Post Call

just woke up after my first call night on the family medicine service, a seemingly schizophrenic combination of obstetrics, pediatrics, and adult medicine. there's nothing like running from a delivery to admit a 90 year old with heart failure then running back to examine the new baby. oh, and then another delivery, another baby, followed by some pneumonia. although combining moms, babies, and adults is, like, the whole point of family medicine, it is very challenging to combine them seamlessly in real life. delivering babies has yet to be an even remotely unextrordinary experience.

it is so good, though, to be back on days. last weekend my sleep was so screwy that we got up at 3 am and went to the crazy local 24 hr breakfast joint, Beth's. there was the typical combination of drunk people singing Sweet Caroline at the top of their lungs (bop! bop! bahhhhh! good times never seemed so good!...), crazy people who were totally annoyed by the drunk people, and greasy, greasy food.


note the gentleman in the background. he was wearing a top hat, cummerbund, and pirate shirt.




sean, being a good sport about the whole thing.




then we went to watch the sunrise and i saw a sea otter!!!! so exciting! you see it, don't you?


here's jub jub ignoring ira.

Nights Suck.

i have a new found respect for my aunts and uncles back home who have spent their entire careers working midnights and swingshifts. i've been working 5:30 pm-7:30 AM for the past 2 weeks, and it is very disorienting. i haven't seen sean, or daylight, for that matter. i feel like i've been run over by a truck. my ongoing cold isn't helping. i have today off. i got to see sean last night, a belated valentine's day. we went to an early dinner and opened one of our fancier bottles of wine. he's gone now. skiing in canada with star. i'm jealous.

something that doesn't suck is truffle salt. i had this for the first time at the pike brewing company with radishes and butter. although my dinner mates (sean, his mom, and his grandmother) were less impressed, i found it to be a sublime combination. it is ridiculously expensive, but i did indulge in a jar from whole foods. the ingredients are salt, truffles, and 5% truffle flavor. i have no idea what 5% truffle flavor means, or how this percentage is determined. would 7% be too much? in any case, it is a tasty, tasty item.

99 bottles of wine on the wall...

sean rarely follows my carefully laid out christmas lists to acquire my gifts. this year was no exception. I asked for the Food and Wine 2008 Guide To Wine. instead i got this:





which is awesome. the exterior is made of eco-friendly, beautiful bamboo and the inside is made of delicious, anti-oxidant containing grapes. he chose a range of reds- zins (my new faves, thanks to tim and lucy), merlots, cabs, varietals, etc... he also provided a range of "quality". charles shaw is well represented, along with a few bottles i will reserve for special occasions (a rombauer zin and a l'ecole 41 table wine). all and all a very sweet and thoughtful gift. however, if you find me brown-bagging it underneath a bridge sometime in the future, you might think back to this day.

i got him a video game. and some underwear.

we were in a similar predicament as thanksgiving- i worked late and sean apparently was banking on grocery stores being open all night. of course they weren't, and we have no food at home. we ended up at a chinese buffet- quite surreal. it was very busy with all sorts of people. the food was as i remember chinese buffets to be- greasy and salty. sean did well for himself, eating a large portion of a roast beast on display.

i'm in the intensive care unit right now. our patients are, as the name implies, critically ill. it was so sad watching families visit their loved ones yesterday. being there makes me so thankful for my good health and that of my family.


jub jub says happy holidays to you all!

by request

should jub jub have a brother?








i'm just not sure. she seems so happy with this big house to herself, but she gets SO excited when ira comes to the window...

thanksgiving

thanksgiving started early for me- in the cafeteria of the children's hospital for a traditional dinner at 1 AM. i was on call and up all night, so i slept most of the day away once i got home. i felt bad for keeping sean from celebrating, but when i finally got up, he was sleeping on the couch. it was surprising how little was open, so thai food it was. i keep thinking back to 1 year ago- making thanksgiving dinner for eithne, john, a brand-new atticus, and their family. i miss my people!

we went riding today in anacortes, north of whidbey island. it started out well enough- pleasant drive, beautiful weather, lovely lake- but, as usual, the trail got the best of me. as it turns out, i totally suck at mountain biking. this particular trail just had too many obstacles** for me. regardless, it was fabulous to be outside on a gorgeous day whether riding or hiking with a totally awkward and not helpful walking stick (i.e. bike).

here i am, apparently about to fall.



here's my person. he took this photo of himself, apparently. probably killing time waiting for me to catch up.



i do want to get better, as i have such a great time when i know the trail. someday...

**obstacles for me include the following, in no particular order: climbs, downhills, turns, rocks, gravel, roots, leaves, wetness of any sort, other people on the trail, sean, mud, sand, heights, my gears, being overly hot, and being overly cold.

time flies

i've spent the last month in clinic and lecture with few weekend or evening obligations. these are the final couple days before the reality of internship returns. i'm somewhat torn. i'm definitely weary of sitting in a classroom feeling like a student again, but i'm not so psyched about returning to the world of q 4 call and medical decision making. in any case, my ambivalence is irrelevant, as time marches on.

it has been fun getting to know my 7 fellow interns. we have vastly different experiences and interests, no big surprise. i wouldn't say we're best friends, but we're certainly congenial enough.

i invited the whole clan over last night, only a few came. i made some food, had plenty of wine available. i felt quite vulnerable opening my house and cooking for new people, something that had previously been very calming and fun for me. making friends is hard! sean was a champ, chatting people up, showing folks how to play the wii. we played a game that tests intelligence, and i scored only slightly better than a ten year old. that was post wine, mind you, but still... sean, of course, beat all of the doctors in the room by a significant margin.

sounds like sean and i are headed to vashon island for some biking tomorrow if it doesn't rain too much...

salmon in seattle

we went to see salmon spawning in piper's creek at carkeek park today. what a strange thing to observe. the natives probably don't find it unusual, but i sure did. rarely do urban folks get to witness wildlife in their natural environment on such a large scale.

the salmon are just starting to spawn at this particular site, and already there were several carcasses in various states of decay. i can't imagine what its gonna look like (and smell like) there in a month or so. we saw a couple who were really active and pushing upstream. i kept asking sean questions about the whole thing, but he didn't really seem to know. i guess all of his childhood field trips to the hatcheries didn't really leave an imprint.

it was interesting and quite sad to watch all of these animals at the end of their lives. sean took A LOT of pictures, but this is by far the coolest...