The first one.

Rather than wasting time on bad TV or trying to find redeeming value in Second Life and rather than being productive like reading or studying for the Step or even signing up for the Step or cleaning the house or even practicing piano, I've decided to start a blog. Mostly because it seems like one of those things you should do to consider yourself internet-savvy. I have no delusions that people will actually read the thing. Nor do I have any delusions that this will be a grand project that I will continue once I get bored with it. Or once work gets busy. Or once the new baby gets here.

I'm a second year medicine resident. I'm in the process of applying for Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship programs. I'm on my first 2 week vacation of the year, though I had a month for research in August. I spent the first week visiting parents and in-laws. I'm pacing myself during the second week so that I won't be so bored that I'm knocking over liquor stores by the end of it. Mostly, though, I sleep. A lot. Unapologetically.

I've had 2.5 months of q3, 1 month of q4, and 1 month of running a team without call since July 1. So it's been busy. Not as busy as intern year, where I was q4 or q3 for 10.5 months out of 12. There is still a kind of sucking dread associated with July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007, a Lovecraftian Thing Which Cannot Be Named. It is like there is a giant pair of parentheses bracketing off that year. I suppose it did make me Strong, however, and I'm grateful that those parentheses seem not to be extending around the whole 3 year residency shebang. Although you never know -- it could all be a giant math equation and those parentheses could really be inside a set of square brackets inside a set of curly brackets...

So I'm going to tuck in now. Back to the new Pynchon, made accessible by the wiki. In fact, it is a great utilization of the wiki concept. No more sitting with Gravity's Rainbow on the lap with the Weisenburger reader's guide next to me. Now I get to sit with Against the Day on the lap and the wiki on the laptop open next to me. Ahhh, the march of progress.