don’t get sick in july.

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i nearly had a heart attack yesterday when one of our chief residents called me at 10 am. i wasn’t technically on backup call, but my thoughts of course raced towards ‘what if they are desperate and just need me to cover for someone right NOW???’ seriously, i have nightmares about such things, because i totally treasure my time off and sometimes — like last week — my schedule really does seem too good to be true.

except now the party is over. i’m on every evening/night this week — josh and i won’t see each other awake for any significant length of time until monday! to my relief, though, the phone call was not summoning me to the PICU (oh, the horor!) but rather an apologetic one informing me that i would be on the wards in july. i had requested a weekend off that month thinking i might go to the blogher conference, but i hadn’t gotten tickets yet and it’s pretty expensive, so i was okay with the switch.

although admittedly, wards in july is a challenge, because july = new interns. as in, fresh out of med school, haven’t-seen-a-patient-in-several-months, just-got-back-from-tropical-vacation new interns. the enthusiasm may be there, but the experience — not so much. it will mean more work for me because that early in the game, a lot of supervision is necessary, but at least everyone will have a lot of energy and openness to learning. i think.

i haven’t gotten the rest of next year’s schedule yet. it’s kind of amazing to realize that this is the last residency schedule i will receive! after getting a sneak preview from the chief on the phone yesterday, i can pretty much count on it being comprised of:

• 1 or 2 q4 ward senior months
• 1 or 2 subspecialty nightfloat/days months
• 2 ER months (same as what i’m doing now)
• a research month
• a genetics month
• an endocrine month ♥
• an adolescent month
• a DRH level 2 NICU month

PICU and (the real) NICU are missing, because — (aside from backup, and the fact that i’m going to have to grab some random NICU procedures somehow) i don’t have to go back to those places!! i’m thrilled to say that none of these assignments require reporting to work before 7. hooray! every year, making strides closer to a civilized lifestyle . . .

running trial
after 10 days off and a week of only cross-training, i’m about to head out on a trial run now! i am not going to do anything too crazy and may end up just doing a few minutes on the treadmill followed by more elliptical, depending on how my hip feels. i have an ART appointment this morning so it will be good for me to be able to report to my chiro how the run went. i may even update later, depending on my level of excitement . . .

the rest of the day
some emails, some errands, some reading, and the like. plus, a 3pm – 11pm shift. actually, really not a bad start to the week.

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3.15.09

workout: 1 hour elliptical. average HR 176, max 188. 7 ellipti-miles covered.

doin’ time: i would love to say that this meal was the grand finale of great food fast‘s winter section, but i still have one more pasta dish to make later this week! however, it was fun to make such an old school dinner. i felt like a 1950s housewive serving up my roast with potatoes, but honestly — let’s face it, i enjoy playing [the sexy, youthful version of] june cleaver now and then. recipes used included roast beef with new potatoes and shallots, glazed pearl onions (loosely followed with peas added), and easy tiramisu. there was also a recipe for iceberg wedges with thousand island that i followed, but it is not online.

pre-roasting: check out that hunk o’ meat.

iceberg salad with homemade (somewhat health-ified) thousand island dressing. welcome to my 1970s steakhouse.

roast beef with potatoes, shallots, and pearl onions/peas à la martha

easy tiramisu! from the dessert section. actually, though, while easy, in my eyes it wasn’t quite tiramisu, and i wasn’t a huge fan. i think i would have preferred using marscapone to the neufchatel martha substituted.

gourmet TV dinner packaged for josh later this week, since i won’t be home.
yes, he is spoiled.