City of Racthedness/Where's a urinal when you need one?

I’ve been beyond busy which is probably a well played out broken record by now, but it’s the best kind of busy there is to be! First, I think we FINALLY found a house in a culturally mixed neighborhood and that’s the best news of all! Second, I made a cold call to a local bioinformatics start-up company and have an interview next week for an almost 6 figure job!!! Just out of the blue, I called them to see if they had anything and BAM…. JOB INTERVIEW!!!! On that note, I also have an interview for a bioinformatics position in the department where I’ll be completing my doctoral level courses in bioinformatics, and if I get offered both gigs, I’m going to have a VERY difficult time deciding between the two. The thing is, my job search experience hasn’t been that lucky, so I’m not really worried about that. But I DO have a preference among the 2 jobs, the position with the start up firm is my first choice.

So it turns out our new city/state with the best restaurants I’ve EVER experienced in a city, has a HUGE vagrant problem. And I mean as in I have been approached almost EVERYDAY I found myself in or around “da’ hood”…..or a major intersection. And they’re some bold mofo’s too and I say mofo’s because that’s what you are when you curse out a driver for refusing to roll the window down and give you some spare change. Now because I grew up near enough to “da’ hood” to understand and speak the vernacular VERY well, I didn’t mind rolling the window down to let you know just how well versed I am in ‘hood speak when I get cursed out for ignoring your coach purse carrying, brand new Michael Jordan shoe wearing, non vagrant asre, LOL!!

In other ratchet news, I stopped by a local family dollar in the serious “don’t drive in the daytime ‘hood” and it was quite a shopping experience. When we entered, we were greeted by an announcement that our actions would be watched for the entire time we were in the store. Mmmaky! Now I know how to morph into “hood posture” in these types of settings, but my kid has Bougie Black girl with NO ‘hood experience written ALL over her face! We shopped for a bit, gathered our items, then headed toward the front of the store so we could pay and leave, and as we walked up, we couldn’t help but hear the conversation the women working the cash registers were having:

Cashier 1 yelling: “Giiirrrlll, my man say I ain’t got NO titties, but I got enough ass to make up for it! Yeah, he always be picking at me, talkin’ ‘bout, I’m flat chested, but I KNOW I got it goin’ on with my fat ass”.

She then turns to me and says “May I help you Ma’am?

Cashier 2 yelling: Yeah, you ain’t got NO titties like me, mine big as hell!!

Cashier 1 yelling: “Dat’s a’right, I got’s more ass than you”.

Turning back to me, “Is this all you got Ma’am?

Me: "Yeah, ‘dat’s it. Can you ring me up?”

When we got outside my daughter was shaking her head and laughing, stating that that was the most ratched thing she had ever experienced, ROTFL!!! Now I won’t get into the “fronts” of these two women because I don’t want to be seen as picking at my “people”. But the 5 inch plaque looking like brown braces was so NOT a good look, ESPECIALLY when your weave is 3 feet long and "tight". My next thought was that I had NEVER seen underserved dental health like this. EVER. But then how many dental hygienist appointments could be had with 1 appointment to get the Korean silky special sewn into your scalp? Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm.

And that was how our excursion into the Family Dollar located in “da hood” went. That “trip” was followed by a short drive to the city for dinner at a great Greek restaurant where on the way we saw a man, on a main street, urinating in the corner of a building. Now I’ve done enough volunteer work in “da ‘hood” to have seen and smelled a LOT of things. But the past 13 years where I live in uber suburbia, meant that I hadn’t seen much on such a regualr basis especially after I stopped working in Baltimore. But honestly, thinking about how varied and interesting my patient population would be, and how my desire to work in a severely underserved area would be more than met right where I’m living now, made me more excited about my med school goals.

Momisms 103

Since we arrived in our new city on Sunday, we're living temporarily in a hotel until we look around more and find a place to stay. And I hope that's REAL soon because this 'ish is MAD expensive!

Path201X: "Can you Pul-eeze open the curtains?"

DD: "I'd prefer to keep them closed".

Path201X: "Why? I'd prefer the natural light to the artificial light."

DD: "I'm going to have the hood over my head because it's too cold in here, and I don't want to deal with a "Travon" situation."

Path201x: "Geez, are you serious?!? I guess that's the world we live in these days, where I brown kid lounging by the window of her hotel room is afraid to sit near a freaking window in a hoodie. Okay Boo-Boo, close the window."


Now I'm just wondering if any non minority kid is concerned about being shot through a window while wearing a hoodie INSIDE of a building?

Damn. Just DAMN!

Curiousity killed the cat.

So I decided to get one last post in before we finish up the last days of our 2 month vacay before settling in our new state/city.

I spent some time in my mother's double car garage, reminiscing about my past, wondering why in the world one person needs so many pairs of shoes and so many clothes. And when I say clothes and shoes I mean RACKS of clothes and shoes that to my understanding she wears. YIKES!! I first came across the 3 foot trophy I received for being my high school queen:

I was Miss X High School 1984, a contest I NEVER thought I had a shot of winning because: 1) My talent was flute and many folks just ain’t into musicians as much as singers when it comes to pageants especially at the urban high school I attended, and 2) The head cheerleader was the one I heard the faculty all wanted to win but you needed a 3.0 to compete and she had a 2.9. She did end up being Homecoming Queen though and we’re close friends today. And that was a cool memory especially for a “band nerd” because I got to meet the Governor of the state and was awarded a full scholarship to a small Alabama school, among many other “perks”.

Then I came across the following item and for a brief moment I stopped breathing:

My mother happened to be in the garage when I found this and the look on her face was as if she was a deer in headlights. And all I could say is why, WHY didn’t you tell me? She then gave me the biggest bull$hit answer I’ve EVER heard so I just left the garage and didn’t say much more for the rest of the day. And after this post, I’ll probably never bring it up again. But of course as a 7 year Komen volunteer, there really isn’t much more to say about it, I'm crystal clear on what the hat "means" and I know why certain women wear it.

Moving on, I’m currently working regularly with a Biology student and an Organic Chemistry student. So I decided to focus my MCAT prep on those 2 subjects for the month of July and I’ll spend August studying Chemistry and Physics, interspersing verbal study both months. I’m still planning on a September 2013 date though I’m procrastinating on registering because it doesn’t feel 100% like what I need to do right now. I’m aware that my time on this is running out, so I’ll decide by the end of July.

I also have my volunteer orientation next Tuesday at a MAJOR cancer center and right now, working on the OR floor is my #1 choice, followed by anything else that will allow me to work with patients. I know that will require early mornings, but I'm soooooo cool with that, so I made sure to bring all my scrubs and Dansko shoes for comfort. Man this med school thing, is really feeling closer and closer everday and most of my good feeling is in knowing that I'm doing it not just at the right time for me, but for my family too!

Finally, we’re going to be in New Orleans or Nawleans (as the natives say) this weekend and I can’t think of a better way to end a vacation before starting my 2 year path to the MD/PhD program, LOL!

The post before I change residency PERMANENTLY!

As my title indicates, I'm posting for the last time as a resident of Maryland. Actually, I changed my residency to my new state in May, including a new mailing address because I wanted to make SURE I'm a state resident when I apply to med school next year.

So I'll start with a job/work update. I now have 4 clients and if I get one more, I won't need an 8-5 job. And when I think about how politically charged most work places are, I'm kinda glad about that. I LOVE the flexibility of tutoring and regular travel to different places and meeting new people is a real plus too.

School wise, I've been unoffically offered a research fellowship in health informatics starting in August and that's the best news of all! In fact, it makes the fact that I never did find a suitable 8-5 gig an obvious part of God's plan for my life. And I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but my health informatics program is affiliated and housed at a major medical center WITH a med school, so you can probably guess where all this is heading! Med school and an MD/PhD program. The plan is to complete all the classes required for me to sit for my oral and written exams by the Spring of 2015, then start the combined program that summer. And yes, I'm not sure at this point how this is all going to fall into place because while my informatics program knows of my PhD aspirations, I've kept my MD goals in the down low for what I feel are obvious reasons. No one understands my interest in this program especially at my age, and that's okay. I'm going to do it anyway.

Now about that flight to and from my new city. URGH!!! I actually got sick on the flight there as in I had a "barf bag" on my lap for most of the trip, LOL. Double URGH!! But we had a GREAT time even though we didn't find a home yet. The other thing I'm certain about is that this new state/city is CLEARY in God's plan for me because absolutely EVERYTHING is falling right into place. And I don't have words for how good this feels. :)

Quick update from superwoman aka Path2012

So tomorrow, I'm flying out to my new city to take care of a couple things: 1) Finding a new home because doing so long distance isn't working as well as it did when I moved to Metro DC 13 years ago, 2) Meeting with one of my 3 new long term tutoring clients, and 3) Attending the wedding of very close cousin of mine whose Mom is one of my favorite Aunts and my daughter's absolute favorite Aunt.

Now if anyone has been reading my blog for a while you know that I'm not the best "flyer" in the world, but I've long since recognized that it's something I need to get used to. REAL quick. But tonight, I'm relatively cool thanks to a glass of my favorite Riesling. Of course the problem is that I won't be having one of those before my 6:30AM flight so I'll have to rely on prayer and thoughts of my glass of Riesling from the night before.

At any rate, my posting won't be as regular over the next few weeks as I prepare for the final leg of my vacation, including going back and forth to my Moms. But as soon as we settle down in our new city, I'll be sure to update!

In the meantime, I hope everyone has a VERY safe holiday weekend. :)