The other coast

Alvis and I are exploring the west...we have this strange desire to migrate to the other side of the country after residency, so we thought maybe we should explore it before moving out there. We want to check out Boulder, CO, Northern CA, Oregon, and Washington. Maybe we'll love it, maybe we'll hate it. So we made our first tour last month--to San Francisco and Sonoma. San Francisco was great--a very cool city. I love living in the city, but I don't think I loved San Francisco enough to put up with the negatives of living in a city that big (parking, expense, tiny living quarters). But, I am convinced that if anyone walks that city for long, they will have the most amazing buns of steel. Hills...



After a few days in San Fransisco we drove up to wine country. The drive was incredible. We rented a convertible (which turned out to be brilliant, thanks Alvis) and stopped in to several wineries recommended by our favorite wine shop in Manhattan.



I don't know much about wine, but I tried to muster all my confidence and gave my best "Sideways" impersonation as I turned down the Merlots. I did Paul Giamatti proud. I swirled with the best of them--and I don't think I spilled too much...
So, as far as future moving plans go, Sonoma doesn't quite cut it either. Not that we wouldn't love to live on a vineyard, we just don't have the family lineage it takes to own one. Or the money. And I'm pretty sure we would make really crappy wine. But on our last day we took a drive straight to the coast, which was winding and breathtaking. We drove through rolling hills with views of the Pacific and found heaven on earth. Living in the most serene and visually stunning landscape with the city of San Francisco an hour away? Sounds good to us. However, I recently read that the real estate we loved so much was not necessarily too expensive, but just never goes on the market. Because no one ever wants to leave. We'll have to see what we can do about that...But hey, we still haven't checked out Oregon, Washington, or Colorado yet. Stay tuned...

Why are you here?

This is for Megan...So, the ER has it's good times and it's bad times, but it never disappoints in the entertainment division. I've hesitated on telling my ER stories for a few reasons. For one thing, there are too many ridiculous things that have happened in the ER this past year to try and compile together. Also, in the beginning, I found my work life a bit overwhelming, and was happy to leave it behind the second I left the hospital. I didn't like talking about work when I got home-- I was pretty good at compartmentalizing. Some days are harder than others, but it has definitely gotten more manageable over the year. More days than not, I come home thinking how cool my job is. But, with that being said, there is always an element of the ridiculous in my daily work life. This is not a sophisticated life. It's a life in which I have actually had to have a patient restrained and then put a facemask on him, so he will stop spitting at me. It's a life in which a 65 year old stinky female patient of mine yelled at me for taking too long to write a prescription for her "emergency" vaginal itching at 3:30 am while I was trying to save a patient who wasn't breathing (actual emergency). It's a life in which we joke about our "ER handshake" being a rectal exam (yeah, don't go to the ER and complain of severe abdominal pain...). But, it is pretty cool to do some of the things we get to do. I thought I would kick off the ER stories with a contest we recently started amongst our residents. Each month, we pool together the best triage complaints we've seen all month. No names are given, just the "chief complaint", the statement that explains why they have come to the ER (this, along with vital signs, is all we get when we pick up a chart to go see a patient). Some of the big contenders this month were:

1. "Someone put something in my weed"
2. "I'm drunk and I need a woman"
3. "I shit myself"
4. "I shouldn't be here"
5. "I was hit in the head by manequin legs that were thrown from a window"
6. "I had a dream I was having a heart attack, so I woke up and took Nitroglycerine, and now I have a headache" (a common reaction to Nitroglycerine)

Those were the big winners this month...we'll see what next month has to offer...