Thursday, December 24, 2009

So excited!

I'm so excited! New Year's plans have come together beautifully. The group of people is going to be really fun and it turns out we'll go to the J Bar at Hotel Salomar. We're reserving a cabana at the rooftop bar. There will be music, dancing, a place to sit, lots of heat lamps- it'll be great. The more we thought about the W, the more it seemed that it might be a little too "scene-y" to have a completely amazing time. I think the JBar will be a little more mellow, but still really fun. And everyone's really excited to meet Mechen.

I'm on call this Christmas weekend so I'm a little wary of getting too excited in case the ER decides to give me lots of extra presents this weekend. I hope not, but they tend to extra generous at the most inopportune times.

I can't wait to talk to family this weekend though. My parents, sister and brother are in Denmark, my grandfather's in Florida and I'll try to figure out how to contact my other brother in Vail. Man, I would love to be in Vail. I loved it this Summer. What a beautiful, amazing place!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

New Year's Resolutions 2010

Ok, so these are published a little late and I'm already slightly overdue on #2 but the way I've approached New Year's resolutions in the past is to treat them as guidelines and navigational beacons. Some require a little more strict adherence than others, but I'm pretty excited about my ideas for 2010!

New Year's Resolutions


1. Read one non-fiction book for general edification purposes a month. Categories that do not count are medicine, memoir or how-to-fold-origami. (The last is listed because origami and I will never work out. Cranes spite me.) [Note: On further consideration, this will have to wait until after the inservice exam on 3/6/10. I need to crush that thing so all reading time is devoted to medicine.]


2. Blog once a week


3. Start p90X on 1/10 in order to finish on my birthday weekend. I want to look and feel amazing on my big 3-0!


4. Have an awesome 2 week vacation during my research block to Copenhagen and Zurich with a side trip to visit Mechen during an awesome port call *fingers crossed!*


5. Write a letter once a week (at least!) to Mechen while he's on deployment.



6. Find an organization to volunteer with and perform community service.



7. Go to Church once a week, preferably on Sunday.


8. Work on my Spanish. Practice 15 minutes a day once inservice is over.


9. Continue to study hard in ENT by being more consistent with my reading. At least 15 minutes anatomy and 30 minutes reading Monday-Thursday with 2-3 hours Friday-Sunday. That is bare minimum requirements.

Christmas excitement!

Truthfully, it's a little hard to muster up. I'm not the best at creating a Christmas for one because it doesn't rate super-high on my TTD (things to do) list.

I did wrap my Christmas presents from my parents though. I almost wrapped an issue of "Clinics" since it comes in a box too, but I thought that would be rather pathetic. I'm pretty sure that I am NOT getting the pair of shoes that I asked for since 1. they were expensive and 2. in my mother's eyes, ugly as sin. She hinted heavily towards that effect on the phone, but I will see on Christmas morning!

I am excited about Mechen coming in 9 days! We will have the 30th together, New Year's Eve at the W, then recover for our amazing road trip starting on the 3rd. We're going to travel up the Pacific Coast Highway. It's supposed to be amazingly beautiful and I'm really excited. I'm not sure if Winter is "the" season to go, but I think it might be close since the whales are migrating (I hope I see a pod!).

Our trip is pretty planned out lodging-wise but since most days don't involve too much driving, there will be plenty of time for pulling off and seeing random state parks, beaches and trails. I'm excited about seeing Carmel again, Monteray for the first time, and making it up to San Francisco. A true SF/Napa/Sonoma trip is in the works for another time, but this trip is mostly about the ride up. Coming back, we're just going to shoot down the 5 so we have a relaxed day on Saturday before Mechen leaves.