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!