101 in 1001

So a lot of my friends have done this and I like the idea and now that I have a fancy blog I actually post to here’s my shot. In 1001 days it’ll be April 26, 2009 and I’ll be 29. Wow. So here it goes.

1. Finish medical school.
2. Complete my CaRMs application.
3. Have a residency position in Ob/Gyn
4. Be happily married for over 4 years (which it will be by the end of 1001 days)
5. Visit New York.
6. See a Broadway musical. - saw 2!!! The Color Purple and Spring Awakening - where I got to be on stage!!!
7. CUBA 2007!!!!
8. Have a crazy fun time at the Italy/Greece wedding (May 2007)
9. Get to 150 lbs and maintain a decent muscle mass.
10. Re-learn enough French to carry on a somewhat decent conversation.
11. Visit Montreal again with Foreman.
12. Finish (truthfully re-finish) Methos and Canoegirl’s slideshow (again).
13. Buy my very own car. I'm crossing this off because we have a new car and I no longer want to have a 2nd car so I think that counts.
14. Learn some conversational Spanish before going to Cuba. - enough to be cute :P
15. Learn the violin.
16. Buy a mortgage on a little place that Foreman and I can call our own.
17. See my brother’s new apartment.
18. Finish “Taking Flight”.
19. Buy Foreman a BBQ.
20. Finish my PGY-1 year.
21. Paddle the Ottawa River.
22. Buy a canoe (maybe as a graduation present to myself).
23. Paddle the Fond du Lac river.
24. Get a new CD player (we have NONE that work)
25. Pass my LMCC exams.
26. Visit the East Coast of Canada.
27. Start swing dancing lessons with my brother.
28. Take my sister canoeing.
29. See my new nephew Ben.
30. Have my sister teach me snowboarding.
31. Go climbing with Gora.
32. Go to Ireland again.
33. Do some type of regular exercise with Foreman.
34. Start boxing again.
35. See India.Arie in concert.
36. Go see a public screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show.
37. Organize my finances.
38. Get my Alberta health care sorted out.
39. Do a duet with Foreman in public.
40. Get a new Canadian passport.
41. Have coffee with Dr. Teeth.
42. Get Christmas pictures taken with Foreman. - we got family pictures taken which I think counts.
43. Get an Irish passport.
44. Take a road trip with Karen Brown (preferably in a T-bird convertible)
45. Get abdominal definition.
46. Tile my bathroom floor. - got a new bathroom floor in a new bathroom that doesn't need to be retiled :)
47. Read 10 articles on HIV vaccine research.
48. Make my Osprey Wings T-shirt fit me (get it altered)
49. Fix the strap on my red dress.
50. Read “The Odyssey”.
51. Have a baby or figure out when we’ll have one within the 2009/2010 year.
52. Act in another play.
53. Play Dance Dance Revolution.
54. Confidently wear a bikini in Cuba.
55. Paddle the Bowron lake circuit in BC
56. Become a member of Greenpeace.
57. Start a compost. - house came with a compost.
58. Buy a pair of killer shoes.
59. Have dinner with Ed. - I got as close as I could to achieving this one...
60. Plant a garden. - my house has a garden :)
61. Get a decent-sized houseplant.
62. Don’t kill it.
63. Add two new software programs to my Pocket PC.
64. Decrease my massive amount of excess paper storage. - I'm still working on it but I've done A LOT - enough to cross this off the list.
65. Take my old clothes to Goodwill.
66. Get a picture with all of the Pauls’ extended family for Oma. (maybe with some computer assistance).
67. Spend a couple of days relaxing in the middle of nowhere at Christmastime.
68. Have a play-date with my nieces.
69. Take some of the pictures I’ve always wanted to take.
70. Get a puppy. - my friend in Winnipeg is getting a Golden Retriever and that's as close as Foreman says I'm getting to owning my own puppy so I get partial custody - yay.
71. Swim with the dolphins.
72. Create my own itunes Celebrity Playlist of my favourite songs
73. Go to the Toronto Science museum.
74. Go to Disneyworld with Tim and Carlin.
75. Visit NASA and watch Foreman drool.
76. See a Cirque du Soleil show. - I saw the Shanghai Chinese Acrobat show which totally and completely counts as a viable alternative and I saw Ka in Las Vegas which is an actual Cirque du Soleil show.
77. Update my wardrobe to be more “grown-up”.
78. Play a giant game of Civilization with the Morris brothers.
79. Have both sets of parents over for Thanksgiving dinner.
80. Go on a sailboat. - I think a catamaran counts and I certainly rocked that boat.
81. Tell Ronnie Burkett how much he inspires me.
82. Survive my Psychiatry rotation.
83. Start to pay off my line of credit.
84. Get couple massages with Foreman. - we went to the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa and I had a facial and Foreman had Reflexology and I think that counts enough.
85. Fix my lamps.
86. Sing at graduation. - amazing!
87. Update my blog on at least a weekly basis.
88. Have coffee with Louis and see how he’s doing. - we talked on the phone and I drank coffee and that's as close as I'll probably come for a while - it was soooo good to catch up with him.
89. See PrincessGwyn before she moves to Calgary.
90. Learn at least 10 more words in Cree.
91. Get my legs waxed.
92. Organize my pictures that aren’t in albums.
93. Get a pedicure with my mom.
94. Read all of Paulo Coelho’s books that I haven’t read yet.
95. Hike Mount Robson.
96. Complete my china set.
97. Have a games night at our house.
98. Take Foreman to the African Lion Safari.
99. Buy Foreman a new suit. - we realized if we bought him a new shirt and tie he really didn't need a new suit. Yay for new ties.
100.Have a fancy date night at a jazz club in a sexy dress.
101.Have dates with myself at least once a month.

Small Victories

So on Thursday all my patients seemed to be cranky and depressed and although I know that has less to do with me and more to do with the fact that they have to live in the hospital (which is of course no picnic) I still felt down about it.
Then yesterday there were lots of small victories that perked me right up for the weekend.
Mr. KN was sitting up in his bed without his oxygen he's been on for the last week and he looked great. And when I checked his oxygen saturations they were over 90% and when I showed him he gave me this great toothless grin.
Mr. LC's family was at the hospital and wanted to have a family meeting about his condition. I had printed off some information about his new condition and talked about the 3 main medical issues still outstanding while in hospital. He has a host of outpatient specialists (actually my current staff is one of them) and his family said they want me to be his long-term doctor. They also call me Dr. Amanda which is adorable.
Mr. DC finally got out of the ICU which is a victory in and of itself. I had seen him in Emerg almost 2 weeks ago and admitted him to hospital. He's this big biker guy that's been confined to his bed due to very bad arthritis. Later that night his breathing got so bad he had to be intubated and transfered to the ICU where things were very tenuous for a long time. Now he's out in the CCU and he doesn't even need oxygen (he's on BiPAP at night which he loves (people hate BiPAP) - he wants to market "Marijuana BiPAP") (*BiPAP helps people breathe by adding positive pressure when people inspire as opposed to CPAP where the positive pressure is continuous.*) Anyway, I saw him today (that's how he told me about the marijuana BiPAP) and I said "Hey do you remember me? It took you a while to get back to me." and he said "Look what I went through just to get to you darling." I love people that can put such a positive spin on tough experiences.

Yesterday was a good day to be a doctor (in training).

Say What?

So today we had clerk teaching in the afternoon and our chief resident got a page (this is not something unusual, pagers go off like an extremely annoying kazoo rehearsal). He answered his page and it was his brother calling to annoy him. He asked what our chief resident was doing and he said "I'm teaching the clerks and they're looking at me like "Why is he getting personal calls at work?" (which we weren't because we had no idea who wason the phone). Then he said "You're asking me if any of them are hot?" and we laughed and he said (really quickly) "Yeah she's married."

I'm the only clerk that's married.

I thought I had heard something wrong so I asked my friends BK and Choy and they both said individually that they had heard the exact same thing.

Sooooo, my chief resident thinks I'm hot. That's right....I've still got it. :)

My Time in BC (mostly in pictures)

After the annoyance that was some of my familial experiences in the valley I had a very pleasant time in BC. One of the best things was how clean the air tasted and smelled. How I long for that now in the suffocation of Hamilton. It was great to spend time with some of my most favourite people too so here's a tour of my trip to BC in pictures:

The Pauls Women

Last night I went to my aunt's cabin on the lake close to where I grew up as a young girl to meet for "appys and drinks" with "the Pauls' women". It was an interesting evening for me as I moved away with my parents and brother from the family farm and all the extended family when I was 8 years old. So although there is some commonality there's quite a bit of diversion that's happened in our life paths over the years.
The cottage was absolutely beautiful, right on the lake although I hear that my aunt and uncle are going to tear it down to build something new (the top floor is bigger than my apartment). We all sat out on the deck, my 3 aunts and my 3 cousins-in-law and my Oma. My Oma and I probaby had the most in common save my one aunt who now thinks that I am exponentially more interesting now that I'm going to be a doctor. My cousins-in-law all married my male cousins who are farmers and have proven fertile many times over except the one who looks like she would have a baby as soon as possible (she only married my cousin in January). All of these women have very different lives and very different relationships than Foreman and I have. Not that that's a bad thing it just is such a foreign environment for me to be in: talking about kids and farming and shopping and church missions. It was nice to reconnect with them and we definitely have a bond as family (that was readily apparent) but I did call my mom this morning and thanked her again for moving us out of Greendale. I think my spirit would have suffered greatly had I been forced into that mould which I quite obviously do not fit.
(Little Samara with her tante's Smirnoff Ice bottle. You get one Irish guy in the family and suddenly...)

The Wack

It's July 3rd which is a holiday for most people and should be a holiday for me (and sort of is because I'm not working) but I'm in the hospital with no women labouring sittng across the library from the resident who should have kindly told me he was taking the day off. Not that I'm bitter (because I most definitely am).
I've been here in Chilliwack where I was born and raised til I was 8 and it's been...interesting to say the least. Staying with my grandparents was really great last week but last night my grandmother went crazy saying that I never spend time with them (even though that's all I did except work). I think she might have clinical depression. Good thing my grandpa is funny.
I had a great weekend with my friends and my sister and her friend Dean. We had a fun Canada Day celebration and I got to spend the majority of the weekend with my Drinking Buddy so that was awesome. Also, Jo rented a car and picked me up from the Wack in Orange Hotness and we had a super fun time catching up.
Spending time with family and friends makes me wonder if I want to live back in Edmonton where I'm surrounded by family and friends. Not because I don't love them all dearly and miss them all terribly but because the expectations are too high about what I'm supposed to do and who I'm supposed to be. It's a bit suffocating. So this trip, even more this weekend, has brought me more questions than answers.