Red River Gorge(ous) and a Wonderful Weekend

I have so many blogs in my head to post, I figured that I shouldn't let this one go too far past this weekend.





Friday, my husband and I left town to visit one of the best natural beauties in Kentucky--Red River Gorge/Natural Bridge. My best friend and her husband got a cabin for the weekend, and invited us along. The drive there was beautiful, and when we got there, the cabin was quaint, cute, and without air conditioning (not so pleasant, but bearable).





We had a dinner of steak and baked potatoes with salad and then dessert by the fire. MMMMM 'smores. I'd been craving those for quite some time. I can't remember the last time I sat by a fire, not worrying about the next test, the next day, the next hoop to jump through. Other than mosquitoes feasting on me, I can't complain at all.





The next morning, we had yummy bacon, biscuits, apples, and eggs. We went hiking for around 3 hours. I love hiking, and it had been forever. I like getting to find tiny things along the trail, like a snail with it's "antennae" outstretched, gliding along a leaf; a vibrantly colored piece of fungus growing on a log; an oddly shaped tree mimicking a pregnant belly, or making a perfect seat out of its branches. I love to see the motion of tiny things alive, juxtaposed against an overall silence and stillness.





We got tired and hungry after our hike, came back to the cabin and were quickly rained in by a down-pour. We took full advantage, and had a refreshing nap. Afterwards, we canoed a few miles UPSTREAM, and I jumped off of this rock:

Seriously, it's a LOT taller than it appears, especially from the top.

We canoed back to the cabin, had dinner of chicken and veggie kabobs, and sat by the fire again, roasting marshmallows.

Sunday, we came back to town for church, and had a wonderful service about the qualities of a Good Shepherd. I'm so happy to know that I have a savior who I can trust, follow, and lean on. Sunday night was VBS. Seeing the kids participate and learn is great, and I had fun along the way too.

Heaven on a Table and a Burrito?

Ahhhhhh. Freedom. TODAY WAS THE LAST DAY OF THIRD YEAR! WHORAY! I'm going to blog a reflection on third year soon, but I had to say what I did to celebrate first.


Last fall, my wonderful husband got me a gift certificate to use at a local salon and spa. So, today, I got my first ever massage and herbal body wrap, as well as my second ever facial. Heavenly.


I'm not sure which part I liked best. The facial was delectible. The herbal wrap, a little weird, but, I got to take a nap during it. The massage needed to last longer....ahhhh.


So, the burrito part. For the herbal wrap, they took these sheets which were steeped in some tea-looking liquid and put one under me, one over me, and then proceeded to wrap me up in this garb, which, seriously, had to have made me look like a burrito (aluminum foil included). There was a layer of plastic, then multiple layers of those hypothermia/fire protective tent thing type material, then more plastic, then blankets, and then more blankets. It would have been great to have gotten a picture of me in there!


This might have to do instead:

http://newmedia.funnyjunk.com/pictures/kitten-burrito-in-a-spinach-tortilla.jpg

After that was the massage, mostly of my upper back, shoulders, and arms, with a bit of neck thrown in.

Nice, very nice. I recommend it to everyone, especially after finishing third year.

July 1 = The Medical New Year

This year, I was actually on the wards when the infamous "JULY 1" occurred. It was interesting, and a bit terrifying.

One of our new interns was from my medical school, the other, from a state in the North East... a foreign man in a very foreign country. He had the unfortunate "luck" of getting one of our most complicated patients for his first day EVER as a REAL DOCTOR.

Poor thing, to say he was a bit discombobulated is putting it lightly. His first presentation was probably the quality of a third year medical student in their first few months of school. Granted, as I said, this patient was VERY complicated, but he was not able to calm himself enough before hand and get collected over the whole thing. His order was wrong, he left things out, included things he shouldn't have, and said the name of each electrolyte before each of their values in the BMP. Needless to say, by the end of his presentation, there were beads of sweat on his brow. By the end of rounds, he was kneeling down, muttering unintelligible phrases and what I think were a few curse words as well.

In the next few days, he seemed to rebound, but his rebound came in the form of assertiveness about things sort of ancillary to the beef of the presentation. I'm sure he'll be fine, but to see his thrashing, treading, and near-drowning the first day was a learning point.

Lesson Learned--
1. July 1 stinks
2. Remember to breathe July 1, 2009---this could very well be me (and will probably be me in 2009)
3. Consider staying the night of June 30, 2009 in the hospital, just to get ready
4. Do whatever it takes to prepare for the morning of July 1, 2009
5. Remember to breathe July 1, 2009

What It's Worth--
It will probably be worth not feeling as if my entire previous 4 years of medical education weren't wasted, and also be worth some self-esteem that first gut and mind wrenching day.

Like a Knot on a Log

I used the wrong criteria with which to choose a husband. Instead of choosing a loving, caring, handsome, smart, faithful man, I should have chosen based on one thing.... Is he a lighter sleeper than me? His alarm is forever going off in the morning, NEVER bothering him, and keeping me up with the constant snoozing and snoozing and more snoozing.

This morning was the worst--his alarm went of 1/2 hour before mine, and continued to buzz for the next 30 minutes, every 5 minutes. Needless to say, I was less than happy with him. So, I thought I'd exact a little revenge--after getting out of the shower, I flipped the overhead light on, hoping he'd wake up.

NADA--not so much as a squint.

So then, I decided to stomp through the house.....not a FLINCH! Then, I decided to pull the covers from his body............THE BOY DIDN'T MOVE! By this time I was incredulous at how much of a heavy sleeper he is, and truly wanting to strangle him in his sleep for it. I decided to dry my hair and leave the bathroom door open.....shortly thereafter, he rolled over and opened his eyes, but I'm pretty sure it was just a coincidence, not me being successful at waking his butt up. From now on, I've decided I'm just going to roll him from the bed in the mornings, and let the floor wake him, he he he.

Lesson Learned: Pick a husband based on who is the lighter sleeper (j/k)

What it's Worth: An extra 30 min, 45 min, whatever of sleep each night.

God Sent a Rainbow

In the span of two days, I've seen a real rainbow, seen a picture of a double rainbow (on the screen at church), and heard somebody as I was walking by mention the word rainbow.

I think it's a sign.

When I saw the rainbow, I did think it was a message and a promise from God. It sent calming, peaceful feelings, and I had a sense of "Don't worry, this won't happen again." I hope I'm reading the signs correctly.

Today in church, they had a rainbow up on the projector just because. So I decided to look up the part of the Bible where God explains His meaning behind the rainbow.

Genesis 9:7-17

"...As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it." Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you--the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you--every living creature on earth. I estabilsh my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:

I have set my R A I N B O W in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never agian will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."

So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."

I've had a flood recently, and been found wanting of a rainbow. I finally got it this weekend, literally.

Lesson Learned--God does send us messages to say "I'm here, I love you, I'm watching, and here's my promise."

What it's Worth--Security

Addendum

For those wondering if I'm dying of cancer or something, be relieved, I am not. This something I speak of which is going on is not something that would threaten life or limb, just a something that was acutely painful and will be remembered the rest of my life as such. I'm doing ok, I'll be ok. Just taking some time.

Definition

Well, I've been dealing with something that I really don't want to describe in detail online, but let's just say that it's been emotionally and physically difficult. Some people know about it, others have absolutely no clue, and for those who don't know about it, I'll probably keep it that way as I don't necessarily want to divulge the info in anything that might be construed as an attempt at pity or sympathy. At this point, I feel if I were to tell somebody about it, then it would feel to me as if that would be the purpose of telling somebody--just to have them feel sorry for me.

This time has been spent trying to take care of myself and still deal with school, and I feel that I'm stretched and challenged by walking the fine line of paying too much service to either one. I know that people might find it ridiculous that I feel guilty for paying too much attention to myself, but it's an ugly truth as to what school has done to me. Feeling this way has somewhat opened my eyes as to how much pathology is involved in school... I've been consumed with it all my life, and I often am enveloped in the idea that focusing everything on school is in effect focusing on myself, but really, this is an illusion. I've felt that school has left me a flat, one-dimensional person who is only capable of having life defined by school.

Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself-- after all, I have a husband, an active role in my church, two dogs, I play soccer and softball, and I occasionally get to do one of my favorite activities--riding horses. But I do feel that I often have a hard time defining myself outside of school, a hard time in finding meaning in my life outside of this educational process which will turn into a career which will define me as well.

If I had any readers (haha) I'd pose this question-- how do you find balance? On Oprah's re-run today she was talking to Justin Timberlake (one of my FAVES!) about celebrities having a hard time not letting "What you do" define "Who you are" I don't think that it's just celebrities that have a hard time with that---I think everybody does...how does one find definition outside of "what you do" to help answer the "who you are"?

This post is getting really long. Perhaps I'll return sometime soon, I'm still pondering.

Learning Point--sometimes life comes in and awakens us to what's going on, instead of us just floating along the merry way

What it's Worth--I'm sure the worth lies in not having to wake up one day at 50 years old and realize that you've wasted your youth and vibrancy without knowing who you are and what you're truly doing.