baby, it's cold outside.

ah, what a glorious week.

monday was a normal day. except that there were the threats of horror and inches of ice. i was CONVINCED that it was coming and that my electricity would be going out, so i came home from work and kept bumping my heater up because it was cold in my house. i talked to my mom, who assured me that there was no way the electricity was going out and i should settle down about it. i almost believed her. until 10 pm. when my lights flickered. and then went out. and then came back on. and then went out. and then stayed out all night long. i was all of a sudden wired and called melodie and then my mom to tell her she was wrong. and then my phone died, so i had to go charge it in my car. and then i was still wide awake, so i started up a little seance with about 8 candles and read a magazine by candlelight. as if i lived in the 1800s. (i'm sure they had magazines then, right?) i finally went to bed around midnight. woke up around 5 am. still no buzz of electric anything. and it's getting pretty chilly in my house. showered (DID have hot water, thank goodness!) early so my hair could dry before i had to leave for work. pretty, let me tell you. left for work expecting horrible road conditions, only to find a lot of rain. and no patients. sent home around 10... and tadaaaa... LIGHTS! i've never been so excited to see a clock blink before! went back to the clinic in the afternoon, only to be sent home again, which was fine by me because i had to work overnight tuesday night back at the hospital in the NICU. which means i was "post-call" yesterday and today is a vacation day. awesome!

like i said, glorious!

the price is right?

being given the gift of a morning off work, i've been watching all the morning television i can. because i wouldn't want to be accused of doing something *gasp* productive!

so now here it is. 10 am. about the time i SHOULD be starting to get ready so i can run a couple of errands prior to heading into work. but i can't make myself get off the couch... it's so cozy and comfy and warm... AND it's time for the price is right.

except, wait a minute. i mean, i KNEW bob barker was retired. and i KNEW drew carey had been hired to replace him. but i didn't KNOW how much he sucks. he doesn't seem into the game and his glasses are ugly. but i think my biggest complaint is that his voice is 3 octaves higher than it should be.

boo.

and now it's time for christmas.

it's my very first christmas tree. i never put one up when i lived in des moines, and this is the only other time i've not lived in someone else's house at christmas time. see that stick-figure-like snowman on the bottom left-ish in the photo? i have a white and a red one... they're my favorites. :-)

wasted away again in gonorrheaville.

thanksgiving was fab. my absolute favorite day of the year so far. and this has been a big year for me. i loved spending the day with my family. thanks to those of you who made it what it was.

******

this "month" (starting last wednesday), i'll be hanging out in the teen clinic. which is located betwen the ghetto and the slum. and my patient population is a fairly homogenous blend of STD infected teenage girls presenting for their quarterly pregnancy tests and yearly HIV screens. it will be so incredibly relaxing.

the best part is that it's a vacation month. so i'm technically on vacation. and since i didn't see the inside of my house the better part of last month, i'm planning a lot of nothing for this week. i put up my christmas tree (though it's a little sad and empty... my "collection" of decorations is not quite up to snuff...) and turned on my pretend fireplace and listened to christmas music and made homemade beef stew tonight. it's almost like i'm a real person with normal work hours (i did go in to the hospital for a few hours today to finish up paperwork from last month) and a normal life.

i'll bask in the glory of such a week for a few more days. and then? back to gonorrheaville.

chronicles of the purple team.

purple team. ick. it's general inpatients and kids with ridiculously complicated kidney problems. here's what my month has looked like.

we started on a thursday.

thursday: 14 hrs
friday: 11 hrs
saturday: 31 hrs
sunday: see saturday
monday: 15 hrs
tuesday: 12 hrs
wednesday: 11 hrs
thursday: off
friday: 13 hrs
saturday: 31 hrs (thanks to the time change)
sunday: see saturday
monday: 15 hrs
tuesday: 13 hrs (the day of the major meltdown)
wednesday: 14 hrs
thursday: 14 hrs
friday: 12 hrs
saturday: off
sunday: off (and to think, some of you get these "weekend" things every WEEK! lucky!)
monday: 15 hrs
tuesday: 12 hrs
wednesday: off
thursday: 10 hrs (hey! it's the first time all month i left ON TIME!)

and... the rest of my month as "scheduled" (which ends on tuesday...)
friday: 30 hrs
saturday: see friday
sunday: 13 hrs
monday: 13 hrs
tuesday: 10 hrs

anybody else exhausted?

funniest text message ever.

"i just popped my testicle!"

sorry jen, i had to document this day. ;-)

i tried to post yesterday.

really i did. but the internet was stupid yesterday. so i stopped trying.

******

cardiology is over. i finished it up this afternoon. which is ok. except that it means i'm back to the reality of 80 hour work weeks, one day off in 7, one weekend off in 4. why in the world aren't more of you signing up for this gig?!? ;-)

one of my favorite memories from cardiology clinic will be the little girl in kindergarten (or maybe first grade) who, when i asked her how school was going, she cocks her head to one side and proclaims, "it's duh-licious!" priceless. her mother was very proud.

******

on a completely unrelated note... would someone warn my neighbors that i am a mandated reporter. and they may want to scream their profanities and threats to beat their children slightly less loudly. thanks.

a beautiful evening.

man it was nice outside tonight. i sat on my patio reading a magazine for an hour or so. it was fab-u-lous. i thought about taking a picture so i could remember the serenity of it... but instead (because my camera was all the way inside...) i just made a memory. the sky was so blue. and the valley behind my house so deep green. and the temperature was absolutely perfect.

oh, the glories of being on an outpatient rotation. remind me of this in november when i'm ready to jump off a bridge, ok? :-) thanks.

2 months down...

34 to go. it's going to go super quick, i can tell you that. at this rate, 3 years will be over before i know it... which is exciting. and scary all at the same time. i've completed the worst schedule and the best schedule months of my intern year. this month will land somewhere in between. it's an inpatient month, so the schedule will stink... just not as bad as the nicu schedule. today was the first day of our new month... it went ok. there are 3 interns on, which means we are only seeing about 3 or 4 patients a day. and for an intern, that is NOTHING!

and. AND... i saw dr. mcdreamy in the hallway yesterday. :-)

to appease the masses.

i am busy. i worked 110 hours in my first week of residency. i've started in the neonatal intensive care unit, taking care of brand new little bitty sick babies. my first day, was very very busy and i worked for 30 hours and took care of a very very sick baby who i thought was going to die. she's a fighter though. and she's alive, and not really very sick anymore. but she's still tiny and will probably have quite a bit of neurological problems in life. it's very sad. her mom turned 17 last week. that is also sad. i like her family a lot though.

i've gotten pretty good at circumcisions. i kinda like doing them too, and i guess you could call that weird.

i'm post call today. meaning i was on call yesterday and worked 30 hrs. that's a long time. i came home and took a nap, then did some laundry. that was apparently a bad idea... i always always always empty my scrub pockets on the vanity at my front door. except apparently not *always* because there were shreds and shreds and shreds of wet paper all over my clothes. i shook them out the best i could and dried them. i need to go shake them again. trying to figure out if i need to rewash them. i did buy a new lint roller tonight with the thought that maybe i can just roll the shreds off.

i have my weekly clinic tomorrow. clinic. in which i see patients. patients who come to see me. because i'm their doctor. and that continues to weird me out.

life on the other side of the degree.

after several several weeks of vacation, i've begun orientation for my residency. we have a little over a week left of orientation before people begin to ask us questions and expect us to know answers. that thought gets scarier every moment. every single moment. we've had a few days of computer training, got our new handheld computers, talked about benefits and schedules. and somehow filled almost an entire week with meetings. my fellow interns and i went out yesterday after work to george brett's for happy hour. it was fun. tonight was a picnic with a bunch of the attending physicians and senior residents. it was also fun. and dr mcdreamy was there. in all of his beautiful glory. and he came up behind me and put his hand on my back... at which point i turned around. speechless. because i didn't even know he was there - he came pretty late, and i was actually thinking about heading out when - sweet beautiful mcdreamy was touching me. he stood next to me in the circle of people and we chatted for about 20 minutes, then he went and talked to a bunch of the older residents for a couple minutes and then he left. i'm certain that he came just to see me. ;-) h.o.t. so h.o.t. that i almost can't think of anything else to say...

except that, i start working july 1st for real. and YIKES!! i'm on CALL! and then i'm on call on july 4th - as my "minor holiday" for the year... it'll be good to get that out of the way. and then i'm on call on that saturday... 3 times in one week... YIKES... and did i mention that i start in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit - ie, little bitty sick babies)... YIKES!! so, i'll uh, talk to you later. like in august. of 2010. ;-)

as promised... newness.

herein begins quite possibly my longest, and most exciting post. ever. hold on to your seats, kids...

the newness began about two weeks ago with a new haircut... get a load of how cute this is! i love it. i can fix it with a blowdryer... it's fast. it's fresh. it's h.o.t. :-)

a couple days after i got my new haircut, i got a new house. a fabulously cute 2 bedroom townhouse located in kansas city. i absolutley love it. it's brand new and absolutely perfect. i also got new furniture to go in my new townhouse. my couch is kermit the frog green. it's super fun. and comfy. i also got a matching chair. in addition, i got a new bedroom set, which i love. my bed is SUPER tall and i've decided it's a good thing my bedroom ceiling is vaulted lest i hit my head when sitting up in bed. there is still the concern over nosebleeds from the altitude...



then there was graduation. you know, medical school graduation. it came with a new degree, a new title... the day i've been counting down to for the past 4 years. man i'm glad that's over. the weekend was wonderful. i spent wednesday and thursday with my medical school friends, which was a fabulous time of nothing in particular. they are good people, and will each go far in life. i love each of them, and will dearly, dearly miss several of them. many of my family and friends made the trip all the way to des moines for the graduation ceremony. those that couldn't make the ceremony came to a reception the day after. it was a great time, and i am so thankful for all of the support and encouragement and excitement you all showed. i was glad to share the day with each of you.

jen came up friday night and went to the graduation banquet with me. it was a good time, and she got to meet some of the people who drug me through biochemistry, neuroanatomy, cardiology, etc... she was also a huge help in planning and pulling off the reception. thanks for coming, and for all your help, jen!! :-) did you doubt we'd look this good? it's hard to believe, i know. ;-)


my mom was probably more excited about graduation than i was. she was so proud. :-) thanks for everything mom. i love you.


my college girls all made it. meridith brought her mom, dad and fiance. skinner and dawn both brought their husbands. it made for a great reunion of sorts. i was so happy to see them, even though we had only a short time together at lunch after the ceremony. they are great friends.


tanner and mark. here are a couple of pictures of my two best friends from medical school. we became doctors together. i love them.

is there a doctor in the house?

why, yes. yes there is. ;-)

stuff.

so, i've been ignoring you. i'm sorry. i'll try not to do that anymore. :-) i'll just warn you now... exciting stuff ahead...

i got the townhouse... it's brand new and very cute and i absolutely adore it!


******

this weekend, jen went shopping with me... i spent a little bit of money... eeek! but i LOVE my new furniture. i've never bought real furniture before. it was kinda fun... :-)

here are pictures of my bedroom set. i got all the pieces pictured... everything except the nightstand came as a set, and i added one nightstand. it's a beautiful dark brown (cherry finish, i think???)



for the living room, i got the very FUN FUN FUN sofa below... i didn't get the loving seat, as i don't think i have enough room for it! but the sofa is awesome! microfiber (love it!) and very, umm... colorful?? the townhouse is mostly white and cream, so i'm splashing it with the furniture!! :-) the pillows are one side green microfiber, the other side the pattern you see... what you can't see about the pattern is that there is a very small line of blue inside each circle that is the color of the walls in the photo below. i almost chickened out and didn't get this one... but jen helped convince me that it's ok to have bold things. :-) i do love it. a lot.


i also got the chair pictured below (sorry it's so small... it's the only one i could find)... i'm going to get a couple of throw pillows in the blue color to throw around, as the chair didn't come with a throw pillow and this particular manufacturer doesn't let you special order anything. bummer. still, it will be fabulous to pull out the blue color!


i'm moving may 18th or 19th. i can't can't can't wait to get it all set up!! oh my golly! what fun!! :-)

longest. week. ever.

ever had a week that wasn't bad, really... but seemed to last for absolutely ever? umm. yeah. cue this week. i cannot believe it's only wednesday morning. but you know what that means... 2.5 days and i'm outta here. for good.

i'm going to start substitute teaching next week to gain some cash, and fill some of the dead time. jen was mad that i didn't come sub in warrensburg. woulda been a good thought if i'd had it soon enough. oh well. i'm already booked for wed, thur and fri of next week. bring on the $$$! :-)

******

i concur that last weekend was a fantastic time. it was good to visit with grandma and the rest of the crew...

she looked really cute, huh?

mom and i before the party. sorry about the backlight that is so bright you may be blind after looking at the photo. :-) we tried...

and the obligatory photo of two of the hottest chics i know. ;-)

never ending.

today may never end. but if it ever does, there are only 10 working days between me and a medical degree. and that is weird.

the end draws nigh.

i finish up with the kidney doctor tomorrow. he is very nice to work with. mostly because i don't really do any work. almost none at all. he does give me some reading assignments that we then discuss. but other than that. nothing. like today. we saw two patients in the hospital. neither of them terribly exciting. then we talked about aminoglycoside nephrotoxicities (you don't care, i promise). and then i'm done. i've been done since 9:45. a whole day of work in an hour and a half. so what am i to do with the rest of my day... i'll do my best to find something. i'm supposed to read about henoch-schonlein purpura, minimal change disease and post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (again, i promise you don't care). at least he does a good job of making me read things that are related to pediatrics. so i partially care. because at this point (you know, two months before graduation)... the motivation to read something that you are even deeply interested in runs very, very low.

******

i've otherwise been spending my time browsing through apartments near my hospital... trying to pick colors for the scrubs that the hospital is buying for me... attempting to plan the events of graduation week... etc etc etc. i'm getting pretty excited about the time i have between the end of rotations (april 13th) and the beginning of residency orientation (june 18th)... i'll do some subbing so i can afford to buy fun things for my new apartment (which i think i will be sharing with angie, who is my pastor's sister... and very fun)... i had to get rid of a bunch of my stuff when i moved out of my apartment in des moines - i had no way to transport it all and nowhere to store it, so i ended up giving a lot of it to the salvation army. kinda sad, but most of it was pretty junky anyway. not that i'm going to be replacing it with fancy-ness. but whatever. i was looking online at ikea.com and nebraska furniture mart last night at furnishings, etc. fun fun.

******

and just because even a boring update is more fun with a picture or two... i'll give you these. i don't think i've posted them before. and if i have, well... they're cute. and you'll get over it. :-)

jen and i, making st. patrick's day an official tradition... 2007 above, 2006 below... if it's even possible, i think we're even cuter now than we were then... ;-)


this photos was taken on our way to aunt ruthie's for a pampered chef party, stopped at sonic, if i remember correctly.

and a fun photo of my friend dawn (aka darrin) and i when she came to visit me here in kirksville. this is at thousand hills state park, just north of town. it was pretty.

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."