Plate o' Shrimp

For my first clinical rotation I won the lotto and got the most demanding and time consuming rotation.  So I will be taking call about every 5 days and some weekends.  There may be no ne posts until August.  Wish me luck!

NO I am not a resident.  No I am not and intern.

Here is how med school works.

You are a student for 4 years

Your first two years are in a classroom.  This I did in Grenada.

Then you take a big licensing exam to prove you are not an idiot.  This I have also done.

Then you spend two years doing clinical rotations (like Carter/Noah Wylie when he first arrived on ER) Then you graduate and get your MD.

The good news is that you stop paying tuition. The good news is also that they don't let you practice medicine on your own yet. You become a RESIDENT. A residency in internal medicine lasts three years. The first year of residency you are known as an INTERN.

For those of you who are still confused  I will post this in a year or so when the question comes up again.    :-) 

I am sitting in the chair, writing by the light of the lamp Steven and Kelley gave me

I sleep in the bed and put my clothes in he dresser Molly helped me  put together

My shoulder are warmed by the delicate lace shawl  Larissa started in Grenada and finished here in New Jersey.

I am grateful to be so well cared for

It all started with another road trip… this one into distinctly alien country. Although I pride myself on being able to traverse most of the western states without a map or GPS this was the mother of all road trips.. cross country to the Eastern seaboard. So of course I started by driving south.. to the southern California high desert and mountains.. to cherry valley to see the indomitable Aunt Billie and to see my Dad up in him forest home. After a short visit I headed west, resisted the temptation to stop at the grand canyon and landed at Chris and Lisa’s for a few days in the big turkey (that’s Albuquerque for the uninitiated) I attempted to clean out my storage unit but didn’t quite make it.. a few pieces of furniture that hold sentimental value holding me back. About a year and a half ago while I was still in Grenada I got the news that this storage until had been broken in to. I couldn’t remember much of what I had stored there.. But what I did worry about was still there.. artwork by friends, my Japanese teaware… Some things I had forgotten about were gone.. notably the Pentax K1000 SLR film camera I had been using since I was 17 and had been still using and shooting film with just before I left for Grenada. Any other feelings of loss and violation at was taken--- my bicycle, a television, a dvd player.. has been tempered by the fact that those things would have cost almost as much to move as to replace.

My friend and classmate Tri met me in Albuquerque and from there we caravanned east.. drving our own cars but landing in the same spot each night. Three days.. about 700 miles per day give or take. No less than three states a day, although that number picked up on the east coast… Knoxville TN to Ringoes NJ took us through Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland Pennsylvania, before we got to New Jersey. Free breakfast and working WiFi became the standard of comfort… and the somewhat scary motel six in Oklahoma became the standard of discomfort… The bed linnens and towels clean but more worn than I have ever seen… The mattress noticeably bowing in as I lay down. Tri and I carried in EVERYTHING from his open bed truck.. including a large carpet, a chair and a kitchen table.

Oaklahoma is also where Shade refused to get out of the car... after so many miles and so many new places to sleep.. she was just done with change.

I do have that distinct feeling of immigration again. This is not my culture and yet it is. I found myself sitting in a natural food co-op in Princeton last week, drinking tea eating vegan oatmeal cookies while the ladies at the table next talked about the sex lives of their grown children.. This could have been many places in the western United States but it was not, and not just the narrow tree lined streets told me so. If my neighbors haven’t figured me out yet, they are getting close.. I got strange looks from two impeccably dressed elder ladies looked me up and down as I walked back to my apartment barefoot after having run down to the parking lot to help Larissa (with her beautiful tattoos on display) and her baby boy Niko find my apartment. And I don’t even start at the hospital until Tuesday.

And appoligies to the Santa Fe folks as I am not venturing much north of I 40

I had a quick visit with Dad and Aunt Billie in Cherry Valley

I am in Albuquerque staying with the ever gracious Chris and Lisa while I sort through the detritus  of my life.  Some more stuff went to the salvation Army today...some clothes that don't fit and some framed posters.  The Japanese tea pots, Cliffy's cast iron frypans and the real art I own have all made it into the trunk to stay.  A few stray boxes .. framed photographs, a few cookbooks including my vintage joy of cooking..  are now mailing themselves to New Jersey.  Greyhound called today.. My luggage is there but I am not.

I know I am in New Mexico because my hands, lips and feet are all chapped  and my face is a little wind burned.  It has been a little cold ... a great excuse yesterday to get not so much done and let Lisa spoil me...  breakfast at the Range (Huevos con Queso!)  Iron Man at the stadium therater.. TWO NAPS..  Green chile sausage pizza. and the Jane Austen Book club on DVD. Today Serena came down  and rescued me from the dust and doldrums of sorting...  We went to Kelly's brewpub with Shade...  I had the green chile feta burger with sweet potato fries and wheat beer and caught up when nobody was firing up their Harley's .. But it is almost summer here and we were outside a converted auto dealership on old route sixty six and so they day would not have been complete without a few motorcycles.. right?