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Winter at sunset, Connecticut.

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Summer Nights in Rowayton

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Summer is in bloom. We picked all these flowers from the backyard and surrounding area. Love a good pop of color in my otherwise mostly neutral living room.

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Alex Katz: Gathering at the Guggenheim

I loved this exhibit at the Guggenheim and caught it the day before it ended. Alex Katz is one of my favorite artists and I enjoyed seeing a lot of pieces I had never seen before.

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It’s been 6 months since I started my attending job in private practice. Here’s a throwback photo from residency that my friend took. Residency was very hard but the work is slowly but surely paying off.

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La Plage is always a gorgeous place for a waterside meal in Westport. Being here makes me feel like I’m on vacation!

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Alison Roman’s potato soup

I’m slowly but surely accumulating a roster of everyday recipes I can make for easy dinners or lunches. I’ve really been loving Alison Roman’s recipes. I’ve tried a bunch of them and each has turned out delicious. This is the Potato and Leek Soup. I enjoyed learning how to cook leeks, as I have never used them before. Some of my other go-to cooking blogs are Smitten Kitchen and Amateur Gourmet.

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I was surprised by this beautiful bouquet from one of my patients today. Tulips are one of my favorite flowers. I love the way they gently droop.

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Reasons I love ophthalmology

I get asked a lot why I chose ophthalmology. Truthfully, the initial reason I chose it was because multiple family friends (including an ophthalmologist) told me it was the best field and that they recommended it. I also really loved one of the ophtho residents and one of the medical students I worked with in medical school and that sort of solidified the decision. But now that I am actually an ophthalmologist there are so many reasons I love it. In no particular order:

1. Work in an office setting. I always knew I preferred being in an office rather than a hospital.

2. We wear so many hats. In ophtho you can see kids and you can see adults. We prescribe medications and we do surgery. We are even radiologists in a way - we read and interpret OCTs, fundus photos, fluorescein angiograms, and even CT scans of the eye and orbit. We even do our own eye ultrasounds.

3. Making a difference. In ophtho there are so many instances where we can truly improve peoples’s vision and improve their quality of life. And when we do that the patients are so grateful and happy, and that makes me happy!

4. Being an expert in one field. This to me was more preferable than knowing a little bit about everything.

5. Variety. In a given day I could see patients with cataract, diabetes, eye trauma, pink eye, glaucoma, macular degeneration, tearing, a stye, and the list goes on. We see unusual and wacky things too like syphilis in the eye or ocular melanoma. I don’t tend to be bored during the day.

6. Eye surgery is fun. It sounds like a weird analogy but it’s almost like playing a video game. In cataract surgery you look through a microscope, open up a shell around a cataract (the “capsule”), break the cataract into small pieces, and aspirate it out. All through a 2.4 millimeter opening!

7. We can diagnose so many things right in the exam room by looking at someone’s eye under the microscope. It’s not like other fields where you need to get blood work or a CT scan for almost every single thing.

8. Getting to know my patients. I love this aspect of ophtho. It is not a field where I see someone once and never see them again. Actually, it’s quite the opposite. The patients I’ve gotten to know have truly enriched my life. I’ve learned so much from them.

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Tavern at GrayBarns, Connecticut

For New Year’s Eve we snagged a last minute reservation at GrayBarns, a farmhouse style tavern in Norwalk. I loved this place! The vibes were cozy, rustic yet upscale, and inviting.

I’m picky about salads and especially about Caesar salads. I could go on and on about how so many “Caesar” salads are not actually Caesar. The perfect Caesar has to have anchovies, pieces of Romaine in varying sizes, freshly grated Parmesan (none of the pre-grated crumb stuff), and the dressing incorporated (NO dressing on the side business!). This one was pretty much perfect and tasted so good.

We also got the spicy rigatoni and tuna tartare, which were so good.

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Winter Dinners at Home

I finally have enough space in my place to have seated dinners at a place besides the kitchen counter. This night was cod, swordfish, grilled tomatoes and corn, rice, and cheesecake for dessert.

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It’s that odd week between Christmas and the New Year where you sort of lose track of what day it is, don’t feel like going outside, eat a random assortment of leftovers and too many sweets, reflect back on the past year and look ahead to the next…

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It’s a never ending quest for me to find easy and delicious weekday recipes. This spicy noodle soup from Alison Roman was a good one.

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Rowayton, November 2022

An uncharacteristically warm November day by the water…

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Argosy Book Store, New York

I’m a sucker for a good used book store. I love finding interesting editions of books from decades past. I have a collection of books on that interest me (mostly art, history, places I’ve been) and I like adding to it organically if I come across a really good find. When I passed this one while walking through midtown Manhattan I couldn’t help but go in to look around.

The place oozes of history. Apparently it’s been in business since 1925. Not shown is a basement with tons more books.

Argosy Book Store

116 E 59th St

Between Park and Lexington

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Happy holidays

Here’s a glimpse at my new apartment with my holiday decorations. In the future I may get more ornaments in different colors so that not everything is too red and green, and instead a little more unexpected.

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New Kitchen Tools

I've been slowly but surely upgrading some of my kitchen tools. After thinking about it for years I finally got a Le Creuset dutch oven and absolutely love it. Is it silly to say it's like a work of art? I love the cream color and gold knob. The 5.25 quart size is plenty for most dishes.

I also got a Smeg kettle for Christmas last year and truly don't know what I did without it. I use it daily and it's become an essential. Next on my list is the matching toaster.