about me

welcome! thank you so much for stopping by my blog.

who am i?
professionally, i’m sarah, a full-time pediatric endocrinology fellow/(very) part-time blogger in north carolina. for those not well-initiated into the medical hierarchy, this means that i am in a lesser-known phase of specialty medical training: above lexi and meredith, but below mcdreamy and (my personal favorite) arizona robbins. unlike those characters, i do not have casual sex with my coworkers, drink whiskey at bars after work, or perform implausible medical miracles on a daily basis. though parallels do exist, i suppose; i am married to a surgical resident. his name is josh, we met in med school, and he is the best omelette-maker this side of the mississippi, amongst other charms. we were married in the duke gardens on may 27, 2006.

i like babies and kids and nerdy science, but i hate procedures and emergencies. fortunately, i am doing my fellowship in pediatric endocrinology, an area well-suited to my preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. i have kept this whole blogging thing up throughout much of medical school and residency, the latter of which was quite a challenging time. our pediatrics program is quite a roller-coaster, with months of very hard work interspersed with months where you really get to live a normal life (yay!). over the years, i learned a lot about medicine, but also a lot about time management and finding balance in spite of intense work hours and demands. that said, i am thrilled to be able to say that i will NEVER work a 30-hour shift ever again.

enough about work!
spending time on my hobbies and with family/friends is very important to me. i feel like doing other things keeps me balanced and much happier, and i’ve always been a bit of a dabbler. i will often write about these other things, so this is a pretty varied site. the list includes:

1. running. i have absolutely no talent in this area, but i love the structure and challenge of training for races, as well as seeing my efforts pay off with faster times. i have run 4 marathons and 7 half-marathons, as well as several 5Ks. i would love to do more, but certain other goals have me holding back for now!

2. cooking/exploring the restaurant scene. if you had told me back in college that i would look forward to spending time in the kitchen most nights, i would have been shocked. but somehow my mother’s domestic genes must have burst through just in time for josh to reap the benefits. in 2009, i pulled a julie and julia and cooked my way through a martha stewart cookbook. check out my top 10 picks!

josh and i also really enjoy eating out and trying new restaurants. we’ve lived in durham/chapel hill for 8 years now, so we are pretty well versed in the area’s culinary offerings. i plan on compiling all of my reviews into one convenient page . . . someday, anyway.

3. music/reading. i recently rediscovered my love for books and try to incorporate ‘pleasure reading’ into my life. i am borderline obsessed with haruki murakami. i also enjoy music, anything from lady gaga to the decemberists. my favorite places for finding great new music are paste magazine, radioparadise internet radio, and the wonderful NPR podcast sound opinions.

4. traveling, especially to see family & friends. part of being in the medical field is having to work a lot of weekends. when josh and i BOTH have off, we often like to maximize the fun by going on mini-trips: to miami, to philadelphia, to charlottesville, etc. we have 3 nieces and a nephew all under age 5 and it’s scary that they are growing up so fast without us getting to know them (and vice versa), so we really try to connect when we can. we also tend to take one longer trip a year just for US — our most recent was a relaxing trip to st. maarten. sun, fun, and a LOT of lying around doing . . . not much 🙂

5. this blog! when i think about the number of hours i have put into this thing since 2004, the result would be scary. so i guess this site has become one of my main hobbies. in 2008, i started posting daily and also began reaching out to other bloggers whose sites i frequent. it’s been fun to feel part of the virtual community of bloggers, and getting to know some of them in person — the lovely kath, and my (no longer all) local triangle blog friends (miss you meg and allie!). the HLS has also been a fantastic opportunity to meet other bloggers, and i’m looking forward to attending again (and speaking!) this year.

6. pretty things. i have to admit that i have a bit of a weakness for online shopping, and i just can’t help posting about my most exquisite finds (whether i actually buy them or not!). i especially love orla kiely, anthropologie, and beautiful stationery products. life is short, so might as well try to look good. um . . . right?

what’s in a name?
thankfully, i no longer have to explain myself in this section! this site used to be called ghost world, in reference to a rather depressing aimee mann song by the same name. see, when i started this blog back in 2004, i was on a pediatrics rotation where i had to live in lumberton, NC, 2+ hours away from josh and the comforts of home, and i was not happy about it. i thought that this would be just a fun little diversion for that month, so i gave it the woe-is-me title of ‘lostandallalone’ (the url) + ghost world.

in january 2010, i finally changed over to the SHU box (SH-U = my initials and sometimes nickname), and got rid of the ‘blogspot’ in the url. my amazingly talented (also: gorgeous and generous) college roommate azusa designed the header graphic. i’m glad i finally made the switch!

before & after
interestingly, a large number of the ‘about me’ sections on the health/food/lifestyle blogs i read feature some sort of before and after. since i’ve been roughly the same size since high school, i don’t have any dazzling weight loss images to display. but i feel i should show some sort of transformation, as i have changed in other ways.
1992
full credit for capturing this moment and sending it to me 17 years later goes to my parents

2010

thank you
for checking out this page! i love receiving comments and emails, so please fire away. and come back and join me any time!