Fry Baby

Christmas was amazing. Celebrating the new year was great. Time with family and friends was enjoyed by all. And the presents...well, the presents were simply fantastic. But all of that deserves it's own post. This post is about the important things in life: fries and dental school.

There is always a great internal struggle over New Year's Resolutions for me. The trouble stems from the fact that I am a people pleaser and that trait extends even to myself. So while the turning pages of the calendar to a brand new year inspire me to resolutions of grandeur, the more rational side of me begs for more easily-kept resolutions so that I won't disappoint myself if I fail.

This year the internal tug of war ended in a draw. One big resolution (complain less about school) and one smaller resolution (read my bible more).

Jan 4th update: Big resolution going down! Mayday! MAYDAY...!

Yesterday I started back to school with a new patient exam on a very sweet lady who ONLY speaks Spanish. It was like playing charades...except not fun. I used a combination of the Spanish I learned in high school (which was in disarray from 7 years of non-use) and wild gestures to get my point across. Thank goodness a Spanish-speaker came by right when I needed to ask the patient if she had any urinary problems. It would have gotten pretty awkward at that point for me to act out the question.

At the end of the appointment, the patient said (in halting English), "Thank you for see me today."

I looked at her and asked (in halting Spanish), "Is my Spanish better or worse than your English?"

She laughed and then said (in perfect Spanish), "Your Spanish is a little better than my English."

So, four days into the new year, I'm one resolution down, but who's counting?

Jeffrey told me matter-of-factly on January first: "You can't make small resolutions, or you won't keep them. That's why I'm making a big one this year."

I immediately felt a sense of dread as I tried to guess what his resolution would be. My first terrible thought was that he would want to work out every day. This would inevitably lead to my own personal misery as he would wake me getting up each morning for sunrise workouts and just generally make me feel badly for counting my trips upstairs each night to bed and walks with the dog as cardio workouts.

He surprised me, though, when he said, "My resolution is not to eat french fries for a year."

While I admire his courage for giving up America's favorite side, I will not be joining him on this journey. My answer to that joyous question, "Would you like fries with that?" has been, is still, and will always be a resounding, "YES."
Welcome, 2011, many new things await us this year, but some will never change.