random musings

-I find myself sitting in an office ready for another day as my third year of residency is coming to a close in a week. Really? Yup.

-I find myself in a more administrative role as I move to my last year of residency. This is a great opportunity to be a servant as Jesus said in Matthew "And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant," but still I find difficulty that decisions that I make will make some happy and some frustrated. I simply would rather just make everyone happy and not have anyone upset at me...not going to happen.

-Last week Bekah and I joined the Plattner family on a lake in Michigan. One week without Internet and no work related activities. That is nice as I realized that the world will continue without me checking my email or facebook. I love vacation. The question is, do I go with the vacation where you go to a new spot and check everything out staying busy or just go to a familiar spot and veg out doing a lot of nothing? I am still debating. (Titus with his cousins).

-As I train for the Chicago triathlon I am discovering how difficult it really is to swim as swimming a 1/2 mile was one of the toughest things I have done. Another thing I have discovered is that there is a lot of trash in Lake Michigan. The other day I was convicted as I swam past an empty beer bottle and condemned the jerk who threw it in there in the first place. Yet God reminded me that I could pick it up instead of rolling my eyes and swimming right by assuming the clean up is "someone else's" responsibility and not mine. On a fundamental level by continuing to ignore the trash aren't I just like the dude that threw it in on the first basis?

-After the death of former UCLA coach John Wooden I started to read about him and realized that I have a new hero. That man was an amazing man. Here are a few things I learned about him (via Wikipedia):

1) Wooden remained devoted to his wife Nellie, even decades after her death. Since her death, he kept to a monthly ritual (health permitting)—on the 21st, he visited her grave, and then wrote a love letter to her. After completing the letter, he placed it in an envelope and added it to a stack of similar letters that accumulated over the years on the pillow she slept on during their life together.

2) Wooden has some great quotes:

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Flexibility is the key to stability.
Be quick, but don't hurry

I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior.

If I were ever prosecuted for my religion, I truly hope there would be enough evidence to convict me.

3) He held to a Seven Point Creed, given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammer school:
Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Oh yea, and he won a lot of basketball games.

-As a Detroit Tigers fan I was obviously following Detroit Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga would have had have gone down as the 21st major league pitcher to throw a perfect game: no hits, no walks, no base runners, period. But on the last play, the very last play first base umpire Jim Joyce called the batter safe who was clearly out as Joyce later said "I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay." Galarraga took the miscall in stride as he gave Joyce the play card the next game and did not make a big deal out if it.

This reminds me of a quote by a former umpire Ralph "Babe" Pinelli when he was a rookie umpire who called a strike on the famous Babe Ruth. It is reported that Ruth challenged a call stating "There's 40,000 people in this park that know that was a ball, tomato-head." Pinelli shrugged as he responded "mine is the only opinion that counts."

As a believer in Christ I take confidence that no matter what others may say to or about me (rather true or untrue as I agree with Billy Graham when he advises others to turn your critics into coaches) at the end of the day I have a loving Father who loves me. That is the only opinion that really counts.

3rd times a charm?

Earlier this week Bekah and I's relaxed night was interrupted by a man slamming on our front door demanding our neighbor pay him money. He kept ringing our doorbell and yelling several four letter words until I explained to him on the intercom that he had the wrong apartment which only meant that he started ringing the doorbell of our neighbor while he was still slamming the front door.
I then left my apartment to knock on our neighbor's door after he was not answering his phone as I had heard activity upstairs. No one answered my knocks and meanwhile the man kept kicking and yelling as I realized that I locked myself out of our apartment and could hear Titus crying while Bekah (thinking I was caring for Titus) was drying her hair not hearing anything.
Bekah then heard me knocking and let me in as the man left (temporarily as people from the restaurant came outside) as we calmed Titus down. The man did come back in which he did break the door (which means our neighbors' "associates" have broken our door 3 times in the last year), but left because people outside the restaurant came outside again (much quicker than before) to see what the commotion was.
Our landlord was called who she then called the police (4 showed up which means they must really like the food downstairs) who asked everyone questions including one of the upstairs neighbor who was not the one who the guy was out to get, but still knew who the guy was and heard me knocking on his door.
The cops collected the information including the eyewitness from an employee who actually saw the man kick the door in and set out to find the guy. Meanwhile our landlord made the executive decision to kick out our neighbors who are looking for a new place as she kept apologizing to us for swearing in front of Titus.
Speaking of Titus, it was amazing to see his reaction. I am convinced that babies as young as 3.5 months are amazingly perceptive. He was very fussy throughout the entire event as he could tell that Bekah and I were shook up. Even after everyone had left and we were trying to get our pulse down as we were still recovering from the crazy situation he continued to be fussy until we eventually calmed down. Amazing to see how he seemingly could pick up our distress.
Fast forwards to a few days later...Bekah and I were sitting on our porch and noted that a young man was casually walking up and down the street just checking to see if anyone had left their doors unlocked which made us both realize where our loose change had disappeared to a week or so ago.
It is times like this that you really realize how you really are not in control of anything. At any minute something can happen to change your life forever. We are not the captains of our ship, we may have some control of the steering wheel, but we have no influence on the oceans that we are traveling on.
While this is sobering I am thankful for the promises we have in God's Word when He says that He will never leave nor forsake us allowing Bekah and I to sleep soundly.

randomness

-The weather in Chicago has quickly morphed from those cool spring days to the very hot sunny summer days leading Bekah and I back to our "discussions" about the air conditioner, but this year she has an ace in the deck so to speak as she points out that Titus is young and needs cool air. How do you argue against that when she holds up a cooing baby? Yea, I have got nothing against that.

-Chicago is buzzing with the Blackhawks in the NHL championship with t-shirts, flags, and signs everywhere with some of the Chicago landmarks dressed in Blackhawk gear such as a Michael Jordan statue with ice skates on. It is always amazing how fans seem to come out of everywhere once the team is doing well (except the Cubs).

-Speaking of Chicago, Bekah and I have at least one more year in Chicago as we have to decide where we are going to live after residency is over July 2011. Yes that is right, I finally need to get a job, but we see potential jobs in Chicago and other areas of the midwest.

-As an upcoming grad there are areas that need docs pretty bad meaning that they actively and sometimes aggressively are recruiting residents. After all of these years of being the one desiring to enter the different programs it is strange to be on the other side of the fence...which I think definitely has greener grass.

-I smashed my right big toenail playing basketball. You never realize how much you use your big toe until every movement hurts.

-My dad turned 60 last week and requested running shoes for his birthday as he plans to start jogging. My siblings and I pooled in together to buy him some quality shoes and I found it funny to see him excited for his brand new shoes reminding me of when he used to buy me shoes every summer before I started school...funny to see the shoe on the other foot (no pun intended).

-Titus is doing well, but he has the amazing ability to spit-up in ways that maximize exposure to my clothes. Oh yes, he will wait until I switch positions and before I can readjust the burp rag...I become one. Yesterday I put on a brand new shirt (maybe that was my mistake) to burp him, with a burp rag on my chest right in the middle of his mouth, and he lifted his head, turned to the side and let it roll right off the edge of the burp rag onto my shirt. That kid has talent, let me tell you.

-I need to get back to work...