Day 49

Found this little piece of Christmas on my walk home from the movies...

Day 48

I walk by this gallery nearly every day and I haven't built up the guts to go inside....

Day 47

Girlfriend from Grenada....

Day 46

Coffeeshop? Check. Highlighter? Check. Free WiFi? Check.

All's good....

Day 45

I'll admit, this picture was not taken on day 45, but you know what?
It's my first day without girlfriend for the next 4 months, so sue me
if I want to look at her...

Day 44

The US Open of Sandcastles 2010 at Imperial Beach...

Day 43

With the return to the land of the living, I ordered what was, perhaps, the most preposterous breakfast dish I have ever seen a Hash House a Go-Go...

Days 41-42

So, Days 41-42 involved my first attending call at UCSD Hillcrest and then half a post-call day in the office. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity nor the will to take pictures by the 34th hour of being awake, at which point I fell into a deep coma, not to awaken until day 43......

Day 40

Movie night at Point Loma!

Day 39

Girlfriend's big day out today! This is our favorite tree as you enter Balboa Park....

Day 38

Kitchen is coming together quite nicely. We finally got a microwave!

Day 37

Though not taken ON Day 37, here is the fruit of our labor from the day...

Day 36

Pit stop at Newport Beach on our way down Highway 1....

Day 35

West Coast sunsets vs. East Coast sunrises....the jury's still out.

Day 34

A little bit of home to make it feel like home....

Day 33

The moon over Huntington Beach...

Day 31

A surprisingly family friendly place for dinner... 1st ave & Washington.

Day 32

I love antepartum patients with a good sense of humor....

Day 30

Back at the zoo...this time with some rug rats...

Day 29

Free couch...somehow, we got it to fit!

Day 28

Members!!

Day 27

You just can't complain when your walk to your car looks this nice!

Day 26

This is where you can get good coffee at UCSD, instead of the crappy coffee in the cafeteria...

Day 25

Coming home from our date night! Mexican food and a movie...

Day 24

Okay....so I'm lying a bit about this one. This was actually taken on Day 25. But I found another neighborhood sign! So all is forgiven...

Day 23

Getting some work done at Lestat's in Normal Heights...

Day 22

San Diego Pride Parade 2010

Day 21

Think I'll take my lunch in the courtyard...

Day 20

Sunset walk....

Day 19

Got my iced coffee, outdoor seat, perfect weather and free WiFi....what else does a nerd need?

Day 18

Most picturesque sunrise yet! Finally, no gray!

Day 17

It's not quite a corner office, but it'll do for a fellow...

Day 16

Just thought I'd snap a shot of our apartment building at night...we're first floor corner apartment overlooking the Union & Laurel intersection....

Day 15

So, San Diego has these neat signs throughout the city labeling certain neighborhoods and streets...my goal is to find them all. I've already posted Little Italy's....this one is from Normal Heights, where girlfriend and I found a supercool coffee shop...

Day 14

Awesome day....beautiful night! Just getting out....

Day 13

On Randi's recommendation, I took Regina to Yogurtland in Little Italy.....

Day 12

Day 11

A sunset stroll through Seaport Village. Note the rock formations on the lower right...a guy balanced those rocks one by one....

Day 10

A fitting end to a holiday weekend....

Day 9

4th of July...first day of call!

Day 8

She just couldn't resist....

Day 7

One week down, and so far so good...

Day 6...Happy New Year

First day as a fellow hasn't been too rough... was even able to have
lunch with Regina between office hours!

Day 5

The sun is out in full force...I finished orientation...and look! A
wife! There's a wife in my apartment!

It's all coming together....slowly but surely....

Day 4

God bless you, Ikea! $25 desk, "as-is" and 2 $10 chairs. As Dr.
O'Keefe would say...that's all you need....

Day 3

> With the written boards done, it's time to start unpacking.... >

Day 2

Studying with Lan Na (and Shelly & Randi) at Starbucks....

Day 1

It's a gray and breezy Saturday morning, which made the walk to Starbucks in Little Italy comfortable....actually needed my Flatbush sweatshirt. The grayness actually makes the fact I have to study for the next 48 hours straight a little more palatable. Justin should be making his way around here sooner or later....

Blogger Block...

I'll admit it, I suck at this blogging stuff.

I can't put my finger on it, but I feel like I'm caught between the generation that kept "journals" and "diaries" for one's own edification and self-loathing and the new breed of online exhibitionists who feel the need to let every human being with a working set of eyes and vocabulary know what he or she is wearing, eating, thinking, smelling, tasting, reading, feeling, buying, selling, or looking at. I have a Twitter account collecting cyber dust, a Friendster account that dates me in the early 2000's, a MySpace account that makes me feel like the creepy old guy hanging out with high schoolers, and a Facebook account with 401 "friends".

And yet I find myself increasingly keeping things to myself. It's not that I don't talk (believe me, folks around me can attest to this), it's just that I don't feel any desire to commit any of it to paper, or emails, or anything that could be construed as documentation. I say this with some degree of sadness, because I would love to one day look back and maybe write a memoir, or pass along something meaningful to my kids, or even simply reminisce, but I am realizing more and more with each passing day that my memory truly sucks. It's atrocious. I don't know if I'm squeezing things out with the mass of knowledge I've had to accumulate over the last 8 years, or the fact that I'm decrepit and old at the tender age of 31, but some of my most reliable memories and stories are becoming fuzzy, at best.

So, going forward, I'm hoping to start anew in San Diego. Oh yeah, by the way, I'll be heading out to San Diego for my Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowship. That's about the biggest news I have since my last post. That's not to say I haven't had a shitload of fun and excitement navigating the SS Ballas through the shark infested Bermuda triangle that is residency.

It's just that I'm having a hard time remembering it right now.

Onward and upwards, I guess...

Sunday ho-hums.

Not much to really talk about these days. Seems to be the running theme to my days. Working on yet another exciting chairman’s rounds.
For those of you not “in the know”, Chairman’s Rounds is defined by Webster’s dictionary as the “weekly ritualistic public browbeating of residents in front of faculty, fellows, and residents on details both large and small, with conversation oftentimes derailed by their red-faced former giant iron cowboy chairman”
Or, more accurately depicted in the photo below from an actual Chairman’s Rounds a few weeks back...

...luckily, the resident survived. It turns out, ob-gyn faculty aren’t really great shots.

Oh, and in case you were wondering how I’ve been doing since Regina left, let me present it as a graph of my testosterone levels as a function of time...

Overall, though, I think I’m doing pretty well...

Like the Beatles said...I get by with a little help from my friends....and relatives.....total strangers........a six pack of Bass.........a poorly grown beard.......Dr. Wackett in the Emergency Room.......the little Korean ladies at the laundromat that do my laundry.......the internet...........and Skype......

Cheers.

Jerry.

4am on Labor and Delivery

For the first time in two weeks, there has been about a half hour here on Labor and Delivery where we actually have nothing to do.  The midwife TOLAC in room 1 is about to become an official VBAC.  Cara's managed to admit and deliver three women vaginally so far tonight and I got to section a set of twins.  I even updated Shelly's antepartum signout and sent it on its merry way to 5 East as not to disappoint her like I did yesterday.  All that's left to do is a cerclage at 6am.

An apology for those who read that paragraph and translated it to "blah, blah, blah vaginal blah, blah..."  Unfortunately, keeping a blog as a resident pretty much ends up revolving around work.  As do most things these days, especially being on nights.  So, to help out a little for my non-medical, non-obstetrical friends, I'll try to provide definitions in the forms of links wherever necessary.  As an example, here is the above paragraph with explanations:

For the first time in two weeks, there has been about a half hour here on Labor and Delivery where we actually have nothing to do.  The midwife TOLAC in room 1 is about to become an official VBAC.  Cara's managed to admit and deliver three women vaginally so far tonight and I got to section a set of twins.  I even updated Shelly's antepartum signout and sent it on its merry way to 5 East as not to disappoint her like I did yesterday.  All that's left to do is a cerclage at 6am.

There, much better.

So, as you may have read over at Regina's blog, tomorrow is the last day and night I get to spend with her until the end of May.  She leaves early Wednesday for Grenada to begin her med school adventure at St. George's University.  Words can't begin to explain how excited I am for her.  She is going to rock ass and take names.  In a way, I'm jealous of her in that if-I-knew-then-what-I-know-now kind of ways where I go back in time and get to redo medical school with a little more perspective and lot less agita.  At minimum though, I have a built in vacation spot over the next two years on one of the prettiest islands in the Caribbean. 

But let's be honest, I'm probably going to be a train wreck for at least a few weeks.  My fellow co-residents, friends, family, local Starbucks baristas, and the bartender at the Country Corner have all been put on notice.  If you happen to notice a large, sulking, bearded, homeless-looking man wandering the streets of Stony Brook, Setauket, Port Jefferson, or anywhere along the Long Island Expressway over the next month or so, just do me a favor and slow down and make sure it's not me.  I may very well have lost my keys, forgot where I parked my car, or may be looking for a natural land bridge to Grenada.

In any case, just pick me up and drop me on the 8th Floor at Stony Brook...chances are I'm supposed to be there.

Wish me luck.

And don't forget to wish Regina luck and follow her adventure at 
http://notesfromspiceisland.blogspot.com/.

Regards,
Jerry.