“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” -Deepak Chopra

I will.

I'd have to say it is odd to "pack" to head to your own home for the weekend. Nonetheless, I bundled up with little Furries on Friday afternoon and made the long (ahem, one and a half hours) journey back to the Big City this weekend to finish emptying the old house into the new condo, which in comparison is sizing up to a matchbox. 

While I have a few things left at the condo, with it's greatly reduced storage spaces (what do you mean there aren't three bedrooms, a large den and huge backyard?), the majority of my personal possessions and a good chunk of all that "stuff" we accumulated over the last year are causing much less frustration and cramping in their current hiding place in the house in Small Town. One of the bedrooms is more or less functioning as a free heated storage space, which is nice considering we were going to actually pay for one had we not had room to store everything.

Since being gone a week (which keep in mind is 7 weeks in dog time), The Little Stink has really come around health-wise. He's a bunch more chipper, but perhaps a bit crankier now that we're reunited with his younger and more treacherous brother. He seems to have even less patience with Destructo's antics than he had before, which was already bordering on nil. And since his bark sounds something between a dog and a baby Orca/screaming monkey of some sort, I'm sure our new neighbours are really starting to love us. Destructo just has to walk by him and the chorus begins.  

This, while cute, would definitely not be
allowed in the bachelor pad.

We did manage to get quite a bit done yesterday between The Mr. and I, and the matchbox is really shaping up into a suitable place for human (and canine) life. Shelves up, closets organized. For a while the Mr was resisting anything feminine or girly in his "bachelor pad," scoffing at my cute vinyl placemats in bright spring colours and insisting on "manly" soaps from Bath and Body Works (and I quote, "Don't they have like forest smell?"). The closest thing we managed was Orchard Pear and Coconut Lime Verbena, which are at least green, haha.

Did I mention how much I love moving? We're pretty much nomads now. Three moves in 2 years. Four if you consider my recent relocation to Small Town. How nice it will be when we can build or buy a house and never. move. again. Alas, I feel this is still in the far distant future.

Other good news: I was confirmed on an elective in Penticton, BC for August! YAY! The Mr. has the time off, and the dogs don't have any plans, so we're going to turn it into an elective/family vaca. Why the heck not! We're frantically trying to figure out our plans and locate a pet-friendly (that term is like the bane of my existence lately) vacation rental near the hospital for our electi-cation. 

So where am I spending the majority of my time lately? The hospital, obviously. With its total of 13 acute care beds, 1 trauma bed, 1 labour and delivery room and the other wing being long term care, it's my idea of a small town hospital. There are 9 total doctors and I've already met most of the staff. Can't say my colleagues in the Big City can say that ;)

But, I didn't take any pictures of the hospital really. So I'll have to show you the rest of the town. I have yet to take pictures of the house in Small Town (blame it on the folk concert on Thursday night - I'll get to that).

Ok, I lied. So there's one picture of the house. And the beautiful grass. At least this was taken pre-dumping of snow on Thursday evening. You're welcome.

Adorable coffee shop!

Carmalato: Mocha + Caramel + Chocolate Sauce = Yes please.

Like any good rural town, there are more saloons and liquor stores than anything else. This one is the Swamp Donkey. Classy establishment, even if this is a terrible picture :)

Vintage town square - tres cute!

Complete with a Pharmasave, Sobeys, BBQ/Grill,
Telus and the Walk-In/Maternity Clinic

Thursday night we were asked/voluntold about this folk concert being held in town, and "Would we like to come and help out?" Being the good medical students and newest residents of Small Town, we happily obliged. The concert was put on by a hilarious folk artist from Regina, Saskatchewan named Connie Kaldor, and between her comedic descriptions of life in the prairies, her Joni-Mitchell-like feel and her upbeat and original songs, we really enjoyed ourselves. You can check her out here.

The Mr and I will be heading back to Small Town this afternoon to hide another load in the home-away-from-home before I start my first night on call. Eek!

I'm on ER and maternity call with my preceptor. My preceptor is really great, and is one half of a husband and wife doctor team (of which there are 2 in Small Town). 

I have a good feeling about working with her, and she has high expectations and plans to achieve them. In her words, "I want you to be managing the MVAs and traumas by the time you leave. I want to be able to stand in the back and just advise, while you run the team." A huge, giant, colossal role for me to fill, but encouraging (read: petrifying) nonetheless.

I'll be needing some odds in my favor.  

Aside from learning and learning and learning to supposedly become real doctors, my Partner in Crime and I have compiled somewhat of a "bucket list" for our experiences in Small Town. I'll for sure keep you updated on what we finish as we do them, and first on our list is Ultimate Frisbee (which is held in the community centre Tuesday nights) and curling (there's a women's curling league in town, although we might wait until winter to start this up). Others include white water rafting on the nearby river, seeing wild horses and hitting up the Farmer's Market May through September. 

That's enough for today. Life is short, so I'm going to go enjoy a coffee two of my favourite people. Until next time, average of 42 anonymous readers.

A latte love,

C

Just in case you're here alone and need to do a vacuum delivery or cardiovert someone.

Famous first day quote #1: While on our bird's eye tour of the clinic and attached hospital yesterday, it went something like this:

"So here's the ER and labour room stock area. You should make sure you are familiar where everything is, so when you're here alone and if you need to say, do a vacuum delivery or cardiovert someone, you know where everything is."

Gulp. Can I get a holy crap.

Oh, excuse me Mr. Rural Doc, perhaps you forgot I'm pretty brand new. I guess there's nothing like an expectation to fill. 

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.

On the bright side, the hospital is nice and tiny. I should only get lost once or twice in the total of three hallways. We've met some of the staff, and are greeted with a big smile and "well, welcome!" most of the time. I promise to learn as many names as possible, I swear.

There is something really thrilling and equally petrifying about the apparent degree of autonomy we will have out here in Small Town. It's refreshing, but as my Partner in Crime and I can agree to, feels a touch soon with what feels like our very limited knowledge.

I like to think of this journey as a way to bring me along the spectrum of unconsciously incompetent to consciously competent. 
That is, when starting something brand new, you're often completely unconsciously incompetent - you have no idea that you have no idea. 
If you're lucky, you graduate into consciously incompetent - you are so very aware of how little you know, and how much you don't know. I'd say this is where I am most of the time right now.
Next, you'll get a bit more competent, but really have to work at it - you'll be consciously competent. I look forward to this stage, but think it will probably be either somewhere at the far end of this clerkship roller coaster and into residency.
Finally, when you've been at it for a while, you become unconsciously competent - you just know stuff, and you don't have to think about it. I'm definitely no where near this yet.
I didn't come up with this idea, but I really like it. I feel like it's really a good representation of what our dramatic learning curve in this field is like.

Other cool facts about my first few days:
1. The hospital offers two types of diagnostic imaging: good old x-rays, and ultrasound. However, ultrasounds are done by us. Yes, us. We might not know how yet, but we're going to learn. How exciting! My Partner in Crime and I have planned to go ultrasound each other one night to get a feel for it. 
There are no echocardiograms, MRIs, or CTs out here. This just got real.

2. The teen birth rates and teen suicide rates are higher here then the average in the Central Zone of Alberta.

3. There is an adorable coffee shop called Little Country Cappuccino that serves a great latte, has some adorable things for sale (my favourite was a sign that said "a cat is just a tiny lady in a cheap fur coat") and serves ice cream on warmer days. Only open until 6pm though, so no late night studying there. 

4. Wednesday Wing night in a town/village/bump-in-the-road about 40 minutes away serves wings for 35 cents each. Drinks and wings put us out 22 whole dollars. Talk about cheap dates! We were greeted by again, big hearty smiles, a few sideways "these girls aren't from around here" looks, and even a tip of a cowboy hat. This is real cowboy country. How fun.

Well, it's getting late. We have an appointment with The Town tomorrow to get some stats and info about what services are offered. We have our first session online with our other colleagues that are scattered throughout the province on Friday and our task is to show-and-tell our new digs through a slide show. 

So like tourists, we ventured out to take some pictures this afternoon. We'll be working on that tomorrow after "work". Not sure what that might entail yet, but I'll keep y'all updated. (See what I did there? ;) ) 


A latte love,

C

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

"We must be willing to let go of the life we had planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell

What a crazy few days these have been.

Yesterday was our ONE year wedding anniversary. HOLY! 

It is hard to believe it has been a year already, how fast this year has gone by. 

Our wedding day - March 26, 2011

As promised, I will report on the "paper" themed anniversary ideas that we challenged each other to come up with (really, I came up with the challenge - the Mr. didn't really have a choice, but agreed anyways). The first year anniversary is traditionally the "paper" anniversary, and when you look it up, the interwoven fibers of paper are supposed to represent the interwoven nature of marriage. Kind of nice. The modern version of the first year anniversary is clocks. Hmmm.

Well, since we had already purchased iPads (expensive!) for the both of us over a month ago, the rules were that ideas had to be paper-related and budget friendly.

Anyways, the Mr. came up with tickets (=paper) to The Hunger Games! What a GREAT idea, as I had read all of the books, and thought I had no chance in heck to see the movie opening weekend (blame it on poor planning). Lo-and-behold however, he had managed to get us tickets to 7pm Friday night show in IMAX :D 

We went to Chop Steakhouse for dinner (yummo) where I had Steak Oscar (delisheeous) and where we shared a scrumptious creme brulee (our favourite) and each had a glass of champagne. Before excitedly going to watch a bunch teenagers kill each other. Perfect!

The movie was very well done in my opinion, with just some minor deviations from the novel. It almost inspired me to read the books all over again, if I had time to do so. Humph.

So what was my surprise?!

The Mr. was working some overtime on Sunday and so I used this valuable time to execute my plan. I had written 4 love letters over the last few weeks (see, paper), and had some wife/husband IOU cards (also paper) in one of my drawers. Without further ado, a photo is worth a thousand words so:

Aw!

I hung the IOUs and letters from 8 helium balloons and hung them over the bed. Cute and romantic :) I love how it turned out.

I also found the Coat of Arms for our name and printed it out (paper again!) in a frame. I purchased the image from House of Names (google it). They have lots of products for name heritage and coats of arms - very cool!

(PS. I was using my camera's "pin hole camera" setting to see how it worked. I think it turned out pretty neat, if not a bit dark. The one above of the balloons was in "soft focus" mode).

 

 No surprise is complete without some food in my opinion, so I wasn't finished yet. We had some left over steak from the night before's dinner, and what better with steak but some eggs and potatoes, some fresh muffins, a fruit salad, and of course, a mimosa! Sunday brunch done right!

Latte bowl? Yes please!

 While out picking up a few things for the brunchy brunch, I came across these most adorable porcelain things called "latte bowls" - how genius and perfect for me. It's more or less a bowl with a handle, perfect for large lattes :) And in this case, were ideal for serving fruit salad! Yes!

They were only $2.95, so naturally I wanted at least 6. (What can I say, I'm my Mother's daughter and she forever buys in multiples.) I settled for 2 considering the Big Move. Humph humph humph.

And what's better? They have the cutest little birds perched upon the handles. I'm particularly attracted to bird things lately - like fabric, pottery, clothing even. I have a cute blue dress with little white birds on it I plan to wear as soon as the weather is favorable, which by Calgary standards, should be never. I also have a pretty blue bird fabric I just purchased with no idea as to what I was planning to do with it.

Anyways, the surprise went off great. The Mr. came home as scheduled (meaning one hour past when he said he would haha), and was surprised and thrilled to find the letters and read through them all :)

An excellent anniversary all in all. At least a good one to start with, as I'm hoping to have quite a few more!

I haven't forgotten the picture idea either, and am intending to do it but don't think it will be anytime soon :( 

 

Recent developments have given us a few more things on our plate (because we clearly had room...):

I had been a teeny weeny bit nervous about the move to Small Town because we were moving into a fully furnished suite that previously did not allow any pets. "No pet" policies I will never understand. How does one live without a pet anyways. However, I had specified that we had 2 dogs when applying to the program, and was accepted (this was back in August of last year).

Anyways, so when I picked up the documentation about the move last week or so, dun dun dun - they're only allowing us to have the two little ones with us. Bummer. Big time. 

What does this mean for us? 

Well, the Mr. is going to have to get a separate apartment back here in the Big City. That's dog friendly. Alone. :( Tres sad. We'll live separate for about 9 months.

We're seeing the silver lining of this cloud however because this means that we don't have to sell as much stuff (as we'll just move it to the new place), and he will no longer have to waste time and gas (and in my paranoid mind, probably risk his very life) commuting 1.75 hours each way every day. And it's really only 6 months premature to when we were actually planning to get another place for him in anticipation of dangerous wintery roads.

So I'll be taking the little mutts and he'll have the Destructo Dog. We may even share custody of the little ones every once in a while, and I'll most likely (read: hopefully) be able to come back to the Big City at least 2-3 weekends a month to see him. Not nearly enough, but it's against our morals to get rid of one of our furry children, and so this is the sacrifice we have decided to make. 

We refuse to be those pet "owners" who believe their pets are expendable, and give them up when no longer convenient.

 

So that's that. An adjustment for sure. We've currently been searching the rental ads and scouring the internet for a suitable and cheap rental that will accommodate him until later this year when I'll join him with the other two furbabies. Not an easy task with all these ridiculous "no pet" policies, but I'm assured we'll prevail.

Everything happens for a reason, right? 

A latte love,

C

 

Be a warrior, not a worrier.

I still might sew though. And probably yoga.

I have decided to compile some rules for myself. These rules come from my experiences during the last few months, which I have jokingly (/seriously) called "my quarter life crisis".

C's Rules for Mental Health:

1. Don't think too much. You'll create problems that never existed.

2. Walk the dog. Do yoga. Or both.

That's pretty much it. At least all I've come up with so far. A pretty simple prescription, I'd say. They may seem basic, but they've done wonders for me over the last few weeks. 

There's a lot that can be said for the practice of not thinking. Try it sometime.

I'm going to work really hard on them over the next few weeks, as the Big Move is coming up soon and the majority of clerkship (major stress inducers). I will perfect them!

Good idear.

Last night I did a mere 30 minutes of yoga. I forgot how good it felt to be in touch with my body and stretch out the stress. I will commit to doing this at least 3 times each week, if not every day. 

I found myself craving it again today, and feel it again right now. So you can pretty well guess what I'm doing after this post!

Anyways, what happened today...

Started 8am for Grand Rounds on the potential sex differences in efficacy of cardioprotective medications in patients with Diabetes. Interesting idea, and I'm curious to see if the research shows any evidence when completed. Also learned that women and men tend to "use" their physicians differently - whereas women tend to visit their physicians while healthy or in early sickness (more as preventative health care), men tend to see their doctors when they're sick only. I think I probably could have told them that. But curious, nonetheless.

Then went to finish a consult on a very nice gentleman presenting with some memory problems and a tremor. I think my consult was pretty comprehensive, and I felt happy with it :) YAY for learning!

Went to Fabricland after "work" and picked up some cute coordinating fabrics for my new Christmas gift projects (that shall remain nameless!). Also bought some new double-wide bias tape.

I have to say that after becoming acquainted online with designer fabrics from Michael Miller, etc, I have a hard time picking out fabrics at just any old fabric store now. I've moved into the world of online fabric ordering, and it could get dangerous! I've been mostly on Fabric.com so far, and will report back with my reviews if I end up ordering from there! So far, I've been disappointed that most of the fabrics I love are out of stock :(  

OH and I must report! This is ground breaking.

I GOT MY FIRST PAYCHECK AS A PRETEND/BABY DOCTOR.

However, it was only for $188. For 2 weeks. A grand sum for the hours I put in. Ya. Right.

Works out to about $2.42 an hour. I believe it's supposed to cover parking, and probably life blood (read: coffee).

I might use it for something more fun. Like makeup or shoes. Those are necessities right? :)

A latte love, 

C

 

Pretty just got practical.

K? Humph.

So in follow up to my last blog post, this hospital elective hasn't improved much. I have a certain level of frustration with people who don't like to communicate properly, for example, like telling someone when to meet, where to meet or anything else important. However, I'm not sure whether it's the actual hospital I am not enjoying, or perhaps the poor communication skills of the people I am working with. One more week though, and then onto baby deliveries! Woo hoo!

Today was a bit better, as I feel like I'm finally settling in to this new foreign environment. I've also realized that one of the keys to belonging in a hospital is acting like you belong there, instead of being what you really are - scared shitless and with little clue as to what you're doing. I wonder (and worry) if maybe this is what most people do there.

Anyways, again to remedy my overwhelming feelings of inadequacy, I took to sewing last night.

We also relocated my sewing area to the dining room (genius!) with a big bar height table and great lighting all. to. my. self. Amazing! The Mr. was studying and I was just happily sewing away all at the same time! I'm going to be the most productive little sew-er for the next 2-3 weeks before we make the Big Move to Small Town, Ab.   

So, I'd been meaning to make a sewing caddy for sometime. I became inspired when I was constantly losing my scissors, the lid to my tailor's marker and constantly fumbling to keep my pins from falling off my desk. 

I saw this one from HowJoyful.com and thought I could come up with something similar. (That blog is fantastic by the way!)

So, after DD had his way with my traditional tomato pin cushion a month or so back (those are tomatoes right? Hmm...maybe they're apples or something.), I forever kept my pins locked up. I realize now that I may have just provided him with an even cuter and more tempting pin cushion, but at least now it's adorable for the time being. Nonetheless, here it is:

This was pre-sewing-move (you can see how crowded I was - ick!)

Well, hello little adorable owl pincushion.

Pretty and in the words of the Mr, "practical".

Oh, is that my first use of a decorative stitch
from my new machine? Oui madame!

I have given up on the idea of doing tutorials on these projects because
1. I have no time to write them;

2. I have no patience to write them. 

Fair? OK, so just check out the link above and head to How Joyful's tutorial if you wanna try to make a caddy yourself.

It has been very helpful thus far as well. The multiple pockets that are different heights work great to keep my big and small scissors, my marker, measuring tape and the little collection of accessories that came with my machine, including the walking and free quilting foot.

Other projects were completed last evening as well, but I will only share one here. The other will most likely be repeated for Christmas gifts, so I can't share it here!

But, The Little Stink needed a new king-worthy bed for his crate after an unfortunate and traumatic toenail-caught-in-bed experience that caused the Mr. to promptly dispose of that treacherous crate pad. I promised a replacement in a dog-friendly fabric, stuffed to the max with cozy cotton for The Little Stink's sore joints. Voila!

Crappy picture, but you get the picture. Haha.

King dog palace.

Anyways, I think some yoga is in order. I've been craving it for sometime now and I need to get back into it. The furries are quiet tonight, and Destructo has taken kindly to my new location in the dining room. The tile floors are nice and cool, and so he parks himself under my chair and sleeps like a baby.

I hesitate to say it and jinx it, but maybe his puppy days are coming to an end? Please?

Must go look up depression in renal transplant patients now. I mean, do yoga. 

A latte love,

C

Oh, PS. I'm always seeing "64 visitors" or "47 visitors" but I have no idea who is visiting! So please, comment if you can :)

Sewing saves lives. At least, mine.

Addendum to above: There is nothing a glass of wine, a flat iron, and a sewing machine can't fix. Humph.

 

The last two days in my first hospital-based elective ever have proven what I already pretty much thought I knew.

#1. I don't hate (because hate is a very strong word) hospitals. But I do strongly dislike hospitals.

(And don't be all "Well, I'd say you've chosen the wrong profession bla bla" because I didn't say I don't like medicine, I said I don't like hospitals. Big ones. With lots of people. And lots of egos. I like small ones, and clinics. And friendly preceptors. Who know how to teach.)

#2. I am a very little fish. 

In a very big, wide, deep, sea with lots of sharks. And piranhas. And the occasional other nice little petrified fish too. When we see each other, we wave frantically and smile, wishing back a piece of our old lives when we were safe and sound in lecture.

And the one thing I definitely already knew:

#3. I know next to nothing.

But, all is not lost my friends! Because I still have more than a whole year of this. :S

To remedy my overwhelming feelings of self-inadequacy, I decided to bond with my new sewing machine of course (which is in desperate need of a name), get in touch with my creative side, and remind myself that there is something I know how to do. These last two days of "real" clerkship/work/hell are making me tired and so I didn't have much energy for a finicky project, and wanted to pretty much wrap it up in like oh, 20 minutes.

Medical school has given me a very little attention span. Med school ADD? "Blame it on my ADD, baby!" (For those of you wondering what that was, it was Sail by Awolnation). 

Anyways, here's what I came up with. It's pretty adorable, if I do say so myself.

It's a knitting project bag for those of you who are wondering. Which pretty much equates to a little fabric bag. That you put a knitting project in. 

Hence, knitting project bag :)

I've been wanting to make a project bag for sometime, considering anything that appears yarn-like or ball-like or ball-of-yarn-like is targeted for destruction by the one and only. You all know him and love him. 

Although I don't think the cuteness or softness of this bag will deter him from his ruinous habits, I do hope it will prevent him from knowing what's hiding inside - yarn and knitting projects. Berry sneaky, I know. :)

It's just about big enough for one little project. It's perfect for the blankie construction. I have been meaning to use this pretty little bird/bug/flower fabric since I purchased it from my faithful Fabricland over a month ago. I used my beloved technique of box corners to give it just a wee bit of structure.

Awww....Right?

Box corners + ribbon = great project bag!

That little project was just what I needed! The sunny little material and tiny birds (did I mention I have a new addiction to birds on fabric?) - just perfect. After this post, and with permission from DD (DestructoDog), I may even complete my mental health prescription with some yoga. Ahhhhh.

Anyways, got my schedule for my low-risk obstetrics elective coming up (yippee!), and *cue scary dun dun dun*, I have my first 12 hour shift. AHHH.

And on our first year anniversary! What luck!

If I didn't love welcoming little wonders into the world, I'd be complaining more. But it's at least a really good reason to be away from the Mr. on the anniversary of our nuptials.

I've been informed of some "interesting" plans the Mr. has come up with for our anniversary celebration on the weekend prior to our One Year. I'm curious as to whether they have anything to do with paper. I'll be sure to report back.

My anniversaire ideas have been slightly thwarted by the recent notice of my rotation schedule (see above paragraphs), so plans are currently being revamped :)

Ps. This is NOT my photo -
Kudos to the photog,
and please don't sue me
for copyright infringement.
K thx!

I totally love this idea that I found on Pinterest:
 

You take a photo every year on your anniversary to show how you're changing (read: getting older and wrinklier) together. 

Charming and romantic. I have to check with the Mr. if he'd want to, and perhaps we'll do this too :)

Cute, no?

I also wanted to share the most adorable little Le Sportsac bag I picked up last night on a retail therapy trip with Ms. Cho. I needed something small and cross-body to carry around the bare essentials on rounds. Might as well inject a little personality into that place, right? 

So what better than the little adorable Scotty dogs adorning this completely lovely little bag.
It's called the Kasey. (This picture doesn't really do the bag justice but it'll do).

Love love love. Makes clerkship funner.

Well, by the grumbling and groaning coming from the big black furry, I should probably wrap this up.

A latte love,

C