Christian's Blog

Hi, NUHS! 

It was Saturday, 3pm, watching some "Modern Family" with my girlfriend Ashley and just relaxing after a long midterm week for both of us. She had 6 tests and I had 5. Suddenly, her brother walks into the room and declares he's going to Detroit and has 2 free tickets to the Red Wings/Blackhawks game! Ashley and I looked at each other simultaneously and yelled, "We're in!" 

Danny was almost caught off guard by how quick we spontaneously made a decision to just drop what we were doing, get ready in less than an hour, and drive 5 hours that night to Detroit. If there was ever a time to say it, "YOLO!" You Only Live Once. 

I had never been into the great (kidding ;) state of Michigan so this was a great adventure for me if you know how much I love bucket list items! When I lived in New Jersey when I was younger I loved Steve Y and Brandon Shanahan (Red Wings) so I was even more excited to see the Wings and Hawks play. In addition, the Blackhawks were on a 21-game streak without a loss! Incredible! 

The three of us got to Danny's Gf's house just outside of Detroit late Saturday night and went out for drinks with some of their friends with some live music, which was a great time. There's something hilarious and exhilarating about waking up on a stranger's couch knowing you're about to have an awesome adventure-filled day! 

The hockey game was a well-played, hard skating game that peaked when the Blackhawks were down a goal on a power play with 2 minutes left. A big shot from the point redirected right onto the stick of the very skilled Patrick Kane who punched it in for an unlikely game tying goal and shocked the rowdy Joe Louis Arena. The game, to my pleasure, went into a shootout that once again featured the brilliant hands of Patrick Kane who finished a dirty move that catapulted the Blackhawks streak to 22 games without a loss in regulation!

To add to the shenanigans, Ashley and I even got interviewed between periods for Comcast Sports Network! I'll try to find the YouTube video for next week's post! 

Have a Great Week!
Christian

Hey, Everyone! 

This past Memorial Day weekend my best friends and college roommates came to visit me in Chicago! They got in on Friday and we rounded up an epic weekend bucket list of items we wanted to cross off before they left on Monday. They've never been to Chicago and may never have a chance to come back so we wanted to do a fun mix of touristy and shenanigan-filled adventures.

Our List Looked Something Like this:

• Visit the Bean
• Navy Pier
• Eat Gino's East deep dish pizza
• Ride the Metra and L
• See a White Sox Game (the Cubs weren't in town)
• Go to Wrigley (to at least see the historic stadium)
• Go to North Ave. Beach on the 97º Sunday and swim
• Laugh copious amounts
• Bonfire and catch up on life
• Smoke a Cuban cigar (my friend gave me one)
• Watch the Celtics game 7 and eat bar food in Wrigleyville
• Go right next to the Sears Tower and look straight up
• Go to a Redneck Party (my friend was hosting one)
• Reminisce about old JMU shenanigans

WHEW! We were EXHAUSTED come Monday morning… So much traveling (we don't believe in cabs)... So much walking... So much FUN! My stomach hurt from laughing so much. It was a great weekend and definitely filled my "JMU friends" tank as I hadn't seen these characters in 13 months and they are like my brothers after living together all 4 years of college. Fun Fact: Luke was my random assigned roommate freshman year and Faraaz was our suitemate. Total Chance. I'm very thankful for meeting great people and having them as friends years later.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER TAKE TYLENOL AFTER DRINKING. NEVER. The liver needs to use the same enzymes to break down both the alcohol and the drug and it can cause the liver cells to lyse (think: blow up/die) and that is BAD! Tens of THOUSANDS of people are hospitalized because of Tylenol toxicity yearly and this can be PREVENTED with a little education. So, I'm doing my part. If you really need to relieve that hangover headache take IBUPROFEN, it's easier on the liver. NEVER TYLENOL. Unless, in Dr. McRae's words, "You want your liver to look like chocolate pudding at autopsy." Yeah, how's that for a visual! HA HA.

Peace out Lions,
Christian the Lion

This will be the final installment of my 3rd trimester here at NUHS. The end of the summer semester has brought a bittersweet taste to my mouth. 

On one hand, I'm totally stoked that I get to move on and go home to spend time with family and friends and recharge. On the other, the end means that fall and cooler temperatures are on their way. A small confession, I love the warm, sunny days. No surprise there! With that said, I think that I was able to find a solid balance of fun, schoolwork and side projects/interests this trimester.

The beginning of the tri took me way of out balance as I was still so burnt out from the Neuros of Tri 2 that study mode didn't kick in till later than it usually does. However, I was able to kick it back into gear at the end of the trimester with a lot of things including my side projects all coming together nicely.

What Are You Doing This Break?

I know I am going to try to do a bunch of things. I'm most likely going to be doing some nerdy studying of biomechanics and gait analysis because I don't think our school gives us enough of this valuable tool. I plan on going to a Red Sox game, chilling with family, going to NYC to see my old best friends, as well as relaxing at my grandparent's house at Cape Cod. I can't wait! 

Friends

One thing I will absolutely recommend when coming out to Chicago if you're not from the area, is make lots of friends and participate in the variety of activities the school offers. Whether its joining clubs, going to tri games, rounding up friends for a cookout, going out on a weekend, all are vital to your sanity here at NUHS. That may sound a little funny, but with the workload it's easy to get caught up in the grind and not have a balanced life of laughter, fun activities and great friends. Great friends end up becoming your family away from family so choose wisely, laugh often and don't judge! 

Have a great break!
Christian

It was Friday afternoon when I picked up my two JMU buddies (Astin & Shawn) from O'Hare airport. They immediately jumped in and made a viral YouTube video joke. The laughter didn't stop until Monday afternoon when I dropped them off for their flight back to Washington D.C. What a weekend! 

We started the shenanigans by going out to watch the Bruins game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals with about 10 other NUHS students. They, of course, had to try the deep dish pizza and the coined phrase, "When in Chicago..." was used frequently those 4 days. Thank God the Bruins won! We are going to the STANLEY CUP FINALS ...YEA!

Our Saturday was easily the most ridiculous day I've ever been a part of. For reasons different than this blog's policy, I will merely give you a small recap. Astin and Shawn are huge baseball fans so one of the bucket-listed items on their Chicago trip was Wrigley Field, of course. We crossed that off Saturday. I've never been to Wrigley and I must say it rivals Fenway Park (my hometown's historic ballpark) in its uncanny ability to make you feel a part of its storied history. Another small perk was that the tickets were a heck of a lot cheaper than Fenway tickets because the Cubs are abysmal. They lost 10 to nada at the hands of the just-better-than-awful Pitt Pirates. Somehow in the midst of it we witnessed the Cubs get held to a complete game - 3 hit shutout by a mediocre Pirates pitcher.

After the game we met up with National students in Wrigleyville (who also had friends visiting) for some post-game festivities. There's plenty more to the story but we'll leave that out for now.

All in all, the weekend was extremely fun and recharging (well, kind of) for me. I got to see a few faces I haven't seen in over a year, witnessed my first Wrigley game, saw the Bruins advance to the Stanley Cup for the first time in 21 years, got fried like a lobster at the pool, finalized a deal with Ori Hofmekler (more on this in later posts), got some good PubMed research for my new case study experiment, and am ready to start ramping up studying for midterms.

Did I mention the shoulder seminar is next week in St. Louis? So pumped. We'll talk seminar next week.

Take Care,
CC

Hi Everyone!

Hope everyone had a great past week and enjoyed St. Patty's Day. I had a different reason to celebrate on Thursday, I got my completed "after" blood work back. I'm happy to report the possibility of man boobs, a higher voice, and emotional roller coasters are all OFF the table! My testosterone is successfully back to normal at 607!

Just a quick recap of the events, my "before" blood tests revealed that my testosterone was 615, which was a very good number. Thirty days later, and 20 lbs. more lean mass, my levels dropped to 298? (FYI, Normal Range: 280-900) So technically, I was "within normal" BUT I was in a downward spiral that raised some alarms. My hypothesis was my over-consumption of flax. So, I cut out flax and 2 weeks later my levels went back to 607! That's a doubling in 2 weeks, which is pretty epic in itself, unless the lab test was faulty (another plausible, but less likely scenario).

I will report that I feel much more grounded, if that makes any sense. It's hard to describe but I feel like I have my "will power" back, and when I need to pull a long day of studying I can now, whereas 2 weeks ago I felt "funky" and "unmotivated." Whether or not that is just a placebo will remain a mystery, but I'm just happy I got my T levels back to normal because I could really use it gearing up for the next 27 days leading into final exams.  

Dunk Contest

On the bucket list front, my buddy Kendall, who played Div 3 college basketball, has put together a 10-week plyometric workout to see if I can jam a volleyball! Jamming anything has been a goal of mine since I quit basketball in the 9th grade because I was 5'0" tall. I have, of course, grown since then, but my maximum jump ever is just clipping the rim. In short, this is going to be an athletic performance experiment and come the beginning of next tri I will attempt the "impossible" and try to jam a volleyball for the first time in my life - not long after I thought jamming was going to be one of those things that stay permanently on the list. Cheers to zero gravity!

March Madness, Adjusting, and Dave's Birthday

On the social front, this past weekend was really fun. On Friday, a bunch of us got together and played a little Texas Hold'em (I placed second behind Steve). Steve = GOOD. I haven't played poker since high school, back in the days when Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event and catapulted everyone and anyone to think they could play at a high level with little to no previous experience (if you played poker in high school you know what I'm talking about). My only good poker skill is that I can read people pretty good, but the one skill I've lost is figuring out the odds and combinations of hands that the other players could have based on the flop and turn. Either way I was happy to double my money as it will pay for tutoring next week!  

I'd also like to give a shout out to Canadian Dave! Happy 25th Birthday! We celebrated his birthday on Friday after poker and then laid low all day Saturday and watched March Madness and practiced adjustments for the better part of 5 hours. 

That's it for me this week. Hope everyone starts enjoying the somewhat warmer weather! 

- CC