Fantasy Football

I just finished my first experience with the fantasy draft. I have no idea how my team will do, but I am optimistic. It should make the NFL season more enjoyable!
Here's my roster:
Starters:
Kurt Warner
Michael Turner
Derrick Ward
Jamal Lewis
Reggie Wayne
TJ Houshmanz...
Owen Daniels
Giant Defense
Nate Kaeding

Bench:
Kyle Orton
Steve Breaston
Donald Brown
Patriots defense
John Carlson
Kevin Curtis
Chris Chambers

If I enjoy this random espn league next year I'll start my own. This will be a good trial run to see how it all works. 5 days until kickoff!

The Most Expensive Triathlon

A couple of weeks ago I participated in my first Sprint distance triathlon. Previously I had only done Olympic distance (roughly twice the length of the sprint distance). I was excited to be more competitive as my focus wouldn't be solely on finishing the race. I was incredibly pleased with how I did and have this great trophy to show for my 3rd place finish in my age group (out of 38). I was only a minute from winning my age group which gives me great motivation for next year. My times (for the 2 of you who care) were:
500m swim- 12:27 (definitely room for improvement)
20K bike- 42:42 (17.5 mph avg)
5K run- 29:52 (9:30 miles- nothing to brag about!)
transitions- 4:30 (wow I need to speed up!)

Triathlons aren't cheap events- it was $65 or so, but let me tell you about the race that keeps on giving.

Immediately after the race I had an extremely sharp pain in my right foot. It seemed odd as I have never had pain in my foot before. I hobbled around for a couple of days with lots of ice and then noticed that it was getting better. Unfortunately as a resident I have these long 30 hour shifts on my feet and everytime I was on call or had a long day in the OR my foot would hurt. So Monday a surgery got cancelled and I squeezed an appt in with an orthopedic surgeon. 2 hours later I left with a $40 copay for the appt, likely $150 worth of xrays, $180 for the walking boot and $60 for the shoe implant to treat the stress fractures of my 3rd and 4th metatarsals. My insurance is new and no copays have been met so this triathlon just got very expensive. But when I feel down I just stare at my shiny trophy (on my mantle)and know it was worth it. Not really, but being active is more cost-effective than not even if it means an occasional injury.
So if you are in Methodist hospital I'm the resident walking around in my aircast.

Oh and I will be competing in more triathlons next year!

Struggles

A little over a week ago I ended what I can only hope was the worst rotation I will ever have in my residency. For many reasons I won't go into any details but it was horrible. Part of the way through the rotation when I realized how badly I was struggling I picked up (in addition to my Bible) my copy of "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin McManus. This is one of my all-time favorite books. Here are a couple of the quotes that really challenged and encouraged me:

When you understand what Jesus means when He says that you must follow Him, you finally realize that this is not a cattle call. He is not calling you to the same life that everyone else will live. He's not even calling you to the same path that every follower of Christ will walk. Your life is unique before God, and your path is yours and yours alone. Where God will choose to lead you and how God chooses to use your life cannot be predicted by how God has worked in the lives of others before you.

...the closer you walk with Christ, the greater the faith required. The more you trust Him, the more you'll risk on His behalf. The more you love Him, the more you will love others. If you genuinely embrace His sacrifice, you will joyfully embrace a sacrificial life.

The first quote really encouraged me as I kept comparing my life and all that I disliked about my circumstances to those around me who seemed to have it all together and were enjoying their summer more than I was. The second quote challenged me as I sensed myself wanting to lash out at people all around me for the frustrations I was experiencing. I was reminded that the way I treat others is a direct reflection on my love for God and my ability to joyfully embrace a life of sacrifice is directly correlated with my ability to embrace His sacrifice for me. Ouch...

Wedding Festivities

This is a random picture taken of me prior to performing in the wedding of Osi and Enola last week. I thought I would be really nervous but all of my adrenaline was used up during the day with new trauma patients.





The ceremony was beautiful and it was an amazing night of celebrating. Osi is from Nigeria and his family came dressed in their best. I loved the energy they brought to the whole event. I am so thankful to have Osi and Enola in my life and look forward to many years of sharing life together!

Fiddling

Thursday night is the wedding of two of my good friends, Osi and Enola. They asked me to play my violin in their wedding. Initially I dreaded pulling out my violin as it took forever just to tune it since I hadn't touched it in so long (6+ years). Recently it has been much more enjoyable to rehearse and has made me reminisce on the good old days playing the violin. The rehearsal went well tonight and makes me want to get a better violin and play more frequently. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) I am committed to this surgery gig and it doesn't allow for many hobbies.

Anyways, it should be a great night. Osi is from Nigeria and some of his siblings still live there so the ceremony and reception will be infused with some great Nigerian cultural elements. This song is part of that. They have a semi-choreographed dance to this song with Enola (who is definitely not Nigerian) wearing traditional Nigerian attire. We get to all participate at one point in the song. It is going to be a great night!

I saw this on Amber Cox's blog and had to share it with everyone. What a celebration! Maybe my wedding will start like this someday.

VIP

I just got back from King's Island- an amusement park in the Cincinnati area. It was a fun day overall, but I've got to share the highlight with you. My friend Enola and I decided to wait in the long line for their new ride called the Diamondback. After waiting for an hour or so we decided to wait a few extra minutes to sit in the front row. After we got in the special line they escorted two men our age into line behind us. I had heard someone shout "Hey Jeremy" while we were approaching the front of the line and realized that it was Jeremy Camp (a well-known Christian artist) who was standing next to us in line. I turned around and simply asked him, "Are you Jeremy Camp?" to which he replied with a smile "I am." We then introduced ourselves and had a very pleasant conversation. Enola and I didn't know it but he was to perform later in the evening at the park and so he got to ride a couple of their big rides. The sequence of events that placed him in line right behind us was crazy! It was our first ride of the day, we waited over an hour, he just happened to walk up at that moment, they let us wait to ride in the front row (which they didn't let our friends do later in the day).... The whole experience was fantastic- waiting in line with Jeremy Camp, riding on the front row of their new AMAZING ride...and getting to share it with a great friend.

This all got me thinking...I sure have had more than my fair share of interactions with famous people in the last few years-especially for someone who lives in Indiana. Here are the ones I can think of off the top of my head:

• Riding on a plane with the Newsboys
• Riding on a plane with Ron Luce (founder of Teen Mania Ministries)
• Meeting Norah Jones
• Running into Jim Caviezel at GCC
• Shaking hands with George W Bush (while he was President)
• Shaking hands with Bill and Hillary Clinton (Hillary on 2 different occasions)- I don't care what you think of them it was still incredible to meet a former POTUS
• Meeting Natasha Bedingfield
• Randomly walking by Michael W Smith while on a hike in Nashville
• Talking with Jeremy Camp while in line for a rollercoaster
• Meeting countless leaders in the world of surgery. A couple of surgeons that you might actually be interested in include the neurosurgeon who removed all of Lance Armstrong's brain metastases and one of the surgeons who performed Charlie Weis's gastric bypass surgery/disaster.
• It doesn't count but I almost got to meet Barack Obama. The secret service people were searching us when they bailed out during his campaign.

While I don't place these individuals on pedestals it is fun to interact with them and gain a better appreciation for them as people.