yawn.

i'm boring, i swear it.

******

so, there's a new third year on the heme-onc service with me this week. and he's pretty cool... but he also seems smarter than me... (the last one that was on was pretty smart...) and he answers all the questions fast, and then i don't have anything to input, because he took all the "easy" answers... not to mention everytime she asks a question, she looks directly at him in her weird, i'm looking at you but not really looking at you sort of way (remember - this lady is cooky)... so he answers... and then late yesterday, she turns to me and says, what amanda? you haven't said much today...

jerk.

only one week and 4 days left. (here anyway).

proof that i have no life.

it's saturday night. i'm home for the weekend. laying on my mom's couch. watching the food network. reading past postings and reminding myself of how funny i am.

******

i'm currently working in columbia at university hospital. doing peds heme/onc. it's not as sad as i thought it would be. mostly because our patient census is fairly low. i did do a nice presentation on neuroblastoma friday morning. go ahead. ask me anything.

it's also mostly fun being in columbia because of the close proximity to family and old friends. i live with a good friend from high school who is currently working at MU.

i got to go hang out with stacy and the kids on a week night. that was fun. like staying out late on a school night. and i'm going to try to make it for abby's gymnastic practice. she showed me some of her tricks, and let me tell you... it was impressive. ;-)

next weekend will be busy - hanging out with some college friends friday night. hopefully hanging out with jen and stacy and their kids saturday night. watching ruth clog it up sunday afternoon. fun fun fun.

******

philly was a good time. here's a hot photo of tanner and i after boards were done. yippee.


and the other side of the table... jamie and marc.


and the next day we went walking around downtown. we saw the famous sites... dawn, remember when we found the liberty bell and it was glassed in and you could barely see it and you definitely couldn't photograph it because of the glare of the flash and you had to use a flash because it was dark out? well, they've built a huge building/museum around it. it was kinda nice, and HIGHLY "secure" as we had to remove our coats and go through metal detectors to get into the building. the security guards were hardly paying attention to us as we went through though. they were discussing someone's "baby daddy"... one of the guys pointed out that he'd never heard anyone use that phrase so seriously before. it was a good time. then we started the independence hall tour, but became quickly bored, so we skipped out. then we found a cute coffee shop for a quick pick-me-up. all in all, not a bad trip. except that boys are obnoxious. and especially those boys. but we had fun.

he loves me.

here's what dr. mcdreamy had to say about me in my evaluation:

"Amanda did a great job in the PICU and showed significant growth during the elective. She presented with a strong pediatric and physiologic knowledge base and exhibited an intense interest in learning. Her fund of knowledge is likely greater in some areas than some current pediatric interns and at times she answered questions the senior residents didn't know. She demonstrated excellent airway management skills - first on a mannequin and then on an infant with respiratory failure. Her documentation is complete and well written. She was definitely a team player and it was a pleasure having her in the PICU. She will be a solid pediatric resident and we would love for her to do her residency here at Children's Mercy Hospital."

here's what i read:

"... love ... her ..."

10 weeks to go.

you read right, folks... i'm done with rotations in 10 weeks! this week is technically not over until friday, but i'm heading to philadelphia today with tanner and a couple of our other friends to take our physical exam boards. it's a little scary, mostly because it's $1000 test and there's not way to study for it. cross your fingers and hope for the best, i guess... eek! my friend sarah said she was more nervous about it after taking it than she was before taking it. gee, thanks for that, friend sarah.

i'm at jen's because she's taking me to the airport today. i'll fly back on saturday, and then it's off to the races... i have to pack up my car for the next 10 weeks and be in columbia by monday. if i hadn't be so exhausted (read: lazy) this week, it'd already be packed. oh well.

******

i had dinner with my best friend from high school on monday. i hadn't talked to her in years. (weird that i'm old enough to say something like that.) i had seen her grandma earlier in my rotation when the doctor and i were grabbing lunch before heading to the wound clinic (gag!) and she had asked me if she could give suzy my number. so i said, "sure" (just for you, jen), presuming she would never call... but then she saw my mom at work last week, who told her i'd be taking off soon... and she actually called. we had a good time... her husband (who was also in our class) and almost-4-year-old son went out with us too. somebody remind me to call her when i get back in town the end of april, k? thanks.

grey's.

why didn't anyone tell me not to bother with last week's grey's anatomy? for real, people. i thought we were friends.

******

looks like i'm going to be in columbia next month, doing peds cardiology. then 6 weeks in kirksville doing some random nothingness. then? then, done. and boy doesn't that sound good.

in the middle there, there's match day. you know, the day i find out where i match for residency. march 15th to be exact. and you know what they say. beware the ides of march. yikes.

happy double o' 7.

so it's the new year. yada yada yada.

******

to address the comment section... i have no idea how much a femur weighs... but i know it depends on whether or not it is alive or dead. dead femurs are very light. live femurs would be light too if you sucked out all the bone marrow. but if you sucked out all the bone marrow, the bone wouldn't be alive anymore... it's an unsolvable conundrum. i'm not sure if that word is spelled correctly. you'll get over it.

but if you have to answer the question, i'd go, oh i don't know... maybe half a pound or so.

******

as far as where i go when... i'll be in harrisonville until the end of january, at which point i fly to philedelphia to take another (MUCH less stressful, MUCH more expensive) set of boards. afterwards, i'll start a new rotation... i've requested one in independence (which means i'd live with my friends in raymore again... which would be loads of fun...) but it's not been approved yet. i'm starting to get a TEENSY bit nervous about that... but it'll work out in the end. so, let's see... 4 weeks in independence (hopefully) and then 6 weeks in kirksville, mo. that should be fun - one of my only cross-over friends (meaning, we were good friends in college and then went to the same medical school) is an intern (first year resident) there and i'll be staying with her for at least part of the time i'm there. exciting.

******

i'm currently in columbia. i have an interview tomorrow. then just one more next week in omaha, nebraska. i'm fairly certain i don't want to go there, but i'm going to the interview to see my friend sarah who lives there. we'll hang out friday night, then i'll come back through saturday in time for the big birthday bash! a good time will indeed be had by all. then it's time to nail down the official rank list... eeeeek. eek eek eek. the good news is, no matter what happens on match day (the day i find out which program i'll go to), i'm pretty sure i'll be happy. the people everywhere are so very nice.

oh, and this is fun - i met a guy tonight who worked with dr mcdreamy. you know, MY dr mcdreamy. i don't think he loves him as much as i do, but he liked him a lot too. and the guy was cute too. and he is staying in the hotel room next door. maybe it's destiny.

december's almost done.

i can't tell you the number of times this month i've been yelled at for not posting. sorry.

******

the doctor i'm working with works nextdoor to my highschool. it's awesome! after months of a 45 minute to hour long commute, the 4 minute drive is WONDERFUL! we start at 7 most days. if i leave by 7:04, i beat him there...

and he's awesome. he is fun and laid back and smart and so nice. and he grew up here too. and so did his wife. and he's related somehow to about every other patient or so. we've been working on drawing out the family tree... his wife has a HUGE extended family... he goes to one of the baptist churches in town, so even our circles of friends overlap some... it's fun fun fun. and he cracks me up... he's always telling funny stories about his kids... he has four of them between 3 and 10 yrs old... like the three year old squeezing his preschool teacher's "bunnie-wunnies"... or the ten year old asking if he had to have sex when he got married... it's a riot, i tell ya!

his nurse is fun too... and she thinks i'm funny and is constantly saying some variation of "you fit in so well here!" hopefully there's a job offer floating somewhere in there... we'll see... it's a family practice office, so i'm not sure they'd let me in... but one of the partners is internal medicine... so maybe. wouldn't that be something...

******

mom and i are going to see "the holiday" tonight... meridith said it was cute. but i have some laundry i need to get going on before then. so you'll have to take this as your update...

fast.

that's how time is going. i'm not all that busy, and i'm not all that entertained in my spare time, but it's somehow going by SO quick... like i think one day i may wake up and my entire life have just rushed by. i mean, i'm practically 30.

maybe this feeling is exaggerated right now because my weekends have been very busy. very very fun. and very busy. it's made my chicago month race. unlike my last chicago month... but let's not relive that again...

weekend #1 - skinner came in from pittsburgh: we ate, we played games, we dyed her hair, we shopped. it was so fun to see her! here's one of the few pictures of our weekend. it was bright and sunny!


weekend #2 - sarah came into town for an interview and stayed with me at meridith's house. we went to dinner friday night, then helped meridith and her boyfriend with a puzzle (that took us a WEEK to finish, by the way), saturday morning she had her interview, then the four of us went out for a sushi lunch. sarah and i then took the train downtown where we intended to shop a little, then meet a friend for dinner. we only went to old navy so she could get a scarf and gloves... it was cold! then as we were heading towards the pub where we were supposed to be meeting our pal matt, we accidentally ran into santa claus. turns out, that night was the parade and fireworks show prior to the lighting of the michigan avenue trees. it was fun and pretty, and made us a little late. which turned out to be ok because matt ended up working a little late. we beat him there by about 10 minutes. after dinner, which was amazing! we met matt's friends and ended up staying out until about 3 am... (there was a small decision making session around midnight, when we would've needed to leave to catch the last train out... we decided to stay over with matt at his friend ryan's and take the train in the morning...) sarah was exhausted! she had been up since 5 am, and had only slept a few hours the night before! we headed out for the train station after a brief nap... made it onto the 8:30 train, which subsequently broke down and got back an hour later than it was supposed to. no matter though. we grabbed some breakfast and went back to meridith's where sarah showered and headed out for detroit. this is one of the only photos that i took before my camera batteries died. i had extras with that were also dead. sarah took a few, but she hasn't sent them to me yet.

weekend #3 - thanksgiving... i had about 5 full days off work and really wanted to come home. i decided not to since it's an 8 hour drive and i am coming home on friday anyway... now i'm even more glad that i didn't make the trip since everyone was sick sick sick. i ended up having thanksgiving with meridith's family on thursday. we put together another puzzle (it's possible we've become obsessed...). thursday night we attempted to do some pre-black friday shopping at some nearby outlet malls that had "midnight madness"... it was madness alright. absolute madness. we sat stopped dead on the interstate for an hour and a half... all three lanes of traffic. dead. stop. we ended up making our way to the left lane and skipping past the outlets and turning around at the next exit and heading home. we made it back home about 2, i got up at 4 to go to best buy (where the line was insane and they had hired a dj to entertain the crowds) to get my new red razr phone which is so so pretty and then went back home to bed. about 7 we got up and went to old navy. then back home and to sleep until about 11. later that night, we made a successful attempt at the outlet malls. which was fun and the weather was so nice. saturday i went with meridith's family to her sister's house in milwaukee. her neices are real cute. it was fun. when we were getting ready to go, the 2 year old was giving everyone kisses... she looked at me and said "camden, kiss?" it was so cute!

so that's about all. and really sums up my month here. the actual rotation has been a waste of time. but it's been easy and guilt-free to take time off to interview... i'm 3 down and have another in des moines on friday. then next week in kansas city. then??? not sure where... but there are a few left after that. i'm still waiting for one to jump out and scream "pick me"... otherwise, they have all gone very well and i could be happy at pretty much any of them.

there you have it. a post. and check out the ticker... 6 months. eek.

in which i say nothing witty.

as if anything i say is witty. but i like to humor myself anyway.

******

i'm staying with my best friend from college this month. and this weekend our other really good friend flew in from pittsburgh for girl's weekend. we had fun. and did girly things. like hair dye-ing and foot spas and shopping (but we were all really good and nobody bought anything!!!). and we went to meridith's parent's house... they have a new kitten and it's super super cute! and it really makes me want one!!

******

next weekend, my friend sarah comes into town. she has an interview at one of the residency programs here, and she's going to stay with meridith and it. it will be good to see her. though i'm not sure we'll do anything actually exciting. at all.

******

we don't have clinic until tomorrow afternoon. but i have to go in at 9am anyway... to discuss spina bifida. i'm mostly annoyed because i can't stand listening to mcgreasy speak. and it's highly possible that he intends to talk about spina bifida from 9am until noonish. and that makes me want to poke my eyes out.

eewww.

dr mcdreamy (who truly does love me) has been replaced with dr disgusting. i'm not sure he's showered in the past couple months. he doesn't smell, but his hair is so greasy and out of control and probably hasn't been cut since the last time he washed it. ick. and he's weird. weird weird weird. and he thinks he's funny. but he's not. good thing for me he doesn't really work all that much, and i have to take a bunch of days off for residency interviewing and whatnot.

******

speaking of residency interviewing. i had my first one yesterday... and it went really really well. there were a lot of things about the program that make it very attractive. and several that make me want to run. the problem is, that's how it's going to be everywhere, and i have to be fair (to the programs and myself) and figure out a way to weight those things in order to determine where i would be the happiest. i know that i really really want to be in kansas city, but there are definite disadvantages to that program as well... so, i smell a big pros and cons excel spreadsheet coming my way! :-)

******

back to mcdreamy... i kinda miss him. and the rest of the PICU team. and him. it was by far the best rotation of my clinical experience thus far. (and not just because he's mcdreamy. though that didn't hurt...)

PICU.

so, everyone is crabby because i haven't posted in, umm, forever. it's because the picu (pediatric intensive care unit) is a crazy hole of madness and messes. just when you think things are settling down, you have three code blues within an hour. that's a lot. it's a high stress environment even when things are settled. it makes me nervous how much i like it though.

i perhaps like it so much because of my very own dr mcdreamy. h.o.t. and he loves me. and he's on the residency selection committee. it's good times. and did i mention h.o.t. and single. and h.o.t. :-)

the residents that i've been working with are really great and all the doctors make great teachers. i've learned more in the past few weeks than in the last several months combined.

but it makes me tired. so i'm going to sleep now.

ouch.

i've come to the sad sad realization that i am allergic to cinnamon gum. everytime i chew it, i get these sores in my mouth (this time worse than ever before...)... and i googled it... "cinnamon gum" and "allergic reaction"... totally exists. and if i don't stop chewing it, i'll get squamous cell carcinoma in my mouth. and besides that, it hurts real real bad.

do you have any pumpkin?

ps, it's highly possible that this is a you-had-to-be-there story...

friday night after the ray-pec high school homecoming football game, i went to get frozen custard with the family i'm living with because we had buy one, get one free coupons. we're all standing around, staring at the menu, deciding on our individual orders and it's mary's and my turn... we had made the decision and were ready to order...

but when we got up there, she saw a sign that said "pumpkin spice latte"... and decided she'd like to have pumpkin in her concrete (like a blizzard from DQ, but about 47 times better...). except pumpkin isn't listed on the list of things you can get in your concrete, so i explained to her that it's a seasonal thing, so obviously it wouldn't be on the menu that lives there all year...

so we go back up to the window, and i ask the girl, "do you have any pumpkin something that you can put into a concrete..." she kind of stares at me and then points at a LARGE sign hanging directly above her head that reads "pumpkin pie concrete"... yeah, so mary gets excited and orders it. and loves it, i might add.

as we're driving out, one of the kids says "pumpkin pie concrete"... at which point we all look over and on the HUGE sign for the custard place it says in gigantic wording (that we can probably read from our front door...) "PUMPKIN PIE CONCRETE!"

we almost died laughing. i can't remember the last time i laughed so hard. mostly because we're big dorks... but oh man... the ridiculousness with which i asked the question just keeps magnifying itself...

rad.

radiology is pretty boring. make that very boring. it would probably be ok if i were actually reading films with a doctor. but instead i hang out with the techs while they are shooting the films (or ultrasounds, or ct scans, etc)... and it's boring. very boring.

******

i officially have two. count them TWO invitations to interview for residency positions. i anticipate a few more (maybe 5 or 6; i applied to 10 programs)... but i just submitted my application on friday, so we're looking good so far! currently, i'll be interviewing in des moines and omaha. i applied only to midwest programs... so i'll stay semi-close no matter what. (at least that's the plan as it stands for now...)

******

in order to keep myself from puking from nerves about interview invitations, i bought these.

$1.99

guess what that bought me today!!

ears. noses. throats.

aka ENT. sometimes it's fun to see how many acronyms you can get into a sentence. it's like a language within a language.

what a great weekend! i saw a lot of my family on saturday, and had lunch with my best friend from high school today (haven't seen her in 3 years) (and ps, she has a cute cute baby girl who is 4 months old. and cute!).

i have to be in the OR at 730 tomorrow. yuck. one more week of ENT, then two weeks of radiology. good times, huh? we shall see.

i know this isn't the post you've been pining for... but i'm tired. good night.

to keep you busy.

eewww.

decovin totally peed on me after we came inside from our walk this evening. gross.

it's good to be home.

can i just say that decovin is the happiest baby i know. he's so sweet and good and playful.

******

friday, i went to see my friend sarah in omaha (her hometown) where she is doing a rotation. we babysat all night. well, until like 1:30am anyway. but apparently a baby was recently killed by it's sitter and so her aunt, who is notoriously hyper-vigilant anyway, was flipping out. and sarah, who cannot say no because she is catholic (which is a guilt far greater than camden-guilt), said we would come babysit. it was fine, i guess. i'm not sure what we would have done anyway. but when we got back to sarah's we were hyped up a little, and decided to go for a quick swim. it was pretty chilly out. chilly enough such that the temperature of the air made the temperature of the water feel warm. kind of. it was freezing. we stayed in maybe 3 or 4 minutes. but at least we had some excitement!

i left there saturday morning and drove the rest of the way home. i spent the rest of the evening unloading my car and filtering through things. somehow, i collect a lot of things. but hopefully, i've pared down to just a few suitcases to get me by the next few months (while i'm living with friends in the city).

sunday was pretty fun. church was great and it was wonderful to see so many old friends. one of my teen girls came up to me and said she was desperate to talk to me, so i took her to lunch and heard all about the woes of teen love and the drama that goes with it. she's a good kid though, and it was fun to spend a little time with her.

sunday night, mom and i went to see the devil wears prada, which was pretty cute.

monday, we came to jen's. where i am now. getting ready for sleeping. because it's late!! we had a nice pesto salmon dinner with vegetables, went for a walk, and played darts. and did i mention i snuggled that baby a LOT?

all in all, it was a very nice holiday weekend. and i don't have to work this week. so it's won.der.ful. i could get used to this!

i'm movin' on.

woowhee. i've lived in davenport for 6 months now. that's kind of a long time. long enough to get acclimated to your living space. long enough to learn the best route to the best mall. long enough to pick out a favorite coffee shop. the weird thing is, it's not long enough to make this place home. or perhaps it was my mindset from the beginning. when you know things are temporary, you never think of them as permanent. you start the countdown from the start, and when the countdown is up, you pack up your little ford focus and hit the road. and it doesn't even matter if your name is jack. today's the day. i loaded up the car last night (to the brim, mind you) and will take off in a few hours. i'm going home.

it was surprising, i didn't even cry when i said goodbye to the friends i'd made here. and i would consider them to be good friends... and i cry easily... and it's hard to know when we'll see eachother again... and all those things combined, i expected to cry. but maybe knowing from the start that all this was temporary somehow shielded me... that and the fact that i'm really ready to leave. because i'm going home!

so i have a couple of errands to run today, and tonight i'm going to visit a friend in omaha. but tomorrow? tomorrow, i'm going home.

ps. i'm excited!