A few little projects part duex

The other project I thought about stemmed from a recent discussion Brandon and I had about the prospect of children.  Really, this was a discussion about how people make the decision to have children.  Disclaimer: We are not expecting anything more than me to turn 30 in two weeks. (Shameless birthday plug) So don't get all nutty.  Quite frankly, I can't really imagine having the work schedule I have and trying to feed, clothe, and clean some other being.  Brandon has been bathing and dressing himself alone for some time now, and I really enjoy not having that responsibility. Besides, Walmart is already filled with enough feral children...
   Anyway, I've often wondered how two delightfully normal people decide to turn their lives upside down, commit to being sleep deprived for the better part of a decade, and use all of their income to make regular donations to the Matel and Playskool corporations.  So I decided I'd start asking. Which leads me to my other project.  A series of interviews asking married people why they decided to get married and why people decided to have a kid.  I have a feeling most stories start and end with a night of drinking and the improper use of birth control, but hey, I'm a romantic.  I certainly enjoy watching little kids and talking with them, but I'm still not convinced I want one in my home.  I mean, I like being on my own schedule. Cursing. Eating cookie dough right out of the bowl. Leaving my projects out with little fear of someone being impaled by my knitting needles. The dogs like only being attacked by the other dog. I also enjoy sleep.  But I will say, should we ever bring home one of those little humans, they're going to have the best little shoes on the planet.  Or I could just buy myself another pair of Toms...
  So, here's a request for some blahg participation.  If you'd like to share the story of how you knew you wanted to get married or how you knew you wanted kids, feel free to email me or post comments below.  Otherwise, this project will probably take off once I finally replace the ipod my sister's dog ate and find the recording mic for it...so probably never.

Also, here's Day 2 of the capture fall project:

A few little projects...

As always, my best ideas come to me when I'm supposed to be paying attention to something boring (or in the shower). I was sitting in yet another day of orientation...Don't worry all of this super crucial information really sunk in the second time I had to hear it...Anyway, I absolutely love the fall.  I'd go through a 100 years of hell for one gloriously crisp sunny fall day.  I'd have all the house windows open, relax looking out on the lake, knitting, take a drive through the woods, and for dinner I'd have corn tortilla soup, and follow it up with a bonfire in sweats and wearing my favorite puffy cowl. My memories of fall are so vibrant, thinking about it always makes me smile.
   After living in PA for 4 years, it was abundantly clear, no where does fall like the Northeast!  And amazingly, here we are, about to start fall in New England. This is bound to be THE best fall I'll ever see and my genius idea will help me chronicle it. Since I'll be spending most of it in house...(I swear resident work rooms were built by casino architects. No windows. No working clocks. Fake light. And instead of tobacco smoke, the air is filled with the smell of something evil and undead coming from the fridge.)
   I've decided to take one picture a day starting Sept. 1st, looking out across the lake to save fall forever. I'm sure I'm the only one excited about this.  I'm hoping to take it in the same spot, at the same time each day.  We'll see how this goes.  Here's Day 1:

Married People Project

I'm so busy with work and its easy for it to consume my life and our life so "Married People Time" has become a priority.  Brandon and I do a lot together, but we really don't have many things we both actually enjoy doing together so married people time can be a real pain in the ass for one of us.  I mean, he likes doing the stuff I want to do because he's a very kind and patient man and I like doing the stuff he wants to do because he makes me.  Every time he talks about compromise, I know its code for "just do it anyway" (and I DO, thank you very much).  He won't knit. I don't consider "sports" to be a hobby.  What are we to do?!? Build furniture!
   That's right. My parents have been buying Brandon tools for quite some time now.  Tools and luggage actually.  A weird combination, but I must say, they do make for some pretty handy gifts.  We have various odd dinglehoppers and containers filled with whatchamacallits, but apparently we also have a circular saw, a couple of good drills, and now, a pocket jig.  We're in business!  I found an amazing website to get us started with project plans of varying degrees of difficulty, tool reviews, and tons of tips so we started with a super simple beginner project, a coffee table. (There's even matching end tables and a foyer table.)  The best part about this website is that every plan/project is designed by a working mom from Alaska that built her own house with her husband. 

So today, Brandon went to Lowes and got the supplies.  Turns out, he's good with a drill, I can rock a circular saw, and we've finally found a way to happily spend Married People Time doing something we both enjoy.

I'm on board with anything that makes stuff and lets me wear my Toms.

The dogs spent the afternoon collecting sawdust under the workbench.  By dinner time, after just a few hours of fairly simple work, we have a table top! And a mighty good lookin' table top if I do say so myself.

To be continued...

Oh New Hampshire! The Great Outdoors

This is how I spent my morning:



Woke up early, put the dog in the kayak, and we headed out together!  We had this huge lake all to ourselves and It. Was. Glorious!!  The water is still, like glass. The only sound was us, the birds, and an occasional jumping fish. On Sunday Moose and I kayaked through the swamps that feed the lake. The lake ecosystem is actually quite the enchanting place.  Watching water bugs skid across the surface, feeling how tough the roots of the aquatic grasses and lillies are. And I still made it to my 8:15 meeting on time! (With warm, fresh baked oatmeal and Cafe du Monde coffee in hand!)  I could get used to this!
   In the short time we've been in New Hampshire I've been outside more and far more physically active than I was in the whole 3 years I lived in Central Illinois.  I think it has something to do with the fact that when I go outside here I don't immediately get asscrack sweat and heat stroke.  Seriously, this place is perfect! (I even heard they plow in the winter! Actually, what I heard about the winter was that we can take up ice fishing and go cross country skiing. Um, yes. This may be the year we learn skijourning!)  But back to the current season...I've been really sticking to my couch to 5K podcast and while I'm no where near a 5K, I am near the end of the program and 3 days a week I wake up early to wear Munroe out along the way. I've also started an abs/arms challenge with daily sets of crunches, planks, and push ups with increasing increments each day.
   I think a lot of great thoughts while running myself bored, and the last run, where we discovered and subsequently got lost in the woods, yielded some pretty great thoughts on fitness as we trudged home.  I came to the realization that I've never had fitness goals that weren't weight related, and honestly, I find that sad and horrifying.  I imagined this coming up as a topic of conversation at work because I've got this little lower tummy pouch enough so that I was (on more than one occasion) mistaken for being pregnant.  Anyone who has the guts to bring this up to women, God love ya, because you friend, are not long for this world...So, when discussing weight I will gladly point out this tummy blob as "the pouch I keep my extra cookies in" (stolen from Zooey Deshanel on an episode of New Girl.  Great show.) And then I imagined what I would say if the conversation headed in the body image direction and here's the list of fitness goals I came up with:
   1) I look great and I like the way I look.  I work out only to be healthy, not attractive.
   2) I want to run enough to not be the first person eaten in a bear attack.  I'm ok if I don't make it, just so long as I've outrun someone.
   3) I want Michelle Obama arms.
   4) When I walk in I want people to think, "Bam! MAndrews brought the leg meat!" (See what I did there?!?! Tina Fey two posts in a row!)
   5) I want to eat cookies.  Big. Mushy. Chocolate chip cookies.  Please note, I did not say 'cookie'. I most certainly did not say 'salad'. I don't even understand the concept of 'sugar free'.  I am an adult. If I want to have an entire batch of cookies for dinner, then I'm doing it.
   6) With that said, Cookies are a sometimes treat.
   7) I want enough energy to get up in the morning, have ONE cup of coffee, and stay awake until bedtime.
I think this is a pretty good start. I'm well on my way, one New Hampshire hill at a time.

Say Yes, also known as The Tina Fey Principle

This week I started (and finished) orientation for my OB Fellowship.  Bright and early Saturday morning my fellowship director called me to scrub for my very first section as a fellow and I thought this moment deserved some reflection.  On my way to the hospital I thought, how did I get here? Its a beautiful Saturday morning in New England, we live on a lake, I'm married to this great man, we get to travel, I've got great family & friends, and I'm about to cut someone open and pull out a baby.  I get to be one of the few who cuts and ties and feels the inside of someone's body.  I get to watch a mom meet her baby.  I get to do awesome stuff.  Here's how I got here...
   I love Tina Fey.  I really think we should be best friends, but we haven't met yet so...its only a matter of time.  If there's one book I recommend to everyone, its hers, Bossypants.  (Actually, what I recommend is not only the book so you can read it, reread it, and keep it on your bookshelf so people can see how cool you are, but I absolutely recommend purchasing the audio book read by Tina herself.  Why you ask?  Uh, because its Tina Fey reading funny shit written by Tina Fey.)  Anyway, one of my favorite passages (no, not the one where she describes society's thoughts on the perfect woman, "boom! Beyonce brought the leg meat" (I recite my own version of this when I conquer my neighborhood hill on my morning run)) its the one where she explains stand up comedy.  She says that the first rule of stand up is that you have to say 'yes'. The scene goes nowhere pretty fast if you refuse to participate.
   After quite the lengthy show of nerdy love for Tina Fey, I think the point I'm trying to make here is that this whole "say 'yes'" thing isn't just for stand up.  Its really a rule I've found myself living by for some time now.  I recognize that I'm incredibly awkward and find making friends difficult, mostly because I hate talking to people I don't know.  When someone asks me to do something that really puts me out of my comfort zone I make up an excuse and then watch a lot of TV from the "comfort" of my couch. Knowing that this is ridiculous and incredibly lame, I started just blurting out "yes". Turns out agreeing to do crap I have no desire to do has led me to some pretty incredible opportunities and found me making some pretty special friends. It took me to women's HIV research, medical school, a summer in Rwanda, a month living and working on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation, residency at a great program, and now OB fellowship at one of the top programs in the country.  The experience usually goes something like this: Some one asks for a volunteer or says "you should..." and I, with as little thinking as possible, raise my hand or open my mouth and a 'yes' comes out.  The very best experiences, i.e. my entire path into medicine, never would have happened had I actually taken 30 seconds to think about how excrutiating/traumatizing/emotional/looooooong/expensive/crazy/isolating/physically demanding/draining the experience would be. By the time I figured it out there was no turning back.  Looking back now, I can't even fathom where I'd be if I weren't here. I like to think this whole 'yes' philosophy means I have pretty good sized cahones, but ultimately, I think it just means I'm kind of an idiot that has gotten really, really lucky. 
   One time I was discussing residency candidates with an attending and he said he thought one guy was ok. "Vanilla is ok every once in a while" is what he actually said. I looked at him and said, "Man, I wonder what kind of stuff you guys said about me." His reply has stuck with me. "MAndrews, you're never vanilla." 
   That's the consequence of 'yes'. Because of 'yes' I'll never be vanilla. 

Live Free or Die!

Welcome to New Hampshire! Home of the most bitchin' state motto of all time! We made it, unpacked (mostly), got internet, and started fellowship. Our house is on Big Island Pond with our own pier and floating dock.  It's pretty amazing and the whole first week felt like vacation.  It'll definitely be hard to leave here come next August.

 

The dogs are out of control with water induced euphoria!  On the dock, in the water, on the dock, in the water...for HOURS.  They're still not great swimmers, but Moose is happiest laying on the beach, in the shallow water, and Munroe is happiest disrupting the peace.

Needless to say, their fur is softer and they stink like garbage.

The first week here we took a day to go to Rockland Maine's official Lobster Fest.  It was incredibly beautiful up there and we hope to travel a little further north to camp in Acadia National Park to celebrate my 30th birthday (currently accepting all gifts). 

Just sitting in the parking lot of Dunkin Doughnuts

 We're still trying to get our own kayak/canoe for exploring the lake we live on.  This has been my biggest priority since being up here, but we're trying to figure out where/what to buy. 

The area surrounding our house is very heavily wooded.  New Hampshire is surprisingly green and come fall I'm sure it will be absolutely dazzling.  (Man, I love fall!) A sister of an old friend of mine thinks the best icebreaker when visiting a new place and meeting new people is, "What kind of natural disaster's do you have here/where you live?"  I think it's really, 1) what color are the cops cars and 2) What are the largest predators in the area? The answers to all three questions for our new home are: snow storms, black and navy, and bears.  That's right, bears are the largest predator in the area, but also locally spotted are moose, bobcats, and the neighbor's German Shepherd I mistook for a coyote very early one morning while I was sans contacts...My fellowship director has found all of them in her backyard, one town west of us (not including my neighbor's dog...I don't think).  Fall and spring should be interesting around here...The other night we were enjoying the calm sunset brings to the lake when we spotted a group of bats flying over our beach. I'm crazy nuts for bats.  They're like spastic birds flying all over and eating mosquitos.  Plus their faces are all smooshy and cute so there's that.  After a rather technical conversation about daytime lighting, we decided a bat box would not be appropriate in our yard.  For legal reasons Brandon also refuses to scale the neighboring fence and tack one up in their yard, but really, that's just increasing their property value so I don't see the issue here...

That was quite the post, and I've still not covered anything about fellowship yet, but that's a story for another night...

The Story of the Blog's Title

Picking the name for this thing was harder than naming our dogs.  We wanted something clever, lighthearted, and most of all mutually agreed upon. Brandon fired off a bunch of names ranging from "Three guys and a doctor" to the big stinker "The wandering professionals".  I suggested Dog Canoe, The Happy Hippies, and The Midwestern Transplants. Ultimately this back and forth duel of disagreement reached Brandon's limit at which point he said, "Just pick something! You're driving me nuts!".  And myself being raised by my parents, uttered my father's famous phrase, "Short Trip!" and our blog was born. 

Truthfully, I like this name a lot. Our relationship has been successfully based upon one simple premise: I make Brandon just a little bit crazy and he keeps me just a little bit sane. We've talked a great deal about where we want to end up and so far we've lived our lives as one series of "short trips"; to college in Chicago, medical school and Americorps in Pennsylvania, law school in Chicago, residency in Peoria, and back east again to Lawrence Mass for OB Fellowship.  Its been the dynamic duo of crazy/sane that has driven the travels and kept us traveling together.  Plus Brandon is insanely good looking. That helps.

Since the creation of this blog, I've learned how to edit the title of the blog without having to create a whole new damn thing so one day you might show up here to find 'Dog Canoe', a photo album of our dogs doing things I find funny.  Brandon says, "No.", but we'll see :)

Like this.

In House. In Home.

Moose, comfortably hunting squirrels from the comfort of his favorite spot.

As my dad would say, "today's a good day to be a duck." Yesterday residency ended. Today I'm starting the blog.  Brandon's at work for training in the rain while my little dog buddies and I are working hard in The Rock Kitchen.  This morning we continued to attempt perfecting the cinnamon roll recipe while listening to a little Bon Iver and Delta Rae, with the windows thrown open, and sipping my favorite coffee from Thirty-thirty. Breakfast remains a sticky mess, but who cares because it cooks up to be amazingly tasty.

Perfect rainy morning

Today I'm taking one, full day off to do only things I WANT to do before trying to pack up an entire apartment, learn spanish, and my first moonlighting shift in the ER this summer.  The agenda of my relaxation day: 

Drink my favorite coffee
Make homemade cinnamon rolls from scratch
Eat aforementioned cinnamon rolls
Knit my new project, a reusable grocery bag
Read for Fun!
Make Spinach Lasagna roll ups in The Rock Kitchen for dinner
Eat dinner with a glass of wine and  aforementioned husband
 

After yesterday I definitely needed a little unwinding time.  It was terribly heartbreaking to be leaving the office and hospital I've come to love so much for the final time.  I can guarantee that I've spent more time "in house" than "in home".  So much so I'd say that the two became interchangeable.  Saying goodbyes to Labor and Delivery, nursery, and postpartum was the WORST. Emotions run high on that floor just from the nature of the work being done there, but man, my time on L&D was Fun! as hell.  I wish I could write a book about it, but no one would believe it and I'd be sued for violating HIPPA. Well, maybe me and Janel will finally get fired together; we've certainly talked about it enough. 

 

I owe the staff a million thanks and certainly all my gratitude could never be enough for the physician they have helped me become.  It is mind blowing when I think about the situations I've walked into and by the end (thanks to an incredible amount of training, phenomenal staff, and a lot of biofeedback, relaxation techniques, and eye rolling) managed them calmly.  It seems strange to me that so many residents dislike their time on L&D because I've found it to be the place I feel most at home, and like home, comforting and easy.  That's not to say the job is easy, just to say, its easy to be there.  Labor and delivery has become like my favorite spot on the couch.

 

Before I start to cry again or sound like a complete asshat, I'll sign off today with my very favorite quote, which seems incredibly fitting and I wish the words were mine, but I'm certainly not this articulate: Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, "You owe me". Look what happens with a love like that! It lights the whole sky.-Hafiz

 

A big thanks to the team that taught me. Encouraged me. Hugged me. Pushed and challenged me.  Always selflessly.  Always with love.

All my gratitude, 

Melanie