August continued: Wicked

Wicked came to Columbus and I had the pleasure of seeing it with some fellow interns. I had always heard good things about it, and the rumors were true! I loved it!! We saw it on a Friday so before the show everyone met up at Maggie's house for dinner and then headed to the theater. It was also a great opportunity to dress up. Wearing green scrubs everyday gets old and every once in a while it's nice to get all jazzed up and feel like a female again. :)

Five of us went. Carly, me, Maggie R, Kim, and Maggie L. Carly is a friend of Maggie L's in town from Chicago.

In the theater.

August in a Nutshell

It's been a while since I last posted anything on my blog. My apologies. It takes a certain amount of motivation to produce a post and I've been lacking in that area lately. August was a good month. I was at St. Ann's on an OB rotation and had a fabulous time learning the art of c-sections. I'm not sure I've got it down perfect just yet, but after participating in 44 in one month I am feeling much more comfortable in the surgeon's seat.....for now anyway.

Outside of work I had a few good weekends filled with fun activities. The first Saturday of every month is Gallery Hop in Columbus in the Short North area. I had the privilege of crashing a going away party in which everyone was asked to wear an Ohio themed shirt while also participating in Gallery Hop. It was a exciting night with lots of new people.

Gallery hop-- A small circus sets up shop in a small parking lot on Hight St.

Loriana, Maggie, and I at a bar celebrating the "going away party"

I took a pic with my favorite Ohio shirt. You can't see it but it says "Ohio loves me".

My first "O-H-I-O"!!

A new month

So, I started a new rotation this week. It will be 5 weeks of Obstetrics with lots and lots of C-sections (I was in on 4 the first day). It's a private hospital with lots of different private doctors. So, for most of the c-sections I will be an assistant doing whatever the private doctor is comfortable letting me do. This means my range of activity widely varies from doc to doc. I do get to be the primary surgeon on clinic patients with another resident/attending with me. I'm getting more comfortable and confident with each one and I'm having a good time doing it. However, with this new rotation comes a new adjustment period where I get to figure out what my role is on the team. Also, I still feel like I'm struggling to figure out logistics all over again. I'm in a new hospital so I'm learning where everything is located....like gloves, speculums, bathroom, cafeteria, etc. I think it's going to be something we get to go through at the beginning of each rotation. It can be pretty frustrating at times, but it's getting better each day.

On to better things....

This weekend was a very fun filled weekend. I only wish I had more pictures to share from it. Friday night I joined some friends for a wine tasting night at a local cafe. It was $15 for 5 glasses of wine...and I mean solid glasses of wine! And they were all really good. I think I found a new tasty Chardonnay to purchase in the future. It was a good night with five friends, five glasses of wine, 2 meals, and one dog on the patio at the corner of 3rd and Michigan St. The weather was perfect!

Saturday I woke up with one BIG headache. Wine always gets me the next day. So, I popped back some ibuprofen and got ready for another fun-filled day. We went to IKEA! Kim, Matt, and I headed to Cincinnati for afternoon shopping at IKEA and a Reds game. IKEA turned out to be quite the experience. It was a tad overwhelming, but it helped get me thinking about how to fill up the gaps in my condo without going broke on a resident's salary. I ended up buying a new set of dishes to replace my grandmother's old set that I've been using, and some window drapes for my bedroom. I'm sure I'll be back. After IKEA, we headed downtown to the Great American Ball Park (what a name) to see the Reds play the Braves. In the parking garage I saw a Ford Explorer with Razorback decals all over it!! I was so excited to feel the Arkansas love! I wish I had a picture of it. :( The ball park is right on the river and neighbors the Bengal's stadium. We enjoyed watching the game and eating all the delicious and expensive food. We tried the famous Skyline chili dogs, garlic fries, and a pretzel. All were very delicious. However, we only made it to the 5th inning before leaving because we were so tired. I'm not sure if it was IKEA, standing room only tickets, the carb overload, or all of the above that wore us out. But not to worry, the fun didn't end at our early departure. We drove all the way to Kentucky (across the river) to get gas and even stopped at an outlet mall on the way back to do a little more shopping. Somehow on the way home hunger stuck again, so we ate at Junior's Tacos when we got back to Columbus. Junior's Tacos is a taco stand/van parked next to a convenience store on the corner of 4th and Highland that makes one mean burrito! It was delicious and only $5. I highly recommend it.

I spent Sunday morning cleaning my condo. It needed it! Then a few friends came over around 1pm and we had a few hours of pool time. I feel so pale. I think hospitals suck the tan out of me. Hopefully this afternoon helped a little bit. Then I ended the day back at Kim's house with grilled pizza! She made 4 different kinds and they were all amazing. I had a fabulous weekend. I'm off next weekend too so I have all of this week to figure out my next adventure!

The Bengal's Stadium in Cincinnati

Kim and Matt at the ball park

Kim and me enjoying our 24 oz cold beer. Don't ask how much it cost!

The Great American Ball Park. The Reds beat the Braves, although we didn't stay long enough to actually see it.

4th of July Weekend

I'm a little behind on posting. So I thought I'd start with my 4th of July weekend activities. I had the weekend off so I got to enjoy myself quite a bit after my first week as an intern....and boy was it a crazy week (more on the doctor life later). The weekend started off with Red White and Boom, which is the Columbus city firework show. Everyone in my class that wasn't on call met at Kim's house for drinks and then walked down to a viewing area. The fireworks were amazing. I love a good firework show and Columbus did a really good job. It was also really nice to get together with some of my classmates to vent about our first week. It's nice to know that, for the most part, everyone feels just as lost and stupid as I do on a daily basis. :) Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from that night to share. It was a good way to start off the weekend.

Saturday, I spent most of the day doing stuff around the condo before meeting up with friends in the Short North area for gallery-hop. The first Saturday of every month is gallery-hop, when all the galleries and shops stay open late, some with wine and food, AND all of which are conveniently located in the same area as all the bars. :) So after checking out some galleries and shops we naturally stopped by a few bars. It turned out to be a pretty late night and I think we all had a good time.

Sunday, the 4th, was the Doo-Da Parade. It is the annual 4th of July Parade in Columbus. I had heard from many people that it was an interesting show and is a must-see. My friend Katie hosted a Doo-Da parade party at her house since the parade passes down her street. Apparently anyone who wants to be in the parade can just show up the day of and get in line. There's no real theme, so most "floats" or "groups" were not decked out in red, white, and blue. I took a lot of pictures this day. And as you can see it was quite interesting!!

This guy was near the beginning of the parade. Check out that short skirt!

Here are the Fidel's against Tar Balls. You'll notice a lot of people have political messages as their theme. Anything goes in Doo-Da parade...
Miranda, Kim, and Adam enjoying the parade watching party

Another BP oil message...

This is a super creepy car with all kinds of weird things glued to it. These people show up to all the community events. They were at Comfest as well. Creepy.

This one was a fun political float.
The Arizona Border Patrol following the truck.

The Viking Warrior trying to get past the border patrol. :)

Doo-Da Parade continued...

The Ghostbusters showed up for this event as well.

With the van this time!

Batman and his Batmobile

This was a Craig's List demonstration. I'm guessing these people weren't happy with their purchases. That guys is a mattress with a "slight urine smell"

Smurfs

Creepy Zombie Grandma

Lauren, Me, Kim, and Adam enjoying the parade

After the parade was over we headed to the Short North area to shops, bars, and pizza. Here's Adam showing off his spirit.

Lauren and Paul at the Short North Tavern

Katie and me

Batman showed up and proceeded to hit on all the ladies. Apparently he suits up for event a few times a year. When he was leaving he tried to give Katie an unwelcomed kiss! Creepy!
Kim, me, and Maggie enjoying being out of the heat.

Just loved the great 4th spirit in this pic. Red, White, and Blue!

My last weekend of freedom...

So the very LONG week of orientation is finally over. It was filled with boring lectures and computer training for five solid days 8-5. Ugh! But we made sure to counter-balance the boredom with a different happy hour at the end of every day. It was a good way to get to know everyone a little more before we all set off different directions this year. We also met a few other interns from other departments along the way...even managed to piss off a particular Med-Peds intern at lunch one day. It was comical to say the least.

The fun filled weekend officially began on Thursday night for me (yes we had more orientation stuff on Friday), but I just couldn't resist Ladies 80s night at a bar in The Short North area. I initially wasn't going to go because I felt I needed to be home one night this week to get some things done before work started. Well I came home and got some things done and changed my mind at 930. Since no one had headed out yet, I packed an overnight bag and headed into town to dance the night away to 80s music. It was a blast and totally worth being a little sluggish the next day. It's really nice having friends that live within walking distance from the bars. I don't have to worry about getting home at the end of the night. :)

Part of the crew that went to ladies 80s. Me, Megan (Med-Peds), Lauren (OB), Lenore (Peds), Loriana (OB), and Maggie (OB)

The big event this weekend was Comfest, which is short for Community Festival. It's the big summer festival in Goodale Park in Columbus. Mom and Dad, it's the park we saw at the end of our house hunting weekend with the pond with the ducks. It's a lot bigger than I remember it looking back then. Comfest starts Friday night and lasts until Sunday evening. It has multiple stages with live music, shopping booths, food from multiple venders, and BEER! The best thing about Comfest is of course the people watching. When I first arrived Saturday afternoon I was entertained for a solid 10 minutes by this old man dancing to the music without a shirt. Think I might borrow a few of his moves. HA! Comfest is also an acceptable time for women to go topless. The first set of boobs I saw had flames painted on them. But not everyone was so crafty as to have them painted. And as the sun went down, more boobs came out. Don't worry, I'm still as modest as ever and did not partake in the topless tradition of Comfest. But I did buy one of the awesome, huge beer mugs with the Comfest logo.

That evening we left Comfest and walked to Huntington Park to see the Clippers play. They are a minor league baseball team that belongs to the Indians. It was suppose to be a resident social event, but it turned out being most of our class and two upper level residents. Oh well. We had a good time anyway.

Loriana and Me with our fabulous, but expensive beers. She had a friend working the beer booth so at least we got more bang for our buck in those mugs.

After getting beer we went to a booth that was handing out free discount cards, kind of like a Kroger card, that provides discounts to locally owned shops and restaurants. It promotes shopping local. At the tent they had free temporary tattoos! Loriana and I went a little crazy with it. I ended up with four...only because the fifth one didn't work out very well. Here's my favorite. It says "Hi. I'm clean." I have no idea what it advertises but I thought it was funny since I had been sweating for hours in the sun and was not clean in the least bit.

Proud of my tats.

Loriana went hard core and put one on her neck.

Ran into the Ghostbuster Geek Squad. They were proud of their costumes. They did a good job and I just had to take a pic like everyone else.
Finally more co-interns joined the fun. Pictured here: Kim, Me, Maggie, Yan, and Lo

Look at those colorful mugs! You got to pic your color.

At the gam we met up with more people from my class. Blair, Nick, and Erinn

Walking through the park I saw this guy walk by with legit cut off shorts. I busted out laughing and immediately pointed him out to my friends, discreetly of course. When we studied him a little more we got the impression that he either lost a bet or was dared to dress this way. Turns out he's a bachelor and his friends dressed him in dark blue jean cut offs, white velcro shoes, and a shirt that says "hey ladies this could be you." He was a good sport and let me take a pic with him.
Huntington Park from the outfield grass seating.

Enjoying the game

It was a good final weekend. The craziness starts Monday at 6:30. Shh...don't tell my fellow interns. I'm on an easy rotation and get to go in a little later to start off. Wish me luck!!

Pre-Intern Funivities

Hocking Hills:

One of the OSU graduates in my class planned a nice trip to Hocking Hills to go "cabrewing" and "camping". Hocking Hills is only an hour East/Southeast of Columbus (towards the hills...very pretty), so it wasn't a big drive for us. We drove down early Tuesday afternoon and went cabrewing, which is a new Ohio term I've learned. Basically it's a cute way of saying floating or canoeing with alcohol. I guess we aren't as fancy with our terminology in Arkansas. Or maybe we just assume the two naturally go together and don't feel the need to make a special statement to describe drinking while floating down a river. Maybe both?

When we got to the canoe outfitter place, we were told that the river was up and that they would only allow people with experience in a canoe on the river. Since some people weren't very confident in their paddling skills we got rafts instead. It worked out better in the end because we were able to focus our efforts more on talking and drinking instead of steering down the river. Our float lasted a few hours and then we headed to "camp," which really was a comfy cabin in the woods with a hot tub. :) That night we had cocktail hour with margaritas (I shared the limeade, corona, sprite recipe I learned from Daine's sister), cooked spaghetti, and enjoyed the hot tub. It was a good way to break the ice and get to know some of my fellow interns. Big thanks to Maggie for setting it all up!

Another note: Only 7 of 11 could make it to Hocking Hills. We found out might have a little confusion in the upcoming year with names. There is a Laura, Lauren, and Loriana. We have 2 Maggies, 2 Asian girls, and 2 Dr. Huffmans!! Erinn Bjorklund recently got married to Adam Huffman. :)

Erinn (Virginia), Susan (ECU), and Maggie Rosen (OSU) in their raft.

Loriana (OSU), Blair (SLU), and Maggie Liang (OSU) in my raft.

Maggie Liang and me. Everyone liked my super awesome coozie.

We hooked our two rafts together and floated down the river. By the way, it wouldn't have taken much effort to get a canoe down that river! The Buffalo offers more obstacles. It was running a little fast, so maybe that was the issue?? It wasn't near as pretty as our AR rivers!

Hot tub time!! The OSU ladies: Maggie R., Loriana, and Maggie L. Notice the "O"

Susan, Blair, and Erinn

The Chiefs' Dinner:

Friday night we went to the graduation of the chiefs and the fellows from OSU. It was held at a nice hotel on campus. We had a good time, but were quickly told that we were labeled the rebel class because we failed to attend journal club held at the chair's house the night before. We were told it was optional in our email....and no one wanted to go because we are hanging on to every last bit of freedom we have left. Today in orientation we were told that it was a madatory event, especially since it was at the chair of the department's house. Oh well. We aren't technically interns until next Monday anyway, so I don't think anyone is losing sleep over it. Despite all this we had a good time at the chief's dinner. It's definitely something to look forward to in four years!

Maggie L., Blair, Yan (UNC Chapel Hill), Loriana, and Maggie R. at cocktail hour before dinner.

The interns that made it. Not sure we were quite ready for the pic. And I think the photographer might have been a little unsteady on her feet.

All of us after dinner and ready to go to the after party!
Pictures of my place to come... When I'm ready :)