Depending on what specialty I decide to go into, a serious concern of mine is how I will manage to be a good physician and a good mother/wife – have a family. Yesterday, I was Jason’s plus-one to dinner at his mentor’s home. Dr. Replogle and his wife were incredibly inviting, interesting and fun. He also had a wine cellar and beautiful tasting room that he gave us a tour of after we had some great wine and food. His wife also shared two of the things that she felt allowed him to be a great father and husband along with being a great doctor (in cardio, no less).

1. Live close to work. The commute may not seem like a big factor, but those little moments add up
2. Take kids and wife to med conferences. That one-on-one time cemented those relationships.

One of the reasons I love travel is the chance encounters you have. More often than not, these brief meetings are with strangers. However, every once in a while you get blessed with seeing someone you used to know in a completely unexpected place and time.

Of all places, I ran into Santiago, a past grad student in my old lab at the UA, at Old Navy on State & Madison, in Chicago. We caught up briefly, and then we went our separate ways.

I don’t mind people looking at my tattoo. But a few weeks ago I noticed people in the elevator staring at my foot. They would peer down at the dots and lines, look at me, and then break eye contact. Totally could tell they were curious, but for whatever reason, they felt it was more appropriate to awkwardly look at it and then ignore me than to just ask, “hey, what’s that design?”

After this event  repeated itself for days in a row, I began feeling really self-consciousness about my ink – and then I had a nightmare. In my dream, my tattoo was nothing but blurry markings made with blue ballpoint pen.  The ink was running off my foot, like a letter being bombarded with tears dropping. I freaked out so much in the dream that I  woke up, pulled my foot close to my blind eyes, and saw it was still there. Instant relief and a clear reminder of how much this design means to me – no matter how people look at it.

So, my last post about the process of getting into med school about waiting to get interviewed, and later I touched on the interviews themselves (more SYTYCD, M.D. to come!). But here is the post I was not expecting to share for a while. Well after NaBloPoMo was complete, actually.

See, at each of the schools I have been fortunate to interview at, I was in the first group of students to “go to committee.” Once your application is at committee they have everything: your primary, your secondary, all your letters of recommendation and the interview. The process of making a decision and the features being sought out by each school may be different, but the committee arrives at three possible decisions.

The first is no. Outright not interested, we feel there will be other, better candidates, no matter what. SOL. The second is, perhaps. In this case, they would consider inviting you in the future, and you are not even necessarily wait listed. Instead, the committee would like to see more applicants and may send you an invitation after the next group of applicants, or the next, and so on and so forth. The other is yes. Yes, no matter who else we will see or have seen, we would like you to be a student at our school.

To be accepted in the first group means that they are betting that you are one of the best people that will apply, period. Which is flattering and amazing. And I went first draft to the number ten school in the nation. So now you can see why I was surprised, and elated.

…but I got into med school!!! University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine! Hopefully only the first of many offers, but all you need is one. What I will say is that I am shocked to be accepted so soon! More later. :)

Fast forward to 3:20. Oh, Arizona Robbins.

This clip reminds me of why I was once interested in peds surgery. And why I would rock at it.

I’m a big fan of cooking. Big fan. And while the eating of deliciousness, I also enjoy the technique of prep work and the eating healthy that comes out of cooking.

But, the last couple of years I have not been as good about cooking myself as I would like. It’s not like I go out for lunch all the time, but I definitely depend on pre-made things like TJs potstickers more than I should. Last year, school and extracurriculars served a great excuse. But that is gone now – I have the time and materials I need to make real food at home, from scratch.

So, thanks to some motivation from Jen and Lindsay, I’m going to jump back on the horse. The first step? Stuffed pumpkins, that Linds shared. The second? Making this recipe just part of two recipes I will plan every week, and then grab the ingredients for. No excuses.

Since fall arrived in DC, I have been hatching a plan. A plan to release a half of me in a way I have never released before. I was plotting to be the whitest I have been. Yes, even whiter than when I visit North Carolina.

I was going to watch the leaves turn..

Sadly, when I have not been away for interviews the weather has been under the weather and my trip to WASP land has not panned out. The leaves changed without a drive,  or a hike.

Even though the best  color is gone, I got to experience my east coast fall! And I got a leaf shower! So this weekend was a winner!