Germy

While trying to fall asleep, which usually is not a problem for me, I've had my brain kindly bring up that one (take your pick) embarrassing episode from 9 years ago and I lay in bed just wincing at the memory. Or, perhaps its during a contemplative moment -- nevertheless, having these cringeworthy moments is a good way, provided they stay in check and an unstoppable avalanche of anxiety doesn't start to fall, to stay grounded -- to remember that all of us are vulnerable to doing stupid shit, at any time. Going back and reading old pieces of writing isn't so different. There are times I think, while checking out old short stories, essays, or whatnot, that "hey, you weren't a complete idiot back then." Most of the time, however it is very similar to that feeling of brain betrayal while trying to fall asleep. Right now, for instance, I went back to read the blog post detailing my plans for my first component of this project.  My main character, I say, is 3 years...

Character workshop Act III #1: Netanya, Israel -- but in the from of flashback, with main character in a coffee shop in Portland, OR while he tries to write a novel about his experience in Netanya, Israel during the Passover Massacre Date:  March 27th, 2012 (10 year after the Passover Massacre in 2002) Place: We will start the journey with the main character as he goes to his favorite coffee shop on upper Hawthorne, in Portland Oregon (I have a certain coffee shop in mind -- one that has a grand-opening this Saturday (congrats boys!)) to continue to work on his memoirs from his time as a medical resident who was working at Laniado Hospital as a Global Health Trip, when Hamas used a suicide bomber at the Park Hotel, where 30 civilians were killed and 140 were injured. This attack was the most deadly during the 2nd Intifada. Our character is not Jewish, and went to Israel for no particular reason other than being intrigued with their culture and heritage. He was a 2nd year...

Character workshop Act II #1: From the Tavern to the Bar (Stumptown Shanghai and the Sandbars of the Columbia) Date:  October, 9th 1890 (3 years prior to the completion of the railroad from San Francisco) Place: Starts just south of Portland Oregon, on a rickety wooden dock that juts out from the heavily wooded embankments on either side; they are bringing in Opium from China. From there we move to a saloon in what is now referred to as "Old Town" Portland. The "Mariners and Mounts" was an establishment that sat on the northern end of the warf of the west side of the Willamette river (the 2nd largest northward river in the world, with the Nile in Egypt being the largest) that is so named because they were known to have a large stable of for horses; for boarding and sale, and of course the sailors who worked on the numerous ships that served to move the goods out of the Pacific Northwest, either to San Francisco or China. This is a very busy establishment, ...

Today is a day that I've been waiting and fretting over for a very long time -- the day where I match into a post graduate medical education program and begin the last leg of training to become a fully licensed physician. I have a lot of thoughts and could opine for hours over what this means and how brutal this process can be at times -- but will leave it for later. I just thought this occasion warranted a place marker in this blog.

Character workshop Act I #1: The Earthquake and Landslide Date: October 12th, 1492 Place: 30 miles east of present day Portland Oregon, in the Columbia River Gorge at the western edge of the Bonneville Landslide, which was a 30 mile wide swath of land which fell off the side of Table Mountain, which resides on the Washington side of the river, which is the north side. The people who I will have pushing eastward along the Columbia River, leaving their coastal village to meet with the Walla Walla tribe, in order to trade -- but also to show off their young first born son, in hopes of someday having a marriage between their chief's daughter and the most successful trader's son, from the Clatsop tribe who live at the mouth of the Columbia River, where it feeds the Pacific Ocean. It has been proposed that in light of recent carbon dating from a Douglas Fir tree 150 feet under the fill from the Bonneville Slide showing a range of 1550 to 1750, whereas previous estimates h...

I've always fancied the idea of writing a novel. Many readers, at one time or another, get this tickle -- just as watching a movie lends itself to wanting to be an actor. What kind of novel shall I write? That is a great question -- and prompts this primordial type of hopeful feeling in me; of potential being manifested and worlds yet unimagined being born. I like interesting. And while my life is enhanced by finding interest in just about everything I come across, it means my threshold for holding my interest is low, which means needing to work to ensure optimizing just how interesting I can make it. Subjective as it is, the best part of "interesting" is that seeing as how I'm in the middle of becoming an physician, I have relatively little pressure to move expediently nor is there any reason to write a novel other than for the pleasure in the pursuit of creating something that I can take pride in. Simple as that. On an ongoing basis, I plan on developing th...

The board exam season of this summer is long gone, and the past couple of months have had me engaged in the activity of what will most likely be my final form as a physician. For the very first time, I've actually been directly functioning -- albeit in a truncated, supervised fashion -- in the capacity I've been working towards for nearly the past 10 years. Exciting Shtuff, to be sure.  Spending so many hours in the hospital provides for the opportunity to get to know many patients, some over a day, some over weeks. I've also been training in Oregon, the place where I grew up and in many ways, consider home even though I officially live in California, these days, and haven't officially had a residence in Oregon for 10 years. There is something very easy about being around and getting to know people who call the same place home. One particular patient from a few weeks ago who was in the hospital for a condition which was considerably more serious than he wanted ...