gorgeous gorges

I only want to live where it is beautiful.  I hope it works out that way.

We fell in love with Ithaca.  Soooo in love.

*note - Ithaca is famous for its gorges...I didn't misspell gorgeous.  I admit I am a horrific speller...but I didn't get that wrong!

congrats grad

These are the sparkly glittery CONGRATS cards I bought last week.  I had to buy two because both of my little sisters graduated from college last week and they both deserved sparkly glittery cards. One graduated from medical school and is now an official MD and the other graduated from ASU with her bachelors.  I'm so proud of them.

*they are actually HERE visiting us this weekend!  I hadn't seen them in nearly a year!!!

bestie visit

My best friend comes to visit tomorrow - alllll the way from her home paradise of San Diego.  I cannot flipping wait!! 

Except, she's coming to upstate New York at a time when there isn't anything to really "do."  No hiking in the magnificent parks, no outdoor festivals or games to attend.  Nope.  It's cold out.

I'll take her to my fave restaurant.  My fave coffee house.  And we'll probably just girl talk for three straight days.  Sounds like the most fab weekend ever!!

I bought fresh flowers just for the occasion.

moving...again

via here

When Tommy and I moved here, we decided to live in a one bedroom apartment.  We knew it would be a snug fit - but doing so would save us roughly 900 bucks over 12 months (in comparison to a 2 bedroom.)  We patted ourselves on the back for being so frugal and brilliant.

And then we got pregnant.  (yippee!!)  But we are space-less.  The two of us share one itty bitty closet and we literally have no room for a crib in this place.  Yet, we were going to try to make due.  Though I had no idea how we were going to do it...

Then I got a random email from our building's manager...congratulating us on our baby...and letting us know that there is a two bedroom apt down the hall that just opened up.  We were still pretty intent on trying to save some extra bucks and to continue to stuff ourselves into our lil space here...yet we gave the 2 bedroom a look, just in case.

IT WAS GIGANTIC.  We will be moving promptly.  It has a proper kitchen space (better than proper - it's a big BIG kitchen!) and dining room space...it's not just one gigantic dorm-like room like our current "home sweet home."    Couldn't be more excited!!!

Now...we pack. 

Damn it.

reading your own blog

Instead of hitting the hay like I SHOULD have on Monday night, I spent a good two hours re-reading my own blog.  Have you ever done that?  It made me sooo happy.  I have this record of my life, my wishes, my adventures over the past year - and whereas I never write novels on here, it's still such a special treat to "read" the memory.

It's like the greatest diary ever.

*note:  I re-read this blog - my other blog is entirely too big to even attempt to read in one sitting.  I like that this one is smaller...shorter...a lil more spontaneous.  

10 loads

via here

Someday, I imagine, Tommy and I will have our own laundry space...with our own washer n' dryer...with coordinating baskets and storage nooks and pretty paint.  Maybe.

Until then, we'll share a laundry facilities with allllll the other peeps in our apartment building.  It's a lot like college dorm life, with the community basement laundry room...complete with random socks scattered on tabletops.  It's not bad - it's free - which is clearly rad.  But, with four washers and four dryers, and 7 floors of inhabitants, you can assume it's reallly realllllly tricky to get your laundry done. 

Until I figured it out.  Wake up at 6am...yes...even though it's your one day off allll week...and you can bust out TEN LOADS by 9:30am.  Yep.  I'm ready to conquer the world now that I concurred the laundry. 

venting

I pulled an overnight shift on Thursday.
Then I was oncall for four days and four nights from Friday to Sunday (I'm still oncall by the way...)
Tomorrow morning I start my new rotation, my HARDEST rotation, at 5am.
I won't have a day off for 9 straight days starting tomorrow.
(which is really 16 of working straight with no day off)

I feel like crying.

I haven't slept in 5 days...I haven't had a chance to study...or breath...or eat non-hospital food.
Or have a non-medically related conversation with a "normal" person.
I can't return emails, or check facebook, or call my mom.

Where is my life??

future foot fixer

Even though I may not wear heels, doesn't mean I don't find them stunning...
like all of these bodacious hand painted beauties...from cocopunkz.

Two months.

Two months to the day.  That's how much time I have left as a student. I know I keep going on and on about this. But I've been in college/med school for the past DECADE and the thought that I will actually be:

1) employed
2) a doctor
3) not in school

is making me pretty dang excited.

So. In two months I will no longer be a "future foot fixer." I will actually be a foot and ankle specialist...a real podiatrist.  A surgeon.  My last rotation begins today in the Emergency Department at the hospital. 

Two months. I can handle two more months.

But can you handle these hand painted shoes?

easter weekend

I like to celebrate in as many ways as I can.  Do you like my new spring shower buddy?  I do. 

I love holidays.  All of them.  Especially Easter.  It's a spiritual event...a joyful religious celebration spent with family.  Yet, to me, it's also about bunnies, and colorful eggs, little girls in pretty hats, pastel colors, daffodils and jelly beans.  Oh, and sugary peeps.  I love it all.  

This Easter Sunday promises to bring together my sisters and our beaus...to spend a morning of worship at St. Mary's Basilica downtown (truly divine space)...and to spend our afternoon together.  We might decorate eggs...or cook up an Easter brunch that would make my parents proud.


Do you celebrate in little ways too?   Happy Easter.

teddy

This is Teddy. He lives with my future in-laws. And when I lived with them in December, I fell in love with this fluffy fellow. Isn't he just so handsome?

I'm totally ashamed to admit that I am not a "dog" person. I'm just not. I sorta wish I was. I attribute this to being somewhat terrorized by a friend's dog when we were little. Anyway...I really really dig this guy...and I find myself kinda missing him.

Tommy really really really wants a dog. My only stipulation is that it has to be part poodle...cuz now...well...I'm a poodle person.

cake for kami

fab lil painting via MAGPIE lovely

Today is my best friends birthday.
I remember celebrating our birthdays
with cupcakes
that our moms would bring to elementary school.
And all those those bowling ally birthdays...
or the gingerbread house decorating parties...
or the celebrations spent at the theater...
or the ooodles of slumber parties.
Ballet lessons brought us together when we were 5...
it's been quite a few birthday wishes to witness!

Happy Birthday Kami!

Mucho hugs, love and frosting my dear.

to do

via naturally nina

I'm in a weird mood these days. I'm a lil blue...ummm....a lot blue actually. I can't help feeling defeated and it's driving me nuts. If you knew me in real life, you'd know that this is odd - I'm a life liver...smile giver...joy seeker. I enjoy the ride...you know?

I need to get out of this sad place (that I'm sure has to do with the car crash I was in last week, or the fact that my computer also crashed last week, or that I had to take my medical boards exam this week and it sucked, or that I'm miserable at the hospital rotation I'm in right now, or that I'm living far away from everyone I know, or that I'm questioning my choice of going into medicine in the first place, or that I don't get a single day off this month - yes, I work at the hospital every. single. day.) Yes - I just threw myself a pity party. Yea, it sorta made me feel better.

I will smile easily again. I just have to keep breathing.

needle stick

here

The stormy Tucson weather must be quite a site. I wouldn't know. I've been in the hospital over 16 hours everyday for the past two weeks.

Today, my miserable general surgery rotation got a whole lot worse when I stabbed myself with a dirty suture needle in the operating room. I proceeded to get yelled at by the surgeon (no surprise...it was when he was yelling at the nurse that I jumped and stabbed myself in the first place)...then 5 hours of paperwork, blood tests, and educational counseling on the risks of such a thing. It wasn't until my 3rd hour sitting in the emergency department listening to another nurse rant about HIV did I start crying.

I was crying. In the emergency department. We don't know if the patient has Hepatitis or HIV or whatever. Bummer.

I think this classifies itself as a bad day. I sorta wish I had this crazy cute band-aids to slap on my arm instead of the flesh-colored one I'm currently sporting.

simplify

I moved back home this weekend. Spent two solid days cleaning out my closets and boxes. I've accumlated too much stuff. While I was living back east I lived out of three suitcases - and it was honestly too much stuff for 4 months!

My goal for 2010 is to get back to the basics. Downsize. Minimize. Simplify. Very excited.

I'm diggin' these illustrations via Black*Eiffel

happy snow

Tommy built me this snowman on Christmas Eve. I love this place...snow is so fun!

on being merry

via The Perfect Palate

Off to celebrate the holidays with my future family. All of them - aunts, uncles, cousins. Complete with a crazy tasty smorgasbord of obscene proportions (all of the women in this family are lil Martha Stewart's). Games (yes, they actually do play games together as a family...how cute is that?). Gifts galore (holy hell you've never seen such an opulent display of gifts in your whole life.) Matching outfits (ummm...yea....I don't know how this will play out either). And all of the joy and love and laughter that Christmas brings.

Have a very merry Christmas.

goals for year 28

saipua

Today I turn 28. A part of me feels that 28 sounds sooo old - why is that? I know I am still crazy young...I am blessed with an insatiable thirst for life...and 28 is no where even close to being OLD old. (unless you ask my 21 year old sister...in which case she thinks I am ancient...eh.)

I am very proud of all of the things my 28 years have accomplished so far. I have seen such beauty, experienced the truest love, laughed till I cried, experienced heart ache, survived medical school (which is a feat in and of itself) and have a lot to be proud of. (I just realized that this is quite a lil love fest I'm having for myself...that's kinda fun).

I have a lot of things I'd like to accomplish as a 28 year old. My 28 year old resolutions:

1. get the slammin' 28 year old body I want! wahoo!!
2. embrace a lovely and harmonious marriage with the one I love most
3. begin my surgical training to be a top notch physician (officially graduate in June!!)
4. take advantage of weekends for more local exploration
5. finish my first quilt (I've taken close to 7 months off from working on it...it's about time I begin again)
6. quit buying sh*t clothes :-) I really need to quit buying stuff on sale just because it's onsale...and instead buy great pieces of clothing that I can cherish in multiple ways.
7. mix up the classics I haven't read yet with the chick-lit I've been pouring over (hehehe...Twilight...it's more of an addiction)
8. cook at least one real meal per week...using new recipes each time (oooooo fun!)
9. become more politically aware/tolerant
10. work on my mad photog skills

10 is a good list to start with I think. Happy birthday self. This is going to be a GREAT year!

gray's

I'm currently a med student. On a month-long externship outside of Boston, Mass. I'm living with a 1st year resident who is quite literally "the bomb." After of day of salvaging limbs, dealing with diabetics, and scrubbing loads of rad surgery, we wind down by watching a couple of episodes of Grey's Anatomy. I'm addicted.

Oh. And she has Tivo. I'm addicted to that now too.

baby shiloh

Lisa Warninger Photography

One of my very best friends (in the whole entire world) had her baby on Friday. A new baby girl. A precious baby girl. When I got the message while at the hospital I could not stop smiling! She is one of my first best friends to have a baby...and it feels so surreal that she is now a mother!

I feel so proud. Is that strange? It's true...she's my bestie...and I love her new little Shiloh as much as I love her mommy.

Today I got to hold her. It was amazing. Her tiny little fingers and soft ginger hair...she's a lil angel.

I'm hope I'm blessed to be a mommy someday.

frolic

here.
I sometimes frolic when I'm outside and the nature surrounding me is particularly spectacular. Or when the air just feels really good. The urge swells up in me and I'll leap...skip...hop.

I really do.

This is how I feel today - and not just because it's the beginning of a lovely three day weekend. I am absolutely smitten with this externship I am in right now...as in, I LOVE it. As in, I want to MOVE here and be a PART of it. As in, this is my dream. The Residents are phenomenal. The Attending Physicians are wonderful, and challenging, and demanding, and encouraging. I would become a great doctor here.

I love my life.