“This is the moment.” Mike the photographer gestured to me to look at my watch. It was 9:10am, November 12, 2013 … 9-10-11-12-13. Clever. There are moments in life that can forever define your future – the forks in the road, the branch points, the decision trees. My past two weeks have been a long, agonizing process of self-reflection, as I juggled the decision to pursue one of two job offers in Sacramento. To clarify, there were no “wrong” answer, as both positions were incredible – one a well-funded clinician-scientist faculty position in a collegial academic department; the other a premier, lucrative retina-only private practice with smart, friendly, and highly-motivated partners. A year ago, I would’ve been happy to have any job in NoCal to be with my wife. Yet, the two options I now face span two ends of a spectrum that straddles the ideal balance of research and clinical work that I had envisioned. I found solace in long discussions with friends, family, and colleagues from various stages of my career. I know in the end, I will have to just go with my gut and follow my heart, and take life as it comes. I felt the stress somewhat relieved at our fellowship interviews last week over drinks with the applicants and snacks with classmates from residency. In the meantime, I also completed round 4 of my instant noodle competition. As always, scores are for soup base, then noodles.

1. Weichuan Miso Vegetable Flavor (7, 5) – Good fermented soup with lots of goodies, but boring sub-par noodles reminds us of Weichuan’s mediocrity.
2. Vifon Instant Porridge Chicken Flavor (5, 7) – The well-textured porridge smells just like the real thing, but tastes more salty than chicken-y. Also, not technically a noodle.
3. Sapporo Ichiban Miso Ramen (6, 5) – Salty soup and floppy noodles reiterates the disappointment that is Sapporo Ichiban. Two thumbs down for such a promising name.
4. Nongshim AnSungTangMyun (8, 8) – The amazingly hearty, subtly-fermented broth is paired with noodles with just the right texture, inching past their tried and true Neoguri.
5. Good Bean Vermicelli – Artificial Minced Pork Flavour (6, 7) – Little rubbery meat balls slightly elevates the spicy-salty soup, and is paired with above-average bean vermicelli.
6. JML Artificial Spicy Hot Beef Flavour (4, 5) – The bowl was so spicy that I could barely taste the soggy noodles, or my tongue, after the fact. Not for the faint of heart.
7. Vina Acebook Mi Lau Thai Seafood Flavor (5, 4) – The somewhat umami yet ambiguously-flavored soup does little to complement the soft, rubbery noodles.
8. Six Fortune Broad Instant Noodles (7, 8) – A flavorful broth with just the right amount of kick pairs well with a nice, springy broad noodles that stand out from the rest.
9. Mama Hu Tieu Nam Vang (4, 6) – Mama makes pretty solid rice noodles, but all their broth seasoning seem to taste the same.

It was just 2 weeks before Melody’s visit this past weekend that the right side of my jaw began to ache. Mistaking it for a toothache, I went to a local dentist despite not having dental insurance, and found out that I was more likely suffering from TMJ. Apparently, sleeping with my face in the pillow and recent stressors at work may have contributed to the night time teeth grinding that resulted in this condition. Between hot compresses and jaw exercises, I picked up my wife from the airport on Thursday. With leftover Indian food and a fresh pot of homemade bun rieu, we alternated between sleep and wake throughout the night to adjust to the jet lag. On Friday, we had Q Shack for lunch, then after yet another cryptic Assassins Creed game ending, went to the American Tobacco district for dinner at L’uva. While looking for the next game to play, we chanced upon the Stanley Parable – a re-released version of a Half-Life mod that explored the concept of choice and free will from an office cubicle with witty British-accented narration. We finished the game that same night, just in time to drive down to Raleigh Saturday morning for the NC State Fair. After satisfying our Korean crave at Seoul Garden, we entered the fair grounds to continue our feast of soft-serve ice-cream, funnel cakes, and frozen bananas while watching pig shows and pig races. That night, we aptly dined on delicious NC-styled BBQ pork at The Pit to round out the experience. With an accumulation of leftovers in our fridge, we spent Sunday vegging out at home chowing down while watching the most recent Star Trek movie and episodes of Buffy and Arrested Development. Every one deserves to live like piggies once in a while.

After 3 consecutive weekends of traveling cross-country, I’m relieved to be finally back home despite being on call. Last week, I flew to Sacramento for my UC Davis interview, which unfortunately coincided with my wife’s conference in Seattle. We overlapped with just enough time for her to see my job talk and dine with the faculty at Plan B, ironically. After she left, I spent my second interview day touring the labs at Davis and hanging at her home with the rats. On Saturday, I made sure to get my ramen and banh cuon fix before my red-eye flight home. This past weekend, I headed West again for my interview at UC Irvine, which showed me a very different approach to academic medicine. The recruitment dinner at Anqi introduced me to the hip Asian culture of Orange County, while my return flight the next day let me revisit Popeye’s at ATL. All the traveling has given me plenty of mileage from my Surface, and for my Delta account. It’s also given me some down time to explore a few shows like Breaking Bad and Arrested Development, which I was able to try out on my new Roku. Sadly, it’s hard for me to enjoy my brief moments of procrastination without feeling bad or guilty. So I’m sure it won’t be long before I plunge myself back into work next week.

My trip to LA for the Retina Society meeting this year also gave me a chance to immerse briefly in the hyped up culture of old Hollywood and Beverly Hills. My fellowship research award provided the all-expense-paid trip, which included a 3 night stay at the Beverly Hilton, where the retro 1970s facade contrasted with the recently-remodeled, stylish interior. Our Thursday morning arrival gave us time to wander Rodeo Drive and lunch out at Psy-endorsed Bibigo for pajeon and steak bibimbap. We returned to attend afternoon case presentations before the poolside dinner reception. My award lecture on Friday was well-received, and it felt good to be recognized by experts in the field. I celebrated with friends at the swanky dinner reception at the Getty Museum, followed by drinks at Mastro’s, where the chatter of the hip crowd discussing films, records, and modeling made us feel out of place. The black-tie dinner banquet on Saturday was even more impressive, held in the lavish hotel ballroom where the Golden Globes are held. The great food, live music, and dancing, was only a warm up to the afterparty at Westwood’s Whiskey Blue at the W Hotel. By Sunday, the meeting was winding down and a crowd of beautiful people were checking in for the Guess district manager meeting. I spent the afternoon working at the hotel lobby while waiting for my red-eye flight home, but not before seizing the opportunity to sample rib-eye steak frites at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bistro for lunch, and risotto and gnocchi from Wolfgang Puck’s Spago for dinner. It’s reassuring that even as our government is shutting down, that the bold and beautiful of Beverly Hills will continue to thrive.

This year’s NCSEPS and NCRC meetings were both held in Asheville, which gave me an excuse to get out of town for the weekend. I headed out after OR on Friday, arriving just in time for the Retina Club dinner at Curate, where the salt cod puree and fried eggplant were still as good as I remembered. The constant drizzle on Saturday thwarted my hiking plans. So after presenting my poster in the morning, I returned to explore downtown, filling on dahi sev papdi and samosa chaat at Chai Pani, lamb gyro and fish tacos at the White Duck Taco Shop, and a big mug of oaxaca from the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. I took an afternoon nap in the car for a couple of hours amidst the downpour, then awoke to notice a newly-opened pinball museum nearby. Intrigued, I paid the $10 admission and spent another 2 hours reliving childhood memories of my favorite coin arcade pastime (mainly because I lacked the button-mashing skills for Street Fighter). The collection ranged from retro machines dating back to the 1950s to fancier ones from the 1990s like the Addams Family and Simpsons games which I so fondly remember. The weather recovered beautifully on Sunday, which made for a pleasant morning drive to Looking Glass Falls before I returned to the meeting to pick up a first-place award for the poster competition. I planned the drive back home along scenic Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping first at Mt Mitchell, the tallest peak of the Appalachians and highest point east of the Mississippi River. The observation tower at the summit offered awesome panoramas, while the Balsam Nature Trail provided macro shots of moss and ferns. Sadly, I had to abandon the other stops from my itinerary due to bad internet directions leading me astray for 3 hours along tortuous downhill US-50. I consoled myself with a bowl of pho from Vanloi 2 in Greensboro on the way back home. Despite missing out on the other waterfalls, my time with mother nature helped revitalize me for a busy OR at the VA tomorrow.

Thanks again to Slickdeals, I ended a 2-year affair with my Android-enabled Nook Color and welcomed the new Microsoft Surface RT into my life. The $200 refurbished deal which included the touch cover was too good to pass up, especially since I was able to unload the old Nook on Craigslist for a good price also. My first week with the tablet has been a positive experience, with native support for Skydrive and Office 2013, which will also include Outlook with the new 8.1 upgrade due later this year. The app store is somewhat meager, but does include some good ones like Netflix, Zinio, Skype, and recently, Plex. This program provides a beautiful media front end with a 10-foot user interface along with a back end media server on my PC, which will likely replace PlayOn and PS3 Media Server. My only gripe with Windows RT is with the absence of Google integration (for obvious reasons) such as Chrome, Maps, and Drive. Fortunately, my weekend call has been quiet, and gave me a chance to play around with the new toy, and even kick back with my co-fellows for Friday night dinner. I’ll give it a few weeks to see how well it works, then decide to either keep it or flip it for a profit.

After being out of town for 3 weekends in a row, I was relieved to be home for Labor Day – a welcomed break for me to finally get some work done. After cooking up a big pot of Spam soup, I spent most of the weekend indoors. By the end of the 3-day weekend, I had completed a book chapter, a case report manuscript, 3 weeks of laundry, and the critically-acclaimed indie game Gone Home, which I played from start to finish in just two sittings. The interactive story-telling game was reminiscent of classic games from the 90’s like Myst and the 7th Guest, and featured magnificent voice-acting and period details transporting the player back to … incidentally … the 90’s. I also made better use of our swimming pool as well as my living room TV, which had been gathering dust since I bought the thing last fall. I fired up the PS3, logged onto Netflix, and added several new TV shows to watch including Arrested Development and Continuum, a Canadian science fiction series that successfully combines the best elements of sci-fi cult classics – dystopian future, time travel, and beautiful women in skin tight body suits. A weekend that is both productive and relaxing is just so satisfying.

It’s been nearly 25 years since I last visited Toronto, and this year’s ASRS meeting gave me a chance to return to the bustling Canadian metropolis. Getting there was no piece of cake, however, as our frugality required us to fly into Buffalo first, followed by a 2 hour car ride across the border. The Five Guys burger from the airport did not hold me over adequately, leaving me hungry and exhausted by the time I arrived at the hotel at 3 am. On Saturday morning, I walked to North America’s largest Chinatown for toasty pineapple buns and a bowl of pho bo kho before returning to the meeting. The conference itself turned out to be one of those events where one spends more time socializing than actually attending the talks. By the time I made it through the sea of my retina colleagues, the day was nearly adjourned. We walked to the dinner reception at Canada’s well-loved Hockey Hall of Fame, and snacked on small plates while mingling beside the Stanley Cup. The food certainly did not compare to the fancy culinary spread atop the CN Tower sponsored by Genentech on Sunday evening. With 360 degree views of the Toronto skyline as the backdrop, we stuffed ourselves with Caribbean jerk chicken, Indian biryani, Chinese dim sum, and Italian lasagna. The night ended with a Mexican party at a bar called the Bier Markt, which aside from the absurdity of the concept, left us memorable photos that will no doubt make their way online some day. On Monday, we joined Regeneron reps to lunch at Canoe, considered one of Toronto’s finest restaurant with impressive city views. I returned to the meeting to present my poster, then joined other fellows for the Vit Buckle Society dinner at swanky Brassaii sponsored by Synergetics. With my growing list of financial disclosures, I decided on Tuesday to sneak off by myself for lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar. Here, my bar seat gave me a front row view to the creation of David Chang’s acclaimed pork buns (too fatty) and Momofuku ramen (good but overrated). Despite all the gastronomic adventures, the meeting itself was one of my busiest, with 3 case presentations, 2 interviews, and a research poster. The fear of international roaming costs also kept me tied to the hotel lobby, which added to the exhaustion. I shared the car ride back to Buffalo with my co-fellow and attending, stopping briefly for pictures at Niagara Falls and wings at the Buffalo airport before our flight back. After three consecutive weekends out of town, I was ready to finally unpack my bags.

There are many perks to becoming a second-year retina fellow. Having slaved away as first years to cover our seniors during interviews and meetings, we are now finally reaping the benefits of seniority. This weekend’s AVTT meeting in Chicago was an all-expense-paid educational experience for fellows. Beyond learning just new surgical technologies and techniques, there were also talks about contract negotiations, practice design, reimbursement changes, and the future of healthcare reform. The eye-opening discussion was not all doom and gloom, as it gave us a chance to network with the experts and mingle with old friends. The central location of our hotel also gave us opportunities to sample dining and nightlife in downtown Chicago. Despite our late arrival on Thursday, Eric and I scored 10pm reservations at Girl and the Goat, where Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard’s creative menu wowed us with plates like pig face and a goat belly confit. Unfortunately, the Friday night wait for Rick Bayless’ flagship restaurant was more than 2 hours, so we went next door to his more casual counterpart for some mediocre tortas and churros. The wait at Giordano’s on Saturday night was no better, and even Chicago’s famous deep-dish pizza did not impress me enough to consider a return visit. After dinner, I met up with some friends for drinks at Crimson Lounge, then bribed our way into the Roof lounge – considered one of the top 3 rooftop lounges in the world by Travel & Leisure – for house music and people watching. By the time I got home, there was little need to unpack, since I will be heading out again for ASRS in just a few short days.

I returned to Sacramento this past weekend, not only to visit Melody, but also for my first job interview at Retinal Consultants. Although it took time away from my wife, my plane tickets were covered, and the prospect of landing a position in Sacramento was well worth the sacrifice. I spent Friday observing the practice in both their clinic and OR, concluding with a lavish dinner with the partners at Ella. The harrowing day-long experience showed me how efficiently private practices are run, and how some doctors manage to see more than a hundred clinic patients or do more than 10 VR surgeries in a day. The group continued their welcome on Saturday over dim sum for lunch, followed by a barbeque with spouses and children at the managing partner’s house in Arden Park. Overall, I was impressed by the partners’ collegiality and the extent to which they enjoyed family life, not to mention the potential for big bucks. On Sunday, after filling on banh cuon, we spent the lazy afternoon hanging with the rats, munching on macarons, watching Game of Thrones, and feeding spiders to the praying mantis in the backyard. In the evening, we celebrated my sister-in-law’s birthday over HK seafood, followed by late night sweets at Rick’s Dessert Diner. Once again, the weekend trip felt way too short. But with two more weekend trips ahead, I won’t have to worry about feeling lonely.