I am officially my own mother
Sunday, July 29, 2007 | posted by Kate |
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With classes tomorrow morning kicking off at 8:30 am, I am beginning my $250/day medical education.
The journey of a thousand miles (and two hundred thousand in loan debt) obviously starts with a pb&j pita for lunch and a clif bar for breakfast.
Exhausted but Great
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 | posted by Kate |
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10. All of the free lunches, dinners and beer. (The beer mainly from M2 host students!)
9. Meeting 140 new people. (Also a "challenging" thing about orientation)
8. Getting a "class of" T-shirt commemorating your entering group.
7. Finding where your locker is and discovering that it is HUGE!
6. Receiving a membership to an awesome gym with an Olympic size pool and an indoor running track. Oh, and a full size basketball court. Yay!
5. Being fitted for a white coat.
4. Receiving a picture ID badge/scan card that has your name right above "MEDICAL STUDENT" in large letters.
3. Knowing you're actually going to be a doctor someday.
2. Starting to know your way around the place and scouting out study locations.
1. Meeting people that you're pleased to call your colleagues.
I'm exhausted but happy.
More soon.
Kate
Vodka + Lemonade=??
Sunday, July 22, 2007 | posted by Kate |
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You will need:
Semi-Premium or Premium Vodka ( I like Skyy or Ketel One, personally)
"Simply" Lemonade (It comes in a jug and is not too sweet, in the fridge section)
Fresh Limes, Cut into Wheels
Ice and a cool pitcher to pour from
And Then...Fill the pitcher 1/3 of the way with Vodka. Add a handful of ice and squeeze the limes as you add them in. Fill the pitcher the rest of the way with Lemonade. Taste to see if you need more vodka (why not?)
You can have your own authentic Vodka Lemonade experience
Just like I did this weekend if you follow the recipe above. R and I went over to his best friend's house and were joined by a few more of their friends to drink, watch the boxing fights at Mandalay Bay on TV and eat pizza*. (Deliciously gross* but wonderful Pizza Hut pizza.) I, of course, brought the ingredients for the famous VL because it was what I really felt like drinking. A few glasses of that later (it goes down really, really easy....too easy) I was totally drunk. Woo!
3AM
I wake up with a start, head slightly swirly, to find myself curled on a couch next to R.
I unsuccessfully try to rouse him, he swats at me because he's asleep and passed out. Blech. I am wishing we were at one of our homes, curled on a soft mattress, under my fluffy duvet, R's strong body enveloping mine as he sleeps.
No dice?
Okay, fine! Being a party girl is SO unglam, this is why I only drink like this approximately twice a year.
I make myself a bed on the carpet below the couch so I can stretch my legs. R spreads out on the little couch and looks less scrunched and more peaceful. Good.
6AM
R starts to wake and apparently would prefer to sleep holding me (hurray!) so he joins me on the carpet and we share the blankets (or, he just really wanted a blanket.) I'm feeling better about crashing at his friend's place now that we're laying together. If he's holding me, sitting next to me or standing close behind me I am suddenly very secure and calm. He's like man-prozac for the nerves. The quiet footsteps of R's friend's girlfriend approach as she arrives back from her night shift at the hospital. I should have worried more that she would think that R & I was her boyfriend and some other girl (she's the jealous type, okay?) but I don't because R has his arms around me and I'm hazy and exhausted.
9AM
I wander down the hall to find R's friend's girlfriend staring at me from their bed. "Hi, Sunshine!" she calls. I twist my face into a smile. She lets me know that R's friend has gone to get us breakfast, which is good news. I put some pressed powder on my face, brush my hair and try to look not so, well, hungover. My stomach starts to rumble.
9:30AM
Two bites into breakfast, I feel that sickening tightening in my stomach and throat. Oh, God. Oh, God. I start to panic....but don't want to let on. Quietly, I get up from the table and barrel down the hall where I proceed to forcefully vomit from my nose and mouth into the sink. I try to tell myself to relax and let it come out. It is hard because I want to fight the sickness so badly. I turn on the water so our friends don't hear me vomiting. Yuck. The acid burns my throat and the tears run down my face. I thank my lucky stars that my hair was already pulled back. Since I rarely vomit (twice this year already, weird) my body is exhausted and my hands and feet are shaky.
12 noon
R and I are back at his place. Still weak even after some Gatorade, I lay on his bed and nap with his two cats. He lays nearby, working a crossword puzzle. He kisses me on the forehead and the cheek. Just having him around makes me feel much better.
This evening I had dinner with a good girlfriend and did my laundry at her place. We danced around the house, ate dinner on the deck and drank sparkling water out of wine glasses. Yeah!
I gave R a call to see if he wanted to come over tonight but he said no because of where his work is located tomorrow. He did say that he loved me though and was very sweet. I think if he could be two places at once, he would.
Tomorrow is the first day of medical school orientation. I got my drink on before the start of doctor school, my leather shoulder bag is packed, I have plenty of laundry clean and I am ready to go.
Rocket Scientist
Sunday, July 15, 2007 | posted by Kate |
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You know how it goes--you spend a day at IKEA, wandering around and collecting the items you need for your house at awesome prices. A cart full of THAT much STUFF from say, Target or Bed Bath and Beyond would be hundreds of dollars. Hundreds. Easily. But at IKEA? No biggie! Loves it--potholders, fluffy throw blankets, shoe racks and closet organizers--oh, my! Just everything I need for my new (spacious but empty!) place.
The furniture, though? Reasonably priced but not assembled and quite another story. Lugging the boxes around on those big flat carts and then getting them into the car? Exhausting. Lugging the boxes through the building, battling my elevator doors that kept trying to shut on me and eat me? Yikes. Getting it all home by myself made me do a little happy dance.
The IKEA packages say "easy assembly." I strongly disagree with this packaging statement. Let me present to you the following: My computer desk is now known to me (secretly, of course, and now to you) as my 4-hour desk. As in, I spent four hours trying to put it together before success*occurred.
*By success, I mean it didn't collapse or lean in at a weird angle when I did the following:
A. Move it
B. Put weight on it (as in, not breaking when a fly lands on it)
C. Find some other part that belonged on it that needed to be added somewhere.
D. Any or all of the above
Obviously, this IKEA furniture was engineered to be easy for NASA ROCKET SCIENTISTS to put together. Admittedly I feel a little sheepish, seeing as how I'm, oh, you know, starting medical school and all and the furniture had me beat**. The desk IS together though and I only have few scratches and bruises. I am a stubborn woman.
*By had me beat, I mean I said the following words during construction:
A. Shitballs, motherfucker
B. Are you fucking kidding me?
C. Oh, shit, it's upside down!
D. Do I have any more vodka in the house?
Enter Prince Charming (now with 90% more family approval!)
Luckily...R rode to my rescue when it came to putting my bookcase and TV cart together. There was a lot of hammering and screwdriving going on when he did those, so, I should probably thank him for the fact that I still have all of my fingers....since I was not the one who had to wield such tools and construction skillz.
My family continues to rave about how much they love him, about how I should stick with him ( I think my grandmother said "latch onto him"), about how wonderful he is. Frankly, I am not sure how to handle them loving him so much!
It isn't that I don't think he's completely awesome, or that I thought they wouldn't like him, I guess I just have never seen them react so positively and be so openly excited about someone I'm dating. I suppose it is about time, though, right?
Love until Later,
Kate
Hair Farm and other Neuroses
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | posted by Kate |
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I have lived in this apartment for what, two minutes, and ALREADY the bathroom floor has a ton of my hair on it. Yech!
I was sitting on the toilet this evening, with MacBook (and my neighbor's wireless internets, heh) keeping me company when I noticed I have a regular hair farm going on the previously-clean tile. And I've taken approximately 10, 15 showers here. All this hair? Already? Even I hate "living with me" sometimes. Gross!
In other new-apartment-organization-news, my major voyage to IKEA is all set for tomorrow.
I know, you're asking yourselves, WHY, OH WHY isn't she organized YET? Well, friends--it is funny but not working means that the pace of my days is slower and I'm only finally learning how to be productive when I don't have a 9 to 5 to balance with the rest of my life (or a 7 to 6 as it was, haha).
The cheap-furniture budget: $800. Needed: a corner desk, a TV table, a bookcase, some picture frames and a clock. Wanted: a few shelves and a filing cabinet. We'll see how it shapes up. If I can get the things I need on my budget anywhere, it is certainly there. I hate lugging the boxes to the car (thank God my new place is only up one flight of stairs) and I am not good at putting things together (remember the injuries LAST TIME from using tools?!?) but it is "go time." I wish I could say that I'm totally going to put it all together myself but we all know that R will probably end up doing a lot of helping. God bless that.
Meet the Parents
This last weekend I took R home with me to the beachy coastal place I grew up in (and the weather behaved perfectly, which was THE way to represent!) and my parents LOVED him. So much. He behaved perfectly as well---he was calm, happy and sweet. Himself. Yes!
My family embarrassed me a few times, but I tried to be graceful. I took R for a walk on the beach which he enjoyed--we splashed around in the cool ocean, held hands and I fell a little more in love with him.
Taking him home and introducing him to people somehow raises the stakes a little for me--now I'm even MORE invested in this relationship--before if something happened with us, he was just a name and a few stories to my family and...now, he's someone who's listened to grandpa's stories and had a cigarette with my mother. Now we have momentum. From both sides. I know it won't be crushing (I wouldn't let that happen) but I am not so naive this time to think that intertwining the families doesn't mean that the relationship will be affected.
Anyway, part of me feels satisfied with the visit and the positive results of the visit because he gets to know me more and see where I came from, and my family gets to see that I'm doing better at picking out men, BUT part of me feels terrified! If we break up, there are going to be a LOT more questions (which, naturally, will be very hard to answer at that point) and there will be more people disappointed than just me.
The reassuring part of my brain would like to remind everyone that R and I traveled nicely together through the airports, which is a source of stress/pressure/disagreements for a lot of people. (Haven't you ever seen "The Amazing Race?" Come on now!) He held my hand during takeoff and landing, and gently patted my hand when I would clutch him if there was turbulence. He bought me Cosmopolitan in the airport and didn't laugh or make any comments about it. We walked most places hand in hand. We laughed at others. I showed him how good a burger "Animal Style" can be from In N Out Burgers. He showed me how to be patient with my folks.
Pink and Green
Monday, July 02, 2007 | posted by Kate |
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1. My bedroom is a lovely shade of green and my bathroom? Barbie-girl pink.
2. I actually have a bedroom now (as opposed to a studio!).
3. I have lost 7 pounds. (Whew!) Going to my new gym isn't hurting, that's for sure.
4. I don't work anymore---well, I only teach classes here and there, but bye-bye full time job! Woo!
5. I've actually made a schedule for myself.
6. I got my older cousin's wedding invitation in the mail.
7. I cooked a meal (that didn't SUCK!) for R. Yay.
8. R & I went out to a fancy dinner to celebrate me finishing work!
9. R made me dinner (and served it all to me) while I sat on the couch (he insisted!)
10. I don't pay for internet(s) anymore, instead I just go to free wifi spots. (b/c I am a cheap beeeeyatch y'all.)
