I had lunch with Chris yesterday. I think I mentioned in my sum-up post from January that he had gotten into the surgical critical care fellowship here. We don’t work together at all, although both of our ICUs are right next to each other due to ongoing hospital construction, so there is some hall passing on occasion. I was kinda looking forward to bossing him around. 😉

Things have changed in the 12 years since we’ve became friends. He got married (an event that still hurts to think about how much I was excluded). He has a 1 year old son. We went from seeing each other every single day for nearly 3 years to barely talking on the phone once a year (part of that was definitely me avoiding and licking wounds). So I was understandably nervous about having him in the same state again. Overall, it’s been nice.  I’ve been over to their house for dinner a couple of times and had lunch with Gretchen and Oliver once (a very brief meeting in the cafeteria, mostly spent in preventing a runaway). Chris and I meet for lunch a couple times a month, depending on our schedules. And there’s no denying that I have missed my friend. There are very few people who just understand me and unexpected hallway hugs after a tough family conference are just soul-saving and precious.

Anyway, he is currently interviewing for attending positions across the country. He interviewed at Utah and the interviews went well and they seemed to like each other. He’s got a potential interview here at OHSU. Both would really be a great start to his career with support for research.

His wife wants him to go back to Wisconsin and take a private practice job.

I wanted to laugh at him. Because I could have told him that he was going to get into this 5 years ago when they were in the middle of dating. She was saying then that she loved the idea of raising her family in Wisconsin, because that’s where her folks and her sisters lived, and that she was trying to convince him to not pursue public health because she didn’t want to raise her kids in a foreign country. She went to Boston because it was a short term gig. She came out here because it was only a year. He didn’t ask me then; I didn’t offer because  I like Gretchen quite a lot; she’s a heck of a lot more patient about some of his personality ticks than I am.

His marriage. He gets to have this fight. They’ll figure it out. I didn’t offer any advice, just listened. I don’t know what our friendship is going to look like in the future, but I’m glad for these few moments to connect again.

I spent 2.5 hours on the phone with my friend and old roommate Sam tonight. We haven’t talked in months, really. She’s my lawyer friend, who just started doing loan modifications and home loss mitigation law, so she’s been sending me all of the links to Wisconsin real estate laws so that I can fight my mortgage company, while I’ve been feeding her medical information on how to read an MRI report. Fun times, being adults.

Anyway, by the end of the conversation, I was craving enchiladas and mint chocolate chip ice cream. And wishing that I had taken pictures of our old stone coffee table. So instead, I settled for a cuddle with this:

(A sneak peak at the pics of my apartment that eventually I’ll take and post here).

I’m not necessarily homesick tonight, more “college sick”. It’s quite amazing, really, to think that I graduated from college 10 years ago, a DECADE ago; almost 15 years since I met these people who I call friends but who live as family in my heart. It feels like yesterday, when we were sitting in our little apartment, eating enchiladas directly from the pan, while peeping toms were looking through the window (seriously, how did we live in such a getto place?).

My dear Susan is coming to visit me this weekend (she flies in tomorrow, but because of work, I won’t be seeing her until Saturday). We’re going to have 4 whole days together, just me and her, like it was in the old days, pre kids, pre med school, pre marriage, pre foreclosure threat, pre electricity and running water. Superduper excited. 🙂

I did not succeed on my Nablopomo quest. Being away from a computer for 5 days puts damper on even the best-laid plans. I thought about cheating and going back and filling in some of those days, but man, am I tired. It’s okay; I was doing it more for the principle of getting into the habit of blogging more and documenting my life, rather than the prizes. Right? Right. And there’s always next year. In any case, I had started doing the two 30 day memes because I didn’t think that I could find words of my own to fill a month. I underestimated myself. I hate leaving things incomplete and I’ve put a lot of thought into some of upcoming questions, so I guess I’ll be continuing this into December. Should I make a “Blog Every Day for 365 Days” goal? How did everybody do on their Nanowrimo/Nablopomo projects?

My “vacation” was lovely. I arrived in SLC around 1:30 on Thanksgiving; Dad and I traveled down to Provo where we had a mighty feast and gorged on pie (death by pie would be a lovely way to go) and then played Dominoes into the evening. Friday was spent renewing my driver’s license – since my car is registered in Utah, I’ve kept my Utah license, but they wouldn’t let me renew in online; it’s one of the reasons that I jumped on the chance to go home. We then visited my aunt and cousins and little 1st-cousin-once-removed Cora (hee) who was quite adorable. We actually did participate in Black Friday and bought shoes. For me. Specifically these shoes. I’ve wore these shoes pretty much every day since third year of medical school – super comfy and padded; I can endure marathon rounds without too much pain. Alas, they don’t last forever (but this is only my 3rd pair, so they are pretty durable). I also found a pair of fluffy slippers that are definitely what I needed in this cold weather – my feet feel like they are blanketed in feathers.

Saturday we spent with my dad’s family. My cousins and their kiddos drove all of the way from Connecticut (and managed to skirt most of the storms), so we had a second Thanksgiving dinner with them. The kids were entertained endlessly by moving small toys around and hiding things and crawling up and down stairs and playing with the swinging doors that lead into the kitchen- I had forgotten how fun this age can be. We capped the evening by visiting another cousin, Sara and her 3 week old baby. He is a doll. 🙂

Sunday, I slept in. 🙂 Karin and I finally manged to get ready and surprised my friends Laura and James by coming to church with them (ignore the fact that we arrived late). I have to say that when I walked in and Lucas (their 7 yo son) lit up and hugged me was one of the best moments ever. I lovelovelove and adore all of my friends’ kids, but Lucas has a special place in my heart – he was the child that I watched grow up. I went over to L&J’s house virtually every other week during his first year or so of life. Being away from these kids, all of them, having them grow up without me has been hard – but having Lucas recognize me and hug me: heart swelled big time. I almost started crying. It’s still hard to believe that this baby:

can now write me notes during church.

After church, we went over to Laura and James’ house, where Liz and Edgardo and daughters braved the weather and joined us for dinner. Such a wonderful, companionable evening that was over way too soon! Oh, oh, I’ve missed my friends – it’s hard to believe that we’ve been friends for more than 13 years at this point. It had been snowing all day long and I really, really, really hoped that it would have snowed enough to cancel my flight, giving me one more day. Alas, my flight actually departed on time, getting me back to Milwaukee in the wee morning hours.

I didn’t take as many pictures of the weekend as I wanted, as I was too busy lapping up the company and conversation. But you can see a few pics:

And now, off to bed. I’m determined to make it to Board Review tomorrow and 6 o’clock arrives way too soon. Ugh.

How I spent my Saturday night (it took me two days to figure out how to download it off Facebook):

I’ve never seen a video of me dancing, and I’m glad to see that I don’t look nearly as clunky as I feel. I ain’t never going to make it to SYTYCD, but my moves aren’t half bad. 🙂

Ya’ll, I have missed this. Learning new dance steps, remembering old (it’s been a long, long time since I did the Lindy Hop, most only know the basic east coast swing; I kept switching back into the 6 count rhythm). A partner with a firm grip who knows how to lead. It brought back floods of memories of dancing in the smelly, hot and humid Navy Science building on Thursday evenings or the MAC on Saturday nights. My foot still remembers the feeling of hitting a nose during an unexpected flip (never again). I lust again for a comfortable pair of saddle shoes, brown and creamy white and a frilly, satiny red dress.

My partner invited me dancing on Saturday, as I will be visiting bjorks_defender for the weekend and he lives there and there’s a swing club. With a live band. So tempted. Soooo tempted.

I was on call on Halloween (which surprisingly, for a Saturday call wasn’t too bad), so I missed out on most of the festivities. I haven’t been able to pass out candy ever to the little trick-or-treaters, not because I’m on call every October 31st, but because the city off Milwaukee designates a Sunday from 1 to 4 pm as official Trick or Treating time (how utterly lame).  Luckily, my church had their Halloween party on Friday, so I still got to celebrate the holiday of sweets. It was still a juggling act, because Chris and Gretchen flew into Milwaukee for the weekend, as they had tickets to the Farve vs Packers smackdown. I met them and Gretchen’s parents at the airport in my costume, we went out for a late dinner and then I left for the party. I almost didn’t go. It was getting late and call is difficult enough without being sleep-deprived. But it was all worth it.

Thanks to spring english country dancing, I had a costume already made. I officially went as Emma Woodhouse, although I don’t think she wore purple in the latest adaption (which, my friends, is completely fantastic and Jonny Lee Miller makes my knees wobble and I can’t stop gushing about it).

There was cotton candy and a costume contest (I lost, boo) and dancing in the garage to Thriller. Good times.

My favorite costume was this:

You can’t tell it from the picture, but she’s Medusa, complete with snakes for hair and eyes that turn you to stone. Awesome.

Full pictures, as always, are on my Picasa page here

Surprisingly, I love night float. I love working the night shift, when it’s quiet and I can just focus on getting the patient taken care of and tucked in. I love running into CuteIntern in the cafeteria and having a moment to catch up (well, he had only a 30 sec pause; the ER keeps the radiology department pretty hopping at night)–my heart still hasn’t quite recovered for the palpitations. I love the nurses that I work with and getting to know them. My six days stretch was pretty benign – I think I averaged 3 patients that I admitted (out of a possible 7, go me!). Last night, of course, since I was really wanting sleep so I’d be fresh for my four hour drive today, I had a patient that I had to transfer to the unit, which kept me up, but it still was nothing compared to an average neuro call.

I love seeing the sunrise too. The sun is just peeking over the horizon at 5:30, turning the sky a hazy pink. I was going to take pictures of it; even brought my camera in, and then got a stern email from the head boss that no pictures were to be taken inside any of the buildings without written permission. Even if it wasn’t a patient. Grr. I’m so tired of rules and regulation all of the time.

Anyway. I just finished packing for my camping trip. Yay!! I’m heading up north, way north today to camp over night in the remote, forested and laked (silly word check, I know that’s not a word), bear-populated country, then coming down to a tamer county park for Friday and Saturday where some of my good girlfriends will be joining me. I’m bringing my art supplies, a notebook, a few of the Harry Potter books, some games, makings for smores, etc. We’re going on a nature walk, and just taking it easy for a few days. I’m so super excited. I have to shower, get the oil on my car checked and then I’m off. At least to the next rest stop – I have a feeling that I’ll be stopping for siestas all along the way. Luckily, I do have a friend going with me who will help drive and keep me awake. No worries, Mom!

Alrighty. See you all on Sunday!

1. How good a long workout can be. Did I tell you that when one of my friends moved this spring, she gave me her elliptical machine and weight bench? I can’t remember. In any case, I haven’t use them more than 1-2 times a month. Did I also tell you that my friend had a household of cats, and the elliptical machine had the unfortunate residence in the litter room? I like cats (although I’m slightly allergic which keeps me from giving in and buying a cute ball of fur), but I don’t like my hands smelling like cats after a workup. I’ve sprayed it with bleach, baking soda (no worries, I washed it with water in between), more baking soda, and two applications of Febreeze and with a towel, it’s tolerable.

In any case, I walked for 30 minutes today and burned 300 calories! Go me!

2. The perfection that is the show Everwood. Oh, my poor, neglected, canceled-in-its-prime show. TPTB at the WB finally, finally heard the numerous pleas and released the second season on DVD, and I had forgotten how much I love this show. The relationships, the characters, the acting is just perfect. Every single week. It makes me homesick (in the cathedrals of new york and rome, there is a feeling that you should just go home and spend a lifetime finding out just where that is) and heartsick and happy all at the same time. I miss good tv like that. (Season 2 can be purchased here from Amazon if my little missionary moment convinced you. 😉 )

In other news: I had a lovely 4th of July weekend. I had a blissful three days off, and caught up on sleep and read for fun for the first time in months (East by Edith Pattou, The Princess and the Hound by Mette Ivie Harrison and Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. Hmm, wanna play spot the theme? Actual book reviews are forthcoming, I hope), helped my friend paint her mother’s bathroom, went to another friend’s house and played with sparklers for the first time ever, and ate strawberries and ice cream cake, and just had a nice time. I really miss not having a summer vacation; this was a small but appreciate glimpse of freedom.

Picture evidence of the weekend and of the rest of my adventures in May and June can be found at my Picasa web site, including English Country Dancing, seeing Carbon Leaf in concert (one of the best concerts ever), and hanging out with my crazy yet beloved coworkers.

The VA emergency department has continued to be somewhat slow. I’ve seen a total of four patients in the 3 days that I’ve been there. I’m not complaining – I’ve gotten caught up on my clinic notes (it’s amazing how quickly I can get behind if I don’t do them immediately after clinic) and I have a big fat 1000 page book that I’m determined to have read by the time I switch to the medical ICU in August, so I appreciate the chance to study. I start night float on Friday. Meaning, I work 8 pm to 8 am (or 6 pm to 8 am on the weekends) for a week, admitting the sick patients who come in from the emergency department. Long ago, I lost any semblence of a circadian rhythm, but it’s never been tested like this before. I’m kinda excited to see how I handle it and I’m hoping to get a couple of things done in the day, such as getting a basement/foundation specialist to diagnosis why my house leaks and taking my car to the garage to figure out why it suddenly sounds like it’s been possessed by a family of crickets.

And that’s it with me. How are all of you?

• Today marks the end of my third year of residency. Tomorrow, I start work at the VA emergency department (ugh. I like the VA. I hate the ER) as a fourth year. Two more years to go.
• I told the director of the neurology critical care fellowship here that I’m planning on applying. I still vacillate about it, mostly because I dread putting together the application, asking for letters of recommendation, and somehow fitting a new, amazing, novel research project into my already busy-enough life. I hated the application process going in to medical school and into residency. The thought of doing it again makes me want to weep. But neuro critical care is really where I thrive the most. I still have tons to learn and I find it intimidating but… I think it’s where I should be.
• I finally made up with the attending that I was arguing with last week. He felt pretty bad about things, told my program director that I was really great, etc. Except that I kept getting confronted with all of the drama and it was this continuous awkward situation. But I apologized for for the emotional breakdown today, he apologized for being harsh and misjudging, we hugged, and hopefully it’s all good. I’ve got three months before I’m back anyway, enough time for it to be completely forgotten when I ask him for a letter of recommendation.
• Chris moved to Boston. I didn’t get to see him off. Three years ago, I cried for 2 days straight when he left for Asia, thinking that it was the end of our friendship. It wasn’t. This won’t be either. But I still miss him dreadfully.
• I heart Milwaukee. Especially the baseball games and tailgate parties. And I really heart my camera. Look for pictures later this week.
• TWO YEARS MORE!

New York = fabulous.

I conquered NYC. And managed to do it without meds, thank you very much. It helped that I saw and experienced most of it from a double-decker bus and ferry, but I still did it.

I did not get to see any Broadway musicals (it didn’t fit in to plans very well, was horridly expensive, and I hated Times Square so much that the thought of lingering there to try to grub for cheap tickets made me want to cry. Perhaps once it’s closed to automotive traffic, it’ll be more manageable (ha!)), nor any of the museums, so that will have to wait until next time.

I took 569 pictures. The majority of them are crap. Taking pictures from a bus means that I have lovely pictures of stoplights, and people’s heads as we were jolted around. The rest are exposed badly as I moved from shade to bright sunshine and didn’t always remember to correct.

Sam’s baby is delicious. Seriously contemplated sticking her someplace in my luggage, but then realized that since it was all carry-on, I’d be discovered before I made it very far.

All in all, a fantastic weekend. Too short as always.

Select photos can be found here and here

**
This weekend, I am visiting Susan and her own delicious child, Alice, and we are finally, finally going to go country dancing. Susan has also arranged a date for me (!!) with a guy who is excited about the prospect of english dancing(!?!!!), which sounds too good to be true, but I am optimistic nonetheless. And on Sunday night/Monday morning, my parents arrive in town for a week’s vacation. Which means I should have spent tonight cleaning rather than fussing with my pictures, eh?

In twenty-four hours, I will be in Hoboken, New Jersey, settling in the “spare room” of Sam’s new apartment and cooing over Miss Megs. Her hair, I’ve been assured, is still delightfully long and poofy and she still adores her toes.

In twenty-four hours, we’ll finalize plans of what we will see over my seventy-two hour visit. We’re attempting to fit in a Broadway musical, a 2 hour boat tour around the island, a stroll through central park, a visit to Gray Papaya (I’ve been spoiled by the Milwaukee brats, I’m not sure that New York’s dogs can live up to it), a museum or two, seeing another friend (who’s husband is visiting for the weekend, so they may not be around), and lots and lots of baby time.

I’m still packing. Have another load or two of laundry to do. Just finished eating (I love corn). Trying to decide if I should bring my laptop (long trip without it, but want to be light on the luggage). Decisions, procrastinated decisions.

I’m on psychiatry consults this month. My coworkers have called this “great immersion therapy” for my phobia. We’ll see. Immersion or not, I decided I couldn’t do it without meds. I’m hoping that it’ll be better through a camera lens, but I’m not sure. Hence the back up, so I don’t have a melt down in the middle of the street. I’m still worried and on the verge of hyperventilation if I think about it too much.

New York, New York. Here we go!

I went to see Chris this weekend. He moves in just a little over a month. I have so little time off between now and then, that I’m not sure if I will get to see him before he leaves. So I’ve been grabbing whatever chances I have, even if its just a short Sunday afternoon visit. We had lunch with his surgery colleagues, watched a movie (Kramer vs Kramer, which I had never seen. I think the movie’s overall story means less now than it did 25 years ago), looked at pictures from their trip to India, went for a walk, ate decent Mexican food, and just had a quiet visit. My favorite visits with my friends are exactly like this, being immersed in the mundane, everyday moments. Gretchen asked questions about life in medical school, and once I stopped teasing Chris about his “player” reputation, I struggled to answer them. The junior high-like sagas seem so surreal and so long ago, that it’s difficult to find the right words to convey why those events meant so much, changed so much. Without the fallout from Candice, without the literal shunning from that group so that Chris was the only one who talked to me for months, we wouldn’t have been as good of friends and in all likelihood, he’d be decorating my Facebook friend hall of fame, and not much else. Strange how little, stupid things like that can alter an entire life…

Anyway, I attempted to take pictures of Chris and Gretchen, capture them in tender moments. Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be advertising my services any time soon as a professional photographer, as I completely forgot until after I had shot 5-6 pictures that I had adjusted the shutter speed to take pictures in the bright spring sunshine, which didn’t translate very well to florescent lighting. All of the pictures were crap. With the magic tools of photoshop, I did manage to salvage this:

and turn it into this:

Still grainy, but so much improved, I’m rather impressed with myself. 🙂 The others are completely worthless though.

A few other (entirely unedited) pictures from this weekend can be found here.

And now that my headache has finally dissipated, I am returning to bed. I do love the (very, very rare) rotations where coming in just before nine is perfectly reasonable.

A visit to Chicago and meeting my favorite musician, Vienna Teng.

From Vienna Teng

Back to the Grand Geneva resort, this time with my internal medicine peeps. I’m going to miss these people.

From Medicine retreat – 2009

A murder mystery party. There is a serious lack of pencil-thin mustaches these days.

From Great Uncle Seymour’s Birthday Party

I’ve taken over 2000 pictures with my camera since I got in December. To say that I love it is an understatement. If I die, I may end up bequeathing all of my earthly belongings to it. My friend, Vaishali’s husband brought his D300 to the medicine retreat, which is such a massive camera compared to mine (it weighed a ton. I’d never be able to keep it steady) and, it took beautiful pictures, but I think mine does a good job too and will be even better once I get more practice and become a better photographer. He lent me his 50mm f1/8 lens for the evening though, and oh, that is heavenly. It is going to be my next (and likely last as I can’t really see needing anything else) lens, I’m just saving my pennies. My next project is learning how to create high dynamic range landscapes; I took some photos during that rainstorm a couple of weeks ago, when my basement was flooding again and if I had known that HDR existed then, the pictures would have been phenomenal, instead of just pretty.

From Wisconsin spring

I’m not doing the English dancing weekend after all. I piddled around, delayed sending in the registration, debated eternally where or not I should go until it was too late. It would have been easier if there was somebody that I was going with… or if the price had been half as much; then I’d have done it without a second thought. In the end, I decided that I could not splurge on it, and I’ll have to find another place to wear my pretty dress. I’m planning on going down to Illinois in May for a English dance so it will be displayed then.

So instead of men in cravats, I’m going to New York to visit Sam and baby Meghan. This is such a huge deal for me and evidence of how much I want to see that wild baby hair. I’m already trembling and have a pit of fear in my stomach. I don’t do tall buildings. That’s the understatement of the year. I become paralyzed under their shadow, frightened to near death that they are going to fall on me (yeah, September 11th was virtually my worst nightmare come to life). And that’s just the comparatively scrawny buildings in SLC. Needless to say, a visit to the Empire State Building/Chrysler Building/Times Square/Ground zero and even the Statue of Liberty are not on the list. Right now, I’m liking the idea of a boat tour of the city: a chance to see the important sights and bridges, but from a distance, where I can practice taking pictures of reflections in the Hudson River. I’m also looking forward to central park and seeing the skyline there.

And if all else fails, I’ll get myself a prescription for some propanolol and/or alprazolam and medicate my way through. The benefit of being a doctor.

So, question to my wise friends out there who have been to NYC: Which are the must see sights, mostly in Manhattan and that won’t frighten me to death? And from those who live there, any hidden nooks that shouldn’t be missed but are often overlooked by the tourists?

Today was one of the most exhausting days I’ve had in a long time (boy, I’ve been spoiled). It was endless pages and endless consults (I had 5 before 1 pm and another after that), haggling with radiology to get an MRI done (if I hear one more time that’s its protocol… I understand that you don’t want a patient with metallic things getting an MRI done as those metallic things can come ripping out. However, when I tell you that this patient had a MRI done 1 week ago and survived it just fine, I think we can forgo all of the drama, okay?), managing a patient in status (poor intern had no idea what to do), answering questions about the dozen patients that I thought I could finally sign off (and got pulled back into their disease) and somehow still seeing all of the patients that we are still actively following as well. I didn’t leave until after 7:30 (and still came home to a glimmer of daylight! I love spring!). Good thing I didn’t have plans tonight (this is the reason that while I’m going down to Chicago next Friday to see Vienna Teng in concert, I’m buying tickets for the 10:00 show, rather than the 7:00 show. I may be driving home at 3 in the morning, but at least I’m mostly guaranteed to make it).

I came home to a lovely little package on my front porch though, which made the whole day better:

It’s wrinkled (muslin wrinkles like nothing else) and I didn’t wear any makeup at all today, so the big pimples that I’ve been fighting for the last week are quite prominent, (and we’ll entirely ignore the weight issue, shall we?) but I love the dress! I’m still fighting with the neckline (you can make out my divotted and scar-ridden right shoulder on the second picture), but I think if I pin it to the underslip (and maybe the bra), it should look better. Chris brought me home this gorgeous lilac silk shawl from India, which matches my dress perfectly, giving it just the perfect elegant touch.

Next is figuring out how to do my drab hair (the new haircut lost its luster pretty quickly). And finding my fancy jewelry. And then actually sending in the registration for the weekend of dance.

Today, I woke up and thought to myself that for the first time in almost three years, I like neurology again. I’ve taken care of some really interesting patients with diverse diseases; I’ve come up with diagnostics and differentials that my attending agreed with; and I had a chance to read so I was starting to feel like I understood the difference between polyradiculopathy and polyradiculoneuropathy (don’t ask). It didn’t hurt that we had maybe 1 consult a day, so I could really sit and think about my patients care.

Of course, right after I thought that, my pager went off nonstop all morning with new consults and complicated questions (as well as stupid questions), making me feel like a freshly chopped chicken and the love faded. It’s still there, dimly trying to stay alive. Who knows, if I manage to survive tomorrow and clinic, it might take up permanent lodging; that would be nice.

Other thing going on in my life:

• I have just about caught up with all of the little requirements that residency piles on me. I completed the last of my dictations (it was nine months old, but, as I discovered when I dictated it, I had never even taken care of the patient and it really wasn’t my responsibility. So I suppose that evens out). I finished all of my evaluations. I’ve stayed caught up on my clinic notes (that will probably change tomorrow). So I’ve finally been able to concentrate on something else: my house. It’s been a disaster since January when I got sick for a month and was working close to the 80 hours/week limit. But this week, I went through all of the papers that I’ve collected and recycled three entire boxes of junk mail and have collected another 3 boxes of patient information that I need to bring back to the hospital for shredding. No wonder I felt like I was drowning. I’m focusing on the progress and ignoring for now the pile of dishes, the laundry that needs to be washed and all of the sweeping. All in due time.
• My beloved mommy finished my Regency dress this weekend and mailed it on Monday. I hope to get it tomorrow. There will be pictures. 🙂
• I had a fabulous weekend, visiting Chris and his friends. We went to the symphony (incredible pianist!) and out to eat and then made crepes the next morning as we watched Sicko. Three years ago, as a fresh idealistic medical student, the documentary might have inflamed me to action. Now, after experiencing the multiple complexities of the medical system, I am become more cynical about the likelihood of success with medical reform. Doesn’t mean that I don’t support efforts to do so, but I see much more of the pros and cons of all of the proposals. Surprisingly, Chris was as conservative about the movie’s premises as I; residency has changed him as well.
• In any case, there is some pictorial documentation of the weekend at my Picasa site. It already hurts thinking how much I’m going to miss this.
• I’m getting an elliptical machine and a bench press from my friend who is also moving away (*sniff*). I’m so excited to have my own little gym. Now, the bitter cold of Milwaukee won’t be an excuse to keep me from exercising AND I won’t have to endure endless ball games. As soon as my house is in order (I’m hoping this weekend) I’ll get to retrieve it.
• It’s actually been really hard recently, thinking about all of the friends that are leaving this year. My medicine resident buddies are graduating and going on to fellowships and careers, leaving me behind for another two years.
• I am trying to get the courage to buy tickets to visit Sam and her little one in New York over Memorial weekend. In New York. I start hyperventilating at the thought (serious phobia issues here!) but I think my love for baby Meghan’s poofy hair might win out over my fears. I may not see anything more than central park and in the inside of her apartment, and I may just be one quivering jellyfish the entire trip, but it’d be worth it. Right?

And that’s all folks. Tune in next time for another addition of Glimpses of Julia’s Oh So Boring Life.

Mom has a lists of blogs from family members that she follows on a regular basis. I don’t think she’s quite ready to tackle blogging herself (I can set you up if you are, Mom!) but she enjoys staying involved in the lives of family who live far away. Of course, that doesn’t work very well when the blogs don’t get updated. My sister updated her blog Feb 18 (even though she had plenty exciting news to tell), my cousins the early part of March, and me, well, I haven’t updated this since March 1. So much for my goals of writing about Tolkien.

Thanks to Mom’s persistent pestering, you now all get to hear about my very busy life.

The first part of March, I actually went on vacation. As a resident, I get 4 weeks of vacation a year (which I have to plan out a year in advance. I also have to plan out my 4-days-off-a-month 3 months in advance, which makes spontaneous outings nigh unto impossible) and I haven’t had any vacation since October. I was pretty ready for some time off, believe me.
cut to be nice to your bandwidth! Click to read and see more!

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many path and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
~ JRR Tolkien.

I am done (mostly) with call for the next 3 months AND I’ll have weekends off as well, as I’m on a stretch where I’m doing more consult work than taking care of my own team/patients. It’s going to be a nice change of pace, aka, freaking fabulous. I’m already booking stuff for every weekend until June, let me tell you.

I’m trying very, very hard to talk myself out of signing up for this: http://www.folklorevillage.org/t2/user_file/English%202009.pdf. An entire weekend of English country dancing. Let me say that again. An entire weekend of English country dancing. Granted, the price is somewhat outrageous (okay, it’s outrageous), but… it’s an entire weekend of English country dancing!! Hopefully, people can show up just for the Saturday night dance. (Must finish, aka start, dress!)

This place also holds monthly barn dances. I’m hoping to drag a few friends out to one of these this summer. So much fun!

I have vacation starting on Friday night. I’m just about to the point where I’m counting down the hours. I need a vacation sooo badly. Even my hair seems fried to the ends (it could be because I haven’t had a haircut since October, I think). It’s been a hard winter. I’ve never really been one who has seasonal affective disorder; I usually like winter, but this one has been brutally cold and everlasting and I’m ready for some sunshine.

I have a pseudo-date-thingy on Thursday. A boy from church and I were talking months ago about finding some good ethnic food around here and he stated that we absolutely had to go out and find some. Last week, he facebooked me (funny how that’s becoming a verb) and mentioned the idea again and we confirmed plans today. It’s a pseudo-date because the guy is somewhat weird and for all I know he could be bringing the entire ward with him. He did say that he wanted this to be a monthly thing, so who knows. My expectations of the evening really consist of hoping that I’ll have lots of good stories to share when I go home. Good or bad.

Oh, and Trouble’s back in town. Apparently his version of “never to return” meant gone for 4 months and then back for a month, then gone for another month and then back for 2 weeks and then, never to return. He’s as much as a flirt as ever, which, since the other flirt in the ward got a girlfriend has been in short supply. Did I tell you that March is going to be fabulous? Somehow, though, I don’t think I’m going to be convincing him that a weekend of English country dancing is just want he needs. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try!

Lastly, on a complete change of topic: every year, since the LOTR fandom sank quietly into oblivion after the movies (it’s okay by me, I like the quiet fandoms just fine, thank you), various groups sponsored a “Back to Middle-Earth Month” in March. I’ve never participated, but I’ve really been missing LOTR. It’s been probably 2 years or more since I’ve seen the movies, longer since I’ve read the books. My poor little discussion group has long since been overgrown with briars and thorns. My website sits unfinished; I felt so guilty about paying the hosting fees every year, but couldn’t convince myself to let it go. I’ve now transferred my blog over there, so it’s not wasted space any longer (it’ll be officially introduced to the public soon), but I’d love to redo the section of the discussions properly.

More importantly, I made some really good friends on my discussion group, that I’ve missed a lot. I’ve missed talking about LOTR, the in-depth analysis of Tolkien and his works. We had a great deal of fun, for over 2 years, until medical school consumed me.

Anyway. For B2ME month, I’m re-reading LOTR and will be posting some of my favorite quotes or thoughts or maybe drabbles throughout the month. For old-times sake.

Anybody out there know any good tutorials on how to figure out aperture, shutter speed, f-stops and ISO? So far, I’ve read Ken Rockwell’s tutorials on how to set up the Nikon D40 and how to use the different menus, which was very helpful, and Pioneer Woman’s tutorials, but I think I need a step-by-step explanation. What I’d really like to do is take a class through the college, but I have neither the time nor the money for that. So online it is.

I got some lovely pictures during my weekend with Susan:

but I’d like to learn how to blur the background more. And take better pictures of flying model airplanes.

Beuller? Beuller?