Tuesday, April 10, 2012

They bag your groceries and even put them in the car.



It has been quite a crazy week. After my last blog post where I detailed our change of plans and the Mr. needing to find a pet-friendly rental, many many things have happened. I'll try to summarize!

I had an amazing time in my low risk obstetrics elective - I really really love that area of medicine. There are no other areas really where someone goes to the hospital for a good reason and comes out (usually) with something WAY better than they went in with. It's not all good of course, and sometimes it gets complicated and scary (especially for the petrified baby doctor), but for the most part, low-risk is enjoyable because it's exactly that - low risk. 

The last day of my rotation was really something. After my preceptor explained that she had "terrible call karma," karma went ahead to prove her right and delivered us quite the share of patients. SGA, oligo, HELLP and a supposedly "resolved" placenta previa. And for those of my colleagues who are thinking "holy crap, that's anything but low risk," all of this was present in one patient. Add that to a very unfortunate still birth, some serious dystocia, a surprise frank breech delivery and a massive post partum hemorrhage, and you've got one very tired clerk. A great learning experience, but also a good reminder of my general incompetence.

At least I got to deliver a nice uncomplicated baby girl at the end of that shift, and did a little victory "I'm not completely incompetent" dance with my preceptor afterwards. 

We ended up finding a pet-friendly rental after all, a cute one at that. If not a bit small. Maybe a lot small. That's what we get for moving from a three bedroom 2-floor house with a backyard to a one bedroom condo. 

We scrambled to sell all non-essential items and furniture in anticipation of this move, yet somehow still have SO MUCH STUFF. I swear I have no idea how this happened -_-. We moved the Mr. and DevilDog into the new condo this past Saturday. We rented a moving truck and with the generous help of some of our greatest friends, we were able to move a considerable amount of shtuff into the new place. Crammed it into there like a little sardine box, only to realize there is still a massive amount of stuff at the old house. Humph.

My move to Smalltown was today. Happy and sad. We started early (as if we had a choice, thank you furbabies), loaded up a considerable amount of "essential-must-haves" into both vehicles (my hobbies take up space, what can I say, I couldn't leave home without my bin of fabric), kissed DevilDog, left him with his supposedly ergonomic dog bone (yes, you read that right - check it out) and ventured out with the Mr., Miss. Thing and The Little Stink. 

Smalltown is only about an hour and a half from the Big City, so it didn't take us long to pull up to the tiny rural hospital, be greeted with big small town smiles and be handed the keys to my new second home. We excitedly drove a block or so away (admittedly, a terrible commute), and were pleasantly surprised by the accommodations, I feel so spoiled.

The house is a one-up and one-down of two separate units. My unit is the top one (as per the landlord's request due to the furbabies), and has three bedrooms. One master bedroom with a queen bed, two closets and a 4-piece ensuite bath, a spare room with two twin beds, and a third bedroom set up as an office (read: sewing and craft room). I'll be sure to post pictures soon :)

My Partner in Crime showed up not long afterwards and her unit is just as nice, if not a touch smaller and with a bit more carpet. Each unit has brand new appliances, each has a stackable washer and dryer and we have a nice big deck and backyard. Spoiled is right. 

Miss. Thing had a really tough time settling in. Pfft. By the time her squeakies were out, she was running around flipping them in the air like she owned the place, full of excitement at the reunion with her favourite babies (since Destructo Dog came, they had been put away for their own protection). 

Unfortunately, The Little Stink has not been feeling the greatest since the first move on Saturday, and is having quite a bit of trouble getting around :( So he's been a little slower to adapt to the moves, and we hope he'll perk up a bit more after he settles here in what the Mr. calls his "nice quiet retirement home." With Destructo in the Big City, there will be less excitement around the house, and it might be easier on him. He seems happy and able to rest now, just needs a bit more help to get around than usual. 

Naturally at least 2-3 bad or unlucky things have to happen to make this a balanced day, so I of course left my purse at Quiznos to start. This was inconvenient, because Quiznos is in a nearby town about 25 minutes away that the Mr. and I had gone into to go to Walmart. I had forgotten both pillows and a comforter (bad thing #2) and so needed to pick up those essential items. When we got back to the house and I frantically realized my purse mistake, the Mr. had to turn around and drive back, pick up my purse and turn around to come back. During that time, I had to meet my preceptor and have a tour of the clinic and hospital, and so didn't have time to go back with him. He came back to the house while I was still at the hospital, and left with my cell phone in the car (#3 unlucky thing) and drove back to the Big City to be with Destructo. 

The landline doesn't call long distance. The resident loaner cell phone doesn't call long distance. Apparently, the Mr.'s cell phone is considered long distance. Bah humbug. And to top it all off, I forgot/lost the paper that told me the internet password for the house, so I couldn't even use my iPad to message him. I love when things like that happen. So without a cell phone and no access to the internet, I was sufficiently cut off and feeling like a big-city girl in a very small town. Alone. Bahhh.


The internet password has been obtained now however, as I am able to write this post. Success #1. It can only get better from here.


No rest for us though, as I am driving back to the Big City tomorrow to help move the last of our shtuff out of the old house. I have the day off to settle in and become acquainted with my new digs. With all of the room in this place, we're planning on using the extra room as a free storage unit (yay!) and will be packing it chock-full of our random crapola. 


After a nighty-night Skype session with the Mr. (you'd think we hadn't seen eachother in days), a sufficiently long blog post, and enough moving for at least three more years, I'm off to bed with my small furries in tow. We will awake for more moving (yippee). 


I promise to share pictures of both of our new living spaces, as well as update on my first exposure to the hospital, the clinic and small town life. So far, I have gone grocery shopping, chatted with the friendly cashier, and had a nice conversation with a man who not only bagged my groceries, but brought them out and loaded them in the car. Talk about small town hospitality.

A latte love from a little town,

C

1 comment:

  1. Wow...talk about a crazy four or five days. So glad you have that extra space to use for your storage. Sounds like you're going to love Smalltown,....we think you'd be a natural at OB/GYN...Wishing we were closer, as always thinking about you both, and our granddogs too. We sure love your Blogs and writing. Love you both. xoxo Mom n Dad C

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