Uh-oh and WOO-HOO!

I am on VACATION!!!! (for 2 weeks).

But, before that started, my week was quite interesting.

It included:

• FUN TIME skiing at Kirkwood resort up at Tahoe on Monday (Pres' Day) with Phi and Jeremy... It has been so wet that Tahoe has gotten a TON of snow. In fact, it was snowing pretty hard the whole day we were up there, and made for the best skiing snow I have ever experienced (esp because I wasn't afraid to fall! And, speaking of falling, I hope that Phi has recovered from his tumble while boarding the ski lift which somehow I caused... our skiis/snowboard got mixed up together... oops). In any case, the skiing was awesome; the drive home, however, was certainly not. Hwy 88 was closed due to an avalanche danger, so we had to reroute to the 50, which was a PARKING LOT for the whole drive back. A 100- mile trip took us 5 hours!!! Ick. Holiday traffic + bad weather + CA drivers who don't know anything about snow = bad, bad driving experience. Thanks to Jeremy who stuck it out the whole way behind the wheel.
• Having a dead ipod miraculously revived by the geniuses at the mall Apple store. I don't know how those guys accomplished that, as it was making a very pathetic whirring sound and showing the ipod-frowny-face every time I tried to turn it on. Charging didn't do anything, nor did resetting it. I was sure it was a goner; however, all I can say is that miracles do happen!
• Noticing a tire aneurysm (not quite sure how that happened... perhaps one of the several flats I've gotten in the past year?) which I luckily caught and which prompted a new tire purchase... $$ ouch.
• ACLS class all day on Thursday which was a bit nerve-wracking (I'm scared of codes!), but which was really, really helpful. I go back to the VA in May, where I will be on alone at night taking care of ICU patients, and I feel much more prepared to resuscitate any vets that try to die on me!
• Hectic Friday clinic. Clinic stresses me out. Sometimes OB triage is better. (Did I just say that??!)

But-- forget all that. I am free for the next 2 weeks! No clinic notes to write! No EMR inbox to deal with (thanks, Joe!). Such a great feeling.

Plans: I am on my way to SLC to visit Molly and ski some more for a few days! I think it will be kind of like a reunion... Jason is there as are some of Molly's other friends from Roch/college... It will be so awesome! In fact, I am writing this from a Flying J somewhere near the eastern border of Nevada and Utah.... Highway 80 is one of the best roads I have ever been on, and a straight shot from Sac-town to Salt Lake City! I am just taking a little break (espresso is amazing...) before trucking on.

Shomir and I fly to Ft. Lauderdale on Wednesday and then cruise starting Saturday before heading on to the Kits' place.

Did I mention that I loooooooooooooooooove vacation??!

Filling the time

I thought being on an outpatient rotation (Sports Med 1) meant things were calmer!
Somehow, I am finding ways to fill up every spare moment of time.

Last weekend, I pretty much needed to recover from my last 2 weeks of OB nights, which kicked my behind. I think I slept for 13 hours straight (then up for 1, then back to sleep for 5) after my post-nights clinic Friday. Last weekend and week included the following:

• Seeing 'Milk' in the theaters. Very moving movie.
• Meeting with med students (ah, so young and optimistic!) about this home visit program (they go visit one of my patients who has a hard time getting to clinic due to mutiple challenging issues)
• Doing sports med reading (I feel very retarded in sports medicine)
• Taking my worn out Danskos (I think I wore them for 365 days straight) to the cobbler (or shoe repair place, whatever...) to get a buckle and seam fixed.
• Doing intern GYN clinic and doing elementary school physicals
• Running with Anna and Sarah (I signed up for a half- marathon on March 15th.... need to do some serious training)
• Being thwarted in running by our rainy, rainy weather which has dumped a TON of snow up at Tahoe
• Being cold (it's been 40-50 here! Brr for California!)
• Dinner w/ friends at Jack's Urban Eats and Buckhorn Grill
• Finding out ANOTHER friend is pregnant!
• Lots of FP clinic... which means lots of EMR notes to write...
• Dealing w/ lots of patient calls and medication refills
• Doing a shoulder injection in sports med clinic... and then seeing a lot of people with knee pain or hand pain who didn't get injections
• Getting library books to read on VACATION (which starts in 1 week!)
• Being sad and trying to figure out why my ipod died... been on the phone with the automated guy thingie, and then talking to a real customer service rep, who thinks my battery may have died altogether... I just hope I don't lose all my music on there!
• Grocery shopping
• Having my shower head break and having my awesome landlord replace it within 1 day
• Realizing that my vacuum doesn't work and having a new belt ordered for me by Shomir so that it works!
• Being jealous that Shomir has another continuity OB patient delivering today (I have several but they're not due until August!)
• Celebrating V'day by doing errands including going the post office with a Punch Brothers Bluegrass concert coming up tonight
• Hoping to go skiing either tomorrow or Pres' Day on Monday (I can't remember the last time I had a 3 day weekend!) if people will join me and the roads are ok
• Planning our car rentals, etc. for vacation when we fly to FLA
• Possibly contemplating driving to Salt Lake City to see Molly, and ski, before flying to FLA
• Studying for ACLS which I do on Thursday....

.... which I should probably do instead of procrastinating by blogging

Chalk Art

Sigh. I wish I were more artistically talented.
My mom sent me this forward, and these 3-D chalk drawings by the English artist Julian Beever are just astounding. Enjoy!