3rd Year Home Call

Last night was Sam's first night on call of his third year of his orthopedics residency.  We had a relatively quiet beginning to our evening, but around 9:30- in the middle of Pitch Perfect- he was called in for a dislocated elbow and a pediatric wrist.

Cue me worrying about whether he is coming home or not all year again.  Who knows, maybe I will get used to it this year.  Or maybe it just won't be that bad... I mean Sam was home by 11:15 last night and he said he stuck around longer than he probably really needed to.

And he told me this morning that he was paged every 2 hours and had to go in at 4:00 AM.  Talk about an ah-ha moment, I got up to go to the bathroom at 5 because Hunter wanted up on the bed and was whining.  I saw a light coming from under the bedroom door and went out into the living room to find the light on in our kitchen.  At the time, I was half asleep and it was puzzling but I shrugged it off and went back to bed.

Apparently Sam had just gotten home and forgotten to turn of the lights when he came back to bed.  He said Hunter was on the floor passed out in our comforters which we kick off the bed now that summer weather has returned to Southern California.  As Sam came into the room Hunter woke up and wanted back up on the bed, which was what woke me up.  Not the shrill sound of a pager, not the sound of Sam getting up and getting dressed in the middle of the night, not even the sound of the door opening and our alarm dinging (twice- once when he left and once when he came back).  Boy, I'm apparently a much deeper sleeper than I thought or I was just really exhausted last night.

Anyway, while Sam was at work the first time, I was left at home to finish Pitch Perfect with Hunter.  Good thing I have my little companion!  Pitch Perfect was a pretty good movie- I mean yes it was really campy but OMG it was also incredibly entertaining and the talent was absolutely amazing.

3rd Year Begins

Today is Sam's first day as a 3rd Year Orthopedic Surgery Resident at UCI.  2nd year is over, and that means we have officially survived the most challenging year of residency!

That's not to say we didn't have our ups and downs over the last 12 months, because we certainly did.  But it wasn't as bad (nor did it seem as long) as I was preparing for it to be.  Hopefully this next year will bring with it more hours of sleep for Sam and less crankiness.  I feel badly for how exhausted he was this year and I appreciate how much he tried to not let his schedule interfere with our life outside of work.  Who knows, maybe I'll be relinquishing my "Ortho Widow" title!

To celebrate Sam's huge accomplishment, I decided to give him a little something he had mentioned that he wanted, along with two things we've needed that I have been meaning to get:

The first thing, was a muddler.  Sam is really into drinking Old Fashioneds but he doesn't have anything to muddle the bitters and sugar with.  I also love me a refreshing mojito during the summer months so it will serve all of our bar tending endeavors well.  And I purchased my favorite brand- OXO!  I bought myself their shaker and Sam can't get over how nice it is.  Having well-made cooking stuff really makes a huge difference!

The second thing is a lemon juicer.  We have a lime juicer and it's awesome!  The downside is that it doesn't handle lemons very well.  So for Sam's amazing lemonade and his latest creation, coconut citrus margaritas, we have to quarter the lemons before we juice them.  This is going to make the whole process so much faster!  And it will be great for seasoning fish and making my Green Energy Smoothie in the mornings.


Finally, Sam has mentioned that he wants a cast-iron skillet.  So I decided to take advantage of a Sur la Table sale and pick one up to surprise him.  Well, killing two birds with one stone, I selected a Le Creuset skillet.  I have been wanting to dive into the world of Le Creuset for a while but everything is SO expensive!  That said, as I wrote two paragraphs earlier, using well-made cooking stuff REALLY makes a HUGE difference.  So I jumped in.  I bought Sam the skillet and me the two-in-one pan and pot that can be used separately or together as a lidded pot.  I went with the Fennel color.

I wrapped everything up under Hunter's watchful eye in the last bits of our UCI wrapping paper.  This was pretty funny because it made Sam think I bought him stuff at the UCI student store... which I most certainly did NOT!

3rd Year Approaches

Wow.  So this is Sam's last weekend of call for his second year of residency.  Starting June 1 he will be a third year orthopedic surgery resident and will be working at Kaiser during his first rotation.  

What does that mean?

Regular work hours.  9-5.  

No Saturday call.  Amazing!

It's going to be amazing.  I am so thankful for all that we've overcome as far as the crazy work hours and the stress of his second year of residency goes.  I am so glad to have all of this stress behind us.  

Not that I don't think this is going to be a cakewalk, but I am constantly hearing that the worst will be behind us once he's past this year.  I am sure we'll still have challenges, but I am so looking forward to the next chapter.

I am really, just so excited!  No more ortho widow days and nights for me!  We can be a little family on the weekends like we were during Memorial Day Weekend!