Goodbyes and Reunions...

Goodbye
It was with much disappointment that last weekend, we said goodbye to our good friend Darina, who was a social worker/discharge planner at our Mather VA and who has decided to transfer positions laterally to the Veterans' Hospital in LA to be closer to friends and family :(

Darina at the VA potluck with Andres, a surgery intern and Shomir's roommate


We are hoping to still see a lot of her, as she is still performing with a dance group up here (back on 11/22), as well as to have an excuse to visit LA more often (I still want to see the Tar Pits....!), which is really not that far away. And we hope to keep up via blog (I'm not in the facebook crowd although she was twisting my arm... I think it might be a bit too much electronic communication for me, as I am already an obsessive e-mailer and blog-stalker!)

There was actually a trilogy of going-away parties! Here are some pictures (all of which I stole from her :))

Group of FP residents/significant others at Zokku's on 11/1 (Shom and I were straight off the plane from Boston!)


Darina with Joby and little Bryce, Kristin's house, on Friday


A Darina sandwich with two of her favorite people :) (Shom being rewarded with a curly cheetoh because of the newfound consistent teeth-including in his smiling! ["He's trained!" I exclaimed.])


Anika (my classmate), me, Kristin (intern), Darina, and Kristin's roommate, Michelle



We will miss you tons, Darina!! See you soon!

Reunion
Also this past weekend, as it had been WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long (I hadn't seen these guys since we went skiing in February!) and since I have been missing old friends even more after visiting w/ Tia and Rob in Boston, Shom and I took a 24 hour roadtrip to Palo Alto (about a 2 hours' drive) to visit Erin and TJ!

Erin is on her Adolescent Medicine rotation currently, but on "jeopardy," which means that she could be called in to cover for any of her colleagues who can't make their call because they get sick, have a family emergency, sustain a "neck injury" on the same night as hosting a Halloween Party (no joke... Erin got jeopardized on Halloween for this reason and was LIVID!), etc. Jeopardy is a whole concept about which most people, Shom and me included, have very strong feelings (He, one of the most jeopardized residents ever in our program, has missed out on all his sports med until now, and can't go anywhere for Thanksgiving because he's the designated jeopardy person. I somehow have evaded jeopardy thus far, mostly because I'm like always on inpatient rotations [the jeopardy person is generally "dispensible," on a nice clinic rotation] and nonjeopardizable [although some might argue that being jeopardy person is worse since it's so unpredictable!]). Anyway in short, it means you are tied to your town (or within an hour or something) and to your pager/phone so that we couldn't take any big adventures. It will still worth it to visit, though!

Luckily, Erin didn't get called in, and we just hung out from Saturday afternoon until Sunday afternoon, before I had to head back for night float. It was a great, relaxing time and we had a ton of fun!

On Saturday, we had a yummy seafood dinner at The Fish Market, a popular restaurant in Palo Alto near Stanford.

Shomir with his bib (he ordered crab, although Dungeness crab, apparently a local specialty, is not yet in season!)



After dinner, we rushed home to change into PJs, have icecream and hot water (I love Erin so dearly just because she shares this strange habit of mine... although I'm hearing from more people that it's not that uncommon!) and play cards including spades (TJ and I managed to pull off a win in a very competitive game filled with much risky bidding!).

We woke up to have delicious blueberry french toast from a recipe Erin had ("This feels wrong to be having for breakfast! It's like pie!" exclaimed Shomir), which had been soaking overnight and baked in the oven with a cinnamon crust in the morning, and then (to work it off), went for a couple hour hike at Windy Hill nearby.

The weather was great and the conversation equally wonderful :)

(Figured out my timer to take these pics. Alas, you cannot see the nice view of the Bay behind us but it does seem as though we are atop a high hill, right? :)





We had yummy sandwiches at an outdoor mall in Palo Alto and then, sadly, had to head back before I had to get to work. While it wasn't too bad outside while hiking, I had an episode of major Raynauds-vasospasm while sitting outside at lunch. Check out my hands next to Shom's!!!


(This is why I do not belong in MN...).

We actually have been blessed the past few days with sunny and pretty warm, but fall-like weather, unlike the rain that often characterizes Sacramento winters. I'm also blessed because, after tonight, which is my last night of night float (which actually, due to my white cloud, has been a wonderfully relaxing rotation for me!) and clinic tomorrow, I have the WHOLE weekend off before starting peds urgent care on Monday. Wow! That's something to celebrate.