Happy Friday

     Good god finally. What a long stressful week.

    When I was getting my colonoscopy my pee cheerleader nurse told me her daughter was applying to med school and I told her she could have my number - she indicated that her daughter might be very interested in pathology. She gave me her and her daughter's cell instead and I group texted them about a week or so later and set something up with Emily for today. I wandered into Med Towers lobby at 10:45 to collect her and begin the tour and the only person in the lobby was chatting amicably with Jeff the security guard. That cannot be Emily, I thought and was searching around when she waved me over.

    Jeff said hey doc this girl is here to see you! I said Emily how do you know Jeff? Turns out she used to work at Baptist Boulevard - it must have been at a time I was addicted to the dr. lounge but I did recognize her once she told me - her eyes are so unique. One of them has a patch of brown iris interrupting the pale green. We chatted excitedly about Sean and Lucy (I love Lucy I gushed - she said me too) and Avery and Brian and I told her I had poached Kimberly and when she saw Kimberly in the transcription area they bear hugged for a minute. Her boyfriend Gordy is a bartender at BV Heights and his Dad is Peter Brave of well, you know. If you are from Little Rock anyway. This is such a small world and there are patterns. 

    She saw my diploma from Hendrix and said she went there too. She double majored in Biochem and French, how freaking impressive, and spent a year in France after college teaching. I told her I want to re-learn French and go to Paris she's gonna be my inside connection to that someday she knows lots of people over there. For a year and a half she's been a research assistant at Children's and UAMS I told her of my wobbly path to med school that included the same job. Assured her that they like that. People who bring something different and new and aren't just hyper focused on a straight path. I told her I got in early decision.

    She loved my world and I told her to definitely keep in touch. It was truly the highlight of my week. That, and when Melody threw me a curveball at 4:15. She had showed me an orbital mass earlier that she thought was something but she didn't want to bias me and I said schwannoma and she agreed but the stains didn't quite match up. There is this entity neither of us have ever heard of called a hybrid peripheral nerve sheath tumor we were researching independently. I found out they were all B9, uncommon, and the most common one was a hybrid schwannoma/perineurioma. I was looking at articles on NIH and she was looking in her good new book series that I like to borrow and we came to the same conclusion. It was a Eureka moment.

    God I've been reading this book for book club Saturday night called Normal People, and I had to stop this morning bc I hate the characters and the writing style and it was depressing my mood and making me feel out of sorts. I usually find redeeming qualities in characters and finish books but I'll have to find out what happened after Italy in book club. I was googling around looking for a summary and this blogpost eloquently describes how painful the book is and a lot of commenters agree with me. Well holy hell I'm having trouble with the link and I'm too tired to problem solve but it is the bibliofiles review if you are interested. I was so impressed with the review I commented. Back to Raphael by Stephanie Storey she's an Arkansas author with an impressive Wiki page it's soo much fun to read. She not only knows her shit she makes it super relatable. Happy Friday, much love, Elizabeth

Oh BTW today I drew Kuan Yin she's my new favorite goddess I found some good information about her on a goddess blog and a link to a six minute YouTube dance dedicated to her by beautiful children in China who are deaf and mute. It was so moving.