Christmas snaps and stats

Okay, so the first picture is of Amy and me in Old Sac last week. Very festive, huh?

Christmas eve was a day off for me! In some ways, I was a bit sad to "use up" my day off so early in the week (has to last me until next Tuesday or something!) but it was very relaxing.
I actually went out to Lodi, CA (about 40 min. south of here) to visit the Skogstads, friends of my Dad's from his tap dancing years in Fisher, MN. They've been asking me to come visit for months and months and it's kind of sad that I am only just now getting out to see them, but it was a fun afternoon getting to know them! Although I didn't get to see it, they also are the new owner's of my grandpa's old Thunderbird retractable car. Sorry for no pictures!

I then somehow invited myself along to Sarah and Matt's Christmas dinner at their Methodist church for a candlelight service on Christmas eve. :)

I only had to work a 1/2 day on Christmas, which was also a blessing!

Amy and I then went out to Folsom to do some hiking at Salmon Falls. I still think it's amazing that you can frolick around outside in December in this state!

Christmas night, a few of us had a dinner potluck at a medicine resident's house, with great wine, holiday (gingerbread, egg nog, and peppermint) ice cream, and other goodies.

I am quite embarrassed that I don't have pictures to share, but I've been a slacker. I know it. Go to Wendi's blog for your fill of pictures :)

So now onto the stats and other interesting facts:

• Number of patients our team discharged today: 5 (Curt says his record is 7)
• Number of patients Anika has at this very moment: 0 (yes; that is zero !!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!! Strong work, Anika!)
• Number of transfers that haven't arrived: 3
• Number of bouncebacks to our team this week: 2
• Admission heart rate of one of them: 46
• Admission heart rate of the other: 140
• Number of days Mr. B has been here in our hospital: approx. 86
• Number of progress notes I've written on him: approx. 15
• The length of his toenails: very long
• The bad news: nurses at Mather don't cut toenails; podiatry consults are needed
• The reality: podiatry care is not an urgent issue at the VA
• The gross part: what I was doing at 8:50 a.m., trying not to shoot my eye out, with clippers I brought from home
• The world's longest discharge summary secondary to a near-3-month hospitalization: Mr. B's
• The lucky author: yours truly
• The worst news: He didn't even get discharged to the rehab facility because the physical therapists want to "further review" his notes
• What makes me hopeless (/crazy): I will have to round on him tomorrow
• Hemoglobin A1C of a patient I admitted this afternoon: 16.0 (goal is less than 7% in our diabetic patients)
• Highest Hgb AIC I have ever seen: 16.0
• Number of medications I was requested to refill by one very high maintenance, chronic pain FP patient of mine: 6
• Number of minutes it took me to sort out when/how/where I'd last refilled her prescriptions to make sure I wasn't getting the run-around: 20
• Number of days until I see her back in the office where she could easily discuss her concerns instead of making EMR havoc for me amidst a VA rotation: 6
• Days left on this VA medicine rotation: 10 (one of those should be a day off!)
• Months until I have to return to the VA for cardiology/CCU: 3
• Hours left of work today (thankfully): 1
• Number of rotations left until VACATION #2 starts: 1.3
• Number of months of those that will be spent in the MICU: 1 (ick)
• Months too many in the MICU: 1
• Days left until 2008: 5!!!!

Happy end-of-2007!

Peace on Earth (and at the VA)

Get this... it is actually SLOW here at the VA, from where I start to write this blog. We thought it might start to slow down over the holidays and, in fact, we are having people want to jet left and right (hmmm... you think that people would want to be home and not in the hospital over Christmas??! I had a fairly whiny patient ask me if he could have a "pass" to be out of the hospital for Christmas and just come back whenever he felt like it afterwards to the same room. I said "I'll see what I can do" although I thought about saying, "WHY CAN'T I HAVE A PASS ?!") with few admissions to replace them. I am down to 3 (yes, THREE, which is the fewest I have had this month!) patients, which, let me tell you, is much more manageable than 7+ sick ones (LOTS fewer notes to write)!

I had been doing quite well (i.e. no breakdowns!) until yesterday, when I had a very difficult case to deal with, a wonderful elderly man with terminal prostate and bladder cancer with bleeding from his urine, but also with a cardiac stent less than a year old with risk of clotting and large pulmonary emboli that could kill him any minute. We all had to decide to anticoagulate him and risk bleeding him to death or leaving him as is, to die from either his cancer or clots in his lungs. There was no right answer in the situation, I was getting opposing opinions from cardiology and urology and felt totally incapacitated by the situation, as well as entirely moved by his condition, his attitude, and the grace of both him and his wife. I don't think the wife was too comforted by my bawling in the room as we talked about prognosis and code status, but I finally got it together. Will try to make it through the rest of the month w/o the waterworks. (What was quite funny, though, was that earlier in the morning, Dr. E., an attending I had during my first very stressful month at Mather but who was now with the other internal medicine team said to me, in apparent all seriousness, "Wow, Tara, you look so much happier this time around. Are you medicated??" :) Of course, this was before the breakdown). In any case, we hope the patient be able to go home tomorrow to spend Christmas with his family, at peace at the end of his life.

I found out today that I have tomorrow (Christmas eve) off. I'm still trying to get into the holiday spirit. Shomir and I saw Messiah at the Mondavi Center last night, which was great. But it is still weirding me out that it's like 50 degrees out! I busted out my collection of Christmas ornaments and some blue lights just last night, so my apt. is kind of festive, but it's just a bizarre kind of holiday season. Anika will take Tuesday off, so I'll be here, but I'm hoping to go to a Christmas eve service tomorrow night (anyone free?) and could potentially get out early on Christmas for my "half-day" off this week if it's slow. On Wednesday, the 26th, it's back to a regular workday, with clinic in the afternoon-- the hospital will probably be slammed with post-Christmas CHF exacerbations and whatnot. Who knows what is happening over New Year's. I'll probably find out the day before or something.

We were trying to figure out how to get some Christmas tunes playing on the computers in the resident work room here at Mather, but apparently the internet browsers are blocked from all kinds of audio-visual sites. Bummer! Otherwise, if I had my way, we'd all be singing aloud to carols here :).

Talked to my parents yesterday and apparently my sister is "home" (i.e. packed her bags to head home from Arlington across town to McLean!) for the holidays. It's weird not being there. Despite schlepping all over the place the last 8 years or so, I think I've been with my family (albeit not at "home"-- last year Mexico, the year before Egypt, etc.) for Christmas every year since college. Maybe I can call them from the VA on Tuesday :)

Anyway, it's quite peaceful here and I hope it stays that way until circa 7 p.m. when I'm off :) I may actually try to go lie down for a few minutes until I get paged, inevitably for having filled out something incorrectly :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! PEACE ON EARTH!!!!

Holiday cheer-stealing (if you like a cappella and Christmas music)

From Joia, via Wendi... some Christmas music for you. Isn't blog sharing great?! (Thank you, Joia!) :)

I tried my best to embed, but, alas, I am still a techno-retard. By Feburary, I will have figured out how to get the actual movies on here.

Here's Joia's post or, if that doesn't work, go to the actual You Tube site.

Lil' bits o' life

So I guess it's about time that I write about something of substance. Sometimes I am more into blogging than others. This is one of those not-so-into-it periods :) I wish I had some pictures to share, of applicant dinners and things, but I have sort of been slacking in that department. I'll have to try to get some from Brenden who's been on the ball. For now, here are some bullets.

• Most importantly: my fridge is fixed! I have an awesome landlord who, one day last week while I was at work, came over, removed my food items from my fridge, defrosted it, replaced some part I don't know the name of, cleaned my fridge and then replaced, in uber-organized fashion, my food items in the fridge and freezer. How nice is that??! Now I just have to go grocery shopping to populate it. But one thing at a time.
• This rotation at Mather VA is much less painful than round 1. It is partly because of efficiency, but also partly because the schedule has been changed... again. In addition to your one (week) day off per week, and the "good" weekend day when your team is not admitting and when you can go home once your rounding/work is done (i.e. 3 p.m. for me today), we interns were given another half-day off per week! This is amazing and goes to show how important UCD (at least the medicine, and FP depts) take the work-hour rules and resident quality of life! Now, this makes things difficult for your resident (this week it was Shomir) who, for each intern (Anika and I are on together), has to completely round/write notes (the notes are the worst part!) on your pts on your day off as well as cover the admits on your half day, but this is wonderful for intern mental health and preventing burnout. I was able to nap today, go to the gym, do some errands, watch some movies, relax in general.... still haven't made it to the store, but we're working on it :)
• I like my patients and what I'm doing, for the most part. We have some funny patients... i.e. a super friendly bipolar guy sharing a room with a schizophrenic who swallowed razor blades and who we couldn't discharge until they had cleared his bowel without perforating... I got to do (with Shomir's help!) a paracentesis yesterday to remove ascitic fluid from the abdomen of the bipolar guy with hepC. I like sticking needles in people! :) I feel really bad about some pts... i.e. one young guy of 56 who has end-stage renal disease and will likely start dialysis tomorrow...
• But on a more positive note, I like Guitar Hero! Alvin rounded us up to try this at Phi's house on Thursday for the applicant dinner, and I can see how I could easily get addicted... I didn't try the drums (looks hard!) or singing (still have anxiety about singing in public) but had a fun time with the guitar :)
• My parents made me very jealous by telling me yesterday that they plan to go on a trip to the Amazon Jungle in March! I have no idea when the next time will be I'll get to travel to somewhere exotic, but I'm working on trying to get my sis to be "into" going to Japan sometime. Still want to go to Alaska (where, if you recall, Mom and Pops went over the summer months).
• My dear friends Laura and Tony have started a blog (yes! More people's lives to stalk!!). You can check it out at right or Here. They also have bought tickets to come visit me at the end of March-April, which I'm thrilled about!
• Similarly, I have bought tickets to make a little E. coast trip during my next vacation, which (believe it or not) is at the beginning of February (intern year will be more-than-half-over!!!). I'm not super thrilled about taking terminal Sunday call (meaning I'll be rounding until noon on the Monday the first day of my vacation), much less being in the MICU, but I have to look forward to a visit to the Kitsteiner B and B in and around the resort vicinity of Destin, Fla., as well as seeing my parents, sis, godparents and (I hope!) other friends in northern VA following the trip to the sunshine state.
• Sushi, anyone?? I still cannot get over how many sushi places there are around here. I checked out Nishiki Sushi downtown on Friday with Charmian and Alex, two of my OB co-interns, who I hadn't seen in a while, and it continues to amaze me. Wendi, you'd love it (:)).
• The Kite Runner, one of the best books I've read (if you haven't read it [ahem, Molly], GO get it and read it right now), is (as of 12/14) out in theaters. Apparently I can't find it playing in Sac yet, but I will stalk the moviefone sites until I see that it is playing.
• My first continuity OB patient is due on January 16th. I have followed her this whole pregnancy and am really hoping that I am able to make the delivery; however, being at Mather and in the MICU might make this difficult. In any case, I have spread the word to the night float and maternal-infant care resident to be sure to page/call me if she comes into labor!
• For my dog fix, I get to dog-sit Kate's dog Lefty for the next couple of nights while she's in Denver. It will be nice to have some warm-and-fuzzy company :)
• It doesn't really feel like the Christmas season! Maybe it's because there's no built in "break" this year (and I'll probably be on on Christmas. We don't really decide about our "days off" until around the week of, but I'm pretty sure Anika was going to take Christmas. Maybe I'll have the 24th off. Not sure). Maybe it's because it's like 50 degrees out (but it does get nippy, i.e. 30s in the a.m.s!). In any case, I can't believe it's already the 16th of Dec.! If it weren't for the holiday music, I might have missed the holiday altogether :) Anyway, there's a Messiah concert at the Davis Mondavi Center next weekend I have to look forward to. And I'm trying to get someone to go with me to drive around and see the holiday lights in Sac, which (I've heard) are impressive! Trying to get into the season here :)
• That's enough bullets for one day! :)

Hablas español?

Ok, so I lied.

If you have ever studied Spanish, you will get a kick out of this, also courtesy "de la mamá" (my techie accomplishment for the day is getting the tilde and accent in this blog post). I won't even try to get the video right in here (Wendi, can you show me sometime how to do this??!) :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngRq82c8Baw

Why we need FP/Psych residents

(Mom sent me this... I promise I will come up with an original post sometime soon :))

Hello and thank you for calling The State Mental Hospital!
Please select from the following options menu:

If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.

If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you.

If you have multiple personalities, press 3, 4, 5 and 6 .

If you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want, stay on the line so we can trace your call.

If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be forwarded to the Mother Ship.

If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press, nothing will make you happy anyway.

If you are dyslexic, press 9696969696969696.

If you are bipolar, please leave a message after the beep or before the beep or after the beep. Please wait for the beep.

If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.

If you have low self-esteem, please hang up our operators are too busy to talk with you.

If you are menopausal, put the gun down! Hang up, turn on the fan, lie down and cry. You won't be crazy forever.

If you are blonde, don't press any buttons, you'll just mess it up.

This coming week is National Mental Health Care Week (I'm not sure that it is, but whatever).

You can do your part by remembering to contact at least one unstable person (other than me! :)) to show you care...

'Cause I need a pick-me-up (a.k.a. "Walmart Cake")

(and maybe you do, too) :)

I'm back at Mather VA for my second month of internal medicine. So don't be expectin' to hear too much of me this month :) I'm trying to save the world from hypertensive men with renal failure and coronary artery disease.

Also trying to convince applicants (and Molly) that UC Davis is the right program for them all :0

In any case,

From my cousin Amy:in the text:
<
This is someone who was moving from an insurance claims office. So this is how I imagine this conversation went:

Walmart Employee: "Hello 'dis Walmarts, how can I help you?"

Customer: " I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week."

Walmart Employee: "What you want on the cake?"

Customer: "Best Wishes Suzanne" and underneath that "We will miss you". >>

Even I avoid Walmart.

Molly's visit and misc. other stuff

This has been an interesting week!

Step 3
... is done with! I believe this means that I don't have another "boards"-type test until residency is nearly over (woo-hoo). I was trying to study for this in the past several weeks, doing USMLE World questions and whatnot, but found that I have a much more curtailed attention span than I used to have. I think it went fine, though (Hans and Lesley, you were right!). The first day (Tuesday) was (I think) 7 blocks of multiple choice ?s (I started losing count of what section I was on!). Then yesterday (Thursday) was Day2, with 5 MC blocks and then nine Case simulations where you are given a little vignette, and have to order relevant parts of the physical exam, lab tests, consults, changing patient "location" between office/ED/inpatient units/ICU, etc., trying to be efficient and, at the same time, trying not to kill any patients (which I didn't seem to). It was actually quite funny, because 2 of my cases had to do with vaginal bleeding (I was like, SWEET!).... and I was frustrated with one, because it was a postpartum hemorrhage secondary to retained placenta, and I (as the ED doc) kept trying to get anesthesia there and manually remove the placenta, but the computer program wouldn't let me! I realized that they wanted me to consult OB/GYN to schedule the patient for "surgery", which didn't even cross my mind (I know how the second year OB resident HATES getting ER consults :))!! Anyway, I hear we get scores in about 6 wks or so, so I'm crossing my fingers. Don't want to be retaking any tests!

My first visitor!!!
So inbetween this Step3 madness, I had Molly come to visit! Now, it wasn't really for me, as much as I'd like to think I had something to do with it... she has her Surgery interview here today. But it was such a great time! I had to work in the peds ED Tuesday night after my test but then came home and got some shut-eye Wednesday a.m. before picking her up at the airport around noon. We then (as you can see from the pic above, which she's probably unhappy I posted but which she will get over) spent like 3 hours in Lens Crafters at the mall trying to pick out new frames for her, as her current ones broke on the interview trail. She did not end up with the ones pictured above, in case you were wondering :) We also got to go for a run ("It's so tropical here!" she kept exclaiming!) before going out with the FP/OB applicants to Chicago Fire (great pizza, if you recall!) on Wednesday. I got out of Step3 Day2 early on Thursday and we got to hang out for most of the afternoon that day, too! It was really a perfect time for her to come visit (this has been such a chill month!), and she tried out my chaise/futon thingie to sleep on (and said it was very comfortable [hint, hint]!). Last night, she had a meet-and-greet w/ the surgery residents here while I went to the FP applicant dinner and then, this a.m., I escorted her to Davis Tower for her interview day before coming to clinic. I'm actively recruiting her to come here for residency ("We have great trauma!" I say, and she said that the surgery group seemed great so I'm crossing my fingers). She (sniff, sniff) leaves today to go back to the polar north/midwest for a Northwestern interview. But good news.... next visitors (Laura and Tony!) are coming at the end of March. Below is my best shot of us (it took about 12 tries with the timer) in my apt. yesterday.


Fridge on the Fritz
I am having some technical difficulties in the apt. setting which are complicated my by total lack of fix-it capabilities. I thought my vacuum was majorly malfunctioning, but Molly figured out that it was just on the wrong setting ("high carpet" instead of "bare floor," [but I have carpet!]) and wouldn't suck well. Now it vacuums just fine. This weekend, my kitchen sink started shooting out water everywhere, which freaked me out. Luckily, my landlord was able to come over later in the day and just screw some things down to tighten whatever parts hang out in there. But then when he asked me, "Is there anything else that needs work?" I replied, "Well, come to think of it, my fridge doesn't seem to be as cold as it should be." I have had it cranked up to the "coldest" setting for quite a while now (i.e. weeks to months-- I'm not sure the exact timing.... I haven't been that on the ball about it), but it just feels too warm! I notice that things are going bad well before I get to them which not only distresses me, but makes me uneasy with really buying many things at the store (and/or the hospital cafeteria, where I'm actively trying to "burn" my free meal money!). So he brought over a digital thermometer to figure out exactly how cold/(warm) my fridge is, and it is consistently reading 61-63 degrees! It's crazy! It's warmer than the ambient temperature (outside at least!). So we have to get this fixed. In the meantime, it's lots of room-temperature food and free applicant dinner food that I'm subsisting on. :)

Okay, I think that's enough randomness for one morning. Anyone else want to come visit? (I'll try to get the fridge fixed by then!) :)

O Christmas Tree(s) ... and other holiday joy

I realized that I really love (not just hugging) trees! :) Erin, TJ, and I were going to go to Lake Tahoe to ski this weekend, but, unfortunately, there is no snow yet (and I don't think it's necessarily the temps.... just too dry, I think). Nevertheless, we still made an awesome weekend out of things! We headed down to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, which is South of Yosemite. This was the first time I had been reunited with the beloved trees since my little jaunt up to NorCal in September. Anyway, Friday night, we all congregated at the Piccadilly Inn in Fresno (or, as Kyla told me, "the armpit of California" [why are you going there?" she and Amy both asked!]) which was about 2 1/2 hrs' drive for me and a little over three from Palo Alto (it was Erin, TJ, and Sylvia, one of Erin's peds classmates). I was a bit nervous b/c Erin entrusted me with picking the hotel for that night ("No EconoLodges or anything like a Super8," she instructed me [knowing my tendencies...]. "It has to have indoor corridors." (??!??!). In any case, it worked out just fine. A little posh for my tastes, but whatever....

We woke up early (well, early for some of us!) on Saturday morning to drive into the parks. As we got up higher in elevation, we all started getting a bit nervous b/c TJ's car's thermometer started displaying horrifying temperatures such as 29.... (below freezing?!?! This is California!). Luckily, most of us had some sort of warm-ish gear along, such as hats, gloves, fleece pants, whatnot, so we bundled up and headed out. We checked out General Grant, which was declared a nation shrine by Eisenhower and also known as "Our Nation's Christmas Tree" (appropriate for the season, eh??).

TJ, Erin, and Sylvia by General Grant

We hiked up a trail called "Big Baldy" which had some neat pine trees. We also got flurried on (I won't say "snowed" b/c you could hardly call this stuff snow)-- with these tiny, tiny flakes falling from the sky. It was kind of magical!

Hiking girls (Sylvia did GREAT despite never having hiked before!!)

Cute Augustines... ("You should make this a Christmas card!" I said. "I don't do Christmas cards," replied Erin!)

Another cute one (where Erin said she looked "hotter" without the hoodie)!!

Erin trying to "catch" the snowflakes!!

Then, we headed down and did another brief hike up to Moro Rock, which overlooks some of the canyon. It was definitely chilly up there!!!

Gotta love the timer feature on the camera
Erin "rockclimbing"
w/ TJ on the descent
You can get a sense of how giant these Sequoias are-- here is TJ's car!

I love this one of the three looking up!
I'm not sure what Sylvia is doing... waving? :)

SOOOOOOOO BIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love this one of Erin, Syvia, and me (although we were probably breaking rules by getting off the path...) Sylvia with another interesting move

We also stopped by Giants' Grove and saw the General Sherman (tree), or the most massive tree on earth! It is like 2200 years old and weighs over 1300 tons (yes, tons!!!). Wouldn't want that falling on you :) We also had a nice forest sunset.

"Tree hugging" in the "Land of Fruits and Nuts," or what Erin's dad calls the awesome state of California! :)

We retired to our hotel for the night, Wuksachi Lodge (complete with cozy fireplace... I love it!), where we had a wonderful elegant dinner (see the Chocolate Decadence below :)) and tried not to freeze our butts off or get eaten by bears (we had to be very careful about making sure everything was out of our car!!).

Sunday, we did some more exporing through the park(s), hiking Buena Vista trail which, true to its name, did have some vistas muy buenas :)

We also played a bit near the ice (Erin is barely alive) at Hume Lake.

(We were risk-takers!)
(after Erin nearly slipped to her death on the ice)
I loved these crystals we saw!!

Okay, I know I sound a bit too enthusiastic. I just LOVE exploring. Erin/TJ are perfect people to go with (they want to hit all the national parks in the U.S., which I think is an awesome goal! We all want to go to Alaska sometime soon!). It was such an amazingly fun time, surrounded by beautiful scenery!

I also am just so happy right now in life! When we were in Africa this spring, Kelsey used to say things like "Gosh. I'm just so happy- my heart feels like it will burst from joy!" This used to crack me up and I used to think to myself, "Man, that's goofy. Even if I felt that, I wouldn't say it." But, somehow, I have gotten to feel just about that joyful!

Maybe it's because I'm on an easy rotation and am rested. Maybe because I've gotten to catch up with great friends (and soon to visit with another one... Molly, my FIRST VISITOR [no competition, JB and Wen-- I won't be having a link on the side because it would be measly and pathetic :)], arrives Wednesday!!) and family and have had fun with new friends here! Maybe it's because I am living somewhere awesome and because, most of the time, I'm warm.

Or maybe it's because Christmas music is playing nonstop on the radio. I'm not looked at as looney when I burst into Christmas carols at this time of year :). I love it! And also all the holiday movies on... It's a Wonderful Life, The Family Man, etc.... 'Tis the season to be merry, right? :)

And awesome news I found out this weekend (when Nicole was telling me I sounded pathologically happy on the message I left her....)-- Nicole and Bay are engaged! Okay, I hope I didn't ruin anything by posting that, but I just had to share. My heart (and mouth) are bursting :)

Happy Holidays, everyone!!!!!

Ouch

Just a note, since I have not much else new to report on:

Biking home from urgent care in the dark (albeit with a bike light) + very klutzy, oblivious (most of the time) girl + EXTREMELY LARGE pile of raked leaves in the road = ..... (I think you can figure it out).

At least I didn't tear a hole in the knee of my pants. I also got a lot of sympathy from a pedestrian walking her little dog. My shoulder HURTS, though!

This makes only one fall off this bike. My last prior run-in with a stationary object included running into (at very low speed) a trash can in the bike lane (also in the dark).

Why do people do this to me??! :)

Minitrip to MN

So I avoided another travel near-catastrophe by deciding, amidst my night shift on the 21st-22nd, to try to be tech-savvy and check in online for my Northwest flight to Minnesota. Now, I had never tried to do this before, it not being practical because of my lack-of-a-printer at home; however, while in the peds ED, I thought I might try to get my boarding passes ahead of time.



GOOD THING I CHECKED!!!! I logged into nwa.com at approximately 4 a.m. and found out that my previously-scheduled NOON flight on 11/22 was changed to a 9 a.m. flight leaving Sacto for MSP. Then my connecting flight was an afternoon flight on 11/23 (yes, that is not a typo) to Grand Forks, which would have been just in time for my RETURN flight on 11/24, but not really great for the whole getting-together-with-family plan on Friday. Geez. So I was frazzled as could be but luckily, the ED was not busy and I was able to get this worked out over the phone with NWA... who arranged to fly me to Fargo, N.D. (farther [about an hour and a bit] from my Grandma's but still a decent plan!), but still had me leaving Sacto at 9 a.m. when I was supposed to end my shift at 7 a.m.

It worked out in the end-- my AWESOME peds senior let me take off early from work, I packed like a champ, drove briskly to the airport, and flew through security (I forget that Sacto has a relatively small airport), and made the 9 a.m. flight. I got to Grandma's around 7:30 p.m., which was about 3 hours earlier than planned, and was STILL able to catch up with Lesley in Minneapolis (I couldn't believe that she was still willing to drive up from her yummy Thanksgiving get-together with friends to hang out with me for a couple of hours... esp. with the change-of-plans, but that is Lesley for you! Can you get any sweeter?!), but GEEZ-- that was a stressful hour or so in the wee hours of the a.m. I can't believe that they (the airline) can do that to you... without an e-mail, call, or anything!!!!! I was lucky also in that my luggage all arrived (might have something to do with carrying it all on with me, but still...)...the travel curses kind of continue!

The rest of the weekend was straight uphill from there! It was soooooo great to see Lesley, as I feel like I haven't seen any "old" familiar friends in a while! I only wish I could have seen more Rochester peeps or joined them for what sounded like a fantastic Thanksgiving feast (Kristen, I'm sure your turkey was awesome)! I miss that girl (and everyone else, too!) so much. It was so good to catch up-- even if just for a couple of hours; it's surprising how, when you are with an old good friend, it feels like no time has passed since you last saw eachother! Anyway, here is my favorite picture she took of us, which I stole from her blog. That is baggage claim behind us :) I can't wait to be reunited again in June, when I will next set foot in MN for the Sviggum wedding :)



I was DEAD by the time I got to Crookston, but tried to be a bit social with my parents (who drove all the way to Fargo to get me!), sis, and Grandma, before I crashed. Friday, we all headed out to Maple Lake to Duane and Marilyn's (my great uncle and aunt's), for a day-after-Thanksgiving party (they had a celebration Thursday but then did it all up again-- I couldn't believe that either!).

Leann was there with her boys, Tyler and Alex. Allison, Peter, and the kids (Natalie, Ryan, and Brayden) were there from Wisconsin. Amy was there with Derek and Jacky (although Richard was on call in Fargo :(). There were some miscellaneous pets. Then Dyno and Heather came and joined us all! It was awesome! As was the food! Enjoy the photos!

These are the bathroom towels-- so appropriate (they can sleep like 22 people in the lake house!)Tigger by the windowsill The lake outside.... Brrr (says Vanessa). We even got snowed on a little, in honor of my trip back to the polar north :)
This is my best "let me take a picture of us with my arm out" picture of my sis and meNow onto the food... this is Peter and Duane busy with the turkeyJacky and Natalie, getting ready to chow down!Ryan lighting like a champ the bday cake my Grandma brought for me (while Allison supervises :))
A little goofy, eh?

I said, "Grandma, you have to stop referring to me as 'Dr. Arness'- I don't like it" (she addresses all letters, etc. to that title.) In response, Vanessa says, "Whatever! When I graduate from grad school in May, I'm going to make you all call me "Master Arness"!

With the proud Grandma

Pumpkin pie from Dyno and Heather
With Sophie (the maltese doggie), and Heather and Dyno

Amy, Leann, Mom, Marilyn, and Vanessa (with Sophie), after the first course of dessert
The boys being oblivious: Derek, Ryan, and BraydenFun new ways to play dominoes (they know Mexican Trains, too!): This is Leann, Dyno, and Grandma playing the legit game "Chicken Foot" ...

...and Vanessa making up her own game, "Jenga dominoes," while we all look on and try to refrain from coughing/sneezing so as to not ruin her creation
The girl cousins -- Natalie, me, Van, and JackyThe group (Nattie, Van, Ty, Brayden, Derek, Ryan, Jacky, me, and Alex (blocked my me):))

What fun times! I don't think we left there until after 10 p.m. or something, which was quite a full day (I think we arrived around 11:30 a.m.).

Saturday, we got our shopping in at the Columbia Mall to make Grandma happy, and then I left on a late afternoon flight (no twists or turns!). It was a short, but very sweet, trip-- definitely worth it! Now it's back to work today at 11 a.m.