Dallas Eatery

We visited La Madeleine in Dallas, my favorite French cafe and bakery. Our friend Jessica drove down from Oklahoma to visit us. It was great to catch up with her, since we hadn't seen her in 3 years.

Last Adjustment

Today, I delivered my last adjustment on my last patient for the last time at Palmer FL. I'm sad to say goodbye to the many amazing people who helped me grow as an intern and as a doctor. However, I'm super thrilled to soon leave this place chock-full of red tape mazes and subsequent headaches of frustration.

I leave on Sunday for Dallas for a week of Part IV board review and exams. At least there will be some relaxation time when Steve flies out to join me at my father and step-mom's house. It'll be good to spend the week in a familiar place and to be among family during a stressful exam, so I can more easily de-stress and not over-study (my tendency).

I've been posting lately about lasts, which also reminds me about a lot of chiropractic school firsts. I had a first chiropractic adjustment (probably low back, maybe thoracics). I remember when I accomplished my first Gonstead atlas adjustment on cervical chair. For none of these firsts do I remember whom I adjusted, I just know it happened, and it was awesome. I also remember when my philosophical paradigm of chiropractic, wellness care, and health completely shifted. It started the day I went to hear a guest speaker on Pettibon Technique . . . and I haven't looked back since.

The first time I heard Dr. Woggon speak about scoliosis correction--it completely stirred me to make a change, if ever so small, on my campus. It's cool how something so powerful and impacting can affect so many people in such a short amount of time, and it's been incredible to be a part of a new change in the chiropractic profession that benefits the patients immensely.

My first chiropractic college club was the Upper Cervical Club. Hey, it sounded cool. They were concerned with correcting the entire spine and that it all rested with the atlas, occiput, and axis. I still believe that, and I take from my experiences in upper cervical and apply them to what I now know about scoliosis, and it's awesome.

My first job in chiropractic school was working as an assistant in the Palmer FL library. OK, that wasn't altogether a milestone or anything, but it did help pay the bills, and I met some fantastic people.

While in chiropractic college, I also competed in my first swim meet for Chiro Games 2005 (more info here, here, here, and here). Thanks to my friend & classmate Andrew, I was able to surf for the first and possibly the LAST time (too many sharks in Ponce Inlet for my comfort level!).

I also had a first pregnancy, and this time, I hope I have our first baby in October. But, you can read more about that on our Baby Blog.

Throughout life, we hit these major milestones, high school graduation, college graduation, marriage, first baby, first house, etc. They're supposed to be these etched-forever-in-your-memory events or life-changing events. I think it's all part of the life journey. I'm not the same person I was in high school, definitely not the same person I was in undergrad. I become a completely different person in the military (more to survive the harsh structure and expectation). And now, I'm not the same chiropractor that I thought I would be when I first started chiropractic college. Based on this track record, I suspect, and hope, I'm not the same person 5, 10, 50 years from now. I want to continue to learn, grow, and develop into the woman God has designed for me to be: follower of Christ, wife, mom, friend, daughter, sister, neighbor, doctor . . . I want to look back and say that I'm not the same person I was when I graduated from Chiropractic college, but that my experiences and the grace of God has changed me and shaped me more into who I am meant to become.

Night at the Ballpark

We just got home from a fun Daytona Cubs baseball game. It was Palmer night, so our school had free tickets available. Home team's defense was mostly good except for a few slippery passes. But, both times they scored, they scored big! The first time was in the 6th inning when the bases were loaded, and the hitter smashed a home run. That was sweet! The second time, the St. Lucie Mets tied with 4 (stronger offensive team) in the 8th and 9th innings. But, the Daytona Cubs came back with yet another triple loaded bases to hit a home run. What a finish. They didn't score any other times during the game, but when it counted, they came through.

Happy Chinese New Year!

The Year of the Boar 2007 begins at midnight on Feb 18th. We celebrated last night at Dr. He & Dr. Cheng's house. The endless and delicious homecooked food was so awesome. Dr. Cheng's eggrolls were just like my mom makes. . . the good salty thin-skinned eggrolls that have really good meat and mushroom filling, and not just blah cabbage. I can't find any eggrolls as good as homemade at any local chinese restaurants. We were also served stir fried noodles, BBQ chicken, veggies, and sweet sticky rice. Dr. He invited all the Asian students from Palmer, and his house was full! Karson and I were amazed that there were so many. Just over a year ago, he and I were the ONLY students who attended an Asian American Student Chiropractic Association moon festival celebration. Now, the asians are attending Palmer en force.

Weekend Update

Katie B & I buckled down for some serious national boards studying, and we were super productive. It felt good to be fairly confident about the exam material, and it was good that we got through a big chunk of content.

It's yet another NASCAR week in Daytona--the Budweiser Shootout to be specific since the 500 is next weekend. So, although I had to go to the Farmer's Market for our weekly veggies, I choose to not venture around in my car the remainder of the weekend, because traffic is NOT going to be pretty. We've already planned alternate routes to and from church tomorrow to avoid the Race Day traffic. . . which has the tendency to get backed up for 30 miles or more.

We've been catching up on a few t.v. series through our S-cable laptop and t.v. hook-up and website downloads. We're hooked on Heroes. 24 is getting a little ridiculous this season. Well, it's always ridiculous, but they make some characters way too powerful and others way to stupid to keep listening to the counsel of the way too powerful and problematic advisors. That's so unrealistic. Lost season 3 is just strange. Even though Lost has always been strange, I don't think it's nearly as good as Seasons 1 & 2, and I'm in no hurry to watch any more of it.

Other than that, once I can get a chance to get back to the Y (Monday morning, most likely), I will plug in my meters on the Concept2 toward that goofy Valentine's Day Rowing Challenge. 14,000m will probably take me 2 x 7,000m workouts. So, I'll just knock it out in 2 days.

Rowing for Valentines

My friend, Heather, e-mailed me the following challenge by Concept2. It sounds a little corny. But, what the heck, might as well get in 14,000 meters!


VALENTINE'S DAY CHALLENGE
February 9 - 14, 2006

For fun.....

IF you row a total of 14,000 meters between 12:01 a.m. Thursday, February 9th and midnight on Valentine's Day, Tuesday February 14, 2006,

AND you enter it in your Personal Logbook,

THEN you can download your choice of C2-designed Valentine's Day cards to send to your friends and loved ones!

All those who row 14K will be listed on our Erg Lover's Board. Note that you can edit your Personal Profile to include a special Valentine's Day "message for other to see". If you make the Erg Lover's Board, fellow rowers will be able to see your creative message.

Read more at here.

Tornado Friday

Some tornadoes ripped through our area of Florida this morning. As a result, some patients had to cancel since the interstate is completely shut down west-bound (due to several tractor trailer crashes that are blocking it). If we don't have hurricanes and tropical storms for 7 months out of the year, then we have tornadoes in the middle of winter. Yup, that's Florida for you. So, even though I should be studying this morning, I'm playing on internet and posting to my blog. Enjoy.

Ninjas have been very popular among popculture jokes of late. There's the Ask a Ninja website which has some funny video clips. He even made a DVD which is a collection of 40 episodes. Unfortunately, my husband purchased that video, and I had to endure him watching the entirety of it from start to finish. Then, I found the photo below on a random blog several months ago. For some whimsical Hallmark card concepts by an artist who posts to flickr, check out Mr. Mannun's photos. Also, check out the Etch-A-Sketchist's blog. How he does that stuff, I'll never know.

Happy Birthday to Steve

I'm not the best at wrapping gifts and even giving them on someone's birthday. I'm usually late, sometimes early. In this case, I was both. I got Steve this and 2 types of homemade fudge (peanut butter chocolate & chocolate mint). Today, I let him pick out whatever he wanted on his Amazon wishlist. Of course, he wanted yet another Bible. I think he has somewhere around 20 already, but this is a DIFFERENT translation. I hope he enjoys it and has a wonderful birthday. His only birthday wish is for a homemade fruit pie. I think we can grant that one!

Birthday Fun

Not only did I get a really cool watch for my birthday, but I was serenaded by 7 guys. How cool is that? The tiramisu cheesecake was killer good. There's one piece leftover. I plan on chowing down on that for breakfast after my 6 mile run tomorrow morning.

I won't be able to post any more photos until we recharge our camera battery. We didn't pack one, but we ordered one that can be used in cars or outlets. It'll meet us in Washington later this week.

Chris recommended some awesome artists and tracks that he's going to play & deejay on a Sirius radio show for New Year's Eve. So, now I have a super cool list of inde artists and albums that I'll run out and purchase.

Shooting

We went to the Strickland outdoor shooting range in Daytona this morning to fire off the hand guns (Sig Sauer P228 & Glock Model 19 ). This was DeJeanne's first experience using a gun, and by the end of the morning, she was hitting the close-range target, and the bulls eye! She had a blast, and she remarked that she felt empowered. I tried shooting with my left hand which turned out to be more accurate than my right--I was consistently hitting the bulls eye. I knew I was ambidexterous in some things, but I never thought to try it with shooting. Go figure.

There weren't a lot of women at the range. In fact, while we were there, DeJeanne & I were the only women actually shooting. There were mostly middle-aged or older men shooting hand guns, but there were a few of 'em firing off rifles. It seemed like there was a familiar group present on Saturday morning who knew each other. We ended up next to a friendly ex-marine who proceeded to do a series of push-ups each time before the line was hot. One of the range employees kept giving Steve tips for hitting his target and lining up his sights.

I liked shooting the Sig more than the Glock because it was a little heavier (it felt simialr to an M-9) and it had less recoil. But I had fairly consistent issues with the empty shells lodging in the chamber between rounds, so I constantly had to adjust the slide to kick out the empty shell. Once we get the Glock worn in a little more, it'll be a little less finicky with the reloaded shells (which don't take too well to new guns).

STS-116 Shuttle Launch, Take II

Following NASA's launch blog to determine whether or not the shuttle launch is still on track for 8:47 EDT tonight. Steve, Katie, & I would like to head back down toward Titusville to watch this night launch (the first one in years), as long as the probability for launch remains high. The next shuttle launch will be March 16th, which also happens to be NBCE national boards weekend.

NASA's space shuttle mission page
NASA's shuttle & rocket mission schedule page

Scrubbed Launch

STS-116 space shuttle launch was a no-go. Last minute, and I mean LAST MINUTE scrub due to existing cloud deck and wind conditions. The next attempt at a night launch is Saturday at 8:45 p.m.

At least we've already staked out prime real estate for viewing the launch pad, although it was rather chilly and exceptionally windy, it was a spectacular view. Steve, Katie, Kristin & I had fun on the road trip down and back to Titusville, but we wish it had been worth our while to chill out in traffic on the way home.

Skymall features AWACS model plane

AWACS is to cool that it made the Skymall mag. I couldn't believe it when I saw this on Sunday. The paint job is a little whacked, but this is freakin' hilarious. It is actually a remote model plane that takes photos.

Thanksgiving Fellowship

We had a memorable Thanksgiving with friends. Steve & I prepared the turkey and a Florida avacado & pomegranate salad, and we trucked it over to Dr. Shawn's place. The turkey turns out fabulous every year. But, this year instead of the poultry rub and butter, we also added a chicken broth with onion, garlic, and poultry seasonings. This kept the turkey moist. We used an injection needle to continually infuse the broth and butter drippings into the breast meat and legs throughout the cooking process. Dr. Shawn had invited two of his hospital colleagues from Shang Hai who are currently working in the peds & NICU dept of a hospital in Boston. None of them had ever seen a complete turkey. So, they took photos with it to their hearts' content, and then we dove in.

Steve peeled the frills from the pomegranate, which is a time-consuming and arduous task. But, it is so rewarding for those ruby red pockets of sweetness!

Dr. Shawn prepared Chinese BBQ spare ribs and beef. So, it was more of a Chinese-American Thanksgiving dinner. In this photo, he's telling us a story about BBQ marinade preparation. There were a few vegetables available, spring greens and a veggie tray, but it was mostly a protein-heavy meal. That's probably why we didn't feel the big starch-protein contrast weigh down our stomachs like a big brick. We were all feeling pretty lively after the meal, unlike some other friends we ran into.

After dinner, we all traveled together to Dr. Don & Ronnie's house for desserts. They had a huge gang there of family and friends. We brought the beloved pumpkin cheesecake. But, since we have an extra one at home, we dove into the homemade apple pie, fruit torte, and apple torte with almond paste crust. Dessert was divine! Almost everyone there were still surviving their food comas from earlier in the day.Dr. Ronnie was "goofing off" with her friend Mike.

Steve got me (us) a new camera for Christmas. He let me use it early. It's a Canon SD700 camera. Thank goodness. My last one was a piece of crap. This one is almost as spectacular as a professional camera. We had fun playing with it on Thanksgiving! I hope all of you had a wonderful day with family and friends.

I really enjoyed the blessing of wonderful and delicious food, the time of fellowship with Steve and friends, and the relaxing time off from clinic. I'm thankful that I was able to spend this holiday at home, and I often thought of my friends and numerous other troops who are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. They weren't able to spend Thanksgiving with their families. Holidays are the toughest times to be away from family in the military. So, I'm thankful for their sacrifice for freedom. God bless y'all!

Scoliosis Workshop and Weekend Fun

What a great weekend! And, I'm looking forward to the short, but jam-packed week. Since the clinic closes early on Wednesday for the Thanksgiving holiday, I have to cram all my patient visits in M-W.

Before viewing Casino Royale on Friday, Katie & I gave our friend Ryan a tour of the Palmer Florida campus and clinic. Ryan was in town for the scoliosis seminar, and he attends chiropractic college at our other campus in Davenport, Iowa. The 4 of us went to dinner at Maria Bonita's which has the fastest service, and the best homemade chips & salsa. I ordered my favorite: carne asada (skirt steak with a lime-cilantro marinade).

We got home late from the movie, and I had to wake up before dawn to load up the car with equipment for the scoliosis workshop. We drove over an hour to arrive at the Disney World Hilton by 0715 to set-up. It was, by far, the best technique seminar workshop that I've ever attended. Several doctors & student interns brought in their scoliosis patients to work them up and to understand how to continue with their care. I was fairly busy working different stations or reviewing powerpoints with Dr. Clayton, so I didn't get to sit down an enjoy the lecture and do a whole lot of hands on practice. But no matter, I attend the same workshop in Dallas in 2 weeks. So, I'll get to relax and learn and practice adjustment set-ups on December 2nd. I hope to post pictures of this weekend, soon. I took several on Karson's camera since mine is a piece of junk.

Weekend Mind Vegging

Aside from enjoying the Greek festival, we played frisbee in the soccer fields, I got in a good interval training run, and cleaned house. Steve & I also checked out some movies from the library, and viewed some more from Netflix. I love not having to study on the weekends! I'm really going to town on the movies, just because I CAN. But, after this weekend, I think I'm all movied out at least until Thanksgiving break. So here's the lowdown on a few that we viewed (we tried a couple others, but after 5 minutes, we hit the eject button).

Everything is Illuminated is Liev Schrieber's directorial debut in a film based on a book by the same title. An American Jew goes to the Ukraine to find out about a woman who saved his grandfather from death by the Nazis. It's a journey for 3 men from 2 cultures who end up having more in common than they originally thought. The story is rather strange from the beginning, and we weren't sure how much more we could take, but it did pick up and soon became more interesting. After we watched the deleted scenes, we agreed that we definitely would have hit the eject button early on if those scenes were kept in tact. It's not bad, and ends up better than you think it will after a very slow and odd start. I loved the cinematography of the lush countryside and the contrasting WWII reminiscing that was harsh and black and white . . . reminded me of Saving Private Ryan footage.

Yet again, Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd team up to do a movie together. High Crimes also stars Jim Caviezel as Tom Kubik, a marine accused for the murder of 9 innocent victims. Freeman plays a former Marine who is an offbeat but successful lawyer that's recruited to help the defense. Judd plays Claire Kubik, wife of Tom and his attorney for what turns out to be a government cover up with a scapegoat for the accused. But, the plot takes various twists and turns as the story plays out. Suspense thriller. The problem with this genre is that I hate it when women get attacked or threatened and they STILL don't take any precautions and so they get attacked and threatened . . . AGAIN. DUH! Leave a light on at home, CALL 911 from your cell phone, get a weapon or learn how to use your arms and legs as weapons, but don't end up as a victim repeatedly because you're too dumb to take precautions! I hate that Hollywood does this over and over again in movies. Overall, good flick. Uhm, well . . . Jack Black is hilarious, as always. And, if you're a fan of Jack Black, then Nacho Libre is passable. Otherwise, it is really strange and really lame. Definitely a disappointment if you're looking for something to be a good follow-up to the director Jared Hess's Napoleon Dynomite. Mexican orphanage chef & friar by day, tag team wrestler (luchador) by night. This movie sucked bean dip.

Sandra Bullock plays Gwen, an alcoholic party girl who makes a mess of her sister's (Elizabeth Perkins) wedding and gets charged in a D.U.I. Her sentence: 28 days of rehab or jail. Her rehab counselor is played by Steve Buscemi (atypical role for him, but he pulls it off). Heavy drama with a strong cast, but the annoying songs and rehab chanting really are over done, but that's part of the story line. Viggo Mortensen plays an Oklahoman baseball pro who befriends Gwen in rehab. Not a super thick storyline here, just how Gwen and a few others struggle in rehab. This is pretty much. . . meh. But you can see the NYC skyline pre September 11th with the Twin Towers still in tact.

Bruce Willis plays . . . a cop. Wow, talk about typecast. This time, he's a bad cop, but then everyone in the flick is painted as a bad, corrupt cop. However, he wants to turn around and help a witness who's set to testify against a bunch of bad cops. So, for 16 blocks of NYC, it's cop & defendant (played by Def Mos) vs. many many cops. Do they make it to the trial in time to testify? Do they survive? Ahhh. . . gotta watch to find out. Worst part of the flick is listening to Def Mos drone on and on scene after scene in his annoying, nasally voice that was reminiscent of Fran Drescher from The Nanny. Steve and I were literally yelling at the screen and telling him to "shut up". Ugh, cast someone who isn't so annoying to listen to, or give him fewer lines . . . please! This movie was . . . okay, nothing special.

Greek Festival . . . OPA!

Steve, Katie, & I enjoyed the Greek Festival at Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Daytona Beach. We'd all been looking forward to the food all week, and we were not disappointed. Unfortunately, they ran out of galactobouriko by the time we were ready for dessert, so Steve & I had to settle for baklava. We also enjoyed the gyros and dolmathakia (grape leaves stuffed with rice and sirloin, topped with a lemon butter sauce).

The church owns prime riverfront property. The Dunlawton bridge provided a gorgeous backdrop to the courtyard stage and tavern. The church's kids performed cultural dances. It was so cute to see the young 1st and 2nd grade boys dancing with such gusto and attitude. While they boys and girls danced, their parents would run up to them and shower them with dollar bills.

We enjoyed our Greek food on a pier overlooking the Halifax River. At the end of the evening, we toured Saint Demetrios church which was in the shape of a cross. The incense smelled beautiful, and the walls were painted with colorful relics and adorned with golden icons. Heavy wooden carvings of leaves and peacocks decorated large shelving units, and other church staples (alter, and some other things I couldn't identify). At the front of the church, there was a large, dome ceiling covered in beautiful paintings. From it, hung a very large golden chandelier. And adjacent room in the entry way had what Katie described as a confession room. It was dimly lit with red lanterns, and the walls were covered with religious paintings of saints, and Biblical scenes. The church was filled with beautiful artwork, but it all seemed so foreign to me from any church that I've ever entered.

We had fantastic food and a really fun evening! I'm glad I found out about the festival from a patient.

Fun with photos

Class 073 Clinic Entrance Party

The Class 073 Council did a fantastic job of planning our Clinic Entrance party at Our Deck Down Under. About 2/3 of our class showed up, which is a pretty good turnout. We invited all the clinic faculty and staff , as well as professors we had on the academic side of campus to celebrate this huge milestone with us. We had chicken picatta, a grilled mild fish, pasta salad, veggies & dip, grilled shrimp, hush puppies, and cheesecake. I was pretty impressed with the food and left feeling full. Afterward, Steve joined me for a 1.5 mile run on one of the windiest days we've had this year. Then, we watched numerous episodes of House, M.D.--Season 2 . It was a perfect evening!

My grainy camera resolution didn't take very good shots, thank goodness there were other classmates doing the papparazzi rounds for the evening. Most of the photos below are courtesy of Katie. Our next big class shin-dig will be our graduation banquet in 10 months.

Me & Steve

Stew, Lindsey, & Jorge (Class 073 Presidente)Dr. J & his wife, Dr. Bill & his friendDr. Raja, us, the Shreeves, & Dr. Bobo

Victor, Ben & Mandy

Dr. & Mrs. Shreeve

Jason & KatieNick & his girlfriend

Will, his partner, & Theresa (Class 073 Secretary)Meredith & Steve (Class 073 Vice-Prez)

J-Pag, Andrew & his girlfriendEd & his fiancee Carly

Drs. Morehouse, Grand, Bobo, & Dr. Canty's daughter

Craig, me, & Dr. He

Alex (Class 073 Treasurer), Rob, & KerenDamron & Alison

The Cayer Clan

Subluxations . . . watch out!

Arthrostim photo shoot. Except, our photographer couldn't quit laughing. Thanks, Karson!