bananas.

yesterday, i bought a banana at the coffee shop that i've been hanging out in. you know what they charged me?!? $1.10. for a BANANA! so today, before i came here to the coffee shop, i had to run by walmart to pick up some necessities... and i'm on my way to the checkout and i'm hungry and mad that i was going to go to the coffee shop and spend way too much for a single piece of fruit, when i see it... a whole RACK OF BANANAS... for FIFTY CENTS a POUND!! today my banana cost $0.20. somehow, it tasted better.

matched!

everyone already knows that i matched at my top spot and that i'm so extremely excited about it that i could burst. some other things that are pretty exciting about it are that a couple of people that i know are in my class...

one girl from my class that i like pretty well.

one guy that i met on the interview trail... ;-)

and one guy that i worked with for a few days with dr. mcdreamy... this guy started his rotation in the picu during my last few days there. dr. mcdreamy asked him a question that he was unable to answer, at which point he looks to me and says "tell him what it is..." so as i start to answer, mcdreamy interrupts me and looks at the guy and says "keep in mind, she was stupid when she got here too. we taught her this." to which i feign extreme offense and tell him he's hurt my feelings. he replies (with a wink, i might add... *melt*), "i used to think you were fragile. now i know better."

speaking of dr. mcdreamy. i emailed him to express my gratitude for the part he played in getting me into the program. he emailed me back. from MOROCCO! he described his fantastic adventures and then says "thanks for adding the icing"... he called me THE ICING! can you think of any sweeter way to say "i love you"??? i thought not.

hot tamale.

i designed this t-shirt today as a little gag gift. (it was $10 with free shipping... and i just got an email saying that it's already being sent... and there's a money back gaurantee if i'm not satisfied... and the website is SO cool and you can go there and make your own cool stuff!! and if you do, be sure to put in the promo code "MADMARCH2007" to get the free shipping!)
see, a couple of weeks ago, two of the little 3rd grade girls from my church were overheard talking... their conversation went something like this:

"sara, who do you think is the cutest boy?"

to which cute little tom-boy sarah, with her freckled face and bobbed hair, replies, "cody! he's a hot tamale!!"

and so coined the term "hot tamale" to be used in reference of all of the male gender who are above average in look. dr mcdreamy, while a hot tamale in his own right, will continue to be referred to as dr mcdreamy. otherwise, all future crushes will be dubbed "hot tamale."

dry heaving.

i just got an email from the central residency application website detailing the events of "the scramble." *excuse me while i try not to throw up.* the email begins with a blanket "calm down" message about how this email is sent to everyone who uses this application website and is in no way indicative of your match status. yeah, because that helps.

the scramble is the dreaded beast that occurs between monday of match week and thursday - match day... so monday (as in 5 days from now... ) we find out whether or not we match. *vomitting a little in my mouth.* and then starting tuesday at noon, if you did not match, you are allowed to access a list of programs that have vacant spots and you contact one another and say something like "sorry i didn't think you were good enough for me before. i'm willing to reconsider." *wretch.* this goes on until thursday at noon when those fortunate enough to have matched are given access to their match information.

i'm going to excuse myself now... i don't feel so good.

coffee shop.

i love coffee shops. i love the smell and the atmosphere. i love that the art that hangs on the walls. it inspires me to want cool artwork for my upcoming home. (i don't think art would look cool in my current home - the ford focus, i'm just saying...). part of me thinks i should start looking for cool art now. but maybe i should wait. whatever...

the other thing i love about this particular coffee shop is that they serve their coffee in coffee mugs. that's my favorite... the one i got today has rocking horses on it. but my favorite favorite was at one of our favorite coffee shops in des moines where i always got this mug...you think it's funny i have a picture of that? me too.

and i especially love when the coffee shop has free wireless internet. except that i came here today to study. and i've not read a single word of medicine. i'm so over this school business.

the beginning of the end.

ah, this day i thought would never come. i've moved to the last hospital for my last 6 weeks of rotations. i *technically* have two rotations left... but they are both here and the last one is only 2 weeks instead of four, so let's just go with the end is nigh.

i'm in kirksville - i've been here about 24 hours. i've been to two lectures and seen two patients. the nephrologist (kidney doctor) that i'm working with is going to a satellite clinic tomorrow and "it won't hurt his feelings if i don't come"... so i'm not coming. he's also going to be gone next thursday (MATCH DAY!! EEEEK EEK EEEEEEK! ps, dawn, match day is the magical day when i find out where i'll do my residency...) and friday, so that's nice. i wouldn't be able to work on match day anyway. i'll be busy puking.

here are my thoughts about kirksville so far...

1. eeeek - i have to stay in the hospital??
2. oh, it's not so bad... it's kind of like a dorm room, basically.
3. ugh. my blinds don't close all the way and i get a little creeped out by that.
4. "you may want to shower in the lounge as the water there is warmer."
5. EEEEEEK! water is NOT warmer in the lounge!
6. what, you can't fix the no hot water without turning off water to all the patients and you refuse to do that??
7. oooh, free soda and snacks in the lounge down the hall??
8. well, if i can't have hot water, i'm having LOTS of these free snacks!!
9. this doctor is nice.
10. i feel stupid when i don't know the answers to his questions.
11. hey, my friend tara is here! (ps... tara is a girl from HLG that also went to DMU and she is an intern here this year)
12. oh, tara your puppy is SO cute!
13. and hyper.
14. i have nothing to do tomorrow.
15. oh yeah, by "nothing," i mean "read about acute renal failure."

requesting interpretations.

i had a dream last night in which i received a letter from (my) dr mcdreamy that read something along the lines of...

"dear amanda, everyone has to participate in the match and i know you're nervous. your name is on all the cucumbers."

McDoctor.

i was just realizing how many different doctors i've worked with...

dr Mc"Dude" for child psych... who put me on the spot on occasion.
dr McQuiet for general peds... she was really nice though.
dr McQuestioning for ob... i only worked with him for a week, but i felt stupid everyday of that week... then i got smashed...
dr McPath... for pathology... she was so excited about the cancer cells.
dr McSpanish... for the rest of my ob... who let me do a lot of procedures on pregnant mexicans.
dr McDork... for family practice... he was very nice, but i'm fairly certain he had no friends in high school.
dr McCancer... who asked me 700 times a day if i had any questions...
dr McDerm... who lasered my scars and made them lighter. for free.
dr McSteamy... for surgery... H.O.T.
dr McER... for ER... who made me do chest compressions on a dying lady not much older than me.
dr McSlow... for internal medicine. oh my... light a fire, already, will ya!
dr McSpastic for anesthesia... who thought i knew what i was doing and left me in the room alone with the anesthetized patients...
dr McDreamy... for peds ICU. who was beautiful. and witty. and charming. and single. and beautiful. and he taught me that i'll never be as smart as my dumbest nephron. and have i told you about how he loves me??
dr McGreasy... for developmental peds... who rarely showered and had lips like a hippo.
dr McWonderful... for family practice... who was wonderful.
and now...
dr McWeird... for peds heme-onc... who is so weird i can't even tell you... who stops mid-sentence and stares at you (or through you or something...) for a while... who says "um" more times in a sentence than i can count on at least two hands...
i have two more to go... dr McNephron and dr McManipulation... hopefully... well, hopefully the hours are good. i'm getting tired of this...

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.