Last Ohio Weekend

I'm in my final week of my pediatric infectious disease elective here in Ohio so on Saturday I'm on a flight home. That means this past weekend was my last here with Shannon and we made it count. After I woke up on Saturday and applied to residency Shannon and I went out for a celebratory breakfast at Butter Cafe. It's a vegan-friendly place close to the University of Dayton and the blueberry vegan pancakes are delicious. 

Also my plate ended up being free because the first batch they brought out weren't quite cooked. I know that might knock a place down on most people's rankings, but I was in no rush, and the second (free) plate tasted awesome. 

After Church we had a pretty relaxing afternoon and then went on a fancy sister date to the Dayton philharmonic, which I loved.

Sunday we ran a 5k for the Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Southwest Ohio. It was hot and I was reminded that I have been woefully slacking in the running department. It was fun though, and it was really fun to be there with Shannon.

And now with just 4 more days in the hospital, I think the time will fly and I'll be back home before I know it. 

Happy Monday!

Applying to Residency: September 15

Yesterday was September 15.

On any other year it's just the middle of September.

Fall is in the air.

It's Prince Harry's birthday. Also Heidi Montag's.

However, this year I'm a fourth year medical student and September 15 is the first day that the application service for residency [ERAS] is available for submission to programs. It opens to start adding information during the summer, but this is the first date programs begin accepting the applications.

Therefore, yesterday morning I applied to residency.

I've filled in information about my experiences, research, publications etc. I got a professional picture taken, wrote a personal statement and asked for letters of recommendation. This application has been a point of stress over the past few months and yesterday I paid my exorbitant fees and sent it on its way.

For those of you not as familiar with the medical education process, it's been 4 years of college, now I'm in my fourth year of medical school, and residency starting next July will be 3 years more. (This length of time varies by specialty). It will also be the nice switch from paying to be there to getting some $ - after 8 post-high school years, I'm ready. I've updated the Medical Student Life page with a more complete description of the match process under "The Match."

Letters of recommendation may be assigned to programs later, so I chose a couple to transmit for sure but still have some that haven't come in so I'll be adding them, but otherwise it's complete.

I'm applying to medium-large academic pediatric programs. I have a few "reach" programs that most likely will not interview me, but mostly I applied to programs that I think are realistic for my application. 28 in total, which some people say is a lot for a U.S. graduate going into Pediatrics, but it's hard to know how competitive I really am, and mostly I want the chance to see a lot of different programs and be very sure about what I like. I

John and I talked along the way about the location of each place, because wherever I end up matched, he'll have get to live there too.

And now there's just the waiting. Be sure you'll hear about it quickly if ever an interview invite arrives. I would expect one mid-October at the earliest, but wouldn't be surprised if a few trickle in much later.

Not to worry though - I have a spreadsheet!

Stay tuned - the residency application journey is just beginning.

Haircut!

Since I wanted long hair for my wedding, I've been putting off cutting it short all summer, even though it was kind of driving me nuts. This week I made an appointment and Locks of Love got a solid 10 inches of my hair. This is the third time I've donated it, and it feels as awesome as usual. 

Thought I'd share a picture:

Before

[clearly these strands are kind of tired]

After!

[forgive the grainy iphone pics]

Wooo healthy hair!

And for more information on donating your hair with Locks of Love check out their website here.

Have you ever donated your hair?

Coming Back

I find it really difficult to come back to blogging after a long time. I wrote the short little post about how excited I am to be married, but I made the semi-subconscious decision to put the blog on the back burner for an extremely busy time of my life 2.5 months ago and now here we are.

In theory I know I'm not supposed to feel guilty for not posting. It's my blog and it's here for me in whatever capacity I need - but in my heart I do feel a little sad for letting all this time go by. Still, I think it was right for me.

The dilemma I now have is how to start again?

I want to give a proper update, but there's so much to cover and I'm not sure where to start.

So I've made a decision.

I may at some point write some historical posts about things that happened this summer and give more details about the Sub-I month, or the wedding, but I decided I'd mostly focus on just starting with my current life and go forward.

I really missed you.

_________________________________

So at the beginning of August John and I got married and we went on an amazing honeymoon to Cancun. Then I spent a couple wonderful weeks with my new husband in our new apartment. Then it was time to come back from vacation and be a medical student again. I was accepted for a Pediatric Infectious Disease rotation at Dayton Children's Medical Center and so for the past 3 weeks I've been living in Ohio with Shannon! 

We took this while stopping for gas in a tiny nameless town. I seriously have no idea where we were.

She found me some delicious Thai food.

She recently adopted an adorable dog. We named him Dobby. He has house elf ears.

Last weekend we made the scary stormy drive the 6 hours to Chicago to visit our other sister Emma. We crashed her crew practice, went to a farmer's market with the prettiest produce, ate some good meals and I finally got to see her in action at college. I love when my sisters and I are together. Of course it wasn't complete without Nicola (the youngest) but it was a great trip. We listened to an audiobook in the car which made the drive go quickly and it was so worth it. 

Love you Emma!

It was beautifully cool and really got me feeling like it's fall. 

This picture is from a trip I took to Starbucks while in Chicago. It was so wonderful and cool and fall-like I just wanted something delicious and fall-flavored so I got distracted from my usual coffee and order a soy chai tea latte. It was amazing, but I sort of forgot about my caffeine addiction. I realized chai tea was no match for my potential for caffeine headache and I had to go back through line for a black coffee as well.

I drank both and it was awesome.

This week Shannon and I started watching an old season of The Biggest Loser and a couple days ago we ironically enjoyed some pints of vegan ice cream at the same time. 

The rotation is good. There are lots of different kinds of patients and everyone's really helpful. 

And it's beautiful here.

In other news, the application service for residency opens for submission on Saturday, and that means I've recently had to be a grownup and decide with John where we might want to go for the next three years. 

So life is going on. 

See you soon. Promise.