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).

it’s been so long since i had any amount of free time, that i am having a little bit of trouble filling it. when i am not riding my [sister's] bike, i am out walking dede, painting, or reading, but there days where i manage to do all of those things.  it’s amazing, that i run out of things to do, and end up turning to one of my favorite past-times:  sleeping. 

my days include highlights, like biting my tongue, something the dogs did, or how much i cleaned/packed.  these are the stories i subject z to, because i really don’t have much else happening, and it’s incredible.

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.

but i will have years to be productive.  i only want to sit outside and read right now.  i would still be out there, but this fair skin of mine can only take so much at a time.

i could be taking care of financial aid, writing the neverending speeches i have to give or converting an old ob/gyn notebook into a word format for residency.  i could do all of these things, but i will have time for them.  instead, i choose to sit outside on a one of those classy fabric lawn chairs in the front yard of z’s house and read the picture of dorian gray.

i have a word document on my computer at home of every literary classic, and it is my life goal to read them all.  it is another life goal to own my favorites.  since startng my campaign of laziness, i have read 1984 and slaughterhouse five.  1984 was pretty good, but i suppose after reading ayn rand’s novels, it is tough to love it. slaughterhouse five was a very enjoyable book.  it was a quick and interesting read that was witty in it’s humor, but sad at the heart of it i think.  anyway, after the picture of dorian gray, i will read where the red fern grows and to kill a mockingbird.  those two i am saving for last and am looking forward to the most.  i don’t know how i managed to skip them in my reading craze during my younger years, but i have time for them now.

after those?  who knows, but my word document has thousands and thousands, and i plan to visit my local borders tomorrow.  (i have a 40% off coupon – worth joining their rewards programs for that if nothing else).

z’s family –> me –> z hopefully he got it in time to be resolved for commencement ball.  poor guy.

just over 1 week ago, i was exposed to it. ‘it’ you ask? it’s a disease that i have been taught since i was a young elementary school girl to cringe upon seeing it. the dreaded “pink eye” or in medical terms, conjunctivitis. the saturday prior to easter, i spent with z’s family, and on saturday evening, i glance over at the commotion surrounding his grandmother, when i realize immediately what the problem is.  it only takes a single glance, because when you are trained to look at someone’seyes, it is inevitably the first thing you see. 

and there she was, itching her eyes, goop collecting at it’s sides.  the family is ‘aww’-ing and sympathesizing with her pain.  they had all been through it one week prior, and the young children of the family had passed it to them one week prior to that. 

she left that night, and the following day at church and at the home of his aunt, i could hardly help but cringe or watch with my jaw dropped as she touched her eye and touched a child or my arm, and went on her way.  the whole day i washed my hands ad nauseum.  i could barely bear it.   i could only reminisceon how all i would need to do is walk past someone with it as a child to contract it.  just like some people get ear infections as a child, i get eye infections.  except mine haven’t stopped once i grew out of childhood.  with my transition, one thing has remained steady – my susceptibility to eye infections – hordelums, conjunctivitis, etc. 

the following monday, i thought i had made it.  i woke up with a sore throat, but otherwise, my whites of my eyes remained just that.  as the week progressed, my sore throat evolved into congestion, but still i was happy – it wasn’t pink eye!

on friday, i drove out to z, and we shared a very relaxing eveningout at a park having a picnic.  we returned rested, and went to bed.  at 4 in the morning, i woke up with so much congestion and my throat hurtingso much, that z insisted on taking care of me.  and as i trudged to bed, he exclaims, “your eye is so red!”  and my heart drops.  i lay in bed knowing i’m going to wake up with it.  and i did.  it progressively worsened as saturday went on, and my right eye quickly joined the left, succumbing to all that is pink and goopy.  the right eye pooped out so poorly it was even kind enough to also get a lid infection causing me to look like not only a stoner, but a stoned quasimodo.  this peaked on sunday, and somewhat this morning, but i am on the mend.  my eyes are still red, and there is some swelling, but i’m hoping for a decently quick recovery.

i do hope i didn’t pass it on to z, but as he has started this week with a similar set of symptoms that i started with, i don’t know his chances of escaping.  so in all my squeamish-ness and disgust with the lack of sanitation on his grandmother’s part, i have been paid in full with my judgement.  

and as i sit here writing this, i simply thank my lucky stars that the cops came 2 months ago to arrest people at my house for drugs, and not today, because i look like a perpetual stoner.

that’s how many you get. for what you ask? well, i expect you to guess what i found in my living room when i came home this afternoon, after a month-long hiatus. you might think to be creative… another dog, something broken, etc.   but these are all far too reasonable.  no my friends… it was a motorcycle.  right in the middle of it.

something to make me more irate – we now have two broken down cars in the garage, because SON OF A B WORD.   i am just steaming about this.  why isn’t my fully functional car in there?  why does this happen everytime i leave?  it’s dangerous for me to leave.  now, i have to be the the other person out of 2 people who can drive AND work that has to wake up and brush my car of from the 8 inches of snow we’re sure to get.  but psh, how dare i be upset – chewkie has decided he needs BOTH spots to fix cars.

i cannot wait to move.

i was recently asked what my favorite holiday is, and after some contemplation, i decided it was thanksgiving.  don’t get me wrong, i love christmas.  however, in my family thanksgiving is the time of year that i see most of my family all at once.  i don’t see my father’s side of the family, but i still love the time i spend.  the other downfall of my christmas experience is that i have to hop around to a million places without much time being spent with any one group.  i look forward to the time when i have a family of my own and have an excuse to spend it at one place for the entire day.

and that is what i love about thanksgiving.  because my mother doesn’t do it here, and my father only does it here, there is only one place i can be for that holiday.  this year, i joined my mother to kill two birds with one stone.  on monday i have my step cs (clinical skills) in atlanta.  why atlanta?  well because the test entails interviewing real patients, they can’t have this test every where like my other boards.  thus it is only in 6 places in the country, and atlanta is one of them.

this year was also special because steve’s family joined us.  i have always gotten along well with them, and as i get older i appreciate the change in the relationship i have with his family – certainly a positive one.  every year, one of my favorite parts of christmas was knowing on christmas eve that i would spending the evening at mike and kathy’s house.  it really is one of my favorite holiday traditions.  this year also offered my the opportunity to talk to sarah a little more than usual.  i don’t know why that hasn’t happened in the past, but i do like her very much, and i hope there are more opportunities to spend time with her.  i loved sitting at dinner next to mike and kathy last night as we talked about all of the places i’d like to go, and places i hadn’t previously considered going.

the remainder of today and tomorrow will now be spent preparing for monday, but there is little i need to do.  i have been technically been preparing for this test for the past 3 years of my life and if i can’t do it without a ton of prep, then i really shouldn’t be a doctor.

i have not washed my hair in two days, which can only mean one thing… i have officially immersed myself in studying for my step 2 of boards.  my immediate family would probably remember this time well last summer when i did something similar for step 1.  my entire life was a routine until i took that test.  fortunately, step 2 is a little more laid back, but it still means i am dedicating long hours to studying.  i sit at my desk for hours upon hours with the occasional break intermixed.  i do practice question after practice question until i am so antsy to get away from my computer that i start getting 40%’s on my quizzes.  that’s my heralding sign that it’s time to stop.

unlike step 1, a time when my only thought was to study, step 2 is overshadowed by every aspect of fourth year:  fourth year electives, residency programs, letters of recommendation, oh my.  there are still a million things i need to do while studying for this exam.  then in my personal life, which isn’t filled so much with personal things, i still have obligations… my e-check status is particular is looming over my head.  sigh.  all i want to do is a study and get this done with.

today, i ran my first 5k.  overall i did pretty well, clocking in around 30:18 for 3.1 miles, and my goal within my head was around 30 minutes (i wanted to run less than a 10 minute mile).  it was a pretty fun experience, although strange, because realistically, i could run for free at home rather than pay 20 dollars, but it goes to charity and all that.  additionally, i’ve realized, these races provide that motivation to run even more.  it gives me something to which i can compare myself.  for instance, the next available 5k, i can run it with the hopes of improving my time. 

although, i must say, i probably could have been under 30 minutes had it not been for this random man trying to hold a conversation with me while running.  Since i had set the goal of ~30 minutes, i knew i’d have to run pretty hard, especially considering the humidity and rain.  it was bound to be a tough run.  and i know it had something to do with the whole talking thing because for the first 2 miles, i was fine running at my usual pace.  i remember hitting two miles at about 19:30, and it was meh from there cause he wouldn’t stop talking.  this man ran next to me for about 1.5 miles, and here he is with his jumbo long legs, and my with my little ones working to maximize their stride.  curse him.

nevertheless, i was happy with my run and finish.  i set a realistic goal an achieved it.  it was especially fun because in the beginning, you see all these people sprint off, and you want to run past them, but then you calm yourself and let it go.  because when you get to that last half mile, those are the people you pass.  while some people were walking up that final hill, i jogged with pride (although, with my runs, they always end on a hill).   so yay to the next one (potentially july 4th).

dave hit his goal of 25 minutes, and rachel without any particular goal or preparation hit 40 minutes (under 13 minutes/mile – very nice!     )