Celebration: the End of Movember

November 30 marks a glorious day: the end of Movember. 

For those of you who don't know what Movember is (my mom), here is the description from the official Movember website, "During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men."

You guys, I effing hate Movember. Sorry, "men's health," but moustaches are gross and make almost any guy look creepy.  Yet, for some reason, guys LOVE Movember. It's like finally they have an excuse to grow out their facial hair and style it in "fancy" ways (and by "fancy" I mean like a child molester) and then take ridiculous pictures of themselves "being men." 

My favorite is how by the end of the month, even the boys are sick of their Mo's. Yet they still "tough it out" and keep them 'til the end, even though I'm pretty sure a lot of them barely even did any fundraising.* So really, they're just doing it for "awareness," which is kinda good, I guess.  But remember when girls were posting their bra colors of fb for "breast cancer awareness?" That was dumb.  Okay, now I'm just sounding like a bitch.  I know: Movember is not the same as posting bra colors on fb.

But back to Movember.  I guess prostate cancer is a "good cause" (and I'm pretty sure you can still donate if you're interested, even though the month is over, hallelujah) and Movember is a fun idea.  It's just that moustaches are so gross.

Boys, seriously.  Nobody wants to make out with you when your face looks like that.


*This reminds me a lot of how my little sister used to scream, "Stop it! I love it!" when she was being tickled as a child.  It also reminds me of how my mom complains about decorating for Christmas every year and then willingly transforms her entire home into Santa's workshop extravaganza, loving every minute of it.

summer!!

Hey guys! I finally finished my first year of med school! Now I have lots of free time to do a bunch of really important things. Like... umm... I changed the background on LAMe! Here are some other things I've done in my first few days of summer:

• laundry
• g-chatted with non med-students
• watched Julie and Julia
• napped
• pulled my back doing laundry (not sure how this was even possible... and then I tried to figure out which muscles are the culprit but this thinking was too strenuous for my fresh-into-summer mind)
• slept in

Okay fine. I'm a little bored. Already.

And fine... I'm kind of a liar. Here are some other (slightly more exciting things) I've done since school ended on Friday:

• attended a mustache party
• went to the beach (and got a sweet tan! oh wait, no.)
• hung out with the fam
• watched Jerseylicious with my friends from home (this was good, but sadly no table flipping... yet)

But really. I am a little bored. I guess I just don't know what to do with all of this free time. I have one more week of excitement/relaxation and then I'm off to Honduras for a month-long Medical Spanish program. yay!!

I have a hot new boyfriend!

April fools, you guys! I don't have a hot new boyfriend at all (or even a regular boyfriend for that matter). You see, every year, on April 1st, we play pranks on each other and call it "April Fools Day." And we think we're hilarious for doing so. I just got you SO GOOD!!

But really, April Fools day is out of control. I woke up this morning to an email from my boss, "Major Announcement" in the subject line. The email started out strong with, "I'm moving to Japan" and got more and more ridiculous: "My ex-girlfriend is pregnant (It's a boy!)" and "I'm gay, that's why I have this sweet 'stache." The email ended with "Happy April Fools Day Foolios!!!! You totally got burned Hahahahaha and rsrsrsrsrsrs."

Are you kidding me?!

Here are some lessons learned from the "Major Announcement" email that should be applied to future April Fools Day jokes:

1) Keep it simple. This prank would have been strong if he had only mentioned going to Japan. The prankiness of this email was immediately clear when he started to mention his unborn son and his 'stache.

2) Don't grow a mustache. It's creepy. And especially don't post a picture of you with the 'stache.

3) No need to use the word, "Foolios." Ever.

4) Also, no need to remind people that they got burned by your prank. And then laugh in English and Portuguese (that's just weird/confusing). It may also lead to counter-pranks, which nobody really wants (Like last year, someone tried to pull the, "Did you like my 'I totally fell for your prank' prank?" I'm not even kidding). This puts people on edge which then leads to April Fools Day misunderstandings.

The biggest problem with April Fools Day is deciphering what is prank and what is reality. For example, last year, directly after my boss' "I'm getting married" prank, he announced that one of our labmates had been accepted into our derm residency program (which is kind of life-changing and a big deal). At first we all (including the guy who had been accepted) thought it was a joke until my boss clarified with the classic, "This shit is REAL!" Okay, he didn't say that. He probably said something lame like, "Seriously, this is not a joke, you really have been accepted into the program." Still, poor timing for the announcement, dude. Similarly, my roommate heard that she finally (after several months) had been hired for a super-serial job today. Her mom still thinks it's a hoax.

But even the mundane is at risk on April 1st. In the lab we wanted to eat out for lab meeting. When K returned with the bad news that we couldn't eat out, we all replied with, "April fools! We're going out!" Except he was serious. And we didn't even get free lunch with lab meeting.