Coming full circle

Where to start; where to start?  Should I end?

I can't say I have a lot of advice for you all now starting in Grenada (or in Newcastle) other than good luck, really enjoy the time you have because you'll look back on it fondly (maybe not the harassment but otherwise) and work hard, but the island is so far away from me that it feels like a dream.  Nearly 10 years now since I shipped off, terrified, and a very different person than I am now.

I've alluded to and generally complained about the pathology job market being terrible.  I can officially say I've accepted a job offer that seems like an excellent fit for me, and we're really happy about it.

There's an official "we" now.  I'm engaged.  The impossible has happened, and no, there's no big wedding.  This year has been so stressful that doing anything other than a quick inebriated cakeless wedding just isn't worth the effort or money.

I can continue the "travelogue" portion of the blog to an extent.  For the past few years, my PTO has been used for less fun things - interviewing for a fellowship; the next year moving for fellowship and the year after applying for jobs, but having secured one with a healthy amount of time left, the future husband and I took off for the Belize jungle and had an amazing time.  It was the first I've felt truly relaxed in years.  Amazing country and who knew you could hop on Southwest for less than a flight to San Francisco?

The cytopathology boards are sometime in August.  Not too stressed.  Maybe I'm finally entering a time in my life where the exam difficulty starts going downhill.  Either that or the AP/CP exams just broke me entirely, which is likely.

Everything's winding down.  I'm in my last away rotation, which would be nice except it's been complicated by a knee injury sustained during crossfit, so now I need to get a scope stuck in my knee.  Then it's back to my main hospital to wind up my year and hopefully say goodbye to trainee status forever.  Not that I have any intention of ceasing learning, just that I get a decent salary and am higher than *someone* on a ladder.

So things are working out, for all the pain and difficulty.  It's been an insane ride, but a fulfilling one, and I've been extremely lucky all the way.  I wish a great deal of luck to all of you.

Requisite Grad Shots

How could I forget?

Today I found an amazing farmers market at Marion Square, thus continuing my increasing love of Charleston. Said market included a roti stand (!!!!?????), banh mi, and beignets. So much for losing weight here. Though the bike helps.

Home sweet home in the lowcountry

Sorry for the lack of updates; I've been busier than I've perhaps ever been and having to make a number of spot decisions that have all ended up working out better than anyone could reasonably expect.

Graduation. Awesome. Really had a good time, and saw so many people, some of whom I hadn't seen since Grenada, and it was fantastic. My dad flew up from North Carolina, I took him to see Mary Poppins (on Broooooooaaaaaaaadway), and I got to parade around in my cap and gown (which we actually got to keep this year) plus a hood. They kept the speeches fairly brief and to the point. I'm sure this is horrible sounding to Ivy Leaguers, but after enduring hours of drone in UCD's gymnasium, a succinct presentation that felt like it was *to* us rather than *at* us at Lincoln Center was greatly appreciated. I did get hooded upside down, but I don't think most people would be able to tell. Most importantly, I WALKED WITHOUT A CANE OR A LIMP. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Weirdly, despite nearly everyone at graduation having both a job and a diploma in hand already, no one took the opportunity to do anything weird.

Incidentally, they played Grenada's national anthem. To the surprise of most, it was not Temperature by Sean Paul.

So the pomp! The circumstance! The OMG I need to move to SC this week and either find a place to live near my hospital and buy a bike or find any place and buy a car!

That bit was a little nerve wracking. My initial living plans fell through so then I thought "I don't have anything to do until a physical/drug test on the 22nd, and then some social stuff, and then orientation the 27th, so I'll find a place when I get there since I have plenty of time." Which is true, but when you're in a moving van driving to a Motel 6 and honestly don't have a real address to give them, it's freaky.

I'd been surfing Craigslist, and found a few leads; contacted one agency that specializes in matching people with roommates, was wandering around roommates.com, and so forth, but then found a place on Craigslist that's biking distance from the hospital, costs half of what my rent was in Brooklyn, and comes complete with one of my new roommates' huge friendly Star Wars-named dog. And available this weekend, which is a plus when you're returning the van on Monday. And y'all... (I can say y'all now that I have an address in the South), this place, which is a for-real house, which I have not lived in since I was 12, has a washer/dryer (the holy grail), a backyard with a fire pit, a balcony, a walk in closet (!!!!), a giant pantry, and a giant kitchen. No words. If these two can be half as cool as my last roommate, I'll be happy, since I got all emotional and weepy when he left.

Dropped by to meet people, confirmed no one was a serial killer, signed the lease, made out the check, rented a storeroom for some of my mom's stuff, hauled that around (Charleston was about 96 degrees today; there were a couple moments where I honestly thought I was going to die), bought a bike, tossed it in the back of the much emptier moving van, went back to the house, dragged everything upstairs while nearly getting killed by my futon (no more bunk bed!) and drove back to the motel.

Whew. It's... done. I have an address in Charleston, a job starting up, I'm a doctor and it all happened. And this particular move even happened without a whole lot of drama or stress, which is completely unheard of in a move. I was much more frazzled and emotional moving from Park Slope to Sunset Park for six weeks because our lease was up.

I have a bicycle! I haven't had a bicycle in four years. I feel so environmentally conscious. Or more realistically, broke, and I don't want to deal with car payments and insurance for a while, though for graduation, my mom gave me enough money for a sizeable down payment. Thanks mom!

So now, the only thing that stands between me and employment is my ability to pee in a cup on demand. Better start drinking!!!!

Lincoln Center's met its match

Grad ceremony today! I get loads of ridiculous looking bling and the hunter green cape/trim thing plus a funny hat and everyone's all "She's a doctor" and I'm all "that's right".

Something like that. Gotta be better than Davis graduation in the rec center with minimal air conditioning and a tortilla fight. I think I get to keep my robes too, so I'm thinking of just wearing them for the foreseeable future, except for a South Carolina summer, it'll probably be hot.

In other "is she a real doctor yet?" news, I got my South Carolina limited license approved today! Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!

And this time, it's for real-for real

So, I'm a real M.D. now.

I'm getting excitement-overloaded, if such a thing exists. Black Monday, woot, Match Day, woot, last day of clinicals, woot, file closed out, woot, diploma date, woot. It's like if Mardi Gras were once a week. Going from "Congratulations!!" to "Congratulations? Right? Are you a doctor yet? No? Good god, how much paperwork can there be?"

April 8th? Diploma date. Which is good, because between March 25th (last day of clinicals) and now, I really didn't know what to call myself. Was I a student? Not really; I wasn't in school. Was I a doctor? Not really. Hadn't reached my graduation date. The graduation *walk* is in June, so that'll be another woot (though I'll get a few months rest in between), but that's so I can see if the third time's the charm for not tripping over a too-long gown in heels.

This may mean that over the course of the next few months, I may... possibly, be able to start talking about things other than school, the Match, patients, and so forth. It's like a whole new social realm has opened up to me. I can talk about... Futurama again, if the bastard ever shows a new frigging episode. Seriously, seen A Clockwork Origin like five times. I need a fix.

Then residency will start, and I'll be able to bore people in an even more specialized niche. Learning medicine with goats on your lawn could at least be conceivably interesting to people not doing it. Classifying seminomas? Oh, get ready friends and family... Come July, I'm going to take you to EPIC boredom. We're talking longing for filibuster boredom. Last half hour of 2001: A Space Odyssey boredom. Yes, I went there.

Seeing as that last remark probably pissed off a good half of you, I figured this would be a good time to beg for help again. Anyone know any tried and true method of purging a particularly insidious Google redirect virus without using Combofix? The program won't run because there's some lurking AVG file haunting my computer despite my disabling it and then uninstalling the full app. TDSS Killer isn't touching it, Malwarebytes keeps helping me with the stuff it tries to download onto my computer when I space out and click a google link (I can remove Windows Security with my eyes closed by this point), but the redirect remains. And I didn't realize HOW MUCH I google random crap until I can't click on it anymore. I'm not above mucking with the registry. Just call me the latchHKey kid.

And users of better computers, have at me for not having a Macbook. I will keep my infection-ridden Dell computer duct taped together until July if it kills me. Which it may. Didn't some of these bad boys catch on fire?