President Hinckley just died. At 97 years old (although until his 95th birthday, you’d have mistaken him for a 70 year old). He was my prophet, the man that I looked to for guidance and testimony since I was a teenager and I almost thought that he was going to live forever (or at least until 100). I was in the choir that performed when he gave the devotional on the 6 Be’s (be grateful, be smart, be clean, be true, be humble, be prayerful) and I remember the tears that sprang to my eyes as we sang “We thank thee, O God, for a Prophet,” feeling, knowing that God’s prophet was in that room. I’m going to miss his gentle humor, his optimism, his example and his overwhelming love that he has for all of us.

I’d say “rest in peace,” but knowing the life that he led, I doubt that there’s going to be much resting going on. 🙂 But we love you and we’ll miss you.

For the full story, for those interested, read here.

I love living viacriously through my friends joy. Congrats, valderie! I’m giddy with you!

I had a fabulous weekend. Even being on call on Saturday/Sunday. I admitted NO patients all day and all night, until 6:30 in the morning, so I got sleep. Plus I had excellent Indian food (yep, my chicken tikka masala was drastically different. Will have to continue with the experimenting) and hung out with CuteIntern and his team most of the evening. That’s the way that call night should go, but these are so very, very rare.

Yesterday, I hung out with some visiting friends. Michelle was a 4th year med student here last year and has been back in Utah doing her residency. We, along with my friend Sarah and her friends from out of town, went to the public museum and saw the Body Worlds exhibit, which was unbelievably fascinating. I highly recommend that if it comes to your fair city that you go and see it. It’s not at all grotesque for those of you who are squimish and it’s a beautiful look into the human body and the association between life and death. Man, have I forgotten my anatomy though!

We then went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, which was excellent and then browsed around the mall. I did find a very cute skirt which I had to add to my ward.

It snowed here, around 6-7 inches yesterday and last night. I don’t know how I managed without a snowblower before. I awoke early this morning, went out and cleared my driveway and all of my sidewalks in 30 minutes. Sweet. It’d taken me 2 hours if I had had to shovel the entire thing.

Better yet, all of my clinic patients canceled today. Love the snow! Life is pretty wonderful, folks.

Dear Kenya:

STOP IT! ALL OF YOU! This is not the country that I visited 2 years ago, with its warm, friendly people of diverse backgrounds who lived in peace. I realize your government is crappy, I realize that most of you live in severe, overwhelming poverty with little opportunity to improve the lives of your families. KILLING EACH OTHER IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE THAT.

I don’t even recognize the pictures of Eldoret. This is just breaking my heart.

Most of these were written solely for Windows. I’m glad to finally get to participate!

Who comments the most on this journal?

Multiple choice question for you.

Select the most correct answer:

The reason that Julia is not switching her call night from Saturday to Sunday night, thereby allowing co-resident to be on call on Saturday instead of Sunday so he can watch the Packers game), is:

A: She wants to watch the Packers game herself! Go Green Bay!
B: She wants to church on Sunday, post-call and exhausted, but still able to spiritually recharge herself.
C: She has Monday off of work already, and being on call means that she’d be sleeping through her day of vacation.
D: She’s just a mean grouch who never does anything nice for anyone.
E: CuteIntern happens to be on call on Saturday as well, and she can’t resist the chance to flirt and look ridiculous.

Ahem. Never let it be denied that I am anything but shallow.

I finished with work a little early today and celebrated by chopping my hair. I hadn’t cut my hair at all since August. August. So it was looking nappy. It’s now too short (just below my chin) and my “hairstylist” must have spent a total of 15 minutes cutting it so it’s slightly chunky, but at least my still-growing-them-out-a-year-later bags got blended in and even though it’s not perfect, I look ever so better than I did an hour ago. We’ll see how it looks once it loses the “new hair” look.

I need to go to the gym. But I have a headache and I’m beyond exhausted (not exactly sure why) and I’m covering the cardiology service for 4 days while my friend Prem goes on “vacation” to Tucson, Arizona (he says it’s for a meeting. Whatever. I don’t believe him). We’re rounding with the attending at 7:30. In the morning. Meaning that I need to be there by at least 6:30 so I can have some idea about what’s wrong with my new patients. So I think I might go to bed. Like right now.

Oh, I did finally make Chicken TIkka Masala last night. Which was really good and yummy, only it tasted nothing like the restaurant dish. I’ll be sharing the recipe in the next couple of days, but as I did a google search on a better, more authentic recipe, I discovered taht it really isn’t authentic Indian in the first place! It was apparently invented in the 1970s by some Indian restaurant owners in Scotland who had all of these British customers complaining because their Tandoori chicken didn’t have any gravy on it. Who knew?

Night all!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist posting pictures of Germany’s latest sensation, Flocke. She’s only 5 weeks ago and she’s already got her own website and everything. Plus, she’s just so naturally photogenic that you can’t help fawn over her. 🙂

Prepare for cuteness overload

Yes, yes, I realize that it’s been 3 weeks since I posted. The rumors about my death were sadly true and this is just a puppet Julia posting to get sympathy and cookies. And lots and lots of attention. 🙂 Did it work?

I have tons to write about, for posterity’s sake, about my fabulous vacation. Two weeks was almost enough to make me feel human and carefree and young again, and therefore was too short. I managed to see most of my family and friends (missed the medical school gang, though. *pout*) and spend as much time with my grandparents as possible, because I realized that they are getting older and I’m really far away. All in all, it was a really busy 14 days, and even with the constant hammering on the new roof and the just above freezing weather in Phoenix, well worth the time away from the cold of the Midwest.

However, a picture is worth a thousand words (although I’m not so great at taking pictures of people. Scenery that stays still, yes, people, no, so I’ll let these go for 500), so in leiu of words, may I present:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jcd1013/Family
http://picasaweb.google.com/jcd1013/PlethoraParty
http://picasaweb.google.com/jcd1013/ChristmasInUtah

(I just realized that I didn’t get pictures of my sister Laura or my new brother in law. Whoops. Sorry, Lars.)