The Life of an MSIII on Surgery Rotation

My dear smelson started his surgery rotation last week. For him, this means leaving the house at 4 on most days, eating rarely, studying his booty off when he is home, walking around like a zombie, and going to bed at 9. For me, it means waking up at 4 and [hopefully] falling back asleep for a few hours, baking, having conversations with a zombie, and basically forgoing my husband on most nights and weekends. It's not that bad, just hectic...but I will say it has put a damper on our social life!

What happens on Halloween when your husband is on surgery: you find two graduation robes, striped scarves, plastic glasses, and call yourselves Harry Potter and Hermione:

It also means skipping invitations to Thunder games, missing out on outings, and going out for a friend's birthday but leaving at 8:30 to be in for the night.

HOWEVER, there is a HUGE plus to this surgery business: ANTM, Project Runway, SYTYCD, and Supernanny all go uncontested on the TV! Yessss.

Such is life for the next 8 weeks, and it's just another phase of this whole process that will be over before we know it. Forget seasons of life - seasons of med school is more like it. But just like anything else, we make the most of the time we do have and learn what we can, and it's all worth it in the end. In the meantime, I will embrace my control of the DVR, have some awesome girl time, and bake...and it will be awesome.

(But it wouldn't hurt to send a few subliminal messages that whisper "don't choose general surgery, don't choose general surgerrrryyyyyyy" to my hubs. Kthanks.)

I Like...Midterms. Oh, wait.

October was an absolutely CA-razy month for school. I really think that professors get together and have a little meeting with tea and crumpets and their little devil horns and say to each other, "Hum, how many papers and tests and presentation can we give ALL IN ONE WEEK?" And they do that for 4 consecutive weeks, rendering their poor innocent students exhausted, stressed out, and increasingly vulnerable to baking.

Huh? Is that just me?

Despite the craziness of school, we also had a bajillion other things going on, making for month full of fun but insanity as well. Sooo, here is a recap of October 2009, pictsha style:

First, we celebrated some birthdays with delicious cheesecake!

Then, we went to Dallas for a wedding. But then I forgot my camera, so I'll just tell you that there were Mardi Gras boas, light up dolphin necklaces, and neon sunglasses. I got one picture from my phone:

Next, we went to Chicago to see my B-A-yooteeful cousin get married:

We also enjoyed some delicious Chicago hot dogs with the fam:

Then, our wonderful Jen came to visit!!! She got to stop in OKC for a few days before her residency interview in Tulsa. She is amazing and it was so great to see her after 2 years! We baked. A lot:

First, we made a chocolate chip pie, Emeril style. It was a delicious pie, but it lied and told us it was done when it really wasn't. I hate deceptive baked goods.

Then, Jen taught me how to make blue cheese souffles! Apparently, souffles are not nearly as tricky as I've always heard. Nice and puffy:

It so fun to see Jen!

Then, we celebrated more birthdays!

Finally, I discovered that I love to bake cupcakes, unleashing a scary addiction that shows no signs of dissipating anytime soon. So beware, friends, cupcakes are coming! So far, my favorites have been red velvet (from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book, my new favorite book EVERRR), and pumpkin. I made both of these for the OU-Texas game:

Get it? School colors. Woo.

Soo, that has been my life for the past month (aside from stupid papers and such). I feel like I ran a marathon. Yay November.

What If Oklahomans Knew How to Drive?

There is something you should know about Oklahoma. This place is like the tornado capital of the world, and when I am cowering in my closet, any self-respecting Okie is running outside to "feel the wind," as Scott would say. They are hard core.

However.

When a little rain decides to come to town, people FREAK OUT. AHHHH WHAT IS THIS RUNNING DOWN MY WINDSHIELD I MUST PULL INTO THE LEFT LANE AND GO 45 MILES AN HOUR ON INTERSTATE 35 AND BRAKE EVERY 1.8 SECONDS OR ELSE I WILL DIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!! I really think that's what they're all thinking. But that's besides the point.

So yesterday, I was driving myself down to Norman at roughly 8:00am for class. It was raining - not pouring, just raining - and people were freaking out, as usual. So I had the freaker outers on one side of me, and the crazies who are oblivious to anything who still think it's okay to go 85 miles an hour when it has been raining for a while, and the roads are quite slick. Somewhere in the middle, people - not 90-year-old slow, but not speed racer fast. It's possible, I promise.

I am dutifully merging into the middle lane where the left lane ends, but the crazies are racing down to the verrrry LAST possible second so they can get to the front of the line, because THAT will make them get to their destination wayyy more quickly. So the freaker outer in front of me is braking frantically, but not letting the crazies in, because that would just be wussy. But no, the crazy will not let them get the best of him after his dangerous and a-hole-like maneuvers to the front of the line, so he just decides to go. Ehh, they'll stop, ehh, I have room, ehh, who cares. EHHHH WE ALL SLAM ON OUR BRAKES AND BIG TRUCK BEHIND ASHLEY SLAMS INTO HER.

So there I am, on the side of the road, strangely calm but staring at the back of poor Rocky the Rav4 while the very nice man (Roy, by the way) who hit me is assuring me that he is a good person and takes responsibility for his actions and will call me with his insurance info as soon as he gets home.

All is ok - I have a pretty sore back/head/wrist, but paranoid husband made me go visit his ER doctor boss to get it all checked out (which, by the way, I learned it is a very bad move to tell the person who hit you that your husband has an ER doctor friend, woops). So I'm good.

But it made me think - what if Roy hadn't been so nice? What if he had just lost his job and didn't have insurance anymore? What if I was actually injured but didn't happen to know someone who could get me into the ER in 5 minutes instead of 8 hours? What if the accident was more severe and one of us got hurt? If he didn't have that piece of paper, I'd be in a hospital, desperately thinking about how on Earth I was going to pay the $50,000 medical bill. I know, I just got rear-ended, blah blah blah, but it made me think for a second about all the What Ifs, and how thankful I am that things played out the way they did. Because for a lot of people, they don't, and this incident that is an inconvenience to me would change someone else's life.

But hey, I got a great friend out of it - Roy calls me approximately 5 times per day. Yay Roy!

An Ode to the Neighbors of 42nd Street

I live on 42nd Street
It is so very nice
We love our little house
And all the fun there is in Crown Heights.

We love to take walks at night
Or hang out at the Sip
Get some frozen yogurt, you ask?
It's oh so very hip.

But while we love our place a lot
I must go ahead and say
There are some weirdos on this block
And they get weirder every day.

There's Tony on the right
Who likes to rev his cars
He likes to kidnap our friends
And make them drive him to bars
(and stop for a whiskey coke at La Baguette and make them take him to pick up his whale steak).

There are the dudes down the way
Who like to party hard
They have a statue of a lion
And have parties with their bed in the yard.

There's Katharine and Thad on the left
They are our very good friends
We like to play Mario Kart a lot
And if you're playing Katharine, you're effed

Then there are the new ones
I don't even know their names
But they are bonafide crazytown
This isn't even a game

They like to sit on their porch
And they literally sit all day
Sometimes yelling, sometimes crying
Other times hitting people in the face

Sometimes they knock off a gas line
And they say it was because they were sweeping
But they are probably building a meth lab
And it will explode while we are sleeping

They pound on Katharine's wall all night
Screaming EFF YOU, EFF YOU, EFF YOU
They have large pitbulls who run around
And do not discriminate where they poo.

These lovely friends are leaving us
Tomorrow, or so they say
If they don't, their landlord will call the cops
And in jail for a while they will stay.

I love you, 42nd Street
Don't doubt it, I really do
But when will you stop throwing the crazy?
Hopefully very, very soon.

The End.

P.S. I know I should be the next poet laureate, you don't have to tell me.
P.P.S. IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO IS NOT A FELON AND IS LOOKING FOR A CUTE DUPLEX IN AN AWESOME NEIGHBORHOOD (seriously, it's great. super cute with sushi neko, VZD's, the wedge, etc very close), PLEEEEEASE SEND THEM OUR WAYYYY!

The Episode of A Salad Gone Very, Very Bad (apparently)

Thursday night, we went to some friends' for a happy hour get together thingy, and then we went out to dinner afterwards (the place shall remain nameless because I have had otherwise great experiences there). Little did I know, the Wrath of Evil Effing Food Bacteria (that is the medical name, I found it in one of Scott's textbooks) was about to clench me in its terrible claws and keep me there for two days. Seriously, I have never been that sick. So sick that I was on the couch for 2 days and did not even want to play Rock Band. Yikes.

However, it was a very productive bout of food poisoning, as I cleaned out my DVR of all Sex and the City episodes (a.k.a. like 15 or something), watched the season premiere of Project Runway (yay, it's back!), finished The Time Traveler's Wife (I'm not sure it met my admittedly high expectations given all the hype, but it was a good read for sure), and became very well acquainted with the lovely to-go people at Panera (as soup in a bread bowl was the only thing that I could even think about eating). Yesterday, I felt human enough to venture out of the house, socialize, and yes, even play Rock Band.

So here I am, back from the depths of food poisoning, well-hydrated, and completely, 100%, totally sworn off salads.

Love ya bye.

I Like...Learning

Here are some interesting tid-bits I learned this weekend:

1) The Harry Potter game for Wii is not as cool as one would think (at least not the Order of the Phoenix one). Yes, you get to do spells, but we played for 20 minutes and all that went on was moving some clothes into a trunk and walking around the castle aimlessly. Not fun. Where's the Quidditch?!? And YES, I realize I'm a huge nerd.

2) Somehow, when one makes gin and tonics at home, they are much more potent than at the bar.

3) Sitting around with friends making drinks and making fun of each other playing Wii is SO much fun. Okay, I knew that already

4) Non-scheduled Saturdays are extremely important.

5) Just because I am awesome (and I mean AWESOME) at Wii bowling does not mean I am awesome at actual bowling. In fact, I'm terrible. Like 78 terrible.

6) I forgot how competitive I am and how I really reeeally dislike losing! As Lisa put it, it's a miracle we all play games together and we're all still friends. Lots of Type A med students + me and Hannah and James = yikes!

7) Piano bars and Colorado Bulldogs are a fantastic cure for post-losing-funk. Especially when they play Don't Stop Believing and the whole bar sounds and you dance a lot.

8) That song NEVER gets old.

9) Blaring the show choir version of that song from Glee while driving around eating ice cream never gets old either.

10) Enjoying a lazy Sunday morning for the first time in a while is more important than writing papers. Yup.

That's it for now. Oh, and p.s., if you couldn't tell, I loved this weekend.

I Like...Dancing

This past weekend, Scott's BFF-partner-in-crime-roommate-best-man-all-around-crazyperson Rob married his longtime girlfriend (and good friend of ours) Jen. Seriously, these boys have been friends since the fifth grade when Rob invited Scott to stay for dinner after working on a school project, and they have pretty much been through everything in life attached at the hip ever since. They are COMPLETE opposites and yell at each other a lot, but their friendship is pretty adorable. So the weekend was full of toasts and parties and food...and dancing! We had a fantastic group of dancing fiends on the floor at the wedding, and it was a BLAST. I love dancing, and I really really really wish I could do it with any inkling of talent, but this is what I look like when I do it:

Apparently me dancing = awkward facial expressions and lots of pointing?

Oh well. We can't all be professionals.......like these people:

(SMOOTH TRANSITION, eh?!?)

Last night's episode was pretty blah until the final three routines. I will say that while I appreciate the sentiment and while the intent of Tyce's piece about breast cancer was touching, it didn't grip me or move me like Mia's Addiction piece did. I think a huge part of it was the song, but it felt more contrived and "Beaches"-ish than raw and heartwrenching like it could have been...But it was still a beautiful dance. Here are my two favorites:

Kayla and Jason dancing a Shane Sparks hip hop routine (loved the Thriller references)



Brandon & Jeanine dancing a routine by Laurie Ann Gibson (yes, the crazy choreographer from Diddy's Making the Band awesomeness).

I think Brandon and Jeanine are my favorites at this point, with Janette coming in a close second. I'm calling Evan or Jason and Melissa or Kayla for elimination this week. If Melissa stays it will be because she happened to draw the tearjerker of the week. Also - I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty intrigued to see if Katie Holmes can actually sing and dance tonight. Innnnteresting.

And this is where I shall end the post of endless rambling.

Vacation pictures!

Like I've said before, I'm not so much with the pictures...oops. Didn't get any of snorkeling, and a lot of them were taken on our last morning, aka during a torrential downpour. But whatever, here they are:

Our first night - we look strange

Beautiful beach!

Melody, one of our new friends from Chicago

Angel, our awesome waiter with mad fire skills

Weird Jerry, who danced for the restaurant without being asked...how nice.

Another beach shot

Our last night

Beach bed on our porch!

The view down one of the riverpoolthingies leading to the main pool

Hammocks outside our room

Our room and hard-earned rafts!!!

Sad to leave...but tan!

I Like...Vacation!

So after the crazy, eventful, stressful, surreal week leading up to Scott's board exam, we got to spend a few days in Dallas with my family and then headed to MEXICO for 6 days to decompress in this beautiful place:

Excellence Playa Mujeres

I always forget how relaxing it is to be away from TV, cell phones, Internet, and the general craziness that makes our lives more jumbled and complicated than they need to be. A few highlights of the week:

• Hanging out with the family and eating delicious Arabic food at Ali Baba for Fathers' Day.
• Seeing the Hangover with Tim and my good friend Mary - RAUNCHY but I'm not gonna lie, I laughed. A lot.
• Sleeping. Like real, relaxed, no alarm sleeping.
• Arriving at our destination and having a full week of unscheduled time to spend with Scotty and process the events of the last few months
• Reading 3 books. For fun.
• Eating breakfast on our porch every morning
• Lounging by the pool or beach for hours and forgetting what time it is (oops to the sunburn)
• Eating AMAZING food and not having to worry about how much the bill was going to be
• Fresh seafood
• Dancing
• Making new friends from Chi-town! It's amazing how God puts people in our lives to connect with.
• Snorkeling and reminiscing about the good old days at the Island in Indoland.
• General conversations about the future, where we are now, what God is doing.
• Unlimited dessert.

Unfortunately, I am not the best photographer slash remembering-to-take-pictures person ever to walk the Earth...so I have like 10 pictures from the whole trip. Oops. But regardless, I will post these pictures whenever I get around to uploading them on to my computer.

It's nice to be home, but it sure was nice to be away for awhile.

Weekend Update

Because I'm feeling lazy today but haven't posted in a week, I'm going to rehash the last few days, Hannah style.

So You Think You Can Dance Top 20! (Yes I am sad for including that in my highlights)! Lots of gym! Lost 4 more pounds! DELICIOUS anniversary lunch at Rococo! Crabcakes and risotto and wine! Tipsy off of one glass! Mariokart! Dinner and hanging out with the Melson clan! Errands and starting to compile necessary wardrobe elements for beach vacation! Blake & Kate concert with Clayton Fike and Jon McQuitty! Amazed at the talent of my brother's friends! Jealous that kids 5 years younger than me are infinitely more talented! Love music and creativity! Drank Smithwicks with Lorine and James on porch after show to discuss pre-boards madness and nervous breakdowns of medical students! Made yummy things with fresh veggies! Church Sunday night! Grilled on the porch with crazy neighbors who get kicked out of Sipango at 3:00 on Sunday afternoon! Hung out with Katharine and Thad and ate grilled shrimp while making fun of crazy neighbors! Back to stupid work! Gym and made delicious pasta! House church and Freddy's study break with stressed out husband! 10 DAYS TIL BOARDS ARE OVER AND BEACH AMAZINGNESS!!!

Must.get.coffee.