Who's a Turkey?

I got to go home this weekend! My family even re-staged Thanksgiving for me on Friday evening. Complete with torturing the dogs by turning them into Napkin Pilgrims and everything.

This picture is actually from brunch yesterday... Just in case you were wondering. Which I'm totally sure you were.

I'll Tofurkey You!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

As I'm still on nights, I actually got to welcome Thanksgiving in at midnight this year. You're totally jealous, aren't you?

Yeah... I know that you're not. Sigh. I'm just trying to make myself feel better.

I only have one night left after tonight, though! Yes, it does happen to be Thanksgiving night. Which means that I will be actually sleeping through the bulk of Thanksgiving proper. But, eh. Whatcha gonna do? Maybe it will save my gastronomic health - i.e. maybe I won't gorge myself to the point of incapacity.

Who am I kidding. Of course I'll stuff myself. I'll find food somewhere, and I'll eat too much of it. My own little way of thanking the universe for the gift of excess.

Night Float (or Swim) has been an interesting experience. The nights have generally been hot or cold - running around all night or sitting catching up on Desperate Housewives on abc.com and knitting.

There are some things I like about the night - lack of having to round for one. Lack of pimping by attendings for another. It is very self-directed. We admit the patients, decide what their initial management should be, and take care of any difficulties that happen on the ward overnight. Being relatively alone (with one other resident) really forces me to make a decision. Which, you know, doctors are supposed to be able to do. So that's good.

BUT. Let me tell you. The MOST exciting thing that happened in these past two weeks occurred during sign-out one day. In a side tangential discussion, the subject of the Midwest came up. At which point I piped in that I was from the Midwest (I claim backgrounds in the Midwest, Northwest or North Carolina as the mood suits). And then another intern also informed the room at large that he had gone to college in Minnesota. A small college. Called St. Olaf. At which point I shrieked, "No you didn't!" Mostly out of shock, but also because I didn't recognize him. But he did! He graduated from St. Olaf two years after I did.

But here - get this: He is an intern in the Family Medicine program at the Air Force Base near Sacramento. Normally there is one AFB intern on the service, but this month there happen to be two of them. The other one, a girl, ALSO WENT TO ST. OLAF. She graduated a year after me. I think I was her orgo lab TA. I totally thought she looked familiar, but I didn't make the Olaf connection.

There are currently THREE St. Olaf grads on the Pediatric Ward service. Is that not one of the weirdest coincidences ever???

We've celebrated with a couple of rousing renditions of Um Ya Ya, our fight song. Trust a Midwestern school known for their music program to have a fight song called "Um Ya Ya." Watch out or we'll Um Ya Ya you!

Eat a lot of turkey for me today. And save me some leftovers for tomorrow, when I'll be back among the Living In The Day!

Night Swimming

Hark!

You know that REM song, "Nightswimming?" It's totally in my head right now. Well. The first two lines are anyway. I don't know the rest of the lines.

Why is it in my head? And, perhaps more importantly, why am I blogging at 5 am when all normal, sane and happy people (aka Not-Residents) are sleeping?

I am on Night Float. It's an actual rotation name. One that most residents/young MD's would be familiar with.

I'm not really sure why it's called "Float" though. Maybe because we 'float' through all the services?

Basically, we come in during the night, watch over all the pediatric patients that are on the general, heme-onc, pulm or renal services and admit any new patients that come in.

Floating implies easiness.

And... it's not hard per se. But it ain't 'floating', that's for sure. Night 'floating' makes me think of evenings in the deep south, sitting out by the lake with my mint julep as the sun dips below the horizon and fireflies start their lazy path across the night sky.

There are no lakes here. Or mint juleps. Or fireflies.

So, I think that I will refer to this particular rotation as "Night Swim." That implies a bit more work, but not as much work as "Day Swim." Because at night you need to swim a little slower so you don't swim into rocks or crocodiles.

Plus, with "Night Swim" as a rotation, you get a great theme song.

Last side note: My brain function appears to be limited after a night on. So... if this post doesn't make sense, I can't be held accountable.

Side note to the side note: I may be incomprehensible, but I can totally take care of your sick kid. Trust me. I'm a doctor.

These Boots Are Made For...

...Sitting on my butt with my feet propped up, while I read Jane Austen and possibly eat pomegranates.

This morning I woke up and thought to myself, "Hmm. I only have clinic today. Plus, it is Wednesday, the Day of Tyra Banks and America's Next Top Model. If I wear cute (though uncomfortable) shoes, I can practice my 'model walk' all day long. Perhaps I shall wear my cute (though uncomfortable) boots. Yes! I shall!" So I did. They were only One Beer Shoes,* but my feet still hurt. Thus I whine.

*One Beer Shoes: Shoes that are uncomfortable, but the pain is able to be dulled by consuming about one beer. Alternately: shoes that can be worn if I am going to spend most of the day on my hiney. Antonym: Birkenstocks. See Hard Liquor Shoes**

**Hard Liquor Shoes: Those that I shouldn't even look at without a straight shot of tequila. I don't wear those often...

Jump on the Brenna Train, my friend, and let me carry you to an entirely different topic.

We had our Intern Retreat last week (to which I wore Coffee Shoes - aka Everyday shoes aka those that I will put on after I've had at least one cup of coffee).

Quick - word association game. I'll give you a word, and you tell me the first thing that comes to mind. Ready? Here is the word: RETREAT.

You totally pictured cabin in the woods with questionable restroom facilities and campfires and sleeping bags, right? Or perhaps a battlefield where one side is deciding to run for their lives?

Well, you're totally wrong.

We were lucky enough to retreat at the Christian Brothers Retreat and Conference Center in Napa. Yes. That Napa. It is somehow associated with monks. I think. I didn't see any there.


We did retreat-y things, like talking. And more talking. And then between the talking, we did some more. In all, the talking part was totally painless.

But, more importantly, we had fun!

We sampled some wine:


Of course... straight from the vine isn't quite as good as, you know, actual wine. As Sarah, Ryan and Monique demonstrated.

(Though I'm not quite sure why Monique looks quite so crazy)

We also took in some fine art.

Wherein a fellow resident showed that you can take the pediatrician away from the children, but you can't take the child out of the pediatrician. This particular installment was called "Melting Stone."

After the wine and art, we did some more talky-talking, and eating - did I mention eating? We ate like queens. And/or kings. So much food, and all of it delicious. Better, at least, than the bagels and beef jerky that I tend to live off of. Just kidding. Kind of.

After dinner we played Mafia. Hours and hours of Mafia. For those of you not familiar with the game, it involves lots of mock murder, lynching and lying through your teeth. Its great fun! Incidentally, Susan's residency program also played mafia on their retreat. Must be a pediatrician thing (I didn't even suggest the game!).

Finally, we did retreat (hee!) to bed. Because the building was originally something to do with monks and not a retreat center, the rooms were of varying sizes. Guess which one I got? The room is definitely in contention for the Smallest Room Ever:



(but we all remember that honor belongs to the two person suite in New York)

The small monk-like room was totally worth the view, though:


So, there you go. I've been retreated. I guess our next retreat will be at the Marriott. FYI, the Marriott is located smack dab between the hospital, the building where the peds offices are, and the building where we have peds clinics. I'll totally wear my tequila shoes to that one!