Ten Quick Randoms of Monumental Unimportance.

Quote of the day:

"Being awesome does not prevent heart disease."  ~ Me.

Hey there. I was just thinking of you good people today and thought I'd go ahead and fill your brains with the unimportant random minutia swirling through my head tonight. Yes! The more random the better. Because that's just where I am right now.

Wrote a little top ten about it. Like to hear it? Here it go!

#10 Paula Deen.

Well, just damn. There is a lot to say about Miss Paula and the whole debacle of her dropping the n-bomb and then freely admitting to doing so like "whatev." But here's what I'm thinking mostly: No person is immune from falling from glory. No one. So Paula Deen's crash and burn reminds me to make smart choices and to never take myself too seriously.

Mostly I just felt disappointed in her because even though I don't call myself a fan, I never turned the channel away from her or anything. What I do like is the fact that I've read some good, healthy dialogue from people of all hues talking about this. And dang. Folks that look like P-Deen are more mad at her than the folks she was trying to oppress. Kind of like how I get mad at the women pulling out each other's weaves on Real Housewives of Atlanta.

Rule:  No matter what your story, you can fall from glory if you do dumb stuff. Thank you, Paula Deen, for reminding me to work harder at not doing dumb stuff.

#9  The OWN Network.

I heard a radio personality saying that Oprah's OWN network should be called the ON-YOUR-OWN network because the channel is too hard to locate on your local cable listings. Here in Atlanta it's channel 131. Which is kind of random. He was saying. "Damn, couldn't Oprah afford a better channel than 131? Bravo is 70, MTV is 50. No other good channel is even near 131!"

That kind of made me LOL.

#8  Original Riddle written by yours truly.

Question:  Why did the television break up with the VCR?

Answer:  He was too much of a playa.

Ha ha ha *cough* ha ha ha ha

My friend Wendy A. said I shouldn't say "VCR" because it makes the joke incomprehensible to anyone under the age of 30. So if you're all young like that, just say "BLUE RAY" instead when you tell it.

*you're welcome*

Oh yeah. Here's another that I didn't make up but that makes me giggle.

Question: Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?

Answer: Fa drizzle.

(To which you should then follow up with, "Fa shizzle.")

Hee hee. *takes bow* I'll be here all week!

#7  Harry and his couch.

Dude. Why is it that the BHE is willing to lay on the couch for twenty-seven hours whilst enduring severe dehydration until I walk past him so that he can say, "BABE! CAN YOU GET ME SOME WATER?" Or some whatever it is that is two feet away that he waited for me to come out to get?

Grrrr.

So now there's this whole passive-aggressive tip-toeing I do when I come by the couch to go to the kitchen while he's out there. Why? I do not know. I just do. Because I'm sort of annoyed by the fact that even if it's been seventy seven hours of him watching Duck Dynasty, at no point in it does the thirst reach a point so critical that he gets up to get it himself. EVER.

Dude. I'm all like CUT. IT. OUT.

Yesterday I commando crawled to the living room to get my purse because I didn't want a bunch of orders. That's bad, huh? And okay. The man is rarely on his couch because he works really, really hard but still. What's up with that? And what's worse is that no matter how quietly I try to sneak past him, he always hears me and thinks of AT LEAST ONE THING he needs me to "do him a favor and get."

*insert side eye roll*

Some days I preemptively strike and just bring water and snacks in there and plop them on the ottoman in front of him. And that makes him really happy when I'm The Good Wife. But that's only on some days when I'm feeling all nicey-nicey.

#6  The Four Agreements.

Have y'all read this book? It's really kind of cool once you get past the heavy parts at the beginning. You know how those kinds of self-helpy books can start out. Cryptic and spiritual where you aren't sure you can go on. But this one is worth muddling through to get to the good parts. In a nutshell, it's saying that people who wish to be authentic or whatever should make four agreements with themselves:

1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don't take things personally.
3. Don't make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.

My favorite is number 4. Always do your best. I need that reminder sometimes, man. I like number 1, too. Reminds us to pay attention to the power of the tongue. It can spread magic -- the beautiful kind or the black kind.

The book is short. If you dig this kind of thing, peep it out. Very thought provoking stuff. My sister friend and med school classmate Yolanda W. gave it to me. I love that girl because she's always giving me good things to think about so that I can better myself.

Here's us earlier last week when I gave a talk she invited me to give at Morehouse School of Medicine:

#5  Shot versus Drink.

I asked a group of medical students this question:

"If an attending physician was having dinner with you and offered to buy a round of shots for the team, would that bother you? Would it be any different than if he or she just had a glass of wine or a cocktail with dinner?"

Some of them said if the month was a good month and they weren't at work that it wouldn't bother them either way. And me, I was all appalled and balking at the shot thing saying it's TOTALLY different. And they were all like, "How? It's all alcohol."

Hmmm.

My brow is mad furrowed on this one. I think people take shots for one reason and one reason only. Imagine me chatting with you over dinner and randomly ordering a shot and taking it midsentence. Hello? That's my opinion. But they made good points saying, "Who's to say that the same shouldn't be said about all alcohol?"

What do y'all think?

#4  Dark Girls documentary.

I watched this on the ON-YOUR-OWN network tonight and it kind of depressed me. Essentially this show was about all of the issues with skin complexion and our people. And all people sort of. Lots of it was super true. But it also painted this picture as if every dark-skinned sister is battling some serious self hatred about being dark brown.

Hmmm.

I know a LOT of darker skinned girls who *LOVED* having that as a calling card. Especially when I was in high school. I have a friend that I used to call "Chocolate Drop" who looooooved that nickname so much that she wrote it everywhere. But maybe she was dealing with those demons and I didn't know it. I guess I just wanted them to show some of the girls I knew from school who loved their cocoa complexions. A lot of them were "it girls" at my school for sure.

What did y'all think about this? (Those who found the channel.)

#3  Spanx-ings

Ha ha ha. Harry was asking me about Spanx the other day. He wanted to know if they have FULL BODY Spankings or what. And he called it "spanking" like wearing Spanx had an action verb version.

Ha.

So I asked why and his answer? "One of my frat brothers said he hugged this girl who looked really good in this sundress and it felt like she had on armor underneath there." And we just laughed and laughed.

I then pulled up all of the permutations of Spanx-ings on line so that he could see how hard core it really gets. We also discovered that there is a whole line of man Spanx. Which makes sense sort of.

I guess. Um, yeah.

#2  Gangsta.

I am really big fan of the voice texting mechanism on the iPhone. I love that Siri has mastered lots of slang. I was in an epic texting exchange with JoLai tonight as I often am. And I said that something was "gangsta" and Siri spelled it exactly as such. "GANGSTA." Not to be confused with "gangster."

Love that.

We were talking about the GANGSTA questions Oprah was asking Cissy Houston in her interview about Whitney. And to those that don't understand the meaning of "gangsta" just know that it has so many meanings. It's just when you're bold about something. Like audacious even. Which makes people say, "Dang. That's gangsta."

(See Paula Deen admitting to using the n-word and other derogatory slurs------> GANGSTA.)

#1  Team SJGR sign ups are starting soon.

JoLai and I have just started a new team. It's called TEAM SJGR. Anyone who is bull-ishing in any part of their life that they need to stop bull-ishing on can join. But particularly the focus is health. HEALTH. So a lot of the focus is going to be on healthy eating and lifestyle. And getting serious.

Why?

Because last week SJGR. Tony Soprano's middle school aged son found him dead after a heart attack. Yes. James Gandolfini. He was larger than life on and off of the screen. And yes, we loved his character which made us love him. But even more, I bet his son loved him.

He was a big dude. He was. And I am not sure what Mr. Gandolfini's health deal was but I know the number one killer ended his life. The same one that robbed me of my beloved big sister. And you know what? I heard that and said, "SHIT JUST GOT REAL." Being awesome does not prevent heart disease. It does not.

Did y'all catch that?

BEING AWESOME DOES NOT PREVENT HEART DISEASE.

And so. JoLai and I have decided that we won't keep pretending like it is. Like us being awesome and lovable is enough to protect our hearts from a Western diet and a family history. Period. End of story.

We welcome any and everyone to join us. But only if you are ready to stop bull-ishing. Cause on Team SJGR the realness will be all up in your face like Tony Soprano.


Stay tuned for that.

And now a photodump from last week for your viewing pleasure.

Transitional Year Residents' End of Year Gathering

Mahmoud's last clinic session -- one of my F.R.'s of all time.

Meeting Mahmoud's mom who was visiting from Libya at IM Residency graduation

Going away breakfast with another graduating resident Sandeep--another of my FRs!

Girlfriend time on Friday with former Grady doctor and good friend Frieda!

At church today -- our dear friends' baby was baptized/dedicated today!

Good looking Omega men. . .whew!

He kind of made my ovaries hurt for a baby. Kind of but not really.

When Dr. L gave Dr. W. chlamydia. (Okay, okay, a stuffed replica of it.)

Pia C.--another FR--(fave resident) on her LAST DAY OF CLINIC!!

That's all I got. Tomorrow is the first day of orientation for our new interns. Good times ahead.

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Happy Sunday.