Well it's been a really really long time. Don't we all start out posts like that nowdays?

Who cares, I just want to share the following:

Uni grades released: Distinctions for both units.

Quit smoking: Smoke free for One Month, Fourteen Days, 13 Hours and 42 Minutes, I've avoided smoking 891 cigarettes, while extending my life expectancy 3 Days and 2 Hours!

Work interestingness: Got a call from a BA on the client side of one of my projects letting me know that he was asked about whether someone would be a good fit for an open position over there. He said no, but he had someone else he thinks they should ask to apply who would be awesome. That would be me. They since filled the role internally but the agent was impressed enough that he's put me forward for another role that is open over there. I have an interview this week.

My emotional state is starting to stabilise. I'm even having moments of contentment and happiness.

Things I'm looking forward to:

Moving, job interview, holiday, my sister coming to visit, friend's engagement party, another friend's BBQ, getting out and about, joining some sports groups, finishing the quit smoking program and getting back to focusing on weight loss.

Here we are, December 2009.

The winter of our discontent? Not really.

The best of times, the worst of times? Nah.

Nothing really momentous jumps to mind, but it should be a fun month nonetheless. This time of year is probably my favorite, as the weather is finally (consistently...?) cold, and we're right in the midst of the holidays. My "rotation" this month is not a clinical, hospital-type rotation. Instead, along with about four of my classmates, I am acting as a teaching assistant in the first-year med students anatomy lab. Most of the fourth year students who choose this rotation are people interested in surgery who want a hands-on chance to review the relevant anatomy. I am doing it because its a chance to teach. Ideally, being an anatomy teaching assistant means I review the pertinent anatomy dissection for that day and wander from lab group to lab group, answering their quandaries with alacrity and accuracy and enlightening them with a stimulating expanse of anatomical and clinical knowledge related to their lesson for the day, broadening their minds and fueling their passion for medical education.

Functionally, it means I sheepishly roam from table to table, avoiding eye contact and hoping no one asks me anything I don't know; that is what the first lab this morning felt like. But by the afternoon lab I learned that its ok to say "I don't know, lets go look that up!" and no one is going to peg me for a ignoramus. At least not to my face. Its amazing how much I used to know (I think...), and how much I have forgotten, not to mention how little it probably matters that I've forgotten it. Medical (as opposed to surgical) doctors don't need to know THAT much anatomy when it comes down to it. Sitting in on their lectures and getting a whiff of that good ol' cadaver lab smell really takes me back, though. How far we've come, but how far we've yet to go...



I only mention any of this because I'm fairly certain none of the first years read my blog. Thank goodness.

I managed to do another 8+ mile run yesterday. Took me about an hour and 15-20 minutes, which is just where I want to be really. Of course, I'm a long way off from running 1,100 miles in seven weeks, but I'm sort of fine with that. If anyone out there wants to get me something for Christmas, I'm looking for some sort of running paraphernalia with Nintendo icons on them. You know, headbands or wristbands with Mario, Zelda, Metroid-type stuff. No Pokemon please.

I have two more residency interviews this month, both of them next week, one in Minnesota and one in Kentucky. Its been nice to have a break from all that but I am excited to keep this process moving all the same.

And thanks to all of you who left feedback. I appreciate it! More interview updates as the interviews happen!

Have a great December, all!

-David