Dogs will tell you things in ways only they can.

I think things like this happening to me are the universe's way of saying "Your life is not interesting enough for a blog, so here you go."

Way before I began this blog and my journey of making and creating, my very first creative project was this beautiful and functional jewellery organizer.

 

I love my organizer much more than my previous one (which was a shoebox) as it so beautifully displayed everything without tangles or messes. 

I should say, I loved this organizer.

Today my PIC and I spent a good chunk of our day studying for our exams tomorrow at the small coffee shop in town, which happens to be one of two coffee shops. Once we finished studying, we decided we would have dinner together and so down I went with my pot of pasta and box of 6 remaining Oreos, oh, about an hour or two ago.

Now since moving to Small Town, my beloved organizer was left lying on the bedroom floor as I am "not allowed" to put nails in the walls.  Typically, I leave all the doors to the rooms with carpet closed while I'm away to prevent fur and whatnot from being in those rooms. 

This time, I apparently forgot to close my bedroom door.

I'll just get right to the punchline:

Do you see what I see?

 

Just in case you don't see it, here's a closer view.

 

What's brown and stinky and is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ON MY JEWELLERY RACK?

At this point in time, I'd like to thank my two furry devil children for whoever deposited this little gem onto my beloved jewellery organizer and sealed its fate.

I have an idea of which furchild it was, but the other must've been an accomplice to the plan, and so I'm mad at them both for right now. 

Must be their way of telling me they really don't like to be left up here while I'm happily dining with my PIC downstairs.

So, the last 40 minutes or so were spent trying to both clean and detangle the majority of my necklaces and earrings that were fouled by this act of rebellion.

No big deal. Nothing I was really going to do anyways. Humph.

A latte irritation,

C

Butter knife = screw driver

True.
Also, unrelated to this post.

I am well aware of the fact that neither the following blog post, nor the activities described herein constitute studying in any way. (But in my defense, I really hate studying and spent much of the afternoon studying already (minus that hour I spent napping)).

I have made something that is both budget friendly, practical and helps you have nice hair!

Bottom line -I have made something! YAY!

I have heard more and more about these "curling wands" girls are using lately. I really have no idea how they are different from curling irons or if it even makes a difference, but naturally, I want one.

However, due to the strict (and I mean really strict) budget The Mr. and I are currently trying to maintain, a $150 new curling wand just didn't quite make the cut.

Ingenuity is the sister of budgeting however (haha, whatever that's supposed to mean).

I just happened to have this lowly little curling iron lying around, not doing a whole lot of anything. 

Mission: remove top holder thingy that holds the hair down. 

Voila, DIY curling wand!

Let's get started.

First problem I encountered is the fact that I have yet to acquire my own set of handy screwdrivers (I'm sure you're surprised), and this house seems completely devoid of such tools. 

So, what is a girl to do without a screwdriver or a Husband around?

Be creative of course!

Well, the big screws holding on the holder thingy came off easy enough with the infamous butter knife, in my opinion, an invaluable tool and the woman's universal screwdriver (Phillips? Flat head? Allen key? Who the heck is Allen anyways? Bah! Let's not get bogged down in the details!)

Next step was removal of the spring. This apparatus had a smaller, less accessible screw attaching it, so on went the hunt for an even more appropriate tool to remove said screw. However this time, despite my thorough hunt through the house for any object/utensil/tool/bobby pin/earring/steak knife/hemostats/scissors/tweezers, the spring remains.

You may have won the battle spring, but you won't win the war. Wait until I get The Mr. out here with a real screw driver. Then we'll see who's boss.

Again, let's not get bogged down in the details.

Of course, I needed to test out my new tool immediately, with or without the presence of the pesky spring. 

Yes, I am aware that not only am I supposed to be studying, but I have absolutely no need to have beautiful curly hair for either tonight or tomorrow because I have the day off (to do the same thing I've successfully avoided tonight, which is study). 

But who really needs a reason to have pretty hair anyways? Besides, this is a new innovation and who knows how it will turn out!

The first challenge to using the curling wand was learning how the heck to even curl the hair. Once I got into a rhythm however, it didn't take long until my hair was all curled :)


The pictures I've included are to give you an idea of what the curls look like, and I am very aware that these are not the greatest pictures ever. You try taking photos of the back of your own head. 

I like it! 
There are a few caveats to using this method of hair curling:

1. You are more likely to burn your fingers multiple times as you have to wrap your hair around the barrel and then hold it still while it curls. Maybe this is not how you're actually supposed to do it, but this is how I did, and I have the burned finger tips to prove it.

2. You have less control over how the curls will turn out, which is both more fun and challenging. If you're looking for a picture perfect head of curls, use a normal curling iron. But if you're happy with a more loose and less organized 'do, I think this might work for you.

Ahh, I can feel my creative insides loosen and breathe. Go ahead and try it out!


(I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I'm not a thief and so will direct you to this wonderful beauty blog I've recently found - TheBeautyDepartment.com. This blog is done by three ladies, one of whom is Lauren Conrad, and they share all sorts of good hair and makeup ideas.) 


Oh, and by the way - LETTY IS ALIVE!
I am very happy to report that our dear lettuce is alive and thriving once again. A few days of watering and he's perked back up. Ok, Letty, I take back all those mean things I said about you being weak and I'm so happy you're growing again. YAY LETTY.

Well, now that my hair is curled and I've blogged and wasted sufficient time, I'm certain I'll be more productive now and will start studying.

Maybe with a latte.

Heck, what am I saying, of course with a latte.

More on baby birds and Ultimate Frisbee to come!

A latte love,

C

We are still pretty far from the homestretch.

Guess which one is me in this metaphor.
No, it's not the horse.

 

I have just returned from my weekend rendevous with The Mr. in The Big City. This is getting to be very emotionally trying for me - living out of a suitcase in your own home, packing up every weekend and driving the hour and a quarter just so my family can be together. If it wasn't for The Mr., my rock in this ocean of life, I'd be falling right apart. He's pretty amazing, and I'm not always the easiest to love.

I'm in a Vanilla Mint sort of mood, so I've made a cuppa tea and decided I would take this time (when I should be doing oh, a host of other important things) to write a new, hopefully entertaining blog post (you're welcome). 

Sorry for the dreary start.  

But, the most upsetting thing has happened (OK, maybe just unfortunate).

It's about Letty.

You know, my lettuce. My one and only lettuce.

Recall back one blog post when I introduced you to Letty. Shortly afterwards, The Mr. made clear, "And just so you know, we are going to eat that lettuce." I think that put the fear of God right into Letty, and he cracked under the pressure.

Here's how it went down.

Despite me giving Letty a good pep talk about being responsible over the weekend and taking care of itself prior to my departure to the Big City on Thursday evening, Letty is either playing dead, sleeping or thought he'd remind me how much I suck at taking care of plants (and really kicked the bucket).

Come on, Letty, buck up. You can't handle a mere three days without water? What kind of lettuce are you. Life is hard, you're supposed to just get used to it.

I think it's just sleeping.

 

As you can see, the herbs seemed unfazed by their mini-drought. Can't say the same thing for Letty. Pfft.

Alas, I think we may have lost Letty. I'm not calling a "code" yet, but we might need some serious resuscitation over here. I will update on his status in the coming days, and your patience is appreciated in this difficult time.

What else is happening these days. Between an Emergency Medicine exam on Friday, a Family Medicine exam in two weeks and somewhere in there finishing and presenting a research project on community initiatives to decrease adolescent suicide in Small Town, working/supposedly learning every day,  and trying to stay fit by evading zombie mobs (I'll get to it), my days and nights are pretty chalk full. 

All I want to do is sew something, damn it. A tea cozy. An apron. SOMETHING. I feel like my creative insides are curling up and dying. For now, I satisfy myself by scouring cute projects on Pinterest and making a list for that long awaited "When I have time to do anything besides being a medical student and sleeping" period. 

I can somewhat see the light at the end of the tunnel however, and it's in the form of our Europe Trip. We started mapping out the exact locations that we have decided to visit while abroad and it's becoming more and more real. We even have a map up on the dining room wall with little pins marking our route to serve as a reminder that there is more to life than medicine (at least that's what it serves for me). Oh, what fun it will be!

And just think, by then if all goes as planned, I'll have an MD behind my name. Yet, for some reason, I can't seem to think that those letters will make me any more knowledgeable or less petrified about being a doctor. In fact, come residency, despite being called a "resident," let's face it -  I'll really still be a clerk, who just got back from a 6 week European vacation. Frightening, isn't it?

We helped the Oh/Cho family move into a nice new apartment this weekend as well, and concluded Saturday night playing a good ol' fashioned game of Spoons. Mix in a few wobbly pops and cut to myself lying across the living room table wrestling The Mr. for the last spoon, all four of us laughing so hard that I'm both hiccuping and burping (it happens only when I laugh really hard). Ah, I needed that. My abs hurt and my head was screaming this morning, but what a good night.

For those of you who have no idea what "Spoons" is, oh come on. Google.

I must share one of my new favourite things in life. Which considering running is involved, that's saying a lot. It's not that I hate running, I'm just not very good at it. You know? You hear all those real runners, "Oh when I get to 7km, that's when I really start to get into it." No, I'm the, "Oh, when I get to 7km, I'm not even running anymore because I was dying and stopped 5km ago." Get the picture?

So what luck I am told about this amazing running app (yes, there's even an app for getting my ass running) called Zombies, Run! I normally do not shamelessly plug things on my blog because I believe my readers able to make good choices for their lives without me telling them what to do, but this is a good one. You gotta try this. It's $7.99 from the App store, which is steep, but I'm telling you it's worth it. Although I am too lazy to describe it right now but you have to try it. 

Ok fine, it's called an "ultra-immersive" running game played through your iPhone headphones where you're in a post-apocalyptic Zombie infested world where the only way to escape the zombies is to run. You're "Runner 5" on various missions from Abel Township, a small clump of survivors in the middle of nowhere, and they give you directions through your headphones. A quite elaborate and well designed story unfolds between the songs on a playlist of your own choosing (your own music). The zombies even chase you and you have to speed up otherwise they eat you, or something. I've only gotten caught once and just dropped the supplies I had been "carrying" (see, ultra immersive) to distract them. Aren't I smart?

Ok, the game does that for you, but just try it. I don't recommend many things so this has got to be good. If you like running or not, even if you can't run, you can walk and still evade the zombies. Your zombies are just really slow ones in that case, I guess. So far I've evaded 2 zombie mobs and have come out unscathed. Impressive. Even Destructo likes it, although being the laziest Border Collie we know (which we tell him frequently), he doesn't like running for very long (maybe it "runs" in the family...womp womp). 

As an aside, I just spent the better part of 15 minutes trying to take a picture of an INCHWORM that just crawled across the table. Which begs the question, how the heck does an inchworm get all the way up on the table! Well, quite obviously, it inches it's way, but wow, talk about motivation.

Puts me, my attempts at running, and Letty to shame.

Alas, here's the product of my efforts. Meet Inchie. 

Ya that's right, I'm a bad ass inchworm.
Be jealous of me.

Then I spent a good 5 minutes trying to coax this little feller onto a sticky note so that he could be safely transported to the back porch and out into the wilderness. Of course, I happened to be seen doing this selfless act by the husband of my Partner In Crime, who now most certainly thinks I'm even more crazy than he already knew I was. Save Inchie, look like a lunatic. I just can't win. 

Maybe I should've taken The Mr.'s advice via text message after hearing about Inchie, and "Keel heeeeem." But I'm a lover, not a fighter. 

Maybe I should've taken Inchie as a pet, because inchworms have got to be more hardy than lettuces. His name is Inchie and he will be mine. He will be my Inchie. 

Maybe the inchworm was a metaphor for my life. This is about to get real deep.

Maybe, because inchworms turn into butterflies (OK, moths - but I really hate  moths), this little incher crawling across my table is the universe reminding me that I will, eventually, metamorphasize into a person who feels like they actually know what they're doing, but first I have to just inch my way along these huge obstacles. The inchworm doesn't go far each step, but it sure can cover lots of ground with lots of determination.

Shit, I should write hallmark cards or motivational speeches or something.

Well, I think that's about enough for tonight. I feel better already, maybe its the lifesaving heroics of the inchworm, maybe it's the Vanilla Mint tea. I'd have to say it's probably the blogging too - it's one of my coping mechanisms, I told The Mr. earlier. 

It seems that when you sarcastically evaluate the happenings of your own life, you realize that nothing is really as big of a deal as you are making it out to be.

I could be on to something here.

A latte love,

C  

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