We brought out our bikes, and followed our guidebook on a bike ride through “the Pointes” – the 5 Grosse Pointe suburbs of Detroit – to the edge of Detroit and back again. It was eye opening. We worked our way through the neighborhoods, admiring the beautiful homes and wondering at the landscaping. When we hit Detroit, the contrast was stark. We went from ritzy shopping and restaurants to slightly more artsy and eclectic shopping and restaurants, still with lots of traffic, both on foot, bicycle, and in car, to abandoned buildings, industrial looking complexes, and silence. I’m still not sure I understand how that happens – clearly the people who patronize those businesses on the edge of Grosse Pointe could also support businesses on the edge of Detroit that is less than 50 yards away. And yet it clearly isn’t happening? Is it zoning? Is it habit?

After that puzzling loop, we headed back up through Grosse Pointe, this time along the waterfront, which was beautiful. (And again, no less beautiful than the waterfront on the Detroit part, but apparently somehow different.) The roads were beautifully maintained and apart from the somewhat frequent stoplights, we thoroughly enjoyed our ride. Returning to St. Clair Shores, we were hungry! The bike book recommended Steve’s Back Room for Middle Eastern food, and it did not disappoint. Two delicious sandwiches later we were ready to keep going.

From there we headed to the New Center area near the Fisher Building for Cityfest. There was live music, tons of food, and vendors set up along the streets. We enjoyed the people watching and also browsed at the various booths. I also found CityKnits, the knit shop located inside the Fisher Building, which is a beautiful shop. I knew it existed (having received gifts that had been purchased there), but hadn’t been in. They were friendly and had a great selection. Had I not been budgeting as well, I definitely would have picked up a souvenir. (There was also a yarn shop near the Detroit edge of Grosse Pointe that I’d like to go back to on a day that isn’t a national holiday…) We walked around a bit more, and then sat down to watch a team performing their amazing bike/in-line skate/skateboard tricks.

With high hopes that Detroit will become a hotbed of cycling activity, we headed home for the day. We had a great ride, and are determined to find more ride routes that are actually in Detroit!

Seeing the sights

One of these days I’m going to have to go to Washington DC with no agenda other than seeing the monuments, visiting the museums, and generally basking in the historical glow that seems to permeate the city. On my latest foray through the nation’s capitol (this past weekend), I was once again heading for an AMSA meeting. I saw a bit of the city as we flew over it, and then promptly took the shuttle from IAD to the hotel in one of the somewhat creepily planned suburbs near the AMSA office. I didn’t have nigh hopes for seeing the city, as I’d seen the 8am-9pm meeting agenda already.

We did get to head into the city on Saturday night though, and in a new departure from the usual bar-themed evening outings, we went to see some of the monuments. Complications of time and trying to meet up with folks meant that we didn’t see many, but those that we did were brilliantly lit, and beautiful. First we saw the George Mason monument. We were skeptical at first, but after seeing some really beautiful quotes about the equality of all people and the evils of slavery, we were converted. At that point we all wanted pictures with George – the results are shown above. We also saw the Jefferson and FDR monuments. Jefferson was a classic man-in-a-set-of-columns monument, but was nonetheless inspiring. Reading the words of thoughtful and interesting men is inspiring and motivating. The FDR memorial was less typical, and I think I would have enjoyed it more had it not been rapidly approaching midnight. I thought the waterfall and reflecting pool were beautiful (not surprising as I love water), and I was assured that the rest of the monument was also striking, but was too tired to make it through.

Seeing the mall lit up for the evening was a wonderful break from a long meeting, and made me wish I could see more.

Summer of Detroit

Alicia and I biking on Belle Isle

A few years back Alicia and I decided to have a summer of ice cream. We weren’t necessarily planning to eat more ice cream than usual, but we wanted to branch out a bit and try places we hadn’t previously considered. We stuck to the greater Ann Arbor area, trying Kilwin’s, Washtenaw Dairy, both Stucchi’s, and Dairy Queen, as well as the notable Ice Scapes - a fabulous place for soft serve and Italian ices located inside an old Jack-in-the-Box building. I learned yesterday that Ice Scapes is apparently now closed, and mourned the loss for a few moments. At any rate, we had a great time - we had a lot of fun exploring Ann Arbor and we both love ice cream. This summer, we have another plan. We’re hoping to have a summer of Detroit. We both grew up in the Detroit metro area, and have been going to events (sports, music, theater, etc) downtown as long as we can remember. There are things we haven’t done though, and places we haven’t explored that we’ve been talking about for years. Don’t let anyone tell you there’s nothing to do in Detroit, or that it’s dangerous. There is, and it’s not! Spending lots of time at the DIA, visiting MoCAD when they have new exhibitions, shopping at Eastern Market, looking for new places to eat, and riding the bike routes in Detroit are all things we’ve talked about doing, but often in the middle of the week in the middle of winter when we have neither time nor daylight in which to do any of them. This summer, we’re doing them all.

We started a few weeks ago with a bike trip around Belle Isle. I’m pretty out of shape, so it had to be a fairly gentle ride, making Belle Isle the perfect destination. It’s pretty flat, gives a lovely view of both Detroit and Windsor, and is only about a 5-6 mile loop all the way around. We did it twice, and then had a picnic lunch on the river. The park was designed by the same person who created Central Park in NYC, and all of the buildings are beautiful. It’s clear that there isn’t enough money going into the city - the zoo is closed and some things look a little shabby - but it’s a nice ride and the bathrooms seemed much more well-maintained than the guidebook would have suggested. Making sure our summer of Detroit was off to an awesome start, we headed to the (relatively-) newly redesigned DIA to check it out. It is, as all previous reports have indicated, wonderful. They’ve moved things around, arranging them thematically in a way that makes sense to someone without an art history degree, and added lots of informational placards that narrate the entire experience. I really enjoyed it, and am hoping to go back soon. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer holds…

Recovering from prelims

The dog has been instrumental in my burn-out recovery plan. He is very willing to go outside with me whenever I wish, and will play or snuggle at almost any time of day.

I realized that there hadn’t been enough cute pictures of the dog featured in the blog lately… This post is an attempt to remedy that.

Everyone told me that it would be difficult to get back into the swing of things after prelims. I half-heartedly believed them, ever convinced that I would only need a weekend break before I could get started on my summer plans. In spite of my vast experience with being burned out at the end of the semester, and should have extrapolated that knowledge to guess how I would feel after finishing a busy semester and then taking a stressful two week exam.

In spite of wholly underestimating the required recovery time after my prelims, I think I’m ready to get back to work now. I’ve had a few weeks of “working” while actually reading a lot of the New York Times, knitting, watching movies, walking the dog, and listening to podcasts I’d neglected for most of the month of May. I felt excited about getting some work done yesterday for the first time in a while, and I’m pretty pleased. I think this summer will be a productive one, and I’m also looking forward to getting some intense knitting and reading time. Yay!