The Navy Life and Finding Inner Zen

The other day I had a patient whose life truly gripped me. Here I am, a 21- year old graduate PT student struggling with the ever looming situation of having my long term boyfriend teach English to kids in Italy for 9 months, while a young woman comes in, has already given birth, dated a guy for many years before marrying him is teeters on the brink of a real life changing event. They are now awaiting order from the US army to discover where in the world they will be stationed. She has been told it could possibly be somewhere in Asia, but it is uncertain. Somehow she is able to deal with leaving her entire family, well-known culture and any semblance of a stable life to travel across the world where she will be berated with accusations of marrying as a direct result from pregnancy from the group on the base, with no stable support from her family or close friends. Treating her for a physical diagnosis seems insignificant after hearing about her life. What physical relief I could give her will only slightly diminish the weight I imagined was upon her shoulders.

After she shared this with me it made me realize how unprepared I feel for life sometimes. Sure, I could be completely self sufficient but to have a newborn with a husband on active duty, people dependent on me for support and life, feels impossible at this time. I am unabashedly reliant on others. Decision making is not the issue here, I believe there is no better person to guide you in life than the royal we. However, when it comes to maintaining my usually happy-go-lucky way of existing, it takes a solid surrounding group of wonderful people. This is not a good thing or a bad thing, I live my life with others but not according to others. Someone else could potentially feel happy using their own internal mechanism (I'm talking introvert on the Myers-Briggs, what UP), but this is just who I am.

The patient I treated is so brave and courageous it astounds me. Even with her future awaiting a single phone call she exuded such a vibrant air. She was effervescent and lively, seemingly untouched by the chaos surrounding her. It seemed like she was so at peace with it. Having this zen in her life is a finely crafted skill. I do not know how she has come to that point so young in life, it is a wisdom or understanding perhaps that I have only observed with older generations until now, but I envy her ability and hope one day to get to that point in my life.

A New Friend's Life!

Gallivanting Around the Capital District

This summer I'm doing my first clinical in New York's capital district! I was lucky enough to have a day off during the week, so I decided to spend this Thursday exploring some of the local galleries and naturally the cafes in the area too.

I started off in Troy and visited the Fulton Street Gallery. It was right in the central hub of town, just a couple doors away from a comic book store. The gallery space was a small rectangular room, which I did not get a chance to visit because it was closed. Perhaps they were out to lunch, but I was able to get a view from their large glass windows. The gallery hosts spoken word on Thursdays, and this event called "Trashion" which is exactly what it sounds like, an all recycled/found object runway show. Definitely not an idea to throw away anytime soon (ba-ZING!), check out a video of last year's event:



After doing some speedy online research, I looked up a few of the artists currently in their exhibition... and found a bizarre variety, but not the artist who did the delightful photo series on the right side of the wall who I was originally searching for. Anyway, the two artists that caught my virtual eye were locals G.G. Roberts and Joleen Button. G.G. Roberts has a bizarre fixation on phallic images that I don't quite understand. She has a very interesting method of using paint, creating fun texture, and her choice of color is beautiful... but her subject matter is beyond peculiar. Maybe that is her way of introducing humor or a shock value in fine art, but it seems to be trying too hard. From what I could see through her online gallery it was as if Norman Rockwell just started to take ecstasy, got bored of just painting docile American life scenes and put penises everywhere. It wasn't really for me.

Joleen Button, hailing from SUNY Albany and St. Rose art programs also uses texture in a brilliant way. She has a very handsome way of creating still life scenes, and adds a bit of a modern flare into the images. Her paintings have a sophistication about them, and I would personally love to have something of hers in my dining room. Perhaps that is because she inserted the white fluffy Fancy Feast cat into some of her works, but truly they are wonderful.

After my failed attempt to visit the first gallery on my list, I started wandering around the artsy part of Troy and I stumbled upon this cute print shop/gallery which just opened last week! It's called DESIGNTOGETHER and it was opened by Ben Karis-Nix and Taylor Gillis. I'm not sure who I spoke to, but he seemed like a nice guy and was polite enough to answer my questions about the prints. They use a technique called Riso-printing which is a newer technique, sort of a combination of photocopying and silkscreening to create posters, cards and t-shirts with a strong environmental theme. Picture a photocopier with a large ink cylinder which has a stencil a la silkscreening. Pretty interesting stuff, and the ink they use is actually made from soy. Hey, green art! (support their business, buy a something! http://designittogether.com/)

Then I quickly checked out Spilli'n The Beans, a charming cafe with delicious coffee drinks suggested to me by a patient, and headed off to the Albany Center Gallery. I really liked this space, it was an interesting floor layout and the current exhibit, 33rd Photo Regional was pretty good. I saw a lot of interesting photography, some classic film and also a few digital pieces. (To be continued)

a brief interruption of college stories

This is my friend G. He just graduated from college and started a video blog 'dedicated to graduate life, and destroying his body.' Enjoy!