Donnie Darko I watched this movie the other day, and Oh My God! It is hilarious. If you haven't seen it, they now have it at blockbuster and you MUST RENT IT!

Basic synopsis: Donnie Darko (yes, that's his real name) is a paranoid schizophrenic teenager (aren't they all?) who is led on various adventures by his "imaginary" friend, Frank-the-6-foot-tall-rabbit. The whole movie is about the hijinx he gets into. Its somewhat dark, but is still very funny. For mature audiences only, please. No 10 year olds...

Otherwise, this weekend has been completely relaxing. Took the departmental exam on thursday (which was exactly what I expected it to be - since they gave us the questions) and then the medicine shelf on friday. We'll see about that one - I had a pretty good feeling about it, though. Hopefully I'll score well and not trash all my hopes.

Now, I'm in the process of re-vamping my curriculum vitae and writing a personal statement so I can start to get letters of recommendation from my clinical preceptors. I know, I know.. it's too damn early for that, but I think getting them early is better. Especially since medicine is one of the big-hitters as far as letters go. Hopefully I did well enough to get a decent letter.

For EM, it is recommended that you have two letters in the S.L.O.R. (Standard letter of recommendation) format - ingenious name, isn't it from clinical EM faculty (preferably someone like Rosen or Tintinalli, but anyone from a residency program would do) and then at least another from another "relevant" clinical discipline. The problem is, what discipline isn't relevant to EM? I haven't found one yet - nor can I think of one off the top of my head.

So, I'm spending hours in front of my computer, trying to remember everything I've ever done in my life that might pertain to residency applications (or medicine in general) so I can put together a C.V. The next task is to try to figure out what I want to say for my personal statement. I hate writing those stupid things - but supposedly they are OH SO IMPORTANT when it comes to residency applications. How ridiculous. I thought this was about medicine, not journalism. Maybe someone can clear that up for me. And don't tell me that "a well written and poignant personal statement can catch a program directors eye." That's a cop-out, and this is about realism. So, what exactly is the purpose of a personal statement?

I suppose it is to tell your story. But what if your story is boring: You've worked in the ED for 5 years and you know you like it and you know that EM is a good fit for your personality type.

That's it. I guess my personal statement will be pretty short. You've seen it here first, folks!!

Oh well, I guess I'll need to come up with something more lengthy than that. Besides, I don't know how much residency committees will like me telling about my experiences in the ED as a nurse. I guess we'll have to see, eh, since that's all I have right now.  ¶ 4:46 PM