My Birfday

Just wanted to say my birthday was last weekend, and it was pretty great. It involved happy hour, karaoke, sake bombs, a Chinese pineapple bun, beer, hangover brunch, nap, psych dept. picnic, watching The Shawshank Redemption in the cool A/C with Dean, going out dancing with residency peeps, orienteering with Dean in the humid heat and getting my legs all bug-bit and scratched, and relaxing with my parents and cousin's family for pizza and birthday cake.

Secure Enough to Feel Annoyed

Heebie-Geebie, on her mom who has cancer (and her cat who she recently had to put down):

"Mom's next scan is August 9th. I'm pretty terrified. Over the spring there was a stretch where she seemed healthy enough that my old, tender, irritations with her sprang forth. It's like a luxury.

Similarly, when Little Cat first came home from the vet, he acted like his healthy old self for a few days. Complete with biting your skin for attention. I got totally irritated with him when I was trying to work on my song and he kept nibbling my legs. It was wonderful. It's so nice to feel secure enough to feel annoyed.

I don't regret being annoyed with Mom, or with Little Cat, although that was my fear at the time - that I was taking them for granted and I'd regret wasting precious time. But instead I feel thankful that I had a brief respite where I took them for granted and got to feel deliciously annoyed with them."

I enjoy reading Heebie-Geebie's blog. I think she's a kindred spirit -- she seems to enjoy silliness and quotes music lyrics all the time, but has profound thoughts about human nature sometimes.

Meningitis

Hopefully I don't have it!

I have a headache and have been feeling tired all day. However, I managed to conduct my work okay and even go to the gym afterward. Now that I'm relaxing, though, the illness -- if it is that -- might be breaking through.

Maitre'd

Ugh. Tomorrow morning I have to coordinate what's called the "assessment clinic," although I might abbreviate it to "ass clinic" just to get out my hostility, anger, and frustration with it. Maybe that's too hasty -- after all, I haven't done it yet. But I'm supposed to be the hostess, the "maitre 'd" by which they mean I welcome patients and make sure they feel okay and sign the consents. I think I'm going to follow the model of the Contestant Coordinators on Jeopardy -- they were funny and relaxed and helped us contestants relax in turn.

Weekend Report

Office? Check. We put in a quasi-Persian rug ($50 at Ikea!), a few lamps, and Dean built a filing cabinet. It looks great!

Dean started calling this weekend "Three Days In Delaware," because we went to my cousin Laura's annual Independence Day barbecue on Saturday, a "leftovers" barbecue in honor of my visiting cousin Andrew on the 4th itself, and then today, tubing down the Brandywine with my residency friends, Dean, and his brother and sister-in-law. The tubing was perhaps my favorite. Actually, no, I guess the best was Saturday, with its pool, barbecue, plentiful desserts, walk with Dad, and then having wine at dusk at my aunt's house in a grove of trees with Christmas lights strung overhead, seeing fireworks in the distance.

Movin' On Up, To the East Side

I moved into my office today! My very own office (temporarily for the next year)!

Of course, I had nothing with which to move in to said office, so I went with some other rising third year residents to this creepy storage room on the top floor of the building and got an Ikea "Tullsta" chair. Still, slim pickings. So Dean and I went on a very fruitful trip to Target, Marshalls, and Ikea tonight, and I am SO excited to really move in tomorrow.