EnLIGHTened (outsmarted and under-slept by a two-year-old)

Our two-year-and-one-month-old son has never been a good sleeper. Admittedly, we did not force the "sleep-training" at 6-12 months of life, which, in my opinion (in hindsight), seemed to be the optimal window of time. We kept thinking, hoping, and praying that his (and thus our) sleep would just naturally get better. It didn't. By 19 months after his birth, I had come to my wits' end and had had enough, and Kelvin agreed to work with me on some hard-core graduated extinction (à la Ferber). After about 3 weeks, it worked. While the early wake time of 4:30 or 5 a.m. was not ideal for us, we had a child who slept approximately 9 uninterrupted hours at night, which made life very manageable (and even pleasant, at times). This was short-lived (lasting maybe 3 months), and things have been rough again for several months. He's a very bright child, but can't seem to get the sleeping thing down.

While we do sit or lie with him and play music until he falls asleep (which I do recognize could be part of the problem), he doesn't get anything at night. It's dark, with soothing white noise. It's cool, but with plenty of blankets.  There's a water cup at his bedside. He does not get any milk, snacks, cuddles, or hugs (and, while he is day trained, we let him wear a nighttime diaper).  But his brain still wakes him up 1-2 times at night, for unknown reasons. We have a toddler stoplight alarm clock, and he completely understands the notion of "red- stay in bed, green- ok to get up," but he turns it off sometimes, and we have suspended YouTube and treat (the rare donut or fruit snack) privileges until he complies with this system (which he completely understands. In fact, he reminds us that he can't have either, as if we needed reminding). We are so done with fighting with him, that currently, we are closing our door, putting up the baby gate in his room, and putting on white noise in ours, and not entering his room until "green light" time of approximately 5 a.m. (or 9 hours after he falls asleep, whichever is earlier). The other day, about five nights into the privilege suspension, we said something at bedtime to the effect of, "If you wake up tonight, and the light is red, or you're bored, feel free to just turn on your light and play quietly. But do not wake up mommy and daddy by crying for us. We are NOT coming in until the morning."

That same night (despite our white noise), we heard him crying at midnight, and then at around 4:30 in the morning. After a few minutes of crying at the later wake-up time, it got quiet again. I checked the video monitor thinking that he, miraculously, put himself back to sleep and relishing that we may be able to sleep in a bit, too. However, on the contrary, I saw that, this tiny 25-month-old had brought a stool over to the light switch in his room, climbed up, turned the room light on, and was playing with his toys and books. At 5 a.m. when the light turned green, I went to him, and asked him "Why weren't you in bed?". "All done sleeping," he replied.
"Do you get YouTube today?" I questioned.
"No," he admitted, without any fuss.
"Let's try again tomorrow."

It's been two nights of him turning on his room light at strange hours, like 1 a.m., but actually going back to sleep.  This morning, the second time he awoke was after the green light was lit (which is good, as it means it's 5 a.m.!) ... and he asked tentatively,  "Donut? YouTube?"  "Did you stay in bed the whole time, while it was red?" I inquired. "I believe I heard you at your door at 2 a.m." "No," he admitted (at least he's honest).

I guess we could be making some progress, but I'm not sure. We'll try again today, and continue with this plan every night for now, with hope that we're getting somewhere.   While I would love a sleeping strategy that doesn't involve shutting doors on him and ignoring cries, I'm not sure that anything else is going to work with this kid.  He doesn't seem to miss YouTube, fruit snacks, or donuts (or at least is not very easily bribed by the idea of them).  I just think this two-year-old is smarter than we are and one (or more) steps ahead.  He definitely listens to our comments to plot his strategies.   We've been enlightened.  Now, if only we could all sleep.

Last graduation ever?

UCD FP Class of 2011 (plus Joe and Serena :))

This past week marked a week of graduations! It has always been fun attending both the FP and OB department graduations... in fact, I still remember attending graduation for OB as a rising (pre)-intern four years ago and never believing that I would someday be in the same spot, a graduating OB chief! Graduations from residency are not cap/gown affairs... they really are kind of anti-climactic (esp because we have to return to work the Mondays afterwards!) and not as formal as, say, graduation from college or medical school... Nevertheless, they mark the end of perhaps the most challenging 3-4 years of training and life so far, and thus are definitely something to celebrate. How many graduations must one go through before getting a "real" job? :) My very dedicated parents and godmother flew across the country to attend both of my graduations, which was a special treat if not to just see and spend more time with them (in between their sightseeing of northern California :))!

First (last weekend) was FP graduation at Mulvaney's Building and Loan, a restaurant in Sac that I had always wanted to try. The event was very well organized, thanks to some very motivated classmates who ran the "graduation committee," and was a great time to reminisce on some very tough years! Kelvin put together some very memorable slide shows to commemorate our time at UCD. Thanks to Brenden and Wai Kiu for so many wonderful photos which I stole, as I barely busted out my own camera.

Mulvaney's

Chief recognition

Getting the diploma from Dr. B

The family (+ Inara + Kelvin)

FPOB group shot (Jessica, me, Joe, Suzanne)

Group shot

The Afterparty

This past Friday was the OBGYN graduation at the Sterling Hotel downtown which was very elegant! So many alums (i.e. my old chiefs) came back for a reunion of sorts and it was a great time, as usual! It's always so nice to see residents dressed up! I am so thankful for the wonderful education I received on behalf of the OBGYN department, and hope to use my OB skills lots up in Arcata!

Our Chief class (me, Alex, Julia, Lucy, Charmian, Priyal, Gaea)-- it only took us 4 hours to get us seven together for a picture!!

with the fam

with the ever-so-glam Priyal

with Jessica and Gaea

The dance party!

Fun times. The countdown now: 9 days of clinic work, and 14 days until marriage!

Outfits

As far as I can remember, I have never been very interested in dressing up. I am sure that, as a child, I got excited about Halloween costumes, being a scary witch one year, a "bunch of grapes" (bunch of purple balloons) or "bag of jellybeans" (bunch of multicolored balloons) other years, but I imagine that I was more excited for the candy than the cosutmes :). However, since then, I have found "dressing up" to be rather a chore. I have artfully dodged about four Halloweens in Sac, by either being on call, or far, far away on vacation and thus have escaped from trying to drum up an imaginative costume. I prefer jeans and comfy fleece sweaters to "hip" outfits, avoid changing more than once a day if I can help it, and definitely value comfort (and warmth) over fashion any day. I had not thought about purchasing a new "dress" for our wedding rehearsal dinner (just thinking I would rewear a sundress I already have in my closet) until the suggestion was near-mandated by my dear mother and (far-more-trendy) sister (who already has a new smokin' dress!) in discussion this past weekend.

Which brings us to the issue of outfits.
While I may not enjoy dressing up, I don't think my sense of style or coordination is all that horrific. K initially wanted to wear a brown suit to our wedding; however, this was very quickly vetoed. And, if I recall correctly, Serena (who is our go-to fashion consultant) agreed that that was a poor fashion choice. While we are on the "brown" topic, I don't think navy and brown should ever be worn together (which, believe me, has been debated to death), nor do I think cardigans and vests are cool. But back to wedding attire... The latest suggestion (not mine), was to have the groomsmen wear red shirts with silver ties (to match our chosen "colors"), which upon much discussion (i.e. me saying, "that sounds ridiculous!") was amended to red shirts with black ties (a bit unconventional, if you ask me, but I could live with it). However, due to some difficulty getting red shirts to match the red bridesmaid dresses, the plan may have to be abandoned altogether to the simple (but elegant, original) plan of black suits, white shirts, and red ties. Apparently, another wedding outfit may have been purchased this past weekend by a certain groom during his bachelor celebration... which is a suit of a different color. I still think black is best, but this is still being debated... (and, Serena, we welcome your input).

For more on crazy outfits... turn to this past weekend's event, the 100th annual Bay to Breakers footrace in San Francisco. I am not entirely sure how this event got so crazy, but in addition to serious runners (for the 12k/ 7.5 mile course), the race (really a "dress up event") consists of lots of odd participants in fairly weird costumes (or, uh, absent costumes... i.e. people running nude!). There are also people dressed as "salmon," running the opposite direction (upstream). I had never been able to see or participate in this race until this year, but was lucky to get the chance to witness it with Wai Kiu, Hanh, Mason, Kelvin, and Medina. On average, between 70,000-80,000 people run this every year (with the record about 110,000 in 1986), about 40,000 of which look really bizarre, and I believe it!

We were initially (despite my dress-up aversion) going to dress up " a bit" and look like Asian tourists, but it was rather cold (50) to start and we ended up just putting on regular running clothes with layers. The numerous other characters definitely made up for our lack of color and imagination. Mason initially was not too thrilled with being in the stroller, but despite power walking, and not running, the majority of the course, we made good time and finished (famished) in about 2 hours.

Group at the start (Medina left us in the dust on his way to a good time!)


Can you see the tortillas flying in the air, flown like frisbees? (this, too is apparently a Bay to Breakers tradition)


Can you tell that I took this while running? :)


Mason's first Bay to Breakers! (not sure if you can tell from this pic, but amidst all the chaos, he lost one shoe.... which no fewer than 100 people pointed out to us. We just told them it was part of his costume)



"Trashbag person" (this really was a walking person in costume, with a "helper" adjusting!)


Guys on Stilts


Guy from "Up"


Randomly decorated building front (w/ furniture)


Buffalos by Golden Gate Park


Home stretch: Ocean Beach (0.5 miles from the finish line)


We had to backtrack about a half-mile to get our medals....


... and then about another mile to get our t-shirts ("Forget it," we said)
We were sooo hungry and had a wonderful Chinese meal with Hanh's family, who picked us up from the race end, before returning to Sac (where we changed into clean outfits).

Now, who knows some good places to get a new dress?

Random May Updates

I haven't had much occasion to blog lately. Here are a few random snippets of what's going on in my life...

Goodbye, Chiefdom
Last Friday marked the last day (and night) I would have to spend as "OB Chief" on Labor and Delivery. I still remember (and it seems that it was not that long ago) how I spent many a workday (/night) timid and overwhelmed in triage, and it is truly amazing that I have completed my months at UCD being partly "in charge" and hoping not to be involved in too many interpersonal conflicts. I am currently on the "MIC" (maternal infant care) rotation, taking care of FP moms and babies and so I am still on L and D quite a bit. However, I'm trying to lay low, and trying to avoid getting sucked in to see random triage patients or put in orders on random people.

Rather than watching others do deliveries which is sort of what you do as chief, I hope to get to do a few myself this month.....which may happen if there aren't any more precipitous deliveries onto the bed!!

Lesson duly learned: never leave the room when you have a multip in active labor without an epidural.

Last week, a continuity patient of mine/Randy's came in in labor towards the end of my day. She'd had a relatively fast 1st delivery (which I'd missed b/c I was out of town). This time, she'd labored at home with her doula for most of the day. She wouldn't allow me to break her water and progressed steadily from 5 --8 cm.... but it wasn't quite time to push yet. The nurse asked me to come to the room as the patient wasn't able to hold back from pushing.... and, in the 10 seconds or so it took to complete our conversation, the baby was definitely coming...
I didn't glove fast enough and didn't really feel like barehanding the baby... so, at 11:00 at night, the baby delivered itself (en caul [in the bag]), and I laughed at how useless I felt or how I just spent several hours "hanging out" to watch a baby deliver itself (and without lacerations). The patient didn't need me at all!!! But it was about the spirit of continuity, right? ( Wasted bed delivery #1).

Today, I admitted a patient with ruptured membranes who'd had precipitous labors in the past (her last baby delivered on the gurney between triage and her room). She at first wasn't contracting but then got really uncomfortable... and was progressing at a very normal rate. I joked that I should just stay at the bedside so as not to miss the delivery (and her continuity provider was also notified to stick around!), but I made the mistake of turning my back when she hadn't changed much from 6 --> 7 cm in 30 minutes... and walked around the corner only to hear the staff emergency alarm go off. Sure enough, 1 minute later than my exam, head was crowning, and I bare-handed my first baby head, although there were plenty of other people in the room to help (Wasted bed delivery #2). Again, this humbled me as a provider in that really, how often do people need you for their deliveries? Babies have delivered themselves without obstetricians for centuries!!! Natural labor really is the best. But I still felt a little cheated of a potential delivery and still very much want to catch some babies this month.

Social outings
... have been few and far between in the past month. I always feel so out of the loop on L and D.
This past weekend, I got to go to Davis to meet Shabu, Serena's new shih-tzu puppy. While he is not 100% housetrained yet (no accidents on me, though!), he is just the cutest little thing. I so so want a dog... and am thinking a doggie might make a great birthday present for me and the big 3-0 in November [hint for Kelvin]...
Sorry the picture is so miniscule--- blame the Mac which doesn't save things well



Allergy hell
I thought I had bad allergies in Richmond, when the yellow tree pollen coated our dorm windows. I thought I got a bit sniffly in Rochester, MN summers.
But NOTHING I have ever experienced compares to the misery of this past week in Sacramento. I am a heavy springtime antihistamine user-- it used to be Allegra, then Costco loratadine, and occasional ($$) Zyrtec (which works the best). Since moving to Sac, I have had to add on daily flonase nasal spray which, albeit weird feeling at first, works quite well. However, this past week, I have barely been able to open my crusted, swollen eyes, due to the severe ocular allergies I seem to have. For the first 3 days of this week, people at work asked me, "WHAT is wrong with you?! You look awful!" I tried to hide my red, itchy, swollen eyes/eyelids with some fake glasses I have. The eye itching seemed to be antihistamine-eye drop-resistant. It was Visine-resistant. I could function marginally at work (it was actually a relief to be indoors... the bike ride with blowing pollen really destroyed me). However, I would come home from work after a brief stint outdoors and lie on the couch, unable to see or do anything, holding ice cubes on my eyeballs until I fell asleep and the whole cycle repeated itself.

Here is a rather tame picture of what my eyes resemble.


I was considering getting some goggles to protect me from the deadly pollen. However, this has been my savior:


I think the regular (BID) use of these antihistamine eye drops has really calmed things down. By Wednesday night, I actually felt well enough to go to "Wine Wednesdays" for a post-work tasting. Thursday, I was able to put eye makeup on again and feel like a regular person. While I have been avoiding the outdoors like the plague, today I ventured out for a run. I may pay for it tomorrow, but I have decided that I can't live inside like a sickly hermit for the next 2 months. If Zaditor fails, I hear that Patanol eye drops may be life savers. And maybe I'll need some goggles.

2 months left!
It is now after May 2nd, which means that there is fewer than 2 months until the wedding! This is incredibly hard to believe. We are excited. I am especially excited to have the big day over with, just to have more free time not sucked up with the "planning." We are very disappointed that several out of town friends can't make it, but are excited to celebrate with those that are coming!
This week, we went to the Sac County Courthouse to get our marriage license... and so now, there's no going back on the name change unless I feel like forking over another $88 (which I'm too cheap to do)....
We have our hotels for our Bali-Malaysia-Singapore trip, as well as some more specific plans like hiking volcanic Mt. Batur. We are getting gifts galore which are filling my living room.
It's starting to feel real!


Here's to a work-free, allergy-free and stress-free weekend!

Lasts

It is March 17th 2011. The last day of residency is June 30, 2011, which is fewer than four months away (106 days, to be exact) ...

While I am still trying to stay motivated to keep up with patient care, diligent reading, and some required (albeit painful) tasks of residency, excited to move on to the "real world" and seeming "real life," I am also starting to realize that the time of "lasts" has started, and those "lasts" aren't all good.

I am seeing some of my patients for the *last* time. It is the *last* time I will do a well woman"exam on some of my young, healthy, continuity patients that rarely come in for other reasons. Yesterday, I told one of my favorite patients whose baby I delivered last September that "There is no rush, but you are due for a pap some time in the next year." She warmed my heart when she said, "Well, is it okay if I do it this June, just so that I can see you one more time?" And then there was the added, "Is there any way you could come down from Arcata for my next delivery?"

I am seeing some of my continuity babies for the *last * time-- now that some of them are over 18 months, they may not need to "return for next well child in 3 months." In the field I chose where I so much value continuity and relationships, the fact that I am leaving is rather depressing.

Tonight, I am on my *last* FP phone triage call of residency (let's hope it stays quiet).
This Sunday, I have my *last* FP wards call (I am praying that the team discharges some of their 20 patients before then ;)).
I have my *last* block of OB coming up in April, just after my *last* residency vacation.

This (well, once it stops pouring and we can actually get out there) is my *last* season of frisbee-playing at Curtis/McKinley park on Tuesday afternoons (although I hope the tradition will continue in our absence).

While I really like it here, I don't know where life will bring us-- this may be the *last* time I ever live in Sacramento. It will be the *last* time I have my own apartment.

It will be probably the *last* time I am surrounded by so many people of a similar walk and path, such good friends, and a built-in family in a place where, four years ago, I knew no one.

It is a season of lasts but I hope to make the memories last, too.

Revived

I have literally felt like an out-of-the-loop zombie for most of the last 2 months!

I am coming off a 6-week block of OB which is a time frame which far exceeds my attention span and patience for the L and D environment (I am not quite sure how the OB residents tolerate their 8-10 week blocks). I spent half of that time (including last week) as the chief on nights which always wears on both my spirits (mainly due to the ridiculous ER) and energy, as I tend not to sleep well during the day. And then, to top it off, there are the lovely post-call Friday AM clinics where I am annoyed by patients whose concerns, after 18 straight hours of working and pushing 80+ hours in a week, often just don't seem that important.

I don't really have much to say for "what I have done" in the last 6 weeks.
We shucked some oysters. K and I went skiing at Alpine Meadows one Sunday a few weeks ago, when our chains luckily did NOT break and we (well, I) had a great day on the super soft Tahoe snow (I think Kelvin got a rib contusion from snowboarding :( ). We watched the Oscars at Wai Kiu's house. We spent time at the Family Medicine Network Educational Conference last weekend. Today, we went to church and K dragged me to see a movie (Cedar Rapids; quite funny) because I literally haven't done anything "out of the house" in what feels like forever!! The wedding planning has basically been on hold.

This weekend, I mainly just slept. I don't know how it is possible to be so tired, but in the 36 or so hours from Friday afternoon until Sunday (this AM) morning, I was awake for about 12 total hours (1/3 of the time). It just is bad luck that we had to lose an hour this weekend...

So besides stressing about presenting OB M and Ms in a week or so and the never-ending wedding checklist, I am loving getting back to "normal hours" and "normal life" where I may be able to eat dinner at a reasonable time, get some exercise and, yes, sleep again...! Looking forward to Costa Rica in two weeks!

Change of Scenery

From:

to:

I've spent the past four weeks on labor and delivery as OB Chief! It was definitely challenging and very busy at times, with code c-sections, ruptured ectopics, overflowing triage, an 11-lb continuity delivery, and several very pretermers, but it also was very entertaining. From amusing floor consults (one for vaginal bleeding which was quite certainly "menses") to caring for some very interesting antepartum characters, I felt like I bonded with my team-members and hope that I wasn't a mean chief, which was my greatest fear :)

I am thankful to be done, though, at least for this block. I am back on OB in December, but get to now head overseas to India to do some medical work in Hyderabad and then have some much-needed vacation which, due to recent time constraints and severe sleep deprivation, is at this point very loosely planned. It will be another adventure :)

Incompatible are ....

the following....

• The groom thinking about wearing a brown suit at our wedding, to which I responded "Absolutely not." "Why?" "Because that would be incredibly ugly. And because I am the bride."
• As a second choice, him planning to wear a brown tie with a black suit (Similarly vetoed. It does not match, although he will try to convince you it does, and he really does usually have much better fashion sense than I do)
• Brown with grey. Again, not compatible in my opinion.
• Planning a wedding in So Cal while living in Nor Cal (as a result, the wedding might become a Nor Cal wedding and, at this rate, might be in 2015)
• Planning a wedding while working resident hours
• Planning vacation in India for November 2010 while thinking about planning a wedding and being a resident
• Planning vacation in a month while searching for a job for next year (had an interview Friday up on the northern CA coast) while planning a wedding and being a resident
• Preparing to give OB grand rounds this week while planning this international vacation, searching for a job, planning a wedding, and being a resident

Oof da, as they would say in MN. I feel like I am juggling 10 very heavy balls.

Initiation

Today is June 30th, which means it is the end of the residency year (Hallelujah! Three down for me, one to go!). New interns started on July 25th, but "upper years" switch on July 1st. July 1st is the source of much dread... some people (patients) worry they will get appendicitis in July (where new surgery interns are salivating over OR time). Some others worry that they will have their baby in July, when an OB intern might have his/her first "whole" delivery (I delivered a lot of babies' heads in med school but, until I did a fourth-year rotation at a rural hospital, usually got bumped out of the way by a OB resident).

This is a tricky time of year. There is a very steep learning curve. I was on (acting) OB chief call for 24 hours this past Saturday with a new OB intern, and it was perhaps one of the most challenging calls as a "senior" that I have had to do. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but I was brought back to teaching a newbie how to do basic triage and admission orders, an AFI/Ultrasound in triage, a speculum exam and cervical check, writing thorough notes, finding vitals, labs, and notes in EMR, and covering the gyn onc service. She did fantastically, but I felt kind of like an intern. While it has been a long time since I was "initiated," I was reminded very much of how overwhelming it can be.

It was in a way refreshing to realize how far I've come, and how fast we have become at getting these tasks done compared to that first, heavy-learning year. It is great to see the large knowledge jump between intern and chief. However, I'm still a bit nervous about playing the role as chief. How do I be patient, but make sure that things get things done in a timely fashion? How do I give people their freedom, yet make sure things don't fall through the cracks? How do I give feedback without coming off as critical? As I've written about before, I am terrified of being a "mean" chief; however, I also don't want to be the one that the nurses, other residents, and attendings don't respect by being too "nice." It's a very hard balance. I am worried I don't have the confidence. At one point, late in the night, I literally tried to Vocera (call on the walkie-talkie) "OB Chief" and realized that I was OB Chief! It will be a tough year, not only for interns, but us chiefs. We'll see how the next call, July 2nd, goes (no more "acting"-- this will be real chief call!)...

In any case, there is time for intern and initiation fun. There is no hazing that goes on in residency. We (especially the out-going interns) welcomed the new interns with open arms (it was a great relief, as an intern, to see the "new interns," or replacements/reinforcements, arrive, as it meant that much less time for us!).

Last week, we had some great intern-chief FP bonding through Peak Adventures, a local company who specializes is team-bonding activities. We did lots of low-ropes activities, which were both quite challenging and really fun. It was neat to see the new interns' personalities come out in leadership and team situations.

Enjoy these pictures...

The whole group of us

Puzzling balancing act...

... headed towards the solution....

... Voila!

Team "Jelly," balancing on a platform

... and having a great time

Three chiefs (me with Ashby, Kristin)

... and four chiefs (+ Kelvin)

Goodbye, outpatient surgery; hello orthopedics.

365 days of residency to go (I should get a ticker for this blog!).

Deep breath. July 1st, here we come!

Goodbye, chiefs, hello interns!

This last week and weekend included more graduation (and welcome) events for the outgoing chiefs and incoming interns, respectively. Thanks to everyone who was actually good about photo taking, as I can "claim" to have snapped about 5% of these photos :)

Last Wednesday, Wai Kiu graciously hosted a welcome dinner for the new FP interns at his house, which was held outside on the patio which is just perfect for entertaining. We sat under the shade having great Mexican food, playing icebreakers, and getting to know one another. We attempted to take a picture in "timer" mode which was marginally successful.

Saturday was the OB department graduation downtown. It was, as usually, very fun! It is always nice to see people dressed up (OB residents virtually live in scrubs!) and with their families.

Goodbye, chiefs! (Elizabeth, Kyla, Aisha, Jen, Ashley, Erica, Shanee)

My chief class (Priyal, Julia, Charmian, Lucy, Gaea)-- I think I was in the bathroom or something when this was taken, and Alex wasn't able to make it!

Here I was included :)

Congrats, you're almost done! (Current OB interns, with 7/7 turnout- Natalie, Andrea, Mike, Stephanie, Jessica, Anna, Alison!)

New OB interns!

OB two pyramid!

Joe loves being the sole male in their class :)

(with Sarah, Cara, Ingrid, Siobhan, Pia)

FP OB picture (me, Jessica, Kyla, Joe, Suzanne, Blanca)

me with Kyla and Stephanie

On the dance floor!

Dr. B hosted a pool party over the weekend to welcome the FP interns. There was great food, and fun karaoke which I'm finding really makes a California party!

Mason, Brian, Rachel

Kelvin w/ Mason

Kim, Vin's legs, Mason, and us

Mason (7 months), thinking about standing

Mad karaoke (Caesar, Kristen, Jose)

The social gatherings continue- Monday night was the FP department welcome dinner (Italian) at Espanol restaurant and there is a breakfast this morning. I think we have an FP ropes event Wednesday afternoon, OB chief dinner on Wednesday, and then Friday, the new interns start! Whew!