Top of the World & Fresh Fish

Last weekend Sam had a Golden Weekend- Saturday & Sunday off.  Our water heater went out and while the handy man was fixing it, we decided to take Hunter on his first hike.  Obviously we all know how that turned out.

After the hike, we ran some errands and checked out this AWESOME family owned and operated fresh fish market.  We can't wait to go back!

Family Hike

Top of the World Hike in Laguna...

Hunter getting heat exhaustion

Pearson's Port: Our new favorite Fresh Fish Market

Ready for purchase!

Opo

On the grill with some corn on the cob

She threw in two shrimp for us to taste- best fish dinner I've ever cooked!

Procrastination

I really didn't want to work this weekend.  I mean, I did mentally, but emotionally I was just not having any of it.  The whole marketing strategy I wanted to write up for work hardly even entered my mind.  Then there was my homework 3 chapters to re-read for a quiz, 2 assignments to write and submit, and a forum posting.  Oh joy.

Friday night, Sam was on-call overnight.  One would think that would have been a good time for me to buckle down and get after my school work.  Yes, yes it would have been.  Instead, Hunter and I watched Gladiator while I finished (finally) scrap-booking the second half of our epic Southeast Asia Vacation from May 2011.  It only took me a year to complete, but hey, at least it's done!  I didn't get to start on Sam's graduation photos because I ran out of rubber cement and I don't have any cute grad stickers to decorate the pages yet.

Saturday morning I meant to get up and hit the gym, then slept in until 10 AM istead.  Boy did that feel great.  I tried to talk myself into studying, but since Kevin was coming and possibly spending the night, I ended up cleaning the guest room so that it was ready for company after Ryan's stint as a 2 night a week roommate over the last month and a half.  Oops.  Then Hunter and I went to Puppy Class and rushed home to meet the Cable Guy... who was an hour late.  Luckily we did get to see Sam and Kevin while we waited for him to come and install our new cable.  And after that, we met up with some of Sam's fellow residents at a small BBQ- first time meeting them!  We came a little late to eat, and headed out to dinner after about an hour of socializing.  It was fun!

Today, I woke up at 8 and thought I should get a jump start on the homework I had put off.  Jackie was supposed to FaceTime me and catch me up on her wedding dress shopping adventures of Saturday.  Unfortunately, some mishaps occurred and she couldn't.  Really unfortunately, I got sucked into A Game of Thrones Season 2... there went 2 hours of my morning.  Then it was time to get to Hunter's private lesson with Kate, and when we were done I desperately needed to get my car washed- last weekend's crazy weather had made me postpone the chore, but it was LONG overdue and the rain only made things worse.  On our way home we had to stop at CVS and pick up a prescription, so what should have been an hour event (training) turned into a 3 hour journey.  Oops.  I was so happy to have TV that I turned on Harry Potter 7 as background entertainment while I read... except that I love that movie so much I kept getting distracted.  And then Kevin stopped by on his way out of town, and I ended up starting HP 8 to finish out the series.  By that point I had re-read the first two chapters and done one assignment and posted to the forum- yay!  I turned the channel to Ice Road Truckers, and managed to read the final chapter.  Woohoo!  Unfortunately the quiz was malfunctioning so I did my last assignment and decided to call it a night.   Please remind me not to procrastinate in the future- it really sucks.

Or so I thought.  I had been drinking iced tea (black chai) all afternoon to stay alert during my reading and now I am totally amped up.  Oops major.  I have done all of our laundry, reorganized Sam's t-shirt drawer which was overflowing until I hung up some of the shirts.  I decided to shower tonight rather than tomorrow morning, and I have now spent 25 minutes catching up on blogs I follow and writing this post.  Hunter has been dozing off and on since 8PM... he clearly wants to know what the heck we're doing up past 10 on a Sunday night.  Believe me, puppy, I am not happy about it either.

To make matters worse, it was REALLY hot in our bedroom and so I had to open the windows 100% and point the fan outside instead of letting it oscillate pointing inside.  The latter provides more white noise and (I am convinced) blocks out the sounds of the road and other dogs better, which helps Hunter sleep through the night.  Anyway, I better get off this thing and get to bed.

Last but not least: HAPPY 79th BIRTHDAY to PAPA SANTI!  I am incredibly blessed to have had two wonderful grandfathers, one of whom is still able to spoil me rotten.  Papa Santi is a wonderful man who would do anything to make his grandkids happy- Hunter and I made sure to give him a call and let him know we love him today.

Independence Day

Last night Hunter & I were home alone because it was Sam's first overnight call of his 2nd year of residency.  As much as I used to hate being home along, having Hunter to spend my evenings with made it so much less lonely... even when Sam's on vacation I notice that I'm not as anxious, I sleep much better, and overall I'm a lot happier.  Looks like Dr. Galle was on to something when he suggested we get the puppy back in January...

Since Sam was overnight in the hospital, and the weather was overcast and misty, I kicked off the 4th of July by attending a spin class at the gym- it was so nice to be back in the saddle after 2 months off focusing on school and work.  I need to keep that up to help my stress level stay down.  

After the gym, I spent some time on my homework and touched base with my teacher and my classmates to clarify some questions I'd had.  Good news: she decided to cut WAY back on our assignments and make a lot of stuff optional, and basically everything else into group work.  Our class size has diminished to 4 so we're going to work as a group on ALL of our projects and the homework questions from the reading are our only individual assignments.  Yay!  I guess it pays off to talk to the instructors after all... and in her defense, she had planned for an 11 week class that was cut down to 8.  She told us she wants us to give her feedback and make sure that it's not an overwhelming about of work.  Awesome lady!

Sam got home around 2, and we hosted a bunch of the general surgery lady residents for a BBQ from 5-9.  We had originally thought we'd do a pool party but the weather wasn't cooperating and though the sun did finally come out, we stayed in the apartment.  It was really, really fun!  We had bratwurst, 1/2 of which we BBQ'ed and 1/2 of which I cooked in beer on the stove, and we also had Adele's special Jalapeno & cheese sausage- limited time offer at Costco.  Oh-so-good!  I also made a fruit salad, caramelized onions, and cooked bell peppers to go with our dogs.  Hunter was dressed for the party, and he was a BIG hit with the ladies (as always).  He was really, really well behaved and I was very proud of all of our hard work paying off.  I got a bunch of compliments on his shirt!


At about 9 everyone started filing out- they have M&M tomorrow morning (Morbidity & Mortality) where they have to talk about the patients that had complications to learn from the mistakes and situations.  Sam and I took Hunter for a short walk, and then headed to the balcony where we watched 2 sets of fireworks before crawling onto our bed.  Sam's got In the Army playing on his laptop, Hunter is chewing his bone, and I'm obviously blogging.  


I have to say, this 4th of July I am aware of how very lucky I am.  I am so thankful for Sam & how supportive he is of me despite his own busy schedule.  I am thankful that we have our little puppy, even if he is a LOT of work.  I am thankful for our supportive family made up of Santis, Galles, Burkharts, Hunters, & Celnikers.  I am so very, very thankful that I have a job I love and coworkers I enjoy spending time with.  And I am so thankful for my amazing friends.  This life keeps getting better and better, and I am looking forward to a very bright future!

Orthopedic Rotation

Tonight starts Sam's Orthopedic Surgery rotation at UCI... It's 9:23pm as I start typing and he is still not home yet.  Oh what a wonderful 12 days of Christmas this is going to be!  I jest, I jest.  In all seriousness, as much as we've been pleasantly surprised by the lack of crazy thus far in Sam's intern year rotations, I think all our worst thoughts are about to come true.  

So what will I do?  Well, for starters, I am going to try to get together a group of folks to watch the Newport Beach Boat Parade sometime this week.  I've made plans to go every year, and every year I cancel because it's raining.  This year, I'm going to try to get a group of friends to commit to dinner and make a reservation along the water where we can watch the parade from the warmth of indoor seating and delicious adult beverages.  What can I say?  Ya get older, ya get wiser.

On the flip-side, I am apparently still a novice at online shopping.  I wanted to buy Sam a fancy Christmas stocking so that mine didn't look so snobby- I should mention that mine is not diamond-crusted or anything, as you can see in the photo, it's an embroidered/cross-stitched picture of a bear on a rocking horse and a Christmas Tree with presents beneath it and it has my name sewn on it.  Nonna Santi got it for me when I was born and it's always had a very special place in my heart because stockings continue to be a BIG part of my family's Christmas tradition.  Anyway, I really wanted to include Sam and his family in the magic of stockings, so I went online and found a bunch of really cool ones.  Rather than going over the top, I figured I would see how this year goes before I bought everyone in his family a new stocking.  So I took some time and really considered what would be a nice, non-denomenational stocking scene that wasn't too girly or child-themed.  I picked out one that was really fancy and ornate, like an idiot.  When the stocking arrived, it turned out that I ordered a DO-IT-YOURSELF cross-stitch stocking craft kit.  Oh.My.God.  The reviews online, when I looked closer, said that it took one woman 4 months to finish.  FOUR MONTHS PEOPLE.

Of course Sam wants me to begin work right away, but I have never cross-stitched anything in my life.  I tried to watch a you tube video but that only further convinced me that I'm screwed.  Hopefully over the weekend I will have some time to sit down and focus my energy on beginning this project.  If I fail, my Mom said she will look around and find the perfect one for Sam next year... talk about having a great plan B.  I mean honestly, just looking at that jumbled spaghetti-looking mess of threads makes me anxious!

So anyway, as the 12 days of Christmas kick off tomorrow, I will be channeling all of my crafty talents and getting ready to undertake the project I am affectionately referring to as: "Make Sam's Stocking By December 2012."  With all the time I'm going to have alone in the evenings perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing to have ordered a do-it-yourself stocking kit.

End of November

Tonight we had Sam's medical school roommates over for dinner and cooked chicken on the new BBQ. We got to have leftover pie from Thanksgiving, and veggies, and some rice.  It was very nice to catch up with the guys, and the apartment is SO festive that it made the whole evening all the better. 

Sam had the day off finally, and he got to go golfing and play tennis- which was great!  Tomorrow he goes on the Night Shift until Monday morning, December 5th.  Poor guy.  He'll have to work nights on his birthday and that means no celebrating after today.  

My childhood best friend is coming to Irvine this weekend after her residency interview at UCLA on Saturday- I can't wait!  Michelle hasn't been out to visit in a long time because she's been so busy with medical school in Texas.  I have been out to see her once, and I'm going to Dallas for her graduation this June.  

I can't wait for December to get here, so that we can officially have the countdown to Christmas!

Interns

Last night Sam and I hosted dinner for his co-interns.  Unfortunately, Minau, who is the girl intern, couldn't make it.  She was a practicing lawyer before returning to school to obtain her MD, so I am fascinated by her life path and was bummed I didn't get to meet her.  But I did get to meet Duy (pronounced Zoo-ee) and Sohrab.  Duy grew up in Anaheim Hills (he was a UCI undergraduate) so he is living with his parents while he gets acclimated and starts paying back his loans.  Sohrab was born in Sweden and moved to Palo Alto when he was 16.   He graduated from UCSD undergrad and medical school, and he's living near the hospital.  

It's funny, meeting 2 of Sam's co-interns made the whole "Residency" thing real to me.  Until this point, my social interactions have centered on people I know from medical school- either students who've have yet to graduate or alumni who are now UCI residents.  Hearing Sohrab and Duy talk about their surgeries and which attendings they like/dislike was great since I've old had Sam's opinion so far.  I also noticed that I am completely immune to medical conversations. I believe at one point they were talking about gangrenous wounds in the diabetes clinic and suddenly Sohrab turned to me and apologized for the horrible dinner conversation.  I put his concern to rest and assured him that I had once asked Sam to tell my dad & grandpa about his anatomy class dissections during a dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.  Not a great venue for said conversation, let me tell you.

I must say, I really liked both Duy and Sohrab and I'm excited to get to know them better in the next several years.  They obviously won't take the place of the Santa Barbara boys, who are more like brothers to Sam and I than friends, and they certainly can't replace the med school friends we've lost to non-UCI residency programs, but they are definitely solid guys with great senses of humor and hopefully they will find some equally entertaining significant others in the next few years so that I have a new set of girlfriends to hang out with.