through friends. work is probably the easiest way for me to meet new people since i spend the most time there, but there's something to be said for being able to separate work from home.

i have high hopes for my next fellowship placement, namely that i'll actually get placed somewhere. i have a few places in mind, but my top four or five choices seem to shuffle around a lot.

i love listening tan france speak, so i'll go with his.

i love wunderlist because it reminds me of everything i need to do. google calendar runs my life and i'm not sure where i'd be without it. insight timer has gotten me through some pretty rough patches and i should really start using it more regularly again.

seeing clips of tv shows or movies from the 90s. any 90s pop culture references, really.

i'm not sure. i know that i'm my own worst enemy - does that count?

the rush of making a hard save or finishing a difficult surgery at work.

i once overheard a guy telling his kid that he regretted marrying the kid's mother. i can't imagine how that can't hurt and stick with someone for a long, long time.

i love books, and i read as much as i can. if i have the option, then i only buy books in e-book form. they're easier to manage when it comes time to move.

i have this recurring dream that i'm listening to the radio while my mom and i are driving around town. there's some sort of puzzle that needs to be solved, almost like a scavenger hunt, and we figure out the next clue, so we start looking for a red telephone booth. we turn a corner and suddenly there are blue phone booths everywhere, out of nowhere, but we keep driving until we hit a bunch of fields and there's a red phone booth in the middle of one of them. i always wake up before we actually get to the booth and find the next clue.

i love that i get to help people in ways that can improve their lives, if not save them altogether.

bullshit. other people's selfishness or thoughtlessness. fair weather friends.

if it's cheesy 90's pop, chances are that i love it. but also, whenever i hear either of these songs, they get stuck in my head for days: justin bieber's love yourself and kygo and selena gomez's it ain't me. do those count as cheesy? they're not what i usually listen to.

amelia earhart's disappearance, though i think we're getting closer to learning the truth.

reading about amelia earhart's disappearance!

i'm not really sure. that i have a tattoo? that i'm a synesthete and can see people's auras?

i'm torn between going for comfort and saying my favorite jeggings, a comfortable t-shirt, a zip-up hoodie, and a comfy pair of sandals, but another part of me wants to go all out and wear some fancy schmancy dress for the rest of my life. it seems way less practical, though.

puppies. so many puppies. any kind of puppy, but if i get to choose, i'd love to have an infestation of pork chop puppies...as long as they're all housebroken.

waves. like, ocean waves. i was a weird kid. still am.

i don't go for walks often unless it's to walk my dog, which probably says that i need to slow down more. we usually just stick to the neighborhood, but on days off when the weather is nice, i'll take him to the dog park.

i'd quit my job and see the world.

there are a few, but moana comes to mind!

driving, and driving safely and efficiently. this includes using your god damn turn indicator.

"it happened again."

oscar wao from junot diaz's the brief wondrous life of oscar wao. or, you know, matilda.

buzzfeed. ...but also, buzzfeed.

i'd ask them what's on their mind. if that doesn't get me anywhere, then i'd just try to distract them somehow, whether it's through food or a movie or talking through coco like he's a hand puppet or something.

all the wood. there can never be enough wood.

because life, even the little day to day aspects, is performative.

yes. hector sees all.

DUH.

maybe they're invisible.

chances are, you're right! i don't think mine are totally symmetrical. not sure that actually exists in real life.

right now, silly.

no, but i'll add it to my ever-growing list of things to read.

a layer cake with alternating layers of the couple's favorite flavor(s).

turquoise sarees.

ugh, no, no one wants that.

UNICORNS. or yetis.

swallow three times while holding my breath. works every time.

sometimes, depending on the nature of the call.

sleeping in, having a big waffle brunch, hanging out with my pupper, lounge around and/or hang out with friends, lots of tapas for dinner, and then probably end the day with a hot bath.

wingardium leviosa!

meryl streep!

whenever someone says "i don't believe in..." when it's a thing that actually exists, or whenever someone prefaces a statement with "i don't mean to be rude" or "not to be racist/sexist/some other -ist."

hang on, wait. if i can't bring my pets with me, i'm not going at all.

i don't think i have any weird ones. sometimes i'll mix cereal into ice cream, depending on the flavors and what i have around, but that doesn't feel that weird to me.

it's either mario kart or some version of the sims.

yes! i think it would be foolish and arrogant to think that earth holds the only life in the entire universe.

i love going to movies by myself. i live in comfies when i'm at home. i don't get a lot of pop culture references, because med school and residency means that i kimmie schmidt'ed my way through most of my twenties. i love board games and puzzles and HGTV shows. i don't have much time for them these days, but i also like crafts!

i wish i had a sibling, or that judaism had been a bigger part of my life at an earlier age, if only for community and culture rather than faith. i also wouldn't have gone to boarding school.

other than friends and other people i care about (which i guess isn't really going out of my way), probably anyone i see struggling in public.

it depends. if we're talking average people walking down the street, i'd possess them and make them break into song. turn whole city blocks into ridiculous musicals. for others, like people who have done terrible things, i'd make them square up somehow, or just embarrass the shit out of them.

the ability to calm my anxiety on command.

the monday drag after having a week off of work.

harry potter. so much stuff happened him as a kid, even just in the gryffindor dorms alone. you can't tell me his roommates got much sleep.

where will i be living in a year?

this!

probably that unicorn snow tube that lasted a whole day before it had to be exorcised destroyed.

does the gilmore girls: a year in the life count as a movie?

trust, communication, and accountability.

vices? probably sugar. as for bad habits, i'm too hard on myself and i don't sleep enough. work gets most of my attention these days but that's sort of out of my hands and isn't going to change anytime soon.

i had a great breakfast thanks to whitney, and the drive back to boston didn't suck donkey dick, surprisingly.

my friends, my family, and an innate desire to do better and be better.

cop out answer: critical care surgery.

love yourselves and be good to each other. the world doesn't owe you anything.

milck.

i've been thinking about this a lot lately, and in my head, i keep going back to san francisco.

this is such an awful question for me since i live under a rock and make ten year old pop culture references...let me think about this.

a lot of things. the most important thing is probably our world with more sustainable living practices so that we have an earth to live on for even longer. a lot of the other things that i'd want to see in the future, politically, socially, technologically, etc., are prerequisites for that.

meryl streep!

do i have to do the closet-raiding myself? can i just have tan france give me an entirely new wardrobe instead?

i'm not sure. i feel like this is something that could change depending on my mood.

i once saw a patient whose chief complaint was a "herd of beavers" in his pants.

i can't get behind vegetarian/vegan bacon. it's just wrong.

a narwhal.

say bye to my friends and pets and family.

the trial by kafka.

every taylor swift song ever.

probably the first harry potter movie, to fall in love with it the cinematic version of that world all over again. this should come as a surprise to no one.

saving a life, especially one that was thought to be a lost cause.

i went white water rafting!

why would i reveal that?!

my co-pay is $30.

i'm not sure that i would. the past is the past.

planes, trains, and automobiles. not really for the movie itself, but because for a while, it became this oddball tradition that my parents and i would watch it each thanksgiving.

family and friendship.

a better, happier version of my current self.

a what now?

snakes. i'm terrified of them. can't even stand toys or cartoons.

right now, a ginormous ice cream sundae.

other people's faces.

farm smell makes me think of the chicken coop my parents had at our house in orinda. i used to chase those chickens around thinking that i was helping somehow, and i had a lot of fun doing it, so probably that.

aliens are real.

acting more impulsively.

both of them know that i run on very little sleep.

anything in customer service!

most reality tv. i can't do it.

a journal. i'm terrible at keeping up with those.

this list is getting longer and longer by the day. i don't think there's any one specific thing. for the most part, i'm a pretty forgiving person and i'm willing to give people the benefit of the doubt and give them multiple chances...but once i've had it, i've had it. you're done. bye.

social situations where i don't know most of the people around. and sometimes, boston, tbh.

the galapagos!

strap in and hold tight. no matter what happens, don't lose sight of yourself.

pork chop would talk about how much he loves everyone and would beg for food. coco would probably just grump, quietly, and grumble about people he dislikes whenever they drop by.

i'd change my nose. it's too pointy.

this narwhal!

unicorn food. it was cute the first couple of times but i really don't want rainbow bagels.

french fries.

i love that i can help people and save lives. i hate having to give bad news to families, which happens too often. the hours also mean that sometimes i miss out on stuff in my personal life, which sucks too, but it's been easy enough to deal with so far.

wait, do i really have to?