Waiting around

Monday, June 26, 2006

Long time...

Not even sure where to begin. It's been about 12 days since I posted last and lots has happened. But nothing too terribly exciting.

I think when I left I had just described my financial crisis and I would like to say that everything has straightened out. My bank (M&T) has been great to me. They cancelled all of my numbers, and by Monday afternoon, all of the money that had been stolen was back in my account. I had a new card by the end of the week and while that was an inconvenience, I really can't complain. When I talked to my bank, they informed me that someone had attempted to use my card on Monday morning for charges of $250 and $15; luckily I had cancelled the card, and the charges were declined.

I have been looking for places to live constantly, and I won't bore you with all the details until I finally secure a place, and then you all can come visit me (most likely in Northern Virginia).

I went home this weekend - it was my sister's birthday and since Father' day was last Sunday going up there this weekend had a double meaning. Since my mom's mother's day present was the medical school acceptance, I knew there was no way I could top that for Father's day. So I ended up giving him a card that says "I love you Grandpa..." and on the inside I wrote something to the effect of "I knew I couldn't top mom's mother's day gift, but I thought this could come close. Just kidding!" So hopefully he got some sort of a scare.

We had an eventful dinner on Friday night - if anyone remembers the Will Ferrell sketch "Yelling at Dinner" you might have an idea. I couldn't help by laugh at myself as I clinked my silverware on the plate. My parents and sister were probably wondering why I was laughing and luckily I am the only one who knew why.

It also rained all weekend. I wanted to go and play a little golf, but the weather dictated otherwise (yeah, I could have gone out in the rain, but I am not that hardcore yet).

I drove home from dinner last night and the rain was coming down hard. It was really hard to see and blah blah it was a quiet ride home as I attempted to guide the family cruiser down the dark, windy road, nay river, from where we ate. We all made it home thanks to my incredible driving skills. We got home and for some reason my sister went to the basement (she wanted to play monopoly or something) and found out that our basement was taking on water. My dad and I went down to check it out, and at that point it had just started and the water wasn't deep; however about an hour later it was over my ankle. Apparently both of our sump pumps stopped working and that means we get standing water in our basement. Which is cool and all. I attempted to use our shop vac and a hose to start sucking water out of the basement, but I couldn't get a strong enough pull on the hose to suck up water. So the water just sat there. Luckily it stopped raining around midnight and the water mysteriously drained from out basement overnight. We aren't 100% sure where the water went.

On an unrelated note, our foundation probably has some cracks in it.

I made it back to Richmond this morning in a record 3 hours and 15 minutes. People completely flip out when it starts raining (and I think there was some sort of mudslide over 495. That probably slowed us down some).

School is slowly creeping up towards us - we are a little under 2 months away. Most everything has been straightened out - I just need to finalize where I am living and what furniture I need. (Basically everything). I was looking at SDN (www.studentdoctor.com - an online message board for premeds) and saw a bunch of the threads for secondary applications as this application cycle is gearing up. I find it hard to believe that I don't actually need to be doing that this year. I mean no offense to those who are; it is simply weird to me that over the last 3 summers, I have been filling these out, sending checks, and getting everything straightened out for my application to med school. And this summer, that is one thing I don't need to worry about. Weird.

Alright, well there's an update. I'll try and keep you posted more regularly.

still waiting (for another update),
-wait

Monday, June 12, 2006

A sweet graduation and fraud

Well if this isn't long overdue, I don't know what is.

I could do a recap of my last week and couple days, but there were really only 2 larger things that sort of happened. First off, on Friday night, I drove up to DC to my aunt's house so that I could go to my cousins graduation. He graduated from high school (Bullis School) which is in Potomac, MD. It was weird because they actually wore robes -- for McDonogh we had to wear a light blue shirt and white pants. Ah well. One of the students speakers was insanely smart... She had actually relocated from New Orleans post Katrina, and has done cancer research at Tulane and LSU and is going off to Harvard in the fall. In her speech she was using words that I am sure I did not know the meaning of in high school (and let's be honest, she probably used some words I don't know today).

And then the keynote speaker spoke. This guy was pretty amazing as he talked about his own battle with cancer, and his message told the students to find their passion, and when they do, to run with it. He said there are times when you find your passion, or your passion finds you. He said that in his case one of his passions found him which was cancer, and he has decided that he wants to make a difference in the world by doing something about it. He has created foundation to support his cause in trying to rid the world of cancer.

Oh by the way, the speaker has also won the Tour de France 7 times.

Lance Armstrong is a phenomenal man and it is amazing how he truly follows through with everything he says. He says to find your passion; he found 2: Biking and Cancer relief. Both of the effects are really evident - he has won one of the hardest biking races in the world, not once, but 7 times. That takes some dedication (that's not an understatment...). In his pursuit of a cure for cancer, he has also made an impact and if you want to see how, just walk down the street and see how many people are wearing the yellow livestrong bracelets (there are 60 million people out there who are wearing them). Lance also goes to the president asking for billions of dollars to be dedicated to the cancer research. In creating the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Lance has created a powerhouse in the fight against cancer. He offers resources for those who have cancer, along with what you can do to help.

I felt like I was in the presence of greatness as he is an inspiration to me.

I said there were 2 things. And since I am a man of my word, here is the second thing. I was checking my account balance on my bank account from home at around 1:30AM on Saturday night (why this hour? I don't know really...) and in looking there, I found a charge that I didn't remember making. The vendor was some name with "cardquery.com" in part of the name. So I go to cardquery.com and start looking checking into their website and I found out that they are some sort of clearing house for smaller online companies to use so that consumers can use their credit cards. They say that you can find out what was bought with your card if you give them your first 6 and last 6 digits of your credit cards. As I figured I would be cancelling this card as soon as I could, I decided what harm could this do. So I find out that apparently I bought something called Cryptainer PE and the better part was that I could actually see and print a receipt for this purchase because this company stores them for you. In checking out the receipt, I find out that my name, my home address (not the one I am living at now - which is the address my bank has on file), my credit card number, and the other person's email address (presumably the one who stole my numbers) were on this receipt. The email address was an AOL address, so since we also have AOL, I hopped on there and looked for the Terms of Service, and then notified AOL of the possible credit card fraud and this person using an illegal credit card with an AOL email attached. I asked if there were any actions they could take against this person since they were doing illegal activities with the AOL screenname. I recieved a response saying that this should not be done over email, and that I need to contact the fraud department. That will happen at some point today.

I called my home bank Sunday morning at 9AM (when they opened) and got my credit card cancelled, but I am still a little concerned because there is one more charge that still needs to go through - currently there is one charge on my online statement that says "Withdraw - Details not available yet" with a charge of $1 which is usually just a placeholder for an online purchase. It's also weird because the date on the purchase is 6/12/06 and I found this on Saturday (the 10th).

I'll keep you all posted on what happens with this. I plan on taking this through as far as I can.

still waiting,
-wait

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Figuring it all out

First off - I'd like to welcome to the new readers who have found their way through my profile on the GoogleGroup for the GW class of 2010. If you want to know how I got here, feel free to go back and read some. Or email me and I will tell you. Or if you don't care and are just happy to have gotten into med school, that's awesome, because I am freaking pumped.

As I said previously, the honeymoon phase of this experience is over. I am being brought back to 2 summers ago when I was preparing for Georgetown and scouring Craigslist for a place to live, and wondering if I am ever actually going to find a place to live. I still have not resolved any of the questions of where I want to live and whether or not I want to have roommates. There are pros and cons to all of the decisions, and I just need to sit down and figure out which pros outweigh the cons and then make the decision. Currently, I am leaning towards Foggy Bottom without a roommate. But I may be starting to sway back towards Northern Virginia. Stay tuned. (And if you have advice, I am open).

We got an email from the dean of admissions at GW today discussing everything that needs to be done between now and June 15, July 15 and August 16th (the last of which is when orientation starts). The main things include financial aid, immunizations (DC Law) and insurance. Tonight I looked into the insurance plans. My favorite exclusion in the insurance plan might be "Expenses occured as a result of Injury due to participation in a riot." While I understand the premise for this, I thought it was curious, and even moreso considering it is the 4th exclusion listed out of around 30.

I also start house sitting tomorrow. I am house sitting for my landlords parents. They have a pool which I am sure I will hang out by for the next 7 days. They also have a pretty sweet TV so I am sure I will also watch a bunch of TV. They have 2 cats which I also need to take care of. "yay" But it's a little extra money in my pocket.

I am also quitting the free clinic next week. It's pretty surreal to think that I have been working there for over 9 months now and my time there is over next week. There's been tons of change throughout my time there as when I started they actually took walk in patients and now they don't. I have gotten to know lots of people there, from the doctors, PA's nurses and patients, and I have seen so much of the behind the scenes work of a doctor's office and it has totally made me aware the goings ons of a doctor's office. It has also shown me so much in terms of the problems of healthcare in America. It is really amazing the numbers of people who just can't afford health insurance -- there are people who come into the clinic very regularly and they obviously need the healthcare, and without this clinic they would be helpless as they cannot afford insurance. I hope to one day make an impact in this field.

So that's about all I have for right now. (I'm trying to post more frequently, I promise!)

still waiting,
-wait