Easter

I had a good Easter this year. I woke up to find that Kip had left me an Easter basket to find with candy, a stuffed animal and a cute card so that was really nice of him. It reminded me of when I was back home and the "Easter bunny" would hide easter baskets for all of us kids to find on Easter morning.

I went to Kip's church which is the United Methodist church on King Avenue for their Easter service. I had been to that church once before around Christmas and I told Kip I'd go back with him on Easter. The first thing I noticed was how friendly everyone was. There were greeters at all the doors to welcome everyone and ushers to help you find a seat. The whole church smelled really good with the Easter flowers that everyone had bought. The opening hymn was "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today" which is also a hymn that Mormons sing so it was good that I knew it and was able to sing along. They had an opening prayer and had the new babies be brought up by the parents for the congregation to see. There were two baptisms and it was interesting to see how they were done. They brought the kids up to the front where there was a basin of water and the pastor and assistant pastor(a woman) each baptized one child with a few drops of water. Then the pastors took the children around the room to introduce them to the congregation. The pastor gave a short talk on the resurrection and then there was a closing prayer.

I'll have to say I did like it especially the feeling of inclusiveness that exists in that church. There are a lot of gay people that go to the church and one in front of us had his arm around his partner and whispered periodically in his ear. It's nice to know that Kip and I wouldn't be judged there as we would be in the Mormon church. Also men and women have equal rights in the Methodist church as proven by the fact that women can be pastors as well as men. In church I always loked the songs the best and always "felt the Spirit" when I listened to Church music. Well the Methodist church has a lot of the same hymns as in the Mormon church with a lot more as well and I felt the same good feeling when I sang them there. They also had a band playing with the music which was nice to listen to. One thing I did feel a little uncomfortable about was when the collection plate came around but still when you think about it that's a lot better to have a voluntary collection plate than requiring everyone to pay 10% of their earnings.

I have to admit I think I could get used to going to a Methodist church and raising my child(ren) in that church because I think it would be a good way to teach them about God while at the same time teaching them to love and accept all kinds of people no matter their race, sexual orientation, etc.

Back to blogging

Sorry for not posting for such a long time. One deterrent to blogging is the fact that one of my administrators reads this blog, but maybe he's forgotten about it by now and if he hasn't, I won't be writing anything too personal on here anyways so it'll be fine.

So to update you all on my life, I am about to start my fifth rotation of third year which is my ambulatory rotation. I have one month in a family practice clinic and one month of radiology. I'm excited for ambulatory because the hours are a lot better than my last rotation and I finally get to do radiology which is what I'm planning on specializing in. After ambulatory I only have one more rotation which is surgery. Third year has been going well and I've learned a lot. One of the most exciting things of the year happened to me on the last rotation-I got to do my first chest compressions. It was a very touching experience.

Things are going well in my personal life as well. I'm still dating Kip, so it's been close to a year and a half that we've been dating. My family is doing well and I have 15 nieces and nephews with two more on the way. I haven't really been keeping in touch with them too much but I have talked to my Dad a couple of times since Christmas as well as a couple of my siblings. My brother called me last week to talk about one of his friends who recently had brain surgery to remove a tangerine-shaped tumor. I told my brother that the prognosis depended a lot on what type of tumor it was and where it was located but I didn't really have that much to offer him since he didn't know the specifics of the case. It makes me a little overwhelmed that my older brother is calling me for medical advice but it feels good that I could help him a little to talk out what he was going through.

We're soon scheduling for fourth year and things are a little nervous among my fellow classmates regarding matching next year and what needs to be done to make sure everyone matches in what they want to do. I'm definitely feeling nervous about that as well. I have a lot to worry about because I want to match in a competitive specialty and because I also want to do couples match with Kip. I have to worry about interviews for radiology and transition year and ending up at the same place for both so that I won't be without Kip for a year while he's doing his residency somewhere else while I'm doing my transition year. I'm also worried because I haven't gotten honors in any of my rotations despite doing well on some of the exams, so I won't be loking very good as an applicant. Well we'll see how this all works out.

I will try to post more often so stay tuned for more....

Countries I've been to

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States I've been to

My sister and I used to talk about who between us had been to the most states. Now I have an easy way to see which states I've been to(not counting layovers):



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or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

My first overnight call

I thought I should mark this milestone by writing a post. Tonight is my first overnight call ever. I got to the hospital this morning at 5:20 AM and I won't be leaving until tomorrow morning, probably around 9 or 10 AM. So that's a long time. I am on ob/gyn right in Labor and Delivery. Things are going well and I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. It's really amazing being there to help deliver a baby. I'm not saying I want to be an ob but it has opened my eyes a little to being something other than a radiologist. I've especially had my interest piqued in anesthesiology because they do get to see patients and talk to them and be in surgeries, but don't have to deal with clinics or stressful procedures.

Nothing's going on right now but I'm hoping to see some deliveries tonight. I'll have to wait and see.

Shakira concert

I've waited for six years to finally Shakira in concert and it was amazing! Our seats were on the floor right in the center, 19 rows back. I can' believe how close I got to her. At one point she came into the audience, down the right side and she was probably within 10-15 seats of me. She sang mostly in Spanish and sang most of my favorite songs from all of her albums. Her part lasted about an hour and 40 minutes. These are the songs she sang:

Estoy Aqui
Te Dejo Madrid
Don’t Bother
Hey You
Antalogia
Inevitable
La Tortura
Si Te Vas
No
Ciega, Sordomuda
Para Obtener Un Si
Whenever, Wherever
Underneath Your Clothes
La Pared
Pies Descalzos
Ojos Asi
Hips Don’t Lie

My birthday week

Last Tuesday was my birthday so I celebrated with different activities all week long. It was nice to celebrate in Columbus for the first time.

On Tuesday I was supposed to shadow a physician at the MS clinic, but the program coordinator forgot to tell me that the physician was in India. So I had the morning off and in the afternoon I arranged to shadow a radiologist which was fun. I got some pointers on applying for resideny and stuff. I still like radiology a lot. I had lunch with Julie and Lindsey before heading over to the radiologist. After Kip got done with work he picked me up and we went to Chili's for my birthday. I wanted something fast and had been craving Chili's for a while, so it was good. We met Julie at Graeter's and got delicious sundaes. Kip gave me a lot of thoughtful gifts-a massage gift certificate, a CD, a Pound Puppy and a shirt from Abercrombie. I was really impressed. I was impressed with my family. Everyone except the oldest remembered my birthday by emailing, calling or sending a card.

On Wednesday I got my board scores back and was pleasantly surprised by how well I did. I'll be able to do radiology now, so I'm really excited about that.

On Thursday night I joined the boys for their weekly Union Station night. We started at Aaron's and had a fun time playing kings and quarters. They got me a birthday cookie so that was fun to blow out the candles. We went to Union Station where Julie requested Hips Don't Lie so I got really excited and started dancing on a chair. They told me to get down so I went up to the stage and started dancing. Some lesbians started putting dollar bills down my pants so I took my shirt off for them and ended up making five dollars. We didn't stay too late because Kip, Julie and I had to work the next day.

On Saturday I had a birthday dinner at Buca di Beppo with Erika and all of our med school friends. Erika's birthday is next week so we decided to share our birthday dinner. The food was really good and we got a big jug of wine to share. Kip's friend made me a delicious rasberry filled cake with this cream cheese frosting. Everyone loved it. After dinner we went to Gasworks, but they wouldn't let Sean in because he was wearing a jersey so we went to Novak's. Julie and Lindsey bought us all two shots and then a tequila shot for our birthday. It was really hot in there so we went outside to the patio for a while. We left there and went to Lodge Bar. We sat at a table for a while then they started playing good music so we went to dance for about a half an hour. It was really fun. The highlight was Julie and I dancing dirty to "Hang On Sloopy." Everytime the said O-H-I-O we would grind into each other and then bust up laughing. It was nice to get to dance with everyone and it was a good way to cap off a great week.

Sorry for my long absence

Sorry to all my readers who've been anxiously awaiting another post. Things have been crazy around here while finishing up my second year of med school, taking the boards and starting Med 3.

We were to start Med 3 on Monday but when I showed up at my assigned Neurology clinic the nurses told me that the doctor I was supposed to be working with wasn't seeing patients that day so they told me I could go home and they'd call me. I went home and called the coordinator of the program and she told me that I could take the day off and start on Wednesday. Monday also made nine months since our first date, so Kip and I went out to eat and then to see the big fireworks show that Columbus puts on.

On the Fourth of July we went to two barbecues. One was with my med school friends at Brad's house where we ate hamburgers, brats and I made strawberry daquiris. We shot off some fireworks. At night we went to another barbecue at Sanjida's apartment. We grilled chicken and had mojitos. We went back to Kip's apartment and watched more fireworks from his window.

On Wednesday morning I went to shadow a neuro-oncologist which was interesting. We saw a good number of patients with brain tumors. I did more at my first preceptorship last year than I did with this doctor so that's not what I expected from third year. He gave me a packet of articles that he wrote to read. Thursday I was in the neurology clinic but I only saw one patient all day and it was with a resident. Friday was better, I saw three patients with memory loss with an attending and got to see a full neuro exam for the first time. I've had every afternoon off except for Wednesday when we had a lecture, so it was a pretty easy week to start off my third year.

LDS church encourages members to support the marriage amendment

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I'm studying for Step 1 of the boards right now so that's all I've been doing.

I had to post today though because I came across this article and it literally brought tears to my eyes, I don't know why it hit me like it did, I know the LDS church doesn't support gay marriage, but maybe it's because I just went to my sister's wedding and thinking that my family belongs to a church like this, it makes me really sad. I'm considering emailing them all and telling them my feelings, but part of me just says leave them alone. We'll see.

The article says,

"Voice your support for a federal marriage amendment, the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints urges in a letter to be read in LDS sacrament meetings Sunday.
The letter, sent to priesthood leaders in the United States, calls on Latter-day Saints to contact their senators to support a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment that would limit lawful marriages to those between a man and a woman."

The church is actually encouraging all of its members to actively support the marriage amendment and they're announcing that during the Sunday services. Words can't express how upsetting that is to me.

Protestors arrested at BYU

The Soulforce Equality Riders visited BYU's campus this week. They are visiting conservative colleges across the country to protest the treatment of gays. Here's an article about the visit from today's Salt Lake newspaper.

Five BYU students participated in the demonstration and were arrested for trespassing(I guess). I don't really understand how they were trespassing at their own school, but I don't really know the legalities of it all. I thought it was interesting how the Honor Code deals with homosexuality, I don't remember ever reading it before. The Honor Code says, "Brigham Young University will respond to student behavior rather than to feelings or orientation. Students can be enrolled at the University and remain in good Honor Code standing if they maintain a current ecclesiastical endorsement and conduct their lives in a manner consistent with gospel principles and the Honor Code. Advocacy of a homosexual lifestyle (whether implied or explicit) or any behaviors that indicate homosexual conduct, including those not sexual in nature, are inappropriate and violate the Honor Code." So I would have gotten in trouble for even saying that it's ok to be gay. No wonder I lived in fear of getting kicked out while I was there.

This story appeared in the Utah County section of the newspaper on Tuesday. It deals more with the aspects of being gay and a BYU student. It quotes a story recounted by a gay student that after an accident his mother told him, "it would have been better if God had taken [you] from the Earth rather than leave [you] here to be gay." This is the kind of thing gay Mormons have to deal with. Luckily my mom would never say that to me, but she definitely isn't ok with it. But I'm glad that Soulforce brought attention to BYU's discriminatory treatment of gays.

Spring Break '06 "wooh, wooh"

I had a great trip to D.C. for Spring Break. It was a lot of fun to be able to spend so much time with Kip. I was really glad that we went. Sarah was our gracious host again. Kip and I drove down in my car and Brad, Erika and Lindsey drove in Erika's car. Julie flew down on Sunday so we met up with her in D.C. The weather was bad most of the drive to D.C. so that wasn't fun. When the storm hit in D.C. it blew off a lot of the cherry blossoms that were in bloom, but they were still pretty when we were walking around the monuments. Monday night we went to eat dinner in Dupont Circle at Front Page. While we were eating dinner, our friend Ryan called to tell us that another med student in our class has been missing since last Friday. None of us are really good friends with him but we all know him and have spoken to him before. We were all pretty freaked out and it was hard to think about anything else all night and we kept talking about it the rest of the trip. We called all our other friends to see what information we could find out. We tried to get on with our night, so we headed to Buffalo Bills to play pool and watch the NCAA championship game.

On Tuesday we went to the Holocaust Museum which I hadn't been to for eight years, so it was touching to see everything again. We ate lunch at the Old Post Office and then went to the Spy Museum. It was interesting but I don't think it was worth 15 dollars when there is so much else to do in D.C.(like shop at H&M which I didn't get to do). Dinner was in Dupont Circle at a Mexican restaurant. I was impressed because they had some Spanish dishes and the first song I heard there was "Las de la Intuicion" by Shakira. We had lots of margaritas and sangria. After dinner we headed to a bar in Adam's Morgan and had some "booty fun, booty fun" before heading to another bar for karaoke.

On Wednesday Kip and I were supposed to wake up to stand in line for tickets to the Washington Monument. I was too tired though so we stayed in bed. So I still haven't been up that yet. We had lunch at Capitol City Brewing Company near Union Station. The food was delicious but the service, as we experienced throughout D.C., was awful. After lunch we began our marathon walk from Union Station to the Capitol to the National Museum of Natural History to the Jefferson Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial to the Vietnam Memorial to the World War Two Memorial and then back to the metro near the Washington Monument. It was a sunny but windy day and we were all tired and freezing by the end. Still the museum was interesting and it was fun to see all the memorials again. We went to dinner at Rhodeside Grill, Julie's favorite D.C. establishment. We had a large group of Julie's friends from med school, college and high school. Kip and I went to bed early while the rest went out to a club in Georgetown.

Thursday we packed, ate lunch at Cosi and headed back to Columbus.

Off to DC for Spring Break

Well on a sort of last minute decision, Kip and I have decided to head to our nation's capital for Spring Break with four of our friends from school. We'll see if I finally make it up the Washington Monument. Today is also the six month anniversary of our first date, so I'm excited that I get to spend it in the car with him and then in DC together. This is our first trip together so that's exciting. I'll let you know how it goes.

Botellones in Spain

Spain has been on my mind lately since it was exactly a year ago that I was there last for Spring Break. I was pleasantly surprised when Yahoo! News posted this article on Friday about 25,000 people at a botellon in Granada to protest a new law aimed at stopping these drinking binges. I knew the date was around when I had my first botellon in Granada, but it wasn't until I looked at my journal that I saw that it was the exact same date, just one year later, so I thought that was an odd coincidence. The one I went to probably had less than 200 people at it, but it was a lot of fun to be hanging out in a mall parking lot drinking Tinto de Verano with a whole bunch of Spaniards. I was hoping to do one again the next time I go, so I hope this law doesn't put an end to them.

The likes of him ain't welcome in these here parts

My little sister is getting married in May. She's my last sibling to get married. We were always close growing up and were often referred to as "The Twins." The only negative thing about our relationship was that I couldn't tell her what was going on in my personal life since I wasn't out to her. I hoped that our relationship would be made stronger when I came out to her last year. But as you can read here, she didn't take it well at all and our relationship has deteriorated to the point that I've only spoken to her once since Christmas.

When I found out she had chosen the date of her wedding I called her to ask if I could bring Kip. She didn't really think about it before saying yes. She just wanted to make sure that I really cared about him and that I wasn't bringing him to try to make my parents upset. I told of course I cared about him. I asked Kip if he would come with me and he agreed. I was so excited that Kip was going to meet my family and Dave and see where I grew up.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to last Friday. I was calling my dad back after he left me a message to call him. My mom answered and we chatted for a minute before she blurts out, "We don't want Kip to come to the wedding." I should have seen it coming, but I wasn't even sure they knew I wanted to bring him yet, so I was caught by surprise. Over the next twenty minutes she proceeded to explain why:because they weren't ready for it yet, because Katie changed her mind and I can't take attention away from her on her special day, because my mom doesn't want Kip to come and she not be able to be nice to him. She says she's trying to understand the decisions I made but hasn't been able to deal yet. Keep in mind I came out to them eight months ago. I think a normal family would have been able to deal by now. I don't see how she's ever going to be ok with it because she believes I won't be happy in the long run and that I'm ruining my life. I'm reminded of why I hate the fact that my family is Mormon.

So Kip's not coming with me to the wedding anymore and I have to face my extended family all alone. I'm sure he's relieved and I guess I am too a little just because I don't think my family could have treated him the way he deserves to be treated just because they don't approve of our relationship. I thought about not going at all but I know I'd regret it. It just won't be very special if I don't get to be there with Kip. After the wedding I don't know if I'll ever want to go back.

Who I'm rooting for at the Oscars

I'm attending an Oscar party at Chris' and I have to say I'm excited for this year's show because of all the gay movies up for awards and the opportunity to see Dolly Parton perform "Travelin' Thru," her nominated song from Transamerica. It will be fun to watch the show with a lot of my friends and Kip.

Here's who I want to win for some of the awards tonight:

Best Picture-Of the nominated films, I've seen Brokeback Mountain and Crash. I thought Crash was an amazing film. But I think and, of course, hope that Brokeback Mountain will win for getting the nation to talk about homosexuality.

Best Actor-I hope Heath Ledger wins just because he portrayed a gay cowboy, but I didn't think he did an amazing job, and his accent really annoyed me. I saw Walk the Line and I thought Joaquin did a great job of portraying the "Man in Black."

Best Actress-This will be a tough race between Reese and Felicity. I loved Reese's bubbly personality, vocals and the way she helped Johnny Cash through rough times. But I hope the Oscar will go to Felicity Huffman for playing a man transitioning into a woman. Transamerica was an amazing movie that impacted me even more than Brokeback Mountain did and Felicity deserves to be awarded for the way she made me appreciate the difficulties of being transgendered.

Best Supporting Actor-I liked Jake's character much better than I did Heath's, so if only one of them gets the Oscar I hope it's Jake.

Best Supporting Actress-I love my Jen Lindley from Dawson's Creek and I'm so happy she has a hot man and had an amazing role in this movie. I hope she wins. Of the others nominated, I also saw Rachel in The Constant Gardener. It was a good movie and she was certainly beautiful, but I don't think she should beat out Michelle.

Animated Feature-I'm not that big a fan of animated movies, but I saw Corpse Bride and enjoyed it.

Original Score-Brokeback Mountain

Original Song-"Travelin' Thru"

We'll see what happens tonight!

Another update on Utah bill to ban Gay-Straight Alliances

The Utah legislative session ended at midnight last night. According to the Deseret News, "lawmakers, by not voting, killed a bill that would have allowed school districts to ban student clubs that deal in some way with sexuality — the goal to get rid of the current gay-straight-alliance clubs."

So it looks like this bill will have to wait until next year unless it is brought up again in a special legislative session that may be convened at a later date.

Leaving the church

Thanks to all the people who leave comments on my blog. Elbow left this comment on my blog: "I think that leaving the Church is just as huge as coming out to your parents." It made me think about my reasons for leaving the Mormon Church and I decided to create a post about it since I've already talked about coming out to my parents.

It's kind of hard for me to explain just how big a deal it is to leave the church. I was raised Mormon until I left home at 23, so it's all I knew growing up. My parents and seven siblings are all still in the church and believe that I will not be able to live with them forever if I don't follow the teachings of the church. It is a huge disappointment to them that I no longer attend church or have a testimony(belief that the Mormon Church is true). When I go home I feel like an outsider with my family members.

At the same time for me it was not a big issue at all. I never developed a testimony like so many other gay Mormons out there, so I didn't have to ever reconcile my testimony with my feelings for guys. Not that I didn't go through a period of self-doubt and wishing I could be straight and normal, but that didn't take too long to resolve. It just didn't make sense to me that the church could teach that acting on gay feelings could be wrong since I didn't choose to be gay.

Eventually I came up with the plan that as soon as I came home from my mission and moved away from home that I would stop going to church. When I moved to Ohio in 2004 I went to church here for about two months and then I found gay friends to hang out with so I stopped going to church because I didn't need the instant friends that I gained by going to church. I also had to stop caring about what my Mormon classmates thought about me, which wasn't that hard since I had just met them a couple of months prior. As soon as I was ready to not care about what my family thought of me, I came out to them and told them what I thought of the church. I knew I had to do it because making them happy was not worth lying to them anymore. I am really happy with my decision to come out to them. I am so happy now that I don't have to waste my time going to church. I still believe in God and will always try to be a good person, but I don't need to go to church to do that.

Go Huntsman!

According to The Deseret News Governor Huntsman plans to veto a couple of bills sponsored by Sen. Buttars including the one that I wrote about in my last post that would ban gay clubs in high schools.

Regarding these bills Governor Huntsman said, "If they look and feel like they did in earlier incarnations, I will veto them. We'll have to see what they look like when they reach my desk."

Update on Utah bill to ban Gay-Straight Alliances

The Utah legislature is in session now and I just read an article in The Deseret News that talked about a bill sponsored by Sen. Chris Buttars which he hopes will put an end to Gay-Straight Alliances in Utah high schools. He's not even a representative of Utah County where the Provo High School Gay-Straight Alliance was formed, so I don't know why he felt it was his obligation to get this law passed, besides being a self-righteous bigot.

Here's part of the article:

A bill to tighten controls on clubs at Utah high schools passed out of the Senate Education Committee on Monday, prompting tears from students who fear the bill would effectively shut down Gay-Straight Alliances in public schools.
SB97, sponsored by Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, directs schools to deny clubs if their charter or activities would encourage criminal conduct, promote bigotry or involve human sexuality.
Buttars altered the definition of human sexuality Monday to a toned-down version saying any club "advocating or engaging in sexual activity outside of legally recognized marriage or forbidden by state law." Previously, the bill also disallowed "self-labeling" by students as to sexual orientation and "disclosing attitudes or personal conduct" regarding sexual orientation.
But Buttars made it clear to the committee, which voted 4-2 in favor of advancing the bill to the Senate, that Gay-Straight Alliances were still a primary targets of his legislation. Those groups, he said, are indoctrinating students with a "new morality."
"It's pulling down the traditional pillars of morality," Buttars said. "If you say there is no morality because we can do anything we want to do sexually, that's not something we want to do in America."
Buttars, who had missed weeks of the session due to an undisclosed illness, also had a parent speak about how his niece was "targeted, recruited and indoctrinated" by a Gay-Straight Alliance.

What an awful man! He's trying to ban a support group for gay people in high schools because he feels like it would ruin America. Isn't that a violation of church and state and also discriminating against a group of people? I hope that if this bill does pass that somehow the club will be able to continue at Provo High. We'll wait and see.

Traveling meme

Aaron tagged me to do this meme, so here it is:

Here are four items for each category:

Four Jobs I've Had in My Life:

* Paperboy

* Lifeguard at Scera Pool

* Cashier at SuperTarget

* Phlebotomist at a plasma center



Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over, and Have:

* Latter Days

* Eating Out

* Mean Girls

* The Princess Bride



Four Places I've Lived:

* Orem, Utah

* Sevilla, Spain

* Granada, Spain

* Columbus, Ohio



Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:

* Grey's Anatomy

* Desperate Housewives

* ER

* Survivor



Four Places I've Been on Vacation:

* Spain

* Yellowstone

* New York City, New York

* London



Four Websites I Visit Daily:

* soapoperafan.com

* OSUMC mail

* Hotmail

* shakiramedia.com



Four Favorite Foods:

* enchiladas

* paella

* hamburgers

* mashed potatoes and gravy



Four Places I Would Like to Visit:

* Africa

* Australia

* France

* Florida



Four People I am Tagging with this Meme:

* Mathiew

* Sanjida

* David

* DC