Broke

I am not talking about my finances in the throes of funding a wedding.
Things are just breaking, left and right.

First it was my tire chains. On one mutual day off a couple of weekends ago, Kelvin and I were headed up to Tahoe to ski for the first time this season. The weather had been dry for several weeks; however, that day, 5 inches of snow were falling up in the Sierras. As tire chains were required, we spent a good 20 minutes in the roadside slush trying to apply them, only to set off driving again with a terrible "ker-thunk, ker-thunk, ker-thunk" sound. A link was broken on the left chain which made them unusable and, thoroughly disappointed, we turned around and came back to Sacramento. What seemed at first like a wasted day (I was sooo looking forward to skiing at Alpine Meadows, a resort to which I haven't been before and for which I bought discounted REI passes) ended up being quite relaxing (yay for Happy Day Spa); however, broke is broke (or "broken is broken"). And my new chains were more expensive than were those old ones.



Modem
My AT&T modem which came free with my phone/internet service 3.5 years ago, suddenly went kaput a couple of weeks ago, just after the tire issue above. I had been having connectivity issues for a few days, but then the connection just died. After long phone conversations with the internet guys online ("Yes, I did try to reboot. Yes, I did try to turn the modem off and on"), I realized that it was not an issue with the brand-new wireless router (the old one died back in November) or the DSL itself, but rather the modem. Although the modem came free with the AT&T service in 2007, it apparently wasn't under warranty and thus would not be replaced for free. I was told that I would have to buy a new one, which I should be able to get "anywhere."

Since I got sucked into L and D, Kelvin did the investigating into modem replacement. He first went to Radio Shack, where they only had AT&T-compatible modems (not ideal as we are moving to Arcata in September [we accepted a job offer!] and I don't know their carrier). They told him that a more "generic" one could be ordered online; however, I kind of needed immediate internet access. They suggested that he try Office Depot so off he went; however, they only had cable modems. K's' next stop was Target, which apparently only had only routers and no modems. He finally, and utterly frustrated, ended up at Best Buy (where we should have gone in the first place), which, like Radio Shack, only carried one that was compatible with AT&T and AT&T alone. Full circle bummer. In any case, it was bought. I hope we can use it in Arcata, otherwise we have the pleasure of buying another $70 modem. And we obviously have so much extra money lying around :)


Vacuum

I have bad luck with vacuums. I think I am on my second vacuum in the past 8 years. I don't know if it's that they get gummed up with my annoyingly thick hair or what, but somehow the vacuums that I've owned start blowing smoke and stop functioning not too long after purchase. Currently, I am borrowing K's vacuum; however, this one doesn't recline. It works well to suck up stuff; however, neither of us can figure out how to get the handle to release and recline. Therefore, in order to clean, you have to roll it around directly upright, which is rather comical, but also very tiring and inconvenient. Why can't my apparatuses (apparati?) work right?

I am interested to see what major item of machinery plans to break next.

Take a deep breath and smile

If you check Wendi's blog, you'll see that most of us are a little frazzled currently. We leave for Nigeria for Sunday. Us students have these group projects and brochures due for our Public Health class. We have Ethics take-home assignments. We have a Clinical Pharmacology Final Friday that I have to study for. My current "to do" list is about a bazillion things long-- and growing every day. It's not things that I have to do for the Africa trip-- that isn't frazzling me. It's everything else that will have to be on hold for about 6 weeks and that I'll have to get to afterwards that I'm trying to take care of. I'm getting e-mails from UC Davis about orientation/ACLS. I'm making housing and travel arrangements for a conference in San Francisco for the day after our return from abroad. I'm planning a trip and car rental to Sacramento to look for housing immediately following. I'm paying rents and doing moving notices. I'm paying bills and getting my bank accounts in order. I'm working out my mail forwarding. I'm making arrangements to stay and travel to Erin's wedding. I'm renting a Uhaul for the drive to Cali. I'm getting health insurance reimbursements and coverage taken care of. I'm thinking about what I'm going to do with things-I'm-not-bringing-to-California (couch, dresser, bike, coat, suits, etc...). I'm trying to coordinate graduation activities. I'm planning summertime visits. I have to go to the library. I am trying to finish this good book, Maggie (Charles Martin-- Rachel initially recommended this author to me and he's great!), before I have to go to the library. I have to sync my PDA. I have to figure out why my ipod is giving me the ipod-frowny-face when I try to turn it on. I'm currently procrastinating with doing all of these things by spending time on blogging :).

John, Wendi, Ajit, and I had dinner and socialized at the Fischers' house tonight-- Dr. Fischer is a pediatrician here who spent many years as a missionary doctor in the Congo and his wife, Juli, cooked us an amazing meal! We also met Dr. Thacher, a prolific publisher who has been a Family Practitioner working in Nigeria for 19 years and who will be coming on staff at Mayo. We'll get to spend some time with him while we're in Africa, as he returns the same day we fly there. It was a wonderful evening-- we were there for about 3 and a half hours just chatting-- but I am behind. So I am feeling a bit overwhelmed (Fischers, if you read this, though, believe me that it was worth it!!).

I tend to stress quite a bit about little things (my Dad says I'm "high strung") so I have to remember to breathe. And to remember that everything will turn out ok! I can't take myself so seriously and have to remember to take time to relax and smile. Erin forwarded me some funny pictures from her crazy Aunt Raoul that I also thought I'd share to lighten the mood. Some of them were omitted because they are not G-rated, but these included here should be pretty clean :) . Enjoy!

Adding insult to injuryHow to handle a problem neighbor
Boy genius!
Tattoo of the year

SMILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Proud of these Purchases

I'm not a big fan of spending money, particularly on things like clothes and such. I've done most of my clothes shopping in Rochester at Savers, this place in town that sells used clothing. I've found a bunch of cute tops for about $3-5 and even some nice pairs of pants. So it did sort of pain me that I invested in a couple of new clothing purchases. But I think they are worth it!

The first is a pair of Marcelle Danskos that I bought on ebay. I am a big fan of ebay :) The bidding wars do get a bit intense, however. I paid about 3 times what I usually spend on shoes for this pair, but I love, love, love them. I used to think that the people that walked around the hospital in their Danskos and scrubs were being a bit pretentious. However, I've totally changed my opinion. These shoes are the most comfortable things I think I have ever worn. I wear them almost every day now. I like them because they look a bit "dressier" than the regular Danskos and I can wear them with skirts; however, I think they might look a bit funny with scrubs. What do you think? I want to wear them all through residency!

This weekend, I was shopping at Target for odds and ends for the Africa trip, and I happened to wander through the clothes section, where some swimsuits caught my eye. Now, I am definitely not a fan of swimsuit-wearing. I am really self-conscious. My family never took beach vacations or hung out around water. However, given that I am moving to California, two of my favorite people will be in Fla., and there is much warm weather to be had, I thought that a two-piece swimsuit that I actually liked wearing wouldn't be such a bad investment. So here it is. I love the halter top and butterflies. The bottom consists of a bikini bottom with overlying skirt, to hide better the "junk in my trunk," (an expression I recently learned) :)I'm sure you're wondering what I look like in this. Well, keep wondering :) No racy pictures of me in the suit will appear on this blog until I actually wear it. ;)