Holy Crap!  We're getting married in THREE WEEKS.

A little birdie said...

I thought I'd try Twitter to keep my blog a little more alive. I guess those updates won't go out to the two people who get emailed my entries or anyone who has me on a feed (does anyone?) but it will add some interest for anyone who makes the effort to click on the link in my GTalk profile.

I read this epic article from the NYTimes Magazine from this past weekend about this blogger who went on to gawker.com or something and how blogging ruined her life... it was very dramatic but the whole article read like another blog entry. Anyway, something she said stuck with me -- you write your blog and pretend that it's only your friends reading it. I know I had a mini freakout a few months ago when my blog was coming up on Google. But other than that, I pretty much assume that it's just my GTalk friends that make it here. I think I'm going to put a little survey up for a while to get a feeling for whether this assumption is totally off the mark.

Red Tape, White Dress

http://secureprod.phila.gov/wills/marriagelicense.aspx

It's an additional $10 to get a marriage license to wed a minor. 

I was supposed to have a kind of a bad day, and instead I chose to have a really good day :-)

So here I am, sitting up late doing this project with very sunburnt shoulders.

But, it was so worth it.

Today Glen and I went for our wedding cake tasting. I think it is one of the best wedding planning activities, especially if you don't happen to get stuck in two hours of Memorial Day weekend traffic on your way out to the burbs. (I left the good directions at home and instead we had to rely on our GPS which sent us probably technically the shortest way, but had us wait at about 1058 traffic lights instead of jumping on the Turnpike.)

In a nice juxtaposition, I also went to the dentist this morning. Let's just say I have more than one cavity. I'm kind of pissed off because I went to a different dentist in Philly last year and pointed out this one tooth that I thought had a cavity (excuse me, carie) in it and that guy said, oh no. This new guy showed me the X-Ray and it's taken over half of my tooth (some how it doesn't hurt at all). It was there already when I went to the last dentist and he didn't find it. I could have had it fixed a year and a half ago AND while I had dental insurance. Anyway, I'm not that upset because I'm rid of the dentist I didn't like and I've found a dentist I really like, so I'll all be taken care of in a couple of weeks for less than I spent on my wedding shoes.

Today is the 21st!  One month to go!  We're tying up the loose ends, but most of the planning is done.
Today is also the day that the response cards are "due" back... yet almost 80 guests haven't responded.  A bunch of people have told me that they are going to come, but I also need your dinner choices because we have to give them to the reception site sorted by table.  So if you're reading this, stick that card in its pre-stamped envelope!!!

I'm finishing up my lunch of a home-made turkey wrap.  There's a sandwich place by work, Tuscany Cafe, that Glen and I really like.  Everything is so fresh there and I actually feel good after eating instead of stuffed.  However, their wraps are $7.99 which makes it tough to stick to our budget.  So, I decided to make my own wraps.
First of all, the turkey cost $6.50 for the two of them.  Then, Glen and I bought two baggies of chips for 90c each that would have come free at Tuscany.  So I'm already up to $8.30 for two and I have yet to price out the rest of the ingredients... a scoop of guacamole from the batch glen made, fresh basil from the plant I bought, baby spinach, a tomato, dollop of garlic ranch salad dressing, and two slices of cheese.  So I'm not sure I saved any money at all.  And secondly, I had to wake up early to stand in the kitchen in my robe making these wraps before work.  They may only pay me $12/hr before taxes at work, but I value my sleep time at at least $50/hour. 

So my lesson learned is not that I should eat at Tuscany every day, but that I really can't afford my taste in food.


Some recommended reading:

I'm going to try to follow this over the summer:
http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/the-grand-tour-send-off/

Watch this crazy video, and then the New Yorker article if you have a lot of time on your hands:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/trapped-in-an-elevator-captured-on-video/

And I heard Lucian Leape, who is quoted in this article, speak at Jefferson on this topic a few weeks ago :)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/18apology.html?ref=health

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My days-until-the-wedding chain is down to its last bow.

How are you spending your next 14 months?

First, writing this May entry means that my archive will now have two Mays in it, and maybe it's time to change it so there are two year folders!  Very exciting.  Proof that I can jabber on for years at a time.

Second, we got our clinical schedules last week for next year.  At first I was really unhappy that my order was all screwed up, with Family Med and Internal Med at the very end of the year, after I will more or less have to choose between them.  But I've grown to appreciate that I got almost all of my first choice hospitals, let alone didn't get sent to Pittsburgh or York for a rotation.  Most of the people who are looking for people to switch are trying to get out of having to move across the state for a block. 

Then after we took the time to compare my schedule with Glen's we realized a miracle had occurred!  We requested a lot of rotations outside Philly... not so far that we'd have to move but definitely driving-only spots, like in DE and NJ.  Except, we only have one car between the two of us so we were taking the chance that we would have to drive in two separate directions.  It worked out that we alternate rotations that we need the car!  It's really perfect, and has convinced me not to try to mess with moving internal medicine and screwing everything up.

So here's my schedule so you can keep track of me for the next 14 months:

May 12 - Aug 8 - Summer Semester of Business School (overlaps Block 1 of med school that I did last year).
Block 2 - Psychiatry at Jefferson (I want to do the Geriatric Psych rotation)
Block 3 - General Surgery at the VA in Wilmington DE (no weekends and no call!)
Block 4 - Anesthesia and ENT at Jefferson
[Winter Break]
Block 5 - Ob/Gyn at Virtua West Jersey (the ppl I know who did it there are the basically the only ones who had a nice OB rotation)
Block 6 - Family Med at Jefferson
Blocks 7/8 - Internal Medicine with 4 weeks at Christiana in DE, 4 weeks at Jefferson, and 4 weeks back at Christiana.
That finishes up on Thur June 18, 2009.

Maybe Glen and I can go away to celebrate our first wedding anniversary :-)
Or, maybe we can start studying for Step 2.... that's way too far away for me to have to start worry about yet.