After a relaxed rotation at the Beth Israel Deaconess, I am back at the VA. This will be my third straight year there for the holiday season since my ICU rotation during internship and again as a junior resident last year. Very little has changed with the parade of elderly men marching into clinic with familiar phrases like “Can you say that louder?” and “I don’t know why I’m here.” At home, we returned to the Fallout franchise through the wastelands of New Vegas. The familiar first-person role-playing game engine is fitted with new perks and dopplegangers of ghouls and super-mutants, promising yet many more hours of head-shooting fun. We did manage to break away this weekend and visited a friend in NYC for her daughter’s first birthday. The party at Flushing’s Dae Dong Manor was on par with most weddings we’ve been to, complete with chair covers, fresh flowers, custom guestbook, professional photographer, DJ, slide show, and to top it off, a lavish Korean luncheon buffet. Even with our stomachs filled to the brink, we drove further to NJ for another friend’s baby shower – this time for Chinese-American fare at China Chalet and a variety of pies. But alas, the mix of crying babies and too-much Asian food proved to be a health hazard when Melody caught a stomach virus. Despite an uncomfortable drive back, plagued by her need to evacuate the bug from both ends of her digestive tract, we couldn’t help stopping for ramen at Santouka (again) before returning home.