Weekend Work

[HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I love you.]

An alternative title for this post: I got peed on twice today.

Both of the babies we circumcised today peed on me. It's like they knew.

This weekend is one of those residency ones where you just work both days of the weekend and you get the blessing of a weekday off instead and you take it and enjoy your business hours and don't complain about not having part of your weekend off because this is life and it's beautiful the work that I get to do.

I'm in a sentimental mood.

Maybe it's because it's super late at night - I'm not sure why I'm not asleep. I didn't have any caffeine today so I can't explain it but I tried to sleep and I couldn't. I don't like to stay in bed when John's sleeping and I'm not because I worry that my awake-ness disturbs his rest so I tend to get up and read or get sucked into a YouTube hole for 3 hours at a time or whatever until I'm tired.

This evening I rewatched this from about 4 years ago. It's a documentary about students at my medical school from when I was a first year. I'm not really in it but lots of my friends are and I felt like it was a good reminder of how hard I've worked to get here. It made me more thankful.

I highly recommend it for pre-med students - it's not too long and an honest look at what it's like.

Anyway, because I'm working this weekend, I got Friday off this week and I wanted to share how I spent a regular day off:

1. I ate breakfast. Okay. Not new.

2. I stood in line at the Apple store on release day. I know, like a crazy. I shattered the screen on my 4S with one too many clumsy flights through the air and it really stopped working a couple days ago, so it was perfect timing.

The fingerprint scanner works just like it's supposed to and I love it. I think the new operating system is gorgeous, but all you have to do is upgrade your current iphone for that.

3. After a fair amount of shopping around and price comparison, I joined a gym. A separate post on that coming up.

4. I took our fur child to the dog park. Albuquerque has a fair number of these that are fenced so Luna can be off leash, get some exercise and hang out with some other dogs.

5. I did some studying. I just want to say that not because it's interesting but because I don't want anyone to think I'm having too much fun in residency. 

6. I figured out who to give some of my loan paperwork to. This may seem like a silly task, but it was stressing me out and with as much debt as I have, really anything to do with my loans freaks me out. 

7. I watched Maid in Manhattan. J-Lo at her most mushy-romantical. Exactly as I remembered it.

And today I went back to work in the Newborn Nursery. Healthy babies make me happy and I feel like it's work I can love. PICU was getting kind of dark there and I think I was really ready for this switch. After our last couple deaths I just wasn't feeling excited about work, so it's been really affirming to go to a different service this week and be reminded that PICU isn't everyone's life's work but I do still like this whole medicine thing.

P.S. It's FALL! I'm so excited.

Work Life

Since last post I've made it through the transition back to days and made it another 10 days in the PICU. I only have one week left before it's off to the healthy babies in the Newborn Nursery - a population of significantly less sick patients. I'm not really in a rush to switch, as I feel like I've just now gotten a better grasp on the flow of the PICU but that's the way it always is. We switch every month, often with a week of nights somewhere in there, so it feels like constant transition. It really used to stress me out when I first started doing clinical rotations, and I still get a little nervous about starting something I've never done before, but I think we get used to being in flux.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out my life outside of work. Some days it feels like I have too much time and not enough planned and other days I can barely get everything done.

This is my list of things I would do in an ideal day with plenty of time (besides work, as that is a given):

1. Exercise

Neon Run Shoes

2. Spend time with John

Oregon Coast August

3. Spend time with other friends

Miss you!

4. Study

Oh wait, study medicine. I should have specified.

5. Cook dinner/eat

A recent meal from recipes in Appetite for Reduction: Blackened tofu, butternut squash coconut rice, lemon green beans

6. Go out to a community event or volunteer or some outside-of-work commitment

Isotopes game here in Albuquerque

7. Walk Luna

Looking pretty scruffy on the day we brought her home.

The problem is, while some of these can be combined, it's really hard to fit them all in every day. At least, I haven't been able to with the natural flow of time. I think it would take a lot more advance planning. I think I didn't notice it so much in the months before residency because I had plenty of time off to do other activities so days when I worked all day there wasn't any pressure to fit in lots of other things. Now though, it's really work - I get 1 day off per week and that's not enough time to feel like I have a life outside work if I never do anything but stay home on weekdays.

So this is my challenge right now, to figure out how to fit everything I want into my life.

I guess maybe that's everyone's challenge. How do YOU do it?

Happy Birthday!

Guess who's Birthday it was yesterday?

Happy Birthday husband! We just celebrated our one year anniversary at the beginning of last month and my life keeps getting better because of him.

I felt really guilty because coming off of night shifts (I'm done yay!) meant I slept through most of his birthday, much as I wanted to stay awake and make his day awesome. Fortunately, he's remarkably considerate and also good at enjoying time alone, so he claims it was still a good birthday. That doesn't keep me from hoping I'm working day shifts next year though.

Before I passed out though, we went out to breakfast. The place I originally picked to take him was surprisingly closed for all of Labor Day weekend, but we did get to walk around the grower's market. I tasted this red chile jam that was amazing. P.S. everything in new mexico has chiles in it. Everything. Like burgers, pizza, chocolate, everything.

So after a quick walk around the market we went to the Grove Cafe. I got oatmeal and he got pancakes that were actually crepes. And my coffee was decaf because I was about to go home and sleep.

After we got home at about 9 I fell asleep. Although I woke up to have some lunch, I then went back to sleep at like 2 and slept until it was time to go to dinner at 7.

What does an omnivore who's married to a vegan want to eat on his birthday?

Steak of course. 

We went to Marcello's, which is a nice chophouse in Uptown. He got the Chef Special Manhattan steak. Look how happy he looks. A man and his meat.

And here's another question: 

What does a vegan eat at a chophouse?

I'll tell you, I ended up too full. I order the Chopped salad, no cheese no meat, a baked potato without the toppings, and the seasonal vegetables made without butter.

Sorry for the low light. Everything was amazing. I put the veggies with the potato and the salad was really good. It had pine nuts and kalamata olives in with your standard salad ingredients. 

After that we came home, watched some TV, hung out with our fur baby and enjoyed some time together after this week of only seeing each other for 20 mins a day between me coming home and him leaving.

Happy Birthday Husband! I'm blessed to have you.

Also happy September and Vegan Month of Food! Get excited, it's going to be a great month.