5 Years and counting

Can you believe it? Tom and I celebrated our 5th year wedding anniversary this past Friday. Time really does fly!

I was thinking that it was going to be rough traffic to drive from Olympia to Seattle on Friday at 5 PM after getting out of the clinic to be able to meet up with Tom for an anniversary dinner. So, much to my surprise, Tom showed up at the door in Olympia on Thursday evening so that we could be together as soon as I got off work on Friday!

We enjoyed a night out on the town in Olympia on Friday evening. We started with a lovely evening at a little restaurant called Waterstreet.They are known (on TripAdvisor.com) for their cocktails, so of course I had to try one. I had a cucumber cocktail that was simply delicious! So tasty!

Then, our entrees were fabulous too. We always take pictures of food, but I think that’s the norm these days in restaurants anyway. I had a strip loin and Tom had an amazing loaded bison burger.

We had to walk off that large meal, so we had a nice little stroll around capitol lake.

After our oh-so-strenuous walk J we needed something sweet (ok, NEED is not the right word) but we found this cute little soda shop-style ice cream shop. There were so many choices on the menu! All I could think of is how much Kristi would love this place (perhaps a trip to Olympia in the next  5 weeks is in order?). I got caramel soft serve and it was divine!

We called it an early night because we had to get back to Seattle bright an early on Saturday morning for Tom to attend an orientation session at Seattle U. So, we planned on heading out on Saturday night for a movie or some other activity. But, we didn’t find anything we wanted to do at the last minute, so instead of going to some sort of activity, we tried out a Seattle restaurant that we’ve been wanting to try (but never remember that we want to try it when someone asks us if there’s a place we’ve been wanting to try!).

It was a thai restaurant called May. It has a single table out on the deck that I drive by and it always makes me want to go to the restaurant. Well, low and behold, without a reservation on a Saturday night, we walked up to the restaurant and were seated at that table!

They are famous for their phad thai which is mixed right at the table (sorry, didn’t get any pictures of the mixing process).

We also thought their authentic thai silver silverware were pretty neat as well.

Also throughout the weekend I was able to go and visit our garden, just in time to harvest! We had three beautiful cucumbers ready for picking, a handful of tomatoes, a bung of fresh lettuce and one particularly large (for our garden anyway) strawberry.

Oh, and the sunflowers keep getting taller and more beautiful!

I also got a BIG surprise when we arrived back at our condo—look who’s building now has siding on it!! (okay, so only on one side of the condo, and it still needs to be painted, but it’s the most progress I feel like I’ve seen in a week since they started this thing, so I’m celebrating!)

Tom drove me back down to Olympia today (we’re going to get some mileage on the car over the next 5 weeks I think….) and we had to do one more fun thing before he left for Seattle to start his 2L year. We wandered through Priest point park. It was beautiful (I’ll admit, it was no Point Defiance Park, but it was still beautiful).

 

Once again, it was hard to say goodbye but given that the upcoming weekend is labor day weekend, I think it’s safe to presume that I’ll have the weekend off and I can come back up to Seattle. So, when I tell Tom it’s hard to say goodbye, even if it is only for 5-6 days, he reminds me that it is SO much better than being separated like we were when he was in Atlanta. Perspective!

Just a quick update about my work in the clinic—I’m learning a ton but it is a HUGE change of pace (not necessarily slower) than the inpatient world. I guess it’s not so much a change of pace (except the days are shorter) than it is a change of rhythm and how / when things get done. So far I’ve done my first solo prostate exam, an inguinal hernia exam, two breast exams and a ton of general patient interviews. I’ve observed a shoulder joint injection and learned just how much one needs to know to be a general practitioner! I feel like I’m always one step behind on knowing how to best care for these patients, but I know that I am still a third year student and my job this year is to LEARN! I don’t have to know everything (yet), but I do need to know how to not let my not-knowing get to me or wear me down. It’s all part of the process!

So, as I prepare to start another week at the clinic, I feel ready. But, I’m not going to lie, this little mini-vacation of a weekend felt too good for me to want to stop enjoying it! But, I am so grateful to have this time, because goodness knows that when I was working at Harborview, I barely had time to eat and sleep!