Back to Work

I'm back in Latrobe, after a very good weekend home. Sunday, I went to the local pool with my mom, sister-in-law, and nephews. Isaac (aka Obi-Wan) was unusually affectionate, coming over to me saying "Nornie, Nornie!" and giving me a hug and a kiss. He also did that awesome toddler thing where he came over with his arms wide and hugged my legs.

Today's drive was surprisingly tolerable, considering I was pretty stressed out with lease stuff and packing up my apartment beforehand. Amy and I listened to Billy Joel for half of the long ride, and we knew all the words.

Saturday

Amy, Jaime and I had sushi here last night. Man, their food alone is enough to make me want to do my residency here in Philly. *cue Homer drool*

Then we went in the driving rain to the art museum area, and running 20 feet from our parked car to the apartment building entrance soaked us through. We went to a party, which despite our other friend Amy's best efforts, was just eh. There was delicious birthday cake and fun girls-only dancing in a back bedroom. The guy whose bedroom it was kept trying to come back into the room and it became a game to turn him around and shoo him out of the room. (He was good-humoredly playing along; it wasn't like he needed anything from his room or anything.)

These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For

My nephew, Isaac, with his mom.

Itinerary

A typical day on my family med rotation:

6:30am -- cellphone alarm goes off, I unthinkingly turn it off
6:40am -- I wake up spontaneously, with a start
7:15am -- cereal in the house kitchen
7:30am -- student lecture, at which I'm armed with one of those Frappuccino bottles
8:15am -- Amy and Mike (another student) and I adjourn to the cafeteria to eat or the resident lounge to play ping-pong
9:00am -- patient care begins for the morning
12:30pm -- our attending finally stops talking and we head to the cafeteria
1pm -- patient care begins for the afternoon
5:30pm -- our attending finally stops talking and we head home

In the evenings, I often fend for myself for dinner and retreat to my room for long hours of blog-reading and NPR-listening. I guess I need that alone time to decompress, which I hadn't realized. Anyway, we each have call in the ER one night a week. Fridays we get out at noon.

Today, however, we got out at 12:45, thanks to the afore-mentioned attending's loquacity. Around 3, Amy and I left for Philly, and I'm now ensconced happily in my parents' house for Memorial Day weekend.

Updating my Blogroll

I actually haven't taken the time to make a blogroll, but I wanted to let you know who I read now mostly. I still read Stay and The Underwear Drawer, but I've been plumbing the archives of The Happy Feminist. Also, Is There No Sin In It? is pretty great. This is how lazy I am, I'm not even going to link to these. If you're interested, you can Google them. Except ITNSII, you should follow the third link or whatever the wordpress page is, NOT the blogger page.

I know my brother reads this page, so I think he'd be pleased at one of my recent leisure-time activities: I've been playing this addictive video game, "Treasure Pyramid," while listening to past episodes of "This American Life." I've finally come around to how great this show is, even though I'm still a little irritated at Ira Glass. He comes off as a little pompous, somehow, although the end-of-show joke where they use a sound clip out of context does much to puncture that.

I Love You, Google Maps

I had to wake up at 6:45am this morning, having gone to bed almost at midnight. My allergies were so bad that I was very congested all night. I woke up with a headache (which I'm convinced came from my congestion making me snore and possibly get some sleep apnea). This morning, though, with some ibuprofen and Zyrtec, I was good to go.

But I have been very sleepy all day, and all I could do after clinic this evening was get into my pajamas, watch Ken Burns's Civil War documentary (Yay Netflix!) and surf the internet. I wonder if Gettysburg is anywhere near Latrobe... maybe I could take a day trip one of these weekends. Amy and I are already planning trips to Falling Water and possibly to Cedar Point, although that's a good 4 hours away. (Update: nah, Gettysburg is 3 hours away. I'd be better off taking a day trip from my parents' house.)

Maybe I'll Go to the Movies... By Myself

My heart goes out to Amy, who I'm deserting tomorrow morning to visit my cousins and aunt and uncle in Pittsburgh. Our other new friend Mike, who's a Pitt student here in the house with us, isn't even here -- he too retreated to Pittsburgh for the weekend. And it is SO boring here alone.

Oh Yeah, Work

I worked from 7:30am to 10pm today. Well, not really. I had a case report lecture from 7:30 to 8:10am, clinic from 9am-12:30pm, clinic from 1pm-4:15pm, and then call in the ER from 7-10pm. So, plenty of break times. Amy and I walked home in the rain, jubilant at the 45 minutes we had just received, and settled in to watch "Shaun of the Dead," which was fantastic.

In other news, I have to start exercising. I've been carbo-loading this whole week, especially having had spaghetti last night and leftover spaghetti tonight. I can feel all that glycogen in my muscles, ready to either be burned in exercise or congeal into fat. (Yes, I know that's not how it really works. Shut up.)

Almost a Fourth Year

I realized today that this is the last rotation that I'll sign my patient notes with my name ending in MS III. A year and two weeks from now, I'll be graduating from medical school. Jesus Christ, I'm going to be a frigging DOCTOR.

I feel totally unprepared and think the degree-granting peeps are out of their minds, and my feeling is pretty reflective of what I'll feel like at graduation, I think, because next year will not be incredibly filled with learning. It'll more be about showing off my mad clinical skillz to get evaluations and letters of recommendations in the early months, then doing easy rotations while I apply and go on interviews, then doing easy rotations when I match and go drinking, then having vacation.

Today at Latrobe was pretty good, unlike yesterday, and I feel like I really do know what I'm doing. I can see a patient, take his history, do a physical exam, and decide what I think he might have and come up with an initial plan. I have a lot to learn, but these are the basic nuts and bolts of medicine.

Greetings from Sunny Latrobe

I'm here and not that happy. I forgot my stethoscope (because I haven't used it in six weeks), and I'm sure hoping they might have a spare one that I can use for a couple weeks until I get one from my parents' house. A friend warned me that one of the doctors can be a total jerk, and yet he's the one primarily responsible for our evaluations. There's no Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts around, just a lot of fast food. Amy and I had eh salads at a Denny's and then food-shopped. I just feel like it'll be endless non-caffeinated boredom outside of work, and being harassed and stethoscope-less inside work. Maaaaaaaaah.

(At least it has wireless internet. That actually is a huge plus.)

Bow Chicka Wow Wow

There's a funny line of Axe commercials featuring that phrase, some of which Amy and Swathi and I saw in the movie theater when we saw 28 Weeks Later (which was fantastic).

Also, we went to a strip club Saturday night for Carin's bachelorette party. Pretty hilarious.

Fun Night

Pad thai at Aqua with the Amys and Diane, then (after a stop at Wawa to get cash and buy diet peach iced tea and peanut M&Ms), the movie "Waitress," which I thought presented a somewhat simplistic view of happiness and unhappiness. And A.O. Scott loved it! Screw you, man. You're just biased by the fact that the writer/director/supporting actress was later murdered.

Hyperbolic Discounting

My short-term preferences have taken me over, and I don't like it. I no longer even have a choice over whether I will eat healthy food, whether I will exercise, or whether I will squander time. It is just abnormally difficult to force myself to make the choice I know will make me feel better in the long term -- therefore, I will eat what I want, not get around to exercising, and waste hours playing video games.

On the other hand, I finished my Tenacious D DVDs and started Ken Burns's Civil War series. Yay for Netflix.

Vague Anxieties

Packing and applying for an apartment. Finishing stupid presentation for ENT. Nutter getting attacked now that he's becoming a front-runner. Getting ready to move to Latrobe for six weeks, and needing to foresee 5-year college reunion clothes in that packing session.

Not very stressful, really, and yet I feel anxious. It'll be better after I finally get to work out tomorrow, I hope.

I'm Just Sayin...

If somebody wanted to get me a small one of these for my birthday, I would not object.

Exhilaration

Today I met with the psychiatry residency director at Jefferson. He said, "What questions can I answer for you?" I said, I need to know what questions to ask myself to prepare for this whole process, and what to look for in a residency program. He took that and ran, and figuratively walked around the different residency programs and pointed out what was good and bad, and enumerated the aspects of a residency program that I would need to evaluate and fit with my personality. It was SO helpful, and reassuring. Now I just feel excited about the residency application process instead of scared. Woohoo!

Then I worked for Michael Nutter for a little while and drove home listening to "All Things Considered." And sat in the backyard with my parents, and sneezed my head off. The pollen count or whatever it is is KILLING me.