exodus, part 2

It's never been a secret among my relatives and peers that I have my eyes trained to the greener pastures of developed countries. My mind's made up and at the moment, I am exhausting all avenues to be able fly out of the motherland and practice my craft in foreign lands. My reasons for this may be selfish, but unfortunately, my love for my family overrides my love for my country.

In a previous post on this blog, entitled Exodus, I have elaborated my reasons for this decision. Composed several years ago, Exodus still holds true for me. My sentiments then have not changed. Not a bit.

I am deeply saddened and outraged by the government's House Bill 4580. To say that I am surprised by the UP College of Medicine's move to require their graduates to serve the country for several years before being allowed to go abroad is an understatement. I am SHOCKED. HORRIFIED.

I am not an expert on human rights or related laws but there has to be a breach of this in the government's decision to pass this house bill. UP used to be a staunch protector of these rights and freedom. My alma mater has let me down by devising this return service mechanism.

I still do plan to return after a stint abroad. But my conviction in doing so is being rattled by these ridiculous attempts to keep doctors in the country. Pandora's box shutting close might just be enough turbulence to completely rid me of this conviction.

I end this entry by repeating a quote from Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ:
"If you have a heart that cares for your native land, you will find a way to make a difference even if you are far away. And, perhaps, on the other hand, if you do not have a heart, you will not make a difference even if you stay."


This entry is a contribution to the Blog Rounds 17th ed., hosted by Bone MD.

facebook

It's amazing how a bunch of simple games and applications could start an addiction. That's how my facebook story began. I was hesitant at first because I thought facebook was just another version of friendster or multiply. My friend told me with a vehement "No!" that facebook is different, it's more interactive.

So I opened the account just to see how much more interactive facebook is. My first impression was that the homepage looked boring. Nothing flashy, it reminded me actually of MS Word. I figured I'd give it a couple of weeks to see how much work maintaining the account requires, then if I am still bored with it or find it too tedious, I'd simply delete the account.

I began adding friends, then friends sent me application requests, which I then accepted. Soon I was super-pokin', creating a lil' green patch, going on high-seas adventures, taking care of virtual puppies, playing in a virtual stock market (where I am now a billionaire), driving virtual cars and flying virtual airplanes. I now have a street named after me where my friends can park their virtual cars, and I am the mayor to a city whose citizens are being added daily by my friends. Time just flies when I log into facebook.

This morning, the first thing that came into my mind upon waking up was that I need to repark my cars because I might get a ticket for illegally parking them.
From my bed, I went straight to the computer and logged in. I haven't moved since, and it's a few minutes past noon now. I predict I'll spend the rest of the afternoon stalking the pack rat markets.

They say the first thing to do in getting rid of an addiction is admitting it. It's been fun with facebook, but now it's interfering with my productivity. So here it goes...I'm a facebook addict. Now that I've said it, I've done the first step. That will do for now. Meantime, I gotta go check my cars, puppies, stocks and pack in facebook.

er

Why did you become a doctor?

The question was asked, answered, asked again, answered again. I doubt if I'll ever stop coming across this question. Other versions would be the question in the vernacular and the question in the future tense (which I encountered in pre-med and in med school), and frankly, I don't remember what answer I gave each time the question was fielded to me. I don't remember because I know I haven't been truthful in answering that question.

The root of my untruthfulness in this matter is this: my reason for choosing to be a doctor is really so trivial. Or maybe I should say TV-ial. Probably for the first time ever, I'm going to come out and say what really pushed me to be a doctor:

Not the emergency room, no life changing experiences in some emergency room, but the award-winning series ER, starring Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Noah Wiley and Eriq LaSalle. I was at a very impressionable age when ER was at the height of its popularity. The drama, the action, the challenges, the characters...I don't know what it was with this show that propelled me to make one of the most important decisions in my life based on a TV show. I didn't know it then, but now I can honestly say I became a doctor because of ER.

I'd like to think of myself as a critical viewer, and even then I knew how deceptive TV and movies are. So to base my career choice on a TV show is really ludicrous. But I know in heart that the show was responsible for my being a doctor.

Back then I have no idea how close to or far from reality ER was. I can't even pinpoint what it was in ER that made it so influential to me...after all, the show portrayed over-worked and underpaid doctors, dealing with self-destructing patients, health catastrophes and disdainful hospital politics. Doctors are not intellectual gods (like House and associates) nor glamorous beings (like Chicago Hope docs and Nip/Tuck surgeons). As I think about it now, I do believe ER probably is as close as medical movies and TV shows get to the real thing.

Or maybe I'm being biased. I most probably am. After all, I had my epiphany during the golden years of ER, and amazingly, I do not regret this decision. Maybe in my darkest hours I have had second thoughts about it, but eventually, I'll come back to the same conclusion. This is my calling, and I'll have to thank ER for God's vehicle of getting this message to me.


This entry is a contribution to the Blog Rounds 14th Ed., hosted by Em Dy.

word nerd

Blog. Blogging. Blogger. To the uninitiated, these words are simply funny sounding. At first, I thought that these terms sounded so silly that no one can possibly get anything more than a few laughs from their content. Who would've thought that one could stumble into a fount of great ideas from something with such a funny label.

I had always been enamored with words, that is, the written word. To borrow David Cook's term, I guess you could say I'm a word nerd. I just love playing with words and getting what I feel and think on paper. When this all began, I don't know. I have this secret dream (well, now it won't be a secret anymore) of having a best-seller published and winning literary awards for it.

Writing has always been an outlet for me. I have journals that could document the development of my handwriting from a school kid's scrawl to the doctor's chicken-scratch penmanship that I now have (unfortunately, in some cases, my handwriting when I was younger is actually a bit more legible than the present). I wrote in these journals for a release, and because secretly, I also hoped that someday, I'd be someone important enough for people to want to know how I lived. Such Narcissistic delusion of grandeur actually led me to start my first blog.

Now, i don't pretty much care if people read my blogs or not. My views about blogging have changed somewhat. I have come to realize that through blogging (as I have stated in my blog's description), I am attempting to make life move slower for me. My blog entries are attempts to preserve the "now." It's not that I don't want to move forward; it's just that I'm finding life's pace to be a bit too fast. Blogging can capture for me what photographs cannot; I guess you could say that my blog entries are snapshots of my thoughts and memories, painstakingly converted into text that tries to convey them as eloquently as I could.

A couple of weeks back, a friend introduced me to a blogging world I haven't discovered yet: the world of physician bloggers. As I hopped from one blog to another, I was surprised to find that these blogs hold unique treasures unselfishly shared by their writers. I found solace in the array of blogs, written by physicians who are undoubtedly very different from myself, but kindreds nevertheless in this path we all chose to traverse. The anonymity allows for a more open sharing, and yet, all these inputs from doctors I don't know are amazingly very comforting and empowering.

Now, I try to take part as often as I could in the Blog Rounds. Again, the Narcissistic part of me eggs me contribute because fellow MDs might like reading what I was writing. However, I think I'm doing this mainly because composing an entry helps me collect my thoughts and somehow by putting these into words, some sort of order is established in my mind. I like the feeling of satisfaction after completing an entry and clicking the publish post button.

To end, I still think the best thing about posting is that I get to play with words.



This entry is a contribution to the Blog Rounds 13th Ed., hosted by Bone MD.

he had me at hello

I think it was when he sang Bryan Adams' Everything I do, I do it for you that I first noticed David Cook. I've always rooted for the rockers in the competition, but with their not so good record on the show, I thought then that the best that I could hope for is for him to give us a couple of good performances and hope he'll be given a record deal like Chris Daughtry. I was resigned to the reality that while AI showcases some really talented rockers, America doesn't really vote for rockers.

When he sang Lionel Richie's Hello, I was hooked. Hooked on Cook. I began downloading his performances and I would listen to them over and over. The first time I heard the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby was when David Cook sang it, and I actually liked it. Loved Billie Jean and Always be my baby (which I didn't like when Mariah released it). The Phantom of the Opera fan that I am, I was mesmerized by The Music of the Night.


I'm glad I was proven wrong. I would rank David Cook as one of the three most talented American Idol winners, along with Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. Chris Daughtry is still my favorite AI contestant, especially since he followed his Idol exit with a superb album, but Cook fast rising up to his rank.

Congratulations to the new American Idol David Cook!

a sick system

The Philippine Health Care system is very easy to understand: if you have money, you can get treated. If you don't, sorry. Plain and simple, harsh but true, in the Philippines, a sick person can get well only if he/she has the money to buy the medicines he/she needs. That's just the way it is.

Government hospitals exist, but these hospitals can only do so much with the meager budget given to them. Health care workers are already overworked and underpaid, yet very little money is left for the maintenance of the facilities and equipment. Because of this, government hospitals can only provide service and facilities for the people; the patients have to buy their medicines and other medical supplies they'll be needing. Basically, a patient gets diagnosed in a government institution, and after that, it's up to the patient to acquire the funds to buy his medicines.

In private institutions, the patient will have to pay for everything: hospital room, medicines, diagnostics, professional fees of the doctors who treat them. Because private hospitals are forbidden by law to ask for a deposit upon admitting a patient, problems arise when the patient fails to hold his end of the bargain: pay the hospital bill. The patient gets well, and because it's forbidden (another stupid law) to detain patients because they cannot pay, he gets discharged, leaving the hospital and the doctors only his word that he'll be back with the payment. Meanwhile, where will the hospital get the money to pay for the medicines and medical supplies that the patient had used? Where will the doctor get the money to sustain his and his family's needs? The answer to both of these is the same: from other patients. Both the hospital and the doctor will now charge their other patients more.

This is how it is in the health care profession. It's sad that lawmakers are making it even harder for us by making stupid laws. The only real solution I can think of is to increase the budget for health. That way, government hospitals can do more for more needy people, and sick people won't have to resort to unethical means to get treatment.

For now, we'll have to live with what we have. Save for the rainy days, and do what we can to prevent getting sick. This is just about all we can do, really.

looking back at the crossroads

I'm finding myself looking back at the crossroads that I thought I had passed almost two years ago. It's not helping me any that I'm questioning my decision back then, even though I still feel that I had made the right decision.

I've been moonlighting since passing the boards in August 2006. Back then, I was all set to pursue further medical training abroad and I figured that I would moonlight while waiting for my opportunity to leave. I had decided that I would only go into residency here if I'm still here after exhausting all means of getting a license to practice abroad.

The thought of going to residency has entered (and re-entered, several times) my mind, but after four years of med school, one year of internship and one and a half year of moonlighting, I have yet to figure out which specialization to take. My only consolation is that I now know without a doubt which specialization NOT to take.

Now I'm getting tired of moonlighting. Going to duty is becoming a chore, and I no longer find it challenging. Feels like I'm stuck in a rut. However, I'm finding it hard to let go of its plusses: getting to practice medicine, earning more than I spend and having control of how I spend my days. Basically, I'm getting to live my life the way I want it. Except for the career growth.

Will I let go of this in order to move up the career ladder? Or should I stick to my original decision and still continue working on going abroad? These questions are fast becoming my constant companions, threatening to pull me back to the crossroads. Again and again they creep into my mind, causing me to stop and rethink my decision.

Yet again and again I end up deciding to stick to my choice, to turn my back to the crossroads and head up this path I've chosen. I may stop once in a while to look back to the crossroads, but I somehow manage to make myself start moving on forward again. In my heart, I still believe I made the right choice...I just did not realize it would take this long for it to be validated.

P.S.
If you are wondering why I am so bent up in trying to get out of the Philippines, please check out exodus, the post I made shortly after deciding to leave the crossroads.

blog rounds

So this is it. I'm in. Crack those knuckles, get the neurons firing and let the creative juices flow. I somehow managed to get myself into the Blog Rounds, the blog carnival of Filipino medical bloggers.

My friend MerryCherryMD was responsible for luring me in the middle of this blog carnival. She made it sound so easy and fun, so I decided to give it a shot.

I clicked on the blog rounds picture. Bone MD's The Orthopedic Logbook materialized on my screen, and I found myself reading the guidelines for the Philippines' first ever medicine blog carnival.

Sounds good. Challenging but not too toxic (it seems), and here's a chance for me to actually use my gray matter and play with words at the same time. I just can't pass this, I have to give this a try. Who knows, maybe this will open new doors for me.

And maybe it will for you as well. Just click on the picture and immerse yourself in the Blog Rounds blogosphere.

malaysian grand prix 2008

After the disastrous weekend in Melbourne, I was apprehensive coming into this weekend's grand prix. Hoping fervently that one week is enough to recover from one of the worst season starters, I prayed that it won't be a heartbreaking weekend.

No disappointments during qualifying, it was a Ferrari 1-2!!! Massa outqualified Kimi, but knowing Kimi is the more aggressive driver, their grid positions were fine with me. Hamilton and Heikki were 4 and 5, that was okay with me, too. Showed that Ferrari outpaced McLaren.

To make things sweeter, BMW's Nick Heidfeld put a complaint about the Macs being obstructive in his final fast lap. Thankfully, the stewards saw that indeed, the slowing down McLarens were on the racing line, interfering with the lap times of Heidfeld and Alonso. They decided to demote the Macs five places down. This put Heidfeld and Alonso two places up, and Lewis and Heikki smack into midfield.

The race start was great, with Raikkonen getting a better start than his teammate, but Massa defended his position and managed to stay up front. Things changed after the pit stops, when Raikkonen had good in and out laps, effectively putting him in front of Massa despite their pit times being almost identical. This sealed victory for Kimi.

The ending would've been sweeter if Massa finished second, but not surprisingly, he self-destructed (again!) and got himself stuck on the gravel pit. This is beginning to worry me, because for two straight races, Massa's made driving errors that took him out of the race. Ferrari needs Massa to generate some points in order to win the constructors' championship. So far, their only points are those scored by Raikkonen.

So, Bahrain is next...hopefully, this time, it'll be a 1-2 for Ferrari.

visual MEMEs

I have no idea what the title of this post means...for me, MEME = Sleep. Anyway, I read this on Hazel's Peanutbrittle Diaries and thought I'd give it a shot.



Answer the questions below, do a google image search with your answer, take a picture from the first page of results (don't copy the answers of the person who posted this before you).

1. the age you'll be on your next birthday

2. a place you'd like to travel

3. your favorite place

4. your favorite food

5. your favorite animal

6. your favorite color

7. first name of your significant other/crush

8. the town in which you live in

9. your screenname/nickname

10. your first job

11. a bad habit you have

12. your worst fear

australian grand prix 2008

I had been eagerly anticipating the start of this year's Formula 1 season. The 2007 season ended superbly for me, with Ferrari taking both the Constructors' and the Drivers' championship titles. Kimi Raikkonen eased the pain of Michael Schumacher's retirement, and the way he won his first championship title is one for the books. Kimi was in third place coming into the season's final grand prix, and, although it was mathematically possible, what Kimi needed to win last year was something short of a miracle. He did not only had to win the race, he also had to have a bit of luck in hoping his rivals finish several places behind him.

He got just that. A bit of "dumb" luck, to borrow Marc & Rovilson's term for stupidly good luck. So the season ended magically; it was like movie magic.

And then it takes one race to jolt me back to reality. This year's Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the season, was a bitter pill to swallow. It was probably Ferrari's worst ever season opener.

Ferrari came in with all the advantages: the best pit place, the reigning world champion in their paddock and the best pit crew. Good on paper, but apparently not on the racetrack. Magical it was not.

The qualifying yesterday was an omen. The number one car had fuel pressure problems, placing Kimi 15th on the grid. 15th among 22 cars. Felipe Massa's best was only good for 4th place, with the 2 drivers from archenemy McLaren ahead of him. Robert Kubica's BMW even managed to squeak past him. And BMW was supposed to be a middle-of-the-pack team.

The red lights went off...and the nightmare began. Felipe self-destructed early on, making a mistake amidst the mellee and ramming his car onto the barriers. He had to limp an entire lap before having his front wing changed. Kimi gave me some hope, jumping from 15 to 8. And his car seemed to be fueled to the brim.

Kimi drove wonderfully, making it to 3rd place before self-destructing. He went one step too far and almost drove himself out of the race. He managed to avoid the barrier, but he dropped back to the end of the pack. The race went downhill from there, with Kimi's car sputtering to a stop with 5 laps to go.

The race was a cruel reminder that in this world, everything can change in a blink of an eye. From the top of the totem pole, Ferrari became bottom dwellers. Forever an optimist, I hope this would last for 1 week only. Now, I'm looking forward to the Malaysian Grand Prix and hope that Ferrari will redeem themselves. Dumb luck, stupid luck or even just a bit of good luck will be greatly appreciated. Magical this race certainly is not.

earth hour

Got this in my email, from my sister. Maybe we could give this one hour to the planet.

On 29 March 2008, the Philippines will join countries around the world as we literally "turn the lights out" for Earth Hour - an event that will fuel awareness on climate change and prove that when the people of the world work together, they can make a difference in the fight against global warming.

Earth Hour will take place throughout the Philippines from 8 to 9 in the evening on Saturday night, 29 March 2008. WWF invites you to participate by shutting off lights for 60 minutes, organizing your own "lights-out" event of by forwarding this mail to your friends, workmates and family.

Launched in Australia on the 31st of March 2007, Earth Hour moved 2.2 million people and 2100 businesses in Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour. This massive collective effort reduced the city's energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour. With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions of Sydneysiders, many major global cities are joining Earth Hour in 2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement.

Your participation will go a long way in spreading the message that we, as individual droplets working collectively can create an impetus far more powerful than the mightiest of rivers. For more information, log on to the WWF Earth Hour page at www.earthhour.org.

english

I got this email from my mother. It was so true and amusing that I just had to post it.

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxe.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why should't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly,
Boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be
committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house
can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

adopting

UP at 100 survey

I've been receiving this survey in my email, and thought I might as well answer it here...

Maligayang ika-100 taon, mga Iskolarng Bayan!
1. Student number? 97-05060
2. College? College of Science
3. Ano ang course mo? BS Biology
4. Nag-shift ka ba o na-kickout? Neither
5. Saan ka kumuha ng UPCAT? UP Diliman, dun sa Physics Building
6. Favorite GE subjects? Geo 11
7. Favorite PE? Swimming
8. Saan ka nag-aabang ng hot girl/boy sa UP? Hmm...AS Lobby, IB Lobby
9. Favorite prof(s): Ian, Ana, JC, Henry -- o di ba? 1st name basis na kami! Cool kasi sila.
10. Pinaka-ayaw na GE subject: STS or SST or STT, something like that, basta yung GE na for seniors
11. Kumuha ka ba ng Wed or Sat classes? Nope
12. Nakapag-field trip ka ba? Yup, BS Bio kasi kaya madami field trips to do field work
13. Naging CS ka na ba or US sa UP? Yes to both!!! Yabang, hehe
14. Ano ang Org/Frat/Soro mo? UP PMHS, UP ABM, UP BioClub, Helios
15. Saan ka tumatambay palagi? PMHS tambayan, IB Lobby
16. Dorm, Boarding house, o Bahay? Bahay
17. Kung walang UPCAT test at malayakang nakapili ng kurso mo sa UP, anoyun? (Given ang mentality mo nung HSka) BS Bio pa din siguro, yun naman kasi first choice ko
18. Sino ang pinaka-una mong nakilalasa UP? LeaZap, Sandra and Rorie
19. First play na napanood mo sa UP? I forgot, I think it's a play about Freud
20. Name the 5 most conyo orgs in UP. No idea. Di naman kasi ako conyo
21. Name 5 of the coolestHaribon? UP Mountaineers. Wala na akong alam na iba.
22. May frat/soro bang nag-recruit sayo? Meron, pero di ko pinatulan
23. Saan ka madalas mag-lunch? Casaa, IB Lobby (where we eat food from Casaa), Green House, Beach House, McDo
24. Masaya ba sa UP? YES!
25. Nakasama ka na ba sa rally? Yup
26. Ilang beses ka bumoto sa StudentCouncil? Di yata ako bumoto
27. Name at least 5 leftist groups in UP: Gabriela, LFS
28. Pinangarap mo rin bang mag-laude nung freshman ka? Yup
29. Kanino ka pinaka-patay sa UP? Sa Physics prof ko
30. Kung di ka UP, anong school ka? Ateneo

Happy Centennial everyone!!! :)MABUHAY ANG ISKOLØLAR NG BAYAN!!!

taking off

I'm not yet 100% healthy (who is?) but I'm getting antsy with so much free time at hand. I want to get out of the house, but not necessarily go back to work. I've been doing too much thinking, analyzing and planning in the past few days regarding my life. It's time to put those plans into action, or at least do something productive while waiting for those plans to hatch.

So, I'm going back to work tomorrow. While I'm not too crazy about going back, I do want to see how things have changed in my absence. Besides, I may only have a couple of weeks left before I leave this job and head out for greener pastures, literally and figuratively. I've decided that I'm getting out of my comfort zone, with hopes of learning more, getting more experience and, most importantly EARNING more. Maybe this will come at the expense of my stepping down from a pedestal I worked so hard to be on, and maybe I will have to adapt to being a second-class citizen, but for the moment, I'm willing to swallow these bitter pills just so I'll be cut free from the system I've become tired of.

I didn't make this decision during my 10-day sabbatical; I've been mulling over this since I passed the boards in 2006. It was only during the past several days that I've come to finalize this decision and really decided to push through with this. I've got to make something happen, I don't want to get stuck in this rut I'm in right now. The decision scares the hell out of me, but so does the thought of me doing what I'm doing now for the rest of my life. I may crash and burn in the process, but I know before I do that I have to take off first. I can always go back to my comfortable rut if I do crash and burn.

under the weather

I can't believe it's been MONTHS since my last post...OCTOBER???!!! What in the world happened to November and December?

Thinking back, those two months seem nothing more than a hazy memory. Especially November. I remember starting the month with work-packed days, and beyond that I can't really remember how it went. Usually, I live my life one day at a time, which suits me just fine. My work is notoriously unforgiving when it comes to time and schedules, and I've learned to be flexible when it comes to adjusting the scheds. Although I have entries on my planner and PDA, I don't strictly follow them...they are all tentative and subject to last minute changes.

So now, thinking back, I can't remember how I lived November. My memory of December is somewhat clearer, but still foggy nonetheless. I think I must have spent most of the days of November working, then doing some Christmas shopping on some free days, though I highly suspect I spent most of my free time sleeping. Come December, I was already meeting friends for Christmas parties, lunches and dinner as early as the first week. And I know I didn't lighten up my work load until the last week and a half of the year, so I probably was alternating between working and partying.

And now, on the first week of the new year, my body's screaming at me to slow it down a bit. It started with some sniffles, then my throat because itchy, then sore and I got the full blast of the microbes' attack on my duty last Thursday. I don't know how I made it through. I was wearing a mask because I was barking like a dog, I had congested sinuses, my body was aching all over and by the last quarter of my 24-hour shift, I was feeling eerily cold. I was feverish, groggy and on the verge of collapsing when I finally made it to my bed. I slept fitfully for about 24 hours, and when I regained consciousness, it was already Saturday.

So, I here I am, forced to shift to lower gears and take it slow. I'm still coughing and sniffling, but at least I'm no longer feverish and I no longer feel as if my throat's ripping up whenever I cough. I'm not due to go back to work until a week from now. I've caught up with my overdues (including sleep debt) and now have time to think. When I start over-thinking, I'll go back to getting busy again.

randomness

Got this from a Friendster bulletin, and since I've got plenty of time to waste away, I decided to post it here...

If I looked in your bag, what would I find?
• my wallet, a lipstick and some coins.

Do you go to the bathroom with the door open or closed?
• It depends on where the bathroom is

Sleep on your back or stomach?
• Neither. I usually sleep sideways.

What would I find if I looked under your bed?
• A pair or two (or sometimes more) of slippers and shoes. And lots of dog hair.

Something that happened today that has made you mad?
• So far, I'm feeling pretty zen. Just a bit irritated at this cough I have.

What were you doing before this survey?
• Answering quizzes at Facebook.

What will you do after this survey?
• Answer more quizzes.

Why do you like the person you like?
• Usually, I don't know. Often I like a person just because.

When you shut off your alarm clock, do you tend to fall back asleep?
• Yup. I can't get up the moment I wake up, so I always hit snooze several times. Emphasis on several.

If you were given the chance to take care of a monkey for a weekend, would you?
• No

What is the current annoyance?
• My damn cough

When will you turn 50?
• I'm too young to think about that.

Where do you wish you were right now?
• Some isolated beach with clear water, fine sand and no shark/jelly fish threats

What song are you currently listening to?
• Silence

Have you ever passed out from drinking?
• Not really, but I've gotten pretty close to doing that. I always puke and get these terrible stomach aches whenever I've drunk too much, and these keep me awake.

What time did you wake up this morning?
• 10

What makes you laugh?
• stupid dogs

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
• Irene, I think, a couple of days ago. I can't talk much lately because of this damn cough.

What is the WORST subject they teach in school?
• I really hate values ed.

favorite movie?
• LOTR, Harry Potter, StarWars, Indiana Jones

What happened when you woke up this morning?
-- I had coffee

Is someone on your mind right now?
• Not really. I'm thinking of what I'll do after this survey

Can you say the alphabet backwards?
• Nope, and I don't think it's worth the effort

What color is your toothbrush?
• Yellow, white and blue

Do you like the beach?
• Yup, as long as the water's warm and clear. I don't like it when I can't see my toes under water

Can you whistle?
• Yup, but not in tune