Bri Bear's Sloth of Bears Vol I

Wow, it has almost been a week since this blog’s inception and it’s surprisingly gained a lot of traction with my friends and family. For whatever reason you read this- bored in PA class, procrastinating from neuro, being my mom- it’s nice to hear that you are enjoying this as much as I love writing it.

A blog-keeping (like house-keeping) item: take a look at that picture in the margin and drop a caption along with your name in the comments section for this post. The most creative one will be posted during the first week of February and give you the honor of having your name on my blog. So far my lovely mom submitted: “I don’t want to embarrass you but: Three whites boys and a token darkie.” I hope you are more creative than her.

Back to today’s story. Even though my roommate Mike hasn’t read any of my posts yet, he claims to be my biggest fan. Because of this declaration he figured he could write once a week on my blog. After explaining to him that the purpose of this blog was for ME to write, he acquiesced and asked if he could at least submit a song once a week that I could blog about. Since that followed the originally laid out rules in my first blog, “You give me ideas to write about, and I will do my best to create some vehicle of words that will drive your point to the masses” (I still can’t get over that metaphor), I give you the first installment of Bri Bear’s Sloth of Bears (trivia: A group of bears is really called a sloth or a sleuth. A group of crows is a murder. A group of giraffes is a tower. A group of owls is a parliament… who comes up with this stuff?).

Anyway, if you are reading this out in the blogosphere and want me to blog about something near and dear to your heart, please submit it and I will do my best to deliver.

Now, onto the song.

This week: Jay Sean - Hit the Lights

When I first saw that MDK was leading off with Jay Sean I was very excited. I loved the chart-toppers Down and 2012, and figured this new song was going to be equally amazing. Well, let’s just say that after the first couple of notes I started sweating because I was afraid of what Mike would say after I criticized this song. To start, I wish I hadn’t used the “bastard child” metaphor to describe sleet in my last post because this song is definitely some unfortunate excuse of combining the bass line of Chris Brown’s Yeah x3 with the thankfully-drowned-out lyrics that don’t hold a candle to Taio Cruz’s Dynamite. Sorry Mike.

Our other roommate, Nick, complains that all the songs we listen to sound the same. I used to slightly agree, but Jay Sean’s song epitomizes this argument. There is nothing creative in the song besides bringing on Lil Wayne who rhymes for about 30sec on the track that is mostly beat and not much substance. And that’s saying something since none of the other songs previously mentioned were written by the likes of Shakespeare, JD Salinger, or yours truly. I mean, the hook is simply “Hit the Lights” over and over again and any dead time is filled with “Oh, oh, oh.” Any toddler scared of the dark could write this!  C’mon son!

But let’s be real, when I have a beer in my hand (or both hands) and this song comes on, I will run to the middle of the dance floor and start writhing around in my attempt to dance because that’s what this song was made for- it fills the void that Dynamite and Yeah x3 created after they were overplayed. One can only hope that we are dancing to a better song after this one has seen its unfortunate month of glory.

See you there.

Originally lost in Neverland. Now lost in the snow.

“It snows about once a year [in Long Island].”

At least that’s what my taxi driver said as he drove me through the snow to my Stony Brook interview two years ago. While I was trying to be as cheery as possible, my wrinkled pink shirt screamed that I just wanted to go back home to Sacramento and escape this weather and not go through another interview. I needed warmth.

I thought about this while snow was falling around my car and I was shivering in the turn lane at the intersection of Nichols and 347 this morning. Alfredo’s “Back in the Day Buffet” started blasting My Prerogative on the radio so of course I proceeded to get my jiggy on. As the light turned green and I took my foot off the break, the car next to me suddenly jutted out into the intersection, fish-tailed into my lane, and forced me to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting her. Classic long island driver- but that’s another story.

All long islander drivers act like this, but it’s not dangerous until the ground becomes wet. And that’s why today’s culprit is none other than SNOW. Like all Californians who drive to the Tahoe snow once a year to toboggan, I couldn’t wait to experience my real first snow. Boy was I stupid. Now after a year of this hell I have learned that there are many different types of snow and I want to describe their few pros and many cons to all of my friends back on the warmer coast.

Powder: The original, ideal snow you dream about. It’s the first snow I experienced here. It’s just like how you imagine it in the movies- softly falling down, feeling like cotton. You can play football in it, it piles up so you have snow days, and you can throw it at Mike as he is trying to wipe it off his car. The big problem is that once you realize that you need to get food, you have to shovel your car out so you can go somewhere. And by the time you finish shoveling you’re too tired to go anywhere anyway.

Hail: Like powder, you can experience this in California. It’s cool the first time you experience it, but after a while you wonder when you were thrown under the opening to a fridge’s ice-dispenser set on “ice crush” and try to get out of the ridiculous onslaught.

Ice: This is what happens when powder is left out for a day and it’s still freezing. The first time I met this type I was in Albany interviewing. One second I was touring, the next second I was on my butt assessing my embarrassment and the tear in my slacks. It’s also incredibly tricky when it’s on top of a snow bank. You think you can finally walk on the snow and not sink in (this is really appealing to me for some reason), but after the first step you totally fall in and everyone is laughing at you as the ice is seeping into your shoes.

Slush: This is what happens when snow starts to melt. Yes it’s easier to drive in, but one can’t be deceived because it’s still dangerous. Plus this gross goop seeps into your shoes and pants easier than any snow or ice. It also has the uncanny ability to be shot up from a wheel of a passing car with more ease than in the movies when a puddle drenches an unassuming actor. My jeans are proof of this.

Sleet: I really don’t know what sleet is, but according to Nick, it is currently occurring outside as I am writing this post. I would characterize it as the bastard child of rain, ice and snow.

[There are no pictures that distinguish sleet from anything else. This only reinforces how much it sucks.]

Now I know these five types of snow do not rival the hundreds of ways to cook/serve shrimp as told by Bubba in Forest Gump, but to me, it’s five too many.

Here’s to a sunnier day tomorrow. Or at least a snow day.

See you there.

I am now Nick's least favorite person in the world

Hello world,

This is my first attempt at blogging, so be gentle. We all know that it isn’t hard for me to share my emotions or brag about myself, but for some reason I’ve struggled with the idea of writing down my ideas and emotions and then sharing them with the world. It’s not that I am afraid of people disagreeing with my opinions, making fun of me, or ignoring some of my stories. On the contrary, I hope and know they will. The problem is that as boastful as I am, I really don’t think my ideas are that captivating. What am I going to write about? I am sure that there are thousands of blogs about students struggling through the rigors of medical school. And there are probably millions of blogs documenting the maturation of young adults; my friend Gabe already has two self-serving blogs: one about his life as a hipster in San Francisco and another about working in a start-up. Not really the most unique experiences… So really, the question I was asking myself was how I could actually make people enjoy their experience of reading my blog. And that is why this first entry for my blog has been four months in the making.

I’ve thought numerous times about how to start this entry- the first post always has to be the best. Once you hook your audience, then they are willing to stay with you through any bad post knowing that some golden nugget of a story will find its way out eventually. So with this knowledge, I actually stayed up some nights thinking about how I would open this blog. These are notes I actually wrote down in a word document entitled “topics for blog”:

·         Witty anecdote?

·         STANFORD

·         Kasey loves tofu, yoga, and P90x

·         Kendo sticks and samurai swords

While I like all these topics and will probably discuss them in upcoming posts, the more I played with these different ideas, the more I was just overwhelmed by the whole idea of a blog. And that made me think: what was the point of this? And would people like whatever “this” was going to be about? The first question was pretty easy to answer after lying in bed contemplating this blog instead of trying to sleep before a pulmonology exam. The point of this is blog is, and will always be, about me: my thoughts, my topics, and most importantly and truly, my desire to start writing again. I love writing. Don’t get me wrong, I hate writing essays and will never master the idea of a thesis sentence. But the actual process of thinking, writing, and creating a voice refreshes me like a cool Natty Lite after a grueling biochem test. It’s a great break from the rest of my life. I can talk, act, and be the REAL me! Complete with a backspace key if I don’t like what the real me wants to say. Because this is going to be about me, as all blogs are truly grandiose mosaics idolizing the writer, the answer to the second question became hard to answer. While I don’t really care what people think, as I stated before, I want this blog to, as Gordon Ramsey says “be fresh.” And for it to become such, people have to like it.   

So while this is my re-introduction to writing, it is also my attempt to serve you, the people who read my blog. That means this will not be a documentary of my life, instead you, the reader and I will forge a symbiotic relationship. You give me ideas to write about, and I will do my best to create some vehicle of words that will drive your point to the masses. Boom, check out that metaphor. Or was that a simile? Or a double entendre? Who knows, I’m not an English major, just a wordsmith.

But I digress.

So after figuring out the point of this blog, I had to think of a catchy title. It had to be so good that people wouldn’t say, “Did you read Brian’s blog?” They would instead refer to the blog as a living, breathing entity saying things like, “That [insert blog name] blog is totally kickass!” But as much as I worried about the title, it was pretty easy to create. As this blog is both an ode to yours truly and a tool for your topics to be heard, I thought it reflected the dual nature of my personality (it’s really hard to stay modest when blogging): the giving, nurturing doctor-to-be and the wild Lost Boy who needs the spotlight. So it was only natural to combine a simple responsibility-bearing prefix with my given moniker to create the Dr. Rufio blog.

Greetings.

Before I begin delving into topics, I have some questions since this is my first time blogging. Is there a written etiquette for joining the blogosphere? Is there some blog-neighborhood block party welcoming me? If so, do I bring cookies? Hopefully someone can write me the answers to these questions so I don’t start off on the wrong foot.

See you there.