Exciting stuff!

Locking keys in car
I managed to lock my electronic smart key in my Prius last week. Now, my parents, as well as Oliver, another Prius-driver, have told me that this is actually physically impossible (what I thought, too, before I went and did it!). Because the key supposedly "triangulates" position between the driver's, passenger's, and trunk doors, it is not supposed to let you lock it in the car; however, I somehow found a way to do this last week when Phi, Anika, and I stopped at Panera for lunch (I think by hitting the door handle lock before I exited the car... I seem to forget about the keys because, with keyless [in essence, touchless] entry, I usually enter and exit the car when on errands w/o ever seeing or using my keys!). In any case, those guys can verify that I could not, in fact, get into any of the doors from outside the car while my keys sat neatly in my bag in the passenger seat. I was very panicky and worried that AAA would not be able to unlock smart Priuses (Priii??), but indeed they came expeditiously to bail me out. Phew.

Billy Joel...
... was performing @ Arco Arena here in Sac on Tuesday night! Amy, Kate, and I had gotten tickets a long time ago, and he was fantastic! I almost didn't go to the concert (see below; this is also why I don't have pics), but am soooooo glad I did! He was not only a great performer (he played for nearly 2 1/2 hours!) but also a phenomenal entertainer, with tons of really funny and witty jokes throughout the evening! I have not really been to many (well, really any) *pop* concerts, but this one was worth every minute and penny! Amy also has amazing luck (this apparently happens all the time to her @ concerts-- she's a good person to take with!)-- before the concert started, a worker guy tapped my shoulder, pulled us aside (I thought we were in trouble for something!), and wondered if we were interested in moving down to the lower level, to better seats closer to the action ("yes, yes, yes!" Amy cried :)) that were worth double the price of our original tickets.

Another continuity delivery
I got an e-mail earlier in the week from an OB NP who followed the prenatal course of a pt I saw a couple times early in her pregnancy (i.e. the first week-month I was an intern!) but who transferred her care to this provider on a sister-in-law's recommendation. Since the NP doesn't do deliveries herself and the pt was very concerned about who would be there (i.e. no male providers, etc.) and remembered me, I received an email to see if I was interested/willing. Now, this was a very difficult decision because, in essence, I (as a FP provider with the goal to provide "continuity" prenatal care and do the delivery) was abandoned (we had multiple discussions about her continuing with me) in favor of the OB dept; however, I really did want to do the right thing in this situation. So I went to her appt. Tuesday morning and it didn't look like she, contracting already, was going to make it past her due date (Sunday) to where I would actually be scheduled to be on the L and D deck. The rest of the day was very anxiety-ridden for me, as I awaited the page that she'd come in in active labor.

Sure enough, around 5:00 p.m., after we'd made plans to meet up around 6:30 to head to the concert, I got a call from a fellow intern in triage saying that the patient was 4 cm, had SROMed (broken her water) at home, and so I went in to help admit her. Although she was a primip (1st baby, where things often progress very slowly), I was so nervous and planned to just stay there at the hospital to do her cervical checks, manage things, etc., so as to not even have a chance to miss the delivery. However, wiser and more experienced residents convinced me that there was no way I could not go to my concert and let things like this run my life (and virtually guaranteed that she would not deliver before midnight). Truly, I was struggling big-time w/ this decision which, in essence, forced me to choose between a commitment I felt I had made (by this time) to this patient and personal enjoyment which somehow I can write off fairly easily, although I wasn't sure that I could really enjoy the concert b/c I'd be so concerned about the baby coming in my absence!

I'm glad I went to the concert. I had my pager on the entire time, asking them to page me if she progressed to 9-10 cm, as I drove separately and could just rush back (Arco is about 20 min. from the hospital), but it didn't even go off! When I returned to the hospital after the concert, around 11 p.m., she was still at only 5 cm. Phew! Things progressed quickly from there (it was almost like she was waiting for my return!), and I got to deliver the little baby girl around 2:30 a.m.! It was incredibly rewarding, and it is always such a rush to get to do a delivery when you know the patient in this continuity sense, which reinforces the whole reason I decided on FP as a field; however, again, the kind of dilemma I faced is one that I know will plague me my whole career and which I need to learn how to deal with more effectively...

Speedy trips to the grocery store
This is very exciting news: about a week ago or so, I figured out (with Shomir's suggestion) that I could get from my house to the grocery store on Folsom blvd in about 5 minutes if I took hwy 50! For the last 8 months, I've been driving the 10-12 minutes through town, with stoplights, etc. It didn't even cross my mind that I should try the highway, as who takes the highway to the grocery store?! For someone who is (or chronically feels) short on time, this shortcut is an incredible time-saver!

California February
Picture this: 73 degrees and sunny, me running outside in a t-shirt and shorts. IN FEB. I don't even want to know what it is in MN.

The home stretch
Intern year is 2/3 done! I only have four months left! (OB, Cards ICU/consults, Family medicine wards, and OB again). Although I lamented that leap year had to fall during our intern year, we really don’t have much time left at all!

March in sight
I'm excited for March, as not only does it mean we are closer to the end of intern year, but it will bring visitors! My sister is coming into town around the 14th for a weekend, and Laura and Tony will be here at the end of the month! This will be so fun!

The Sierras
Yesterday, while driving east on Hwy 80 towards Del Paso Heights, I saw the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas in the distance and was in total awe. I had never seen them before like this from Sac-- not sure if it's because I don't usually drive that route, or because they’ve been obscured by the clouds/rain for much of this season, but I felt like I was in Colorado! It was amazing! And the best thing is that I will be there in approximately 72 hours after Erin, TJ, and Sylvia come into town to leave Saturday for a weekend of skiing up at North Lake Tahoe. A bunch of my classmates are coming, too, and we plan to stay overnight at Brenden's brother's cabin up there which will be awesome! I can't wait!

Shomir's b'day (and cake adventure)

Yes, someone special had a big birthday on Saturday, which prompted a whole "schedule" of events! Enjoy the many pictures!

11 a.m. Dim Sum at New Canton (here is Arash with his favorite dessert-- don't ask me what it was-- while Din Hai looks on! A new food for me was chicken feet. Not sure I'm a huge fan, but they were interesting).

1 p.m. The crew then went rock climbing, but I stayed behind to make a cake which took me the better part of the afternoon! (Amy and I were going to go climbing on Friday, but were turned off by an extremely rude employee [who will, from henceforth, be called the "knot nazi"] who wouldn't let us "refresh" or "go over" our knot-tying before trying to test out of the long class we took back in Nov. We left without climbing and then were then sort of holding a grudge and boycotting for the rest of the weekend.)

You can see pics of the cake if you scroll down below. Let's just say that God gave me a few talents, but cake-baking (or baking/cooking in general) is not one of them and so this was a bit stressful (I wish I had taken pics of my kitchen amidst the process!) and I will only volunteer this for very special and deserving (or perhaps very unlucky) people. I tried out some new cake pans on a 3-layered cake from scratch (1st and 3rd "chocolate shadow" with 2nd a vanilla-pecan), frosted with emergently-store-bought vanilla icing because my homemade icing did not fluff without an electric beater. The intra-layer filling was a marshmallow-coconut. Very nervous, I also bought an apple pie and ice cream for "back-up desserts" in case the thing tasted awful, but I think it was okay (comments, guys?).

5 p.m. Hanging out at Brew it Up

(from left: Arash, Trish, Tu, Marcel, Elham, Shomir, and me) (I love the tank top in Feb.)

8 p.m. Presents and dessert at Arash's



This mini ping-pong table from Sonia was awesome! Here is Darina on one end.

Shomir and Elham playing while Marcel looks on
Sonia and me
Phi and Anika (interns representing!!)

Arash, Darina, Trish, Shomir
(Trying not to drop) The cake (in general, it's not such a good idea to let klutzy girls carry desserts intended to feed lots of people but, no worries, there were no accidents)!!

looks homemade (with all the wilting, mess, etc.), doesn't it? :)

I wish I'd gotten a better cross-section shot (can you see the plate?). Notice the "backup pie" to the right :)

10 p.m. Dancing at Parlare, a nearby lounge.

Alvin groovin'
Shomir and Trish

Fun times! I know you can probably tell that the cake dominated my day, but I had a great time at all the "activities," too :)

And then, after such a fun-filled Saturday, there was still Sunday (filled with more norcal winter rain, taxes, etc.) to enjoy.... I adore weekends! Let the block-time continue!

Roadside smiles

Some funny crafted billboards (some were way more inappropriate!) which my mom forwarded me...

I will eat it anyway...

Phi's philosophy
In honor of Valentine's day and other mushy holidays
I love to read!!



Because I deal with stool most days...Why everyone should own a Prius...
Why makeup should be kept to a minimum...

Happy driving!! ;)

February firsts

First trip to Monterey and scenic Hwy 1 So. (the best, and the most pictures first!!)

Very well rested from my lazy vacation in Fla. and VA, I had been getting restless since returning to CA on Friday and very much wanted to go on a trip somewhere. Monday (a holiday we, shockingly, got off [JB, I am soooo jealous!]!), I finally got Amy to go with me on a daytrip-- we headed towards the central California coastline.

This was my first glimpse of the (southern) California scenic Highway 1 coastal road, which was truly one of the most breathtaking roads I have driven. I was trying hard not to veer off into the rough shoulder as I steered and gawked at the Pacific Ocean right there beside us. The pics don't do it justice, but scroll down to see some more that we took.

First time down to one bar

I tend to be very high-in-harm-avoidance when it comes to running out of gas. Somehow, Amy and I were yapping so much that I didn't realize, until we were well outside Monterey and Carmel, that I was down to "one bar" of gas on the Prius. Now, I think that one bar lasts something like 50 miles (Dad?), but this was a remote area of coastline headed away from main towns, I didn't know how the Prius handled driving on what would be near-empty in a non-hybrid car ("I drive 40 miles when the gas light comes on in my truck!" says Amy), and I subsequently started to freak out that we weren't going to make it out to Big Sur and back to civilization without running out. Amy tried to alleviate my fears ("Your car doesn't even USE gas [well, or much], does it?! We'll be fine," ) and cracked up next to me as I worried away, but let's just say I became much happier when I saw that Big Sur (not really a town per se but an area with some random lodging and convenience stores) did have gas stations. Below is me with the sign by my "gas station of salvation" (never mind that gas [the cheapest grade!] was $3.99/gallon because they can suck in the "last resort" people!!). They should have a sign like this when leaving to go south from Monterey or, I think, by law, anywhere there is going to start a gas-less stretch of more than 20 miles!

Meanwhile, Amy relaxes as she did most of the trip

We went hiking at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

The water almost looked tropical!!
Photos I stole from Amy


Pretty bluffs and pretty girl!

First trip to Monterey

Monterey is a very cute town right on the ocean which, incidentally, is where English (the Rays' phenomenal daughter) lives!!! It would have been great to visit with her, but Ebby said she was busy studying for her end-of-year exams and so we didn't try to distract her :) Amy and I just walked around a bit and explored Cannery row; here are some pics...

I thought it was amusing that these kids were contributing to these sea birds' excellent nutritional statuses by distributing Lays potato chips :) Cute sand castle they made when not feeding the birds
Cannery Row

We didn't have enough time to see the aquarium (which Amy's visited, and which is apparently the largest and perhaps the most impressive in the U.S., requiring at least a half-day to explore), but I'll have to go back another time when people come to visit (hint, hint... ) :)

Speaking of missing things and first (and, with hope, last) major travel idiot moment

Coming back from the coast, we had been stuck in a bunch of traffic on county roads and were excited to see I-5 signs (LA/Sacramento) which would bring us back to Sac quickly. I got on the highway and we were making great time.

Then we saw a sign for Bakersfield and LA which, interestingly, was the first sign we'd seen since getting onto the highway (no signs like "Sacramento xxxx miles" or interstate signs on the side). We both froze. It couldn't just be an "FYI" sign (i.e. you're going towards Sac but LA is 300 miles in the other direction, for your information). You go on I-5 SOUTH to get to LA. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. We had to drive about 5 more miles, panicking (this time Amy was panicking, too!) all the way, to find an exit and, sure enough, we realized we had just driven about 30 minutes in the complete opposite direction from home. We spent the whole way back (now it was liike 8 p.m., putting our ETA in Sac around 22:00) incredulous that we (thinking we are fairly intelligent girls) had somehow done such an idiotic thing (or I guess it was mostly my fault since I was driving). We didn't remember seeing a fork in the on-ramp to go south or north and assumed the whole time we were headed North. We were very bitter that we added about another hour to what was already a traffic-lengthened return trip home and are still mystified as to how this happened, but will say that we will be very cautious about reading road signs from now on...

In other random firsts:

• Blocktime #2. Today was the first day of (our second round of) blocktime (educational time consisting of didactic sessions and time to work on our community projects, not hospital time). While I am sad to have vacation end, blocktime's schedule, where we don't start till 8 a.m. and are done every day by 5 (today it was much earlier!), feels like vacation compared to what our hours are usually.


• Tennis! I played tennis with Shomir on Friday for the first time in like 2 years in shorts and a t-shirt in February. I could not get over how awesome this was. I love CA weather!


• Bikram Yoga: On Sunday, I went to a Bikram Yoga class in town that Kate has been to, on her and Amy's recommendations. I have only been to one other yoga class in my lifetime and have to say that I'm not sure I'm a fan. While I thought this was "hot rocks" yoga or something, it wasn't filled w/ rocks, but just stinkin' hot (about 100 degrees in the yoga room, which is supposed to make you more flexible and [I think] help you sweat out more toxins). It did make me sweat. It would take a lot more than that temperature to make me flexible. Some of those poses aren't good for klutzy people. While I have to say that it was a very good strength-building workout, I actually started feeling really woozy and nauseated despite good hydration and had to duck out after about an hour. I think that that might have been my first and last time at that.
• Obama book: Dreams fFrom My Father was the first non-fiction book I'd read in a while. Very inspiring. I'd recommend it highly!!
• Drano not working. I thought Drano works on everything!! After cleaning out a hair plug from my shower drain, it has gotten progressively and acutely worse over 2 days to the point where I still (since the shower this a.m.) have 2 inches of standing water in the tub despite a whole bottle of drano! Gross! I have been doing some internet research and among things I'm supposed to now try are: lye, baking soda/vinegar, a plumber's snake (what is this??), or full-out plunging with a mini-plunger (where do you get such a thing??)!! Any other ideas? This is the first time I've had this problem (maybe I should call my fridge-replacing landlord!!).


• Frequent posting: This might be the first time I've posted too often for my blog-readership (Hans, are you still with us?? Wendi, do you like it?! :))

Travel Twins!

How weird is this?

(I'm up a few countries since 3/07, when I last tried this TravBuddy thing, due to our uber-productive multiple nation[sketchy Mozambique]-visiting Africa trip last spring! Sorry the maps are so small secondary to all my pictures on the right!!!)

THE RACE IS ON!!

Some of my loves

FAMILY

w/ mom and sis at John and Inara's

dad and sis
mom and me
Dad the "Obamaniac" in front of our front door :)

Wine.... Vanessa: "I gave up sobriety for Lent. Let's drink to that!"

FRIENDS!!!

On Tuesday, I drove up to Baltimore to see Nicole! I got "iced" in and she graciously hosted me for the night-- it was so fun to catch up! She showed me awesome pics of S. Africa and this huge giraffe, "Jeffrey" (sorry I didn't take a pic!) that she managed to bring back (in one piece!), as well as her lovely engagement ring.

She will probably be mad I posted this first pic (we went through our own mini photo-shoot at her apt!), but I think it's cute!

Engaged with a wedding in June!!! Congrats, Nicole and Bay.
We had wonderful crab cakes at Mo's, a downtown Baltimore seafood place.

I've gotten a chance to catch up with some other "home" friends- Jesse and his kids (sorry, no pics), as well as Jordan, Beth, Anna, and Susan, friends from HS.

Yesterday, we passed a few fun hours at Lee's, a dive karaoke bar in Arlington. Believe it or not, I went up there-- solo at times! Perhaps now I have the nerve to get up to go karaoke-ing in CA, where it seems very popular...

Anna, Susan, and me... posing...

...and in action!!

DODGIES!!!!

I would have been going through major doggie (aka "dodgie") withdrawal (from Scrubs) if I didn't have my parents' own two little Cairns to play with.

Freya on her window perch

Duncan, on his couch perch
Do you think these dodgies are spoiled?? But look at these puppy eyes!!

RIPE FRUIT!!!!

These are some gifts Nicole saved for me on my visit, which was really sweet of her :)

VACATION

It's been a great visit "home," getting to see many of the people I love! I actually head back to California tonight, but get to enjoy a few more days of vacation (we actually get a HOLIDAY [Presidents' Day] off! Block time doesn't start until Tues.!). It's great to be excited to go back to my other "home," which is about 20 degrees warmer than it is here, and to look fwd to some more exploring (may be taking a day trip or two with Amy this weekend, perhaps to Monterey or the coast. We'll see.) and relaxing. And to see a sweet, sweet person who has offered to pick me up at 1:30 a.m. from the airport! Here's to Valentine's Day (which, this year, for some very strange reason, I am not so bitterly and vehemently against celebrating...) :)