The 15th Floor Overlooking Fenway

After several people independently mentioned I should start a blog (and within days of each other), I figured it was time. Plus, Nike+ has lots of cool stuff you can add to your blog. Talk about work will have to be very general, but I think I can manage.

Given my profession and high likelihood of either standing for the vast majority of the day and or walking several miles each day, I almost ALWAYS wear practical shoes. Most of the time I wear Dankso's especially since the extra height is usually required for my pants not to need hemming. I have entirely too many pairs including several crushed velvet styles. Dansko's don't work with skirts or dresses (really, and if you think they do -- they don't), and occasionally I like something fancier. Unfortunately fancier = high heals.

All in all I don't wear heals very often. Today I was in clinic all day and was supposed to have a meeting to discuss fellowship (it got rescheduled). I have a bunch of pants that I've bought recently that need to be hemmed. (And many of my non-hemmed pants aren't so comfortable -- hoping the running fixes that.) I decided that if I wore high-healed boots I had a pair of pants that I could wear without hemming them.

What is is about high heals? Why do I feel more powerful in them -- okay, the outfit together was great and the run this morning made me feel all the better, but still?

As I clicked around all day on the hardwood floor in the office I felt all the better -- like I could do just about anything. You don't get that feeling wearing cute flats.

My favorite part was when I was walking through the hospital at one point past this elderly gentleman (who had to be at least 70) and he said "Oh, isn't that a great sound!"
I think it means he loves a woman in sexy high heals.

But once we saw the last person in clinic I both my attending and I immediately took our shoes off!

But gentlemen -- what is it about high heals?

In the mail today:

University of Illinois

Student Loans and Collections
Chicago, IL 60612

Janurary 7, 2008
Kristen Raven
xxx xxxxxxxxx Ave
Boston, MA xxxx

RE: University of Illinois Loan XXX-XXX-XXXX

Dear Kristen Raven:

This letter confirms that your student loan is now paid-in-full.

Thank you for fulfilling you responsibility to repay your student loan.

Sincerely,
Student Loan and Collections
Enclosure

Enclosed was the original promisary note for $383.00 that I signed on on 3/18/04. I have no idea what this random loan was, but given that I'm still $200,000 in debt.......
I guess one down is better than nothing.

And yes, they did spell my name wrong twice.

ETA: Ben tells me that we paid this as a lump sum quite a while ago....guess we don't get to celebrate.

This is the first vacation that I don't have travel plans. Instead I get to sleep in my own bed every night and don't have to answer anyone.

Here's my list from the beginning of the week:
1. Run. It's still cold, so it will almost certainly be inside
2. Knit. I'm about to finish the first pair of socks that I haven't frogged. I'm trying to figure out what my next big project is going to be. And I still owe Ben a new hat.
3. Sleep.
4. Put away my laundry (which is maybe 2 weeks old)
5. See the Red Sox World Series Trophies (pictures forthcoming)
6. Clean up all the ABSITE studying.
7. Enjoy the view.
8. Pickin' Tuesdays on Tuesday
9. North End dinner on Tuesday to celebrate our 11-year non-anniversary.
10. Catch up on Days of Our Lives. I've already watched 3 episodes tonight.
11. Overdue hair cut on Thursday.
12. Pedicure
13. Rock Band
14. Have the oil changed

I'm going to go get started on #3.

Instead of scanning my package in Boston once a day, I was thinking maybe they could deliver it.

It's still not as bad as the time UPS sent my books to Washington State while we were living in Illinois.

Here's what I have planned for the week:
1. Run. I finished January with 52 miles, and long ago completed my goal of 30 miles (which I changed to 50). More running this week still to come.

2. Knit. Finished one pair of socks, started a second and started a new sweater........ I still owe Ben a new hat.
3. sleep. More of that to come.
4. Put away my laundry
5. See the Red Sox World Series Trophies
6. Clean up all the ABSITE studying. I've even now cleaned up the bigger mess I made re-organizing stuff.
7. Enjoy the view. Hmmm, haven't been sitting at my desk or by the window much.....though I am doing that right now.
8. Pickin' Tuesdays. Despite a large crowd we had some place to sit. Could have heard the band better elsewhere but the company was pretty good.
9. North End dinner on Tuesday to celebrate our 11-year non-anniversary. Even the left-overs have been eaten.
10. Catch up on Days of Our Lives. As I predicted John is alive, though once again brain washed by Stefano.
11. Overdue hair cut on Thursday. Not so sure how I my hair cut now costs me $75, though.....
12. Pedicure. I even got a manicure too.
13. Rock Band
14. Have the oil changed

So I guess tomorrow is put away the laundry day...... And I think I'll ask Ben to get the oil changed next weekend when I'm on call. More running (inside).

I haven't run since Sunday. The earliest I've been home all week is 6:30p which isn't bad until you consider that I go to bed at 9p because I get up before 5a. So in 2.5 hours I need to make/find and eat dinner, see my husband, usually do some reading for the next day, RELAX, and gather my things/clothes for the next day. I'm not sure if I'm making excuses, but it's not a lot of time. Unless I come home early tomorrow, I'm unlikely to run three times this week despite not being on call on Saturday. I should get two in, however.

This new rotation I'm on is quite busy. I've been operating this week which is always good. More thyroidectomies tomorrow.

I kind of though Heuy Lewis was black.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Travis Saturn

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Strawberry Dansko.

3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Purple Lab

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): Ellen Hinsdale.

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name): Rav Kr

6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Red Diet Pepsi

7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): Stanley James

8. STRIPPER NAME (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Vanilla Bean Peanut Butter Cup

9. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Chernich Chicago

10. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Summer Daisy

11. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Banana Shorts

12. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Bagel Pine

13. NEW LJ ID: (One word from your street name, a nickname of a family member): Brookline Brookie

And one of my favorite two nieces as cute as ever this weekend:

A "consider yourself tagged if you read this" from one of the many blogs I frequent:

10 years ago: I spent the last summer without my not yet husband, living on a very quiet East Campus 2nd West. Oddly, I lived in his room. I worked full time, started working out for the first time in my life, and studied for the MCAT.

9 years ago: I started seriously applying to medical school, perfecting a personal statement that was all too personal, but who wouldn't ride the cancer survivor story if she could?

8 years ago: We graduated from college and had professional movers move us out of our dorm so it could be renovated into some strange, very Asian dorm for the summer. Later that summer spent 9 hours & $1500 in the Elizabeth, NJ IKEA buying an apartment's worth of furniture for the first "home" Ben and I would start.

7 years ago: I quit my job to move to Illinois for medical school. Ben & I packed everything we owned into a 16' Uhaul truck and attached our 8 year-old Saturn to a car transporter in tow. We spent 4 days driving half-way across the country. (Really only a 3rd.)

6 years ago: In the span of 4 weeks we bought our first new car on a whim, got married, bought our first house, and went on a honeymoon. It was also my last summer off.

5 years ago: I spent 4 weeks studying full time for the first of the United States Medical Licensing Exams. While studying I celebrated the birth of my first niece. After an overnight in Chicago, took the exam which was certainly the hardest of the 3. Several days later took a quick vacation to Vegas & the Hoover Dam. In the meantime, my family postponed my grandfather's funeral so I could return from vacation.

4 years ago: I stopped ignoring the fact that I was meant to be a surgery and declared a "major". In an effort to get my name known I spent 8 weeks in Boston on "away" rotations. It was the longest I spent without my husband in the preceding 6 years or since. I sublet my first apartment and lived with strangers. That fall we cheered on the Red Sox as they won the 2004 World Series, their first in 86 years. I passed up the opportunity to actually see the Red Sox win game 4 in St. Louis because I was studying for the second step of the USMLE. And no one pointed out that it might be the game in which the Red Sox won the World Series.

3 years ago: We took the best vacation of our young lives: a two-week cruise from San Juan to San Diego via the Panama Canal. We arrived in San Diego less than 24 hours before I graduated from medical school in Illinois. Weeks later we sold our house and again packed everything we owned into a 16' Uhaul truck, put our 2 year-old Saturn on the car transporter in tow, and drove back to Boston. After unpacking the Uhaul in Boston, but before spending a single night in our new apartment, we drove it to the IKEA in New Haven, CT to buy a new apartment's worth of furniture. It was the last time we would move ourselves.

2 years ago: I finished general surgery internship. I should say it was the hardest year of my life, but I'm not sure it was. We refused to move out of our apartment for a window renovation project until our new apartment building was finished. We then spent $10k to move less than a mile, and have this fabulous view to show for it.

1 year ago: I started 3rd year of general surgery residency with the hardest rotation of the year - vascular nights. Five nights a week I tried kept 25 people from dying. Sometimes I was successful, and then there was the morning I coded two people simultaneously. After the rotation I took the 3rd and final step of the United States Medical Licensing Exams having studied part time for a week. Sadly the two-day, 600-question exam actually felt like a vacation.

Now, consider yourself tagged.

Across the street a Panera is being completed. Today we scoped out the plans visible through the window of the corner storefront in our building and couldn't believe it's going to be a Chipotle! Seriously?

We've been trying not to eat out EVERY night, but this is going to make it much harder.

When I graduated medical school I held an official position as "grad hourly" from which I was not fired. So my UIUC account did not get expunged on the regular schedule as it should have since I graduated. Therefore, I still have a UIUC email address, and I still get email addressed to "everbody@uiuc.edu". They are generally amusing, though never meant to be. Here's today's message from the Chancellor:

Dear Students,

Many of you may be aware of an event known as Rush. It is my objective to
warn you of the potential downsides of Greek organizations. I advise you to
not succumb to the aggressive recruitment tactics used by these
organizations. It has been my concern over the years, that the Greek culture
of alcoholism and lack of respect for the community degrades campus life.
These organizations present themselves as prestigious, yet are
discriminatory, serve to perpetuate social inequality, especially with
respect to the opposite gender, and promote a lack of diversity. Many
students have expressed concerns with regards to safety on campus,
particularly due to Greek culture and behavior. It is my hope that a
student's experience on campus strengthens one's individuality, but the Greek
system emphasizes the group above all, without cause or reason. This is
detrimental to the purpose of universities.

I hope that you will consider wisely.

GDI Chancellor Richard Herman

Ouch. Still, I don't think anyone at UIUC has drank themselves to death.

EDIT: The following was sent a couple hours later.....

Dear members of the campus community:

You may have received an email titled: Regarding Greek life on campus.
This message was a hoax and was NOT sent by Chancellor Richard Herman and
was NOT authorized by the campus administration.

Robin Kaler
Associate Chancellor for Public Affairs

I'm on my way back to bed after waking up at 6:20 on my day off. I've eaten breakfast and started to catch up on the blog'osphere. And I learned this about myself:

You Should Be a Politician

Confident, assertive, and dedicated - you know what you want in life and how to get it. Stubborn and opinionated, you can stand your ground... even if it's unpopular. And while you have strong views, you never overwhelm people with your opinions. A true charmer, you subtly influence people into seeing things your way. You do best when you: - Work according to your own rules - Can change the world with what you do You would also be a good lawyer or talk show host.

I think it's pretty correct, actually.

As my husband just announced: I regret to inform you that winter is here.

I'm trying to be happy that it was 65 over the weekend, and that I got to enjoy it with two great runs and night out on the town. But it's hard not to be upset it's so cold. I suppose it will be Thanksgiving next week, and it should be cold.

I wasn't so sure I was going to find clothes for the morning, but "feels like 13" is too cold for scrubs.

A few things for which I am thankful:

1. My day off this week is Thanksgiving
2. My parents still being able to come visit for Thanksgiving
4. My husband being home for Thanksgiving
3. A great 6 1/2 mile run:

4. Spending several days with my entire family at once the week before Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving!