Matter, Energy, and Life of Michaela A. Castello.

Category: Short Reads

Updates that are comfortably bite-sized.

  • Fighter Sighting

    Nearly twenty years ago (good grief, that hurts to say) I completed a pastel painting of a World War II-era fighter plane. I gave it to Mark, who displayed it in his aircraft-themed bedroom for years. After we moved, it found a place in my mom’s house, where I believe it will remain unless he…

  • All Over Again

    Ten years ago I arrived in Loma Linda, California and attempted to meet the three other naïve souls in my MD/PhD program, only to discover every last one of them was cool enough to have homes outside of the United States. Today, the final member of our tetrad crossed the stage to receive her second…

  • Nights for Days

    Night shifts generate strong opinions: are they desirable or miserable, easier or more difficult? Regardless, residency has a fair number of them, and unlike our colleagues we don’t get paid any extra. Personally I don’t mind them, although to be fair, I don’t currently have difficulty sleeping during the day or catching naps during slow…

  • The Pool of Narcissus

    All too often, someone expresses a nonstandard thought (or even one that is simply incongruent with group norms), and the responses center around how well others can relate the concept to themselves. When they encounter internal resistance, they feel the need to express how the hypothetical does not agree with them. I’m sure some of…

  • Reclamation

    My first foray into “writing stuff online” was through the “journal” feature on a little website called DeviantArt (then stylized as deviantART). This despite having previously avoided LiveJournal, Xanga, MySpace, and extensive AIM profile updates. It might have been because I had started a physical journal some time before, or perhaps due to growing tired…

  • Water Supply Side

    Recently I found a new-in-box water bottle at a thrift store. Initially I was confused as to why someone would get rid of it; however, upon opening the box I saw that it was emblazoned with a logo: SupplySide I’m sure it’s former owner was worried about accidentally being associated with such an embarrassingly mistaken…

  • An Evening of Pots

    Now that we live further away from scorching desert heat, Rachel and I have been attempting to expand our porch-garden. When we saw a good deal on glazed clay pots, we figured it was probably time to commit to moving our plants out of spare storage bins and mop buckets. Loading our haul into the…

  • Pager Trouble

    One of the first items I was issued when I started residency, along with my ID badge, was a pager. Yes, we still have pagers, which has invited derisive remarks from local churls if we go out immediately after work and forget to leave them in the car. You may be surprised to learn that…