2013

{I could explain this photo, but I'll let your  imagination run wild}

So, hi.

Last time we spoke, Dr. D wasn't actually a doctor yet. And if we're going to get all technical (which we are because this is my blog and I do what I want, obvs), I wasn't a master yet. I like to joke that my degree sounds cooler, particularly when I make claims to be a doctor's master. But I digress.

When I think about the fact that I posted a whopping 3 times in 2012 (dismal!), it would appear to have been an uneventful year. On the contrary, it was rather chaotic. Yet somehow we find ourselves on the other side of that tunnel, panting from holding our breath and a little frayed around the edges from the speed of it all, but ultimately in a place that is exactly where we want to be.

But now here's the weird part: D has had to take off at a full sprint again, and I'm taking a breather (somewhat involuntarily, thanks to a tough and limited job market). I'm hoping that with some of this free time I find myself with--and I keep trying to tell myself to enjoy it while I can--I'll be able to get back into the swing of blogging and connecting with other people who are in med couples across the country.  Because let's be honest, we have some pretty great stories to tell.

With that, I say: bring it, 2013.

100 & 11

Before we get started, I just want to say that this is my 100th post.  Whaaaaat?  Okay, back to your regularly scheduled programming:

Out of the past five months, Dr. D has only been able to spend about two of them here at home with me, so you better believe I had to do something cute for him when he came home from his last away rotation.

I baked his favorite cookies, which was a given.  But I wanted to do more.  You see, Dr. D has always been the more creative partner when it comes to romance.  I honestly have no idea where this man gets all of his ideas, but I've told him on multiple occasions that he could start a romance consulting business and people would pay good money to buy his ideas.  He is THAT good.  His momma raised him right.

But it kinda puts the pressure on when I try to come up with romantic gestures of my own, know what I mean?  So I decided to look for inspiration in things that have been meaningful to us both since the beginning of our relationship---you know, back when we were 15 and sickeningly adorable and awkward.*  And then it hit me: love notes.

That's how this whole thing started, 11 years ago.  That day set the tone, and from then on we were always writing love notes and poems and drawings of stick figures on napkins to each other.  But then at some point life got busy, text messaging happened, and the notes dwindled in frequency.  So I decided it was time to bring them back.

For Dr. D's homecoming, I put a bunch of little notes for him all over the house---some punny, some with quotes from our favorite movies, some with inside jokes.  He didn't notice most of them when he first got back, which I'd like to attribute to my dazzling presence being an obvious distraction, but with a little prodding he finally began to see them all over the house.  I'd have to say the best part was hearing him laugh randomly each time he would find one.

*I'd like to think we're still as adorable now, just less awkward.  Maybe.  Thank goodness our 15-year-old awkwardness is forever immortalized in pictures, like this one which is framed and sitting in our living room.  It was taken exactly 11 years ago from today, the day after we started dating.

Are you wearing a hat?

Well you better hold on to it.  I finally have a day off of work, so now this is happening:

...am I the only weirdo you know who puts a beverage sleeve on her iced drinks?  Sweaty glasses skeeve me out.  I also have the tendency to drop them (slippery little devils), so this is my solution.

But I digress.  Catch you on the flip side.

Blogging, FTL.

Fail blog.

Seriously, sorry guys.  I wish I had some epic excuse for my absence, like I won the lottery and we paid off all of Dr. D's loans and then flew to Africa and opened a health clinic.  Or I decided to surprise him and move out to CA with him for two months during his research rotation and we've been having such an amazing time that I haven't had a moment to spare for e-emoting.  Or I'm writing a book and am now contractually obligated not to utter another cyber word until my first draft is completed.

Alas, it is none of those things.  It's something much less sexy: work.

July and August are probably the two busiest months for my job, and next week it will all culminate in a fantastical, stressful whirlygig of chaos as 30,000+ students descend upon our currently serene campus.  I am simultaneously excited for and resistant to this time of year---mostly because I find that my summer to-do list is only a third of the way finished, and the beginning of this school year marks what will likely be my last year at this university.

Oh, and have I mentioned I'm EXHAUSTED?

So there you have it.  My pseudo-apologetic excuse for the prolonged blog silence, sprinkled with justifications and a dash of pity-party.

And here comes the ambiguous reassurance of a return to semi-regular posting: I've got a few posts in the works, so when things settle down at work after next week, you'll have some of those coming your way.

I'll leave you with this picture of J-dog as "Hairy Potter," because it's my blog and I do what I want.

Mmkay... brb. (ish).

Guest Blogging & Random Trivia

Howdy y'all! (I'm practicing for our upcoming trip to Texas later this week... how did I do?)

I'm over here today, guest blogging and doing crazy stuff like revealing my real first name and talking briefly about something that I haven't devoted a whole lot of time to here: my job. I'd just like to give a quick shout-out to Daci, who I was lucky enough to connect with thanks to some key commonalities---namely our love of med school husbands and precocious canine companions. Her blog is a daily visit of mine, and probably should be for you as well.  Go check it out!

Dr. D and I had another lovely weekend filled with good eats, good friends, and really horrible trivia scores.

Did you know that terminal velocity when skydiving is 122 mph?  Yeah, us neither.

Blog Birthday

Well, here we are.  Today marks the one year anniversary of my first post and the beginning of a written representation of Dr. D and me, a story that's roughly 15 years old.

Where on earth has the time gone?

Somewhere amidst the long hours, the core rotations (both here and away), the tragedies, the ridiculous dog tricks, the papers, the disturbing medical knowledge, the laughter, the loving... somehow another year is behind us, and another year is in front of us.

Boy, what a blockbuster year it's shaping up to be.  And we're so glad to have you be a part of it.

I'll take it!

A little over a month ago, I was very kindly given a blogging award.  This was awesome for two reasons: (1) It is my very first award ever for writing, and I truly had no idea this sort of thing existed so I was quite surprised, and (2) It came from a reader who I don't know personally, which was exhilarating because it means that I have a bigger audience than I ever thought I would.  How lovely!

So first, I would just like to thank the gracious Medical Student's Wife for reading and liking what she saw enough to award it.  You should check out her blog, particularly if you are one of my readers who is a partner of the medically-inclined.  She's a teacher, her husband has just graduated from med school (congratulations!), and they are currently in the process of moving so he can begin his intern year.  I am both jealous of and anxious for them!

Here's the award:

How flattering is that?

And here's what I've been asked to do:

• Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.  Donezo.
• Tell seven things about yourself.  Fixin' to.
• Contact and award 15 recently discovered new bloggers.  Working on it.

So without further delay, here are my seven things, which took an embarrassing amount of time to actually come up with, mostly due to thing #1:

1. I’m not all that good at talking about myself (which you’ll find hard to believe by the end of this post, I’d imagine).
2. For anyone who was incredibly concerned that I may have gone through life so far being a “waste of height” (a phrase that really gets my goat, by the way... like I consciously chose my stature and am being incredibly stingy with it), you might be interested to know that I played basketball for many years, and was a scholarship athlete in college until I realized I’d be much happier if I wasn't. {Side note: where does the saying “gets my goat” even come from?  Was goat thievery at one point a rampant issue?}
3. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m what I like to consider a “situational extrovert,” meaning I am inclined to introversion but can be coaxed into social situations in which I somehow manage spurts of outgoingness.  I’m good for some witty banter, I can easily speak in front of large groups of people, and I even put myself into performance situations (singing, acting, lecturing, etc.), but believe me, I need recharging afterward.  This is not to say that if I had my way I’d be a complete shut-in; I’m just an internal processor who can sometimes be overwhelmed by too much social activity and not enough time to reflect.
4. If people-watching were a career, I’d be a professional.  When we go out to eat, Dr. D has to purposely sit in the seat that has the best view of people and their comings and goings, otherwise I get terribly distracted.   I get sucked into strangers’ conversations, albeit discreetly.  I make up life stories about them in my head.  If I can’t hear them, I imagine what their conversations are about.  I concoct plot lines and imagine what they’re going to do once they leave.  It’s awful(ly entertaining).
5. I’m 25 and have finally reached the point where I have to actually stop and think when someone asks me, “How old are you?”  When I was a kid and my mom used to struggle to recall her age, I remember thinking it was the silliest thing ever.  How could anyone not know their own age?  But for some reason now I perpetually want to answer that I’m 22.  It must have been a defining year for me.  I suppose getting engaged, married, moving across the country, and beginning a new career all in the same year is pretty significant...
6. I can recite and sing the entire musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as quote anything James Marsters’ character (Spike) said throughout the entirety of its 7 seasons.
7. My biggest artistic outlets are writing and photography.  I truly hope to one day have my own photography business and spend my days capturing beautiful things through pictures and words.

Well there you have it.  Chew on that for a while, and I'll go recharge.

I'm grounded.

I've never been grounded in my life (thanks, Mom & Dad!), mostly due to the fact that I was a pretty good kid.  I mean, my biggest act of rebellion in my teen years was the first (and last) day that I ditched school with Dr. D when we were 16... to go see the second Harry Potter movie in theaters.

Look out, Lindsay Lohan.

But today, I'm grounding myself from my blog until Monday, when hopefully this:

...will magically become a 20 page paper.  Wish me luck.

Accio motivation!

Medical Matrimony, et al.

I have this crazy idea. Or maybe it's less of an idea and more of a theory, since "idea" implies a sense of originality---and let's face it, blogging hasn't been original since, what, 1997? I was 12 at that time, and let me be honest: in sixth grade I was too busy collecting key chains, sketching Disney characters and ignoring the fact that poor Dr. D (my husband) was in excruciating puppy love with me, to ever have the expendable brain waves to create the idea for online diary-writing. Let alone to think of calling it a "blahg." I mean really.
So my theory is this: I am going to want to remember this. What is "this," you may wonder? (I do realize that posing this hypothetical question assumes a readership greater than zero, which may be somewhat arrogant and misguided on my part, but I digress...)
When I say I want to remember this, I mean these early years of our marriage, and how we (Dr. D and I) got to this point in our lives, as individuals and as partners. I want to remember the big things and the little things, because sometimes the little things have an even bigger influence on the road ahead than all of the big things combined. For instance, one day when Dr. D was in grade school he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. That was a little thing, a moment in time. But because of his answer to that question, we're where we are now and Dr. D is halfway done with his medical degree. We've had the chance to build a home together and learn to rely on each other and trust in our love. We're also farther away from our family and friends than we ever expected to be, so it's my hope that this can be a way to share our lives with them despite the distance.
Woah... that got heavy for a second, didn't it? Let me lighten the mood a bit with the thing that I'd like to remember today:
Dr. D and I frequently have deep, existential conversations. On one such occasion, we posed to each other the question: if your spouse was a vegetable, what vegetable would they be? My loving husband eagerly blurted out his answer first: "You would be a GREEN BEAN!" I must not have been able to mask my disappointment and rising body-image sensitivity fast enough (I mean c'mon! Long, skinny, limp green beans?!), because he hastily added: "I mean... you're a well-proportioned green bean! With all the curves in the right beany places!"
He's a keeper.