longer days

Since I came back from my short vacation, I have been quite closeted with work in the hospital. I am back on my routine....well, not quite. I am not on clinical duties, per se, but do attend the neurodevelopmental follow up clinic. So I have the luxury of going to work at 9am instead of 730am. Thank God for small mercies. The thing is though, I have been catching up on my research work that I find myself leaving the hospital almost always nearing 7 in the evening. Today is a different story though. The last two patients in clinic did not show up. I could not believe that I am stepping out at 3pm!! And just to make it real sweet, I decided not to do any research today :p
Unbelievable. It is 430pm and there is still daylight...okay, it looks overcast as it has been raining the whole day. But still, a few weeks ago, it would be pitch black by now. And with the light of day, I can appreciate that most of the snow has melted away.
Could it be? Winter is over?!
As Balki (Bartokomous of Perfect Strangers -- remember this one?) would exuberantly say, "It is time for the dance of joy!!"
Woo-hoo!

stuck

I have been sitting in front of the computer practically the whole day. And the tragic thing is, I haven't been surfing the internet at all. Well, okay. I may have browsed a few minutes here and there. I have been struggling with putting a presentation together and have been stuck with slide 7 since 5pm!!!
What to do? what to do?
Spend a sleepless night in the hope of getting unstuck?
Or just sleep on it?

national anthems and the superbowl

I was down the past weekend with a cold and felt crappy. To top it off, I was on call and went to a community hospital to attend to a sick baby on Saturday which had its sad and tragic ending. On Sunday, I needed a pick me up. My nose was all red and raw, a consequence of the growing mound of used tissue at my bedside. Having Nyquill RTC did not help me get over my jetlag. I was in a continual haze of drowsiness.
I turned the TV on and caught Jennifer Hudson singing the Star, Spangled Banner. Now, I am one of those people who, regardless of the originating country, always feel a swelling within my chest and a catch in my throat when I hear a national anthem being sung. The way I figure, I sense the patriotism and the loyalty attached with every revered song and is a source of pride for any citizen of the world wherever from. I share in these feelings. Weird? That is just me.
It was Superbowl XLIII. It has been years since I have seen an American football game. And just what I needed to see.
I was talking to one of the staff neonatologists today. He asked me how I was. I began to describe my lousy weekend but had a great time watching the superbowl. He is a distinguished and scholarly type and expressed great surprise at my choice of a "great time". And this is how I explained it to him. Granted, it is all very much gritty bodies banging to each other with all the grunting and all is very raw, muscled, earthy and grimy, dirty. But that all seem to make it very grounded and human. The part I love best though is the moments of exhausted triumph and jubilation. An accurate bullet pass completed after having evaded a sticky defense and the wide receiver trotting midfield to a sprint for the endzone. Or barreling through a wall of bodies and at the very bottom of a flesh pile up, successfully scoring a touchdown. Those are great moments. The body is exhausted and yet the spirit is resoundingly alive. Wow.