Almost done!

This 4-week block of outpatient medicine is quickly coming to an end and tomorrow morning is my last half day of clinic. That means tomorrow afternoon I start the long and horrible journey back to CA! I'm extremely excited to be heading home for a few weeks, but getting there will be less than ideal for a few reason. First, because I'm gone so long I am taking a bus with a bunch of undergrads to the airport. It's only $7 dollars, and I have to take a bus just to catch the bus. At least I will get to the airport without having to park my car for tons of money. Second, I am taking Spirit Airlines. For those of you who have never flown Spirit for a longish flight, don't. I booked this flight before I knew how much I disliked the experience, which I found out in September when I went to SoCal for the weekend. Every flight was delayed, the seats don't recline, everything costs extra, and I mean EVERYTHING. I didn't want to pay $10-20 per flight (I have a layover in Vegas) to choose my seat, so despite checking in almost exactly 24 hours prior to my flight and there being an abundance of aisle and window seats available, I will be stuck in a middle seat for a 4.5 hour flight and then again for another 1.5 hour flight. Lucky me. Pretty sure they don't really give a shit about their customers and just want to squeeze as much money as possible out of everyone who can't afford to fly on a better airline. I am so not looking forward to that. Lastly, my flight is not scheduled to get in until 11:30pm in CA, so inevitably I will get home well after midnight, probably much later since the flight is almost sure to be delayed for one reason or another. At least I'll be snuggling with the puppies and hanging out with family soon.

As for now, I need to start packing! I also have quite a lot of Christmas shopping to do still, which means it's an Amazon kind of night. See you all soon!

Tag Days

This weekend was our annual Galen's Tag Days, where med students brave the cold in Ann Arbor to stand outside and raise money for Mott Children's Hospital as well as various children's organizations within Washtenaw County. I tagged in the hospital, on Main Street during Midnight Madness (the yearly night when everything downtown is open until midnight for shopping), and at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube during the synchronized skating competition. We made a good amount of money, but we won't know the final count for a while. Last year we made over $75k, so hopefully we get up there again this year. Luckily it wasn't nearly as cold as it was last year during Tag Days, so while it was still chilly, I wasn't frozen solid.

In other news, I am trying to re-learn how to play the oboe to maybe play in the Smoker band, which is essentially the pit orchestra for our annual musical faculty roast. Could be fun, but it's been a very very long time since I've played anything for real. Ten and a half years!!! Wow. I can't believe it's been that long since high school. Anyways, that's all really. Tomorrow it's back to more outpatient medicine. We are halfway through this month already, and only two weeks until I am home for Christmas! I should probably start Christmas shopping soon!

A Glorious Thanksgiving Weekend in CA

The last five days have been wonderful! I got to go home for Thanksgiving to be with my family. I think this is the hardest it has been to come back to Michigan since it is about to be so cold, no family is around, and I have to go back to clinic after 5 days off, which is by far the most off time I have had since the first week of May. Luckily this is not my most time intensive month of medical school and in just three short weeks I will be heading back to California yet again for the most magical time of the year. My trip included my 10 year high school reunion, which was actually really awesome, Thanksgiving, hanging out with family, going to the Cal football game (sadly they lost), and so much relaxing with my puppies. I can't wait for Christmas!

I took the red eye home last night and got a little sleep, but since the flight is not that long (maybe 4 hours) I clearly did not get a sufficient amount to function. I immediately got in bed upon arrival at my condo and slept for almost 5 hours and was still tired when I got up! I did force myself to go to Jazzercise to work out, but didn't get much else done today. I fell asleep on my couch for a long time before forcing myself to shower, unpack, and prepare to be in the real world again and not in the magical state of being home and always with family.

VA: Check

I have now completed my month of general medicine inpatient at the VA Hospital. It was a very interesting month, and a stark departure from outpatient pediatrics, where I saw mostly healthy little kiddos all day long. I think it was a good experience, but I am excited to get a little more sleep over the next month. Tomorrow I start outpatient and I have a variety of clinics. I start with Med/Peds clinic and Endocrine clinic tomorrow, and then General Medicine on Tuesday and then its time for Thanksgiving break in California where it's WARM! Can't wait!

This weekend was pretty fun too. I went to the last home game of the season at the Big House, but sadly, we lost. It kinda sucked and our chances of being bowl bound are slim with just Ohio State left on the schedule. Stanford, however, beat Cal which was awesome except for my mom complaining about the refs over text all night long :-P Stanford is for sure bowl bound and Cal has a shot next weekend. Heres to hoping Cal can beat BYU!!

Still snowing

So apparently the first snow of the year was just the beginning of the crazy snowy winter that is to come. It's been snowing more and it's still snowing outside. Only 11/19 and I've already lost count of days of snow. Thankfully next week is Thanksgiving and I'm off to CA for some much needed warmth!

Is Winter Over yet?

Okay, it's official. I am over the winter and it's only barely just begun. It is cold and snowy and I miss the sun and warmth! Tomorrow our wind chill is -5ºF! OMG! So cold so soon. This is going to be a very very long winter. Thank goodness I am off to California in a little over a week, and then again three weeks later! January-April is going to be a rough time in the cold without any breaks!

On the upside at least there was one beautiful sunset last week. Heres that picture, if only to make me happier!

First snow

Today is the third time I've seen snow flurries this winter season (first was on Halloween), but this morning was the first time of the season that it actually stuck on the ground at all. It didn't last long and it's already all melted just a few short hours later, but it's officially happened. Winter has come and I'm in for many months of freezing cold! Look out for the first real snow storm of the season in the coming months! I'll be sure to post about it. Luckily it's not in the forcast quite yet!

UPDATE! I got to go home early today and I took some time to get some much needed rest and relaxed on the couch. When I looked up it was snowing like crazy. It didn't last long again, but more is sticking now.  It's supposed to snow more over night too. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY!

Happy happy 26th birthday to my most wonderful and absolute favoritest (and only) sister!! I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day and I can't wait to celebrate with you in only a few more weeks when I make it home for Thanksgiving! Enjoy your day!! Love you lots and lots!

Happy Birthday Christine!

Happiest of birthdays to my wonderful and fabulous cousin Christine today as she turns 27 years old! Wish we got to celebrate together, but Christmas time will have to made up for the rest of the year in which we never get to hang out! Hope you had a wonderful day galavanting around Glasgow (after that thing you didn't want to go to this morning at least!). Love you!

Passed the Peds Shelf!

Today I found out that I passed my Peds shelf exam and I actually did well on it, yay!! I am so relieved. It was by far my best shelf exam of the year, so I am hopeful for at least getting more than a Pass in the rotation. About a month until I will likely get my grade, but until then I am feeling happy that I did well on that stinking exam.

Otherwise nothing too exciting happening out here. This weekend I worked Saturday, but made it out in time to make the football game where I froze my toes, but Michigan won! Yay. Stanford was not so lucky against Oregon, but Cal beat Oregon State so yay for Cal being so close to bowl eligible. The Niners sadly also lost so once again I'm batting 0.500. I don't know that I've had a 100% W weekend this season, which stinks.

Other than football I studied some and got some much needed sleep in. Daylight savings ending made up for the fact that I stayed up so gosh darn late watching football! Now I'm back in the thick of Internal Medicine again, trying to learn some stuffs. Fun times.

GO BLUE!