Tim and I joined an indoor rock gym a few months ago and I love it. We had an excellent climb last night, during which I realized that I’ve gotten a lot better since we started. Routes are graded on a scale that I don’t quite understand (I think it’s this but I’m not sure). Anyway, at the gym they range from 5.6 to 5.12 I think. When I started there were only two marked routes I could do at the gym; mostly I just climbed up using whatever holds were convenient, and I couldn’t make it up over back-sloping walls at all. Then I could do all the 5.6 routes and started tackling 5.7s. Last night it occurred to me that all the ones I regularly climb are 5.7s because 5.6s are not very challenging anymore. Most of the time I can do them without too much trouble. I’ve been working on one 5.8 for a few weeks - I usually fall in the middle but I can do it with a few tries. And last night I decided to try another 5.8 that looked like fun and I was quite successful - it’s going to be my new favorite climb.
I’m at a point where I’m not totally sure what I can do - often I’ll be halfway up a wall looking for my next move, and think that I can’t reach the next hold or can’t pull myself up. Then I try it anyway, and most of the time I can. I’m always surprised when I swing over sideways to a hold, or hoist myself up with my arms. It feels good! My favorite routes have a lot of side-to-side motion; I think it requires more thought than brute force but it’s also a challenge to move side-to-side when there may not be very much to stand on. And I like climbs that require me to place myself in unusual positions; it’s fun to see what my body can do.
The other neat thing about climbing is that it’s a social activity. Encouraging your partner on a climb is an art, and it really makes a difference when you’re the one trying to make it up the wall. I go mostly with Tim, but occasionally with my best friend from my class, who’s been climbing for much longer, and she is so encouraging that she ends up pushing me way past what I thought I could do.
This article bemoaning what young doctors and doctors-in-training wear seems to have kicked up some controversy. It mostly just made me roll my eyes.
First, it took me a bit to figure out what exactly was objectionable about all the pictures at the beginning of the article. Obviously it’s inappropriate to display your navel or your entire sternum down to the xiphoid process (particularly if your ribs are countable), but I’m still not sure what’s so bad about the second picture. Open-toed shoes? Painted toenails? The pigeontoed pose? The slight glimpse, thanks to camera angle, of thigh?
Nearly a decade later, my impression is that more young physicians and students are dressing like that resident. Every day, it seems, I see a bit of midriff here, a plunging neckline there. Open-toed sandals, displaying brightly manicured toes, seem ubiquitous.
It’s true that open-toed shoes are a poor choice for any place you might be exposed to a biohazard; I wouldn’t wear them to the hospital (or probably to work at all, as I don’t find sandals comfortable for extended walking), but I wouldn’t think it strange if an internal medicine physician wore them. (And the biohazard objection is a bit flimsy anyway; nobody objects to doctors showing their wrists or ankles.)
Another complained about a male student who came to class unshaven, even though he hadn’t been on call the night before.
He came to class unshaven? The horror! I hope this physician never visits my school, where male students regularly have beard-growing contests during finals and females often turn up with wet hair (at least you know it’s clean!).
In a study published last year in The American Journal of Medicine, patients surveyed in one outpatient clinic overwhelmingly preferred doctors photographed in formal attire with a white coat to photos of doctors in scrubs, business suits and informal clothes — jeans and a T-shirt for men, an above-the-knee skirt for women.
Above-the-knee skirts are considered informal on the level of jeans and a T-shirt? I guess someone should have told me and thousands of other women before our med school interviews… (Very few people wore what I would call “short” skirts, but many wore skirts an inch or two above the knee. Your average twentysomething woman looks frumptastic in a suit with a below-the-knee skirt.)
Seriously, I know that the way we present ourselves is important, and I take care with my dress. When I’m seeing patients, I usually wear dress trousers, a shell, sweater, or button-down blouse, and closed-toed shoes. I don’t display cleavage or wear casual khakis, very trendy clothes, or jewelry beyond a simple necklace. I take note of what female physicians wear, and I always ask myself, “would I wear this to visit my grandma?”
The problem is, while my grandma is certainly a proper older lady, she doesn’t see anything wrong with her granddaughters looking attractive. Evidently, some of the doctors who will be evaluating me do:
Her research has also found that physician clothing can influence scores on board certification oral exams, in which a senior doctor assesses a younger doctor’s medical knowledge.
“You don’t want to look too attractive to be serious,” she said, adding that “a certain amount of the nerd factor” can help a doctor’s performance.
I’m nerdy, for sure. But I don’t always look like it (though the white coat helps). After having observed the nastiness that resulted when Jill from Feministe dared to dress in such a way that onlookers could tell she has breasts, I’m a bit concerned that simply dressing tastefully and seriously isn’t good enough. Who knows when someone is going to decide that I look too attractive? Maybe I should start shopping at Coldwater Creek.
My tests are over! I’m pretty sure I passed them all. I have only gotten one back so far and I did a bit better than I expected, so I feel fairly hopeful.
I had an excellent and relaxing weekend. Tim and I went to a state park south of here for hiking and smores-making and that sort of thing; it was very pleasant.
Sadly, all the leaves were gone from the trees. I was expecting that to be the case in November, but then I got my hopes up when the St. Louis leaves were still around. I guess that’s the result of the urban heat island.
We also visited a winery and went to the zoo. The baby elephant wasn’t on display but the other animals were exceptionally cute. The bear was making himself a bed with some straw.
The big cats were all out and moving around; I guess when it isn’t hot outside they aren’t so lazy. The jaguar looked just like Ellen’s cat:
The new course block is going fine so far. We’re learning GI (digestive system), endocrinology (hormones), and dermatology (skin), as well as pathology (looking at specimens) for all of those. It’s very lecture-heavy, which is not particularly pleasant, but it may end up being fine. I decided that taking my computer to class doesn’t work very well, because listening to lecture is not something you can really Alt-Tab back and forth with. However, taking notes doesn’t work that well for me either - partially because all the slides are available, as are transcripts and lecture recordings, so I’m not motivated to take excellent notes. Also if there’s enough going on that I’m constantly writing, I’m not really understanding; while if I’m not constantly writing I tend to drift off. I need something I can do constantly that doesn’t take much attention. So, my new plan is to knit during class. Judging from my excellent performance in small group yesterday, it seems to work very well.
I’ve also got some projects going on at home. I’m entering the home stretch with the cabinet I’m refinishing. Now that it’s cold I can’t work outdoors anymore, but luckily the polyurethane doesn’t stink too badly, so I’ll put a dropcloth down in the living room, open the window, and crank the heat. I should be done with a week or two of occasional evening work.
And I ordered a new headboard and footboard for my bed. They arrived yesterday. I had to clean my room before I could put it together, so I didn’t get to that point last night. I am hoping to succeed tonight. Now I’m thinking that I should do something about my desk - I don’t like it very much and could use one with drawers and possibly shelves. So I’ll be watching Craigslist for a new one.
Next weekend I will be in Cleveland for Thanksgiving and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone!
Recently I’ve been busy: going to Cleveland for my sister’s wedding, getting sick, studying, going to DC for Halloween, getting sick (again, and worse), and studying hard-core for tests next week. I’ll be going out of town again to relax next weekend; blogging should resume after that.
And there will be pictures from Cleveland and DC once Tim gets around to uploading them. (ha!)