Fun? Did she say Fun?

Wow. I am way overdue for a post. Sorry about the hiatus. I have been (surprise!) very, very busy. Still am. But lately I've found new ways to interject fun things. (That's right, I said the f word!)

I've been riding Shilo about three times a week or so. Just yesterday, in my post-call stupor, I managed a very briskly paced trail ride lasting more than 2 hours through Banner Forest. A far stretch from our usual training sessions. I'm not entirely sure, but I think we may have gotten lost for a good portion of it. We made it back to the barn in time for sunset. All three of us who rode the trails forgot our cellphones, but rumor has it there's no reception there anyway. The photo isn't of us (obviously) but Banner looked a lot like the forest at right, but lots of the trees were fatter - and leg-crushingly close to the trails.

I've also been having tremendous fun playing with my new band, Rainbow City Band. I hope to march with them this summer but am on call the parade days. I can, however, make it our next concert where we are playing Danse Macabre, Hall of the Mountain King (a particularly interesting interpretation in that link), Night on Bald Mountain, Nightmare before Christmas music, music from the musical Wicked, Thriller, and possibly more (missed a few rehearsals unfortunately). So check out the links, I bet you know more of those songs than you realize.

All that is not to say haven't been working my tail off. In fact, I have been working essentially every single day from the day after I got back from my Colorado vacation until October 11th - my first guaranteed sleep-in day in a 19 day stretch. Whoever thinks second year is easier than intern year is on crack. I am putting in 80-hour weeks at the least and have been getting up hours before the sun creeps into my patients rooms (in fact, the darkness has been the source of some amusing patient mix-ups). Routinely, I return home long after the sun has set, as the above extracurriculars require about 90 minutes in the car. But it's worth every $4 gallon!

Next rotation... Surgery. Bleh.

7 Days in Colorado

My trip started eventfully with a two hour delay due to a leaking oxygen line in the cockpit. We found this out, of course, after we had all boarded, returned our seats to the upright position and fastened our seat belts. They were kind and let us deplane if we'd like. I had lost my boarding pass in the boarding shuffle so did not deplane, instead, stuck in flight delay limbo hell, paced the pictured skyway over and over and over again.

Nonetheless, it all worked out amazing well and I landed in Denver the exact same time as my friend, Suhani, who landed two gates over. The thrill of being in Not-Tacoma was overwhelming. I was brought back to earth when using a public bathroom that was obviously transplanted from some preschool to the rental car agency. I managed to give myself a closed head injury in the tiny stall and wound up with a goose egg and a headache. More than 10 days later my scalp is still sore.

The first night I saw my way pregnant cousin and her family on Pearl Street. We ate yummy deep dish pizza and settled in to our awesome cabin right at Eben G. Fine park (the name which I kept thinking sounded like a jive remark: eben g'fine, jive turkey!). We were a stones throw from multiple trails, paths leading to the funky, liberal city of Boulder and vigorous mountain hikes.

On the third day, when we were not quite acclimated to the altitude but certainly motivated, we took a 4 hour hike, about 2.5 hours which were straight up. Thankfully, we motivated each other and made it to the top where we were literally greeted with applause. While the trip up was hard, the trip down had its own challenges. At times we were almost crab-walking between cracks in boulders and at times slipping a bit. In fact, there was a terrific wipe-out from my climbing partner. One that had us in stitches all day and her practically in crutches the rest of the week.

I really liked the Foot of the Mountain Motel where we stayed. Aside from the funny smell in the apartment. However, this mystery sewage, metallic smell (that Suhani only was able to sense on one occasion but which seemed to invade my nostrils every time I started to relax) inadvertently led to meeting the hippie, Indian flute-playing, fly-whispering, hotel attendant who reminded me a little of my brother and totally brought a smile to my face).

Tanya arrived and we continued to explore Boulder, shopped, strolled, had a meal or two at the lovely Tea House and just enjoyed the relaxation.

The last two nights I spent at a fancy hotel. I made good use of the hot tub, pool, free apples and Tanya and I halfheartedly explored the nearby shopping areas.

Mostly I just relaxed, caught up with a couple friends, read my book, and ate during the week. Exactly what I wanted to do.