Call:
— Wake up at 6:45
— Shower, brush teeth. Head to work with wet hair.
— Arrive at work at 8:00 am
— Discharge 1 of 2 patients by 9:00 am.
— Cointern is post-call; spend most of morning and afternoon trying to finish up on his work.
— 14 patients to dictate
— 4 completed dictations by 5 pm.
— Eat lunch at 3:45
— First admission at 5:15.
— Second at 5:25
— By 8 pm, am already behind by 2 patients
— Capped with 5 admissions by 10:12
— Supervising resident is busy. We don’t finish seeing my patients until 3 am
— I eat dinner (chili cheese hot dog. I’m sure it’s great for my diet) at 12 am
— In bed at 3:15. Am awoken every 15 minutes by pages. Really, really silly pages
— Wake up at 5:30 to finish admission notes from night before
— Wait impatiently for new intern to arrive so I can sign over the patients and leave
— New intern doesn’t arrive until 7:10.
— I don’t leave the hospital until 7:30.
— Drive through a blizzard to the VA hospital. I have 5 patients to see before 9 am.
— Arrive at 8:15 am.
— Am told by resident that we have orientation to attend
— Am feeling extremely post call and nauseated by the adrenaline rush of the blizzard drive (you try keeping control of your car on 2 hours of sleep!)
— Meeting finishes at 9 am.
— I haven’t seen any patients.
— Excused from first part of rounds to see patients.
— First man is very sick. Was told by last month’s intern that patient was very sick. Thought this was patient’s baseline “very sick but stable” self.
— Fly by other patients and they’re all doing good.
— Meet up with team and start rounding on my patients together
— Patient #1 is very sick. Much sicker than baseline.
— Within a half hour, he’s intubated.
— Finally finishing rounding at 12.
— Finish notes at 1:15.
— Leave hospital at 1:30.
— Blizzard is at least finished
— Get home by 2:00
— In bed by 2:30.
— Wake up briefly at 11:30, fall back to sleep
— Wake up again at 8:25 this morning.

Sum up. Slept : 18 hours (+ 2 fragmented hours). Last ate: 30 hours ago. Last brushed teeth: 49 hours ago. Last showered 49.5 hours ago. # of pages: Filled up pager 3 times (can get 19 pages). And received 3 yesterday when I was comatose.

Had some interested dreams. I dreamed about Dr. Who, tenth doctor and Rose starring and with a small crossover from Everwood (Edna and Harper were in it). I never remember details of dreams very well, (something about a horrible obstacle course, where the contestants were trying to get back home and had to pick the right shoe hanging from a string) but it was very, very dark, and Harper died and Rose was crying. And me…. I was fixated on the fact that my laptop got flattened during the escape.

So, now I’m off to brush my teeth and seek out an IHOP, because man, I’m hungry.

I dreamed about Africa the other night, that I was back in the hospital. It’s been just over a year since I came back. I was talking to Chris last night, who’s on his journey across the world again (I think he should have arrived in New Zealand now), and will be going to Kenya for a month in March, and I was trying to tell him about all of the people and the cultures…. and realized that I had forgotten. Names, mostly, of the people that I had met. They’ve come back to me now, after sitting here and scrouging around for the faces. Lenai. Shawn. Raj. Liz. Leigh Anne and Karla. Time moves so quickly, and before you know it even the brightest, most cherished memories begin to fade.

I’m almost 2/3rd of the way through intern year, and I am so tired. Bone weary. This is my fourth month of Q4 call, of admissions and discharges, of early mornings and long rounds, and I’m just tired. Not to mention, I got three emails, questioning my professionalism yesterday (they were directed at a group, not just me), that pissed me off. I had one of my clinic patient’s mom call and yell at me (I managed to remain logical, she calmed down and listened to me). I argued with a patient today. I’m usually very good with my patients, I try to be compassionate, but he started yelling at me the moment I stepped into the door, so I was much more blunt and hard than I usually am… and predictably, it did not go well. I left in the middle of another one of his tirades, just turned around and walked out. Didn’t apologize or nothing. 🙁 Not good.

I miss traveling. One of the med neuro residents here just got back from a rotation in Zambia, where he worked in a neurology clinic, but really ended up doing everything that they asked for (the stories he tells of taking care of trauma patients after a bus accident!), and all I can think is “I wanna do that!” Make a difference, rather than just feeling like I’m the drug dealer for the patients with pain “crises” and serious drug addictions.

Chris left yesterday for another 3 month stent across the globe, this time to New Zealand and Australia, then to Kenya for the same rotation that I did, down to South Africa for an overland trip that sounds amazing, and finally to Ireland, where we’ll met up (with his parents. Did I tell you that development? I like his parents, they’re very nice people, but it’s already hard enough explaining to people that you’re going on vacation with your very platonic friend, without getting parents mixed in). Three whole months of traveling. Bet you couldn’t tell I was jealous. 🙂

Speaking of Africa, this story is amazing: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070220/ap_on_re_af/running_the_sahara. I’ve been reading their blog at National Geographic (why did it not dawn on me that it would be a website as well), and it’s quite fascinating

And still speaking of Africa, would my dear African friends like to meet/host Chris for a few days while he’s down there visiting your country? He’ll be traveling in and out of Jo’berg Aprilish and in need of a good time and friendly faces. Obviously, I understand not rushing out to welcome people you don’t know and haven’t even “met”, and that you have jobs and real lives, but I figure I’d dangle a little carrot and remind melancthe that he’s pretty cute and see if she’d bite. 😉

It is amusing me, however, when I picture explaining to him how I know you… and how you are aware of his existence. Yep, still haven’t “come out of the closet” with the blog to him. 🙂 I guess this will really be my chance.

Okay, to bed. One of my precious days off tomorrow, and I will not squander it!

For those who have been to Ireland, tell me how you travelled. Bus? Train? Rented a car? Tour? And any must see destinations? The trip looks like it might actually fall into place after all (YAY!), so I’ve been trying to figure out logistics. There’s a awesome touring group, called Shamrockers, for pretty cheap, but unfortunately, the tour starts before I could actually get into the country, so I’ve been scrounging the internet looking for alternatives.

***

For the other Dr. Who fans on my list, watcher_junior has made these awesome animated icons, just because I asked her to. *hugs the Ali* They can be found here.

Next up. Changing my mood theme. Obsessed? Just slightly. 😀

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Post call today (only one more call night this month!). For most of the month, I have had very sweet call nights… gotten 1-2 patients early in the evening and slept 6-8 hours with only a few cross cover issues. Last night was a different story. My team admitted 10 patients yesterday, four of those patients were mine, two came in at the same time, two hours *before* I was suppose to start call, and the night just continued from there. DId manage to grab about 2 or so hours of sleep, but I’ve been very spoiled and it wasn’t enough. I came home and just crashed, and didn’t wake up until Chris called me with the good news about Ireland.

I go back on medicine wards at the Big Hospital again in February, where I’ll be lucky to get 15 minutes of sleep…. so I guess I’d better get used to the sleep deprivation again.

I’ve been (somewhat) working on creating some tables of drugs for a neurology book that one of my attendings is publishing, on treatments for insomnia, sleep apnea, etc. Part of it is the Epworth sleepiness scale (found here), which btw, I fail. I especially like the “Fit for Duty” scale. I don’t think I’ve been awake for an entire noon conference or Grand Rounds yet…

Grumpy. Very very grumpy. Day started off bad with weekend attending acting like we were all idiots… and has gotten progressively worse, with attending not only thinking we were idiots, but not telling me what’s going on in that ever-so-smart head of hers. Now, I’m sitting in the ICU, waiting to make sure that my patient doesn’t go into funky heart rhythms that I would have to get him out of (funky means deadly, btw), and I’m bored. And cranky. Not a good combination.

Flist, get me out of my funk. Tell me funny stories. Tell me about your boring life. What did you do today, the day that normal people don’t have to work? Ask me probing questions. Or the meme that was floating around a few days ago: ‘Ask me my “Top 5” of anything – “real”-life related, tv-related, movie-related, whatever. You can ask for either my Top 5 Favorite or Least Favorite. Whatever you desire.’

I await your entertainment. 🙂

The year of 2006 is now dead, settled into his grave, as the New Year now takes over reign. But, as is my nature, I could hardly let him go without a eulogy.

Highlights, month by month (with pictures! Lots and lots and lots of pictures)

I’m back in the NICU for the rest of the month (and the mean resident is off for the rest of the month, limiting all of my interactions with him to next to nothing) and wow, it feels good to be back home. Plus, I’m working again with my favoritest attending ever (Im much more saucy with him than I ever am with my other attendings. I’m afraid I make a bad example for the medical student!) and it’s such a joy working again, I almost don’t mind that I have to go to bed in thirty seconds to face another early and full day.

But enough with that work stuff, shall we? Jack’s becoming a very dull boy.

I’ve had a paid account for something like 3 years and I’ve never used any of the extra features (except the userpics, but with the limited amount of time, I find myself using only my default. Must change that.) So, let’s do that.

Back in October, when I went home, I went to a salon and had my hair done. First time ever. I’m the $12 hairbut kind of girl. Anyway, the stylist twitted me about my bangs, saying that it made me look like a teenager and that I needed something that more respected my age. He wanted me to grow them out, I begged him into a compromise where he cut more bangs and layered them. They were cute and short and different–for about three days, before my hair slide back into its typical flat look that it always has. *sigh* I sure wish my hair flowed and glimmered like my little userpic)

I haven’t cut my hair since, and my bangs are now hanging into my eyes. And I’m having a really hard time preventing myself from just grabbing the scissors and hacking them–or at least even them out again.

So far I’ve resisted….resisted long enough to find the time to sit down and make a poll and ask you, wise flist, about it.

I’d add pictures, but I’m still having difficulty hooking my camera up to my computer, so that will have to wait.

Here be poll

The day spent in Chicago with Chris was almost, almost enough to wipe away all of the taint from my evil resident and this horrible week.

I’m not quite ready for Monday, but at least I won’t be throwing things at my poor defenseless alarm clock.

Plus, I only have two days left with him, really only a day and a half, since he is on call tomorrow, and therefore will be leaving by noon on Tuesday. It’s survivable.

Thanks for all the well wishes and support. Don’t worry, I wasn’t too injured by my resident’s behavior–I’ve know that he was a jerk and more since the first time I worked with him in August (and the repeat verse is so much worse than the first). He’s a hypocrite and a very unpleasant person (except to patients.. he belittles me (it’s subtle, but it’s there) when we’re in the room together, but he’s as sweet as baklava to them, so now I have a couple of my patients asking me to leave during family conferences or doing procedures. Gee thanks). But this will be the last time I will ever have to interact with him for an extended period of time.

I think I rather like Chicago, tall buildings and all, and probably will now make time to go and visit on spare weekends.

This was the last time I’ll see Chris, or anybody from home, until at least May. So maybe I’m not as entirely happy as the mood there suggests.

It’s so hard going to bed after a day off… Going to bed means the day has ended and tomorrow another day at work begins.

I’m worn out from work. I’ve been carrying 8-10 patients for a week now, discharging one, only to collect another 3…or a bouceback, a patient that I had only just discharged. The Q3 call (call every three nights) for 3 straight calls bled me dry and I’m only now recovering, only to face another call (my last!) on Wednesday. All things come to an end… Thursday will be the end of this rotation, just in time for me to move back to neurology with the three pagers and even more painful calls. (But on the plus side, another 2+ weeks in the NICU! yay!)

I tried to spend the day doing things around the house, namely scrapping paint off the wall again. It is excruciatingly slow, and I’m getting frustrated. I want to be done! I want my room to be pretty and painted brightly in one color that I picked out, not still finding deeper layers of paint below the salmon pink.

Plus, Chris is coming to visit in a week. One week from tomorrow. Guh. How could it have come up so quickly? He’s doing an interview tour, and I’ll only get to spend like twenty minutes with him, but it’s twenty minutes more than the usual. He’ll stay the night on Tuesday and hopefully find someway to entertain himself while I’m at work and then we’ll meet up before he takes off for the next destination. I’m hoping to get off early… I found out the exact days he was coming too late and I can’t get the day off. The plan is to then meet him in Chicago for the weekend…. I’ve avoided going to Chicago like the plague, but I don’t think I’m going to be successful this time. Anybody with any suggestions of what to do there?

In any case, I want things ready when he comes, show off my pretty house, and that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. *sigh*

Nonmedical update on the rest of my life upcoming, I promise.

I’m sleep deprived and about to become even more sleep deprived, as I head into another call night (and have to be at work at 6. Yes, that’s six and a half hours from now).

But the thought has crossed my mind the last several days…

I am honestly, truly, completely happy here. Still lonely at times, but I’m making friends and I (mostly) like my job. I’m settling, and it’s becoming home.

Maybe this will keep me going for the next 48 hours. 🙂

I think this may be the most stressed out I’ve ever been.

Added 4 more patients to my clinic notes that I need to write up. That makes 11 from the last three weeks.

Two (hopefully three!) discharges tomorrow. Need to have all of the paperwork done early in the morning to scoot them out of here. And then dictated.

Still have at least 15 hospital discharge summaries to dictate.

Just discovered that I’m slated to give the noon lecture on Friday. Chief residents want the presentation by tomorrow. Tomorrow.

We’re on call for day time admissions again tomorrow–most likely will get three patients. And we’re on call on Friday (that time we can get six patients). I’m on call again on Saturday (5 pts). And next Tuesday (ditto). And next Friday (ditto). And the Tuesday after that (ditto).

Please tell me where I have the time to catch up!!

It’s always a delight to end one’s day at work at 9 pm (on a non call day), with just enough time to race home, eat something and post a little rant on the blog.

Knowning that you’ve got to be in bed by ten, so you can wake up and be at work by 5:30 to finish all of those patient progress notes that you never got to do today, because you were so busy writing orders and taking to social work about how one takes away power of attorney or discussing G-Tubes with GI or transferring very very sick patient from the ICU because there are people more ill than he, needing that bed…. only to have his oxygen saturation drop dangerously low and send me fleeing to his bedside, where we realized that even if he was suffering for what I thought he had (pulmonary embolism) I couldn’t check for it or even treat it. Just hoping that he makes it through the night.

Plus I have to see all of my patients, including the sick ones, have their notes written and have a plan before I go to clinic at 8. And discuss it with my other intern/medical student, so they can present it to the team. And then, I’ll spend the rest of the day completely lost on what exactly we decided to do, because I wasn’t there.

And did I mention that I behind on my dictations? Something like 15 dictations, since we’ve had such a patient turnover. And I’ve got 6 clinic patients notes to finish (plus the 3-4 that I’ll see tomorrow morning.) So there’s going to be a fair number more hours spent here.

Just in cause any of you were considering medicine…. don’t.

ETA: Special hugs to shirerain and bjorks_defender I know that it’s been very hard times for you and I haven’t been around or as supportive as I should have been. Know that you’re are in my thoughts and prayers and very close to my heart. {{{TIGHT EMBRACE}}}}

I feel like a second class citizen today. For the first time since I turned 18, I didn’t vote.

I tried, oh how I did try. First it was getting an absentee ballot from Salt Lake… but I found out that I sent it to the wrong district’s office and it had to be forwarded on, so I didn’t end up getting the request made by the deadline of last Friday.

Then I found out that I could register to vote at the voting polls today. Yay! I busted my hiney to get everything in line, double checked on my patients, wrote all my orders… but we were admitting and my last admit took 3 hours to do…. then another half hour to finish things up… then another 20 minutes signing out to the on-call resident.

I was ten minutes late.

The joys of being in medicine.

I heard that other senior residents let their juniors leave for a short time so they could exercise their patriotic duty. Not mine, of course. Because that would mean he’d actually have to do some work and we couldn’t possibly have that.

I think it’s going to snow. It certainly is cold enough.

Of course, I could be wrong. I thought the same thing, looking out the window near the ICU, only, it was over a 100 degrees and August outside. The air conditioner, which works too well on some hallways, confused me. The people around me must have thought I was insane as I burst out laughing at my mistake.

Things are pretty good around here. I have to leave for a shift in the ER in a couple of hours, and I’m off to take a nap, but I thought I’d say hi, since you know it’s been a while.

I spent the day looking at paint swatches and I think I have finally, finally decided how I’m going to paint my house. I’ve hemmed and hawed about it, because the paint job from the last owners hasn’t been too awful… except that the paint is peeling off in my office (top coat is a creamy off white, underneath is “apple blossom green” and quite overwhelming) and staring at the patches has motivated me.

(For help in picturing what it all looks like, the pics to my house are still up at http://jcd1013.lotrinklings.net/house/house.html)

Details for those curious

I am never declaring a patient dead again. He/she can just be in the state of not-dead but not-living, forever.

From my attending: “This could get ugly so do not discuss anything further with [spouse] until we review the chart and talk to risk managament and medical examiner.”

Great. All from putting my little signature by the cause of death. Ain’t medicine grand.

They sure didn’t teach me any of this in med school.

I’ve got that bleak, almost sick feeling to my stomach tonight. Guilt. About everything that I should have done with the accident yesterday and didn’t. Worry that it’s going to mess everything up with my insurance. Even though there’s nothing that I can do about it now, it still is making me ill.

Add to the fact that Chris now tells me that he’ll be gone 3-4 days of the week that I’m going home. He forgot when I was coming, even though I’ve told him every time I’ve talked to him the last month. Lonely. And Liz will be gone for a few days as well. I wonder why I’m even bothering going. I’ve been looking forward to this, forever, finally being home and with the people that I’ve missed and it’s not going to be anything.

New rotation tomorrow. ER. Haven’t exactly decided if I’m looking forward to it or not. Lots of days off. 8 hour shift work, both are pluses. But it’ll be busy and stressful. And right now, I’m just not wanting that.

My day started off with a bang… literally.

I made the awful mistake of stopping for an emergency vehicle with lights and sirens going…. and the car behind me ploughed into me.

Don’t worry, I’m fine (although a little stiff and achy in the neck and shoulders) and my car is mostly as well. The lady who hit me was pissed that I stopped (horrors! how dare I obey the law!). I in turn was pretty upset with her as well, as I ended up spending my morning trying to track down police stations (I was in a different city than I thought. Don’t ask. It’s confusing), and then the afternoon calling my insurance. Not a pleasant start. I’m just so excited about the increased insurance premiums! And spending all of my free time getting estimates and filing traffic accidents.

Suffice it to say, it was a learning experience.

The rest of the day was pretty good. Well, seeing as three patients died (mostly expected, and it’s a good thing in all cases, to help the families say goodbye), probably good wouldn’t be the word you’d use to describe it, but I had a good time. It was my last day, though, the end of my ICU rotations, at least for a while and it was hard to say goodbye. My attending, the one I’ve worked the most with, and who I really admire for, told me I did an excellent job, and when I suggested that I was interested in doing ICU as a career, he did not heavily hint that I should pursue other ambitions. 🙂

Now I think I’m going to take some ibuprofen, heat up my nice lavendar and flax heating bag and get some sleep.

You know when you have one of those days where nothing really bad happens, but you still end the day in a very crappy, “get out of my way” mood? Yeah, having one of those today.

I overslept because I forgot to set my alarm yesterday, was so late that I decided it wouldn’t hurt to be later, so actually had somewhat of a leisurely morning (10 min shower instead of 5). And nobody was too upset that I was gone–I hadn’t missed any important lectures, just one of those cutesy “what color is your personality” tests that ALL conferences must include. Most of today’s lectures were interesting, just long, long, long. Third day of 8-5 classes, and I’m dreading the next two days.

My clinic patient called. Again. Fifth time since I saw her a week ago. It’s really wearing on all of my sympathies. Note to patient: believe me, I believe and sympathize with your pain; as one who does have chronic pain, I do actually know something of what you are going through. But since you have tried 50 medications in the past several years AND NOTHING HAS HELPED, you can not expect over night improvements from me. I appreciate the trust, but you have to allow some leeway into figuring out what is going on.

I could continue the rant, but I think I’ll stop. It gets my blood pressure up.

The parking people called and changed my parking pass to the one that is clear on the other side of the hospital and clinics where I work. (gee thanks) I go to park there today… and the gates won’t open. Wonderful.

I can’t access the computer programs that I need at the VA where I’m doing classes this week, so trying to fix my above patient’s problems is even more fun.

I haven’t had a chance to go grocery shopping in over 6 weeks.

I haven’t been able to go to the gym in a month.

I probably won’t be able to fit into the bridesmaid dress that I paid over $100 to have altered because my weight is skyrocketing because of the stress.

I’ve spent the last five days working with Chris on his personal statement for residency. It’s been slow and painful, trying to edit it and make it sound good and professional, and above all memorable in the right way. He’s already freaked out about applying because of some earlier difficulties, and so there’s been all this pressure to really make an excellent product.

Last night, we decided to scrap half of what the PS was focused on. I just about cried.

I have friends visiting for this weekend. I haven’t been able to clean my house at all. It’s a disaster. I’m working on the paper again tonight and still won’t have time to clean.

I’m up to two migraines per week. This isn’t good.

It’s rained for a week straight. Last night, it downpoured. And I discovered that the basement leaks, because the sidewalks and front porch drain towards the house. I don’t even want to contemplate how much it’s going to cost to fix that.

I’m really missing the sun.

Thanks for letting me get this rant out of the way. It was either whine here or break down in tears. And Michelle was wanting me to update. 🙂

I haven’t posted much this last month, have I?

It’s been a hard month in ways that have been difficult to put down on paper (er, virtual paper). Work has been overwhelming, in many ways. New hospital, new system, new attendings, new colleagues, and new service, as I’ve been working as a neurology resident this month, rather than medicine. Calls have been hard. Every fourth night, up all night, getting paged on three different pagers all at the same time over and over and over. Having an extremely busy service, which means less time to study and learn, so that I felt even more stupid than usual. Being 2 years since my last neurology rotation, so even though once upon a time, I actually knew this stuff inside and out, it’s gone now.

My first call night, I seriously reconsidered my decision to do neurology and internal medicine. Hated neuro, loathed the call, but I survived it.

I’ve had that thought a half dozen times now, and it hasn’t necessarily been a light hearted “I wonder if” kinda of thought. It’s been the “I wonder if I go and talk to the director, I can get out of this” kind of thought. It’s probably due to exhaustion. But I’m facing a 5 year stent of exhaustion and if I can’t handle the first months…

I’ve persevered and have decided that I definitely need more exposure (and rotations with a different resident, because I think my senior resident tainted my perspective) before really making the decision. But it’s never a good thing to find yourself in the middle of a life crisis–in the middle of responsibilities with no place to run.

And I don’t mean to suggest that all is bad. Far from it, I’ve had some excellent days. I have great patients right now and I’ve discovered that I still love wokring in the ICU and the ICU especially seems like the perfect place to combine neuro and medicine in the ways that I want… It’s more the thought of surviving the neuro residency which is much more overwhelming than I thought it was going to be. I was on call last night… we admitted 4 patients, had 3 consults (other services wanting our opinion on their patients), saw another patient and transferred them to another service, and admitted another to the NICU (neuro ICU). On top of this, I was taking calls from patients of the neuro attendings (who don’t have a freaking answering service, so it’s the extremely ignorant interns like myself who are fending calls on very complex patients), and managing the 30 or so patients on the floor and ICU. I’m getting more used to it, and I had an excellent resident to work with, who really made my workload easier. But I still filled up 2 of the 3 pagers, one of them I had to clean off twice.

Next month will be better. I’ll be solely in the NICU (part of the problem with this month is that the first part of the month I spent in the ICU and the second part I’ve been on the general neuro team. And they both require some adjustment!), and I won’t be taking call. AND, I have most weekends off. AND I have a week of vacation (9 days straight). Maybe that’s why I keep thinking it’s September, because, I really, really, really want it to be.

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On a completely different subject…

I’m really in the mood for a layout change to my LJ. After seeing juno_magic‘s incredible lovely layout, mine has looked blah and uninteresting. But I don’t have time to (re)learn the CSS code and play with it, or design the background (still wanting Anne, just don’t know which one. Collage of Anne and Diana? Pretty PEI pictures? Mushy Anne/Gilbert? Autumn themed to get me in the mood?), which leaves me in this state of perpetual longing and frustration that I can’t figure it out. *sigh* Maybe that will be one of my vacation goals.

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My raspberry bush is getting a second batch of fruit! Yay! I had fresh raspberries every day for the month of July, I hope that this batch last as long. Have I mentioned that it was the raspberry bush that convinced me that this place was supposed to be mine? It is such a delight to go out and pick the berries and plop them in my mouth–and then smile condescending to the poor saps in the grocery store who are paying $4 a carton for not as good berries (of course, when you think of it, I paid a LOT more for the privilege of mine, but I think there are other perks with my purchase. 🙂 ) Next year, I’ll be planting strawberries, I do hope they do as well.

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Anybody out there who has a webcam? And uses a PC? I’m trying to see if iChat will allow me to webcam with someone who isn’t using iChat, but still is on AIM. If you do and would be willing to experiment, let me know. Chris is talking about getting one and I gotta make sure that if he did, I could actually talk with him.

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I’m needing a new computer. My dear Flower Power iMAc has been a faithful companion for five years now, but I’ve filled up just about all of the memory and she is starting to creak–I can’t burn CDs any more, except at a snail’s pace, web browsing is slow, etc. It’s also becoming an issue of incompatibility–the Internal Medicine dept. gave me a Pocket PC that is virtually useless, because I can’t get it to synch with my computer and unfortunately, the hospital is all PC based, and so I haven’t been able to access some programs that I had hoped to. I’ve been strongly tempted to get a MacBookPro, which would solve all of those issues with the duel boot capabilities, but it’s so expensive and I’d be saving my pennies for a long time before I could afford it. A little iBook I could get now and would for the most part do just great. Decisions, decisions.

And I think that’s the end of the update with my boring little life. Hope all is going well with you. I’ve missed my interactions with you, the little chats and mingling of our lives. You are all in my thoughts.

*hugs*

(A wee bit sappy, but I had to share. And the sentiments apply to my RL friends, which I hope they know.)