S/p (status-post) call #1

Last night was my first night of call as an intern. I was truly terrified going in. While I've gotten comfortable in clinic and with the flow of patient care and doing the notes there, this was my first day in the hospital and I worried about everything that could go wrong. I spent Friday morning at the FP clinic and then the afternoon working with one of the reproductive endocrinologist/infertility specialists (very interesting! We did two IUIs and talked a ton about all the various "assisted reproduction" options. I already feel very well-educated on this topic because of Wendi [you're awesome, Wen!], so our discussion was very focused and mature. I also feel that, having watched Wendi go through all this [I really do feel like I have done it myself!], I was very empathetic with the patients. I love endocrine stuff, so I definitely can see why REI is an attractive fellowship after OB/GYN residency. I think I spend Friday afternoons for the next month over in that clinic). In any case, after all that, I found my way over to L & D for board signout and everything that ensued.

It initially felt a bit like my experience on my ER rotation in the past (which I didn't like at all at the start). I just felt stressed out most of the time-- like things were out of control. I had to remember to follow-up on gyn labs and do post-op checks for women who'd had surgeries (i.e. hysterectomies) during the day, try to quickly see patients as they came into triage so that that didn't get backed up, keep up with cervical checks and monitoring the labor patients, etc (we had one G11 so things like that can go fast). I had to answer all these pages on patients I didn't know and always was second-guessing my plan. We have these "vocera" things we wear around our necks on L & D which are kind of like intra-unit walkie-talkies, which I had to figure out (you say things like, "Call OB Chief," and it does!). I am not a very good "juggler" and typically like to do one task at a time, crossing it off my little list of things-to-do.

Matt and Hao, the upper-level OB residents, helped me a ton. They were very patient. They were there to guide me as I figured out how to do wound checks/packing and formal ultrasound measurements like AFIs (amniotic fluid indices), identifying the placenta, etc. I had no shame about asking the nurses where stuff was or how to do stuff. I think everyone generally sets the bar low as far as expectations of interns go (which is good, believe me!) :) This was my "first day," after all. Although Aline oriented me a little the week before last, I hadn't gotten the opportunity to spend days on L & D during the week to get adjusted and everything-- I was just thrown into call.

So, despite the help, it was still kind of terrifying. I had to create the "list" for rounding today. It took me about 2 hours to round on (half of) the post-partum patients (Gaea, my day co-intern, helped with the other half), one of whom I'd delivered, but none of the rest of whom I had ever seen before. After board signout, it took me almost half an hour to dictate two discharge summaries because I didn't know the right buttons to press (i.e. to pause, etc.-- ESSENTIAL) but more because I wasn't good with gathering all the info. I needed -- antepartum course, maternal labs, course of labor, C/S operative reports, anesthesia procedures, etc.... I was just there overnight and knew nothing about these women and their hospital courses, so at one point, I was close to tears with frustration with my own slowness, but fought it off :)

I think things will be smoother next time. I got my feet wet without anything devastating happening. No one died (phew) :) It is very frustrating to me to not be efficient, comfortable, confident, good, and ontop of everything right now, but I know I need to be patient and less of a perfectionist. At this point, it doesn't seem possible that I will, one day, get to the point that the other "experienced" residents are now, where I will be as calm, confident, and collected as they are. But I hope it does happen! I got home around 10:30 and slept for most of the afternoon. I wonder when my body will recover from last night. Till next time...

OH! GOOD NEWS: When we did "GI rounds" (break for dinner-- don't you love that phrase?) last night, I rechecked my food balance and I really have $509, and not $49, on my card! I don't know how I got the wrong amount last time! I am super excited about this! :) But uh oh... this means I have quite a lot of call in the next 6 months.

Feeling whole

Most of you know that I tend to be a pretty involved person who likes to be busy and have my nose in everything. I'm actually a lot more of a loaf now than I used to be-- college was so filled with activities like wind ensemble, orchestra, chamber group rehearsals, honor council, chapel choir, mentoring (and studying, of course!) that I rarely found time to just "hang out" and socialize like most university students do. I averaged about 5 hours of sleep per night my sophomore and junior years-- don't ask me how I functioned, but I did (I guess it was just preparation for residency!). I have gotten better about just "chilling," not feeling as guilty about going to sleep when I'm tired, just sitting around reading, watching movies without multitasking (I still have trouble with this one, though, as I watch a lot of movies by myself), etc. I also travel at a much more leisurely pace than I used to (ask Jason how I drove him crazy in England and Ireland!) and don't mind sleeping in for fear that "time's a wastin' " (if staying in bed until 8 a.m. counts as sleeping in :)). In any case, sometimes I wonder whether being busy is like a band-aid for me. That running around with commitments and filling calendars with all kinds of events, social and otherwise, just makes me feel like my life is less empty even though it still is.

All I know is that I struggled a lot with emptiness and loneliness through my four years of med school in MN. I had never experienced anything like that before-- I had a lot of trouble with sadness and anxiety, self-esteem, eating issues, and more. I felt like something big was missing. Good news: I feel none of that now (and that is medication-free, folks!). While one might expect that I'd feel more alone and isolated here, not having a strong support system yet, I don't. Even when I'm not super busy (my schedule is pretty nice right now, being on an outpatient rotation), like when I come home from work and am by myself puttering around my apartment, I feel so content. I feel hopeful. I feel excited about living and doing things. I feel very whole.

It's tricky moving to a new city. It's a question of balancing "relaxing" and trying not to feel guilty about just going home at the end of a day in clinic, with exploring and experiencing such a new and fun place! I spent quite a bit of time this weekend researching "things to do" in the Sac area. I already have visited Davis and El Dorado Hills (and, last month, Tahoe). I've been to Old Sac, a few parks in the city, and walked/run/ridden around Midtown. I've been on the American Parkway Bike Trail. There are farmers' markets everywhere. There are lots of nearby wineries and wine tours. The coast is a couple of hours from here, mountains equally as close.

As far as cultural opportunities, I got on the mailing list for the Sac philharmonic and baroque groups who perform in town. Sac State has choirs that accept community members as participants (although I'm not sure my schedule will allow me to make regular, weekly commitments). Davis also has the Mondavi Center, a beautiful new performing arts building associated with the University. I have already heard about a Strauss fest and American Bach Soloists Summerfest in July. I plan to do this running club with Kyla and Kate and perhaps an October half-marathon. I looked into volleyball leagues and such, which I had a hard time tracking down. I want to meet gazillions and gazillions of people. But I don't want to overdo things. I don't want to be too busy or sleep-deprived (I think residency will do enough of that), as that, of course, can also leed to poor morale and well-being, burnout, and the like. And, as I mentioned before, I don't want to just fill up my life with activities to try to stave off emptiness. But I don't think that will be an issue here. There are so many things to do that sound so amazing to me-- I just worry I won't have the time to experience them all!

I'm still struggling to find a good church. I had tried a couple of Lutheran ones the week before last and then, this Sunday, tried a few other ones in town-- one mega, one too touchy-feely for me, and another smaller one right around the corner which was mostly "old people". None was a great fit, but I'm still keeping an open mind. I'm hoping to find someone who might go with me (Kyla offered) or who already has a home church that I might try, but I think fewer people are "into" religion here than they were in conservative MN, so it may take some time and hunting. I think it would be great to have a non-medicine-related community to share fellowship with. We'll see.

I try to remember:
Col 2:10 "You are complete in Him."
Phil 4:11: "I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content."

I am content. I feel complete. Life is good (for now-- ask me after my call tomorrow, though ;))

Learning curves

I have been amazed at how much I have learned in just the past three days. I have gone from a timid first-day intern to almost a seasoned resident! Just kidding. But I think a lot of the challenge of internship is just learning how and where things get done-- the medicine is really the same. I floundered around a bit in the medical record, charting the visits from my patients this morning, but felt more like a "real doctor" than I did yesterday. I think I might have even introduced myself as "Dr. Arness." Anyway, so that I don't spend a lifetime at the computer, I will probably learn that my notes need not be that detailed... I will learn to be more efficient and get just the essentials across (although I've gotten better at things like this, I will never be as fast as Hans!).

This afternoon, I spent time with the lactation consultants who see newborns with feeding problems and moms with questions about breast feeding. It was incredibly educational. I really (obviously, not having had a child or done it myself) do not know all that much about the intricacies of breast feeding-- how much (ounce-wise) and for how long (each time, per breast) is normal at each age, intricacies of supplemental methods such as finger and cup feedings, why certain bottle nipples are bad because they lead to "flow sensitivity," how to work all the accessories such as nipple guards and pumps, and how to deal with moms' complaints of pain or soreness. In just a few hours, I felt much more comfortable with all those things and in counseling parents of newborns who may come into my clinic with feeding questions or problems with their babies' weight gain (in fact, just this morning, I saw a little two-week old who was a little slow to grow but who had finally regained her birth weight and seemed to be turning the corner).

I am actually getting quite nervous for OB call on Friday. I talked to Kyla (who's in Connecticut right now) for a good long while tonight about trying to stay calm and "do things right" and all that and felt somewhat comforted after our conversation-- she reminded me that everyone goes through this and feels this anxiety upon starting new things (although I think I probably have more anxiety than most people). I know that I may get slammed on Friday, covering the laboring patients and deliveries, running triage, and cross-covering gyn-onc (speaking of cross-cover, I think I will really hate it. I do NOT feel comfortable answering questions on patients I don't know). I am not sure whether to hope for a "busy night" to quickly get me acclimated to what goes on there or whether I should hope for things to be kind of slow so that I "ease in." In any case, I will learn from whatever happens. The learning curve now is really, really steep and I think, even one week from now, I will feel much more comfortable, confident, and also smarter :)

Other things I have learned recently:

• I learned today that Grandma is going to have another stent placed tomorrow, this one in the right coronary; this was not able to be accomplished during the last cath. She seemed to be doing okay when I talked to her this evening-- it's hard with all of us on different coasts and no one to be right close by.
• I learned that it is not rude to pass slow bikers. Yesterday, I was biking to work behind some really slow girl but didn't think it was polite to pass her, even though she was making my commute much longer than it needed to be. As I was coasting along, this other guy came up behind us and zipped by both of us. So, from now on, I'm passing when I feel like it (when it's safe, of course).
• I have $49 on my ID card to get me through meals through January. This doesn't sound like a large sum. Now, granted, 2 of those months are at the VA hospital, and technically a small sum of money means not a lot of call (they ration money based on your average call schedule, so I should be happy!). But I still don't think it was very generous.
• Believe it or not, Rite Aid is quite a good place to buy alcohol on sale (I love checking the ads and clipping the coupons)-- I got some rum and some irish cream for cheap! :)
• Netflix got wind (maybe they read my blog. Hah!) of Blockbuster's lower rates and special deals like Total Access... so they are lowering their monthly rate by a dollar. Hmm. Now a quandary of what to do.
• Okay, enough blogging. I need to review a few little things like pelvic anatomy, IUPC placement, lac repairs, and the "OB intern survival guide". Time to get my learn on! :)

Family Medicine (in two ways)

First of all, I wanted to mention that my grandmother (Dad's Mom) is at the ICU at Altru Hospital in Grand Forks, ND. She drove herself to the ER in Crookston yesterday after some chest pressure that didn't go away with nitroglycerin and spent the night there. I just got off the phone with the ICU nurse there, from whom I found out that today, they cathed her and ended up doing angioplasty and putting in two stents in her coronaries (LAD and circ, for those nerdy medical ones among you). I remember that, last summer, when she first had a heart attack and ended up in the hospital, I didn't know what to do with myself. Medicine involving your family members is much more scary knowing what we know now, and it's very different being a detached physician (seeing patients in clinic) than wondering about the health and treatment of your loved ones, especially with grandma's health and having spent time doing inpatient cardiology. I felt kind of bad, but this evening, I kind of pumped the ICU nurse about grandma's troponins (cardiac markers), location of the stents, heart rate, etc., explaining why I was so nosy about the specifics, but she was very nice to clue me in on it all. Anyway, she said that grandma was resting comfortably, awaiting the removal of the femoral sheath when her aptt was low enough, and would probably go home within the next day or two. My grandma is a very strong woman who generally minimizes fuss, so it's hard at these times to think of her stuck in an ICU bed. But, with hope, these stents will let her be pain-free and enable her to make many more milestones. She was thrilled to be able to come to my graduation last month (see pics below from dinner at Michael's). Please keep her in your prayers!




Day 2 of intern year was spent in the FP clinic at the ACC. Yesterday, I was really getting the hang of the OB thing and even wondering, "Hmm. This is fun! Maybe I should have done OB/gyn alone." People in the program (Kyla, Aline, etc.) say that this FP/OB program is not the right one for you if you aren't, at times, tempted to swing that way. But, after today, I know that I am not really an obstetrician but a true family practitioner and I know I made the right choice! This program is so, so perfect for me.

While I love doing OB checkups, deliveries, and women's health (and yes, Hans, paps too), I realize how much I love variety. Today in clinic, my patients (yes, my patients! I have my own clinic!) included a 3 year old boy coming in for vomiting, a woman with wrist pain, an older woman with some lumps and bumps, and a young woman wanting to get pregnant. I love peds patients and babies, I love both women and male patients, I love old people as well as young ones, and I just don't think I'd be as happy if I didn't get the variety.

It was a good clinic day! Bob, one of the chiefs, showed me the ropes. It was funny because he was "shadowing" me (and, with me in my white coat and him without [I think he left his at home], people probably thought he was my medical student!)-- I did all the history-taking, exams, plan-formulating, and presenting, but he was just there to make sure I knew where qtips were, to remind me to turn off the outside light after I would go into a room, and to help me "do what I needed to do," especially with regards to electronic charting and ordering. I still have trouble introducing myself-- I usually say "I'm Tara A., a new FP resident," but maybe I should transition to Dr.... I forget to respond when the nurses refer to me as "Dr. Arness" and all that! But even just having the title of "intern" instead of "MS4" has given me a lot of confidence, something which I tend to lack. I go ahead and tell the patients a tentative plan and answer their questions about diagnoses and treatment rather than taking the out and saying, "Well, let me go talk to Dr. so-and-so, the boss." It's very neat. I just really love outpatient clinic, so it should be a great month!

Other things I have recently discovered:

• The VA has too much paperwork. We do our internal medicine rotations (my first one is in September) at the Mather VA hospital and have tons of forms, for background checks, documentation that we read packets, and all kinds of other nonsense. Today, I had to get fingerprinted, which took FOREVER. I need a better explanation for the reason for all this.
• Normal holidays are taken here. And I believe that if we are on an outpatient rotation (as I, luckily, am), we get them off. So I may have July 4th off (I haven't confirmed this yet). It would then just be a question of finding some plans for the day :)
• A make-up box in the microwave. I thought I was losing my mind when, this morning, I was hunting around for this plastic toiletries kit that had in it eye-makeup remover, among other things, and I couldn't track it down ANYWHERE. One-bedroom apartments are not very large. I didn't know how I could have misplaced it in the move (I did realize, a couple of weeks ago, however, that I did forget to pack a whole cabinet of spices back in MN! I am spice-less currently!). Anyway, about this box-- I could have sworn I saw it in the rental truck, but it was nowhere to be found in any of my cabinets, drawers, or closet storage space. Until this evening, that is, when I went to microwave some edamame (yay, Trader Joe's!) and found it in there. I obviously hadn't needed either the box's contents or my microwave until today, but luckily the box's finding and the use of the microwave coincided when I needed them to :)
• Wasabi Salad Dressing. This is, quite possibly, my favorite salad dressing ever tasted.
• Forgotten money. Maurine at Mayo is sending me a reimbursement check for the expenses I incurred in attending the transplant meeting in San Fran back in May. And I got a check back from my previous landlord in MN with the return of my deposit. Party! Just kidding :) I have to start saving for retirement (something that is on my "to do" list to research... Laura, can you ask Tony for some financial advice for me? :))
• Blockbuster Total Access. A rival program to Netflix, this allows you to both get movies off a queue by mailing in your DVD and to return movies in-store for a new DVD right away. It is a bit cheaper than Netflix for the same numbers of DVDs out at a time, and also gives you ecoupons for a free in-store rental per month (I'm optimistic about the free time I'll have as an intern!). I am considering making the switch, once my two weeks of free Total Access are up (Currently watching: Pursuit of Happyness). Back to it!

Davis and Day 1 as a "real doctor" (maybe) :)

I forgot to include some pictures of my little jaunt this past Saturday morning to the cute town of Davis, CA, about 15 miles west of here on Hwy 80. They have great Farmers' markets on Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoon/evenings (with live entertainment and things!), which I was told I needed to check out. So off I went. The pics aren't the greatest, but here is one booth and then some kids playing in the patio sprinklers.

"World's Best Popcorn" (if you like popcorn, that is-- I'm not a huge fan)

Central Park by the Farmers' Market

The town was bigger than I thought. I didn't make it over to the campus, but Davis is home to UC Davis, a college with an undergraduate population of close to 23,000 (! Richmond was only 3000!). There are tons of young people running (well, maybe not all running, but you get the idea) around everywhere. They are also biking everywhere-- Davis is like the bicycle commuting capital of the world or something. I think there are the most bikes per mile of roadway there than anywhere else in the nation. It's very cool! I even saw a bike path alongside the highway I took to get there-- I'll have to figure out how to get on that sometime for a nice (,FLAT) ride :). I wandered around the downtown area a bit-- saw some neat indie bookstores and art shops and got some yummy pluots and hummus from the market.

Okay, onto my first day as a "real" doctor! :) Actually, I'm not sure that is accurate-- on Friday, at the hospital-wide intern orientation, we got a talk from someone who works with the California medical board who told us that until we are "licensed" (which entails passing USMLE Step3 and all that-- and CA has one of the most stringent licensing laws), we are NOT to claim that we are doctors. We can NOT introduce ourselves as "Dr. so-and-so" or claim to be a physician. We can say "resident" or "M.D." but we are NOT doctors. This, as you can expect, caused a lot of confusion. "But we have been told to introduce ourselves as Dr. so-and-so," said most of the interns. "Does our M.D. not mean anything?" asked others. "Ask your legal department," instructed this guy. Geez. So even though someone from HR clarified that, under the UC Davis system, we are allowed to "claim" doctorship, this guy scared and confused us all, and I'm not sure how to introduce myself.

Today, I started in OB/GYN clinic. I worked with Hao and Andi, two second-(almost third-year) OB residents, and ended up splitting their lists so that I would staff some patients on my own with the attending (who doesn't necessarily have to see the patients!). This, although slightly unnerving, was also very cool. My name stood as the "providing" M.D. (they give us provider numbers and things). It's nice to finally have some independence and be trusted! I did a lot of OB return visit checks as well as one new OB visit (with ultrasounds!), as well as some paps and gyn exams. Truly, this was great to start with, because OB is basically OB wherever you are, and it is nice to start with something I feel extremely comfortable with. I also LOVE clinic. However, what was really hard was getting used to all the paperwork-- lab forms, consent forms, return visit forms, billing forms, etc. It is hard to be efficient when you don't know where anything is-- i.e. where in the chart you look for certain tests, where the microscope slides are, where you order ultrasounds, etc. I think I was getting the hang of it by the end, but it is just a bit slow in starting. In fact, on L & D, they have little pin buttons on the wall that say things like "I am just an intern," which I feel like asking if I can wear on my white coat (this is also weird to get used to-- we have to wear white coats now!) :) Anyway, everyone (including the patients) was very patient, supportive, and understanding, and I had a good first day of my first job!

I'm loving the bike commuting! The ACC (ambulatory care center) where I'll be spending lots of time is about a 15 minute bike ride from my door. This includes a left turn off a busy road (there is another tricky left turn on my way home) which I haven't quite figured out how to work yet. I have a nice little mirror on my bike handle which lets me see traffic coming behind me, but it's really hard to get in the left turn lane unless it's really clear. So I've been crossing at some crosswalks (yes, with my cute helmet and all that). It took a bit longer to get home, with the traffic lights not in my favor-- but it's still a really easy commute and I love getting the exercise, as well as getting the time to "gear up"/"wind down." And it's nice feeling like I'm saving $40/month on parking.

Anyway, Day 1 of internship went well. It's weird not seeing my co-interns regularly after spending so many hours with them last week, but I hope we meet up from time to time (if only to read eachother's PPDs [TB tests] and stuff-- we were told we could do this! How cool and "doctorly," eh?).

Fires are Bad

Just thought I'd post quickly to mention, if you haven't already heard about them, the extensive wildfires that are ripping through South Lake Tahoe (about 100 miles from here, causing a shut-down of highway 50E), destroying homes and forcing evacuations. Please keep these residents in your prayers!

Intern Bonding

The resident events have continued for the past couple of days. We had an all-intern orientation on Friday which was long, but which resulted in getting our name badges and everything. I felt like I should be more outgoing and that I should "diversify" instead of continuing to huddle around the same FP people (especially while it's so early in the year), so I boldly walked over to a random table of people at lunch and sat down. Turns out they were the ortho guys and, although I think they looked at me a little strangely at the beginning, they were all nice. I broke the ice with, "So I was contemplating ortho, but family medicine just seemed like a bit better of a fit." :)

Within the FP department, lots of bonding has been going on in the past couple of days. I thought it was about time I posted some pictures so you can get to know some of who I talk about from now on (I informed my classmates that they will, for the next several years, have to put up with my constant photo taking). I do have a blog to keep up, after all! :)

Friday afternoon, we FP interns (and the chiefs, Bob and Meredith) went to a Ropes Course at Sac State and did some problem-solving/team activities, which were fun indeed. We then spent a bit of time together at a pub (called the "Londoner" or something) and also tried out the famous Big Spoon Yogurt, a pay-by-the-ounce place where you can mix and add up to 75 different toppings to your frozen yogurt. It was amazing. But there are a gazillion other ice cream/yogurt places within Sacramento that I will have to try at later dates. I think I definitely moved to the right city given my ice cream addiction! :)

From left: Phi, Anika, Brenden, Jeremy

Brenden, Jeremy, me, Meredith, Bob, Phi

This afternoon, we had a pool party at Dr. Balsbaugh (program director)'s house in Carmichael. Lots of current faculty, as well as some other year residents, attended.

Rocky, Huey (faculty) with daughter Allison, and Phuc

Adeel (FP/Psych), Jeremy, and his new wife Noelle (I was in this picture but looked bad so I cropped myself out-- Thanks, Laura, for showing me how to do this in Picasa! Now I can forever censor the blog... he he...:))

With Adeel and Jeremy (this one was acceptable enough to post :)). Please do note the sunglasses.... AND SWIMSUIT :) Yay, California.

Kenia (Aline's daughter) who was adorable in the play house. I finally "caught" her on camera after she kept opening and quickly shutting the doors.

We are trying to get all of our socializing in as, come Monday, we are all going to be sleep-deprived residents who have very little time for hanging out! I still can't believe it. Tomorrow is the last full day of freedom!

Oh... I think this was the first time I've ever posted two posts in one day! I think that there's a good chance that they will become fewer and farther in between as this year goes on, so I thought I'd try to do this while I could! :)

Ugly pooches

Wow! I know it was probably a shocker to open up the internet browser and see THAT. So I'll let you recuperate for a second. If you're okay, read on.

This is just a quick post to honor one little doggie named Elwood (a Chinese Crested/Chihuahua cross; pictured above) that won the "world's ugliest dog" award at the recent Sonoma-Marin (northern California) fair. Most of the other competitors were also at least part Elwoods's breed (it is apparently so, so ugly!). He actually he became a pet because the breeder thought he was too ugly to sell and was going to put him down! Gasp!

Here is another portrait of Elwood. You gotta love the tongue.

And here are some other contestants that (I think, obviously) gave him a run for his money! :) You can read the dog bios HERE.

Ellie

Pee Wee Martini
Poppy
Squiggy

Although I think Duncan and Freya are adorable already, they look even more cute now! I wish I had a doggie.

Good to know that....

• The area I went biking to the other evening on the Northern Parkway was not a good area to be in as a lone female
• There are lots of homeless people in Sacramento due to the climate, which means they come around our alleyway and go through the trash. We have been instructed to make sure to not leave anything in sight in our cars, which are parked off-street in the back alleyway.
• Bananas ripen QUICKLY here, as in possibly more quickly than I can keep up with! I'm going to have to seriously scale down my purchasing so that I don't get too stressed out.
• There are multiple highway 80s which take you around different sides of town. I figured this out yesterday when, once again, I was lost in Sacramento.

With regards to residency:

• Our first payday is July 1
• My first rotation is Gyn
• My first night on call is on L & D (labor and delivery) on Friday, June 29
• My first vacation block is the two-week time period of September 17-30
• I get 5 weeks of vacation this year
• We wear teal scrubs on L & D
• Barb (FP "housestaff coordinator") always has chocolate at her desk
• We can access Up to Date, the EMR, and all else via VPN at home
• We are entitled time off for doctor's appointments
• Residency work hour rules are the following (the only exception being to attend a continuity delivery):

1. Duty hours are limited to 80 hours per week, averaged over a four-week period, inclusive of all in-house call activity.
2. We are guaranteed one (24-period) in seven days free from all educational and clinical responsibilities, averaged over a four-week period.
3. We should get a ten-hour period of rest inbetween all daily duty periods and after in-house call.
4. In-house call must occur no more frequently than every third night (the rules say "averaged over a 4-week period," but UC Davis is kinder and says "forget the average. No call more frequent than q3")

More things I love about being here:

• Kate. She (originally from Goodhue, MN) and I went out tonight for a drink at the Riverside Cafe. We are at quite a similar stage in life and have a lot in common, despite her being more important and accomplished (being done with residency!) than am I, and I'm excited to hang out with her more! She's also letting me store extra boxes (in the event-- I'm hoping it won't be the case-- that I have to move) in her garage. Additionally, she has a very sweet dog (Lefty) who she said I could play with anytime :)
• The weather. Now, I know I mention this all the time, but it is truly remarkable. I could not imagine anything nicer. It's nice and crisp in the mornings-- i.e. 60 or so, but then gets up to the 80s or 90s during the day. Never any clouds. Never any rain (in the summer at least). Sunglasses are required, but well worth wearing despite how silly I look in them. The cross-campus walk between the hospital and clinic is very pleasant. I know it hasn't been 115 yet, but I think I will deal just fine even if it does get that hot. "It's dry heat," as they say. Speaking of dryness, I think my frizzy hair might do okay here. Anyone have strong feelings about whether I should grow the hair out again or keep it short (to remember the "long hair" look, please see pic on the right side of this page-- I sometimes forget what I looked like!)?
• The OB interns. We had dinner at the program director's house yesterday evening, and I love these girls already! They have done so many interesting things-- such as working in Paris and speaking French fluently to her half-French/half-Spanish husband (Alex), getting a masters in toxicology and recently traveling Europe (Gaea), having infant children (Julia, Gemma), dating a wine-connoisseur (Lucy), and doing Peace Corps in Guatemala (where she met her husband; Charmian).
• My FP colleagues. They are a very well-rounded, diverse group of individuals who are really fun to be around. We have a low-ropes event at Sac State tomorrow, which I'm sure will help further in team-building.
• The diversity. Davis (or Sacramento?) is supposed to be one of, if not THE, most diverse cities in the country. I believe it, and I love it.
• The quality of teaching here. We had great instruction in placing umbilical lines and in our neonatal resuscitation scenarios this morning. Aline, the (upcoming) third year FP/OB, showed me around L & D this afternoon in preparation for next week's (and the next four years') call, and was great about patiently teaching!
• NO SUITS. I can't even express how excited I am about the "California (quite) casual" dress code here.
• Starting at 8 a.m. I know I will soon be sleep-deprived and waking up much, much earlier, but orientation has at least allowed us some extra time at home in the mornings. But it's getting late-- I should head to bed.

On friendship and keeping in touch

I really love people. Lots of people. Relationships definitely are what keep me going.

Having moved to a new city where I knew virtually no one (except the people I met while interviewing [people keep asking me, "So do you know anyone here? Friends? Family?" to which I reply "Basically, just the people in this room"]), it is weird to not have good friends around. I've given a lot of thought to this lately..... what is the point of friendship or making friends? What is the point of moving somewhere, meeting lots of wonderful people, moving again and losing touch with some, meeting more, only to lose some more the next time? Does it end? Does it ever get any easier?

I often lament that the friends I have moved away from are all meeting new people who they'll like more and who will "replace" the role I once had in their lives. It's kind of silly, I know. But I still think it. I guess it's kind of my own problem for I am the one who is generally moving voluntarily. However, I wonder whether I will ever be somewhere (other than heaven, if I somehow make it there... :)) where all (or a lot) of the people I love are in the same location. Probably not. It's really sad that most will become long-distance relationships.

So far, I have always felt closest to the people who are living in the same place I am. I think part of it is that my personality has changed and I have "grown" more comfortable with who I am and who I am around. I do still get together with friends from high school, and I'm still close to college friends. But, now that I'm in California, will my best friends be here? Will I even have any close friends?! (I have to really force myself to go out and try to start up conversations with new people-- I'm already noticing that, at these orientation things, I'm huddling in my "comfort zone" with the FP interns rather than meeting as many people as I can). I really wonder! What happens to my Mayo people who I was pretty sure would be friends for life? Will they still be wonderful friends if we are never in the same location again?

What is the purpose of keeping in touch? How many people is it reasonable to keep in touch with? Where is the line? Most of you know that I love talking to and meeting up with anyone and always (perhaps too compusively) write back. If it were up to me, I would probably never lose contact with anyone. The more friends, the merrier, I think-- it is great to know people all over the country (and world!). But people do grow apart and relationships can become superficial... when one person starts to let it slip or backs off, should you let it die? Or, if it's important to you, do you try to maintain it? I hate feeling like a friendship is more important to me than it is to the other person, but I feel bad about myself and feel like a failure when relationships fail or disappear. However, I don't want to be a stalker (any more so than I am now, anyway) :).

I think this post is getting a big depressing so I should turn it around. I'd like to say that I am LOVING keeping in touch with others via blogs. I'm so happy that Lesley saw the light and switched to blogger, Rachel talked Hans into "letting her" get a blog, and Mindy also started one (new links also to the right for anytime access!). If you're reading this, I would really appreciate it if, right now, you would go set one up (https://www.blogger.com/start) so that I could read up on your life too. It's not difficult, as even I, who is quite technologically-challenged, have (even though it's not as fancy as Kristen's stuff!) figured out how to link things, post pictures, etc. And I'd be willing to bet you could keep up with Lesley as far as postings go :) (starting strong, though, Les!). Think about it.

In a bit, I head to a dinner with the OB interns and chiefs (potential new friends... :) )

Oh-- I got my new UC Davis e-mail today, although the domain is a bit cumbersome. I also have a landline, should anyone want the number. Gmail and cell (and blog, of course) should still be good ways to keep in touch!

Orientation and "Are you nuts, too?" :)

Orientation, while painful at times, has actually been quite useful. I have felt quite lost around the UC Davis campus the past couple of days-- but at least I'm not alone.

Monday, I joined the new OB interns (6 girls--Gaea, Gemma, Lucy, Julia, Alex, and Charmian) for a welcome breakfast with the chiefs. They all seem like wonderful people and I'm sure, being such a small intern "class," we will be close. We then shuttled to an Evalue training session with some other interns (I think there are somewhere about 100-150 total; FP is one of the biggest departments) where we learned how to log our resident work hours and all that (UC Davis is very good about being compliant about the 80 hour workweek, etc., which is good to hear).

I met up with my FP colleagues and, with the peds interns, we had a neonatal resuscitation lecture and written test (the practical portion is on Thursday). There are 12 other FP interns starting with me-- 2 (Adeel and Michelle) are FP/psych (5-year program) and the other 10 are traditional track FP. Two (Betza and Susanna) went to med school here at Davis, and most have some ties to this or the Bay area although may have moved away for college or med school. There are 4 men (Phi, Jeremy, Adeel, and Brenden) and 8 women (Betza, Rocky, Anika, Susanna, Amy, Michelle, Mahsheed, and Phuc). 6 are married, 6 are not.

I spent Monday afternoon mostly with OB, doing suturing, tying, learning episiotomy repairs, etc., but felt a bit torn because FP had all this clinic orientation stuff that they had to do separately for me later because I missed it. I actually missed some of the OB triage stuff because I was trying to sort things out. I think I will feel torn a lot in this residency (or at least kind of like I have a split personality), especially this orientation week.

FP had a nice welcome dinner at an Italian place in town, Espanol, where we got to meet residents and their families from the other years, as well as some of the other faculty and staff. Everyone seems great so far!

Today, we had an FP welcome breakfast, where we got to share, among other things, one thing "about us" that was not on our application. I felt the need to (so as to not alarm people later) share my feelings about throwing away food, so, from now on, I'll probably be labeled as the "freaky klutzy girl who eats rotten bananas" (although they don't know about the blog yet :)). But I guess there's no sense in trying to hide something that is just going to come out later :) People still talked to me :) I hope I'll be able to make some friends despite being slightly weird*....

We had some more clinic orientation stuff, including briefings on the different community outreach programs we'll be involved in, resident policies, and then spent some time in the Simulation center doing mock codes, deliveries, etc. Tomorrow will be a full day of human resources and computer orientation. Yay :)

*Speaking of weirdness... while home in Virginia, I read a HILARIOUS article by Peter Carlson in the Washington Post that discussed a recent Reader's Digest (one of my favorite magazines although I don't subscribe and thus didn't read this) article about "Are you normal or nuts?" If the first link doesn't work, you have to get a WashPost login and read it in its entirety, as I shouldn't reproduce everything here. Anyway, Digest readers wrote in "things they do" that are borderline wacky, and psychological professionals answered whether or not they were truly weird. Here are some snippets from Carlson's article quoting some questions:

Q. "'I'm 47, and I love to rub satin,' wrote one Digest reader. 'As a child, I would rub the satin on my blanket while sucking my thumb. Now I carry a satin hankie with me everywhere, and I can rub it in my pocket. It always calms me down. Is that nuts?'."

According to Carlson, the therapist and RD writer William Speed Weed (I can't believe that this is his real name, but whatever) responded, "no," saying "as an anti-stress device, satin-fondling beats smoking or overeating. A little private satin rubbing never hurt anyone."

Regarding a girl who could not bear to have her food touching and required different plates for different foods (i.e. meat, potatoes, etc.), Carlson quoted Speed Weed replying with, "Ask yourself what will happen when you go out on a date. Will you demand that the kitchen send you five plates and five forks? Good luck getting a second date." Ha. At least my problem is getting a first date :)

Carlson mentioned a third person who wrote, "I hate choosing things," [such as silverware out of a drawer]. "When I finally choose a spoon, I feel bad for all the others. I even sort of apologize to them: 'Sorry, guys. Next time!' Is this weird?" Hmm. Does this sound a bit like me feeling bad for "lonely" pieces of food/fruit on plates? If so, I'm in trouble. The experts marked this person as genuinely wacky.

I learned that there is a disorder (on the OCD spectrum) characterized by compulsive counting known as arithromania. Other wacky people included someone who couldn't bear to drive next to a car going the same speed and another who is unable to throw anything away (Does this include food? Uh oh....)

Anyway, we all have our idiosyncrasies, right? I dare you to comment with yours! :)

Getting to know you..... (sung)

Friday night, I went to the OB department graduation banquet. Although I really didn't know anyone there (including the [6] OB chiefs, with the exception of Sarah [FP/OB] and Aline [FP/OB two years above me]) and felt a bit out of place at the start, I quickly met a few people, including some faculty, current OB residents, and Alex (female, Wendi!), one of my co-(OB)interns. It is a bit strange that I am part of two departments (meaning I get invites to both departments' events and orientation activities-- yay), but I think of it as double the social network :). It is also a bit strange to feel kind of like an outsider and friendless-- you forget that it takes time to get to know people!


Anyway, the dinner was held at the Firehouse restaurant, an establishment dating from 1853, in the part of Sacramento known as "Old Sac," a cobblestone streeted area that resembles an old western gold-rush town. I didn't know this part of town existed and, while a bit touristy, it was neat to visit. I have to keep reminding myself that I am not a tourist (despite there being so many things I want to do and explore) but rather a resident of Sacramento! :) I still can't believe I am LIVING in California!

The food (free dinner--woo-hoo) was wonderful (this restaurant is very well-known), and the setting also beautiful, in an outdoor courtyard/patio area shaded with trees. I had a fun time out, and I got to wear one of the many dresses I got before I left MN from my California girl Lesley (I'm sure they'll get much wear here!).

Here are some pics that I took, followed by some ones from their website

A historic building, Old Sac

My "governator"!

The Firehouse

Courtyard

Yesterday, Chris (my plane friend who has sort of adopted me as another daughter) invited me out to a wine-tasting event at the town center in El Dorado Hills, a town in the foothills just east of here. They featured wine and snacks from many of the local wineries, including Bogle, Chevalier (the author Tracy Chevalier, of Girl with the Pearl Earring, The Virgin Blue, and more is the cousin of the winery owner!), and others. I also got to meet Chris' daughter Sunny and her friend Jenn, who were very excited to have a newbie to show around and to hang out with! The weather was gorgeous, the food and company great, and as we drove back in the convertible with the top down, I was still saying to myself incredulously, "I live here?!".

Other news:

• I passed my written driver's test at the DMV on Friday, which was kind of tricky! My license should be on its way soon.
• My chairs are assembled (phew!). On my Dad's recommendation, I took my partially-assembled chairs back to the Furniture Showcase place. Apparently, the bolts were in the right place but it wasn't possible to manually tighten them anymore (which made me think they were misaligned). But with a guy's help and a handy-dandy-power-tightener-screwer-thingie, 10 minutes later, the job was done. I feel so relieved :) And I am vowing that it will be a long time before I purchase any more furniture requiring self-assembly.
• Today, I double churched it to two close Lutheran Churches I found online. St. John's (ELCA) is under construction, but seemed nice and very familiar (they also have a service entirely in Spanish, which I want to check out!), and Trinity (Missouri Synod) was a bit more formal but with very nice music. I may do a bit more shopping in coming weeks-- Kyla (FP/OB the year above me--this will be her last introduction because I'm pretty sure we are going to be great friends) offered to go with me to try out other places (assuming I actually have some Sundays off :)). Maybe I need to find more of a young person's/contemporary church. We'll see.

St. John's Lutheran Church

• I bought a bike today. It's a Trek FX 7.2 (hybrid-- Laura has a Trek too and helped me a lot during my "shopping" process) that I plan to use to get to/from the hospital (as parking is $30/month) as well as to take on some trails (I can't wait to try out the American River Parkway). Between the Prius and the bike, I am going to be doing some serious environment-saving :)
• Speaking of the car, the Prius is very smart. So smart, in fact, that after I left the parking lot at the grocery store with some goods in the passenger seat, the car started beeping at me because the passenger seatbelt wasn't fastened. Honestly. It was sensing the weight somehow! After a minute or so of this, I got so fed up that I fastened the passenger seatbelt around my grocery bags. I felt ridiculous, but at least the car shut up. Groceries will always go in the back from now on.
• Speaking of food: Trader Joes exist here! I was there today and will have to seriously restrain myself from going there every day. I've been told there is also a co-op nearby, as well as a Whole Foods up in the northern part of town, which I will have to check out.
• Avocados are cheap. Very cheap. And good.
• Popsicles melt quickly in cars in Sacramento. I like popsicles a lot and plan to eat them year-round.
• There are good farmers' markets-- Today, I checked out one that goes on Sunday mornings year-round selling tons of fresh fruit, veggies, honey, flowers, pluots (! apricot/plum hybrid), meats, cheeses, and more. Rock on.
• There are lots of choices-- of pharmacies, grocery stores, Mexican restaurants, Sushi places, Thai restaurants, ice cream places, coffeeshops, bike shops, hardware stores, furniture stores, etc.... No "Hyvee monopoly" town are we. There is everything you could ever ask for in this town!
• One can not leave the house without water or sunglasses. Never a big water-drinker (partly because of a less-than-average-sized bladder) nor sunglasses-wearer (my ears are uneven so I think they look funny on me), I realize that I have to become both of those.
• There are lots of tricky one-ways in Sacramento. I have been getting where I need to go really by trial-and-error. It's hard to get lost, though. I don't panic (even when roaming around West Sac the other night) because things are very logical.
• I am getting good at reciting the alphabet backwards (east-west streets in midtown/downtown are lettered; I live on U Street).
• There is a public library branch 1 block from my house! There are many city branches and you can borrow/return books to any one of them (and have books sent to a different branch). I promptly got a library card.
• There is a YMCA 3 blocks from my house with a pool. While the weather here is so mild that you can be outside year-round, I would love to swim once in a while. The monthly fee is higher than at Dan Abraham. We'll see if I decide it's worth it to join. I should probably make use of the stairstepper I lugged (and which tested Wendi and Nikola's spatial organization abilities into the UHaul) from Minnesota.
• Kyla and Kate (her former roomate, another Minnesotan transplant here as a peds hospitalist) are planning to join a training program for a half-marathon in October (I think) and invited me to do it with them. I said I was in! :)
• One of Erin's peds intern classmates at Stanford is Amy Chow, olympic gold-medal-winning gymnast (please tell me that you, too, were obsessed with gymnastics --I LOVE watching it, even though I wouldn't be able to stay on a balance beam to save my life). I know this because, a while back, Kate saw her on a residency interview here at UC Davis but guessed she would stay at Stanford for residency, and I asked Erin if she was on her class list! She says that she seems normal and that no one else seems to be aware that they are amidst a celebrity :) How awesome is that?!
• Currently reading: Neonatal Resuscitation textbook
• First day of UC Davis orientation: tomorrow. YIKES!

Furniture Frustration

I think I have found something I hate more than my previously most-detested activities of unloading the dishwasher and packing/moving. It is assembling furniture.

I had, waiting for me, a pub table and chairs from this Furniture Warehouse that needed to be assembled. I remember putting together my desk, dresser, and desk chair for the Ikea furniture I'd gotten in high school. So, although I wasn't thrilled with undertaking this task, I figured I'd be able to do it (this morning, while waiting for my sleeper couch to be delivered and the cable guy to come) without too much trouble.

I was wrong. The instructions demonstrated easily the steps I needed to take to attach the chair platform to the apron back, inserting the short and long bolts through the lock washer and flat washers and then tightening them with the wrench. But, just to attach the seat to the back, you had to put in six bolts and I could NOT, for the life of me, to get all six aligned in their little screw holes so that they could all be tightened down. The most I got was 5/6, which was not good enough.

I switched to the other chair (two come with the table) to see if I'd have better luck. Nope. I couldn't even get the second bolt in directly. At this point, I was very frustrated. I know why people cry out of frustration. I was close. This is something that, intellectually, is not difficult to do but which, physically, I just couldn't. Grr.

I did feel somewhat better after I had no trouble with the table and the four legs. Feeling more confident, I returned to the chairs, but no more luck. At this point, my thumb and index finger on my right hand are worn raw and developing blood blisters from turn, turn, turning so much without success.

This is one of those times when it really sucks to live alone. Where's Daddy when you need him? :) I'm going to have to find me a friend (literally) to help with this. I guess I'll move on now to hanging some pictures.

Oh-- and the cable guy still isn't here.

Safe in Sac

I made it safely from Virginia to California today! I flew on Frontier Airlines, which really impressed me. Everything was on time, the employees and flight crew were all really nice, and they gave free beverage refills and snacks! :) I connected through Denver and was to California (P.S.T.) by about 2:15. And all the luggage was here! :)

On the plane from Denver, I sat next to Chris, a very friendly gentleman in his 60s who is a longtime Sac resident and who was very enthusiastic about telling me about the wonderful city I was about to start calling home. We chatted for almost the entire duration of the 2 1/2 hour flight, and he was able to answer my questions about performing arts venues (Davis has a beautiful new concert hall building), sports (Kings suck currently but there is a decent minor-league baseball team), closest Target, Home Depot, etc., access to bike trails, the light rail and transportation to San Fran (there is a commuter train with several departures daily), weather (awesome) and more. He thinks I would really hit it off with his daughter and, since I'm up for meeting and hanging out with whoever, I might have found a new friend :)

He was also extremely generous in offering me a ride from the airport. I was prepared to cough up money on the Super Shuttle (which Kyla told me was far superior to taking a cab), but he insisted on dropping me off at the Toyota dealership where I picked up the Prius. We had a brief stop on the way at the Wag Hotel, a doggie hotel where his and his daugther's dogs (Gus and Bella, respectively) were being lodged while they were both away. I couldn't believe how posh this place was -- they had advertisements for "moonlight dog walks before the lights are dimmed for the night," "pawdicures" (you can choose red, pink, or blue polish!), and more. Oof da. I don't even think Duncan and Freya are that spoiled, although they do enjoy going to the "doggie hotel."

I hit Home Depot and the grocery store before making it back to my apartment. I thankfully figured out the airconditioning (it's like 100 here- LOVE IT although it's nice to be cool indoors), my landline, and the internet set up, so I'm getting there! I also met one of my (upstairs) neighbors, Banafsheh, who is going to dental hygiene school and was excited to meet a Sac-newbie. We may hang out this weekend. I still have to do some furniture assembling, get the cable set up, wait for the sleeper couch thingie to be delivered, and get to the DMV and post office tomorrow. Lots to do!

Current time zone: Pacific Standard Time
Current temperature in Sacramento: 89 (9:00 p.m.)
Finished reading: California Driver's Manual (don't rush to the library to get this one)
Current procrastinating activity of choice: Online Sudoku that Laura told me about. Yikes!

Buds, Baltimore, and Bye-Bye, East Coast

The last two days have, as the others have, been filled with more visits to friends in the area.

Tuesday, I met Jesse (a friend from my days as a tennis/athletic counselor at TIC), his wife Idara, and daughter Laila in Silver Spring for lunch. Jesse informed me that he has updated his bi-monthly blog, so you'll have to check it out :) His kids are growing so fast! Laila, who just got out of school for the year, was incredibly cute during lunch-- manning their camera and making fingerprint artwork on the restaurant's windows (Idara may not agree).





I met up with Susan, Anna, Jordan, and Lauren (friends from high school) at Cafe Asia in Rosslyn Tuesday night. The Lycheetini we all tried was marvelous; I also had my first experience with sake (not all bad)! :) I love seeing these girls, however infrequently it ends up being, and wish I could be around more!

After talking to Nicole over the weekend and realizing our current proximity to one another, today I drove to Baltimore to check out her hood! I met her at her apartment, which is in a really nice complex! She even has an outdoor pool, fitness center, easily accessible fitness trail, and more! :) And it seems really safe. She is quite a bit northwest of the downtown area (Baltimore gets quite a reputation for crime), but close enough to where she thinks she will be spending a lot of her clinical time through her program this year. I felt privileged to be invited in, as Bay is the only other person who has been to her place!

Here are some shots of her cute, cute apartment:

Bedroom (Ikea is her friend. She also got a steal on a memory-foam mattress!) Living room. Doesn't it look bright and airy?
Nicole pretending to be reading while I took her picture behind her desk/dining table (multipurpose furniture is the way to go these days!)

We drove into downtown (well, I drove-- there is some issue with her tags so that it's better her vehicle does not get sighted....) and swung by the Johns Hopkins Medical Center, pictured below. It was apparently the first place where Grand Rounds was held and definitely is one of Mayo's biggest rivals. We'll see which institution Nicole deems superior :)

We also found our way to the Inner Harbor and spent sometime wandering around that area and enjoying the summer weather (all the while exclaiming how much we love the warmth!). It's been a few years since I was in Baltimore, so it was fun to revisit the sights.

Us by the Power Plant Barnes & Noble

Could we BE any farther away from the camera?! :) View of the harbor.

A Brazililian naval ship came into port while we were hanging out/eating, which was pretty cool.

An Indian ship, the Tarangini, also docked in the harbor.


I have to just quickly vent on how much I HATE traffic. The trip between Baltimore and Washington(/northern VA) is less than 60 miles. On my way home, however, I hit mad traffic on the beltway, causing me much frustration. I almost busted out the Sudoku since we were sitting for so long but thought against it. Traffic is something that I can just not deal with. After calling my Mom, however, I got an excellent tip to take an earlier exit and a smaller road which dumps one off right by our house. What a timesaver! I felt really dumb, though, because I have gone about 10 years-- including an entire summer commuting on that very stretch of beltway, from the NIH in Bethesda, MD, with equally bad (or worse) traffic, without knowing this shortcut. The return trip took me over an hour and a half (grr), but it was definitely worth it to see Nicole and visit her "town." And I very much impressed my Dad with "figuring out" the Prius and averaging 55.4 miles per gallon on the trip. This was my personal record which is the "figure to beat."

In any case, I did make it home in time for one last gathering at my godparents' home with my parents and sister-- very fitting and balanced, as my first night here last Sunday consisted of a dinner with the same group!

Here is the sign outside John and Inara's house (they are both Latvian in case it was less-than-obvious).

John and Inara have made a new friend-- Sam, a 11-year-old computer-whiz neighbor boy who likes to hang out with these retired guys :) He is extremely precocious-- obviously a brilliant kid, although more than mildly hyperactive-- and provided us with lots of entertainment tonight. We talked about a child of people my parents know who had been dropped on its head over 20 years ago at Georgetown Hospital and Sam (also born there) could not stop talking about it. "Did it cry when it was dropped?" "Who dropped it?" "Are you sure it was at Georgetown? Because that's the best hospital of them all!" Other statements from him that we found funny: "Bill Gates sells crap. Apple is the way to go." After a discussion of tobacco abuse, Sam interjected, "We learned about tobacco in school." "What did you learn?" we asked. "Tobacco is good for Virginia's economy," Sam replied, with an entirely straight face. Hmm. Maybe you had to be there.

John and Sam (Sam having a hard time sitting still for the camera)

Some other pics from dinner and the evening:

Van and Mom drinking "Alligators," the blended drink of avocados/lime juice (and other goodies) Inara prepared before the meal

Inara and DadLike godmother, like goddaughter

We were also all very engrossed in this acryllic cube of John's face in 3D that he got done (somehow lasers zap the image into this cube) at a local mall. It is eerie how identical it is to his real face (see pic above). It took a few tries before we got a good picture, but here are two:

Front view
In Profile

It was a very fun last night, concluding an awesome (and too quick) vacation out east. I leave in the morning for California to start my new life, with orientation starting Monday and real internship (my first real job!) starting the next Monday. Next post will be from Pacific Time :)

Oh, and on book notes:

• Finished reading: An Accidental Woman
• Currently reading: Family Matters, by Rohinton Mistry
• What I should be reading: California Driver's Manual

Waterpark, Richmond, and Random (car and other) notes

Well, I'm back up north (that is, Northern Virginia) from my journey down south. What a fun weekend! Last night, Tony was getting all depressed/stressed (part of it was probably fatigue) about having to return to work today after such fun. Part of his issue was probably that Laura, a music teacher for Durham School of the Arts, is officially off for the summer and could just hang out with me for an additional morning, but I understand his pain. I am just trying to live it up and sleep a lot to "save up" for what I fear will be an incredibly intense and tiring intern year. I'm currently pushing any depressing thoughts about that out of my mind.

In any case, we had an awesome time at Emerald Pointe on Sunday! The weather was great, and the lines weren't too bad at all so we were able to hit up every single ride (some twice). I have to agree with Laura that the rides with rafts were the best-- I think we both really enjoyed the Raging Rapids one (where you could go down in a three-person raft!). Tony really enjoyed one called The Edge, a half-pipe where you slid down and then up the other side, down, up, etc., until you stopped (more weight made for better height on this one!). We went on a few with tunnels, which I discovered I really don't like. One, called the Twin Twisters, was entirely black, and you were sliding down a totally dark and curvy tunnel for what seemed like an eternity. It was the closest I have ever come to a full-blown panic-attack-- my chest got all tight and I just kept thinking, "Where is the light?! Where is the light?!". Surprisingly, I was talked into going down this one slide called the Daredevil Drop, which is a near-vertical drop (76 feet) down a big white slide. Okay, okay, it isn't Bloukrans Bridge or bungy jumping, but I feel like I was pretty daring to go on this one! Here's a picture that Laura (the sane one who abstained) took of me going down (Twin Twisters are on the sides). Truthfully, it wasn't too scary. The drop was so fast that you really couldn't be scared for very long.

The happy Delauneys

Laura (looking cute) and me (looking very squinty and strange, without a headband)
Tony (goofing off as usual) and me in the wave pool

I would only allow the hair to be dunked
Perhaps I should not have included this one on the blog, but I thought it was funny.... this is Tony's leg peeling after a previous sunburn at the NC beach, which he was picking at all afternoon.

For dinner, we had yummy pasta and made homemade cookies-and-cream ice cream with oreos (I LOVE double stuff and no, they did not all end up on my chest!!!) with the ice-cream maker I had sent these guys last Christmas. You put ice and rock salt in the outer ball, the half-and-half, sugar, vanilla, etc. in the inner container, and then play with it (with intermittent stirring) for a while until it turns to ice cream. It was EXCELLENT! Forget that store-bought stuff! This is the way to go :)

Here is Tony on the deck, demonstrating his mad ball-handling skills

Stir, stir, stirring

This morning, while Tony had to go to work, Laura and I finished the movie (White Chicks-- hilarious, I might add) that we both fell asleep to last night. We then went biking on the nearby Tobacco Trail and, after lunch, I headed back up north while she (very dedicated teacher that she is) went back to school for a few hours. It was so fun to hang out with her (and Tony). I love how alike we are, in so many ways, and how well we get along-- we are big coupon-cutters (found $5 off ones to the Waterpark at Burger King, which we were thrilled about!), like to be active, love music, love books, and are very organized-- it's been very easy to keep in touch with her. I also really like being around Tony and Laura as a couple-- they complement eachother beautifully. Let's just say Laura is quite down to earth and Tony... well, Tony would be great friends with Erin. In any case, I am hoping (Tony still owes me the wager of another bet I won) that they will soon come visit me in California, as Laura has some family in the Sacramento area.

I sadly left the Delauney residence in NC for Richmond and puttered for a little while in the Short Pump area just west of UR before meeting Eva, a friend I met when we played flute in the orchestra at Richmond, for dinner. We had decided on Tara Thai, both because of our love of Thai food and its name. I'm not sure what the connection is between Tara and Thai, as there are numerous restaurants with this name in various cities I have visited (and, in fact, my 8th or 9th birthday celebrated right after we moved to Bangkok was in the Tara hotel). But if you figure it out, please let me know.

The carpet outside
Even though I'm sure everyone is sick of pics with me with whatever-friend-I'm-visiting-that-meal, here is one of Eva and me (here, in Laura's old shirt) :).

Eva and I wandered a bit around the Short Pump mall, into enticing stores like H & M (very reasonable clothing) and Bath and Body Works (I needed a replacement scent-- Eva led me to Jasmine), and Eva clued me into important subtleties of credit histories (she works for Capitol One) and dirt-cheap airlines (Skybus-- $10 flights-- check it out!) before I had to head back home.

Some other points I must make before I go to sleep for the night:

• Tony asked me to put a plug in for him. So here it is. He is an excellent Financial Advisor with Ameriprise Financial and is working on building his client base. If anyone in the mid-atlantic (North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland) area needs advice with his/her finances, please get in touch with Tony (or me for Tony). I have promised him free medical advice for his free financial consulting, as I am retarded with money. But he does actually need paying clients.
• The Prius is awesome. I borrowed my parents' car for this trip, and loved it! It gets amazing gas mileage-- i.e. 50 miles per gallon on the highway, and it used not quite one full tank of gas for the 500-600 or so miles I drove this weekend. Being the competitive person I am, I turned the "fuel consumption" into a game where I tried to see [this is all displayed on a bar graph above the stereo system), using cruise control, coasting on declines, coasting to stops, etc., how many mpg I could get (and "green cars" representing energy that I could regenerate). It was fun.
• The Prius is fully ipod-adapted so, with the appropriate charging and auxiliary cord, you can play songs right through the stereo system. This is much better than what I, radio-less-because-it-was-stolen-in-Rochester, did in my old car, which was put one earbud in and play the ipod on battery, so I'd at least have some music during road trips!
• It takes some getting used to pressing a button to turn the car on (no ignition!), to use the mini half-an-H-shaped gear lever, to press a button to park (and to power the car off), and to remember where the keys are, as they never are in the ignition, but it's totally worth it!
• (Most random point of all) The dodgies got their teeth cleaned today, which apparently cost a fortune. My parents think that being a dog anesthesiologist would be a great way to make money (maybe, Hans, knowing how much you like dogs, you could do that on the side for some extra cash... :))