All's quiet...

It looks like my pager has learned to behave! This weekend, so far, has not been too bad which is great. Even if it exploded....now (*furtive look towards my pager*) it could still be no more than a rating of "terrible" since I've gotten through two nights, albeit one completely asinine page last night about something that 1. I wasn't even in charge of and 2. could have COMPLETELY waited until the morning.

ANYWAY! This morning, I learned that my smoke detectors do indeed work. Although both had a green light on, I was suspicious b/c I really thought I had smoked the place out on various occasions with kitchen endeavors. Never fear! This morning, I really hit the threshold thanks to some mysterious debris on the floor of my oven.

I have been listening to Spanish on tapes on the way to work. I'm using the Pimsleur level 1, which is alright. It's really weird because the first three lessons are how to communicate that I don't speak Spanish. That seems like a very defeatist attitude on the Pimsleur side of things. How about teaching me Spanish so I don't need to know how to say that (ok, ok, I realize this sentence has some inherent contradictions).

I'm also trying to cook up a storm of healthy eats for this week. I think I eat less when Mechen's around because all of a sudden, 3 lbs just fell off me. I also think that this is the breakthrough of a plateau but either way, I'll take it! I'm starting to get within sight of my goal which is great since the big wedding/Iceland/Denmark trip is coming up. I'm usually a size 8 but over the years, I've had fits of wild optimism (and occasional weight lows) and bought really cute clothes in size 6. So, I've got a great, barely worn wardrobe, I just need to fit into it. And I say this not because I'm vain (although I am), but also because most of these clothes are "Fall-ish" and I refuse to wear corduroys that are too tight. Can you say sausage casings? This is also why I refuse to wear corduroy skinny jeans. There are women who can (I hate you- kidding!) but they are the ones with beautiful long gazelle legs rather than my very strong, very muscular former gymnast-like quads.

This post was brought to you by random stream of consciousness and parenthetical phrases.

What your doctor is thinking...

One of the funniest things about medicine is the dark humour and inner monologues that can occur within a doctor's head. Ok, maybe that's too generalized to let me personalize- I definitely have had moments where there are two conversations, the one I'm having and the one I wish I was having. Fortunately, I have friends and colleagues that do this too which results in some hilarious conversations usually along the lines of-

Me: So I told her, "Blaugh de blah"
Doctor friend: [gaspy laugh]: You did NOT!
Me: Of course not, I told her "Bleeky boo" but I wanted to tell her "blaugh de blah."

I think part of the problem for me is that I was raised in a family that valued a little flexibility with recounting events in order to never get in the way of a good story. Of course, I clarify to make sure everything is ultimately accurate but the initial shock value in really telling someone what you were really thinking can be oh-so-satisfying to the story-teller. Ok, ok...me.

Yesterday, I had a really weird experience of telling a patient she had to go home. As in, "You are and will go home." I've never had to be that direct with someone before but I've also never dealt with someone who was trying to (really, really obviously) game the system. Granted, she initially did require inpatient care but when she improved and was ready for discharge, a plethora of symptoms came up that she stated she would not leave until they were "worked up." Which to her, meant very expensive, needless radiology imaging. So, instead (and more appropriately), I had internal medicine examine her and then discharged her when all was verified to be well.

This weekend was definitely my comeuppance for my "Tra-la-la, I'm such a white cloud attitude!" After 4 spookily quiet weekends, my pager exploded this weekend. Whah. It is funny though because when I said how much call sucked in front of one of my attendings I thought to myself, "Tierney! You should be telling him that you think the only bad thing about having call two weekends a month is that you miss the good cases from the other two weekends." Then I thought, "Bullshit, call DOES suck. That's why they make residents take it. And there's hardly ever any good cases, only painful consults."

But, to not be too woe-is-me, I did have a break Saturday morning and part of Sunday morning. And I didn't get paged between 2-6 each night so I guess that was nice (no, it sucked! It was only 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep! <--future Mom me is looking at that sentence and laughing).

What did I do with that time? I read Bossypants by Tina Fey which was pretty good and I went to brunch with my friends at Starlite which was also good although I made a poor menu choice. What about "eggless frittata made with veggies and smooth garbanzo flour" sounds bad? How about that it's borderline tasteless? Oh well, at least I was healthy!

Philadelphia!

In an effort to be a better blogger (inspired by Joslyn's post http://www.simplelovelyblog.com/2011/06/little-bit-of-looking-back.html), I'll try and actually write while I'm actually traveling or shortly thereafter.

I'm here in Philly for a wedding today that is actually an hour outside the city. But in order to maximize by adventure time, I took a red-eye Thursday and took in a lot of Philly sights yesterday. I wish Mechen was here but the tickets were too expensive and he isn't as good friends with the couple so he decided to forego the travels. I'm sure he'll drown his sorrows this weekend in golf and surfing.

I arrived a 6 a.m. (wheeee!) after a red-eye that I didn't sleep as well on as a normally do. Boo! But I felt ok and stopped by the hotel to drop off my bag. The Independent is a really nice boutique hotel with the building's old brick interior mixed in with more modern elements. The linens and bed are amazing and there is a DOUBLE shower head! I love it. I didn't find all this out until 6 at night b/c I was busy sight-seeing but last night's sleep was AWESOME.

After dropping off my bags, I went to "Jack and the Brewstalk," which is an ok coffee shop. I think my reaction to it was that it was trying too hard to be cute and as a result, I'm being overcritical but I got my Jack size coffee (instead of giant, get it?) and headed out.

First I went to the Philadelphia Museum which is a Blue Star museum this Summer so I got in free! I didn't even realize until I asked for a military discount, figuring it would be the student rate. Instead, I got to wander the halls and saw beautiful artwork. I saw old favorites like Mary Cassat and the Marcel Duchamp gallery (have these two ever been linked in a single thought before EVER?) and wandered through some reconstructed rooms. There was an old Southern France monastery courtyard that was breathtakingly restored and so evocative of a beautiful night where possibility is heavy in the air. That was my favorite part (picture coming!).

The museum also has several Winslow Homers- I forgot how much I loved his work, especially the Maine coast scenes. Then I travelled across the street to another building to see a Chagall exhibit. He's not my favorite, but the layout and companion pieces illustrating various contemporaries/inspirations was laid out expertly by the exhibit's curator.

Next, I went to the Rodin museum. Nothing original for me to say here- I love "The Cathedral" and "The Gates of Hell." Rodin was an amazing sculptor and the lyrical lines are so beautiful. I also love the figures of the men and women in embrace. You can feel the passion through the positioning, which really is a testament to natural, unforced, unfiltered body language.

Then I was tired. So I took the bus to 8th&Market, hopped off and walked to Little Italy. I walked all the way down to Pat's where I inhaled a cheesesteak. I was SO hungry and it was falling apart in my hands so gobble, gobble. When I was done, I felt fine but I had a stern little talk with myself along the lines of "Chew your g-damn food!" Seriously! How am I going to be a healthy eater if I don't even chew and I just have partially chewed crap in my stomach. (Ok, ignore the fact that this is all in reference to a cheesesteak which is in no way healthy, but more along a general principle that chewing is a good thing).

Then I walked to Walnut near Rittenhouse and proceeding to negate any savings I had made during trip planning by buying a wedding outfit at Anthro, a shirt for Mechen and travel pants for me at Lulu and two tank tops from the Gap (<--the only one of these three is not stupidly expensive!).

I came to the hotel, checked into my lovely room, went to the gym and came back and hung out. I talked to Mechen on the phone. I really wanted to go to a wine bar named Tria, but I figured that I might as well save some money for when I can go out with Mechen and/or friends. In addition, I plan on drinking at the wedding and I decided to not do two nights in a row since I may also have some wine when I go out with Mechen Sunday night.

Phew! That's it! I had a light breakfast this morning and now I'm off for a run. Yipes! I just looked at the time and I have to get going!

Coachella 4/15-4/17

Coachella was AWESOME! I knew that I would have a good time, but the whole experience exceeded my expectations. We went with two friends and camped at the Polo Grounds. Camping was great, although we lucked out with our site in a few ways. Our neighbors were all pretty mellow and quiet, but not too mellow in a blasting Marley or the Beatles (seriously?) during the day type of way. We were also in the middle of a row, away from random foot traffic and, more importantly, large floodlights.

But the music, you say! Stop being so crochety and old and talking about where you slept. Boring!

So the first day, I saw CeeLo Green who had the plug pulled since he was 30 minutes late into a 40 minute set and was really mad at the organizers. Lauryn Hill’s set was AMAZING with Fugees and “Miseducation” songs seamlessly flowing and she sounded great. A new discovery (for me) was the Cold War Kids who are a great rock band and I downloaded several songs immediately- “Royal Blue” and “Bulldozer” stand out. Brandon Flowers set was terrific and I had never really heard his songs before. I now have his whole album thanks to Jenny! In addition, the Killers came out for “Read My Mind” and “Mr Brighteyes.” The only disconcerting thing about Brandon Flowers is that his voice has a shitload of strain in it. I kept thinking his voice would crack and I’m sure he has singer nodules in his future. I loved Robyn and am working out to several of her songs all the time. Finally, we say Floggin Molly that night, super late (until 130). They had an amazing amount of energy. Other bands we heard that day were The Black Keys, Crystal Castle and Ozomatli.

On Saturday, we saw The Joy Formidable who have a guitarist/singer who is this really bad-ass pixie. Sean saw Two Door Cinema Club, whom he said were awesome and the “Irish Killers” so I definitely want to check them out at some point. New Pornographers and Bright Eyes were very good. Bright Eyes was followed by Mumford and Sons and they were awesome! We were really close to the stage for their show and the energy was through the roof! They played two new songs- “Blinded by the Light” which I heard at Belly Up and another that I’m blanking on right now. Finally, the night ended with Arcade Fire. They were great and I finally got to see them after my frustrating near-miss in Tokyo 3 years ago!

The last day was more mellow for us. We saw Twin Shadow, Jack’s Mannequin and Best Coast which were all new finds for us and sounded great. Nas and Damian Marley were great and Wiz Khalifa had really energetic fans especially considering there was a pot smoke cloud over the crowd the entire time. We ended our night with The National then headed home, totally tired but so happy.

The concerts were amazing. There were a few folks we weren’t as fond of but more due to our tastes rather than lack of musical artistery. I missed the advance sale for 2012 (boo!) but I’ll definitely be looking for tix in Jan, 2012!

Vacation, part 1

After the beer bus, Mechen and I started vacation! We were hung-overish on Sunday morning, then headed up to San Luis Obispo and stayed in a Rock Room (Swiss Belle). That evening, we went to the steakhouse on site which had pretty ridiculous portions (we split a main) and was pretty good.

The next day, we went to the SLO mission, had breakfast at the Big Sky Café, field trip to Morro Bay and ate creekside at Novo. Morro Bay was awesome and I also bought my first piece of art there- yipes! It’s awesome, but man, I don’t know if I’ll make it a habit. Maybe I’ll try my hand at painting?

The next day, we went on a hike to see the 7 Sisters, walked around Solvang and ate at Root 246.
Finally, we had a great breakfast at our B&B, Mirabella Inn. We ate lunch at Twin Oaks (steak #1) and went to several wine tasting rooms (Consilience, Carharrt, Epiphany and our hotel lobby (beer). We also went to Foxen Winery, which was pretty awesome. We went to the original wine tasting room and their newer, sleeker one. Any winery that has two tasting rooms has to be good, right?

Then, we had the meal of the vacation at the Brothers Restaurant at Mattei's Tavern. I had a delicious grilled prime filet. The preceding bread basket was so awesome and we completely gorged. Then we rolled ourselves back to the hotel.

The next day, we ate brekkie and headed home in order to pack and make preparations to leave for Coachella the next day

Birthday, part 2

On April 3^rd, I went out to brunch at the Pearl with some of my friends and one little baby who was definitely star of the show. She is the cutest. It was great brunch with delicious mimosas and Bloody Marys.

The big celebration though, was the San Diego Brew Tour we went on the 9^th. Cat and I both have April birthdays so we decided to host a pre-party and then go on the tour. I had been on one before about 2 years ago and had a blast, so I really wanted to do it with all of my San Diego friends.

The pre-party was at Cat’s house and I was in charge of the quarter keg, which was filled with Airdale Amber- delish! Our bus driver was great, the tunes were awesome and we went to Lost Abbey, Ballast Point and Pizza Port. I was pretty hammered- in part because I made the rookie mistake of not eating enough but mostly because I just drank like a fish.

Note to self: remember to get Ballast’s Bloody Mary mix. Awesome!

It was a great evening and I actually just relived it looking at pictures on Brooke’s phone yesterday at the post-Bridge Run brunch. They were so funny. Only casualty- my point-and-shoot, which I totally squished.

Turning 30, for "real" this time!

My birthday was, in a word, amazing. I had been sort of smarting all year long at what a dud my 30^th birthday had been. Not to dwell, but it wasn’t exactly the celebration that I think “aught” birthdays should have. Certainly there were extenuating circumstances (like Mechen’s deployment) but either way, I told Mechen that this year, I was turning 30 again. And oh man, did he ever come through!

The morning was pretty relaxed. He headed out and when he came back, he gave me a card. I opened it and voila! A spa gift certificate. He said I had an appointment in about 40 minutes that I could either keep or cancel. I decided I was in the mood and also, he said he needed the time to work on things.

I went and had a great massage at Sante in Solana Beach. I sat in the steam room until I physically had to leave. Then, I sat in the waterfall room until my massage, which was really, really good. Then I had a quick sauna, shower and went home.

The house smelled amazing. At first, I thought it was a puff pastry baked Brie, but then I figured out that maybe it was a cake (more later)? Mechen said we were going out to dinner so I got ready and off we went to San Diego for a dinner at Starlite, my favorite restaurant.

When we walked in, the host asked if we had a reservation and I said, “I think he does,” and Mechen gave his name. The host said, “Oh, MECHEN,” and led us to a corner table where there was the most amazing, gorgeous, huge bouquet of flowers I’ve ever seen. It was perfect and awesome and I was totally blown away. I couldn’t stop smiling and the guys near us on their own dates probably couldn’t stop thinking, “You SOB” to Mechen.

After dinner, which was delicious (at this point, it’s slightly hazy but I had a really delicious fish prepared in a Moroccan fashion, Mechen had a great steak and we split a lamb bruschetta), we went back home where Mechen had made my favorite cake- yellow with chocolate frosting. Yum-o!
I felt so amazing and special on my birthday. It was perfect. Most of all, I felt so, so lucky to have Mechen in my life. It was incredible.