"Call Me Anything But Easy"

Amanda's last UCI spin class was tonight and I had a surprise for her...

I not only wanted to show off my shirt, but also a photo of Amanda since I have talked so highly of her.  She thinks she looks like crap, but her first spin class was at 5:30 this morning, she worked with clients all day, and this photo was after her 6:30pm spin class, so let's all cut her some slack.  The back of the shirt says, "Call her anything but easy," which I would say is one of my favorite Amanda Ebner quotes followed closely by, "here's the business," and "don't be afraid to get a little reckless."  Let me also say looks are deceiving.  Amanda may appear cute and nice, but she is guareenteed to kick your a$$ for the full hour you work out with her.  Post my Amanda workout nights I am most often in bed doing homework aka falling asleep with my book open like I will probably be doing in a few minutes.

What to Expect When You're Matching

With only one week (YIKES) until Match Day, I have gathered as much information about what to expect as possible.  I now share this info with you:

First of all, Match Day (March 17th) is not the only day to be worried about.  Monday, March 14th, is the day that all graduating medical students find out if they did or did not match.  We will be assuming Sam successfully matches because, honestly, I am about to lose my mind from the anxiety and stress of this whole process just worrying which program he'll get into let alone if he'll get into one at all.

• Match is preceded by breakfast (I assume bagels, croissants, pastries, etc.) donated by UCI the medical school
• It takes place outside on campus, but I'm not entirely sure where
• The match results are made public across the country at 9am PST, at which point students are called one at a time in alphabetical order by last name to read their match in front of their classmates, friends, and family. 
• If you’re not the first or second person in the class you can actually log into the match website and find out where you are headed prior to stepping on the stage.  (If you, like me, wondered if Sam would do this let me put your mind to rest. Sam assured me neither he nor I will be checking the results before hand.)
• Immediately following Sam's big annoucement (which I promise I will take pictures and video of) we will call/text loved ones, so if you want to put yourself on the list please let me know.  I don't want to offend anyone who ends up reading the news on my facebook.  :-)
• Match is followed by a BBQ put on by the current 3^rd year students.

Later that evening, Sam and I are looking forward to having dinner at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Newport Beach to celebrate with our very dear friends, the Grants.  When they found out we didn’t have family coming for match day (I also just found out families/friends come to Match Day), Matt and his amazing parents extended an invitation to Sam and I to join  them for dinner.  Emily will be matching into Pediatrics, and she and her husband (both Lamorinda kids themselves) have been incredible friends to Sam and throughout the whole medical school experience so I think it's very fitting to be celebrating the end of the era with them.

The post-Vegas lack of sleep and building suspense RE: Match are a bad combination which has tensions running HIGH this week.  Not to mention, I had my final presentation for one of my classes on Tuesday and one of my group mates completely botched his portion.  It was epically bad, like the worst group presentation I have ever been a part of.  And since I spent so much time last week working on analyzing our data, this week I'm playing catch up with all my reading and also trying to fill in my take-home final.  Can't this whole Match thing just be over?  Pretty please?

Body By Amanda

With a very heavy heart, I walked home from the gym tonight after my last (for a while) in-person workout with my personal trainer, Amanda.  In the last 18 months she has pushed me beyond my limits, taught me new training techniques, and encouraged me stick with Weight Watchers since for me, diet is a more challenging lifestyle component than exercise.  Amanda trained me for my first (possibly only) 5K, turned me on to studio cycling classes, and supported my with out-of-the-gym struggles.  After making the decision to leave the graduate program at UCI in order to train full time, she is now scaling back her commute to increase her client volume.  I am so happy for her and wish her all the success in the world. 

From now until Sam and I leave for Southeast Asia, I’ll be training online with Amanda- completing the programs she gives me and reporting back to her the stats.  I can't believe I won't be seeing her twice a week, but I’m comforted to know that we’ll be able to work together online no matter where I move in June ( LA looks pretty appealing from the perspective of fulfilling my fitness needs.)

Before Amanda, and after Amanda

I know it was my blood, sweat tears that got me here, but Amanda made that possible.  She put in the time and effort creating challenging workouts, setting new goals for me, and reminding me that I am capable of accomplishing anything I set my mind to.  I can say this, “Amanda, our work together has not been easy, ever.  But it has been the most rewarding personal journey of my life, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

We're Home!

First and foremost, happy 26th birthday to my college roommate Marlena- I hope you had a wonderful day and that this trip around the sun is a prosperous one!

After a wonderful weekend in Sin City, I am happy to be writing this from the comfort of our living room while watching Robin Hood with Sam.  We made it to Las Vegas on Friday night around 11pm.  After changing our clothes and dropping our bags off in our room at Palazzo, we met up with Sam's classmates at Lavo. 

My fabulous roommates for the weekend

It was really fun to see so many of the 4th year medical students, especially since we haven't seen some of Sam's classmates since before the holidays.  Also, Mario Lopez was partying in the VIP area of the club so that was interesting.

Saturday night, five of us had dinner at Bouchon in the Venetian.  I had the most amazing soupe a l'oignon and Sam had a great chicken dish.  I am excited to check out their sister restaurant in LA next time we are up in the area.  After dinner, we headed out to club XS in Encore.  

Tequila shots to celebrate Dan & Tina's engagement

Club XS was amazing!  I loved that it was a covered, but open air dance floor that looked out at the pool.  It was so refreshing to have adequate ventilation since so many people smoke indoors in Las Vegas.  

We also got to buy our good friends Dan and Tina tequila shots to celebrate their engagement a few weeks ago.  Dan organized the trip, and he deserves huge kudos for making sure Sam and I had a room when our previous plans fell through.  

All in all, it was a great trip with great people, and a very fitting way to celebrate the 2011 match.

Sam & I in XS on Saturday night

Waking Up In Vegas!

Sam and I are headed to Sin City this weekend! We're leaving when I get off work, so naturally it's felt as if the clocks are ticking backward today. 

We are going with a large group of the medical students, who have been going on average 4 times a year over the last 4 years.  My last trip was relatively mellow since none of us had ever been before, but this trip is going to be very different.  We'll be staying at Palazzo and tomorrow the ladies are doing some bachelorette activities for one of the girls in Sam's class.  One of my co-workers is staying in the same hotel, and my boss was teaching me the rules of Black Jack at lunch.  So I would say I'll be a little better prepared this time than I was last time. 

It's hard for me to believe that 2 weeks from today Sam and I will (hopefully) be celebrating his match and looking into when his orientation starts and trying to figure out when we're going to look for housing.  Well, realistically I will be doing that, and Sam will be recovering from the Match & St. Patrick's Day festivities.

Happy Birthday Nonna Scandelosa!

Happy Birthday to my scandelous grandma, Lucille. She has been, and continues to be, a source of great confort to me and an unbelievably good role model I could not have hit the grandma jackpot more than being born into her family.

Also, March?!?! I know February is the shortest month of the year, but seriously, how is it March already?

Update on Sam from last night: he got impatient and opted to not have the CT so we could leave and go home. Today he's doing okay but has a purple bruise on his upper lip. I imagine his head is still a little foggy and achy too. Of course, this is just in time for Vegas.

An Exciting Start To March

I am posting this from the Irvine Kaiser Perminente ED (in real life medicine the 'ER' is really the Emergency Department). But let me start at the begining.

Sam booked our flights to Thailand and Bali today. We leave May 1st at 1:30 AM and return May 31st in the evening. We still need to figure out our travel plans to and from Cambodia but that will be cake compared to all the SCUBA and hotel arrangements. I will update the improtant dates on the sidebar ASAP.

Then,I was sitting in class when I got a call from one of Sam's teammates and a voicemail. I texted him back "Did something happen to Sam?" and Ryan texted texted "Everything is okay now." Turns out Sam took a knee to the head as the goalie took the ball and Sam hit the ground hard. There is also a laceration deep in the soft tissue inside his upper middle lip. Gross.

We're waiting for him to have a head CT, get antibiotics, have the CT cleared by the doc, and then I promised I would buy dinner. Which at this point is going to have to be whatever is still open. Think good thoughts!