Christmas Day, Chinese Food

Finally managed to get out of the house yesterday.

Spent  three and a half hours at a Starbucks catching up with my high school friend A.  We’d set the date earlier in the week without realizing everything would be closed because it was Christmas Day. Worked out fine though; the Starbucks was very cozy.

A. always has tons of stuff going on in her life – from horrible first dates to impromptu trips to Australia – it makes for some great stories. Sometimes I envy her freedom, but, as I learned from my "gap year" after college, I’m a lot more comfortable having a plan and knowing where my life is headed (or at least where I want it to be headed). She’s still planning the big move to California, which was put on hold because of her ulcerative colitis flare up. She’s better now, and tapering off the steroids. Having just finished GI block, I put in my two cents regarding this new UC diet she found in some random health book. I know that at this point in my training I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous. But the stuff in this book made NO sense in the context of everything we were taught about UC and the GI tract in general. Just sayin’.  I’m going to miss our NY outings if she ever does wind up moving, but then I’d have a reason to visit California! I’ll finally be able to give the West Coast a fair chance.

They kicked us out of Starbucks at closing time, so we grabbed some Chinese food (the stereotypes never stop), and headed over to O’s house. I haven’t seen O since my high school graduation, and I realized she’s a lot cooler than I remember. She’s going to Med school out in the Caribbean, but will be doing her clinical rotations at various hospitals in the States. People really snub the Caribbean Med Schools – it’s assumed you generally "wind up" there because you couldn’t get in anywhere else.  I suppose there’s some truth to that, but it still amazes me that someone like O wasn’t considered good enough by programs in the States – she got decent grades (well at least she did in high school!) and she has years of experience as an EMT under her belt. Honestly, I think she’d make a better doctor than a good chunk of my classmates :/    

A. also informed me that my ex-boyfriend’s mom had recently passed away (brain tumor). I was blown away. I knew this woman. She liked me, even though I didn’t like her. I thought she was lazy and selfish, but now that seems incredibly harsh. She was younger than my mother. This explains my ex’s response to a birthday message I sent him on facebook a few months ago. He replied that he was "feeling down by life at the moment" in response to my casual how’s life question. I sent a second message asking why, but he never responded – which was unusual since he’s the most polite guy in the world, always afraid of hurting people’s feelings.

I actually thought about this ex a few days earlier as I drove by his house while running some errands in Brooklyn. I remember thinking, inside that house is the room I lost my virginity in nearly 8 years ago. We did it after watching Hidalgo (it’s so random, I will never forget that). I remember my ex getting fed up with his mom because she was taking forever to leave the house, and we couldn’t get down to business until she was gone. Afterwards we went for a walk and smoked a cigarette, because that’s what people do after sex in the movies. Seems like this all happened a lifetime ago. We were so innocent then, too. It makes my heart ache to think how time passes and how our loved ones may not always be around. 

It’s snowing now. Been coming down steadily for most of the day. Maybe I’ll snap some photos..of the men in my family shoveling snow 😛