Holiday Round-Up
November is the most magical season for Josh bc it is DEER season. He spent a very intense week stalking this one-antlered deer. He wasn't lucky enough to get him but he did shoot one of his tasty brethren. Meanwhile, I was off in the ER all November taking care of those hunters who were even less lucky, such as the guy who fell out of the tree stand and got a stick in his eye. Ouch. Ya it was a fun month.
While Josh was off hunting, I went down to St. Louis for a pranic healing conference. It was intense but a wonderful experience. I got to visit with Dad, have a beer with Katie & Bob, and have several delicious vegetarian meals with these lovely people. Yes, all very lovely until I was in a hit & run, damaging both the front & back of my car. I was luckily able to limp it home. Hmmm wonder what sort of kharma I worked out with that one.
We had multiple Thanksgivings this year. The first was over at Eppie & Eoin's where Eppie whipped up the whole feast by herself and then we watched Evolution with David Duchovny. Then I went over to Dad's, see below. And when I got back, I was in a cookin' mood, so Josh & I whipped up our own feast for just us & the pups.
I went to Thanksgiving with Roxy & Tess. Josh stayed home with BB, who had some car anxiety after being in the hit & run with me. I had fun playing air hockey with CJ (he had requested a game at the last visit, but the conference ran too late into the evening), and of course Roxy was happy to be the princess grand-puppy twice in one month. I didn't drink and I only had like one bite of turkey, so I would assume this is a pie coma
Hunting season was actually pretty temperate for November. There must have been a lot of prayer for a good season bc literally the day after hunting season was over, BAM! 5 inches of snow and a high of -12... on BB's birthday no less!
We found Lil Man here while on a walk. He had a limp, was freezing in the subzero temp, and filthy. We took him home, cleaned him off, warmed him up, and took him to the vet. Turns out the limp was old, he got shot by a BB gun, and there is still a BB lodged in his back. Sounds like he wasn't treated so well wherever he was from, but he is no worse for the wear bc he is an awesome little lap dog. We would keep him if we didn't already have like 8 dogs, so for now we are just housing him until we find him a good home.
Speaking of critters we took in, Josh got Spikey boy here. He is a Jackson's chamelon and a pretty cool little guy. Our last chameleon used to hiss and try to bite me, but he likes to climb on people and be handfed water through a syringe.
In total, we had 4 Christmases. Christmas #1 was at Dad's. We stayed there over Christmas break, and it was like the old days, waking up Christmas morning to open presents. Josh was very happy with his appropriate gifts.
That afternoon we went to Christmas #2 at Josh's cousin Heath's house. This is Bane, Heath's giant wolfdog. I spent most of the time watching Jordan, Heath's son, play Assassin's Creed and saying good boooyeeee Bane... please don't eat me or Red Riding Hood
Christmas #3 was spent at Grandma's that evening. We got to visit with Grandpa who has been needing a little extra help lately, but was thoroughly enjoying himself all decked out in his Christmas gear, including elf ears. Grandma was wearing a pink Hawaiian mumu for Christmas, just by coincidence, and we promised to send her more from Hawaii. Josh's mom had moved in with Grandma & Grandpa to help with his care, so she showed us her little side apartment she shared with her two pups Annie & Dakota. Annie had a lot of advice to impart to Josh.
I could have spent Christmas #4 at Jennifer's daughter Kristy's place, but after 3 Christmases, Josh & I were exhausted... and full. So Jennifer took this pic to document the chaos we missed out on.
The next day we spent Christmas #4 at Josh's Dad's place. We played Wii with his half-brother Casey, then the boys moved onto Guitar Hero. Later in the evening we were all able to meet up with his step-brother Ray, his wife, and young son Degan. Actually not sure how his name is spelled, but its pronounced Day-gen, like pagan ritual or Carl Sagan. We went to the Lantern Pub and Degan hammed it up for for the camera all night. What an awesome kid, wish we could see more of that side of Josh's family.
OK remember me saying it was cold? By cold and subzero, I literally meant SUBZERO. The average temp of December was -12. Luckily I only had 2 pretty light weeks of Derm and then 2 weeks of vacation. The first week of vacation was spent heading around to the 4 Christmases. The 2nd week.... was spent being frozen shut into the house and getting a pretty severe case of cabin fever.
Me & my girls of Type B Medicine had our annual gift exchange, and what Jesse got me was a perfect solution to my cabin fever. I have a vacation coming up in March too, maybe someone will get me Dexter *hint hint
For New Year's, we had dinner with Eppie, Eoin & Bowen at Bonzai, Kirksville's premiere sushi place then went back to our place to watch Harry Potter... what number are we on? 12?
Our first official act of New Year's? Pancake City! And wow, that place was absolutely packed with the local freak show. I think I saw someone wearing a snuggie. So... we fit right in I suppose. The food was delicious as always, and all the patrons were great entertainment. We snickered for quite a bit at the conversation next to us where the guy was apparently a cashier at the House of Jesus and he removed his WWJD bracelet before he would cuss... man I don't know how they know, but them Jesus freaks always fucking know when you drank or cussed while wearing the bracelet. Awesome. If this is any indication of the year to come, 2010 is going to be legend... wait for it... DARY! ... am I cool enough to pull that off? Ah nevermind
Facebook Info Update
As posted in the Info section of my Facebook:
“Its almost the New Year and I couldn’t be more excited for it because in May I am finally graduating med school and then heading out to Honolulu, Hawaii for a psychiatry residency at Tripler Army Medical Center!
Actually I am not sure EXACTLY when I will be moving. I graduate May 15th and the start date for residency is July 1st, but I am also supposed to do a 6 week Officer’s Training in there somewhere so who knows.
Here’s some answers to common questions:
-Residency is 4 years long
-I owe the Army 4 years after that, though I may choose to stay longer
-Not sure where I’ll go after that, maybe Ft. Leonard Wood in MO… maybe Germany!
-the dogs can come without a 6 month quarantine, it just takes alot of prep work
-I will be saving money & time to visit home twice a year
–I am not concerned with “Island Fever”… I have been stuck on the island of Kirksville for 8 years
My To Do List:
-find a rental home in Hawaii
-decide what to do with vehicles
-navigate all the prep work to get the dogs moved over with us
-find out when I do OT
-plan a trip to Maine before or after graduation
-have a GINORMOUS yard sale
-get a new computer
-get new phones
I know, things took a total left turn, but it is awesome and we are so excited! We’ll keep you updated, check back here or my blog Michelle Vs the Med Student”
Flickr update
Flickr is updated to just short of Thanksgiving. Enjoy such gems as this one:
And happy holidays!
Closing my MySpace
I have decided to close down my MySpace account because no one visits it, especially me. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a hardcore facebook addict now. But who isn’t really in this day and age? Hell, my grandmother is on it (Hi Grammie!)
The only thing that kept me from closing it sooner was the preservation of these gems from 3rd year. But hey, I have a web site now! I can put them here! Well technically I’ve had this since the beginning of med school… but it has direction and…. and… I post here regularly. Damn near monthly 🙂
So here is what I didn’t want to delete from the MySpace account I had in my 3rd year (2 yrs ago):
Michelle’s Interests
General
Pretending…
-I like to pretend I’m on Top Chef and plate my mac & cheese beautifully.
-I like to pretend that if medicine doesn’t work out, I could be a renegade space cowboy on Mal’s crew.
-I like to pretend I’m Imogen Heap and belt out mmm whatcha say!
-I like to pretend I’m a penguin and Walk It Out.
-I like to pretend I’m in Jethro Tull and play the flute on one foot.
-And I definitely pretend all the scut I do is very, very important doctor-y stuff.
Music
There’s hardly a genre I don’t have a few favorites in, but I’m going through this hippie, Lillith fair phase, so when I put in a CD (I did not have my beloved iPod touch back in 3rd yr), its Bjork, Kate Havnevik, Imogen Heap, KT Tunstall, Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Lucia Micarelli, and Anna Phoebe.(I have since moved on to an island vibe with Ziggy and Iz.) When I flip on the radio, its all rap….Eminem, Luda, whatever. And when I’m down, I sing the soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar or Hedwig & the Angry Inch. (I still do!)
Movies
Too many to list- here’s the top 10: Fifth Element, Princess Bride, Vampire Hunter D, LOTR, Kill Bill, Pirates of the Caribbean, Clerks, Blazing Saddles, Army of Darkness…and any of the Tyler Perry plays! (let’s add Star Trek to the list!)
Television
I don’t have TV. I suck. (Now I do, yay! … Have TV I mean, not suck) But I try to keep up with House, Grey’s, The Office, American Idol, Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, America’s Next Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, Project Runway, and How I Met Your Mother. I miss Trailer Park Boys, Ab Fab, Spaced, Firefly, Rome, Gilmore Girls, and Deadwood. (Again, I still do)
Heroes
A.T. Still,
Patch Adams,
Heather Armstrong,
Michelle Au
About Me
Lessons I learned in 3rd year:
#1–When patients and drug reps ask about where I am in my education, I say I am done with the science part of medicine, sitting in a dark room stuffing my noggin with every bit of medical minutiae I could fit in there. I have moved on to the art portion of medicine, namely gaining the experience of how & when to apply that knowledge. And NO, I am not a fucking intern. Thanks to Gray’s Anatomy, thats the only thing people understand about medical education… where my career is in relation to intern year. (This still kinda bugs me bc when I go to explain it, people don’t even know what exactly an intern IS per se, as in whether they have graduated, are they REAL doctors, etc… but they know they are lower than residents, work an ungodly amount of hours for little pay, get up at 4am to as people if they have passed gas yet, and are yelled at constantly for being stupid. Oh and have lots of sex in on-call rooms! Seriously? Eww. On-call rooms are gross.)
#2–Everyone wants to know what you are going to do and the whole story behind the choice. If you don’t have the story, you sound flaky. As for what I want to do, I don’t know yet. Not surgery. Not anesthesia. Definitely not radiology. Probably not FP, peds, or OB/GYN. I might do something with IM, PM&R, or Psych. Thats all I know. (Now I’m psych all the way baby, woo!)
Other medstudent: “So what do you tell docs you want to be then?”
Me: “Interventional Cardio”
Other medstudent: “Why that?”
Me: “Well if I say anything primary, including IM, I get the speech about how I’ll never make enough money to pay off my loans. If I say PM&R, they might ask me why, and all I can say is “I just think it sounds neat.” If I say Oncology, they’ll ask if there is a story there and then I have to launch into my mom’s story and its just such a serious conversation when first meeting someone. So I say IM- Intervent Cardio, b/c
1) IM is general enough to where whatever the rotation is, it could apply somehow and they don’t feel like they are wasting their time teaching me,
2) “Cardio” makes me sound smart, and
3) “Interventional” b/c they always respect the desire to do billable procedures.”
#3–The key to preventing burnout is to find humor in your work. Thats probably why I like psych so much. In FP, you get fat old men who won’t take care of themselves, but then complain that they hurt all over and want you to fix it. It pisses me off, especially if a rectal exam is involved. But with psych, I find it hard to get mad at someone who is wearing war paint and says they didn’t take their meds b/c they crawled away. (Still true for me!)
October Round-up
You may have been worried by the last photo from September, but I think we all had a great time the 2 weeks I was in Springfield for an Ob/Gyn rotation. I got to dance at Martha's with her gbff Evan. We went to Lambert's, home of the throwed rolls. Twice actually, the 2nd time with my Aunt Marylou & Uncle Doyle who came into town for the day just for me. We took a trip down to BRANSON! which was AMAZING! And we didn't even really get out of the car, except to watch a fountain show ...with fire and the star-spangled banner!! Oh and of course to get a pumpkin pie custard from Andy's. Which I only did every other day. We also had some great times at home, like a weenie roast at his sister's. Or Sunday lunch at his grandma's. Or the magical time I accidentally brought home the doppler. Bethany and Brandon were totally awesome. I sure will miss curling up at the foot of their bed like a puppy to watch Grey's Anatomy.
Before I left town, I had to see Zach! We went to the Belgian Waffle and Pancake House with his whole family, including mother and sister in law. This is LB. She has gotten so big. The last time I saw her she was a colicky newborn who screamed the whole time I babysat her except for half an hour before parents got home. Lily, who I had always seen as a little toddler, was now a tall talkative stringbean. And Zach really seemed to have come alive from being out of Kirksville and on rotations. I certainly can understand that sentiment.
While I was gone, Josh got really sick. In his delirious state, high on Nyquil, he allowed a hobo with a puppy to live with us. Well not really a hobo but some idiot girl he knew from work. Seriously, she was feeding the puppy ham and milk. So we took the puppy away, changed her name from Precious to Gretchen, and gave her to Andee & Joe, a med student and future vet student couple. They changed her name to Maya, and now she is their baby, just like Roxy was for us when we were first married.
We kinda fell in love with her but we knew it was the right thing to do. The next two weeks I worked in the pain clinic, which I was a little unsure about but turned out to be pretty good. Decent hours, lots of psych, and anesthesiologists are just plain nice. The weekend I finished there, which was right before Halloween, I headed back home for a Type B medicine reunion...which was not to be. But I still had fun with Dad and Katie. We all had dinner in Soulard then went to my first real haunted house ever, which was supposed to be the scariest in St. Louis... What a disappointment. Dad called me jaded bc it didn't scare me. I just think that fake ass props and teenagers going RAWR ain't scary. We also so Paranormal Activity, he scariest movie ever supposedly... where viewers come out physically disturbed. Again, I must be jaded. If it was a real documentary, then yes definitely, but just some doors being moved and fake demon footprints? Sorry. I guess it just wasn't meant to be this year, bc then for our actual Halloween, the party we planned to go to got cancelled, we never got costumes, and only 1 trick or treater showed up. But I had time watching the Paranormal State marathon at least!
Happy 1st birthday Beebers!
Here is BB on our first night with her. She was SO tiny! It was love at first sight!!
She fit right in with the pack!
She wished for snow on her birthday, and she got it! Today was the first snow of the year!
I'm not sure how she knew she wanted it bc I don't think she experienced snow before but she is apparently rebelling against her shiba heritage of hating water in all its forms. She absolutely loves the snow!
She makes me smile everyday! I love that she is part of our pack still, that we decided to keep rather than foster her. And now after a year with her, she is still the happy-go-lucky DOG in our lives (vs Roxy the cat/deer/ninja and Tessy the human/lion/bull in a china shop). She just takes up a little bit more room on the couch 🙂
Christmas List
If you know me, you know there is only 1 thing I REALLY want for Christmas 🙂
*ahem* look up *ahem*
But anyway….
Because Dad doesn’t get me anything until I “submit the list”:
Even though he already got me tickets to this concert:
September Round-up
The first week of September, Josh went back out to Denver to visit his friends and generally piss me off bc I couldn't go haha. Here is our old upstairs neighbor Aaron. Josh took this pic at Red Rocks, where they went exploring. He had a great time, but his trip had to be cut short, so we are gonna go back TOGETHER in March. Aww I loved Denver so much. The year we spend there during 3rd year rotations will go down as one of the best years of my life.
The first weekend in September, Theresa, a fellow 4th yr and future psychiatrist, came out to visit the new Kirksville Pranic Healing Center. There are a handful of pranic healers here in town and one was kind enough to donate an apartment to practice in. That weekend, we needed to get alot of cleaning and painting done, including painting the main healing room the perfect shade of orange, or rather, I should say ORANGE! Here is a pic of the place with Theresa, Chris and Mike. It wasn't all work either. Theresa, Chris, Katie, Josh, and I went to Manhattan's for dinner (pesto is baked onto their bread mmm!) and then we went out dancing at WrongDaddy's. No one was dancing except us and the sound system was off but we didn't care, especially after the Long Islands. It was so great to finally hang out with Chris and to have Theresa stay at my place. I'll never forget our road trip to Denver, she has been my soul sister ever since!
Josh turned 32 on Sept 10th and he got a new hunting bow and a firepit. To celebrate we had a marshmellow roast to make smores on his new firepit. Nothing like a cool evening next to a fire, and chocolate! At least until BB ran through the house with a marshmellow stick stuck to her butt! And bow does he love that boy, I wish I had a pic.
This is my new computer background. Plus my Dad goes into withdrawal without grandpuppy pics. The rest of September was fairly uneventful. I did 2 weeks of Pulmonology and 2 weeks of Pathology. Both were lighter rotations, so I got to do alot of work on the Pranic Healing center. Specifically, I painted and decorated the bathroom, then threw a painting party for the kitchen. I'll eventually post the after pics. Anyway, though the rotations were lighter, I really got alot out of them. CT scans and Pulmonary Function Tests were totally over my head before Pulm. And working for the pulmonologist was a trip bc I used to babysit her daughter when she was 5 and I was a junior in college. Now she is 11! WHOA. And I was really worried about Path. Anytime we have tumor board and the pathologist points out cells, saying how they are clearly dysplastic or whatever, I was always like, oh ya, CLEARLY, uh huh. It was a total foreign language to me. By the end of it though, I felt pretty darn adept at it. I could grade a pap smear like a pro and the doc said I was one of the better students they've ever had. If I'd have known either pulm or path were gonna be so enjoyable, I would have done each for a whole month! And so... that was my September. Sorry I'm a ho and took so long to get it up... that's what she said.
A preview of October... the last 3 days of September and the first 2 weeks of October I was in Springfield MO with old OMM fellow and best friend Bethany! Oh she's pregnant. And newlywed. And was trying to decorate her house. So as you can see they were happy to have me there! No really they were. I am delightful! And do laundry.
August Round-up
At the very end of July, I was commissioned by the Army in Kansas City. I joined the Health Professional Scholarship Program (HPSP) so that I could do the psych residency in Hawaii. The only other place I could end up would be Washington DC so... think Hawaiian thoughts!!
The first weekend in August, we went back to visit Dad. I had missed Father's Day so I got my Dad some authentic Hawaiian shirts while in Honolulu. But when I returned, I went straight from the airport to Kirksville, so I needed to go back to give him his gifts. It was alot of travelling but thats OK, BB drove most of the way this time.
For the month of August, I was on a Family Practice rotation here in Kirksville. At the end of my 1st week, the hospital held a luau by the local pool. Oh such cruelty to tease someone who is missing Hawaii with a luau that consists hamburgers, hotdogs and giant pineapple decorations. I think that reads pretty well on my face here, that Josh felt the dying need to capture. We had a nice day though. I got to wear my new sarong and we chilled at the pool.
So for most of the month I didn't do much else interesting. Josh and I redecorated a bit. I kept chugging along in the FP rotation. Did my first night of real call. No big whoop. I did however, find out my friend and other previous OMM fellow Bethany is pregnant, and my friend and previous OMM secretary Richelle had this little guy: Jacob Preston. I went to visit him at 3 weeks. He is much more handsome than the picture implies but I was very pleased with how the bunny on my shirt is staring at him ominously and he's totally trying to avoid eye contact. Great, give him a complex about the pink bunny with evil red eyes.
I didn't do much exciting this month because I was very stressed out (and poor!). Hawaii was expensive and the Army was less than quick about paying me, so I spent alot of nights sitting in a corner, rocking. Not really, but I was stressed! And I missed Hawaii! What helped was meditation, just picturing me sitting atop Koko Head, calm, everything having worked out. Which I did. I eventually got paid, finished with FP and moved onto Pulmonology & Pathology in September. Doesn't that sound more exciting already?
‘Basterds’ disappoints
Because my father relies on me for such advice….
I have to say Inglourious Basterds was a big disappointment. Everyone else seemed to love it, including Rotten Tomatoes, but hoorah! I found a handful of people who are not unconditionally enamored with Quentin as the rest of the world seems to be. Don’t get me wrong. I have LOVED his work up until Death Proof. That movie marked his decent into becoming Grandpa Simpson…
“We can’t scalp NATzis* like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell ’em stories that don’t go anywhere—like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ’em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now where were we? Oh yeah—the important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…”
This critic explained it perfectly…
“So why is “Basterds’’ such a colossal disappointment? It’s mostly because Tarantino indulges all of his worst impulses as a filmmaker and ignores what he does best. The film, clocking in at two-and-a-half hours, moves at the pace of a snail, has way too much talk and not nearly enough action, and spends the bulk of its running time building towards payoffs that either never come or disappoint when they do.
But perhaps worst of all is that we’ve been sold a false bill of goods. The film’s ad campaign makes it look like a breezy, super-violent, anti-Nazi revenge fantasy for Jews — call it “Munich,” without the guilt. We’re led to believe that Brad Pitt leads a colorful team of Jewish characters in a violent rampage across Europe, sort of the climactic “House of Blue Leaves” segment in “Kill Bill Vol. 1” spread out to feature length. But that’s not “Inglourious Basterds,” except for one 15-minute scene early on. Instead, most of it consists of long, long scenes in which people sit around and talk, sometimes building up to something worthwhile but usually not. Especially in his recent work, Tarantino has become addicted to dialogue scenes that seem to last forever.”
Or maybe my expectations are too high. But when a movie steals 3 hours of my time and $25 (tickets & popcorn)… I expect it to be damn entertaining.
*Brad Pitt (and his accent!) was the shining glory of the film. Wish Quentin had just stuck to the Basterd storyline and done hacked him up some NATTzis, Kill Bill style.
Michelle vs the Med Student 