Sid from Toy Story lives next door to me

I came home last night at 11pm to find this leaning against my door. I swept them aside and they were gone by the time I left this morning at 830. Its kinda freaky.

Ice breaking stats

This came up last night so I thought I'd share my 2 cents. The start of every conversation is, undoubtedly, the toughest part of the conversation. I don't buy those who say ending a conversation is hard, just leave. Some conversations are harder to get going than others, especially the first time conversations. So how do you break in and get going. Well its tough and everyone goes about it a different way of dealing with it. Sometimes someone else makes the first move, sometimes something presents itself to give you a hand and sometimes you just have to tough it out.

I'm about to drop a mind bomb.

That's right, here's my golden secret. When it gets tough I've got some go to ice breakers. The first and best is the whistle test. It is a proven statistic that (enter percent >50) of women can't whistle. This sort of challenge won't go unmet and not only will you be able to engage the person in front of you but you may engage the entire room. The second and less effective method that I will share is the milk test. No women like to drink milk. None. Its not really a challenge but it at least get someone talking, even the whole room. It is less effective because you have to leave the room and essentially the room to get milk to test the theory, but you get the gist.

This came up last night because there really is no limit to what you can do to break the ice. For example, my friend James has chickens. 10 chickens that is. He didn't get them as a conversation piece but they are nevertheless.

UPDATE: In talking more with James recently he shared a tidbit that could come in extremely handy. Upon meeting someone who claims you have met before, and you have not the slightest clue who they are, 2 out of 3 times you can play it off with one simple phrase/question. You simply come up with something about their hair looking different that last time you met (pretty much only works on girls), but remember it only works 2 out of 3 times.

Vids 5

A little music, some laughs, and an enormous amount of true friendship.

Camp Hobe Kids

This was my fourth consecutive year volunteering for Camp Hobe and as I enter my second year of medical school, I fear that it may have been my last for a while. Rest assured, however, that I will return. It is one of the places that I enjoy above all others. I am going to attempt to qualify that statement because it is difficult.

There are certain events in each of our lives in which the sentiments of our experiences can not be shared with or conveyed to anyone who has not experienced the event for themselves. Someone will ask you, How was ____?, to which you respond, Oh man it was _____. But there are, inevitably, sentiments that cannot be conveyed. Other people just don't get it and they are incapable of understanding because they haven't experienced it themselves (I'm even having trouble trying to explain the concept). I have had many experiences like this in my life. My mission for one, medical school for another, Camp Hobe easily fits into this group.

Let me give a brief overview before I try to explain my own feelings. Camp Hobe is a summer camp for children who have cancer and their siblings. Its a week long opportunity for these kids, who may not have this chance at any other time during the year, to be kids. To run and swim and play like any "normal" kid. And they can do this because of an army of volunteers from the organizers and fundraisers behind the scenes to the counselors, nurses, and doctors who are at camp for the whole week. The first week is for kids from 6 -12 and the second week is for teens from 13-18. There is also a day camp for kids from 4-6 which lasts Monday and Tuesday of teen week and the kids go home at night, come on, they're really young.

I did Kids Week my first time and it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot and had enough fun to apply again the next year. The 3 years after that first time I have been at Teen Week and I love it! Kids week was fun and there are people who fit in there better than at with the teens, that was not me. I love the teens, all of these awkward young kids trying so hard to look cool while they do these really foolish looking skits and activities. Its incredible! I love camp for so many reasons:
singing stupid camp songs as loud as I can, teasing everyone all the time, fun activities, not combing my hair, making kids dance who don't want to dance, dancing with kids who maybe don't ever have anyone else to dance with, little chocolate milk cartons, meeting other counselors who care about these kids, and being outside.
But the reason I love camp the most is because of the change that takes place inside of me. It seems incredible that I have to learn the same lesson every year, but unfortunately I do. I hope someday that it will finally sink in for good but I think I will be dead by then. Going to camp is so humbling for me. All year long I go through what I deem hardships and trials and I complain and balk at decisions I have to make and it all makes me sick to my stomach sometimes. When I go to camp and I'm with these kids who are half my age and have already passed through the eye of the needle, I can't help but be humbled and a little disgusted with myself. Those kids are so amazing! Some are missing limbs or have enormous scars or are super slow or without hair or are skin and bones or 100 lbs heavier than they once were and every single one is out smiling and having a great time in spite of it all. Cancer is just something that happened but they don't let it get in the way and the sibs are the same, and everyone is friends with everyone else. No one is excluded.

I hope that I always have the chance to return to Camp Hobe or at least have the experience to be around  Christ-like children like these, and I hope everyone else can too.  It'll change your life if you let it.


PS. If you have a chance, do a search for Camp Hobe and read-up on all the blogs moms have done about their kids going to camp.

Life is Good

Life is Good. We are meant to be happy in life (different from having fun but not mutually exclusive). Take a moment every once in a while to slow things down and consider what you've got going on. Take a moment to read this article, In Praise of Honest Enthusiasm of the Awesomeness of Life and if you aren't happy with your life then change it.
Here are some videos to provide a little perspective.

I hate wind

I do. I really hate the wind. A cool breeze can be just what the doctor ordered on a hot summer day or if you are trying to fly a kite it can be useful, but those are the only exceptions. I mean think about it what good does it do. In the winter it makes everything colder (the top of Little Cloud ski lift at Snowbird is the coldest place on Earth). In the summer it makes doing anything outside less enjoyable as dirt is blown in your face and food, you must yell because your words are carried away. And I really hate when my hair gets blown in my eyes. I hate the wind.
This doesn't do anything about the wind but its still really awesome. You can check out how windy it is at anytime, anywhere in the US of A.

Happy Easter!

"This is the Easter season, the time when we commemorate the most important event in human history. At sunrise on Easter morning, multitudes will gather on a thousand hills to welcome the dawn of the Easter day and to remind themselves of the story of Christ, whose resurrection they will commemorate. In language both beautiful and hopeful, preachers of many faiths will recount the story of the empty tomb" - Gordon B. Hinckley. April 1983.

"He Is Risen, As He Said"

I Believe in Christ.

He is Risen and provided us the chance to reclaim our place in the mansions of the Father.

Happy Easter

Doctoring

     There is a course at my school that runs the entirety of first and second years. The Longitudinal Clinical Experience (LCE) is a program that works hand-in-hand with the Doctoring course to help prepare MS1s and MS2s for 3rd and 4th year clerkships. In the LCE course each student is matched up with a physician in the community as a mentor/preceptor. So every other week I go to a pediatric office in Goodyear, AZ where I have been seeing actual patients and learning how to adapt the clinical skills I learn in Doctoring to the real world.

    Well, on Thursday last, for the first time ever, I saw patients all by my onesie and had to present to my attending! It was a pretty monumental occasion for me for a number of reasons. Let me tell you about my patients and I think it'll be pretty clear why.

Patient 1: This is the very first patient that I will ever have seen. It was 5 year old little boy who came in complaining of stomach pain for the last week. As it turns out the HPI was pretty bare because his parents are divorced and don't communicate well. Mom brought him in and he'd been at Dad's for the last several days so she had no idea how he'd been except that his stomach hurt when she dropped him off and it still hurt now. After the physical exam, I was still far from seeing anything wrong with him. So I went out and reported that everything was negative and the only thing I could think of was maybe a stomach virus. Well it turns out I was right up until the stomach virus part because actually it was CHILD ABUSE and he had a stomach ache because he didn't like to be around dad anymore. On my first try, sweet.

Patient 2 and 3: Brothers brought in for a variety of reasons but the issue of interest was that they both had wiener issues. I have no experience with wiener issues, especially uncircumcised wiener issues. A great follow up to patient number 1, right. (I later spent like 10 minutes talking about wieners with my brother and sister. We usually talk about poo.)

Patient 4: A little girl who had some wheals on her arms aka hives. I did my interview and exam, presented the case, my assessment, and plan. We went back in and after Dr. Wells did his interview and exam he followed my plan exactly! Super Stoked! Finally something that was a success of sorts.

Patient 5: A chubby 10 year old boy having and Asthma exacerbation because he also had a cold.

So it was a big day.

30 for 30 part 2

The second half

1. Bag Arizona's 11,000+ footers
2. Obtain Wilderness Medicine License
3. Achieve AZ residency
4. Write and publish something
5. Make money off an original idea
6. Return to Costa Rica
7. Post a YouTube video that receives over 1,000 views
8. Guide my family on an  Epic Adventure
9. Fast Food Moratorium 
10. Daily Scripture Study
11. Read 2 or more non-medical/non-religious books/year
12. See 1 game of every Arizona professional sports teams 
13. 2 acts of service per month
14. Complete dedication of the Sabbath to the Lord
15. Ride my bike from Phoenix to Tucson

I have tried to make my goals realistic and achievable while making them each a challenge for me. That is one of the marks of a true goal, another is that each goal must be measurable so the you can mark your progress and make the necessary adjustments in order to have success. I have done this also. Covering almost an entire wall in my room is poster paper with each goal and how I plan to do each one. This constant reminder is essential for any good goal, especially for me as I try to not let my life be swallowed up by school.

Spring Break

Since last week was Spring Break, its been a little tough getting going again at school (not as hard as after Winter Break but hard non-the-less). It would have been easier had I not had some pretty awesome adventures. It started off a little rough as it really started on Friday evening after my Pulmonology test. It was not a fun test, 78 questions in 2 hours on a scantron because the new exam software the school paid a fortune for didn't work right. It was a disaster. I did fine on the test but after 40 questions I was really tired of filling in bubbles and turning pages and I had half the test left. I know that I have it easy compared to they way it used to be but COME ON! When was the last time you took a scantron test?

Things picked up from there, I went biking on Saturday morning and had a date later that day in which we flew kites (I love kites, additionally I lost my phone while we were flying kites but we went back later and found it where I was jumping to try and get my kite out of a tree). Monday was a prep day, I cleaned my whole house and then some. I even washed the floors, I knew they were dirty but judging from the water the floors had never been cleaned before. 

Tuesday I went skiing in Flagstaff, which was at the tail end of an incredible storm that left over 50 inches in 4 days. Flagstaff sits at 6,900 ft. (Salt Lake City sits at 4,225 ft.) and is totally worth the 2 and a half hour drive from Phoenix. After the day skiing, I made my way home through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona (I'd never been there, and it was a seriously inexcusable sin not to have been there sooner).

Oak Creek Canyon from the North end

Wednesday was no let up as I had to finish the last bit of cleaning, stop in at school for a book and to print some articles, I took a bike ride, had to pack, and be to the airport at for the Jet Blue red-eye flight from to Boston. It had been a pretty nice day up until the flight. I hate flying and the plane ride from Phoenix to Boston lasts just shy of 5 hours. Since we are in daylight savings that 5 hour flight became an 8 hour swing and I landed at 7 am. 2 hours later I caught the first bus to Dartmouth and finally at noon on Thursday I was with my brother, his wife, my mom, and the newest Amundsen, Carston. Once again it was totally worth the travel.

Spencer, Lisa, and 3 week old Carston

Grandma Jan with baby Carston

Notice my long hair because I no longer have it.

Uncle Chris and Carston, notice the dino PJs

We spent a lot of time doing odd jobs around the house while Carston ate and slept, which was all the time until Saturday. On Saturday we went to Mr. Gs for some sweet shopping (I got a dragon tie-dye!) and then visited Sharon, Vermont and the birthplace of Joseph Smith. It was an awesome experience, especially after Mr. Gs. There was a definite change in feeling when we got to the grounds and as we toured around and talked to the missionaries who were there, that spirit only grew stronger. It was a great strength to my testimony and I was grateful for it.

Monument to the Prophet

 

Final product

Mullet would have been epic

Sunday, the last day of Spring Break, turned out to be the wildest of all. We woke up earlier than we had been, which wasn't all that early for the people who live on the east coast but 830 is really 530 for those of us from the west coast, and I got a fresh haircut for the return (first real cut since last June but don't worry, I've saved the hair in a Ziploc bag). My mother and I were both leaving on the Dartmouth Coach at noon, and, like always, we just made it in time. We usually have a good reason for running the time so close and this was no exception, we didn't want to leave. Also, I'd made it all the time I was there with out getting any of Carston's spit-ups or blow-outs on me but at 1130 I had finished packing and my brother was handing me the little guy so everyone else could get ready. As he is rolling Carston over and handing him down to me, I received one last going away present in the form of not one, but 2 eruptions of spit-up (thank you Carston, I thought  about you almost the whole way home. It would have been the whole way except for what happened on the plane). So great, now I have a good sized spit up on my front but it was too late to change and we had to go. We got to the airport and had to split up to our different airlines, another quick goodbye, and soon the boarding call came to get on the plane to come home. This is where things got really exciting

This was a full flight and there was a call for anyone who was willing to check their bag because there wouldn't be enough room for everyone. I figured I could because I wouldn't be in any real hurry to do anything once I landed. As a consequence I got to be one of the first to board the plane (not really all its cracked up to be if you have an assigned seat and no luggage to put in the overhead bin). So I sat in my seat watching everyone else board, filling every seat but the one beside me until the last passengers got on. All of a sudden I was sitting next to chatty Cathy aka Gene aka sort of an oaf/Glenn Beck look-alike. I'm a  friendly enough guy but I did not want to talk that entire plane ride (its almost 5 hours long). But chat I did, for a long time. We chatted for a while in which I learned a lot about his life, way more than anyone who isn't dating him should know, and then we each had a turn in the bathroom and I tried to sleep a little and not pay attention to him. It worked really well for a while until somewhere over Oklahoma we had a this conversation
Gene: I'm feeling really light headed
Me: Do you want some water?
Gene: Yea
Me: Ok, I'll call the flight attendant.
(Flight Attendant arrives)
Gene: ...............
(BECAUSE GENE IS UNCONSCIOUS!!!!!)

The flight attendant begins to yell for help and tries to yank me out of my seat. It was crazy! I couldn't believe it. So they leaned him over into my vacated seat and he immediately revived. They got him some oxygen and some juice and almonds (turns out he couldn't remember the last time he had anything to eat). Meanwhile I was at the back of the plane telling 2 RNs, the only other medical professionals on board (there was also a dentist who showed up later and a pre-med from ASU who'd "had a lot of experience" in the medical field), what happened and what I thought was going on. So I return to my seat and Gene sucks down some oxygen for a while and then says hes feeling much better and everything is back to normal? Well it was... until about an hour out from Phoenix. I'd been watching Gene the entire time since his syncopal episode. We'd been talking a bunch more because I was worried he was going to die. Turns out he has a lot of Past Medical issues (knee surgery, hypertension, family history of stroke, etc.). After talking to him about it, I knew we were far from being in the clear. So we were so close but I noticed that his color was starting to go again and I asked if he was doing alright. His response was that he was fine but he trailed off and didn't finish the thought

BECAUSE HE PASSED OUT AGAIN!!!!!!!

I was shaking him and pressing the flight attendant button frantically and jumping out of my seat to lay him down. I was sure he was dead this time, especially after talking to him about all the risks he had for stroke and pulmonary embolisms and heart failure. I was sure of it. Well they gave him the whole bench to lay down and I got booted to another seat for the rest of the ride while one of the RNs stayed with him and his oxygen tank. That was a pretty long hour. I was super ready for that plane to land and to get off, but once again Gene got in the way. We had to wait for some EMTs to come on and get him off first so they could evaluate him.

Finally they let everyone get off the plane and I have to go down to baggage claim now (now seemed like a very poor decision on my part). As we are all waiting around to find out what carousel are luggage will be on I see Gene walking over. By himself. I couldn't believe it! After passing out in the plane not once but twice (and I'm pretty sure he told one of the nurses that he was having heart palpitations) they let him walk! I went over to talk to him and see how he was, you know, let him know that someone cares what happens to him. He had a 20 minute drive still ahead of him to get home. I've been watching the obituaries everyday since. I'm not totally convinced he made it home on Sunday night.

And with that Spring Break came to an end.

Street Art II

On the side of somebody's shed/garage/house? Kind of a sketchy neighborhood.
1170 W. Fillmore St.

The side of the car wash on 7th Ave. and Roosevelt.

2nd St. and Roosevelt

Jesus Saves. This is the side of Buster's Market on 15th Ave. and Fillmore. I rode my bike up to take the picture, then looked down and found some awesome used razor blades at my feet. Homeless people hangout here a lot.

Kony 2012

This is a rant. Not a rant about the Kony 2012 movement, I agree with the Kony 2012 movement. He is an evil man and should be, NEEDS TO BE, brought to justice. Invisible Children has done an amazing job at exposing Joseph Kony for who he really is and what he has done. I commend them for their efforts and for the movement they have created.

This is a rant about the millions of supporters of the Kony 2012 movement, and here's why. The movement is about preventing Kony from kidnapping children and turning them into child soldiers. Its about stopping him from tearing families apart and torturing them.

Boil it down and its about preventing innocent people from a ruthless man hungry for power and willing to kill and maim and torture to get it.
Invisible Children is asking the federal government to send the US military into Uganda and Africa to stop him, and millions of people are getting on board and supporting the call to arms.

Take a moment to consider that. There are so many things wrong with what is going on here. Its all very fish

1. This is essentially the reason we went to war in Iraq, to stop an evil dictator from being able to commit senseless acts of violence, albeit on a much larger scale. 
2. The call to destroy this evil regime has come only a matter of months after Mr. Obama withdrew our military from Iraq
3. There are already American military troops in Africa assigned to help the Ugandan government

Ok thats all very strange and it bothers me but the most bothersome to me are the liberal idiots that have jumped on this "Send in the Army" bandwagon because THEY JUST GOT OFF THE "END THE IRAQ WAR" BANDWAGON. Most notable of the what I would call Hypocrites is Oprah Winfrey and I'm sure she won't be alone for long. Idiots. Come on.

30 for 30 part 1

I have recently turned 27, which leaves me a few short years before I hit 30 and begin life post medical school (I will graduate mere months after reaching this milestone). This birthday, along with several life changing events that have occurred in my family, has got me to thinking about my own life. In the grand scheme of things I am very happy with the way my life has turned out. I don't have any real regrets of things I have or haven't done, but because of the new lifestyle that I lead, mostly I study, there is real potential for reaching 30 and the end of medical school with wishes and wants unfulfilled. 

With this in mind, I have come up with my 30 by 30. 30 goals to accomplish before I turn 30 (finish medical school).

1. Published article that can be searched by my name on PubMed
2. Published photo in a magazine in circulation (doesn't have to be a major publication)
3. Find my future (I don't have to be married but must be dating her)
4. Bag at least 5 of the 50 state high points
5. 3000 names indexed on Family Search
6. Visit every part of Arizona
7. Float the Grand Canyon
8. Visit all of the Utah and Arizona temples
9. Eliminate all TV viewing (including internet)
10. Race in the MTB series at McDowell Mt. Reserve
11. Run a Marathon
12. Exercise 4x a week
13. Read the Book of Mormon 3 times
14. Establish an NPO (framework will suffice)
15. Ski at every resort within a days drive of Phoenix

Stay tuned, this is only part 1. Please fill free to comment or make suggestions for 16-30 as they aren't totally finalized.

Marriage Contract

As Valentine's Day was just earlier this week, this is a great follow up.

How is it that 2 people come together and make unlikely combinations? Well, when in the event of two parties combining to form a more perfect union, a contract must be established. A contract must be established, in the which, both parties reach an agreement upon the responsibilities and duties of one and another. Might I suggest the following contract which I obtained several years ago during a visit to the east coast.

I happened to be in Salisbury, Maryland at Salisbury University to present some research that I had been doing. I traveled there with several other students from the University of Utah, including 2 others from the same lab in which I was conducting my research. Salisbury, while a very cool place, very green and lush, is not near the beach and is not near anything else really and is pretty much boring. Ok, so it basically sucked. The only thing going on was the research conference that I was at (I can't stand research nerds with their glasses and research!). So in our search for something to do we found that we needed to go to Kinko's and make copies of the posters we were to present. It happened that I was using the computer to pull up something that we were going to print while the others were looking at copy paper (you know, looking for a good time). Next to me was a strange, middle-aged black man. Being from Utah, I don't see many black men, but that isn't what made him so strange. I'm a pretty friendly guy and so when he started to talk to me, I responded and we had an amicable conversation going when he just sort of trailed off mid-sentence and looked at me rather serious like and asked if I was single. Thats sort of a personal question but being unashamed of my bachelorhoodness as I am I said yes. The next question caught me totally off guard because he then wanted me to come look at what he was looking at on his computer. I sat there and analyzed this for a minute.

1. Strange man (black)
2. Wants to know if I'm single
3. Has something on his computer that he may or may not have shown if I was married.
4. I am no longer in Utah
5. He was looking pretty eager
6. But we're in Kinko's

So what was I to do? I was a little scared of what this man was trying to print and what he was trying to get me to see but I'll confess that my curiosity, and my not wanting to upset a black man of any size, got the better of me and I looked at what he had. The result was this marriage contract, which is pretty ridiculous. He'd had 3 women already agree to sign the contract and I think he was prepping it for a 4th.

Check it out because your own day of reckoning will come one day and this may just be the prenuptial you need.



 

Happy Valentine's Day

To my first true love.

I will always love you though someone will probably take your place.

Spencer

This is my brother Spencer. He is an Orthopedic surgeon at Dartmouth - Hitchcock Medical Center. I'm so proud.

Street Art

I haven't lived in Phoenix for all that long, but it didn't take long to notice that there is a lot more graffiti here than in Salt Lake. There is actually a very strong art community here, not comparable to LA or New York but come on, I don't live there, and it has spilled over into the streets. I enjoy some art, actually I'm pretty particular about it. My eye is really drawn to street art (at what point is it graffiti?). Most of it is pretty bizarre but you can't deny that some of those guys are pretty dang talented. Anyways, because there are so many murals and tags here, and because I really like them, I have decided to document the street art of Phoenix (and I suppose the surrounding areas as well). There are definitely some pieces that I like more than others and I will make sure to let you know which ones those are.

This first one is on the corner of Grand Ave. and W. Polk St. I pass it almost everyday on my way to school or Scottsdale or anywhere really. For a long time I thought it was a church. I don't think that anymore but I don't have any better ideas so its still the Paper Heart Church in my head.

Just up the street from my house, on 15th Ave. and McDowell, I found these 2 down an alley. There right off of 15th behind a donut shop and a Mexican eatery (both of which have gone under thanks to the economy, I'm sure).                                                                                                                                                    

The last one for the post is one that I really like, you can probably guess why. Its on Grand Ave. and Laurel Ave. Its on the north side of a building across the street from a cocktail lounge.

Vids 4

Check out this band. They may be new to the scene or maybe not but at least they're new to me. And they're pretty rad! Plus look how much fun Kim is having.
Matt and Kim - Block After Block

No better way to teach about the problems with our government's idea of budgeting than to knock off a couple of zeros.

Birdy is a young, but she's got a great voice.

And lastly, this video has been huge in the last little bit and rightly so. I include it because in a few months it will be totally forgotten. Such is the way of the Youtube machine. Here is Walk off the Earth.

The original, by Gotye, is also very good.

Inspiration

In case you needed a little more "umph" to get off your couch and go for a ride, swim, or run.

Sedentary lifestyle leads to lots of health problems when you are older, least of which is severely decreased muscle mass. Via Sweat (should be Sweet) Science 

http://sweatscience.com/the-incredible-unaging-triathlete/

Reflections from the Jail

Its been 7 days since I finished the Neurological Sciences block, and that means that this past week has been Capstone Week. This is the 2nd Capstone week that we've had at school. The first was after the MBLD block and it was good. I learned a lot, but this week was different. I think that it was perhaps because I've got a bit more experience in medicine (I actually understand a lot of the words that were said). Understanding the medical jargon and the basics about a lot of procedures and exams allowed me to concentrate on different aspects of each experience. Instead of trying to understand what the physicians were doing, I was able to ask the deeper why questions.

Of the 4 places I visited, I was most struck by my visit to the jail on Lower Buckeye. We got a full on  

tour of the jail. There were maximum inmates, minimum inmates, and of course the real reason we were there the psych and infirmary inmates. The first thing that I immediately noticed was that jail is terrifying. I never want to go there. It was like a hospital but where all the halls were this drab gray and the doors too and everything is at least a foot thick and locked so that you have to flash gang signs at the camera that is always watching you in order to get them to open. Like I said, terrifying. Having inmates walking around with the ability to totally overwhelm the guards if they worked together, didn't help. That was the first thing that I noticed.

The next thing that I became aware of was how awesome the benefits of being a doctor employed by the jail would be. No lie, but it would be awesome. The providers work from 7-3, 5 days a week, and has the ability to "refuse" medical treatment (refuse is in parentheses because you can't refuse everything but if inmates/patients are being unruly than you can just dismiss them until they can behave themselves). Pay is a little less than in the private sector, but malpractice is payed for, as well as a new type of insurance I learned about called tail end insurance (you need to still have insurance for up to 5 years after you finish practicing medicine to protect yourself from the last few patients you ever see. Eff.). There is also a pension after retirement because you have worked for the state. Like I said, awesome.

This is the last thing that occurred to me from my visit to the jail, it is also the largest and has caused me to reflect the most. If I were to work at the jail, I would be providing inmates and alleged inmates (read child molesters, thieves, murderers, drug dealers, etc.) with what is essentially free healthcare for them. This thought didn't sit well with me while I was at the jail and it still doesn't sit well with me. There are numerous reasons which rankle me which really just raise more issues about our health care system:

1. These criminals (even if it's still only alleged) have access to great healthcare while there are thousands of people don't have access and can't get even remotely good health care.
2. These criminals receive care at someone else's expense, and many have learned to take advantage of that, committing small time crimes in order to incarcerated at just the right time to receive treatment.
3. Similar to number 2, getting medical treatment delays court dates, transfers, and numerous other things.

But it can all be narrowed down to one issue, whether health care is a basic human right or a privilege. I know where I stand, and not just because I will be working in the health care industry for the rest of my life. Health care is a privilege to be received because you have earned it or because someone has had enough compassion to gift it to you. I don’t like what is going on in the jail and I don’t like to see people suffer when there is the ability to prevent it. I don’t have a solution for the jail, nor for the health care system in America but I do know this. Consequences come with the choices we make, and if suffering is such a consequence, we sometimes have to suffer in order to learn. I also know that forced compassion is not compassion. Making me provide health care for someone eliminates the notion of compassion and charity (which I believe is part of the purpose of this life).

Rant: Arizona Drivers

This is what it feels like I am driving behind every day! 

When I first got to Arizona I noticed that people here drove slowly, and it was extremely frustrating. I recently drove to my parent's house in SLC, UT (a drive of no less than 700 miles and 12 hours one way), and this frustrating phenomenon became infuriating! You can tell almost immediately when you enter Arizona. Not because the speed limit changes but because everyone slows way the crap down. Let me elaborate. Speed limits here in Phoenix, where I live, are normal speed limits, 65 mph on the freeway and 35-40 on the main roads in town. This is taken to mean that you must drive the listed speed unless you want to go slower or you are in the left lane, in which case you can go the listed speed limit. It is absolutely amazing to me to fly past people in my 4runner doing the same speeds that I did in the far right lane in SLC. A great man, my dad, once said, "Anyone not in a hurry, should be." I think he was talking about people in Arizona.

Note: It's not just the old people, Asians, or women (its not racist or sexist if its true). Everyone drives slow.
Also of note: I pass a lot of people in the carpool lane which is only carpool M-F from 6am to 10am and 3pm to 7pm.