Thunder 2011

I've missed you blog!  Don't want to lose this.  I'm officially calling blogging a hobby.  And I don't have a lot of good hobbies so I need this.

Thunder went great this year.  It was cold and wet- so we unfortunately missed the air show, but we walked to the waterfront just in time to get a great view of the fireworks.  The crowds were sparser than I think I can ever remember, and the fireworks show was very well done. 

Saia really liked it.  His great-grandma Eva probably described his feelings of it best:  "in awe and/or scared-."  surely ambivalent things going through that little head.  I was trying to encourage him to cheer, and Jeff says he would occasionally let out a little "Yay."  Now when we've been passing the bridges from the interstates, he starts talking about the show.

I've got another couple posts in my queue that will come later.  Board studying is officially starting tomorrow :(, and today I'm finishing up to-do lists...

Isaiah at 2, spring time

I made Saia his own facebook page a couple weeks ago.  I think I decided to during a conversation with Chris about how some people do that for their kids.  The idea was so that we could tag him in all of his adorable pictures.  I also liked the idea because I could advertise what he’s been up to.  I intentionally try not to talk about him too much on my FB.  He may be a lot of my life, but a lot of the things we do together are pretty routine.  Plus lately I’ve been avoiding my fb page in general, so. 

ringling bro/barnum and bailey

 I like how on his fb page I can refer to the things we do as super exciting… like going to see trains, going to Cherokee park, going to his cousin’s or uncle Chriss’.  Or riding horses, going to his first circus, playing with Noodle at popo’s and nana’s.  Saia’s got a pretty consistent routine.  It’s fairly all over the place during the week, but consistent week to week.  It’s actually changing a bit starting this week, because Jeff switched to first shift, M-F!!

Sunday:                typically will be at home with me and Fejj.  We’ve been spending as much time as possible in the backyard which is fenced in so he gets to do pretty much whatever he wants out there.  We’ve got a toddler basketball set up, a little red toddler car, a sit-and-push toy, and a bunch of golf wiffle balls that he throws everywhere.  Kasha is usually out there with us too.

 Monday:              with Daddy til he goes to work, then aunt Jamie’s until I come get him.  He gets to play with his cousin Kamauri (2 ½ and loves Saia a ton) over there.  Maurmaur also loves Thomas just like Saia.  Daddy bowls Mondays so we’ve been spending a lot of Monday evenings at uncle Chriss’.

Tuesday:              Daddy takes him to daycare then I pick him up. 

Wednesday:      with daddy until he goes to work, then Popo takes him to Green hill hippotherapy and his house until I get him.  Starting in June, Saia will have daycare on Wednesday.

Thursday:            Daddy takes him to daycare then I pick him up.  Developmental interventionist and speech therapist come this day.  Daddy bowls on Thursdays too, so we commonly look for a friend to visit on this evening.  We’ve been visiting a friend of Chriss’ a lot lately who has a 6 year old girl that Saia loves to play with.

Friday:                  with daddy until he goes to work, and Popo comes to take him to his house.  Saia loves my parents house-  they are really attentive to what he wants over there (“attentive”), they have a great train set up he can play with, and they have a hyper little white dog.  Popo often takes him on walks to parks or takes him to see a train.

Saturday:             I want to sign Saia back up for swimming lessons.  Those will be Saturday mornings.  Last time we had them, Jeff never had a chance to go, but that should be different next time around (crazy).  This is the day I’ll typically try to match my dad by taking saia around the neighborhood to swing, see trains, visit the parks, go out for lunch.

Me and lists.  Sheesh…

Well I wanted to share some pictures, and I thought I’d advertise that he is sleeping in a big boy bed now.  It’s pretty cute.  We have to shut his door and wait for him to lay himself down, but he always does. 

Potty training isn’t really happening.  I’m still mostly focusing on getting him to talk about the potty (which he loves to do) and eventually telling us when he needs to do his business (which hasn’t happened yet).

He started saying I love you a month or two ago.  This video is a pretty cute representation of his speaking skills right now. 

Spring Cadaver Ball

I mostly want to share my pictures from last Friday. Album here.

wish I would've got a better picture of my dress.

I was a primary organizer for the fall CB, but you all missed out on hearing everything I did for that one.  For the spring, I was aware of the progress for organizing the event, but the only thing I did in the end was pick up the beer.  I wanted to take a picture but my phone busted while I was at the grocery.  Imagine me, all dressed up (still wearing flats at that point), with my hair curled and make up on, pushing a grocery cart at valu market with 5 30-packs of PBR and 5 30-packs of High Life.  And a guy from the meat dept pushing another cart of miller light and high life behind me.  I don't care for high life, but it was what my Pres asked me to get.  I don't know thought we should get it, but I returned the extras yesterday and out of the 20 30-packs, we had 7 leftover High Lifes.  Ouch.  Go PBR.

I cracked my screen a couple weeks ago after I dropped it without the case on. The first drop was pretty dramatic- it actually lost a chunk of glass and a part of the circuit board is showing above my screen.  Sure enough, a couple more mild drops added more cracks.  When I was in Valu market, I was holding my phone in my hand and foolishly pushed my cart with my phone in my palm.  big loud crack.  Now the touch screen doesn't work below the screen crack, so I can't unlock my phone.  I thought it was completely useless, but Jeff has taught me how to make calls with voice command, and he suggested I use iphone headphones to answer calls.  We are waiting for a new glass to come in the mail and hopefully it will work out.

Track selection

A couple weeks ago we finally got to do something all of us had been waiting for:  picking our tracks and laying out our plans for 3rd year.  We are finally escaping the days of hours tucked away in lecture halls and in lonely study rooms. In exchange, we get to actually be in the medical environment (in a sense, the "real world") and feel like we are reaching our goals...

I'm anxious and worried about how well I'll adjust.  But, I'm largely optimistic that the clinical years will bring good things for me.  Especially since they are so structured time-wise...  I still worry a lot about my background of knowledge, though.

the light is coming

My post-2nd year schedule:
c. April 26 - June 8: Step 1 study and test date.  I have my study schedule ready for this.  Do me a favor and try not to ask me about it too much-  I don't need the stress when I'm trying to relax (which will be on Saturday evenings and Sundays.  so if you do anything, plan on not seeing or hearing from me at any other time.  unless your babysitting lol).

June 9 - June 27: Hopefully lots of splurging on who-knows-what (Chicago trip?) in addition to booze.


June 28- July 2: Clinical orientation... whatever that means.

July 5 - Aug 26: Pediatrics - supposed to be good.  it will be nice to miss the flu season.  we'll get the GE cases instead right haha.

Aug 29 - Oct 21: Surgery - earlier than I really like to do it... but I'm going to do my best.  Sucks that our birthdays will fall in here.  I'm still in denial that my hours could literally be 5AM-5PM 5 days a week + call.  I just can't put that into perspective right now.  I'll be missing a lot of good weather.

Oct 24 - Nov 4: vacation week: potential elective time...Ortho? :)  Also could try ENT or something.

Nov 7 - Dec 16: Psychiatry:  ahhh, easy break just in time for seasonal depression and Christmas.  for my woes as well as others'.

Dec 19 - Dec 31: vacation weeks

Jan 3 - Mar 23: Internal Medicine: looking forward to the sampling of the subspecialties.  so many avenues. and rounds.

Mar 26 - Mar 30: vacation week, probably too late to catch the big east tourney... darn it

April 2 - May 11: OB/Gyn, not an easy rotation from what I've heard, but I look forward to the specialty exposures.

May 14 - June 22: Family medicine, probably either in Jefferson county or Madisonville.  If in Madisonville (I'll find out in a few months, possibly dependent on potential pregnancy), I'd totally try to get Dad to move down with me for 2/4 weeks so I can still see Saia half the time there.  And we'd go fishing a ton!  and Jeff could come a bunch and motorbike.  Madisonville could potentially be a lot of fun.  But I'd like the west end really.

August: due date for ERAS applications - date to pick a specialty by.

I ended up picking tracks based on the following priorities:
1) most interested specialties needed to be closer to the middle-ish... Surgery and OB/Gyn
2) wanted to be with people I liked and not overtly competitive.
3) wanted a primary care rotation before surgery.  IM would've been the best strategy but priority 2 overruled...
4)Save least laborious rotations for last in case we get prego, do peds as far away from a potential first trimester as possible

I've applied to be track captain for the rotations in either the fall or spring and am crossing my fingers.  I like the idea of immersing myself with a thorough knowledge of details of my tracks and this would facilitate that well.  Odds are 1/3 though, and I really am not sure what to expect; in med school, everyone is qualified.  And I'm not sure I'm much of an interviewer.

Well thats a nice boring school-focused blog.  I wanted to share the schedule mostly.  exciting :)

.....Possum

There have been a good number of days lately where I've laid down for bed late at night and reflected on how good of a day it had been.  Part of that was the way it was spring break, part was the fantastic 70 degree weather, part was the fantastic shopping therapy I've gotten lately, part was my new haircut, part was spending day after day enjoying these things with Saia....

Anyways.  One of these days I was reflecting on how well a day had gone... except for the part where I had to go into our crawlspace and find the dead possum.

I know its nasty but its a story never-the-less. I like telling stories.

I came in one night to the kitchen and thought something smelled rotten.  It could've been the cat litter, it could've been Saia's diaper bin.... but it was different.  The next day, it was stronger.  It didn't smell familiar, but it was bad enough that I started wondering to myself if there was something dead or rotting...somewhere.  I went into the cellar to look into the suspicion...and the smell was worse.

I told Jeff about it with the intention we find it and take care of it quickly, and agreed to do a coin-flip with him to decide who would do it.  I wasn't supposed to lose, but of course...  A couple days later I put on some crappy clothes, a full head covering, long socks and shoes, and some latex gloves.  I asked Jeff to accompany me on the descent and keep watch for me in the cellar... We brought down a broom, the auto light, a shovel, and a garbage bin with a liner.

I was crossing my fingers that it wouldn't be deep in the crawlspace, and also that it would be a mouse.  Dad told me even mice can smell really bad when they die.  The crawlspace is very literally a "crawl"-space, with only about 2 feet of head room, and a dirt ground scattered with old construction garbage from a hundred years ago.  In the space, I looked around insulation pipes and garbage for my tiny mouse... instead i saw a bunch of holes where who-knows-what had dug, and... spiders less than feet away.... spiders all over the place scattering from me, while I was sprawled on my stomach with  my head a few inches from the ceiling and ground.  Seeing these reminded me of Goljan's brief lecture spiel on arachnoid pathology and brought to my mind the reason people shouldn't go into things like crawl spaces.  I'd begin to research into what exactly I saw... but I don't think I want to know.

I pulled around a corner and saw it a few feet away.... it was horrifically nasty... I told Jeff that I was disappointingly right about my suspicion, and it was indeed a freaking possum... I had suspected it because about a month before, I was in the quiet kitchen by myself and heard animals under me.  It sounded like they were fighting and went on for about 10 minutes.  They were hissing, so I had suspected rats or possums.

I took my time scooting closer to the possum, which was already missing eyes but otherwise just had some guts hanging out...... and very reluctantly threw the garbage can over it and used the snow shovel to push it in..............ughhhhh.  There was loose hair surrounding it, with a lot of it leading towards a hole... I suppose perhaps a rat hole. oh god.

I covered up a bunch of holes with big rocks and bricks, including a big one leading towards the deck that had fresh air flowing in.  We've put a fan down there to try to dissipate anymore of the smell... which I haven't smelled much since I went down there.

Funny.

Those who follow me on facebook may remember a status I made a couple years ago about the possum in my backyard that was playing possum for a few hours straight. lol.  Dad took care of that one.

Lady Gaga concert

Who knew that spring break would leave me with so little time to do things like post one of the blogs on my to-do list??  I stayed up til 2 way too many times and didn't even sleep more than 7 hrs most nights... Gosh, I have three blogs I need to get out quick so I don't forget what I wanted to say...

Just over a month ago, my big sis Jenn texted me about getting tickets for Lady Gaga.  I told her that I had friends going (Chris and others), but it was super expensive and I considered $50 my upper limit on concerts... She said she'd help, so I replied, "If you insist."

dang she looks good dark-haired! Leotard.

We looked at ticketmaster, craigslist and some random ticketing site and ended up getting floor tickets for one of the cheapest prices I found (which was not cheap).  They were even cheaper than what tickets in the upper levels were asking for.  Best place in the house?  In my opinion: totally.

No pants. Crazy eye make up.  Random sculpture accesory.

Block week was the week before spring break and the concert, and throughout it I kept distracting myself thinking about how I needed to plan my Gaga outfit. lol.  Actually, I was dreading what it was going to involve getting one ready.  I had thought that I would probably spend a day searching vintage stores and synthesizing some wild hairdo.

Leotard.  kind of tights.  crazy lipstick.

 However, I ended up throwing one together with stuff in my closet the night before the concert.  After I did research, I concluded that Gaga doesn't like pants, loves leotards, loves tights, and often times will just settle for lingerie.  And when she's dressy like at an award show, the key to her outfits is using random sculpture like accessories and pointy shoulder objects.  I briefly considered incorporating a freaky looking masquerade mask I got in Venice way back when, but ended up passing on that.  I decided I'd go with no pants (only leggings) and a strapless top.  I meant to wear my ridiculous heels but ended up chickening out.  Even after this though- I didn't look gaga-ridiculous enough.  I went to Michaels to look for accesorizing objects, and picked out some pink and white fake flowers and pearly like beaded things (she wears pearls a lot too).  I sewed them on in the few hours before the show.  Didn't end up having time to add as many as I would've liked.

I think I ended up looking a bit more fairy-like than gaga-like.  If I would've had time to sew on all the flowers and finish my flower hair piece, it would've been better.  For make up, I noted that she either went crazy with eyes or crazy with lipstick.  I ended up using my brightest pink eye shadow (hence the flower color selection) and tried to dramatize it laterally from my eye commisures.  I mostly just winged that, as there still is a lot that I could learn about eye makeup techniques....

Fast-forwarding to the show, finally.  The floor was impressive.  There was hardly anyone down there compared to the stadium as a whole- maybe only 300/20,000 people.  Who doesn't want to be in a free moving area that technically gives you the ability to get as close to Gaga as you want?  Sure, we had to stand, and sometimes stand on our toes, but entire stadiums stand at concerts, and I got [relatively] great pictures of Gaga on stage.  There were some great costumes, but also a lot of people that looked fairly crappy, whether they had just got the outfit wrong or were wearing clothes that weren't made for their forms...

 I'd been to a show like Gaga's before- one that focuses a lot of theatrics and a theme: Kanye West back in 2008.  That was good too. lol.  Gaga had a nice drawn out storyline to her show, and as many set changes as she had outfits (actually, about 1 set/2 songs and 2 outfits/1 song). She had nice dialogue between each song, and spoke in a really surreal fashion.  It was hard to know how much was staged and how much wasn't- but it seems fair to assume that it was probably mixed.  Regardless, she had some fantastic messages to share and brought a tear to my eye at one point... (gosh, I cry about everything huh).  I posted one dialogue video.

firework boobies and the official monster.

The whole show seemed too good to not be largely staged.  It did seem convincing that she was really singing.  Perhaps there really are people out there who are so talented that they can do flips and sing in key at the same time.  One of my friends said they noticed she had a back up singer for parts.  I have a brief video of "Love game."  I wish I would've thought to record more songs.

I wish I would've took more pictures of the big screens.  A lot of my pics/videos are washed out from the lighting, but more importantly, there was some awesome interludes during set changes.

I think it was a great time for me and Jenn.  We got ready together, rode together, got a beer together, and danced (kind of) together. lol.  It's fun doing grown up-ish stuff together, and I can't wait til she's back in Louisville so we can hang out more :).

With my other friends at the show (who were in the nosebleeds), we had considered going to the bars afterward but ended up settling for Ramsi's since we had a minor with us.  I would've loved to go to Connections after the show- a giant gay bar 5 blocks from the stadium that was sure to be crawling with "little monsters."  The cover may have been pretty high and it was probably super crowded, but that didn't bother me...  What did bother me is that we found out at 3AM that Gaga had went to Connections.  She apparently did mini performances and bought everyone drinks.  Wow.

The rest of my picasa album is here: https://picasaweb.google.com/l.b.cornwell/GagaMarch122011?authkey=Gv1sRgCJyag6Kwl9yUpgE&feat=directlink

Chicago 2011 Auto Show

I've been keeping a list of blogs I want to post, and I try to do them chronologically so this is a few weeks late...This is the last thing I'm doing before I go to bed.  I'm drained from block week but am trying to squeeze a bunch of things I've been putting off into this evening before I crash.  Even though I have to wake up at 8 to go take the Path shelf.  bleh.  So!

The auto show was simply a fun thing to do on a Saturday with a handful of friends.  We woke up early to drive to Chicago and got home super late.  I slept like 8 hours over 3 days or something.  Other than the auto show we went to a restaurant off Michigan ave, a starbucks, an urban outfitters (woooooooooooah.  Please come to Louisville.  I got another cute black dress <3), and millennium park. Christine has pics on FB.

I wanted to make a post just to compile a list of Jeff and my favorite cars from the show.  Unfortunately, our tastes haven't adjusted to like family friendly cars, so you may notice none of these choices are very reasonable for our to-be-growing family.  Oh well.  There will be time for that.

The car we'd get during residency to replace Jeff's `01 Neon:

Hyundai Veloster - ~$17K

If we each got one, Jeff would get the orange and I'd get the green:

So good looking.  Pretty small back seat... but soooo good looking.  And all of these new cars have all of the media stuff standard.  Dang right.

The car I'd get as an attending when money isn't much to worry about:

Lexus CT 200h ~$30K I think

Loveeeee the color, daybreak yellow (or pee according to Chris).  It's actually a hybrid too.  And beautiful.  I didn't think I liked Lexuses because in Louisville the only people who drive them are pretentious white conservatives, and they are always silver SUVs.  I honestly wasn't sure Lexus even made non-SUV cars.  They had a lot of nice Lexuses there actually...

Jeff's favorite car right now:

Dodge Challenger ~$25K

He probably wouldn't actually care for the stripe.  Pretty cool looking car though.

When we were in the VWs, I saw a hard top convertible that looked pretty nice (don't think I'd seen one up close before).  I mentioned to Jeff that if we ended up somewhere warm, we'd probably have to get a convertible (of course).  Chris said it was probably the:

Volkswagen Eos - ~$33K

Very pretty.  I mentioned that it would be our "fun car."  Later, when we were in Mazda, Jeff told me what the real fun car would be (I'm updating this now that Jeff commented below):

Mazda RX8 - $33K

 I don't know what makes it special.  It is pretty.  Chris says this is like every guy's favorite car.  Hmm.

The show was fun.  Not as redundant and lengthy as I expected over the 5 hours there. Every manufacturer had something unique but fitting to our tastes (2 doors, compact, nice wheels and headlights).  Plus its nice in general to try to become more familiar with the new stuff on the market.  Going again next year if we can.