I made one of these when I was studying for Step 1 of the boards, so thought I’d make one as well for Step 2. ;) Big day is the 17th!

This is the one from Step 1:

1. I enjoy ___many things – but sitting, listening to music, and daydreaming is what I have been doing lately! (instead of studying!)_______.

2. ___Where I’ll be for residency_______ is something I wonder about often lately.

3. In your heart, you knew ____better______.

4. Take ___a camera_______, add a little ___poodle_______ and you end up with ___so so many Wolfie pics_______.

5. Life has gifted me with ____a smile!______.

6. ____Taking a shower______ is an instant vacation.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to __being one day closer to boards___, tomorrow my plans include __a strategic meeting___ and Sunday, I want to __?! be all vague and nonspecific :P I really have no idea___!.

Do you know what this is?

I’ve been on what seems like such a long extended vacation from medical school since studying isn’t the same as being on rotations. Before that it was all the stuff with my Dad. I won’t even be back on rotations until Oct. 6. Its kind of weird… although I hate wearing the short white coat (it is hot and heavy- mainly due to all the books and crap I have in my pockets, a true sign of a medical student!) I do miss it – having the answers, helping patients, having to think on my feet, the constant activity… When I was with my Dad it was still kind of like being in medicine, especially since I would monitor how he was doing and report to the doctors who came in during the day and I did make a couple of suggestions to his care to make him a little bit more comfortable. But it was still very different from being the student doctor obviously.

I know that when I go back to rotations on Oct 6 I will be a profoundly different person than the girl who left rotations to go be with her father who was going to the ER for vague abdominal pain. I’m not sure how exactly it how I am different though. I know many people expressed to me that I would be a more compassionate physician for having gone through this. As I sat with my Dad he told me how he didn’t like how one doctor did this, or another did that and that he was happy that he was able to teach me to be a better physician. So I want all of this to have meaning, to not have been this terribly devastating storm that wrecked my life and my mother’s life and took my father away – but I’m not how to translate it all into me being a better physician. It’s not like I need to know that answer now, and it will probably not be obvious to me for years to come. It’s just this need to take what happened and make it into this wonderful positive thing because it is just so painful to have lost my Dad. :(

I’m going to be doing a subI in Hawaii in obgyn!! And look there’s a wikipedia article about subI or sub internship. I’ve been working on this forever, paperwork takes a while! I like to be challenged and being in a totally new place along with the responsibilities and expectations of a subI will be a challenge for sure!! I think I’ve maxed out how many obgyn rotations I can do though… :( You can only do so many in one area during 4th year.

This pic is from back in April. The large cherry tree was an anniversary present from my Mom’s parents back 20some years ago but it was infested with some kind of bug that had been killing it. So my Dad planted a new one this spring.

Then over the weekend, the tropical storm/hurricane-left-overs blew over the big cherry tree. Very symbolic after losing my Dad a month ago.

One of the last weekends I’ll be studying for the boards… thank goodness for that!! Took some pictures:

I saw some people using gravatars (globally recognized avatars) so I put them on this blog too. If you use the same email address to post comments, you can register here and upload a little photo of yourself to show up when you post a comment. :) Cute.

Hahah I never thought I had a boy brain, but you never know…! You can take it here, although it’s long. More details in the more post: Read the rest of this entry »

I went to a wonderful lunch with my mom yesterday at Osteria. I had gone before and it was absolutely amazing and since then the restaurant has won some awards and was even in Bon Appetite. The best things there are the pizza and the pasta. The pasta I assume is made there because ohmygosh – it just melts in your mouth, tastes like nothing else… The dessert we had are above – peach cannolis and raspberry sorbet. Everything is super fresh and amazing. :D Yum!

When my mom and my aunt cleaned out my grandfathers house a while back they found all sorts of stuff that he had kept that probably should have been thrown away years ago… but some of it came back to my parent’s house and my mom gave it to me. I love old stuff like that – parts of my mom’s life where only half of me was there – not even a full egg yet (the last part of the division to become a $ex cell- happens right before ovulation). So today I was not feeling studying and took a few picture of my mom’s super duper overachiever elementary report cards. :) They are a blast from the past as far as what was graded.

I was at school today when the 1st year class got out from lecture … and wow. I can’t even imagine being a 1st year. 2nd year is remote enough. It’s hard to imagine that in a year I won’t even be in school anymore… I’ll be a doctor?! That doesn’t quite seem real!

I’ve seen a lot of blogs say they aren’t political and then go into something about the election this year because it is just that exciting. I’m going to give that same disclaimer although it’s no secret that I am a bleeding heart liberal so you can guess who I support. I think all of this coming out about Palin and being a mother and a strong woman though is really interesting. From Slate: The complicated business of being a superhero mom and NYTimes: A New Twist on the Debate of Mothers. My mum was a working superhero mom :) Of course, my mom stays far away from politics, even though I know she reads about them, hehe!

I’ve been using google chrome and it’s sweet for the google stuff that runs slow on firefox. However I do miss the adblock of firefox!! Has anyone else tried it?