Catch up - Part 1

I haven't blogged for an eternity because life has been upside down and backwards busy for the past 3 weeks! I am titling this catch up part 1 because my intent is that I'll go backwards in chronological order and post about the events of the past 3 weeks...but I may never get around to part 2 or 3. I am now in the airport in LA waiting to head back to SeaTac. I just had the most amazing weekend away with Tom in LA for the 4th and I almost forgot about how I have to get on with some pretty serious business between now and September 15th (almost is an exaggeration...I never once truly stopped thinking about it, but it was drowned out a little bit more than before.

I finished Step 2 on Thursday--the big long hairy 9 hour computerized exam that I've been preparing for. It went well overall. It started a little bumpy as I had headphone malfunction (some of the questions require audio clips for the diagnosis, and mine weren't working). I ended up sitting in the testing room, at my cubicle, staring at a computer that wasn't working for 20 full minutes. I couldn't look around the room or that would be "questionable behavior" and I would have been possibly accused of trying to cheat off of the other students taking their tests, so I had no choice but to sit and stare at the blank screen in front of me. It was a very LONG 20 minutes. All the while, trying to stay calm and focused on what I was about to do--sit there for another 9 hours while focusing on the test. Once it got started though, I hit my groove and I feel like it went well. I won't find out for about 4 weeks. 

Then, after the test I went home, watered the garden, harvested what I could to be donated to the food bank, took out the trash, grabbed my bags and started my commute to the airport. It was busy and I made it to the airport only 45 minutes before my flight took off and because of the 4th crowds, I narrowly missed my flight...but I made it. And, I arrived in LA at 12:25 AM totally exhausted, sort of delirious but so incredibly happy to be reuinted with Tom!

The next day we slept in, got up for a leisurely breakfast at home and then headed out to one of my favorite places on earth: Laguna beach!

As usual, it was gorgeous. 

 

We spent the afternoon soaking in the sun, body surfing in the Pacific and just all-in-all enjoying ourselves thoroughly!

We finished off the afternoon with tacos by the beach at this cute little place with the BEST taco I've had in quite some time. It was a calamari steak taco and it was soooo good!

The following day was the 4th and we did something I've never done before--see a movie at 8:50 AM! It was a great theater with lazy-boy style seating.

 We saw Jurrassic World in 3D. Then we joined Tom's co-worker Michelle and her family at her aunt's home. It was a picturesque backyard, poolside BBQ. They were so generous and sweet to us. most of them spoke English but some of it was broken up between Chinese and Mandarin. It happened to be someone's birthday too. So, whlie I didn't get a photo of the amazing BBQ treats (seriously we ate and ate and ate and ate--steak, chicken, short ribs, corn on the cob, stuffed mushrooms--I could keep going) , I do have a photo of the birthday cake and half of the crowd. 

We left the house and went back "home" to Altadena and hiked up the short hill near Tom's apartment and took in the fireworks around the valley. our main show was the one taking place at the RoseBowl which was just 5 miles or so away. It was pretty amazing. 

On my final day (today), we again, slept in and enjoyed a leisurely morning at home. We stopped for brunch at a cute little place called Square 1 that had famous french toast (obviously I was intrigued) and a beautiful patio seating area. 

We then drove down to Hollywood Blvd intending to be tourists that take it all in and love it....but we took it all in and said "let's get the heck out of here!" It was insanely busy, full of people trying to sell you things and just packed with people. We were very much over it-- to the point that we didn't even want to take a photo of it!

So we meandered through Beverly Hills in the car and wound up at a place much more our style - Santa Monica Beach. As usual, gorgeous, sunny day with a panoramic view. 

We walked the beach and treasured our last few moments together. Saying goodby was much harder this time, because this time it's not goodbye just for one week like it has been recently. We won't see each other until August 17th or so....And  have a neurology rotation, Urology rotation and a BIG life decision to make in the mean time. Yep, you are right, I'm crazy because I don't know yet what I'm applying to residency for, and yep--you guessed it, I'm quite stressed out about it. I need some time to think about it nd not be crazy busy with other things like board exams...And yes, I just had 48 hours of free time to think about it and digest it but I couldn't bring myself to do anything but enjoy my time with Tom rather than do work. I feel like I've been going non-stop since May (despite the quick trip to LA earlier this month for the other half of my board exams) 

Anyway, I need to go board my flight and get back to reality in so many ways. I hope to update the blog a bit more frequently than I have...but no guarantees as I approach application time.