Jet Lagged

Luckily, I was able to squeeze in a quick visit to my parents' home this past week. Originally, I had planned on leaving after my shift on Sunday night. I raced to get all of my dictations done and sprinted out to the parking lot in the snow. The usual 20-minute drive to the airport took over 45 minutes, and sadly my flight was canceled due to the current storm, which ultimately resulted in 13 more inches to the already established impenetrable wall of white fluffy stuff on my lawn.

ALL of Monday was spent in various airports and my new route included an extra layover and routing through O'Hare, where 200+ flights were canceled. So, I arrived in Phoenix late Monday night, over 22 hours later than planned.

The visit home was brief, but great. It was good to spend time with my quirky brothers and sister-in-law. We helped make gingerbread cookies on Christmas Eve. For reasons unknown, my mother had acquired a lobster-shaped cookie cutter, so many a ginger lobster was born. Being the reclusive group we are, we skipped the hometown Santa parade and gathering of the masses in the town plaza, and headed off to our traditional candlelit church service. The failing octogenarian organist played at 1/3 the correct tempo, and appeared to have a dissociative fugue during the 4th verse of "Joy to the World" as she suddenly began playing a different song with her left hand, while somehow continuing on with her right. It was very strange.

Many a homemade tamale was scarfed down by yours truly. The javelina are again on the rampage, and gobbled up mom's poinsettias by the front door. I hope they get a tummyache.

My parents loved the GPS unit that my brothers and I pitched in on. (It's always more fun to me to watch other people open the gifts I picked out than opening my own.) The MRE's sent by AG were a big laugh, although having arrived later than planned, there wasn't a good time for us to make a meal of them together.

Christmas Day there was prime rib, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, Yorkshire pudding, cranberry jelly, and cranberry relish. Sister-in-law outdid herself again with a chocolate cream pie and blackberry/raspberry cheesecake in addition to the assortment of holiday cookies. AG was able to call and is doing well. Apparently, there's a surplus of lobster and steak at the current base he is at, poor guy!

The flight home was uneventful. Half of the snow had melted away in my absence. No sooner had I made it in the door, when I got a call asking if I could work the overnight shift as someone had called out sick. I already had the early shift today, so that wasn't possible, but I got up extra early in the morning and called in to make sure they weren't in overwhelmed mode.

Today was the usual list of suspects: headache, nonspecific abdominal pain, chest pain, acute exacerbation of chronic back pain, neck strain, suicidal ideation, scabies, vaginal bleeding, et al. Guess it's back to the grindstone!

Um, yeah...

It's been a while since I've written anything here, and it is not for lack of activity. Today is day 14 since I have worked a shift in the Emergency Department. Two weeks ago, Army Guy and I packed up my Saturn and drove off to Ohio to spend a week with his family and high school friends. (AG's car threw a fit and decided to throw a piston while he was driving down the other weekend, which ultimately led to selling it to an "auto recycler" and the decision to rent a car until he deploys.) I had never met any of them before, and was nervous-- although mostly about if I would make a good first impression with the family's 20 year-old Sheltie. The week flew by though, and it turns out that AG and I actually like each other enough to survive long car rides!

This past week, we went to Chicago to attend the American College of Emergency Physician's annual assembly. It is basically four days of death-by-powerpoint followed by late-night drinking/dining with one's co-workers. My program pays for each senior resident to attend because it is also a good networking opportunity for residents to look for job openings across the country. AG was also able to go with me, so he spent the days exploring Chicago and then we would meet up each evening. The last night we managed to squeeze in a date night and went to see "The Brothers Karamosov" at Looking Glass Theatre. The stage itself was pretty small, but the performance blew us away, as we usually go to local community/college theater.

Halloween ended up being pretty quiet. We passed out candy to the local trick-or-treaters, and then went to see a local production of "Dracula", which turned out to be in a church basement of all places! It didn't quite compare with the professional theater company, but it still was a fun way to spend the evening.

So, it's been a busy couple of weeks, and I am not exactly looking forward to my shift tomorrow!