Long time no post

Well, it's been a week or more since my last post. Bad blogger, bad !

It's been a busy week hanging out with friends, seeing patients, and getting ready for Grand Rounds. Yes, Grand Rounds is Friday. My final , almost defense if you will. I have to stand in front of the whole faculty , fourth year class, and most of the third years. (Plus any first or second years that show up) I present, they pimp me... I'm scared !!!

In other news I posted my blurb online on the OD job board. In three days I had three doctors email me about jobs. One called me and they all want my CV. I already have one interview set up for Spring Break. I'm very excited that everything is falling into place.

I was supposed to head to Dallas this weekend to have G help me with my power point presentation for Grand Rouns. Alas, he got the flu an didn't want to get me sick. So, no love or help for me. :( Poor G.

Last night I went out with the SDN Houston crew. drinks , live band, House of Guys... it was a FUN night !! They're all waiting for Texas match tomorrow night at midnight.
GOOD LUCK GUYS !! I'll be thinking of all of you (and sitting in front of my computer on SDN waiting for the results)

No internet

well, the last four days I've been without internet. Apparently (according to my father) an outlet melted in my house opening up a circuit. It died Tuesday afternoon. since Dad was working at Dell in Austin it didn't get fixed til he got home today. I just discovered what four days without tv and internet is like. I don't like it. Although, I got SO much work done !! My grand rounds paper is done and being proof-read by faculty members. I also read some books and contemplated the size of my navel.

I'll catch up more with what's going on in the next day or so. right now, I'm running on 5 and 1/2 hours of sleep. It's nappy time !!

Good friends with Wine

Thank god for good friends with wine. what would we do without them, eh ?

Last night I got in a fight with a person I thought was a friend. Apparently I'm to blame for another friend deciding she didn't want to be close friends with him. Not totally sure how this came to be all my fault, other than I'm convenient. So, now he's going to lose two friends in the process.

1. If you're going to yell at me... don't do it over IM. Have the common curtesy to at least call me or show up in person.
2. As soon as you start cussing at me.. I tune out. No one talks to me like that
3. Leave my boyfriend out of it. Name calling gets you no where and just loses my respect.


So, today I went to the school library to work on my Grand Rounds presentation. I got a bunch of research done and about half of my final paper. the hardest part is to come. I have to cross-reference all my data, annotate, make a synopsis, and do a power point presentation. All this must be done in the next two weeks !!!! AHHHHH !!

Also yesterday I got some bad news. I'll leave it at that. yesterday was just an all around sucky day.

G had fun exploring Tampa today. He also took time out to make me laugh (which was appreciated). He can always make me laugh. It's part of what I love about him.

Good news !

We close on our Tampa place February 7th !!!!! Yaaaayyyyaay !!

Fourth Year

well, i'm back in the clinic. UHCO has changed quite a bit since I've been gone on rotation. The contact lens clinic got completely remodeled, one of my attendings got a complete make-over and I almost didn't recognize her, and there's a whole class of people here i've never seen before and who've never seen me. It's very odd to be the most experienced clinicians in the building (other than the attendings).

Today was contact lens clinic. I'm only working a half day on Tuesdays which is REALLY nice. I only had one patient this morning , since my second did not show up.

Tomorrow I'm in low vision all day long. I've heard it's almost all orientation and we see only one patient. Only one patient ALL DAY !!?? Oh lord. I'm gonna fall asleep.

New Friends

Last night I met some new people (which I love doing). We met up at Two Rows with my usual doctor group of friends. There were about seven other people meeting us there who were all going through the Texas pre-med match on February 1st. Everyone I met was VERY cool. We talked and laughed most of the night.

I spent most of the night talking to one guy in particular who went to aTm. I learned all about what it was like to be a gay frat guy at A&M. They have those ?? I hope I get to meet up with him again because he was so much fun !

It was very hard to hear people at Two Rows so I didn't get to talk to everyone. I did try to make the rounds though. There was one particular person there who it seemed like just tried to get in an arguement with about every person at the table. One of those annoying people who likes to argue his opinion for an hour even though everyone else at the table can prove him wrong. Very annoying and put quite a damper on the evening at one point. he really upset one of my friends.

After Two Rows we went to the Gingerman and that's where everyone loosened up a little bit. conversion flowed more easily when it was easier to hear. (and everyone had at least two beers in them)

Today I pretty much just got ready for clinic tomorrow. My first day back in house as a fourth year. YAYYYYAYAYAY! I did take Tiger to flyball, which he loved. We got to practice outside at Pat's dog training center (which I'm sure tiger just thought of as one big dog park) . I finished the last of the book I was reading... and now I'm just relaxing until I have to get ready for bed before my big day tomorrow. Catching up on internet and blogging. :)

when in rome

In the year 2005 I resolve to: Start spamming people I do not like. Get your resolution here

Free Money

After lunch with a friend today (mmmm tapas), I met up with another friend for a little shopping. well, anyone who knows me knows how much I hate to shop. My main beef with shopping is that I never have any money. So, why go look at clothes and try things on when I know I can't afford to buy anything. That just makes me depressed. I can always go imagine how good I'll look when I do make money... yawn.

So, since I got a substantial gift certificate for my birthday to white house/black market (one of my favorite stores) I decided to stop in today. I picked the right day !! Everything in the store was 30% off the sale price. And, this store is NOT cheap. The average pair of fitted pants there costs about 80 dollars. So, I got two tops and a pair of cream colored pants for 100 dollars. I was very very proud of myself (and look good to boot). Now, I'll wait til their spring line comes out so I can use the rest of my gift certificate. I didn't want to buy more stuff just cuz I had more money on the card. I really didn't see anything else I was thrilled with. I don't need sweaters where I'm moving.

Then, we wondered next door to Ann Taylor (who was also having a sale). I picked up a pair of chocolate pants with pinkish pin stripes. VERY cute and half off. Whheeee.

Now THAT is the kind of shopping I like. Four things purchased and only 40 dollars of my own money spent. (and all very nice lined and tailored looking clothes).

So of course I show my mom my haul... and the only comment she makes (not that i look cute or what great deals I got), is " oh honey, it's all dry clean only".

Sigh... mothers.

Those Left Behind

This morning I attended a memorial service for the mother of one of my flyball friends. He's the leader of the team and we thought it would be very special to him if the whole team showed up to the memorial service. I do believe he was truly touched we were all there. We took up two rows at the back of the room.

The memorial service was very interesting. Instead of somber music and crying, everyone was laughing, smilling, hugging family members not seen in a long time, and telling stories of their childhood. Family members got up one by one in front of the mike and told stories of how wonderful a person Sam's mom was. No mention of Alzheimers, no mention of her long battle with illness, no mention of the fall last year the caused her great pain and illness. Nothing. Just happiness, smiles, stories of meals shared, childhood hi-jinx, and the healing hands of a loving mother. It was really very touching. I would much rather be remembered that way than having people show up to sob, listen to depressing music, and listen to eulogies.

The main difference from the last memorial I went to is that this one celebrated someone who got to live their whole long life. the last service I went to was for someone who's life was cut short while riding their bike home from work (another family member of a flyball friend). That was a VERY somber service with lots of tears for a precious young life cut short. Very tragic.

So, in essense I guess they're services for different reasons. one tries to figure out why one was taken so young, while another celebrates a full life lived and all they shared with those they left behind. Either way we carry on.

Back to Reality

Well, sort of back to reality. I'm still on vacation. But, yesterday G left to go back to Baltimore for work, my dad left to go back to work in Austin, and my brother and his wife left to catch their flight back to Seattle. This left my mother and me home alone with the dogs for my last week of remaining vacation.

Christmas was fairly uneventful, but fun and relaxing. My best present was from my parents: scuba diving lessons !!! I'm so excited !! G has known how to dive for years and on our vacations he always wants to go dive, but doesn't want to leave me alone on the beach all day. Now, I can get certified and we can go on dive trips together ! After this two weekend course I'll have my PADI Basic Open Water certification. I spent the first weekend doing classroom and pool dives. The second weekend is four open water dives in local bodies of water. I think our first is in some rock quarry in Conroe. (which will be weird since there are no fish or anything)

The day after Christmas I drove up to Dallas to spend a day with G's family. They gave me a very nice jammie set from VS and took us out to dinner.

G followed me back to Houston to spend a week of his vacation here with the dog and me. We didn't do much, but it was so nice to get to spend a whole week together when neither of us had to run off to work. We also weren't in the artificial vacation environment.

Mainly, we ran with the dog, went to movies (the aviator and ocean's 12), went to trivia night at a local bar with a friend, etc. Relaxing and enjoyable. My mother didn't make one comment about getting married, but my neighbor did at a bridal shower. (and was horrribly horribly rude about it)