Here is the update!!! (late is better than never!)

05-13-08
I promised an update… but I was extremely busy, and so it took me almost a whole month to get to and journal here…

So, what have I been busy with?

Well, first of all I have finished my last rotation. It was an excellent one and I am SO happy I decided to take it. The first Monday not to be on rotation was very strange… I woke up early in the morning and told my dad (who was visiting) that this was very bizarre and that I couldn’t possibly be on break and that I need to go to work.

But alas, getting used to being on vacation is WAY too easy!!! LOL!

On that Monday dad and I went to my new locations in attempts to find housing. No luck. We looked and looked and drove around, and talked to relators and drove more, and drunk some coffee, and drove more. It was annoying. I wasn’t willing to give up my washer and dryer (heck, I could have had only hookups, I didn’t care), but didn’t want to drive more than 10 minutes to the hospital.

So no luck.

BUT!!!! (and this is to my readers who haven’t talked with me in a while) a day after dad left I found a place!!! It’s a cute little apartment in the landlord’s back yard (over his mother’s place). It has a washer and a dryer. It has two tiny (teenee-tiny!) rooms, a small living room, a kitchen, a sun room, an attic. It didn’t have an outside balcony :o( the cats will have to compromise :oP It is 5 min by foot from the shore and 8 minutes from the hospital with a car!!!

Now I liked it, signed a lease and hoping that this would work out. If it doesn’t… well, it’s only for a year.

So that was the big thing I was happy I did before I went home for a visit. Check.

Okay, so then a few days later I went home to Arizona—It was the first time I went home since mom’s death last year. It was wonderful to be home, but in the beginning it truly felt like mom was in the bedroom.

Anyways, I had several things I needed to get done, the most important of which was to transfer mom’s blog into a book format. It was very difficult to read her blog in full again. It was even harder when I read it a 3rd or 4th time. Still, even though it was the most difficult it was the most fulfilling. Mom left us a treasure. Her words. I am SO happy she wrote this blog. I worked very hard (and definitely stretched Microsoft Word’s capabilities to the max). I love designing the artistic aspects of a book. Well, I think it turned out wonderful. I tried very hard to really understand what mom meant with her words and to find the right pictures/facial expressions/ pictorial feeling.

Then (or maybe it was before), dad and I went through all the books in Hebrew to donate to the center of Jewish Education. We’ve created stickers in the front saying that this book was donated by us and then had 6 different pictures we chose of mom (one for each sticker) in memory of mom… etc. It turned out great! I’m sure that the Israelis in Phoenix will love this new library!

I tried to create a small booklet with mom’s favorite recipes (to make and to eat), but even though I have made a list of all the recipe I didn’t get to making this booklet. Maybe next year.

In the last moment I went through mom’s cloths, and most of the fitted me (how come I’m not surprised).

Hmmm.

I met Omer’s girlfriend who is a sweetheart. I rested. I played with the doggies and took them on walks everyday. I managed to annoy Omer. I managed to make Omer laugh. I ate good. I exercised. I met up with Julie’s family.

And then I went back home.

And then it was the 6th of May, 2008.

A year is a very long time, but it is also a very short time. If I had it my way she would have been here and healthy and happy with me that I am finally finishing up school. But I didn’t get to have it my way. And I miss mom more than words can say; and I know she misses me too.

I am glad we are doing the memorial on the 23rd of May, which is Lag BaOmer.

That’s all I have to say about that.

So graduation is this Saturday. I am flying back to the Midwest this Thursday. I am ready to be done with school, but I know that there is so much more I could learn/should learn… so glad I have residency to go through!!! :oP

Anyways, this is not the last entry on this blog, but I think that after graduation, “My Life as a Medical Student” will officially be over :o) I truly enjoy writing a blog, but will probably create a personal journal to have for myself.

Talk soon,

Reut