Going back to rotations…

07-28-07

I don’t know…this month I took off to study was needed. I wish I could have another month out of work, but alas if I want to be done with school I have to go back. I’ve been keeping up on my work—studying hard, doing questions every day, but decided to delay my examination date. Instead of taking boards on the 1st of the month, I will now take it in September. The decision was made about two weeks ago when I realized that I will not be ready and would benefit from a cardiology rotation before being examined. This is the right choice for me, and I’m happy I’ve made it.

Last weekend Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out. Originally I didn’t think I had the energy to read it, so I decided to get Omer a copy and wait until I could concentrate on reading it, but… a day after I pre-order the book for Omer, I decided to pre-order it for myself as well, just in case I would want to read it.

And so… exactly a week ago I was sitting in my apartment trying very hard to finish all the questions I intended on finishing that day and waiting for that darn book to arrive at my doorsteps…

The mail carrier was very amused by a little note I left on the door:

“Harry Potter is welcome in this Muggle dwelling. Please knock loudly, as we don’t want to miss you! We love Snape, Snape is good, we like Snape;

… well… you get the point. At that point I still didn’t think I would actually summon up the energy to concentrate on the book, but when it finally arrived… I started reading it immediately. This is the first book (non school book) that I’ve read since mom died—it was good, but I had a few problems with the story—My love affair with Harry has been going on 6 years now… the first book was brought to me by Lori and Banana when they came to visit me back in 2001. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Well, I put the book down for the night, and the next day I took the train to NYC to see Abba. Well… on the way there I was reading, and overheard a loud and lively conversation about the 7th book by a bunch of people. As I didn’t want to know the end, I turned around and asked them not to give any spoilers away (please!). They laughed and said that they would NEVER do that. That’s the true spirit of Harry Potter fans! Well, I was several chapters away from the end of this incredible epic when I got to dad’s hotel. I was happy to see that he was still very tired and needed another hour of sleep… and by the time he got up I finished the book, (but not the epilogue). We decided to go on a walk from South Ferry all the way back up.

This was a nice day with Abba—I love walking and so does he. It was a bit warm but it was just so nice to walk on the riverbank. Manhattan is more than Broadway, and I enjoyed seeing it.

Hmmm… what else. Since Potter, I read another book—צלה של הרוח/קרלוס רואיס סאפון (La Sombra Del Viento/ Carlos Ruiz Zafon). Dad gave it to me saying he liked it a whole lot. I too enjoyed it! It was very interesting and moving. I have no idea what the book is called in English, but I’m sure it was translated to English, so you should get yourselves a copy.

Now completely to a different matter—a few days ago I got sick and tired of questions, so I took a day off. Instead of questions I now faced the scary realization that my 4th year was not (and still isn’t) planned out completely. I emailed one of the programs I’ve been in touch with. Previously they told me that ‘they maybe have a place but not really and they’ll let me know… etc…’ I asked them to finalize it. It was approved, which is excellent, so that’s one less rotation to worry about. Then I contacted MH at school to ask for help understanding what I still need to schedule. Apparently I was wrong in my planning and was happy to find it now. Additionally she told me one of the places I planned on applying with did not take students from our school due to some legal issue on the application process. Ugg! But anyways, I contact everyone I could get and tried to finalize things. I didn’t get very far, but at least until the middle of November everything is now set. I still need to contact one hospital that never approved my application and still need to contact the rural medicine office… I emailed them twice with no success… I don’t have their phone number or else I would have called them already. That’s one of my missions for next week.

Well… if you still want to read my ramblings, you should know that I’m starting Emergency Medicine next week and got the ‘sucky’ schedule—I start at 3 and finish at 11. YUCK. I have one day that I start at 7 in the morning and don’t finish until 11. Again. YUCK. I lacked out on the weekends though—I only have to work one weekend (7-7 both Sunday and Saturday), so at least I get a little bit of a break. … To be honest (and I know I said it earlier in this entry), I would like to have another month off. [I should have been a school teacher—they get summers off if they choose not to teach summer school. I have the highest respect for teachers, and I would have enjoyed doing that for a living. Maybe I will one day.]

My kitties are doing well. They are both shedding a bit more now and they just absolutely love being brushed often :o) I think they actually love it that I was home with them for this month! …yes… they did sleep for most of the day, but when they were up they curled up in my lap and wanted to be petted.

The quilt was finally finished yesterday! Well, it was finished earlier in the week, but I decided to make that sleeve in the back in case they wanted to hang the quilt instead of use it as a quilt. I am both happy and sad to be done with it. I chose this panel together with mom and dad back in December during my winter break, and in some way I see it as mom’s creation as well as mine. There is actually a small part she quilted—she showed me how to do a certain stitch, and I did not undo it, so it stayed and only I know where it is.

This quilt is not perfect—I thought I figured out the binding, only to realize that the corners did not want to go into place… so they are a bit rounded, and I am okay with that. I did learn a lot with this quilt—I think it is a much higher quality than the first I made. The end results pleased me to no ends!

I have two other panels in my closet, but I don’t know if I am up for doing another quilt from a panel just yet… I had this idea of doing a 100 good wishes quilt. It’s actually a Chinese tradition—having people send in square blocks with a good wish, reaching 100 blocks with 100 different good wishes, and then putting them all together. It seems like such a fun idea. If I had a baby, I probably would have done it for him or her. But my baby is invisible… my baby at the moment is my education. I’ve been in labor pains for 3 whole years now… I bet you didn’t know that to have that kind of a baby you have to be pregnant for 4 whole years? Oh yeah… and when it is born, it is premature… it takes 3-4 additional years to get out of the NICU. LOL! Hmmm… I must be a bit tired with my life at the moment. The sacrifice I make is big—and I am quite aware of how big it really is… I realize that I would be rewarded with a wonderful exciting occupation, but, I am still very very tired of the whole process and just needed to vent a bit.

To one last completely unrelated topic—on my winter break of my second year I took my camera home (film camera). This week I found my camera and realized that were 8 exposures there. I completely forgot what was in there—I’ve been taking a lot of pictures with my digital camera and could not for the life of me recall what pictures I might have taken with the 35mm one. And so came the wonderful thought that maybe, just maybe there were some pictures of mom from that visit. I hastily took 16 more pictures (mostly of the cats) and ran over to target to have it developed in the 1 hour place. When I paid for the pictures later I went over to the car and opened up the envelope. No pictures of mom. Not even one. All of them were of the mountains following the snow storm in Phoenix. It must have been an amazing view at the time, but this was a very painful disappointment. It’s amazing how much pain a single roll of film could bring.

Well, that’s really it—I rambled and complained about being in school, I talked about almost everything… I think I should call it a night then!

Reut











(this is before I added the sleeve)



... yeah, I'm a kid at heart (aka a dork). Bite me.







This is one of my favorite pictures that mom actually found online several years ago! So... this is just for family-- find mom :o)

Quilt done!

This is not an entry, just a small post. I finished the quilt tonight and wanted to share a picture of it with you. It's not the best picture (as it is night time) but I'll add some better pictures of it the next time I make an entry.

I am still considering adding a small sleeve in the back so they could hang it if they want to, but I am not sure.. we'll see.

Oh yeah... my friend doesn't know her daughter will be getting this-- I don't think she visits this space, so it shouldn't be a problem :o)

Friday

07-13-07

Since mom left I have a horrible empty—everything. Mom is my best friend and without her, everything is quite dull and pointless. But even with all this emptiness, I feel very lucky to have the mom that I have—only Omer knows what it feels like to have a mom like ours. And we are damn lucky… poor everyone else who didn’t get to be mom’s kid. You all missed out big time!

So, nothing is really new here because I am not on a rotation at the moment. I am on a study month. Up to this point I have had two examinations. The first was the end of the year exam to complete the 3rd year, and the second was the physical examination boards. I still have one more set of boards, and that will be next month.

I was VERY nervous for the end of the year exam—the main thing was that I had a very difficult time just sitting down and studying. I did my best as far as preparation, and was relieved that the minimal preparation I managed to complete was sufficient enough to pass. Then came the physical examination boards a week later. Again, I had a difficult time studying for it—this time around, not only it was hard to study, but also it was hard to study alone… preparing for this would have been a lot more fun and constructive if I had a study partner here… but alas, my study-buddy is in Kansas City. So, I studied as much as I could and completed the exam. The results don’t come back for another 8-10 weeks, so I hope that I passed, but will now put it out of my mind and not worry about it until that time (that’s Omer’s advice actually).

And now… studying for the computer based examination is not any easier than the former two exams. I find it very difficult to study and I feel like this is a fight. This is not fun, I am not enjoying this, and I would much rather be on rotations thankyouvermuch. Any suggestions? I’ve tried making schedules and setting goals, but it is just a struggle. Gah!

On Thursday (yesterday) I went up to NYC to be with dad for a day. I had SUCH a good time with Abba!!! I was actually in a very good mood the whole day (up to the point where I had to go on the train to go back home). We visited the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art.) Now, you’ve never visited a museum until you’ve visited it with my dad! Dad’s way of visiting a museum is the perfect way (in my opinion)—he goes in, goes around several rooms and finds the pictures/sculptures/etc. he wanted to see, sees them, enjoy them and leaves :o) :o) :o) …told you… perfect! That’s basically what we did this time around—My favorite picture is Klee’s “Cat and Bird” I actually wanted a copy to add to my slightly bare walls, but they didn’t have a copy in the shop :o( (they had everything but this one) bummer. I’m not sure which picture dad liked best… I’ll have to ask him. Anyways, we then visited the park and just sat and talked and watched people. We tried to go to Carnegie, but they are doing renovations for the next few months. Then we ate some yummy sushi and we went back to Penn station and I got on the train and left :o( It was a very nice day with dad.

Today was another study-struggle day and so I finally gave up and went out on a nice long walk. We have a bunch of geese around here, and several of them hissed at me (!) when I walked too close to them. I never heard a goose hiss, it was an interesting experience.

The quilt for my friend Elizabeth’s baby girl is almost complete! The only things that need to be done are the binding and the adding the baby’s name and year of birth. I wanted to be done with it this week, but I don’t think that it will happen. This is the first time I will bind with a binding I have cut out myself… I’ve never done that before—the last quilt I just used the back edges to create a binding (or rather, an edge as it wasn’t really a binding). So… I have to figure out the width of the binding for this. We’ll see. I read the directions several times and I can envision it in my mind’s eye now… so all I need is the energy to complete this project.

The “Furries” are doing well. They sleep most of the day and enjoy the sun.

That’s about it from here.

Reut

Dragonfly

... click on it and see how pretty it looks full screen...