Most of the time I don't write because, well, there isn't all that much that happens in my life on a day-to-day basis. But lately, there have been things going on all over the place, and I haven't been writing because I didn't know where to start! So, I just decided to not start at all.
Or maybe to just paraphrase.
Can you paraphrase something that was never written in the first place?
Let's just say that we can.
When we last heard from me, I was home for Easter. Since then, I went down to Sacramento with the parentals to look for a new domicile. Abode. Dwelling. Pad. Home.
Yeah. Not doing so good on the paraphrasing here, am I? It's Thesaurus night.
Speaking of thesaurus - I wrote a paper in high school once, and I was feeling like sounding smart, so I "shift-F7'd" a lot of words (for those that don't know, that is Microsoft's shortcut to the thesaurus). I don't remember what the paper was about, but my teacher loved it so much, that she actually read it to the class. I felt like I had cheated by relying so heavily on the thesaurus... Terribly embarassing.
Random aside is done now. But good story, no? Yeah, not really.
It takes around 9 hours to drive from Portland to Sacramento. And such an easy drive. The directions are: get on I-5 South. That's it!
I won't go into gory details about the apartment search. We looked at ten places on the first day. I was agonizing over the decision. Some places were great but pricey, others were affordable but dicey (Heh - catch my rhyme there? I'm to-tal-ly a poet) Nothing was quite right. We decided to go to a new area at the beginning of the second day. And the first place we got to look at was perfect! Or at least was missing all of the things that I had major concerns about at the other place. So, assuming all the paperwork goes through (it should), I have a home! Huzzah! It is in an area of Sacramento called "The Pocket." Not kidding.
I flew back to the NC on Saturday, and here I remain sitting on my butt doing nothing. (I did get my hair cut today). I should really be thinking about packing and selling my things and all that jazz. But it is more fun to sit and do nothing. Zero. Zilch. Naught.
I do have a preliminary itinerary for my Cross Country Road Trip, however! It is totally and completely arbitrary. It started with the plan: get on highway, go west.
There were many funny things that happened during the past week that would have been good blog posts, but now the time has passed.
Except, I do have to tell you about the restaurant whose name my parents can't remember. It was definitely more funny if you were there, but between them, they came up with "Jimmy Bob's," "Jim Bob's," "Jimmy Boy's," "Roy Boy's," "Jimbo's". It was called "Jim Boy's," so I guess they were close. But they never got it right. Probably part of the problem was that it was a Mexican restaurant. Named Jim Boy's.
Come visit me in the Pocket and I'll take you there.
Apr 26, 2006
Apr 17, 2006
By The Way...
... I'm home for Easter! This trip totally took me by surprise - I mean, I knew it was coming, but it still feels like a bonus surprise week off. My parents and I are going to drive down to Sacramento in a couple of days to look for a new home for me... Daunting task.
Let me tell you about Easter, though. Mostly because I have some pictures to post.
It was a very 'adult' Easter this year. Not in the sense that we sat around watching R rated movies and telling dirty jokes. (Get your mind out of the gutter!!) It was just that, well, there were no children. No searching for Easter eggs. No Easter Bunny. Etcetera. We did have a visitor, however, but she doesn't have big, floppy ears. Chelsea - our old neighbor, and one of Lindsay's oldest friends - is living in Seattle these days (her family is in Pennsylvania), so she came down to join us.
This here is my lovely family. It was nice to have Chelsea here, as she worked very well as a photographer. And we made her clean the house, too.
Our version of an Easter Egg Hunt. Find the rocks!
You can see here that it didn't take long for us to totally engage Chelsea into our Easter traditions. This particular tradition has roots in my kindergarten days. And it isn't a tradition so much as everyone just making fun of me. Which kind of is a tradition, but not special to Easter.
One last thing I have to comment on: This August is my ten year high school reunion. Yes, I am oldy-old-old-old. Now, there was this boy back in the day that I had a cyclical crush on - meaning that from seventh grade through senior year, I had multiple crushes on him. Separated by, you know, other crushes. I had a lot of crushes... Anyway. I was keeping Cyclical Crush Boy in my mind as the potential movie-plot-like addition to my high school reunion - we meet again after ten years, yada yada. You know the plot.
Well, yesterday, I saw him! At church! With his wife. And baby.
Darn.
I guess it'd be more movie like if the person that I re-connect with after ten years is someone that I didn't really know in high school, anyway.
(I pretended I didn't see CCB because I was there with my family and he was there with his family, but his family was a wife and baby, and my family was my parents and sisters, and even though I'm going to be a doctor, which does give me some legitimacy in a mature, adult world, I'm not a doctor yet, so it just looks like I'm the 27 year old living with her parents.)
Let me tell you about Easter, though. Mostly because I have some pictures to post.
It was a very 'adult' Easter this year. Not in the sense that we sat around watching R rated movies and telling dirty jokes. (Get your mind out of the gutter!!) It was just that, well, there were no children. No searching for Easter eggs. No Easter Bunny. Etcetera. We did have a visitor, however, but she doesn't have big, floppy ears. Chelsea - our old neighbor, and one of Lindsay's oldest friends - is living in Seattle these days (her family is in Pennsylvania), so she came down to join us.
This here is my lovely family. It was nice to have Chelsea here, as she worked very well as a photographer. And we made her clean the house, too.
Our version of an Easter Egg Hunt. Find the rocks!
You can see here that it didn't take long for us to totally engage Chelsea into our Easter traditions. This particular tradition has roots in my kindergarten days. And it isn't a tradition so much as everyone just making fun of me. Which kind of is a tradition, but not special to Easter.
One last thing I have to comment on: This August is my ten year high school reunion. Yes, I am oldy-old-old-old. Now, there was this boy back in the day that I had a cyclical crush on - meaning that from seventh grade through senior year, I had multiple crushes on him. Separated by, you know, other crushes. I had a lot of crushes... Anyway. I was keeping Cyclical Crush Boy in my mind as the potential movie-plot-like addition to my high school reunion - we meet again after ten years, yada yada. You know the plot.
Well, yesterday, I saw him! At church! With his wife. And baby.
Darn.
I guess it'd be more movie like if the person that I re-connect with after ten years is someone that I didn't really know in high school, anyway.
(I pretended I didn't see CCB because I was there with my family and he was there with his family, but his family was a wife and baby, and my family was my parents and sisters, and even though I'm going to be a doctor, which does give me some legitimacy in a mature, adult world, I'm not a doctor yet, so it just looks like I'm the 27 year old living with her parents.)
Apr 12, 2006
In Defense of Knitting
We're in what we call "Phase Five" of medical school now. Because our schedule here doesn't completely flow on a year-to-year basis, each chunk is called a "Phase." During first year, it was Phase 1, second year was more or less Phase 2, and so on. So I guess you could say we're Fifth Years now. Heh. I'm totally in remedial medical school.
Anyway. All Phase 5 really involves is going to helpful and interesting lectures where they try to 'prepare' us for real life. Lectures on the finances of medicine, and lectures on our personal finance, interspersed with reviews of basic medicine that we should all know (but tend to forget).
Our one responsibility during this phase is to Show Up. We even have little barcodes that we have to sign in with.
They've added another dimension to Phase 5 that was not present in the earlier phases, however: We are not allowed to have our computers. Now, I must admit, that during Phases 1 and 2, I was horrible with the computer. If a lecture started getting even remotely boring, I was off onto the internet, IM-ing my classmates, shopping, playing Bejeweled... Anything but paying attention. I'm positive that the lecturers knew what we were doing, but at that time, it was kind of accepted. And, honestly, it was almost expected. (Rarely would any faculty ask us to leave our computers shut).
But now that we're more or less 'adults' (or at least that's what they're trying to convince us of), we're expected to Show Up and to at least marginally Pay Attention. (with the occasional game of hang-man, or a note passed on whether or not the presenter looks like Guy Smiley)
Yesterday, there was a big kerfuffle because one of our classmates was knitting during a presentation. Granted, this is a person who is notorious for trying to get away with things. With everything. (i.e. going to Starbucks off campus and then calling the hospital operator to patch them in when they got paged so that it didn't register as an off-campus call; or wearing headphones during a no-computer lecture) This is probably one of the least respected people in our class for that reason.
But, personally, I think knitting is a great way to spend lecture. It helps me focus, keeps me from debating Guy-Smiley look-alikes, and actually makes me remember what I hear. It keeps my mind active and engaged. I know it probably sounds silly to the non-knitters out there, but that's the way it is. Why do you think knitting circles (or quilting, etc.) are so popular? I'm sad that knitting is not a more culturally accepted thing in the medical world.
I'd write more, but I have to so sign in!!
Anyway. All Phase 5 really involves is going to helpful and interesting lectures where they try to 'prepare' us for real life. Lectures on the finances of medicine, and lectures on our personal finance, interspersed with reviews of basic medicine that we should all know (but tend to forget).
Our one responsibility during this phase is to Show Up. We even have little barcodes that we have to sign in with.
They've added another dimension to Phase 5 that was not present in the earlier phases, however: We are not allowed to have our computers. Now, I must admit, that during Phases 1 and 2, I was horrible with the computer. If a lecture started getting even remotely boring, I was off onto the internet, IM-ing my classmates, shopping, playing Bejeweled... Anything but paying attention. I'm positive that the lecturers knew what we were doing, but at that time, it was kind of accepted. And, honestly, it was almost expected. (Rarely would any faculty ask us to leave our computers shut).
But now that we're more or less 'adults' (or at least that's what they're trying to convince us of), we're expected to Show Up and to at least marginally Pay Attention. (with the occasional game of hang-man, or a note passed on whether or not the presenter looks like Guy Smiley)
Yesterday, there was a big kerfuffle because one of our classmates was knitting during a presentation. Granted, this is a person who is notorious for trying to get away with things. With everything. (i.e. going to Starbucks off campus and then calling the hospital operator to patch them in when they got paged so that it didn't register as an off-campus call; or wearing headphones during a no-computer lecture) This is probably one of the least respected people in our class for that reason.
But, personally, I think knitting is a great way to spend lecture. It helps me focus, keeps me from debating Guy-Smiley look-alikes, and actually makes me remember what I hear. It keeps my mind active and engaged. I know it probably sounds silly to the non-knitters out there, but that's the way it is. Why do you think knitting circles (or quilting, etc.) are so popular? I'm sad that knitting is not a more culturally accepted thing in the medical world.
I'd write more, but I have to so sign in!!
Apr 7, 2006
Day The Last
Approximately seven hundred and eleven days ago, I wrote my first post as a clinical medical student.
Today, I write my last.
Because I quit. Haha! No, just kidding. Today is our last day on rotation. The last day that I walk around wearing my short white coat (which should more rightfully be called a short, slighty-grayish coat).
As I look back on the past 711 days, I see that while I have come a long way, there is so much more yet to go. I started out knowing nothing about anything. I approach the end knowing more - a whole lot more - but much of what I know is that there is so so so much more that I don't know. How gloriously cheesy!
Today marks the last day that I will walk into a patient's room and introduce myself as a 'student' (actually, that was yesterday, but I'm taking some poetic license here). I have been a student for twenty-one years now. That is over 7600 days. These past 711 make up less than 10% of what I have been taught. What I have learned, during these days as a pseudo-doctor is that a physician must never stop learning.
Though we are shortly to drop the title of 'student' and take on a much larger title - 'Doctor' - I know, or at least I hope, that I will remain a student in my heart. It's hard to give up a 21 year habit, after all!
So, even when I do walk into a patient's room and introduce myself as a doctor - as their doctor - I will be looking to them as my new teachers. And I will remain a student forever.
Today, I write my last.
Because I quit. Haha! No, just kidding. Today is our last day on rotation. The last day that I walk around wearing my short white coat (which should more rightfully be called a short, slighty-grayish coat).
As I look back on the past 711 days, I see that while I have come a long way, there is so much more yet to go. I started out knowing nothing about anything. I approach the end knowing more - a whole lot more - but much of what I know is that there is so so so much more that I don't know. How gloriously cheesy!
Today marks the last day that I will walk into a patient's room and introduce myself as a 'student' (actually, that was yesterday, but I'm taking some poetic license here). I have been a student for twenty-one years now. That is over 7600 days. These past 711 make up less than 10% of what I have been taught. What I have learned, during these days as a pseudo-doctor is that a physician must never stop learning.
Though we are shortly to drop the title of 'student' and take on a much larger title - 'Doctor' - I know, or at least I hope, that I will remain a student in my heart. It's hard to give up a 21 year habit, after all!
So, even when I do walk into a patient's room and introduce myself as a doctor - as their doctor - I will be looking to them as my new teachers. And I will remain a student forever.
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