while i sit and eat lunch

besides not being in the mood to update this bad boy, i really haven’t had the time. going from wedding to wedding, from state to state, i am no exhausted, just in time for residency.

i recently deposited dede in atl, which was heart-breaking enough, seeing her whimper and look out the window as i drove away. mom says she is adjusting well, which soothes my sorrow, but hurts my pride. that’s my baby.

other than that, i have been doing all that i requires to move into a new city for four years.  next up is change of registration, but not before i make a pit-stop at goodwill to provide a very generous donation of four boxes worth of clothing, shoes and purses.

it’s been so wonderful living in my own apt too.  wow… it’s so quiet and clean (except my desk…some things never change).

the whirlwind is over

starting thursday, things have been complete and utter madness.  it commenced with going wedding dress shopping with rachel, which went well.  if not for her fiancee knowing about this site, i would consider posting photos.  i have no doubt she will look beautiful based on the preliminary search.  i rushed home to meet z where we did absolutely nothing (thankfully).

friday, i was up bright and early to go to my graduation rehearsal, and on to my “class day” which consists of the school giving us awards and money (yay!).  i won service to the class and college, which was an unbelieveable honor bestowed upon me by my classmates and some secret committee within the school.  i couldn’t believe i won one at all, let alone both.  z thinks this is ridiculous, but i remember last year han not winning it, so why shouldn’t i think ali or andy might win it.  anyhow, i couldn’t thank my class enough.  it was incredibly kind of them.  z and steve joined me at the function and it was a great time sitting at the table with erin and chad.   it was especially fun because z really likes them both so much (as do i, obviously).  we took pictures, hugged, blah blah, fun fun.  but the day did not end there… in painfully high heels i ran over to stan hywet and tadoro’s to look at the places with rach.  she ended up not choosing either one of those, but one she saw that evening for her wedding.  it will be just beautiful. 

we then went home, refreshed and headed back out to the school for a “commencement eve” dinner.  when i originally said i wouldn’t go to this dinner, it was before i knew that only a few students were invited.  i hadn’t realized i was invited for three reasons:  the student council and the two awards i won.

the dinner was mostly fun except when my parents starting arguing at the table only 5 feet from the professors and doctors and other administrative people who have watched me for four years.  sigh. it was nevertheless, an incredible dinner spent with my sister and dave, brother, aunt, grandma, parents and z. plus it was a free dinner.

the next day was graduation, with lots of people except me (and rachel) crying.  so here i am, an official md, which is just a little bit strange.  if someone gets sick suddenly out in the open, i can say, “i’m a doctor”, which did happen only 5 hours later to my friend sophie.  she didn’t have much idea of what she was doing, or as she put it “i asked him what questions i could remember from the mini mental status exam” and then she told him to go to er.  duh.  but still hilarious, and crazy that we can say that.

the graduation party was great to have all my family and friends around, and even better when we were all able to sing happy birthday to dave.  that cake was delicious, but prevented me from eating my delicious strawberry cake.  oh well. still cake.

otherwise, i have written all my thank yous, addressed the envelopes and stamped them.  tomorrow i will mail them, and only then will i deposit the gifts i was given.  i am a huge proponent of writing thank yous BEFORE you use a gift.  someday, when i manage to get married, i have promised myself ot do the same thing.  i don’t want them looming and i don’t want people to think i forgot.  and i dunno, i just think it seems tacky.  it doesn’t take that long to write a little card out thanking someone for sharing in your day.

and now for my very busy days painting, running, and reading, to which i must attend to now.

hopefully back to it for realz this time

3 miles today…and a brutal 3 it was, and always is at the start of my running season, which extends from may until about november/december.

by the end, i will be up to a steady 4/5 miles 4 days a week, depending on the injury i get this year.

wedding bells and airplane tickets

this monday, my aunt asked me to send her my itinerary for when z and i come to visit.  shortly after sending it, she calls me and starts the conversation with something along the lines of “do you have something to tell me?”  i’m initially bewildered and she skips the crypticism by telling me the plane ticket says “p duncan”  oops.  i immediately reassure her that an elopement is not in my stars, that is something more likely to be performed by my more romantic sister if it were not for her very practical fiancee.  she will vehemently deny this, but if she were born in the english 1800’s she would be in heaven.

actually, now that i think about it, if rachel were to be any jane austen character it would probably be the crazy one from sense and sensibility – you know who i am talking about…marianne.  yes, rachel is all passion and romance.  don’t let her fool you.  i like to think of rachel like jane too, because she is so beautiful, but i don’t think she has anything even close to resembling that nice, quiet demeanor.  haha, oh no.  rachel would probably vote for elizabeth – and who wouldn’t.  i think any girl with half a brain sees some of herself in elizabeth.  it is probably why we all love that book so much.

anyhow, the plane ticket had to be changed, and thank goodness ac caught it, or that would be quite a shock when z and i went in on that early thursday morning.  i called united, and they refuse to change it.  i sobbingly tell them that everything else is the same and that it isn’t changing who is flying.  so that ended horribly.  i call z at work, and he is clearly not going to be able to fix this debacle in any way from work.  so what does any 24 year old girl do?  she calls her mom.

and what does her mom do?  well if she’s the nance – she calls united and guilts them into changing the name on the ticket.  so in her usual fashion, she works wonders for me.  thanks as always mom.

as to what jane austen character i would be, i’m not sure.  i suppose maybe a mixture of elizabeth (as discussed above) and emma – a little bit proud, and a little bit of a snob, a little bit bored with other people, and a little bit nosy, fiercely loyal to my older sister, etc.

grace

it was not too long ago in my religious discussions with z that the topic of grace came up, and i recall inquiring into what grace really meant.  his answer was it’s when you come by something you didn’t necessarily earn, which for some time was sort of inconceiveable to me.  i was always of the mantra that everything you have you should earn…but there are somethings that we all have that we did nothing to attain. 

nothing taught me more about grace than my recent interview at allegheny.  the program director was commending me on all of my positive characteristics and traits, but specifically my intelligence.  it was a nice interview because it was a lot of compliments for me, but when he raved about my “brilliance”, it really struck me on how fortunate i have been. 

i know i have  a very blessed life, but for some reason my epiphany came right then.  how lucky to have two very intelligent parents, with the only factor limiting their going to college was 1. their lack of ambition (my father) 2. three children by age 23 (my mother).  my mother eventually went back, but i just wonder what she would have achieved if she hadn’t married so young.  how lucky for me that she did marry early, because i wouldn’t be here.  how lucky for me that i have such a supportive family that has encouraged me throughout these four years.

and that is a minor sampling of God’s grace in my life.  i pray i never forget to thank Him for all he has given me and all that continues to come my way.

3:47 am

that time simplifies one of the fantastic aspects of the fourth year of medical school which is that you have no tests (once you have completed usmle step 2) and minimal obligations on rotations.  this is something that blew my mind when i was a newly entering m1.  i could not believe that fourth year was essentially a joy ride with much of the time when you’re supposed to be on rotations, you are off interviewing. 

i have been further blessed by the fact that my next elective doesn’t start until the 6th of october, and i finished my last rotation on 9/19 and step 2 on 9/30.  i am home free for those 6 days in between my test and my next rotation.  well, not entirely.  since i have been in pittsburgh for the past month, i have a lot to catch up on.  like bills.  oops.  i actually got a call today from summa regarding one of them.  they can wait.  i think it’s only 100 dollars.  100 i would rather not spend there, but clearly there is not a component of choice.  additionally, i have had multiple meetings and other errands i have neglected until this time.  unfortunately, there are just not enough hours in the day. which has resulted me being up until 4 in the morning. 

overall, this has really been an exciting time for me.  i have submitted my eras (electronic residency application s…something) to 22 programs.  i have changed my mind on 2 of the programs and 1other program is for a “practice” interview. so, out of the 20 programs i will interview at, i already have 9 interviews.  this is going to be a little overwhelming… i was originally saying i would only do 6 or 7 interviews, but now i know i’ll be doing more.  i can’t do 20 interviews if i somehow manage to get an offer at all of them (which i don’t anticipate), but i don’t even want to do much more than 10.  it’s nice having too many options

so that’s pretty much it in terms of life update.  i’ll have some other posts in the days to come (if not in the days to come, then definitely starting october 6th…i’ll be back in pittsburgh this weekend).

and all is right in the world

michael phelps tore up the olympics, dede continues to eat trash, and i am going to pittsburgh for a month, starting this monday.

not only that, but something earth shattering has happened.  drum roll please:

i have honored a shelf.  my last and least favorite one.  this is awesome on two levels: 1. i honored a shelf 2. it shows continued improvement throughout the school year and not that i burned out and stopped trying.  i never stopped trying despite how disappointed i was every time.

so yea..going to pittsburgh.  there are no words to describe my joy in finding out upmc would be having me come for an elective.  not only will i be going to a mecca of an academic institution, but i am going to have the month of my life hanging out with bri and kyle.  we all already have so many plans.  it’s incredible.  and i’m not going to lie, it will be fun to see the pburgh boy out there.  my male counterpart.

my running curse

when it comes to running, i am officially cursed. 

i started running to help my sister get in shape.  i doubt anything else could have motivated to do something so tortuous.  we started out obscenely slow, half running/half walking 2 miles every other day.  by the beginning of june, i had struck out on my own and was running 3-3.6 (damn straight 0.6 and not 0.5 – i work for my 1/10th of a mile) every other day as a means of stress relief for boards.  i was addicted.  i never expected to love it so much, but you begin to realize there is a runner’s high.

by around mid-july, i self-diagnosed myself with a stress fracture, and given that i have worked in a pediatric sports medicine clinic for 3 years now, i feel pretty comfortable making these types of diagnoses.  the only remedy is rest, and as one might expect, i fell off the running wagon (that doesn’t make any sense).  before i managed the stress fracture, i was running 3.6 or 5 miles depending on my mood, and my 3.6 miles would take about 38 minutes.

fast forward to this summer… i was determined to start back up again, and the glorious thing about running is that once you have acquired the ability to run, it’s much easier to resume it regardless of the hiatus.  i started back in may, and to precent the repeat stress fracture, i bought a pair of running shoes made for my feet.  not literally made for my feet, but i apparently pronate (that explains the 5th metatarsal stress fracture i had last summer!), and these shoes apparently fix that.  well after running in these shoes for 3 months, i am without a stress fracture, but a new joy has come into my life… one i haven’t known since my hey-day in high school basketball:  shin splints.  i even know the day.  it was last friday, and i know this because i remember thinking, my calves hurt.  this of course comes at a time when i’m running 4.1 miles consistently, and on that same friday, i set my new personal record of running 4.1 miles in 36:02 minutes, which means ~8:41 per mile.  I was so proud and still am because i have smoked my times from a year ago.

well, despite the shin splints, i have persisted in my running (against my own better judgement), but i spend more time stretching my calves and icing them when i remember.  i would normally be up to 6 miles this week, but i have decided to keep it at 4.1 for now to allow them to [hopefully] resolve without needing to rest.  i need the stress relief right now from boards.

ink on the ear

i shouldn’t even admit this.

i basically had a zit on my earlobe.  i don’t know how i managed it, but i did.  i say had, because i have demolished it.  and boy was i a champion.  about a half hour after i went to town on it, i looked in the mirror… hm,  i thought to myself… it looks like i managed to get ink on my ear.  except it’s not ink.  i pressed on my earlobe so hard, i managed to bruise it.  and it’s awesome because it’s totally in the shape of my fingers pinching my ear, with the back looking particularly impressive… i might have to take a picture of it.  if it turns out well, expect a post with just that.

bigfoot

you know what i’m excited about?  this bigfoot discovery.  it helps that i only bought a fake bigfoot memoir book about a week ago and have been enjoying it’s nonsense since then.  not only have i been enjoying it, but i have been spreading it’s happiness to all my friends, who then notified me of this major bigfoot news.

tomorrow is the big day for the unveiling.  what would be great is if it’s true – not because it would justify every redneck east of the applachians (sp?), but because i sooo want to go to the bigfoot convention in pa in september… and you know that would just turn that place into a riot.  (noteworthy is that i want to go to the convention for the entertainment…not the belief of bigfoot).  but who knows now, he could be real. HA.