I can't think of anything creative to call this blog post.

Har har har - pardon the curse word.

I have a few important things coming up in the forms of exams and projects, but when I get home from working all day in clinic (and even more so after the ER), I really don't feel like studying right away.

So why not take this time to write another blog post? Good idea!

Miss. Thing and I are currently in a fight due to her tendency towards insisting on waking me up at 4am to go outside. While I would normally forgive her for this because she may need to pee, I cannot understand how she believes it's OK to wake me at 4am to EAT GRASS.

Pretty much sums it up.

This may bring to mind an image of me, half asleep in my housecoat, with flip flops, out in the back yard with a tiny dim flashlight, praying no cougars/meese/deer/raccoons/bears/insert animal(s) are nearby to eat my dear Princess, cursing at Miss. Thing in a hushed angry voice, saying something along the lines of "Are you KIDDING me right now? Get inside!" between muffled grumbles and scoffs.

Well, much to your entertainment, that image would be pretty accurate. 

Furthermore, she has declared both of my pillows hers and decides right before we go to sleep is when she would like to bring every single one of her babies into the bedroom and have a crocodile-death-roll style battle on the bed. 

Isn't. she. cute. 

We're gonna have a talk about her attitude, her and I.

I forgot to update that I've also become a gardener in the past few weeks. Or at least, I have become someone who can grow things in pots. This is a revelation for me, considering my experience with growing things has most often resulted in pots of dead things lying around my house, with a grumbling Mr shaking his head and green thumb at me.

Let's face it, I only keep things alive that can actually make noise and remind me they exist. Hence, dogs. (And a Husband, I suppose). 

I digress.

(You're surprised?)

So I've been growing a butter lettuce, some rosemary and some parsley. And I suppose an orchid, but I can't keep those damn things alive no matter what I do (hardy, my ass).

Wow, that's a beautiful lettuce.

Rose and Ley.

I'm having no trouble picking little pieces off of both Rose and Ley in my cooking, and they make the meals sooo aromatic. 

The lettuce, dubbed Letty, however, is another story.

How do people raise pigs or chickens or cows and then EAT THEM? I have become so close with my Letty, the very thought of eating it brings me sadness. 

The Mr. assures me that it will be delicious, but all I can think of is the hours (OK, minutes) I've spent caring and loving (read: watering every third day) and the relationship we have, Letty and I. 

And when does one know that it is time to cut the lettuce and turn it into just one salad to be enjoyed at just one meal? It's utter madness, if you ask me.

Alright, I'm successfully on Oreo number three and the dogs are staring at me. I'm sure they're thinking, "Not another night on the computer. Boring." 

Which unfortunately, it might be. My nights are about as exciting as a load of laundry, and in fact, that's usually what I'm doing each night considering how much the Mr. accumulates over one week. Yeesh, I think he makes more laundry than I do.

I don't feel I've adequately discussed my recent time in the ER though, and so I thought I would share my increasingly cynical (and potentially offensive, haha) thoughts on the subject. 

Here's a few things the emergency room is NOT:

1. A "quicker" version of a walk-in clinic for your birth control refill or sore throat

2. A surgical-referral-providing service for your chronic hernia that has been "bothering" you by "coming out"

3. A place to ask for an MRI for your chronic back pain

4. A place to go when you're drunk and feel like being an idiot to the staff

This list could go on forever.

I have considered beginning each encounter with:

"Hi, I'm your emergency room student physician. What is your emergency today?"

But, I thought that maybe it might come off a bit harsh?

However, the oddity of presentations in the emergency room is quite entertaining at times, so I'll share a few of the choice examples from my experience:

- Man presenting with 30 years of chronic back pain who "cannot wait any more!"

- Presenting after a loud noise at work "really got to him"

- Three days after "a bug flew into my ear" and could we please look in the ear?

And probably the best so far, brought to you by your ever-sarcastic clinical clerk host:

- Three day history of diarrhea and vomiting after kissing 20 horses and one dog who also had diarrhea (yes, this happened) 

So keep in mind, fellow citizens, when you next choose to utilize your emergency room at your local hospital (to which you are totally entitled), do us all a favor and consider, "is this really an emergency?"

And for those of you thinking, "She's so cranky and bitter about the ER," it may sound that way. But in all reality, I do love working ER, and if it weren't for those somewhat silly presentations at 2am, I would only maybe get more sleep. No big deal really.


Haha, kidding. I do love it. Honest.

Alright, enough about that. Venting complete. 

On a lighter note, the photoshoot with the fam-damily went really really great on Saturday. The photographer was very sweet and funny, and the dogs felt right at home with her playing Jack Johnson on her iPhone during the shoot. They all smiled and sat nicely and I'm sure we're going to have great photos :)

The rest of this weekend was equally as nice, and twice as relaxing as the weekends in past have been. We had a nice afternoon on Saturday drinking and sunning on our balcony, had some friends over that evening for drinks and snacks, and settled into bed at a decent hour. Sunday we went on a nice bike ride, which was actually pretty hard work with all those hills, even my teeth were tired afterwards.  

I mean to keep mentioning that I've realized that clerkship does not equal crafting, sewing or doing any fun creative pursuits. This saddens me, and makes my inner creative monster sad. My sewing machine sits sadly in the office, all alone and waiting to be used. I keep telling myself I'll get to it, but between everything I'm doing and sleeping, it just hasn't made the cut so far.

Hence, there are no crafts discussed on the blog for the past few weeks. Hopefully, I'll get some time to do something creative soon, and then I'll return to our regularly scheduled programming of clerkship, canines AND crafts.  

However, I seriously suppose I should get something productive done this evening, and so away I go into the world of real responsibilities.

Until next time.

A latte love,

C 

When life gives you lemons, whip the lemon right back into life's eye.

There's something about working in the emergency room all day that makes me feel like drinking a Caesar, eating Oreos for supper and definitely not studying. Actually, not doing anything productive at all. 

So far, mission accomplished.

I suppose writing a way-over-delayed blog post counts as something semi-productive. As I am "serenaded" by Whimsey's shrill "I think there might be a stranger coming to kill us somewhere randomly in the neighbourhood" barks, which are different from her "I actually see someone and am certain he's coming to kill us" barks, I realize that it has been nearly a month (maybe two? I've lost track) since my last blog post.

Shame, shame.

So what is new in the chaos that is our lives? I will attempt to update in a succinct medical student manner (haha, which for those of you who know medical students, you'll attest that we're rarely succinct). 

First off, this distance relationship nonsense is really losing its novelty. At first, it was all fun - yay, time to myself, no one to tell me to stop knitting/sewing/listening to my own music/crocheting, no sharing the bed (at least not with a person- the two Royal Highnesses are a different story), getting to choose what I want to watch on TV (Slice 24/7 - for the dogs, of course).

But ya, as my time in Smalltown adds up and I drive out to Calgary every weekend, or The Mr. comes out here, we're both feeling a little bit tired of this back and forth (pun completely intended). Sadly (and perhaps overdramatically), the words "how it used to be" have been heard in these walls. 

Womp womp womp.

However, considering our journey has more or less just begun out in Smalltown (7 months left), we're looking forward to the time we have together, and making the most of our time apart. I've become more productive studying-wise, and have gotten a bit more into my beloved yoga. Whether this has anything to do with The Mr's absence, or simply my sheer boredom and loneliness, I don't know.

Mr. Sensitivity

Destructo has been taking obedience classes (ahem, The Mr. is taking him there). As we suspected, he's the star pupil in his class. Although we're thrilled to be the lucky dog parents of such a canine Einstein (I'm a Mom, let me brag damn it),  we now just know that when he is misbehaving, that he's doing it completely conscious of what he is supposed to be doing and not doing. This is frustrating, but he has become considerably more well behaved, and might I say, emotional with the recent re-arrangements of our lives. I may even consider changing his name from Destructo to Mr. Sensitive. Poor big black pumpkin. 

I look cute but really
I'm rolling in a dead worm

If anything, Miss Thing is the one who needs the training now. Little princess is giving me grey hair. She has discovered two black dogs down the alley behind our house who look similar to Destructo and insists on visiting them nearly on the daily. And without permission, might I add. Even more than before, she has decided that my pillow is really hers, and oh, by the way, how dare I try to sleep in until my actual alarm wakes me? There is a minimum 20 minute window before then that she has decided is her time to bother me. Grumble. 

The Little Stink is ever more stinky and spunky. He is still doing way better health-wise than he had been prior to moving out here to his retirement home, and he runs around like a little crazy rabbit in the backyard. 

Loving life

With a busier schedule, and with The Stink being on a diuretic for his heart failure (yes, my dogs have human problems), I thought I would trial the pee-pad method of potty-ing for him because I'm often out of the house for 4-6 hours at a time, and it's unfair to make him hold it when he's on that medication. (Haha, like he would hold it anyways).

While I have always been against this method, because I think it's silly and confuses the dog, I thought it might be beneficial in this unique situation. So off to Walmart I went for these pads.

Since the inception of this plan, the pee pads have become the following:

1. Battle arena for Stink/Miss. Thing wrestling matches

2. Dog bed for midday naps in the sunny kitchen

3. Roll-around-towels for post-bath drying

and NOT:

1. Designated places to do any business.

Believe me, I have tried to capture photographic evidence of all of the above situations but he also refuses pictures. Even while sleeping soundly, like a flattened pancake dog (you have to see it to know what I mean), if I so much as shift to snap a picture, he's standing up and acting like nothing is going on. Alas, you'll have to take my word for it:

Pee pad training does NOT work. 

So what else exciting has happened.

Oh yes, we got bikes :D With our upcoming electi-cation to Penticton in August (yippee!), and with The Mr. really wanting to be a bike commuter, we purchased two bikes recently. We have been getting a good amount of use out of them, and have been exploring different areas within both The Big City and SmallTown. I'd have to say, Smalltown takes the cake for cooler biking paths thus far.

Both Destructo and Miss. Thing are excellent bike-riding dogs, and just run happily alongside. The Little Stink just hangs out like a little sloth in his backpack, of course. Destructo has learned already not to stop directly in front of Mommy's bike already (don't. ask.), and Miss. Bims usually stays pretty well out of the way. 

We look forward to biking in Penticton as we have heard there are wonderful wineries, I mean, bike paths there. And good wineries too, of course :)

On the learning front, things have really picked up and my brain is more or less exploding on a daily basis. Things are good for the most part, my current preceptor has a crazy work ethic and probably too-high-of expectations, but we've found our common ground for the most part over our last 3 weeks working together. 

And for all of my city colleagues, I bet you can't say you put an NG tube in your own preceptor for practice. RICC win. Totally his idea, and I made him swear it wouldn't go on my evaluation.

I'm working long days, studying when I'm not there (and mostly sleeping) and trying to stay afloat. I must report though, that I love it. 

I really love it.

Clinic, ER, deliveries (2 so far!), and sometimes even OR (against my will) - it's just crazy enough for me. I can't wait to have this be my real job. 

Even saying that makes me more tired already, haha. But tonight, as promised, there will be nothing productive going on (except perhaps folding a load of laundry). Tonight is for blogging and watching Nurse Jackie, season 3. Shit, even my TV shows are about medicine.

We're going to get family photos on Saturday, so I'll probably post some of the better ones here if you're lucky (we'll see how they turn out). Hopefully, they won't be like those ones on that Awkward Family Photos website (which is pretty hilarious, by the way). 

I'm sure there is much more I could update on, but getting tired now. Will try to update sooner next time.

A latte love,

C 

Don't count the days, make the days count.

You can decide the verdict after reading this post on whether I'm ridiculous or boring, I suppose.

Supposedly, learning is the spice of life. Or was that variety. Maybe variety of learning. Learning, learning, learning. Either applies I guess.

Man, do I have a lot to learn.

I feel like the learning:hour ratio is like at a maximum out here in Smalltown, which is exactly what I was hoping for, but sheesh it's tiring. If it's not an hour filled with learning, it's an hour scrambling up what I can for food, spending some quality time (read: studying) with the Furbabies (who are troopers, might I add - for the inconsistency of my schedule is astounding at times), or sleeping. Unfortunately probably not enough sleeping.

Multitasking has become my new norm. An example: As I type up this blog post, I'm also making a quiche and fruit salad. Haven't decided yet if I'll also make some tabouleh (spelling? tabouli? bah!). Oh, and don't forget about the two loads of laundry that are going. 

I'm making what will hopefully be a delicious and relatively nutritious vegetable quiche. I have learned that if not in some readily consumable form (ie. above noted quiche), vegetables have found a way to sneak right out of my regular diet. Ditto for fruit, hence fruit salad. Blame it on having next to no time for food prep and being sans wonderful, culinarily-blessed Husband (and yes, I realize culinarily is not a word.)

Speaking of food, I went to the local grocery store today for my 15 minute shopping trip. I still can't believe how shopping with the Mr. takes usually about an hour and costs twice as much as shopping for just myself, and the groceries last only half as long as they do for me. I suppose we now know who eats all the food usually :O)

 

And no, I still haven't figured out if I should be tipping the nice folks who help carry my groceries out.

Truth.

There are a few other things I've realized since living separately from the Mr. First, the garbage doesn't actually magically empty itself and be replaced with a new bag every day. I think I knew this, but it has become very apparent to me lately. Also, it's a little known fact that I hate cleaning out tupperware containers of food. I can attest to detesting this since I was a young girl, and what luck, I found someone who actually likes (okay, doesn't mind) to clean out the fridge and it's many mysterious containers. Alas, I was at a loss to find not one but two containers with most probably expired contents this afternoon, eyeing me as I peeked in the fridge. I couldn't ignore them any longer and since the Mr. isn't planning on visiting this week, I couldn't wait and pawn them off on him. Humph. I succumbed and emptied them. Not a fan, not a fan. And don't even think I'm investigating any creepy noises at night.

This new lifestyle could take some getting used to, I say. 

Oh, I'm making all of this food to help prevent the acute starvation crises that I have been having spending these long-ish days at the hospital/clinic with no hope of sustenance in sight. (So what if I'm a little overdramatic. Sue me.) So I am making some ready and easy-to-scarf meals and snacks. I have also compiled a clinic survival pack of instant oatmeals, granola bars, rice cakes and microwave soup thingies for any future situations similar to last night - a hunger so evil I was driven to fast food. As soon as I was freed, I fled to the one drive-thru you can be certain to find in any small town in Alberta (no matter how small) and scarfed down a meal that most certainly brought me 1 step closer to a heart attack. I was so famished that I even forgot to take off my seatbelt before trying to get out of the truck. Laugh if you must. Unfortunately I then suffered for the night with one seriously upset stomach (and for the night, I mean until 8:30pm when I went to bed).  

Truth #2

And to think, I haven't even gotten to telling you about the whole learning-how-to-be-a-real-doctor part yet. And for those of you who think maybe my thought is getting a bit tangential, please bear/bare with me (PS. Does anyone actually use those little strawberry-leaf remover thingies when they're cutting up strawberries? Hm. A definite mystery.)

Well, the quiche is in the oven and the salad is made, the laundry buzzed but I'm ignoring it, so I'll update on the medicine-side of my life.

I'd have to say that if even half of the call shifts are as, should we say, fruitful as the ones I've had thus far, I'm going to be pretty kick-ass at this whole doctor costume by the end of this year. Yes, maybe my attempts at putting in IVs are so far 2:2 (2 success and 2 going interstitial), and in emergency situations perhaps all I'm useful for is keeping out of the way with eyeballs bigger than grapefruits in awe while "we" do an emergency intubation on a patient with flash pulmonary edema. Sometimes I hold an ultrasound probe or something equally as minimal, and I'm thankful they haven't yet depended on me to do anything seriously important. But that time is coming, grasshopper.

But I have been seeing lots of healthy and sick little kids in clinic, which is great for perfecting my physical exam skills on sometimes happy, and sometimes screaming children. I've wondered whether exposure to so many tiny terrors is good at my vulnerable pre-procreation stage of life, and hope that not all kids are as crazy as the little constipated buggers I see in clinic. All I can say is thank goodness for flavoured tongue depressors. Totally having those in my future practice.

Wishes do come true though. Yesterday, for example, I think to myself - hmm, well we haven't seen much in the way of fractures or GI stuff, or deliveries yet. And then some lady's horse decides to go opposite to the one she's leading after being spooked by a rogue moose, she falls off and bam! fractured humerus. A gent comes in with wicked RUQ pain and bam! acute cholecystitis. And to top it off, at the end of the shift, we have a 38 week pregnant lady come in with query labour. Ask and you shall receive.

Serious truth. #3.

I'm going to not think anything like that again, because talk about an exhausting shift. Sprinkle in a little dysfunctional uterine bleeding, casting an avulsion fracture of a lateral malleolus (read: broken ankle), debating about a pulmonary embolus when the nearest CT scanner is an hour away, and removing a metal foreign body from someone's eye. 

I told you it was intense.

I think that snapshot is all I can give you tonight, as I'm getting tired and The Little Stink is running around (yes, running!) doing his squeaky breathing, which tells me he either needs some mother-lovin' or to pee. It can be tough to tell, believe it or not.

Until next time. Don't hold your breath for the next post.

(Although if you happened to stop breathing, I might know what to do. Maybe.)

A latte lattes and love,

C

“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