I am so grateful for three-day weekends. Coming back from extended time off (which, in residency, means a three-day weekend) is somewhat depressing as it means one has to go back to every-day work, particularly responding to the never-ending electronic medical record refill authorizations and patient calls, but MAN, time off is glorious.
Holidays always make me jealous of "normal" people-- people for which federal holidays are a regular occurrence (or, for that matter, people who have normal 8-5 jobs and have weekends free from work-related responsibilities on a regular basis). I am pretty burned out. I am regularly questioning why I picked this field that never seems to give you a break for "personal time." I can't wait to get the heck out of residency and at least pretend to have a "life."
My July 4th weekend wasn't even quite a three-day weekend. While I did have Monday (yesterday) off, I was on OB chief call Friday night, getting off Saturday morning. It wasn't actually a bad call night at all-- despite the intern, OB-2, and myself all being new to our new "roles," we figured things out just fine. I successfully located the OB chief call room and even got an hour and a half of shut-eye, which rarely happens on L and D (perhaps this is a perk of being chief? :)).
Kelvin and I had plans to fly down to Southern California for some time with his family for the 4th. After our trafficky drive back from the coast on Memorial Day weekend and with the not-as-long-as-hoped weekend due to Friday call, flying the one hour each way made the most sense. We left Saturday afternoon and surprised his dad for a 60th bday celebration. We had yummy Vietnamese five-course beef for dinner (I was slightly offended when the waiter offered me, and me only, a fork [I feel like a minority down there!]) and then watched a movie as we devoured the delicious truffle cake Katherine bought.
(Maybe we should have also had a "Happy bday, USA" cake...)
With the fam
Sunday (the actual 4th), we headed down to San Diego, where we went to mass at the Mission, which was founded in 1769 and is the oldest in California. Kenn, K's brother, is an awesome photographer, and took some great shots of us in the gardens (you can probably guess which, of the subsequent shots of the trip, were taken with his fancy camera and his great eye).
(and no, we did not try to dress for the fourth nor plan to match! My toenails were red)
I love this one (actually it was a series) of Katherine
The guys (father and sons)
with K's parents
Everyone
We then had dim sum (thankfully, this time, I did not get offered a fork), and drove a bit north to Temecula, which is the main wine-tasting region around SD. The weather was near perfect, as was the wine and baked-brie bread at Maurice Car'rie's and champagne in a chocolate shot glass at Wilson's Creek. Mmmm.
Here are some of Kenn's shots from the wineries:
Picnic outside
South Coast Winery
Vineyard
(I kinda want to steal this one for my blog header-- if I could figure out how!!)
Shots on the steps
Blurring effects (there probably is a fancy photographers' term for this)
Background fountain (oh, and yes, Kat cut and styled my hair on Saturday-- wish she was around to do my hair every day!)
Wilson's Creek champagne-in-a-chocolate-glass... mmm
We then had MORE great Asian food (can you see the trend of what we do down south? I think I put on at least 5 lbs every weekend I spend down there!) for dinner, at a Korean BBQ place K's family loves. The awesome part, too, is that they give you a free serving of frozen yogurt (which, if you ask me, should qualify as a food group) on your way out.
On Monday, K and I met Laura, an old friend of his, in Long Beach for crepes and then hung out with Rosha, a friend of ours from residency who moved down to Redondo Beach. We passed some time around the Venice Beach boardwalk amusing ourselves with the various characters there.
We enjoyed some time with old friends and K's family yesterday evening before returning, via Southwest Airlines (two thumbs up, I must say! Great speed of boarding/disembarking) home on the last flight to Sac.
Phew.
While I am tired, I got some of the best sleep I've had in weeks (in a nice, dark room-- thanks, Theresa).
While I am bummed to be back at work, I am grateful for the days off.
While I am stuffed, I am hungry for more SoCal delicacies.
It's probably a good thing we aren't headed back there for a few months... so my pants have a chance of fitting again :)
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