Lots of things in Spring

I forgot to mention here a few weeks ago that the Ellen show TV crew was on campus shooting for an episode (which I have yet to see) and I just happened to sneak away during a break between classes to see all the commotion. To be honest, I thought Ellen was going to be there, but alas, it was just her TV crew and assistants (and there was too big of a crowd by the time I got there to see anything anyway). But, it was still pretty cool to put UW on the map.

We had the opportunity to go to a mariner’s game on a Friday night a few weeks ago and I forgot to blog about it! It was “felix day” in Seattle because Felix Hernandez was pitching and we all got commemorative t-shirts and signs.

It was gorgeous outside (but really chilly when the sun went down) but we got to hang out and do something non-school related with a few of my classmates (pictures here from front to back are: Danny, Claire and Kendra).

Then, it was Danny’s birthday and his FAVORITE restaurant is red-robin. What can we say, he’s a good-ol burger and fries kind of guy. Anyway, we were all set to continue to enjoy the sunny weather the day after the mariner’s game down on the pier when we came across this sign:

 So, we weren’t allowed in to the red robin so we aborted our plan for a gorgeous water-view dinner for a trip up north again to our neighborhood: northgate.

We all gathered around a huge table and sang him happy birthday and almost forgot that we were in medical school!

 After that evening we had a much anticipated event happen at school-- we got our 3rd year clerkship schedules! In case you didn't see it on Facebook, here's where I will be over the next year:

7/7-9/26 - Internal Medicine- Seattle for 6 weeks, then Olympia for 6
9/28-11/08 - Elective (maybe in radiology and/or cardiology and/or urology--each elective is only 2 weeks so I can take 0 or 6 weeks worth)
11/10-12/19 - Surgery - Missoula (yay!)
1/05-2/13 - Psych- Harborview
2/16-3/27 - Peds - Seattle Children's
3/30-5/08 - Family Med - Group Health Seattle
5/11-6/19 - OB/GYN - UW and Harborview

I may be switching my elective period to a later date so that I can have more of an idea about what I might want to go into by the time I have the elective time..but there's not guarantee that I'll be able to do so. Overall, I'm thrilled with this schedule! I don't have to be separated from Tom for very long and I get to do surgery at home in Missoula! Can it be July 7th already?

On the home front, we were greeted by a gaping hole in our roof the other day (see Tom' facebook for pictures of the actual hole). The construction project is looming over us all the time and it just so happened that someone fell through our ceiling. Fortunately, no one got hurt and they were able to patch it up by the time we got home from school (but sadly, the sheet rock mud, which I'm not even sure why they had any out, might not come out of our duvet!)

We're out of the house from 7 AM until at least 5:20 and even when we get home we try to get out of the house as much as possible because of all claustrophobia and clutter that comes with it. This weekend I was walking in Magnuson park and came across a giant plant sale over in the old airplane hangar. It killed me to walk by and not go browse, but I think it would have only upset me more to not be able to plant anything. (ok, have I whined enough in this post yet?)

 It had been a long time since we busted out the Wii for playing games, and Sunday evening this week we decided it was worthwhile to do some "active games" as our way of relaxing after a day of studying. Our old-time favorite (because it makes me laugh so hard!) is playing this chicken game where you have to flap your wings to get to different targets. I find it so funny to see Tom flapping his wings! Needless to say, I was glad we dusted it off.

 We have been getting a lot of emails at UW about different apartments that are coming available now that it's the time of year that people are moving on for residency, clerkships, etc. We keep getting tempting emails to move into condo units just blocks away from our own unit. So far though, we have yet to see one that is as nice as ours and as good of a price. But, we continue to walk and check them out from time to time and this morning (at 8 am before class) we visited one that had the BIGGEST hedge in the parking lot we had ever seen.

 Look at that thing!

 Today I was surprised by a day of full sun and also got out of class unusually early because, sadly, my professor had a cold and no voice. So, sad for him, but man, did I enjoy the few extra hours of an afternoon to do some outside reading. As I wandered through the Magnuson community garden I felt refreshed and excited by all the new things growing. Look at these peonies!

 And, while I got extremely jealous of these gorgeous tomato plants and these little tiny bean sprouts, I enjoyed just walking among them and taking in the sights and sounds of what felt like a summer day (77 degrees people!)

So, now we're back in our window-less apartment and it's HOT in here. We would open a window but, oh ya, we can't! The french door is held shut by a 2x4 when we open the bedroom window the smell of plastic is so intoxicating that it feels as though we'll get lung cancer by breathing the air! So, we're just going to have to enjoy the warmth and remember that this too shall pass. It's going to be one hot and stuffy week in here though with a foredast into the mid-80s tomorrow and the next day and no way to open thing up and get a cross breeze!

Have I said it before? I'm READY FOR THIS CONSTRUCTION TO BE OVER! Alright, off to bed in my gloriously warm room :)