Trunk Or Treat!

Our ward had a trunk or treat tonight. Actually, it was a combined trunk or treat and chili cooking contest (I don't know who cooked up that combination). I had to work at the hospital today, but got done early enough to make it home in time to scramble to come up with a costume. At first I wanted to do something with some leather pants Cami owns, but she thought it was a little obscene. Then I wanted to be a pharmaceutical representative, then I realized I didn't want to put on a suit and tie. Then Cami came up with a great idea: a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I was able to throw the awesome costume together in under an hour by wearing scrubs and covering a disposable turkey roasting pan with brown paper. However, I think wearing scrubs threw a few people off. I was twice asked if I was some sort of ninja doctor.

As for herself, Cami was a fairy. She made a lot of the girls at the activity very jealous (mainly because she had sparkley wings and a glow-stick wand). However, she didn't have a tiara, which made one 6-year-old very happy as she informed Cami, "You're just a fairy, but I'm a fairy princess!"

Our costumes were very successful, and overall the activity was a lot of fun. There were tons of kids there and we went through all of our candy in about 20 minutes. I am pretty sure a lot of those kids stopped by our car a few times, but after seeing dozens of Disney princesses and Spidermen things start to blur together. When things started to slow down we started blasting Thriller from the car stereo and dancing around the parking lot.

Cami Is 26

Cami turned 26 on Tuesday. She thinks she's old. We went out to a restaurant called Amici's because she had gotten some gift certificates there from work. It was an Italian-style, East-coast Pizzeria (whatever that means). It was actually very good, and best of all it was free. For those of you who have always wondered, this is what it looks like to be on a date with Cami. I know, I'm pretty lucky.

Cami got some exercise clothes from me, some running shoes from my parents (thanks for the money, M&D), and some money towards an iPod shuffle from her parents (thanks to Kathy & Jerry, too). Cami is finally making good on her 2006 New Year's Resolution to run a 10k. She'll be participating in the Turkey Trot in Davis. She's been doing pretty good about running nearly every morning... at least when she can get out of bed early. That has been easier now that I am getting up at 5:30 am to make it over to the hospital to round on my patients. Now she's gotten the hook-up with accessories and will probably be one of the hottest runners there.

The Tales I Could Tell...

I mentioned in the last post that I finished up my family medicine rotation. In 8 weeks of working in the family practice clinic at UCDMC I have seen some crazy stuff. Unfortunately, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 prevents me from sharing too many details about what I've done and seen. However, it doesn't prevent me from giving you some ideas:

• I saw a lady with pseudocyesis. Essentially, she believed she was pregnant and her body started to react accordingly, big belly and all. She came in for a pregnancy test, even though she'd had her tubes tied years ago.
  
• One woman broke into interpretive dance to explain to me why her shoulder hurt.
  
• I had 4 patients tell me that they didn't want me to around for their "female exam," citing my Y chromosome as the reason.
• I had one 70-year-old patient insist that I do a "female exam." I can't be sure, but I think my Y chromosome had something to do with it again.
• One patient bluntly informed me that if wanted to look into his ears again, I'd have to get a breath mint first.
• I performed an ultrasound on pregnant mother, without ever having seen or done one before. The whole conversation was very awkward, "Um, I think that's your baby's head... or his foot, I'm not really sure." Just figuring out how to turn the machine on took 5 minutes.
  

That was really only the beginning. I had a good time on family medicine, but I am not really sure that it is the field for me. I love the continuity of care (working with patients over a long period of time) that family medicine has, but I'm not sure that I'd get to do enough. Additionally, I'm not sure how good I am with psychiatric issues or chronic conditions for which there are no real cures.

I start my medicine rotation tomorrow, which is one of the heavier rotations. It is all inpatient medicine with long hours (goodbye weekends and evenings) and very complex diseases. I don't think I will see the sun for a few months. However, it should be a good challenging two months.

Absolutely a-MAZE-ing!

I finished my family practice rotation on Friday. Took my shelf exam Friday morning. Now I have the whole weekend off before starting my internal medicine rotation. Seeing as how we had a whole weekend with no responsibilities, Cami and I decided to go to the Woodland Cornmaze for fun last night.

We'd been kicking the idea around for a few years now. The cornmaze is just about a mile from our house, and I'd never been to a cornmaze before. We also heard that the maze was "haunted" on Fridays and Saturdays so we figured we'd head over and try it out. Honestly, it was not the best $12.00 I've ever spent.

The maze itself was pretty impressive. We all jumped right in and had a good time exploring around the place. However, it's been kind of rainy off and on for the past week, so a lot of the trails were pretty muddy. In addition, the cornmaze has been up and running for about 2 weeks now, so a number of "additional trails" have already started to pop up, making things a little more confusing. Nevertheless, we had a good time running around and trying to scare each other.

After exploring the maze for awhile, we went into the "haunted" portion. Huge disappointment. Granted, I've been to some really good spook alleys. In college, we often went up to SLC to some of the haunted houses they had up there. Dude, some of them were extra scary. Sadly, the Woodland Cornmaze did no such thing. I think they just rounded up drama students from the local high school and told them, "Why don't you guys go hang out in the cornfield for a bit?" Suffice it to say, I was a wee bit disappointed.

All in all, though, it was a good evening. We went with Sean & Ashley and Catherine, one of the young women Cami works with in Church. I think we all had a good time... but I don't anticipate going to another cornmaze anytime soon.

Welcome to UC Davis

I think it is about time I show all of our readers where I spend my time Monday-Friday 8am-5pm. So here is a picture tour of campus....

I work in the student union building, which here at UC Davis is called the Memorial Union or to locals, just "the MU". This is the equivalent to the Wilk, for those of you who went to BYU. But I'll let you in on a little secret....the Wilk is way better. This building has a bowling alley, coffee house, post office, bookstore, and offices on the upper levels. If you look at the picture, I work on the top floor. The second window from the left is the window I look out of all day. Those tall silver things lining the sidewalk are huge wind chimes. Yeah, I don't really get it.

The building to the right of the MU is good old Freeborn Hall which is basically an auditorium with a nice stage. They have a lot of concerts there; I think Switchfoot is coming soon. I've been there for banquets and I was just there yesterday for the Activities Fair.

Here is a picture of the Arboretum, where me and Kelly go walking at lunch. Well, I guess I should say where we USED to go walking at lunch. We have been slackers lately. The Arboretum is basically a lot of trees and plants, a walking/jogging path, and a portion of Putah Creek.

Charlie's Angels

Jill was right. I was showing off my Charlie's Angels moves. The department I work for, Campus Events & Visitor Services (CEVS) is part of an organization called Business Services (BS), which is part of a larger organization on campus called The Office of Administration (OOA). Every year BS has a picnic with all of its departments in an attempt to promote unity or something really warm and fuzzy like that. As we all arrived at the picnic we were given party favors that went along with the western theme they had chosen for the event. One of the favors was a really cool gun that shot a foam dart when you squeezed the handle. Two of my co-workers and I had way too much fun coming up with Charlie's Angels moves. But I'm pretty sure my jump move was the best.

Bang!

I'll let Cami explain this one...