Internship Over

Wow. I can't believe it's been a month since my last entry. I'm staring at my computer screen through slitted eyes, I'm so tired. I have finished my 7 weeks of Pediatrics and tomorrow start 9 weeks of OB. OB has a routine, it's hard as hell but at least I get to sleep post-call and I know, essentially, what I'm in for each day.

In the last month I have worked A LOT. So much so that my priorities list had been shuffled multiple times. For example, sometimes I have to prioritize something elective like emailing in regards to something crucial like sleeping. This last long rotation I had to prioritize the crucials, less sleep to eat, or less eating to get my work done. With the exception of the week containing my golden weekend I was between 80 and 90 hrs every week.

The other day I was making a joke about residency but I realize now there's some truth to it: residency has made me soft on the outside and hard on the inside. Looking back on my intern year I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun now and again, but... if you gave me the choice between having teeth pulled without anesthetic and repeating intern year, I'd lose the teeth.

Hey! And speaking of fun.... my golden weekend was during Solstice. I got to go to the Solstice parade in Freemont (it's a particularly leftist part of Seattle). The parade started, as is tradition, with naked bicyclers (one at left - click on it to see "details"). They had body paint designed to look like feathers, clothes, in hand prints, etc. It was really neat. After the naked bike riders came the actual parade, a celebration of summer, solstice, the sun, etc. There are no corporate sponsors of the Freemont parade. The floats are all man-powered, not motorized and if there was music it was thanks to live bands, not stereos. There was hula hooping, a flying spaghetti monster, pirates, unicorns, zombies, belly dancers, dragons, robots, free hugs, a giant joint, hula hoops, storks, stilts, a funeral for the statue of liberty, George Dubbya, chickens, chile pepper-people and "the last virgin" riding a pink, sheep-skin pony. I wish I could post all the pictures here. I took so many. I attended the parade with my cousins and their kids and sat with some friends of theirs who brought bubbles, hula hoops of their own, and pogo sticks. It was fabulous.

Then this weekend I had Sunday off. I went to Pride in Seattle which also had its own awesome parade. The night before I went to see the Seattle Men's Chorus, which was quite possibly the gay-est thing I have ever seen. Ever. And that's saying a lot! The next day was the parade which also featured pirates and the spaghetti monster. I also came to a revelation about the utilikilt. It's made in Seattle and I have seen it everywhere. I never made the connection but it's exceedingly popular in the gay community out here (for men, women and gender non-specific folks). They were everywhere. I have never seem them out of the NW (as far as I can remember). Learn more about them here.

This parade, unlike the Freemont one, did have corporate sponsorship, and being in the NW, Microsoft, Starbucks, Alaska Airlines and WaMu were very well represented (and very, very gay). The Obama love was everywhere. And, my favorite, Dykes on Bikes, was exciting! I can't help but blame my Detroit roots and the Woodward Dream Cruise conditioning to make my heart go pitter-patter with a rev of an engine. Some of the folks at the parade with me felt otherwise, but I couldn't help but find that as possibly my favorite part of the whole parade.

I have soooo many picture from these parades. It was impossible to pick the best ones for the blog. I may have to just post them periodically throughout the year... the pirates, the utilikilt peeps, the drag queens, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, The roller derby girls, the leather fetishists, the rugby folks, WNFL players, the half-naked pregnant goth chicks (above), PFLAG's awesome signs, people dressed as fruits, people dressed as recyclables, more naked bikers and rollerbladers, and more! I'll try to see if I can email a few folks the photo album when I can get it uploaded but if you're interested and haven't received it, feel free to email me for the full photo fun! The photos I've included were picked at random. The one at left only partially shows the scope of the post-parade party that happened at the Seattle Center. Apparently there were 250,000 people there last year. I wonder what the count was this year?

And, as an aside (just to show where my priorities are on this blog), we had graduation for the R3's. It was a festive bitter-sweet event. I got to reunite with Molly, my fellow from my first month of fellowship who has been practicing for the last year in Port Townsend. I also got a fancy certificate saying I finished intern year. The graduating class each had a moment in the spotlight razzed or praised or even serenaded by their advisors. There were lots of speeches, some more relevant than others, mediocre-tasting, but fancy-looking food and a stupendous view (left)!


And, with that, I need to crash. This was a long entry. I feel obligated to reminiscence about the last year. Maybe later. For now sleep is trumping nostalgia. Until later...