After our vacation last week, I drove back to Maine late Sunday night, only to realize that I had left the house keys in Boston! Fortunately, I also found out that I had left the house unlocked all week, so I was able to get inside and avoid hypothermia. Now who said two wrongs don’t make a right? My Nook Color also came in the mail this week, which I proceeded to overclock and flash with the CyanogenMod of the Android OS, essentially converting the refurbished e-reader into a snappy Honeycomb tablet. That’s not bad for $120, especially since the HP Touchpad fire sale turned out to be a disaster, wasting me 30 minutes of my life on Ebay and still leaving me empty-handed. Luckily, the Nook performed well in a test drive during our Chandler meeting. This year’s conference featured retina guru Glenn Jaffe, and kept me well fed with both a pre-dinner at the Chart House and a reception at the Millenium Boston Hotel. I spent the rest of the weekend with Melody playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a prequel to the acclaimed game in 2000 which is set in a beautifully-rendered dystopian future reminiscent of that in Blader Runner, and mimics the stealth tactics from the MGS series. Despite the fun of climbing through air ducts, hacking computer terminals, and silently taking down guards, we hope to crank through the game quickly to get to Skyrim by Christmas.

It’s been years since Melody got to spend Thanksgiving with her folks back home, so our trip to Cali this week has been long awaited. Our plan for this “stay-cation” was simply to relax, eat, and sleep – a welcomed break after the exhausting fellowship interview season. Much of our time was spent hanging out with our niece and in-laws in Sacramento and Stockton, exploring nearby restaurants and shopping at strip malls. I also caught up on data analysis for a research project while getting addicted to Property Virgins on HGTV. Last Saturday, we drove to San Francisco to pig out at the Ferry Building Marketplace. There, we got to feel young, hip, and epicurean while waiting in line for fresh oysters, Korean tacos, bacon-infused hotdogs, and porchetta sandwiches; washed down with some chai tea milk, an ice-cream sandwich, and pan au chocolat. We ended our week off with Melody’s 2-day job interview at UC Davis, which gave me plenty of time to sit in a hotel room and ruminate over my fellowship rank list. On the flight home, we found out that our flight attendant was also an enthusiast of Skyrim, the long-awaited sequel to Oblivion from the Elder Scrolls role-playing series. We loaned him our game guidebook in exchange for a free airline snack box and eager anecdotes of his adventures as a dragon-slaying wood elf. It definitely kept our neighboring passengers listening in utter confusion and thirsty for their beverages. The exchange got us all hyped up and eager to embark on our own adventures there.

Having been a city boy all my life (Hong Kong, NYC, Boston), my transition to living in Togus got off to a rocky start. I was nearly stranded on my first grocery run to the Hannaford in Augusta when I learned that GPS navigation on my smartphone does not work without data access while roaming. My usual sources of multimedia and entertainment were also lacking, although the availability of MiFi in the house allowed me to catch up on season 3 of Lost via Netflix streaming. Fortunately, I found reprieve from the cold and solitude after returning from my interview at Duke and catching an earlier flight back to Portland to meet Melody for dinner at Fore Street. It was well worth the extra $50 airline fee for tasty wood-grilled mussels and a few extra hours with my wife. We spent Sunday exploring nearby Augusta and China (the town in Maine, not the country), shopping in strip malls and dining at the China Dine-Ah. After hearing the catchy jingle on the radio all weekend long, we could not resist the quality homestyle cooking like meatloaf and sheperd’s pie. When I finally returned home to Boston to cover call this weekend, I had tons of emails and receipts to file away, but fortunately, no ruptured globes to repair. Although the Togus rotation has been laid back so far, I’ll be looking forward to our upcoming vacation with Melody’s family over Thanksgiving.

This is the story of my mind-numbing trip aboard buses, planes, and cars across 3 time zones and 5 interviews in 6 days. Possible? Yes. Insane? Absolutely. It began last Wednesday after work with a mad dash to South Station to catch my bus down to New York, which due to rush hour traffic, got me late to the Columbia pre-interview dinner. The interview itself on Thursday lasted an epic 11 hours (thanks to my last name), which of course made me late for my next dinner with the Cornell faculty. By the time I finished my third NYC interview at NYEE, I was completely drained, although thankful to still have some time to spend with family before flying out to Chicago. Arriving early in the Windy City on Sunday, I revisited the bean at Millenium Park and had a table for one at nearby Park Grill for lunch. I spent the afternoon reading at the Harold Washington Library, supposedly the largest circulating library in the world, before the UIC dinner. I took off for San Francisco right after my interview there, which gave me a chance to check out my friend’s fancy new house as well as my first taste of Indian pizza before my UCSF interview on Tuesday. From there, I took the red-eye flight home, arriving bright and early to rendevous with my wife to pick up my luggage, groceries, and rental car for the 3-hour move up to the Togus VA medical center in Maine. After orientation (ID badge, house keys, parking permit, computer login, etc.), I settled into my new home for the next 7 weeks amidst the cold, bleak landscape. This is probably my first time living alone in such a large house in the middle of nowhere, reminding me of such horror films as The Shining (big house, isolation, cold winter) and The Amityville Horror (scary house, winter, flies). So if you start seeing some “all work and no play makes Glenn a dull boy” emails in your inbox, you may want to call and check up on me.

This year’s AAO annual meeting took place in the city of Orlando, and as senior residents, we had our first chance to partake in this magical experience. Of course, having already spent a fortune on fellowship interviews, I was reduced to sharing a room at the local Econolodge, which luckily was within walking distance to the convention center. Due to lack of call coverage back home, I was only able to attend the Retina subspecialty day – a 2-day extravaganza of mini-lectures summarizing the biggest stories of the year in a single over-sized conference hall. In between the talks, I snuck in an interview for the ARC fellowship and visited the exhibitor booths to browse the new toys and grab some freebies. Although most of the reps were only giving out candy or eye drop samples, I did get my lenses engraved by the folks at Volk. More importantly, the meeting gave me a chance to reconnect with colleagues – past residents and fellows who have graduated, as well as faculty and other applicants from the interview trail. After our first day at the meeting, we enjoyed some tapas and Flamingo dancing at Cafe Tu Tu Tango, then set out on a wild night crashing a Genentech social in the Peabody ballroom, followed by a Cornea Society party with physician-DJ’s spinning house music at the Hard Rock Cafe. Hoping to take it easy the next day, we met up with some BU residents and stuffed ourselves with Turkish lavas and hummus at Anatolia before the ride home on a taxi-van from a driver named Mr. Muzik (spelling confirmed on cab badge). Despite the short trip, the traditionally busy call through the rest of AAO turned out surprisingly quiet, perhaps due to our first snowfall this Halloween, giving me a nice break before my next wave of fellowship interviews.

Was it only 4 years ago that I packed the same black suit into my carry-on suitcase, traveling across the country to confront the myriad unfamiliar faces, each with a hand in casting the die that determines my fate? This fellowship interview season brought back memories of cliche personal statements, SFmatch anguish, airline ticket bargain-hunting, crashing on old friends’ couches, changing in airport bathrooms, insomnia on red-eye flights, and of course, the interview suit – the one that cannot be packed without getting wrinkled. Luckily, I’ve found two new gadgets that has made life a lot easier this time around: a handy portable steamer to replace shower steaming, and the Google maps phone app for navigation. The smartphone is not without its Achilles’ heel, however. Upon arriving in Portland the night before my first interview, I found my phone dying from low battery, almost taking with it my friend’s home address or phone number. Luckily, I averted spending the night in the streets, and got to share her living room with her parrotlet before my interview at Casey. I spent the rest of my time in Portland venturing to the Pearl district to explore Powell’s City of Books before having eclectic Peruvian fare at Andina for dinner. My trip continued in Altanta, which gave me a chance to hang with my cousin’s family for the weekend before my Emory interview, and was followed by St. Louis for a visit to Wash U. By the time I returned home to cover senior call for Columbus Day weekend, I was deathly ill with a wicked cold and laryngitis. Exhausted from all the traveling and illness, I had to recuperate at home with some good ol’ gaming with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Ubisoft’s next chapter in Desmond and Ezio’s epic adventure brought back the fun of climbing gorgeous historic buildings, hunting for treasure chests, and stabbing Borgia baddies with hidden blades. Sadly, the reprieve was short-lived, and I was soon taking my suit on the road again for interviews at my home institution and then UC Davis. I had little time to spend with my 5-year-old niece in Sacramento, but I’ll hope to make it up with my upcoming vacation for Thanksgiving.

Our trip to Cancun this summer was our first attempt at the traditional “beach vacation.” In the past, our trips have always been packed with activities. This time, we decided instead to splurge on a luxury beach resort near Playa del Carmen. Unsure of how long we could survive doing nothing, we opted for a brief 4-night stay with no activities planned in advance. We even saved a few bucks by traveling during hurricane season and forgoing travel insurance. But when we heard about Hurricane Irene moving up the East Coast, we knew we were in trouble. By the time I left work on Friday, we found that our Sunday flight had been canceled. We spent nearly 4 hours on our cell phones, Skype, and Twitter, desperately trying to reach a Delta representative. Luckily, we averted the crisis by arranging to fly out a day earlier, which meant frantically packing and rushing to the airport within 2 hours of our phone call to catch the flight. Arrving in Cancun a day ahead, we checked into the Courtyard Marriot near the airport, but only to realize that Melody had forgotten her contact lenses! Frantic again, we hopped onto the local bus to look for replacements. Luckily, we saw a Sam’s Club along the way and leapt off the bus in joy. With all our remaining pesos and some broken Spanish, we were able to get a new set of contacts to restore my wife’s vision. Our stay at the 5-star Rosewood Mayakoba resort was nothing short of extraordinary. Sipping our welcome cocktails, we were taken to our suite on a boat tour through the private lagoon. After docking, our butler introduced us to the amenities – private boat dock, heated plunge pool, roof deck with day bed, and both indoor and outdoor showers. We enjoyed a sea side Mexican dinner on site with classic sopa de lima and conchita pibil. On Monday, we ferried to Cozumel to visit the Chankanaab national park, where we swam with dolphins, sea lions, and even manatees! We also snorkeled for a couple of hours, though the required life vests and bouyant salt water made it difficult to dive below the surface for underwater photos. We returned to Playa del Carmen in the evening for dinner at Yaxche for delicious authentic Mayan fare. The next morning started with Melody accidentally dropping her Kindle on the floor and my erroneously deleting the cell phone settings for PlayOn streaming. Cut off from our usual entertainment, we took advantage of the resort facilities – the sculptured swimming pool, the club room pool table, and of course, cable TV, where we watched Serena Williams crush her opponent at the US Open. On Wednesday, after our kayaking attempt was foiled by stormy waves, we decided to stay by the beach, where the constant offering of free goodies like mango popsicles, strawberry slushies, cucumber eye covers, facial massage, and sunglass cleaning service (you can’t make this stuff up) kept us in utter relaxation. We returned to Boston refreshed, and thankful to have the long weekend ahead before returning to work.

We attended a friend’s wedding in Chicago this weekend, and as always, the trip was more adventurous than we had expected. With an early morning flight, we were proud to have avoided the torrential rain storm, but got drenched walking to Unos (the original Pizzeria Uno) for lunch. After warming up to hearty deep dish pizza and mugs of warm water, we trudged back through the rain, contemplating shelter between Marilyn Monroe’s legs along the Magnificent Mile, before returning to the hotel for a much-needed afternoon nap. The evening wedding took place at the Crystal Gardens in Navy Pier, a spectacular venue complete with indoor palm trees, water snake fountains, and an outdoor balcony overlooking the water. Along with an elaborate raw bar, spectacular fireworks, a party photo booth, and great dance music, the reception made for an amazing evening of celebration. On Sunday, we began the morning with a coma-inducing brunch, then joined some friends to watch the Chicago Air & Water Show from their 66th floor condo balcony overlooking the harbor. The high-flying stunt planes, down-going parachuters, and super-speed Air Force Thunderbirds wowed us with some amazing feats of aviation. We were exhausted when we got back, but were relieved that our car was already parked at the airport (our first time!). With fellowship interviews approaching soon, I’ll look forward to hopefully another trip to the windy city.

This year’s Shakespeare on the Common featured All’s Well That Ends Well. It’s one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays, and for good reason – neither the story nor the characters were particularly sympathetic or even likeable. Originally classified as a comedy, it is now considered a problem play, so named because it cannot be categorized neatly as a tragedy or comedy. Although the show was well-acted as always, the story made little sense, boiling down to boy meets girl, girl forces boy to marry her, boy cheats on girl, girl tricks boy into bed, girl gets pregnant and confronts boy, then boy marries girl … again. Despite the ridiculous story line, it made for a nice summer outing in the park with delicious take-out Chinese food and some intense games of Boggle with friends before the show. We also caught the latest and final movie from the Harry Potter saga last weekend. This was actually the first movie we’ve seen in the theater since the last Harry Potter movie came out a year ago. It was fun seeing how much the kids have grown over the past decade, although it also reminded us of how much we’ve aged ourselves. Meanwhile, my last week of night float as a senior will be coming up in a week. Already, I can recall my memories of the fun and chaos of the owl shift at the MEEI emergency room. I am sure there’ll be stories to tell.

July is finally here, and I kicked off my final year of residency by taking the first junior resident on night float. It was a bit overwhelming returning to the ED after a one-year hiatus, especially when all the first-years were so enthusiastic and wanted to learn everything in their first week. Fortunately, my memories of the ED kicked in quickly and by the second night, we were a well-oiled machine. I even squeezed in a good amount of teaching, but more importantly, gave my junior resident time to eat and sleep each night. The week-long experience gave me some comfort knowing how far I’ve come since starting residency here. I was also proud of myself last week for finally seeing the dentist after almost two years. Luckily, still no cavities yet, although a poorly-marked parking spot made me learn how to retrieve a towed car the hard way. Back at home, we were left with more questions than answers after a second season of Lost, while the new acclaimed Witcher 2 is keeping us both entertained and challenged. And despite the sizzling heat wave, Melody and I joined my co-residents to go “out” for the first time in several years. The atmosphere at the Gypsy Bar made us feel a bit old, especially with the unrelentingly fast techno beat and intoxicated party-goers spilling their drinks on the dance floor. It reminded us of our days being single, and certainly was a world away from the wedding dances that we’ve become accustomed to. So far, senior year has been tons of fun. But with fellowship application deadlines rapidly approaching, there’ll be little time to relax as I start to plan for my next step in life.