Salsa Isn’t Just For Eating

Thursday is always a long day but there was something to look forward to this time: a night out with the first years!

I woke up on time today or maybe a little before (curse you daylight savings time) and made myself toast two ways.  Slice one: five grain topped with a smashed poached egg, goat cheese, and Old Bay seasoning.  Slice two: last piece of potato bread, ricotta cheese, and fig & ginger jam.

Once I had finished I packed my food for the day and headed out into the VERY brisk (might I even dare to say COLD) morning to walk myself to class.  I even busted out the hat today.

Foundations class took the full two hours and was on neurogenetics counseling.  Basically this is all sorts of bad news.  You don’t want your child to be “floppy” (aka hypotonia aka low muscle tone) or lose milestones.  You don’t want to see them have tremors, not be able to speak properly, or have difficultly standing alone.  There are so many things that can go wrong on the neurological level and most of them lead to dramatically decreased lifespans, which especially when you’re talking about a 6 month old, is just devastating!!  We did manage to lighten the mood though with this cute video:

This wasn’t totally out of the blue.  It was related I swear.  Basically these goats, when they get scared, tense all their muscles and they can’t release that tension so they fall over because of the previous inertia/momentum.  In humans we refer to this as myotonia.  In a lot of patients it can be seen when they shake hands with the doctor but then cannot let go promptly.

For lunch a bit later I had a craving for cereal which I indulged with some wheat puffs, cinnamon crunch, and honey squares varieties coated in chocolate PB2 yogurt and chia seeds.

I think it’s rather cute that I never eat cereal with milk, it’s always yogurt.  I think it’s creamier and less soggy on the whole.  Definitely the way I prefer it.

After lunch we had Journal Club where we discussed Down syndrome patient’s personal perceptions in terms of self-esteem, etc.  It was a completely precious article and the results were heartwarming.  99% of the respondents claimed to love themselves and their lives.  How nice.  After Journal Club we would typically go on rounds but today, rounds came to us.  We looked at pictures of a child born alive who died very quickly after.  The baby was 36 weeks and had major malformations as a result of amniotic bands.  I’m going to be completely honest here: it never gets easier to look at dead babies.  NEVER.  This isn’t the first I have seen, not even close, but every time my stomach drops and my eyes kind of shake for a minute.  It’s so awful to see.  I understand that there is so much we can learn but it’s hard.  Very hard.

I snacked on a MoJo bar before Dysmorphology class began.

Lecture dealt with the limbs defects.  It took the whole time today (the full hour) which is something it hasn’t done since over a month ago.  Sadly, this meant that when I left to walk home it was getting dark already.  Again, darn you daylight savings time.  It was also super duper cold on the way home.  That 25 minute walk couldn’t go quick enough.

I ended up only being home for about an hour before I headed out to Yats for dinner with the ladies and some significant others and friends.  This restaurant is pretty nice.  Typically they’re just holes in the wall, super small and intimate.  The one we went to tonight was a bit bigger but the food was still just as great.  No skimping here!  Basically you get a huge mound of Cajun/Creole food for under $7 depending on what you choose.  Their menu changes daily and everything is served over rice with this awesomely orange garlic bread on the side.  The bread is so popular it’s its own menu item too if you want extras and yes, people actually just order plates of their bread.  For my dinner I ordered a half portion of their “B n’ B” dish.

I know there are black beans in there with caramelized corn and the whole dish is overall a bit sweet and apparently vegetarian according to their hand-written menu.  I honestly don’t know what the other B stands for.  Oh well.  All I need to be aware of is that it’s delicious.  And that it’s even better with some red onion on top.

When everyone had finished dinner we went to The Jazz Kitchen which was conveniently located right next door.  This is where we met our missing first year who teaches salsa dancing at this place.  We sat around for a bit and some sipped on margaritas to loosen their nerves before we got up on the dance floor for the free salsa lesson.  It was fun and a bit of review for me because I learned how to Latin dance in Costa Rica.  Honestly though, it had been YEARS so I was rusty.  The music kicked in after the lesson and we stayed for a while to dance and laugh together.  Overall I had an super cute first dance as a lead with my first year Jessica, an awkward 9 minute salsa with someone I didn’t know, and then an awesome merengue led by a fantastic female dancer.  All in all, it was a nice night and a great way to spend some time outside of classes and school with the ladies.

Questions: Do you like Cajun/Creole cuisine? Have you ever salsa danced?