Vacation at HHI

I have officially started studying for the step 1 board exam now but before I got started, Christie and I went to Hilton Head for a week to forget about school, work and everything else. It was absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed every bit of being there. One of our favorite things to do is to ride the beach cruiser bikes to a restaurant for breakfast. I couldn't count how many times I said that I would love to live somewhere that we could do this and not be on vacation. It is just so relaxing and enjoyable. Here's hoping that our next city will love bikes as much as we do.

Of course, what beach vacation is complete without some time on the beach. Unfortunately, in years past the sun and I have not had the best relationship. I have been stubborn about using sunscreen and usually end up with a painful burn... well not this year! Check out my new digs (above), that tent was great and I used sunscreen. After staring at pictures of melanomas all year I decided I didn't want to end up an example on a medical school powerpoint slide, so I am now a religious sunscreen user. I was able to stay on the beach for hours under my little tent and read my book and drink my Coronas. I read "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall this week and I will not turn this blog into a book review forum but, what a great book! It was an easy read and really enjoyable, I highly recommend it even if you are not a die hard runner. All in all it was a great trip and boy was it hard to pack up the car and leave, but duty calls. On to the board review books, wish me luck!

First Adventure in Rotations

I know this seems like I am jumping the gun, but today was my first real experience in what the next two years of medical school will be like. For those who don't know, tomorrow is my official last day of my second year of medical school. Then I have about a month and a half of studying before I take the Step 1 board exam. Then, on to third year! Wow, time sure does fly by! Today we shadowed on the medical service that we are going to start rotating on in July to get a feel for our role in the clinics. My first rotation... Psych. Not my favorite but I think I will learn a lot about people on that rotation.
I shadowed in child psych today and it was quite an experience. I was thinking lots of kids with ADHD, maybe family problems but that was the least of our patients concerns. We had psychoses, aggression, self-injury, too many disorders to name. It was truly sad and somewhat tough to deal with. But we are here to do what we can to help these patients who in a lot of cases tell you that they don't even have hope that things will get better. This is the beginning of what will probably be a very interesting and challenging year in med school. I am sure there will be many more stories to come...

Family

For those of you who don't know everyone in the picture this is Alex (Christie's cousin), Michael (Christie's brother), Christie and of course, me. Alex has been working in missions down in Argentina for the whole year and he came back to be at his mom's wedding. What an awesome guy! Most of why I posted this (other than because it is just a good picture), is because Christie and I are so lucky. As we were driving home last weekend we were talking about how fortunate we were to still have our families together. Of course, I am talking about immediate families here. Even though I know that my parents and my in-laws have had their marital troubles they have weathered storms TOGETHER! I feel really grateful to have that example in a day where 1 out of every 2 marriages don't make it.
I am super happy for Christie's aunt who got remarried and am not writing this in a negative light at all. I just know that we are fortunate. Congrats to my parents who celebrated 30 years last year, my in-laws who are celebrating 30 this year and my grandparents have been married OVER 60 years. Christie and I will celebrate 5 at the end of this year. I sure hope the next 60 years for us will be as great as the first 5.

Instead of studying...

Christie won a radio drawing and got two tickets to the Carrie Underwood concert in Augusta. Even though I am not the biggest country fan Christie still invited me (how sweet). I sure am happy I went. Christie and I had a great evening and the show was great! The meet and greet passes were super cool. She is tiny, I felt like I was going to break her hand when I shook it. It was funny, right after the first song she sang, a guy sitting in the group of people behind us said, "You know I always thought she was overrated but man, that girl can sing!" I was very impressed with her talent and the show was very entertaining. Christie and I agreed that she sounded better in person than on the CDs, how many artists can you say that about these days?
The reason I titled this entry, "Instead of studying" was because I had an exam the day after the concert. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to have fun with Christie and go see a concert I bought a 5 hour energy drink and stayed up all night after the concert. 5 hour energy is actually 4 hour energy. I crashed at 4 am. But I managed to pull it together and made it to the exam and did fine. That afternoon I fell asleep while talking to my mom on the phone (sorry mom :) I guess I had used up all I had in the tank. It was worth it!

MedWAR 2010

MedWAR 2010, we finished 1st, in 5 hours and 30 minutes. In fact, so fast there was no one at the finish line to cheer us in because no one expected anyone to finish for another 20 minutes. After 15 miles of running, 4.5 miles of Mtn biking, about 2 miles of canoeing and numerous medical senarios and questions we were burning down the competition. Fun as it was I think I would be better fit for a regular adventure race sans medical senarios and questions. After it was all said and done we finished 4th in the standings because we missed too many questions, how deflating. Way to go team, I still think crossing the finish line 1st is a bigger accomplishment than knowing random facts about medicinal plants and poisonous sea creatures. Oh well, I know that to be competitive in adventure racing I need to keep training, so back to the grind...

Softball

It is softball time again and this year I played with some classmates from MCG and I am also playing mens church league. My one distraction from studying and a chance to get out and enjoy some fresh air after a day of sitting in my office.

Inspiration in Oregon

While on Spring Break last week, Christie and I traveled to Oregon to visit Mom and Pop. As a runner and avid reader of Trailrunner magazine I knew that Hal Koerner owns Rogue Valley Runners in Ashland, OR. Well of course I had to stop in and just my luck, he was in the store. A super nice guy and Christie got a picture. He runs (and wins) 26, 50, 62, and 100 mile trail runs and he is my height and weight. There is hope for me. Time to strap on the shoes...