Highlights of last weekend...

Sunday morning, I went with 7 other people to Monell's, for family style, all-you-can-eat, down-home Southern breakfast. It was very tasty, but it wasn't really anything I couldn't get any time I wanted at home. Grits, eggs, bacon, sausage, and biscuits has pretty much been my default breakfast every single morning for my entire life. Seriously, when I was home for spring break this year, I had to warn my mom ahead of time when I didn't plan on eating that for breakfast. It has only been fairly recently that I've realized that not all my friends, even the Southern ones, have had similar upbringings. Now I'm not dissing Monell's, because I'm not at home now, and I'm certainly not cooking all that food for myself every day. I would definitely recommend it to people who aren't used to giant southern breakfasts. And I would bring my parents there, since they like to go out to eat at places with familiar foods.

On Memorial Day itself, I was mostly a waste of space. In the evening I went over to Centennial Park with Paige and Jo for a blues festival. It was an all day event, but we only saw the headliner-- Bobby Blue Bland. Or "Bobby Blue Bland and the Bobby Blue Bland Blues Band," as I said repeatedly throughout the day. That was probably annoying... anyway, my mom and most of her siblings love blues music, so I was quite familiar with Mr. Bland. I sent my mom a text message about the concert, and she texted back, "I am so jealous that is wrong i am the blue person in the family have fun". She's still working on punctuation, and capitalization, but she's getting better at the whole texting thing every day!! Also, she's apparently blue in color. I hadn't realized that.
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So at the end of the long weekend, I had more days off Psych than days I'd worked on the rotation. It kind of felt like the rotation only just got started this week. I really like it so far. Still trying to tease out whether that's because I actually enjoy psychiatry, or because I enjoy it when the resident says "Bye! See you tomorrow!" shortly after noon. Maybe a little bit of both.

High point: The other day, one of my patients told the attending, "I was feeling bad, but then I talked to Laquita and I feel a lot better now!" She pointed to me as she said this, so I feel pretty confident that I am in fact the Laquita she meant. That felt really good, and not just because my attending gave me a huge beaming smile and approving nod. However, I later realized that if that patient comes back to the hospital relapsed or, God forbid, post-overdose or suicide attempt, my heart would break into tiny pieces. Reason #1 why I don't think I'm cut out for a career in psychiatry.

Low point: I recently had a vivid nightmare about being shot in the face after a different patient discussed his previous suicide plans in exquisite detail. That pretty much ended all my future sleep plans for that night. Reason #2 I'm glad my resident let me go home early, and reason #2 I'm not a future psychiatrist. (Also reason #17894823934634832 why I might need to see a mental health professional myself.)

This morning, I got to hear a lecture on disclosing errors. The same lecture that I thought was so awesome on the first day of medical school orientation. The same lecture that I'm starting to have memorized after hearing it at least four more times before today. I NEED to do my residency at another institution, if only to save myself from a future in which I hear that exact same lecture seven more times!