Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving can be such a great way to stop and take stock of everything that is going right in my life. I have a very bright future in a field that I love (LOVE!!) helping people and learning every day of my life. That alone makes me one of the luckiest people I know. We can move to wherever we choose to embark on this fantastic adventure and the people there will make it easy for me to settle in. I can travel for 1 week out of 6-8 to the north to see an entirely different patient population. Within my career I can specialize as much or as little as I would like. Maybe I'm a little too glow-y, but I don't care.

I have a partner who loves me and whom I love.

I have 2 adorable cats who know when the time is right to snuggle.

I have a family that (touch wood) is free of illness and who despite our arguments love the heck out of each other.

And I get my choice of 4 types of pie for dessert tonight!!

Mini Vacation

We've been given 4 days off. I might be in heaven. There's definitely a huge list of things that I need to get done, but knowing that I have 4 whole days to fit them into is lovely. Plus there's no one else around so I'm not expected to show up for meetings anywhere. Pretty much divine.

I had my first large scale mistake last week. No one got dead, but an entire class of students was subjected to my idiocy. It really threw me because I was just starting to feel as though I had things together (well, non academic things). It's surprising to me how important it was that I get praise rather than chastisement for the effort I'd put into the project. I think it's indicative of a mindset I need to change for next year. I will be making more mistakes than a kid learning how to walk and I need to be ready to listen to the criticism. Now to make that magically happen...

We've moved on to the Gastro Intestinal tract and nutrition. I love it. Apparently I'm the only one in the class that does. Their loss.

I don't think I'll ever specialize in GI, but the anatomy and physiology is so interesting that I love it. There are so many mechanisms set up that make sure that we get all nutrients from our food - it's fascinating. The anatomy is simple and logical. What else could you ask for in a block??

RIP

Before it was the fashionable thing to do, Paul Newman donated buckets of money to charity. He was a good man, a fantastic actor, an important part of what I consider to be important pop culture and incredibly sexy.

I hope you have peace.

I Love Fall

It may be because it's when my birthday is, the smell of dirt, changing leaves, starting school or the change in weather. I think mostly it's the feeling of not being here or there but a magical place in between. We still get delicious warm days like today, but also chilly 3 sweater days like last week.

I slept last night for eight hours, almost in a row. It was glorious.

We're learning about type 2 diabetes right now. It's a fascinating disease and one that I know that no matter what speciality we choose we'll be helping patients who suffer from it. Except maybe radiology. I can't think of how T2DM would show up on film.

Metamorphosis

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss"

We're heading to Point Pelee today to see the Butterfly Migration. I'm hoping for a zen kind of day.

All that has been going on has made me cranky and not a good person to be around. It's time to become the person I really want to be.

Up to my eyeballs

I feel like I'm running a million miles an hour. It's safe to say that I've bitten off way more than I can chew this year. I feel like I'm back in high school running between meetings and not doing my homework.

It's unfortunate since this block is really interesting. Endocrinology is one of the parts of medicine that I find most attractive - push part of the system here and watch what happens over there. It's a very elegant, logical science that I'm looking forward to spending the weekend learning more about.

There's been so much on the go that most of my socializing is done between classes. Or over coffee at a coffee pub while working on a paediatric assignment.

I've been in contact with a couple of women I want to speak to about being an older than average student at school. Mostly I want to know how they dealt with being married and in clerkship, though my lack of sleep now can only be helping me prepare.

O Week

Holy cats. What an O Week this is turning out to be. The biggest 2 parties are still coming up so the coordinators in their infinite wisdom gave the 2012s last night off to recoup and recover, they weren't quite ready for the partying force that is the 2011s.

Tonight's party involves us dressing up as our favourite 80s movie. Since most of my group doesn't know many 80s movies, we've decided to do a "concept" team costume instead. We will be ever so Pretty in Pink. Last night we hit a thrift store looking for pink clothes - so fun seeing the guys in pink dresses. My dress is a bit more revealing than I would normally wear. It seems likely I'll have a shirt on underneath.

In other news, endocrinology is like death from a thousand paper cuts. They jumped in with both feet, skipping the pesky "what does each hormone do" lecture and moved directly into the tumours and crazy diseases associated with them. Thank goodness I have all this extra time to cover them on my own - no sarcasm. Well, not much.

Oh, and I may have pissed off the academic dean in a recent meeting so I've got to make sure that I don't need his help. So off to figuring out what's happening with these hormones.