Hey all! I know it has been a bit since you heard from me, and for once, it's not because I am a huge slacker. I AM a huge slacker still, but I really haven't had much newsworthy to post. I am just following along the med school groove: go to class in the mornings and sometimes the afternoons, study, go home and play with Buttercup, hang out with Alex for two seconds, sleep, and repeat (with an exam thrown in every other week). I have a feeling that is going to change a lot in the next few weeks with my new clinical class starting and Gross Anatomy around the corner!

I am really looking forward to my service learning project. I am going to be learning a brief intervention technique to screen trauma patients for alcohol abuse at the Washington Hospital Center (the largest hospital in DC) and then using it to screen actual patients! I get to go around the hospital in scrubs, instead of sticking out like a sore thumb in my short white coat, get to "play with some electronic shit" (my advisor's words, not mine), and hopefully even get a publication out of the whole thing. Bottom line, I think it's going to be awesome!

Second exciting thing is that I am almost done with the biochem modules :) The saved the "best" for last with the genetics (oh, I'm sorry, the Development, Molecular and Human Genetics) module and it is really difficult for me to know what to study for Monday's upcoming exam. Happily, it's a lot of clinically relevant techniques, abnormalities, etc., so it's a lot more interesting than learning about homologous recombination double strand break repair, but because it is illustrated best by examples of diseases, I am having some trouble studying for it. We'll see. I cannot wait until Cardio-Pulmonary (and Gross) starts the first week of November :)

Stay tuned!

The Wedding!

I totally stole this photo from Lindsey's facebook album cuz I somehow forgot my camera in the rush to get out the door on Friday morning and I haven't got pictures from the girls yet! These are the awesome sweatshirts Nicole stitched for us (they are so flawless, I can't believe how crafty she is!).

I'm just going to quit the initial apology before every blog (I guess this is the last one) since it's going to be a while before I become conscientious about blogging again. It seems like I have had crazy (but usually fun, although exams are certainly exempted from this designation) things going ever since Alex moved out here and I just have not managed to juggle all of those and being a regular blogger...yet. Patience, people.

That said, I wanted to finally tell those of you who hadn't heard about it yet how much fun Grant and Nicole's wedding was (be sure to click on that link to check out the photographer's blog and her absolutely gorgeous pictures of the day in question)! It was a pretty hectic weekend, with all of Friday and all of Sunday pretty much devoted to bi-coastal travel. The Saturday in between was fantastic though, so it totally made up for all the length and lethargy of the rest of the time!

Friday was the night of the rehearsal dinner and it was still fun despite my jet lag and the fact that Oregon is a lot colder this time of year than DC. I got to finally meet the other out of town bridesmaid, Jess, who is super nice and sweet by the way, as well as see Teresa, a friend of ours that Nicole and I have known since we were 13! The other bridesmaids, Lindsey (she is such a sweetie, I wish we had the chance to get to know each other better :) and Janelle (who I have actually known for a super long time, we played sports together in high school...hurdler pride!), are super fun too, so it was great getting to hang out with them. Janelle is also the proud owner of a golden retriever, Jack, who is about a month older than Miss Buttercup, so we swapped stories and commiserated about the ups and downs of our furry friends.

After being awake for about 22 hours on Friday (we started at 3:30 in the morning here and didn't get to sleep until after 11 on the west coast), I woke up on Saturday morning, some time after 7, feeling energized and so excited to help with getting the ceremony and reception set up. I had been teased by little bits and pieces of Nicole's vision for the big day and I knew she had put a tremendous amount of effort into making most of the stuff by hand, so I was more than ready to see it all come together! After a much needed coffee boost, courtesy of Starbucks, we headed over to Maureen's (Nicole's mom) rental house to pick up and transport all of the stuff. It was basically a whole garage worth of dishes, table runners, candles, tree stumps, etc. etc., but between the entire bridal party and our dates, plus some of Nicole's fam, we got several cars loaded up and headed out to Aspen Hall in no time.

Getting everything in its proper place went swimmingly, thanks to our numbers and Nicole's organization skills (way to rock those diagrams!) and before I knew it, be were leaving the hall to go get ready for the wedding. It was a little cold waiting outside for the posed photos and during the ceremony, but the important thing was that it was dry :) The ceremony was definitely the coolest one I have ever experienced, and not just because this is the first wedding where I really knew the people getting married. The former head of the human physiology department at U of O, Dr. Klug, officiated the ceremony and since both Grant and Nicole had been in the dept., he knew the two of them so well and made the ceremony very personal. Plus, he was just a funny guy! Nicole and Grant's vows were amazing, as I alluded to in my last blog. I have never thought about writing my own vows- I always thought it would be too personal to say them in front of all my family and friends, and I was never sure I would be able to find the right words to accurately convey how I feel about the man I'm about to marry- but now that I have heard it done well, I have to say it sounds more appealing now.

Onto the reception! It was just a giant party, basically. I got to spend some time with my high school friends, Jill and Katie, who made the trek down from Portland for the big day (there's a really cute B/W pic of Jill on the photographer's blog, by the way). They had Pizzicato cater (delicious!!) and shortly after dinner, it was onto the dance floor! Alex and I had never really danced together before (hard to believe when we have been dating for over two years, but we have never been out dancing or really to very many parties together), but we had SO much fun! We were so busy cutting a rug that we somehow missed wedding cake (which made me sad when I realized it the next day)! After that, Jess and Jon gave us a ride back to the house so we could take a short nap and get up at four to start the trek back to DC. I was bummed that we missed the after party at McMenamins and the send-off brunch on Sunday afternoon, but I was so glad we made it to the main event :) In Portland, my sister, Katie, met us at the airport, so we could hang out for a little bit during our layover. Strangely enough, we ran into Nicole's aunt and uncle- they had left the wedding right after the ceremony to drive back up to Portland because John (her uncle, obviously) was catching a flight to Africa that morning! Small world that we happened to cross paths in PDX, right? When we made it back home, we had a little time to unpack, greet our pup (thanks again for looking after her, Catherine!), and get some sleep before work and school (make that an exam!) began bright and early the next morning.

Success

Well, I'm ridiculous. There's no way around that. I think the last time I wrote, I had just finished my first module. Now I'm about halfway through the second, which has presented new challenges, many of which I think are here to stay because they are just a fact of life when it comes to med school. However, I have adapted and I feel confident that with frequent adjustments based on determining what is effective and what is not, I will be able to continue being successful. One of those obstacles wasn't much of an obstacle at all: it was the fear of knowing I wouldn't be able to study over this past weekend because I went to Oregon for Nicole and Grant's wedding (congratulations, kids!...and more on that later) and that proved to be an incredible motivator. So if anyone wants me to be in a wedding or has some other sort of all weekend-long plans (oh, and wants to pay for me to get there since I am broke as a joke!), bring it on because it forced me to be a dilligent studier (student?!) these past two weeks! Many of the study habits I picked up out of this fear of being ill-prepared come September 19 (the day we flew out of DC), like reading last year's MNTS notes on the bus to class and writing out notecards, I think I will end up retaining because they were just good ideas. It's just that now it's possible for me to be doing this blog entry at the moment because I have de-emphasized the study-like-a-lunatic-in-the-afternoons aspect.

Earlier I used the word success and I just thought I'd take a moment to reflect on how that word has now become a sort of relative term for me. For those of you who don't know (and I promise you, I ain't bragging, I'm just trying to provide a framework), I was one of my high school's valedictorians and I played three sports for most of my high school career as well. Then college came along and while it took me a while to adjust to the new challenges it presented, I was eventually able to make those improvements and continue to be successful academicallly (I graduated with honors) as well as balance extracurricular activities and a part-time job in a lab. Before I got to med school, I envisioned things progressing in much the same way because until now, that's what I have always done. I quickly realized, however, that if I were to hold myself to that same standard of getting one of the best grades in the class, I would be entering into a group with which I have no desire to belong.

Oh, the gunners. If you're unfamiliar with that term, a "gunner" in med school is one of those crazies willing to devote their ENTIRE waking lives to getting those few extra questions (seriously, like two or three!) right on the exam that separates the high passers (which does not even appear on your transcript, I might add!) and honors from the passers. Because unlike in college (or at least the university I went to), getting a 93% on an exam does not even grant you high pass (A- to B+ range) privileges when the average is an 88%. My friend Liz joked a few weeks ago that they should put a disclaimer on her transcript indicating that "pass" actually means that she got >85% of the exam questions right and I could not agree more. In college, if 8 people in a class earned an A, they got As. If everyone in the class got an A (which did not happen, I can assure you!), everyone got an A. I knew med school classes would be graded on a curve, but I did not anticipate just how much I would miss the grading scale I grew up with!

To make a long story longer, my point in bringing all of this up is that I will now be defining success a little differently than I have previously in my life. For me, I will continue to strive to correctly answer 90% or greater of the questions posed to me on an exam. The grade I get (which will most likely be one of those "mediocre" passes), does not really matter. I don't feel the need to honor or even high pass all of my classes and if that means not being the world's youngest neurosurgeon to become chief of surgery, I'm okay with that (I don't even want to be a neurosurgeon anyway). I am confident that I will be able to do what I want in medicine if I stick to that. So, that's Patty's new philosophy on how to succeed in medical school while still hopefully making plenty of room in her schedule to spend time with a boyfriend who makes her very happy, to take care of a puppy who borders on driving her completely nuts (though in a very adorable way), to keep in touch with all of her friends and family, both near and extremely far away, and to occasionally eschew studying the weekend before an exam to be there when one of her friends leaves single life and takes up a new one with a man who makes her very happy (and both of whom write such wonderful vows, it makes you [want to] cry).

I have put off studying the urea cycle for too long now, I'm afraid, so you'll all have to wait in suspense to hear how it was in Bend!

Hello Weekend!

Well, I made it. One module down, nine to go (until first year is over, that is). I don't really feel super great about the exam, but I also doubt that I failed it ("failing" at Georgetown is getting a score more than two standard deviations below the mean or 60%, whichever is higher). I could be wrong though- the average of the last exam was an A- (with a SD of about 4). That means that if you got a B-, technically you failed, but our course director assured us that no one who answers 80% of the questions correctly on an exam will fail the course. I highly doubt that the average will be anywhere near that high on this exam, considering that everyone I talked to before was feeling nervous about the material and most people I talked to afterward felt about as confident as I did (which is to say, not very).

In addition to putting that module behind me (and enjoying the evaluation of each of the lecturers I had probably more than I should!), I have been relishing this completely free weekend, a rare situation in med school. Yesterday, God came down in rain/flooding form, so Alex and I went on a cleaning spree and the house looks fantastic! After that, we braved the rain to take care of some grocery shopping and then enjoyed some relaxing down time (complete with nap!) before heading over to my friend Jon's house for stir fry/game night. We only played Apples to Apples because it was kind of a large group (which is very fun in and of itself, but the game night portion of the evening was definitely downplayed), but the food was delicious and it was nice chitchatting and getting to know some of my classmates a bit more. Plus, Alex and I have had very few opportunities to go do things with a big group and I have to say I enjoyed showing him off!

Today we slept in and had a relaxing brunch (our old standby of Crescent rolls and five-minute eggs...always so good!). In a bit, we're going to head to the beach (which will hopefully go a lot more smoothly this time) and Alex has a work dinner in the evening where I'm going to meet at least one of his labmates, another postdoc named Michelle, so hopefully that will be fun.

I'm Sorry!

I'm not sure if anyone out there is still reading this blog of mine since the comment situation, which already was not awesome (FYI: not awesome is a phrase of mine and the two words should always be considered together...otherwise it just sounds like I am using poor English, which would be unacceptable), has become pretty much nonexistent, but I am still alive and well! Further apologies to those of you out there whose emails I haven't yet answered and whose phone calls I have yet to return- I have not forgotten about you! I have simply had my first real brush with a poorly organized lecturer and it could not have come at a more inconvenient time. Last week was pretty crazy getting ready for Alex's move and Tricia and Justin's brief visit. Add in some relationship drama, a dog, my first Starfarer experience, a restaurant that doesn't indicate on its website that it's closed for the holiday weekend, a trip to Ikea, four consecutive loads of laundry, wandering around Annapolis trying to find a beach, locking the keys in the trunk of the car, trying to have your boyfriend pose as your dad on the phone (related to AAA and the last item on the list), God knows what else, and trying to teach yourself all the material you covered in a week (which was a lot more than we have covered in previous weeks, let me tell you!) and you have a lack of blogging on my part.

The good news is that there is light at the end of the tunnel: the exam is on Friday and it marks the end of the first module as well. The bad news is that the exam is on Friday and I still need to do a lot of studying until then. Let this be a lesson to me: I really should try to pre-read lecture notes so that I come to class with a vague idea of what the professor is trying to communicate and clarify any questions the day of the lecture so that I don't have a scary cloud of unknown concepts floating above my head...I'll let you know how it goes.

Update

Not much new to report, but I thought I'd add an update anyway. I can't believe my first exam is on Monday- I just started school! There is a fair amount of material that we've gone over, though (pretty equivalent to what I did in one quarter of biochem), so it's probably better in terms of avoiding information overload. Chelly and I have a lil study plan semi-worked out, so hopefully it serves us well.

Since I last wrote, I have:

* (Finally) found the route to school I think I'm going to use. Instead of a series of shorter bus/metro rides that lead to an overall shorter time in transit, I have opted for one bus that takes me directly to school, even though it takes longer and can run late in the morning. It is a lot cheaper, plus it gives me time to go over my notes and I don't even notice the length of my commute. In the words of Ross, "I've been given the gift of time!"

* Had people over to the new house for the first time. Catherine, Katie, and Chelly came over for a dinner of mini burgers with hummus and couscous salad, which was pretty tasty if I do say so myself. It would not have been nearly as good, however, if it wasn't for the excellent wine provided by Catherine or the delicious dessert Chelly made (hers was much prettier than the one in the picture!). After that, we watched Across the Universe, which was soooo good, especially if you are a Beatles fan. I never knew I could like musicals, but I guess it's possible if you really love the music! I was pretty much hooked from the opening, when the main character, Jude, starts singing, "Girl" ("is there anybody going to listen to my story...").

* Had the pleasure of helping Buttercup through kind of a rough week. She got stung by some sort of insect and her snout and the skin around her eyes starting swelling up on Monday, but luckily a lil Benadryl sorted her out. Then today I came home from school to a very pungent, unpleasant odor. It seems when I had been less attentive than clearly (now, that is) I should have been in the backyard either yesterday evening or this morning, during which time she inhaled a large quantity of grass and other plant materials, which needless to say did not sit well with her digestive tract. That was a fun mess to clean up. The silver lining is that she has been pretty subdued and "snugglish," as Alex would say. Hopefully that is the last of the problems she's going to be having for a while. Poor thing!

* Discovered the cutest Italian cafe a few blocks from where I live! The food (at least the grilled ham & swiss ciabatta sandwich with tomato spread I enjoyed) was so delicious and it seems like such a nice place to study. I can definitely see myself succumbing to the temptation of all the baked goods on display as well!

* Had my first bad lectures. The first three professors were so good, they set the bar pretty high and gave me (false) reassurance that all of them would be as good. It was pretty painful, mainly because I was used to the other professors interacting with the material and the class a lot more. Word on the street from Chelly's big sib is that the last two lecturers for this class are good, which is a relief, especially since I really like action potentials and I wouldn't want someone ruining them for me (like I had cell junctions and kinesin/dynein ruined).

* Booked my tickets to Nicole and Grant's wedding- finally!

* Gone to the hospital and observed a classmate of mine interview a real life patient! Her story was so inspirational and she had such a positive attitude toward the management of her illness- I wish every patient would have some of her in them :)

Well, I think that gives you a good idea of what I've been up to! Wish me luck with my studying and on the exam!

I Survived My First Week :)

Of course I did. That would be pretty sad if I quit so early in the game, but I suppose the occasional person does freak out once school starts and decides s/he has bitten off more than can be chewed. But not only did I survive, I really enjoyed myself. I knew that I was anxious to get back in the classroom, but I could not truly appreciate how much I missed being in school until classes actually started. It's been nice because my first science class, MCP (Molecular and Cellular Physiology), is mainly covering concepts I already learned in undergrad biochem and cell phys (thanks Drs. Minderhout, Loertscher, and Bourns!). That has been a really nice transition to the faster pace of med school classes and fortunately should continue to the next class MST (Metabolism and Signal Transduction) because it's more biochem and cell phys for the most part. I am also really enjoying my clinical class, PPB (Physicians, Patients, and Behavior), because for one afternoon each week, we get to don our white coats, adhere to the strict dress code in the hospital, and take turns interviewing actual patients about their time in the hospital and how it's affected their lives and families (!). I have also (hopefully) found a study group as well. Several girls (and Duncan) I was sitting with at lunch on Friday expressed a desire to get together to go over material, which was super exciting for me, because I absolutely thrive in the group setting. So today I am going over the class notes and those provided by the student note-taking service by myself and we are all meeting up this afternoon for our first session. Yay!

In other news, I did still manage to have fun this weekend. Catherine invited me to go to the Counting Crows concert (also with Maroon 5 and Sara Bareilles) yesterday, which was at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA. We got there a little early and prefunked with some well-mixed drinks made by Catherine (the margaritas) and Pamela (the cosmos). I even got talked into taking a shot of tequila and those are not as bad as I remember them...interesting. I provided some munchies, which included some brie with french bread (fancy, I know). We were stuck in the will call line and missed most of Sara Bareilles' literally 15 minute set, including "Love Song," which was pretty sad, and Adam Duritz was wasted and messed up "Mr. Jones," which was extremely disappointing, but even with the negatives, it was a really fun night and a really cool venue to check out a concert. He did manage to pull it together for the last couple of songs, including "Hanging Around," and Maroon 5, who I have seen in concert before, always puts on an awesome show and did not disappoint. They even freestyled a little and played some "I Don't Want to Fall in Love," by Chris Issak. The weather was absolutely perfect as well and it was so fun getting to spend some QT with Katie, Catherine, and Pamela, who I met for the first time last night and is yet another Michigander I have encountered in the two weeks I've been here.

The Great Outdoors

So, some of you may have already heard that my older sister, Katie, hooked me up with a friend of hers who lives in DC named Catherine. She (Catherine with a "C," that is) has been so sweet to me thus far, empathizing about the ridiculousness of my Washington Gas fiasco last week and inviting me to happy hour (which I missed because of scheduling issues, unfortunately). We were finally able to meet face to face on Sunday when she invited me to go hiking with her and some other recent transplants to the DC area in Potomac, MD. It's only about twenty minutes away and so beautiful!

It was unlike any hike I had been on back home, with few steep inclines and lots of scrambling up, down, and around rocks. So much fun! We went out for brunch afterward in Mount Pleasant and I also got to check out Columbia Heights, an area of DC I had yet to experience and a place I think I would love living in.

I am looking forward to doing more with these lovely ladies in the future!

12 Types of Med Students

I first saw this when I began reading this blog and I was highly amused. I think I have met several of these types already (the overly academic, the gunner, the missing, the crier, the questionable admission, the one-track mind). Check it out and let me know which one you think I am!

http://theunderweardrawer.homestead.com/twelvemedstudents.html

I am a Med Student!

I know I should have been better about posting since I got the internet back on Thursday, but with the White Coat Ceremony yesterday (that's me and fellow orphan/class of 2012 med student Chelly) and getting my driver's license changed to a DC license/registering to vote today, I have not had the energy to put together a decent blog until now. And all because the bus system has proved to be on the unreliable side of things. I should be at Kelly Times Irish Pub right now, but instead I find myself with my laptop propped on my lap, adorable puppy knawing contentedly on her rope toy at my feet, and men's swimming on in the background.

More about the white coat. We had been told that receiving our white coat and reciting the Hippocratic Oath for the first time would make us feel different and it's true. While I still felt uneasy when strangers would see me in my coat and congratulate me, even though I haven't done anything yet, receiving it made me finally feel like I am officially a medical student, even though I haven't gone to any classes yet. The rest of the week felt monotonous at times, especially during some of the more presentation heavy days.

As for the rest of things, I am feeling much better now that all the utilities are all up and running. The lack of internet access was particularly frustrating because it was exacerbating the feeling of isolation and loneliness that always comes with moving to a new place, it was making the navigation of public transportation all the more challenging, and it was making it difficult to look at class materials. The key to not feeling overwhelmed about being new to DC is to keep busy, which will probably be accomplished pretty easily once school starts. For now, it's okay. I wish Alex and I could be exploring the city together, instead of being forced to interact mainly through marathon phone conversations most nights. Happily, he will be here in less than three weeks, but it is feeling like an eternity at the moment.

I guess that's it for now. Stay tuned for my upcoming misadventures!

We Have Arrived!

As many of you have already heard and as is probably inevitable with any move, especially one of a distance such as that from Ann Arbor to Washington, we hit a few speed bumps on our way to getting settled. Perhaps the most irritating was our encounter with Washington Gas (that's for anyone wanting to complain about their terrible excuse for "customer service"). In brief, someone came to turn on our gas while we were home and did not bother to knock on the door, thus causing our all-night drive from Ann Arbor to be made in vain. Attempts to reschedule the appointment on Saturday were thwarted by incompetent "customer service representatives," resulting in my missing a pre-orientation BBQ today since I had to wait for the gas man (as I like to refer to him). Happily, it has been turned on now, so I will be able to run the dishwasher and enjoy a hot shower for the first time since arriving. (Those cold ones are brrr!, refreshing!) The next hiccup was that our internet went out shortly after the Comcast technician left on Saturday afternoon and we have been unable to get it back since then (and three subsequent calls to Comcast). I am hoping it comes back this evening or tomorrow. Thus, I am at a Starbucks at the moment, taking advantage of their T-Mobile HotSpot. It feels so good connecting with the outside world again! We had to make a trip to the Ikea in College Park to pick up the midbeam for our bed (among other things) since we forgot to buy one with our home delivery order and thus tried out our sofa bed that first night (super comfy for those of you thinking about coming for a visit!). There were other, smaller problems along the way as well, but overall it went okay.

Alex left this morning (at 4:15 to be exact), so that has been really difficult. The place looks so great (check out some pictures here), but we only got to enjoy it together for a few hours. I know it will get easier once orientation starts tomorrow and he'll have a lot of work to keep him busy, but four weeks is by far the longest amount of time we've had to spend apart.

Okay, I'm off now. I hope to post something again soon, but the tech people at Comcast get the final say on that!

Eh...What's Up, Doc?

As a cure for the packing burnout I began to suffer this afternoon (and to procrastinate further on my moving goals for the day), I decided to give Buttercup a carrot and see how she liked it. I have been giving her sliced up pieces of carrot lately when I am snacking on them, but today I thought it would be fun to see what she'd do with a whole one. Turns out she can put it away in less than two minutes, no problem. This video is less entertaining than it would be if my commentary was picked up by the mike (well, in my opinion anyway), but I still think she's pretty fun to watch (she is a lil camera shy, I think, cuz she always gets this self-conscious expression on her face):

It Has Begun!

Yes, after much excuse-making and avoidance over the weekend, the fun of packing up all of our crap has commenced. For some reason, whenever I am moving, I feel like packing up my DVDs, CDs, and books is going to be the most frustrating part, so I always start with those. It takes all of ten minutes, even though I have a fair number of books. Then I have to do the stuff I really dislike, like deciding which clothes to get rid of, packing up all my shoes, and going through all my desk drawers (which I haven't done since the last time I moved). My goals for today involved attacking the upstairs (which is basically our bedroom). I managed to get all my clothes together in one room (I still hadn't retrieved my summer clothes from storage and there were several bags tagged for the Salvation Army ages ago down there as well) and then I proceeded to organize them: five bags for SA (and I even dropped them off there!); two suitcases containing the majority of my clothes, minus sweatshirts, workout clothes, pajamas (all of which made their way into various boxes), those in the to-be-cleaned pile that is my laundry basket, a few things for the rest of the week, and of course, shoes (which get their own box); packing up towels, sheets, and blankets; and finding homes for miscellaneous books and the like that weren't already in boxes. Since I already took care of the DVDs, CDs, and books yesterday, as well as the breakables, the upstairs is in pretty good shape. Alex has his clothes to sort out and I haven't started on my toiletries or bathroom stuff yet since I will be using a lot of it between now and Thursday, but it's looking good. The venture down in the storage unit forced me to clear out and pack up a lot of that stuff too, so it's really just the aforementioned things and the downstairs. That is going to be a bitch...for Alex, anyway. He has crammed so much fishing equipment into our pantry/broom closet. I do not envy him that job! Anyhoo, stay tuned for more updates on our sanity status as the big move looms ever closer.

And here's Buttercup, amidst the deluge of clothing (all gone now!). She was pretty much overwhelmed by what she saw and that I continued bringing stuff into the house from the storage room (not that she knew it was coming from there...it probably seemed like magic to her).

After a while of making sure she was constantly in my way, her puppiness took over and she had to grab a nap (or two). Though if she smelled food or sensed I was heading upstairs again, her "I'm going to miss out" sensors were activated and she just had to check back in with me.

Well, it's a mere six days until we move (although technically we are leaving late on Thursday evening/early on Friday morning, so we will be in DC in six days) and we're starting to get a game plan together for how to best pack up all of our crapola. Rental reservation from Budget Trucks: check (I highly recommend checking out retailmenot.com, people, for coupons on all kinds of stuff- we saved roughly $120 on our truck through this bad boy!). Furniture purchased from Ikea and home delivery scheduled for Thursday: check (since we are heading out a day later than we anticipated, we decided to get our stuff before the move so that we would only have to focus on unloading and assembly in DC). Pick up a bunch of good boxes from U-Haul: check (did you know that these establishments are often little more than add-ons to your friendly neighborhood gas stations? You can rent trucks and buy boxes from BP- who knew?!). Now for the dreaded task of actually putting things in the boxes...stay tuned for pictures of our fun with that!

Of note: Alex and I have survived for two whole years as a couple as of yesterday. We don't have much money and he's exhausted all the time from working crazy hours, but we did manage to eat some yummy German food at the Heidelberg downtown (I love knackwurst, red cabbage, and apple compote, among other things!) and check out Stepbrothers (so ridiculous, it's hilarious) in honor of this milestone.

I am so used to the day slipping away from me. Even when I didn't have the busiest days in the lab (hello, Blogger, Facebook, and NY Times Sunday Magazine!), it always seemed like the evenings were over before I knew it, between making dinner, taking the dog to the park or for a walk, and some sort of errand or other that could not wait for another day. In preparation for starting med school, moving to DC, and leaving my job, the days (and evenings) have been especially packed these last few weeks. Now that I have finished serving time at the lab (which I think is really the best way to describe that experience), I don't know quite what to do with myself! I have still been getting up at my normal time because I don't want to be out of the habit of it, I have made a to-do list for these two weeks, and each day I work out a kind of agenda so that I feel like there is some structure to the day, but it's day three and I am already feeling a little antsy!

Here is what I have done today (as though you care!):

just after 7: Got up and took care of Buttercup things (first bathroom break of the day, breakfast in her Kong, hanging out outside, etc.), made coffee, ate cereal
8:00: woke up the sleepy head
just after 9: packed his lunch and sent him off to work (isn't he lucky?!)
9:15-10:45 (seriously!): tried to figure out how to buy a student metro pass, only to discover that the $26/month unlimited bus and rail pass I had in mind is only for elementary and secondary students- unfair, especially since their parents are paying for it!
11-12:30: started watching Batman Begins (I couldn't help it!) and ate lunch (leftover pitas, yum!)
12:30-1:15: Buttercup woke up from her torpor, so we went for a walk- I made her work too!
1:15-2:20: finished Batman
2:30-3:00: checked email and looked up info on Ikea home delivery & credit card
what I will be doing: finishing up this blog, reviewing some biochem notes, and (hopefully) going for a run (I am still sore from my first foray into getting back in shape on Monday- in which I got caught in a deluge of rain too...which was actually quite nice)

I would so NOT survive as a stay at home mom or someone who works from home!





This is on the menu for today- delicious!

I Loved...

I don't know how many of you went to the movie theatre this weekend to check out the latest Batman, but if you haven't and you're in the mood for an adventure (you can ask Alex, the first words out of my mouth on the way to the car on Sunday were, "I feel like I just got off a ride!"), you simply must check it out. It was not the typical superhero movie. It was a lot darker, funnier, and deeper than anything I had seen before. I must admit, I really enjoy superhero movies of most kinds (my favorite movie so far this year, before The Dark Knight, was Ironman- it's worth mentioning that I didn't get to see Sex and the City or Indiana Jones), Batman is by far my favorite of these movies (ask my little sister how many times we've seen Batman Forever!), and if you've been reading my blog, you know I am quite the Christian Bale fan. To say that I am (heavily) biased is more than adequate. However, I do think you might enjoy even if you aren't the biggest superhero fan, if you never really "got" Batman before this, or if you have no opinion of Christian Bale (although, ladies, do go out and rent Batman Begins if you haven't already seen it because they didn't feel the need to show off his muscular physique in this one!). True, I would have probably enjoyed this movie simply because of my aforementioned biases, but what really made it such a great moviegoing experience for me was Heath Ledger's stellar performance as the Joker and the conception of that character in general, its commentary on the definition and expectations of a hero, and the examination of chaos theory and morality (I know, I'm a HUGE nerd!). I would love to have a cool discussion about this, so please comment away (and check this out for some really interesting thoughts about the moral instinct, especially the trolley car thought experiment on page 2 since that's how I connected the dots between The Dark Knight and this article...and no, I have not abandoned becoming a surgeon in favor of psychiatry yet). That is all.

Seriously?!

This has to be a joke, right? Someone please investigate this matter and tell me where and when the retraction will be printed.

My Typology

As part of orientation (it hasn't emerged just how it will fit in, although I can venture an educated guess), I was asked to take this quiz to see what type of Jung personality I have. It was pretty fun and I always enjoy seeing how I stack up on these things (you should check it out too and learn something about yourself today!). The official result is that I am a:

• slightly expressed introvert
  
• slightly expressed intuitive personality
  
• distinctively expressed feeling personality
  
• distinctively expressed judging personality

Not surprisingly, I was put in the idealist category! More specifically, I am an idealist counselor. One of the suggested careers was that of a psychiatrist- over the last few years, I have thought more and more that that would be a good career choice for me and apparently Jung agrees. I'm curious, do you think this is an accurate picture of me? I think it's pretty true, but I want to know what those on the outside of this mind of mine think, so I better see some comments, people!

Last Week!

In case you haven't been checking my countdown regularly, I just thought I would remind everyone that this is my last week in the lab- EVER! I cannot truly express my excitement at the moment, but it feels very liberating knowing that only four more days after today will be spent toiling away at a job I can't stand, working with (some) people who have no idea how to organize themselves, and just counting the hours until I can go home to my puppy, good book, and wonderful boyfriend. YAY!

Happy Fourth of July (Sans Fireworks)!

Well, I hope everyone had a nice long weekend. I have been so caught up in getting things ready for school and the move that Independence Day just snuck up on me this year. Last year, Alex and I made a concerted effort to find a place that does a proper firework show and we didn't even end up going to the closest one we found because it was supposed to rain and we figured it would be really crowded. We decided a good solution was to go to a Tigers game and had fully intended to do so this year. But, with the aforementioned sneaking by the Fourth and our desire to have a BBQ outweighing our desire to see the fireworks, we opted for our little spot on Barton Pond instead. No fighting for a spot with a grill, just enjoying the gorgeous weather and an extra day off.

Before that, we went to Ikea, a place I already knew I loved, to pick out some essentials for our new home. We were so good about refraining from buying anything now (we're going to keep our moving truck for an extra day after arriving in DC so that we can get all the stuff we selected) and I'm really pleased with the things we found. So even though we won't have a fully furnished house at first (that's a lot of fs!), we will have a sofa bed and two chairs for the living room, a dining room table with four chairs, and a new bed and mattress, which is reason enough to celebrate considering what a P.O.S. our current bed is.

Alex had to work a little on both Saturday and Sunday (boo!), but we went to this park on Sunday evening. We did some swimming (Alex, Buttercup, me), reading (me), and fishing (Alex) and since our spot was far enough away from other people, Buttercup had her first real taste of off-leash freedom- she was a fan! Doesn't she look like she's on the hunt in this picture? I love it!I also think it's so adorable how much of an interest she has taken in fish- she's the perfect dog for Alex. Here she is admiring Alex's crappie.

Drowning in Paperwork

Yes, healthcare insurance coverage is becoming less-inclusive, more complicated, and more expensive as insurance companies and providers look for ways to keep costs down. Yes, this has led to medicine becoming more and more of a business in recent years and to fewer people utilizing preventative care or any medical care, for that matter, because they don't want to or can't afford to pay for it. I knew all of this before and yet still I want to go into medicine. I like to think that I will do my part to improve the broken system when I get there and also hope that a change in administration will occur and begin to address some of these problems before then.

In the meantime, as a patient, I can totally understand why no one wants to go to the doctor unless something is really wrong (and many of them resist even then!). I have just spent the majority of my day (which began at 8:30) thus far on the phone to various doctor's offices with little to show for myself. Yes, I have quite a few things to arrange, but why, oh why, do they have to make it so complicated?! I need to have my medical records, for example, transferred to my current doctor so that they can fill out the forms I need for Georgetown saying that my immunizations are all up to date. For one tetanus shot I had in the summer of 2006 at the University of Michigan, I was made to wait on hold for 15 minutes (while the pre-recorded messages informs me of all the awards the UofM system won last year for patient care, what a crock!), only to be transferred to the medical records department and told that I or my current doctor have to submit a written request to them AND that it will take five to ten business days to process! Not only that, but when I called my doctor's office to see if they could submit the request, I was told that I need to pick up a request form at their office. For one shot, people!

I need to go to a dermatologist to have them look at some moles on my back since I'm super fair-skinned and at high risk for skin cancer. My doctor "referred" me (0r so I thought) to one and gave me the number to call to make an appointment (remember when your primary doctor's office used to do that for you?). So, I called them up today and initially they said they couldn't see me until August 12th, until I mentioned that I will be moving and need to get in before August. Suddenly, an appointment on the 24th materialized from the ether. Now, I have to call my doctor's office (which will be my third call today) to have them make the referral so that I can actually be seen. Why am I even bothering?, I have asked myself countless times today. I am a young, healthy individual and I have plenty of other things going on in my life with the upcoming move without having to deal with this bureaucracy, "protocol," and paper-pushing! Grr...I think that's going to be one of the hardest things for me to adjust to as a doctor. Maybe this little misadventure today is one experience I must have to help prepare me for such a frustrating future.

UEFA 2008

So, if you're like me (and most other Americans), you're not really much of a soccer fan, are you? Well, I played in high school and I love playing it still whenever I get a chance, but MLS doesn't exactly do it for me. I can't say that I am much of a soccer spectator. Enter Alex. He also can't bear to watch our "professionals" either, but one of his first priorities after arriving in Michigan two summers ago was to locate the nearest pub that was showing the World Cup. I didn't know this until I met him, but Europe has their own, similar style tournament every two years when there isn't a World Cup, called, you guessed it, the UEFA Championship. So, as I tend to do when international competition is involved (when the Olympics roll around, for example, I am suddenly an expert in the pommel horse, find myself vehemently and passionately cheering on some swimmer from Long Island I'd never heard of before and will not think of for another four years, etc.), I found myself voluntarily watching Russia defeat the Netherlands in the quarterfinal and stealing glimpses on EPSN360 of the second semifinal game at work so that I would know who Germany would be up against in the final.

All of that preamble explains why we would were at the Irish pub on Sunday afternoon, shouting at a giant TV screen as Germany choked, the Italian refs awarded ridiculous free kicks, and Spain's whiny Torres refused to get up after theatrically embellishing an alleged "foul." Even though it wasn't a very good game in terms of soccer, we met a really nice couple (he's from northern Germany, she's from Baltimore) and I forgot how much fun it can be getting behind something bigger than yourself. It was like a flashback to the summer of 2006: there I was again in Conor O'Neills, hanging out with Alex, drinking a beer while it's still light outside, meeting foreign people and bonding with these strangers as we swap stories and soccer philosophies. Maybe Ann Arbor has something to offer after all, at least during the summers of even-numbered years.

Top Five

This post is inspired by two things: The movie High Fidelity, which is awesome and you must go out and rent if you haven't seen it, and not having anything interesting to blog, but wanting to anyway. I hope this at least inspires some comments! So, here it goes, five top five lists (enjoying the symmetry as much as I am?!)

Top Five Things that Really Grind My Gears:
1. the formatting situation on Blogger: why must I always battle with you when I want pictures on a post?!
2. the word "panties": please call it underwear, at least in my presence, because the "p" word is just like nails on a chalkboard and a sororiety get-together all in one for me
3. when someone (wonder who that could be?!) can see that you're busy or in the middle of something and comes up to you anyway saying "Hey, Patty. Do you have a second?"

4. not having any money: it's not even because I want to go out and buy a whole bunch of crap (although I would like a new iPod since mine died over the weekend and some furniture for the house since Alex and I only have a few pieces), but I would like to be able to go home more than once a year or take a vacation with my boyfriend where the only things on the agenda are lying on the beach, fishing, and snorkeling

5. living in a place populated with people who think for some reason that they are better than everyone else: I don't like snobby people anyway, but I fail to understand why a public university in Michigan that treats its employees like crap, its patients like nuisances, and its students like a waste of time has the right to thumb their noses at others

Top Five Favorite Quotes:
1. "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

2. "Telling the truth is so much easier: every lie requires a lifetime of maintenance."

3. "Nothing that's worth having in life comes easy."

4. "Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

5. "Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." (thanks, Tricia!)

Top Five Dream Vacation Spots:

1. Australia: pretty much anywhere on the coast would be okay with me- I just want to be able to go snorkeling there and perhaps see a koala in real life

2. Greece: I have recently decided that this is where I want to go for my honeymoon (no one steal that idea!)

3. Ireland

4. Spain
5. Italy

Top Five Favorite Movies of All-Time:
1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

2. Good Will Hunting

3. Dogma

4. Reality Bites

5. Home for the Holidays

Top Five Episodes of Friends

1. "The One with the Metaphorical Tunnel"

2. "The One with the Embryos"

3. "The One where No One's Ready"

4. "The One with the Nap"

5. "The One with the Rumor"

And just as Phoebe "invites you to count the colors of your room," I invite you to ponder your own five top fives :) Happy Friday!

My Commute (Pedestrian Rage)

For those people who have to sit on 217 on the west side of Portland, or find themselves randomly stopped near Chehalis on I-5, or for those poor suckers who have to get on the Beltway to commute from Baltimore to DC, I understand why you might have some road rage. Those are all very irritating situations to find oneself in (and situations I have experienced myself, so I know that they suck!) and you are justified if you spew explicatives at the other drivers on the road or even ride your horn when someone cuts you off and almost causes an accident as a result. The drivers in Ann Arbor (or all of Michigan, for that matter) have no excuse on par with any of the scenarios I just laid out and they are the most brutal drivers I have yet to encounter in this country (southern California included!). My question is why? Because you missed the light and will have to wait all of five minutes before you can go? Is that why you think you're justified in nearly killing me everyday on my way to work as I try to cross the street, at a crosswalk, when the little white man says it's my turn? Today, no fewer than three cars cut me off at the crosswalk and finally I started to walk in front of the fourth guy gesticulating wildly and saying something to the effect of, "what the fuck, it's my turn!" I am one step away from pounding on a car hood and yelling "I'm walking here!"

Needless to say, I think it's time for me to leave Michigan, don't you?! Well, I will get my wish soon enough. My last day at the lab is July 18 (long story short: I am being laid off ten days early because my boss can't afford to pay me- neat, isn't it?) and I think it is going to be the slowest 24 days of my life!

BBQ Season Kick-off

So, as you all are probably tired of hearing by now, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. Between Katrin's visit, our trip to DC, and scrambling to get everything together to rent the house and fill out the paperwork for Alex's new job and Visa, we've been running around "like monkeys," as Alex would say. This picture of me at the hotel in Maryland last Sunday pretty much sums it up.

So, we decided that we should celebrate our victories by having our first barbecue of the season. When we got to our spot, someone was already busy in an activity of her own: this turtle was laying her eggs (I tried 27 times to get these eggs in focus, but I just don't think it's going to happen)!





























This particular place doesn't actually have grills, but Alex and I discovered these things (for two dollars!!!) at Meijer that have everything you need to BBQ even without one. We loaded two of these up with chicken, red pepper, and kabobs:
























I am staunchly opposed to melon in all its forms (it may sound weird if you're hearing this for the first time, but I inherited this from both of my parents!), but Alex and Buttercup enjoyed some cantaloupe for dessert...well, Buttercup seems to be in doggy bliss, but Alex looks less than impressed by its quality.

















We got lucky: no rain, despite what they predicted. Alex even caught two fish: a pike and a catfish. After that, we came home and watched Fool's Gold, which was actually a lot better than I would have thought.

I Enjoy

A little while ago, my friend Nicole suggested trying out this Mosiac Maker by answering questions and looking up a corresponding picture in Flickr. Since I finally have some time for blogging again, I thought I would give it a go.

1. What is your first name?
Patty- and apparently beef patties, raccoons, and these creepy "Patty" dolls are the most popular hits, which I was not a fan of. I am a fan of laughter, however, so I chose this one.

2. What is your favorite food?
Bread!- yes, with an exclamation point. Fewer things in life give me greater joy than mowing on a piece of chewy, delicious bread. I could go on and on about the wonder of this complex carbohydrate...but I won't.

3. What high school did you go to?
Milwaukie High School.

4. What is your favorite color?
Red- ever since I picked a red prom dress senior year of high school, I have been such a huge fan. It's so bold and fun :)

5. Who is your celebrity crush?
Christian Bale- this goes back to the days when he played Laurie in Little Women...anyone? Now that he's Batman, there's just no question.

6. Favorite drink?
"Bubble" water, as Alex (and now I) calls it- I used to think it was weird that he drinks mineral water instead of regular water or pop, but since returning from Germany, I can't get enough of the stuff! It's so much more refreshing than regular water and so much better for you than pop.

7. Dream vacation?
Australia- I will go someday, even if that means tranquilizing Alex so that he can survive the 18 hour flight!

8. Favorite dessert?
Chocolate chip cookies- this varies with mood, but it's the 'ol standby.

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Helpful.

10. What do you love most in life?
Being able to just relax- when the only thing I have to worry about is breathing.

11. One word to describe you.
Hopeful- call me optimistic or idealistic if you like (both of those words are accurate some of the time), but I really think that it boils down to this: no matter the circumstances, it is very difficult for me to completely give up. A little part of me is always holding out for the possibility that things will work out.

12. Your Flickr name.
I don't have one, but if I did, it would probably contain "Porta," my nickname from high school. It crops up in a lot of usernames I have for various accounts. When I looked that up in Flickr, a picture of the Porta Negra came up, which I saw when I was in Trier in December, so I thought it fit.

Good News!

I know most of you can probably guess what I am referring to by the title of this post, but Alex and I have some great news! This morning, he was offered the job at Johns Hopkins that he interviewed for on Friday and we are in the process of applying for this adorable rowhouse near Union Station in DC. I probably should wait until we know for sure and we both realize that it's not guaranteed, but these are some pictures of the place we want to live. Isn't it adorable???


The owner seems really nice- he is actually a Seattlite, small world!- and his family (he, his wife, and their son) is moving back to Seattle at the end of the month. In addition to the rooms pictured here, there is a basement with plenty o' storage, two bedrooms, these fun nooks off the back of one bedroom (on the top floor) and the dining room that can be used as an office, extra storage, etc. I am so excited to have a dishwasher and washer/dryer in unit again- I can't even tell you!

The property is being handled by a management company since they will not be in town, so we have to go through them, but Jeff (the owner) said that he wants us to live there as well, so hopefully it will work out. Phew- what an expensive, time-consuming, and stressful weekend we had! It seems like we accomplished what we set out to do in that time, though. Not bad for three days work!



I will write a longer post later, but I just wanted to update everyone on the breakthroughs :)

Katrin's Visit

This is Katrin, everyone. On one of her first days here, she rented a bike and checked out some parks in the area (one of the pluses of this town).

Later that day, we introduced her to the game of baseball by taking her to the batting cages, a favorite stop when we have Germans visit. Some of you may have already heard about my theory that Alex is going to bring baseball to Germany, one person at a time. So far, so good. All three of his friends from home that have visited have ended up liking it. Here she is in her swing stance.

That night, we had Mongolian grill for dinner -delicious!- which was a first for our foreign guest. The next night was fun at Comerica Park for the Tigers-Indians game. We had bratwurst at the park and stayed afterward to enjoy the fireworks, which the Tigers do after every Friday home game. I hadn't seen fireworks since New Years in Germany and I forget how much I love them (I am my mother's daughter!). Sadly, our decision to stay had consequences: our first encounter with severe rain and thunderstorms of the weekend occurred on the way to the car.

It was like movie rain, the kind that starts from nowhere and that the unwitting characters get caught up in. Yeah, that was us.

We went from this during the game...

...to this after the game (a little graphic, I know, but I really think you need to see this to appreciate how wet things were).

There were thunderstorm warnings throughout Michigan over the weekend, so we tried to hedge our bets and see some nice spots along the shores without getting dumped too early in the game. On Saturday, we went to Port Huron (little piece of trivia for you, that's the birthplace of Buttercup!), which was the first time for all of us to Lake Huron. It was such a nice spot: nice beach, not too crowded. We wandered farther north afterward and found the cutest little town, Lexington, thus reaffirming my belief that you find the best places when you aren't looking for them.

Here is the lovely beach at Port Huron and Alex and I enjoying it:

Here is the adorable town of Lexington:

On Sunday, we had planned to go to this great spot on Lake Michigan (St. Joseph), but there was over a fifty percent chance of rain pretty much throughout the state, so we decided to go to a metropark 25 minutes away so that we would be able to maximize our time before the storm hit. It was so hot out and the water wasn't that cold so I actually got to go swimming! So did Buttercup and man, did she enjoy the water. Eventually, the forecast caught up with us and we had to dash for cover. When the rain slowed, we packed up the car and went home, but it was a very relaxing afternoon (and weekend in general).

Look at how cute my girl is in the water!















I love this shot of Alex having a smoke and a laugh after we were forced to the covered area.









The next day, Katrin's last, she and I went shopping. She really wanted to get a sweatshirt from "the Aberfitch Crombie" (I tried correcting her, but not as hard as I could have cuz it was just too cute!). As it has become a traditional way of bidding German visitors auf wiedersehen, we went to the Crab Shack for snow crab that evening. As always, it's hard to believe it when our guests have to go. Even when they stay for two weeks, the time just flies. It's always a little sad for a while afterward as well, even for me, because it reminds us how few people we know here and how much we miss our friends.

Stress Alert!

Sorry to be leaving everyone hanging (I know you sit idly by Google Reader, waiting to hear more from me on this blog), but Alex and I have been busy entertaining Katrin and trying to arrange all the stuff associated with our trip out to DC (ride to airport, rental car, hotel, boarding B-cup, apartment viewings, job interviews- it's exhausting just listing all the things, not to mention mentally taxing even thinking about all the things on that list still to be crossed off!). I plan to post a nice entry this evening, showing all the fun things we did in the last week and chronicling our battles with the ever uncooperative weather in this wretched state. I just thought I would remind everyone I'm still here and that I still plan to contribute regularly to this bad boy, but that circumstances have prevented that from happening in the last seven days or so.

Which brings me to the title of this blog. Alex and I are stressing in a major way about finding housing that works with our situation. Our hunt is being complicated by several factors, including 1) accessibility to Georgetown is not optimal (to borrow a phrase from Tricia!) because no metro lines stop directly there, so locations even a little farther away inflate my commute like nobody's business; 2) even if we decided to live in Georgetown or surrounding neighborhoods, neither Alex nor myself are the children of Senators, ambassadors, or other officials who might be able to afford paying the rent rates found in this affluent little area of our nation's capital; 3) Alex's best job prospect at the moment is at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, which is about as far away from Georgetown as you can get and he's not really into the idea of driving for two hours each way just to get to work...he has been hearing from a lot of people in the NIH, which is in much more convenient Bethesda, but we don't want to be counting our chickens before they are hatched and Alex doesn't want to make a career decision based on convenience of commute; 4) even though she's like the cutest thing on earth, for some reason not everyone is warmed by the idea of taking in our adorable dog, Miss Buttercup; 5) since we have out-grown our small one bedroom apartment originally leased for single Alex and not equipped for me, Buttercup, and all of Alex's accumulated fishing accoutrements, we have been mentally compiling a wish list of all the features we want in a new place [second bedroom/den, DISHWASHER (since I am currently filling in for that appliance), washer/dryer in unit, a/c, etc.], which can be difficult to find on top of all of our other problems.

So, as you can see, Alex and I have gotten ourselves into a pickle, as only the two of us can do. Lately, I find myself often thinking of those wise words uttered by Bob Kelso: "Nothing that's worth having in life comes easy." Think good thoughts for us about finding something that tackles all these obstacles and stay tuned for a more fun blog about Katrin's visit :)

I'm Sorry...You've Been Bamboozled

Friends, anyone? Well, I am very new to the blogging world and apparently you can be "tagged," which means you must answer some random questions and post it on your blog. So, here goes:

4 things i was doing 10 years ago (despite your math, Nicole, ten years ago we were gettting ready to enter MHS):

1. Getting my braces taken off in time to start high school :)

2. Helping plan a baby shower for my friends and I's favorite teacher, Mrs. Schroeder (I just realized that that means Alisa is almost 10- weird!)

3. Getting ready to visit Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York on the junior high east coast trip (so fun!)

4. Um, this is difficult because my memory is pretty bad about junior high...

4 things i was doing 5 years ago:

1. Playing intramural softball and getting beamed in the outfield by a fly ball (complete with black eye...I looked like I was part of some sort of underground fighting ring)

2. Skipping Dr. Doyle's English class to go to a Mariners game

3. Experiencing a crazy heat wave (very atypical for Seattle) and complaining about the lack of AC in Xavier

4. Impulsively mass emailing my ENTIRE university in defense of some unfair comments made about me in our school newspaper by this guy in my dorm (I had no idea he harbored such animosity toward me, so it was quite the shock reading about it in the Spectator...in response I refused to be a spectator- hehe- and learned a valuable lesson about thinking before I speak/email/communicate with the outside world)

4 things i did yesterday:

1. Becoming a blogging fiend!

2. Experiencing a new wave of anger at my boss for not letting Alex take a day off while Katrin is in town, even though he's not taken vacation since Christmas

3. Meeting the infamous Katrin, Alex's girlfriend from his early college days...she had a conference in Chicago, so she decided to give A2 a lookover while she was in the area (hopefully she's not too bored while she's here)

4. Talking to my dad on the phone- it was so good hearing from him, it had been a while...I love the way we always end up waxing philosophical about politics and basketball

4 shows i like to watch:

1. Scrubs- so hilarious and silly, yet adeptly tackles real issues in medicine and life in general

2. Lost- it is the most original concept for a show I have ever seen and the way the writers get you emotionally invested in the lives of the characters (they are so well-drawn that they truly feel like real people)

3. Friends- one of the most quotable, rewatchable shows I know ("I'm hopeless and awkward and desperate for love!" - that gem is courtesy of Chandler, my favorite friend!)

4. Six Feet Under- it is artistic (each episode feels like a mini-movie), sad, moving, fucked up (there's no way around that description- where to begin!), engaging, addictive, and so many other things!

Well, there ya go! I don't have anyone to tag, so I guess that will die with me. Enjoy!

Pick Me Up

As I alluded to in my last blog (I'm a lil outta control at the moment, I know, but it's because this is all so new and exciting), today has not been the best at work. While I was working on the computer (actually working, not blogging!), one of the students who volunteered in the lab during the school year dropped by for a visit. She has been working at Mrs. Field's in the mall and she didn't know when I would be leaving for school, so she brought me this:

Isn't it cute (it says "Good Luck, Patty" for those of you with bad eyes)?! She also brought these irresistible mini cookies and ordered me not to share. So sweet! Thanks, Miss Fei :)

Countdown!

So, things have been trying (that's putting it mildly) at work for quite some time, as many of you know and today I was having kind of a bad day, so I have created a countdown of just how much longer I have to work in this place. Enjoy (it's at the bottom of the blog)!

I Love...

For those of you out there who do not enjoy following the news, lack the discipline to subscribe to the New York Times or even to scan the headlines of CNN.com, or just want another way to be informed about the world, I think you should give National Georgraphic a lookover. I randomly bought one at the grocery store a couple of months ago because I was intrigued about the cover story, "Inside Animal Minds," so I decided to buy it on a whim. Not only was the article I was initially drawn to extremely interesting, but I was also fascinated to learn about how smelters are polarizing the nation of Iceland (do any of you reading this honestly know anything about Iceland?!) and how Bhutan is slowly incorporating technology into its way of life and the social impact of this transition (to be honest, I had never heard of Bhutan before!). Not only are the articles informative and extremely interesting, but the photography- OMG (an acronym I normally disdain). I think what makes it so great (besides all the reasons I just gave) is that it brings to light regions, people, issues, etc. that do not get attention in mainstream media, as well as covering stories of which you may already be aware. Stupidly, I have been buying it off the newsstand ever since, which has got to stop (a year long subscription is only $15)! So, you should look into it, is the point!

Mama to Michigan!

I have been gearing up for my mom's visit to Ann Arbor for a couple of months now since she booked her trip way in advance. Still, I never got over being excited because 1) she's my mom and she's coming into town (hello!) and 2) I never thought she'd make it to Michigan because I complain about living in Ann Arbor so much that she wasn't exactly thrilled to hop on a plane for four and a half hours to check it out. She is on a long list of people who promise to come visit me in DC and have little (well, let's be honest, no) interest in making a trip east before then.

Things started off a little shakily, with my mom and Mark (my stepdad) not bothering to ask us for directions to Ann Arbor from the airport, getting themselves lost, and almost missing our (that is, my mom and I's) pedicure appointments. We quickly rebounded by arriving in the nick of time here. My mom said it was the best pedicure she'd ever had (it was a Mother's Day present, so hers included a peppermint wrap, paraffin, and some other bonuses as well...I couldn't afford to give myself the star treatment as well, so I went with your basic pedicure), so I considered that a success! After that, my mom and Mark met our puppy, Buttercup, for the first time, much to her excitement, before heading out to dinner and microbrews here.

I was proud of my mom and Mark for getting up relatively early to make the fairly long drive (about four hours) to Benzonia, MI near the Lake (Michigan, that is), a remote (that's polite, really) location selected because it's near a spot where the Platte River feeds into the Lake. Last year for Memorial Day weekend, Alex and I went there and it was unseasonably warm- we happily swam in the juncture where the two bodies of water meet- and it was also an ideal fishing spot for my boy! Alex and I had checked beforehand to see what the dog policy was here because we wanted to be sure we could take B-cup along, so we went to our little spot on Saturday (Mom and Mark stayed behind to take a nap)...only to find out that 1) they don't allow pets beyond a certain point- the point we were interested in going- because it is a nesting area for some bird species (if you actually clicked on the last link it specifically says that pets are allowed from the Platte River Campground to Lake Michigan- exactly where we were!) and 2) that the water was freaking cold and that only a few fish could be spotted. Oh well, Buttercup was very well-behaved while I read my book and Alex found out that he couldn't fish there.

We got back to the hotel, only to discover that Mark was intent on watching the first game of the Stanley Cup Final, thus thwarting my plans of watching Indiana Jones at this drive-in movie theatre (although, to be fair, I highly doubt my mom told him I had wanted to do that...and I seemed to be the only one intent on making this a reality).



The weather in the month of May had been pretty lame, with temperatures in the fifties for a shocking amount of time, but a reprieve was rumored to be on its way: the forecast was in the seventies, with mostly clear skies for the weekend. Well, as usual, the meteorologists in the Detroit area managed to keep their jobs despite being completely wrong. As we finally ventured out to the Lake, after being delayed by rain, the winds changed and dumped us again. After about five minutes on the beach. Literally. Oh, and this spot that Alex and I had been to our first summer in Michigan (the water looks like the Caribbean when the weather cooperates!) doesn't allow dogs near the sand dune we wanted to go to either. Yay. So, we cut our losses: Alex went fishing on the Betsie River and later we all had dinner and margaritas at the Roadhouse, a cute Mexican bar and grill near where we were staying.



Alex and I hoped that we would get one last shot at enjoying the Lake by stopping in Frankfort, which is known to be a bit more tourist-y than where we had been so far, on the way home, but for reasons I won't get into, we ended up driving straight back to A2. We checked out this burger joint my mom and Mark had seen on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives called Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger. It was delicious!



So, although our trip was not the beach-bumming, fishing experience Alex and I had hoped for, it was soooo great to see my Mom and find out that Buttercup + long car rides = no problem!