Where's Elvis?

I liked this pic of my friends and me lounging the morning after hardcore reunion festivities.

Missing Latrobe

Things I'll miss about Latrobe (I leave tomorrow!):

-The pleasantly spicy hoppy scent you smell as you walk past the Latrobe brewery that formerly housed Rolling Rock, and I think is now possibly under contract with Sam Adams.
-The gorgeous scenery that is perfect to drive through -- really better than anywhere else outside of a national park, that I've found -- as you wind your way through rolling hills, farms with cows and bales of hay, silos, farmers on tractors, forests with brooks... until you arrive at a main road and face the miles and miles of strip malls.
-Mike (the resident I've been seeing)
-weekly volleyball games with the residents -- good exercise and really, really fun.
-The copious free time I've had on this rotation, in which I can be spontaneous and while away hours and hours doing pretty much nothing, including video games.

Heh, another thing I noticed I did today... I finally used a Pittsburghism, or at least a Western PA-ism. I said something like "I'm sure that needs checked." I was simultaneously horrified, amused, and defensive. I actually think this is a relatively smart corruption of the English language, because it gets the point across just as well, and is shorter. It's like faulting someone for saying "can't" instead of "can not." So we'll see. I might use it in the future, tongue in cheek.

Anyway, I'll miss what's listed above, but overall, I cannot WAIT to come home. I miss my family, I miss Philly, I miss my old familiar surroundings.

Belated Reunion Pic

Liz, Jess, and Becca -- three of my beloved Whim girls -- and me. (Note my fave drink, Jack and Coke, and the glazed/crazy (glazy?) look in my eyes.)

Awesome

I'm watching The Shawshank Redemption for the umpteenth time, and I'm reminded again of why it's my favorite movie of all time. Everything, from the music to the cinematography to the costumes, just serves the purpose of furthering the plot and deepening the character development, and highlighting themes of the film. Sooo satisfying. Especially the music.

In other news, CFR (cute funny resident) and I have gone on a couple dates. It's been really fun... he's one of the few people I've met who can spout off references as well as I and my brothers can. He just called from the ER (he's on call overnight tonight) and we quoted Ghostbusters to each other just before hanging up. Ah, cinematic nerds in like. Tomorrow, he's going to get a couple hours of sleep, and then call me to run errands with him and maybe go out to lunch, before we go to this "roast" that the junior residents put on each year in honor of the outgoing senior residents. (He's a second year resident.) I don't think this is going to go anywhere after I leave on Wednesday, but for these few weeks, it's been fun.

Ja, For Sure, From Sveden

well, not quite.

Your Inner European is Dutch!

Open minded and tolerant. You're up for just about anything.

Who's Your Inner European?

A Dating Watchcry

From Is There No Sin In It?, here's a good mindset for taking the drama out of dating:

"I have no idea what the fuck is going on, and that’s fine by me (or will be after I say it enough times)."

Reunion Wrap-up, Part 1

Well, I just came back from my 5th year reunion, and boy was it fun. I didn't bring a camera, but Mel did, and hopefully she'll send us some pics that I can post later. Some I will not be posting, but most of them are benign enough. ;)

I had been planning on taking Thursday afternoon and Friday morning off (we get Friday afternoons off anyway) to go to New Haven. As it turns out, my attending just canceled clinic for that time anyway, so my fellow students got that time off as well. Everything worked like clockwork for Thursday night's "pre-bridal event" for Rachel. Kelly and Lee picked me up at the Hartford airport, while Mel and Rachel registered for reunion and went to dinner at one of their favorite quick cheap restaurants. Kelly donned a full body black robe which also covered her head and face (I don't know how she could see through it, but she could), and went to blindfold and kidnap Rachel. Lee and I went to our freshman dorm to await their arrival. They arrived, we all put on special T-shirts for the occasion (tasteful! I'll be wearing the shirt in normal life), and de-blindfolded the bride. We mixed punch right there on the bench outside our dorm, and that kicked off a memories pub crawl, going from freshman year through senior year. It was fantastic.

I gotta go to bed. More about the weekend later.

Butterflies

Well, after that volleyball game on Saturday, I admitted my crush to the cute funny resident. He called on Monday to see if I could do something this weekend, but I have my college reunion this weekend (wooooohoo!), so we sort of put off making plans till next week (which is totally LAME, actually, since I had plenty of free nights this week, and hello, I'm LEAVING in two weeks). Anyway, I talked to him on the phone just now, and I have to say, it's so nice to flirt and get excited about a guy again, after so many months of feeling romantically numb.

I Love Scotch. Scotchy Scotch Scotch.

It was a good weekend. Last night, I went out to Claddagh, an Irish pub in Pittsburgh, with Amy and Mike. For some reason I wasn't hungry, even though it'd been seven hours since I'd had anything to eat, so while they ate, I drank, a lot. Then we went to Ibiza, with an impossibly suave foreign-accented bartender, and Mike bought us Johnnie Walker Black, as a celebration of his high Boards score (250! Jesus!). I had had scotch before, in college, because the master of JE loved it and had a tasting once. At that time, I thought, blecch. Last night, however, possibly because I was a little buzzed (I'd sobered up on the walk over to Ibiza), I really enjoyed it. I still don't know if I'd choose a scotch when I go out to a bar in the future, but last night, it was nice to take little sips and enjoy the smokiness. The one that Mike ordered tasted like liquid smoke. And actually, as if that weren't enough, after last call at Ibiza, Mike and Amy and I walked down to the river and smoked a pack of cigarettes between us. (I can still smell the nicotine on my right index and middle fingers, a day later, after repeated washings. Yuck.)

Fourth Year and Some Updates

The current fourth years graduated today. I will be a fourth year once I finish my family medicine rotation in a few weeks. CRAZY.

Seth is dating someone else, he recently told me by email. I spent about 24 hours feeling a pang of jealousy, and that got old quickly. In quasi-related news, I have a crush on a resident here, who can quote movies as well as I can, probably better.

I'm reading "White Teeth," by Zadie Smith, and am enjoying it immensely.

I'm watching Ken Burns's Civil War documentary, and have totally gotten into it. And I have a tiny respect crush on Shelby Foote, God rest his soul. Actually, the aforementioned funny resident apparently is a Civil War buff, according to one of his friends I talked to tonight. Maybe I'll strike up a convo about it tomorrow (the residents and Amy and I will be playing volleyball in the early afternoon, weather willing).