Heart of Life

Recent facetime conversations with my sister while she was on a business trip in Canada.

My life has been so much better since you've been home (not just from Canada...)! To the only one who gets consistent blogposts (see 1, 2) around here, Happy Birthday. From the midlevel team.

Bad Valentine

I'm a day late, but here is my favorite lyric from one of my favorite songs. It's particularly relevant since I took my last biochemistry exam yesterday. Yes, Happy Valentine's Day indeed.

Being Elmo

Being Elmo opens in Detroit on Thursday! I've heard such good things about this documentary and I can't wait to go! I hope you all have been able to watch it too.

Video Games by Lana Del Rey

I think Lana Del Rey, if you haven't heard of her yet, is about to get really big with an album slated for release this month. After reading about her in this article from the Atlantic, I'll admit I became an immediate fan of her jazzy, dark voice. Her fake nails, plumped-up lips, and her Marilyn Monroe breathy-ness are also so undeniably American, don't you think?

Some other good ones: Yayo, Born to Die, Blue Jeans.


*Edited to add this amazing cover by Jamie Cullum. Swoon.

Happy New Year!

I never fully believe it's the new year until I start school and work for the first time. In this way, 2012 has snuck up and surprised me today.

As for you, dear blog (and of course my multitudes of fans), I'm so sorry for having neglected you, leaving you rejected and forgotten. But no more of this! I think my frequency to write follows a negative parabolic pattern: no writing when I become too busy and no writing when I become too free. So good news! I'm back in school, guaranteeing at least a meager correspondence. Can we just be ok with that for now? Consider this my 2012 resolution.

As a brief recap, I finished my first semester of medical school, and of course in perfect timing, I performed in a few Christmas concerts the weekend before exams. I also got to see some very far-away friends who were able to make the pilgrimage back to Michigan every year-end.

I was conned into dog-sitting for a classmate and let's just say, that was perhaps one of the most trying weeks of my life (and my family's), even if the psychotically needy dog was pretty cute.

My family and I went to NYC to spend the week between Christmas and New Years with my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandmother - always such a good time though the dynamics and details change in both significant and subtle ways as we get older.

Maybe now you can understand why that I didn't have time to write. But perhaps to be fair, I shouldn't say "time to write" and instead I should say "spirit to write". I think I was much more focused on relaxing and enjoying the precious 2 weeks of holiday break, resting and absorbing all the good things that come with an extended period of minimal responsibility. Anyway, this is the stuff that I fall asleep to when life inevitably starts back up and startles me into submission. Nevertheless, I promise to be better this year.

PS. Sugar Bowl from New Orleans tonight! Geaux Blue!

"The Mystery I'm Thankful For"

"I was simply pointing to that fundamental weirdness, that "stranger-in-a-strange land" quality of being human. I was pointing to that mystery because I think its best part of the whole trip.... We just find ourselves here. With our individual birth we just "wake-up" and discover ourselves in the midst of an extraordinary world of beauty and sorrow....I will feel the mystery and be thankful to it, to them and to the world entire."
Adam Frank

The perfect find for today. Happy Thanksgiving.


(photo of Iceland via Krisatomic)

Chills

Getting to ZERO - World AIDS Day Detroit 2011 from WORLD AIDS DAY DETROIT on Vimeo.

I get chills (the good kind) when I watch this. The video is made by a classmate of mine and it's featuring many other classmates. Even more impressive is the fact that this event was founded and organized singlehandedly up until recently by a 2nd year student. Such inspiring, impassioned, and motivated people! Here they are in the news: Detroit Worlds Aids Day.