I'm Dreaming of a White...Dinner...

So, while I cook something almost every night, I try to cook something that is neither pasta, rice, nor frozen pizza at least once each week. Actually, I lied, as often my 'special' dish will be a combination of ground beef and pasta.
...Moving on...
So last night I started out planning a meal that I hoped to be feasible in a tiny New York kitchen after my long day of work followed by my long commute that was also well-balanced.

I ended up with this:

Yes kids, that's chicken (white) for protein, mashed potatoes (white) for starch, and zucchini (white with green skin) for the vegetable. Who says meals should be colorful anyway?

Monochromatic color scheme aside, I think I did a decent job on a budget, no less!

The meal, which fed us both for dinner and me for lunch (yum) cost $8 + seasoning (small amounts of butter, milk, lemon pepper, flour, salt & pepper).

What you need:
1 lb Chicken
2 lbs Potatoes (more if you really like potatoes like me)
1 Zucchini
1/4 c. Flour
1 Tbsp Lemon Pepper
1/3 c. Milk
Butter
Salt/Pepper

How to prepare (in very simplistic terms):

• Boil water in a medium or large pot
• Peal potatoes and chop into 1/2" cubes (or whatever size you prefer)
• Place potatoes in boiling water, set timer for 20 minutes
• Mix flour and lemon pepper in bowl.
• Coat chicken in lemon pepper mixture. (Note: there will be mixture left over, so if you want to save to use again, use a spoon to drizzle the mixture over the chicken)
• Place a small amount of butter in a large skillet over low heat (the thicker the pieces of chicken, the lower the heat).
• Place chicken in skillet.
• While chicken is cooking, chop the zucchini into slices and place on microwave-safe dish.
• Use your discretion in determining when to turn the chicken over. For thin slices, it may only need 2 minutes on each side; thicker slices may need 5+ minutes per side.
• After the timer rings, buzzes, whatever, drain the potatoes
• Add milk, butter and salt to potatoes and mash. Using a significant amount of butter makes them extra yummy...but it also makes them extra fatty. Season as desired.
• Place zucchini in the microwave for roughly 40 seconds, butter lightly and season with salt & pepper.

And, serve. See? Super easy. And cheap. Yet, real food.

Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?

A few months ago, Mr. spearheaded this project doing something for a surgeon with a couple of his classmates. I don't know much about the project except that it meant even more time spent in the anatomy lab and that Mr. was the lead med student on it.
Well, somehow between helping first years with anatomy, sitting on the board for the student-run free clinic, finishing 2nd year, studying for the boards, and dealing with a long commute and even longer hours, he dropped the ball and hadn't yet gotten around to contacting the surgeon about writing up an abstract. It had been on his mental to-do list for some time, but sometimes people just beat you to the punch.
Luckily, the guy who beat him to the punch this time was a nice guy who gave him a heads up before doing so. Via text message, Mr. originally said it was fine that the other guy write the abstract. But the thing is, it wasn't fine. This was his project. He and I talked it out, and I advised him to just be honest with his classmate about how he was really hoping to be first author, etc. From what I could tell only hearing one half of the conversation, I think his classmate was understanding. Crisis averted.

Mr. spent the rest of the night editing another abstract written by a PhD whose first language is not English. I'm pretty good with grammar (not always apparent on here), so I tried my hand at it. Unfortunately, I don't spend my days reading science experiments, so I wasn't sure if I should be fixing all of those sentences written in passive voice or if I should just leave them. I think I'll stick to proofing legal documents.

Mr. (Dr. Jekyll) didn't mind, though, and took back over the editing.


This morning, Mr. (aka Mr. Hyde) and I got into a playful argument that started about McCain's VP Choice, then moved on to Bloomberg and peoples' desire for him to be president, to McCain's senility, and then I looked at my watch to see where I should be in my morning routine. It was 7:25, and since Mr. typically leaves at 7:15, I said 'don't you have to leave?' To which he replied 'yes' and went on his way.

5 minutes later I get a text message from Mr.:
"don't you have to leave?". Glad to know I'm wanted in the house.

Sarcasm or anger? Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde? I suspect it was the latter, but as my first instinct was sarcasm, I went with it:
lol. I love you, baby. Just didn't want you to be late as it seems you normally leave around 7:15/7:20.

Above comic by Michelle Au. Ever since STM linked the underwear drawer to our site, I've been reading the archives from 2004 to now. I think Mr. is either a Gunner, a One-Track Mind, or Painfully Enthusiastic. This morning I picture him as a gunner. Thus, the unnecessary frustration.

Last Night

MW: Did you find out what your schedule's going to be like this weekend?

Mr.MW: Oh, sorry, I forgot.  I'll find out tomorrow.

MW:  Cool; let me know.

Mr.MW: I'll probably have Sunday off.

MW: Then we can go out for our anniversary.

Mr.MW: (at least half joking) Aw, my only day off and I have to go to stupid anniversary!

MW: (playfully) But it's to mark the happiest day of your life!

Mr.MW: A year ago was the happiest day; this is just an anniversary.

MW: pfft.

Mr.MW: Alright, but I'm bringing my books!

MW: Awww, it'll be just like our honeymoon. :)

Golden Weekend: Friday & Sunday

Normally I wouldn't go out of order like this, but Friday evening and Sunday were pretty much the same.
Mr. and I 'hung out'. This means he studied in the apartment instead of the classroom building. Since we live in a studio, we were in the same room. Exciting stuff, no?
We were going to actually hang out by grabbing ice cream, but alas the weather turned before we made it out. (And who wants to go out for ice cream when it's raining?)


In other news, I got to make use of my new, permanent gym card today, making me feel all cool and athletic (though in reality I'm neither).
But just look at it - all shiny and official looking!


And in other other news, Mr.'s on call again tonight, which means the possibilities are endless for what I'll do tonight. Am I a bad wife for kind of being excited about that?

Something In It For Me

I've discovered a good thing about having a husband who spends way too much time at the Barnes & Nobles on 18th Street.
When you've been going around town all Sunday morning, drinking multiple coffees, and you run into B&N looking for a bathroom, he knows exactly where where to point you.
Finally, all those hundreds of dollars he's spent in the B&N medical section are paying off for me.

Golden Weekend: Saturday

This weekend, Mr. had a 'golden weekend', meaning he wasn't on call on Friday but also had Saturday and Sunday off.  Of course, I didn't realize this until Friday evening after making plans for a packed Saturday in Manhattan.  I suppose it was good for him, though, to not have me around while he was studying.  Since we live in a studio, I've found it hard to entertain myself without distracting him.

So, I left for Manhattan at 11:00am, while he was still asleep (apparently he slept until 2:00pm) after making a post office run.  I was running early to meet my friends when I was one stop away on the subway and the train was delayed due to a signal problem.  Since I was early, I figured I'd just sit it out.  15 minutes later, though, the conductor made an announcement that they didn't know how long it would take, so I made a couple of transfers and was only 5 minutes late or so.  My friends had been on different stops on the same line, though, so they each took cabs to Around the Clock, where we had brunch.  It's an East Village staple that I definitely recommend.

After brunch, we walked around the block to NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing building where a friend of ours was performing in a new work.  The actors were good.  There was very little dialogue... or story... or clear objective.  But the music was great, the voices were great, and it was under 90 minutes.

Next weekend another friend is in a different new work (which honestly sounds much better) in the same program.  I'm looking forward to it.

After the play, I met up with an old friend whom I'd only recently reconnected with at a mutual friend's wedding in May.  Before that, I think the last time I saw him was 8 years ago, maybe?  He moved away after my 8th grade year but came back to visit once when I was in high school.

Anyway, I found out via text while I was stuck underground that he was in town for the weekend before jetting off to Europe, so we walked around the village, down the middle of a street fair and then settled in Washington Square Park to talk about life.  He's in medical school as well in a D.O. program in Ohio, so I was curious to hear how the programs differ.

After that, I headed uptown to meet with a few church buddies regarding the direction of our 20s/30s group.  I have a big to-do list now, but am super-psyched about all of our ideas!  Mainly the retreat we'll have sometime next spring.  Woot. :)

I'm about to run to church, but I just had to post because I realized this morning that Mr. did a fair number of the dishes and also took out the kitchen trash that had been staring me down the past couple days.  Since he cares about things like clean floors, I wouldn't be surprised if he did that as well.  When I get home (since he's still sleeping right now), I'll have to thank him.

Thank you, Mr.!!

Little Triumphs

The hubby's on call tonight, which means it's time for me to break out all the unhealthy, non-dinner foods I always crave for dinner. Froot Loops and Diet Dr. Pepper here I come!

Around the Home

A recent study by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan found that while men on average save an hour of housework upon getting married, women gain seven. Seven!!

Let's see... before I got married, I lived with my brother in Manhattan. I never made my bed, in part because I didn't care and partly because I didn't mess it up. I only picked the clothes off my floor in order to take them to the wash & fold place to be cleaned. I rarely bought groceries and ate mostly spaghetti or chinese delivery. Because I cut him a break on rent, my brother would sometimes do my dishes and usually took the trash out. Yeah, I didn't really do any housework.

Mr., on the other hand, was the most frequent dishwasher in his apartment he shared with 2 of his classmates and would be embarrassed if his bed wasn't made or if a single pair of pants was on the floor. He'd go grocery shopping twice, sometimes 3 times per week and did his own laundry. On top of being a first year medical student, he did everything around the apartment.

Over a year after moving in with Mr., I now cook dinner at least four or five times per week, go grocery shopping at least once a week, make the bed every morning, do laundry two or three times per month, dust, swiffer, and take out the trash. Plus, while we used to have the deal that he would do the dishes after I cooked dinner, I picked that up a few weeks before the boards.

Don't tell Mr., but oddly enough, I'm kind of starting to like it. I prefer to do the dishes in the morning before work. I time it while listening to music or watching the news. I may still have a pile of clothes sitting directly next to the hamper, but living with Mr. and his ridiculous schedule has brought out a better, more responsible side of me. Crazy, huh?

Go Yankees!

Okay, so I'm really a Cubs fan, but since I've lived in New York for 6 years and the Cubs are in the National League while the Yankees are in the American League, I feel I'm allowed to root for the Yankees once in a while. :)

For a good part of the summer, Mr. has been watching baseball on tv (or rather, has had the tv on baseball while he studies), which has been a little less than thrilling for me.  I may have played softball for 6 years and understand the rules of baseball better than those for any other sport, but I can't watch it on tv.  It's just sooo slow.

However, I absolutely love to go to games!  Tonight we were invited to join another med school couple at the Yankees v. Twins game.  The weather was great, the game had its exciting moments, and the Yankees won.  The best part of the night, though?

Dippin' Dots!  In a Yankees cap!

There used to be a Dippin' Dots stand in the mall in my hometown, but I haven't had the delicious treat in years.  I'm not sure why ice cream is so much better when served in tiny little spheres, but it is.

Okay, okay, and while Dippin' Dots was great, the real high point of the night was getting to spend some time with the Mr., just relaxing and hanging out.  I know that these times have to be few and far between, but it's nice to know we can still have them every now and again.

Hopefully it's not unrealistic to hope for at least one baseball game per year in the future.

Heart Shape Tarts

8 p.m. on a Sunday night, and I suddenly got the urge to bake. It was the hubby's night off the wards, so I talked him into coming to the store with me while I bought all the ingredients for blueberry tarts. He must have been in a good mood (or just very very hungry) because he ended up helping me bake. We haven't baked together in I don't know how long (actually I do know how long, exactly the length of time he's been in med school), and we ended up making heart shaped tarts and giving them to each other. Sweet? Nerdy? All of the above?
It's nights like those that make nights like tonight, where I'm sitting here on the couch watching TV while he studies at the library, worth it.

Monday: Back to the Grind

I have a fairly long commute, roughly 70 minutes one-way plus an extra 15 minutes to be safe. Like most non-driving commuters, I have a number of ways to keep myself amused: magazine, book, sudoku puzzles, and of course, the beloved ipod.

With a long commute, I like to listen to soundtracks because they're most likely to be over an hour in length. This morning I had an odd desire to listen to the soundtrack of Floyd Collins, an off-broadway musical written by the musical chameleon, Adam Guettel (Light in the Piazza). Set in 1920s Kentucky, the music is folksy with bluegrass influences. It's a great piece ...but probably not the best soundtrack to listen to when your subway train is stuck underground between stops for 10+ minutes. For those of you unfamiliar with Floyd Collins, the man or the musical, he was a cave explorer who got trapped trying to find a new entrance to his family's 'Great Crystal Cave' and ultimately perished there. Yep, real cheery stuff and not at all spooky when 'trapped' underground.  Luckily I wasn't trapped so long to be late for work.

This morning we had a monthly internal video conference which my boss hosts. I thought everything was set until it was T minus 20 minutes when the girl with the handouts was nowhere to be found and the tech guy was MIA.  At least the video was working.  I paced back and forth between the meeting location and my office, calling the girl with the handouts every so often, making every attorney entering the video conference nervous when I thought they were her coming through the door.

Finally, with 5 minutes before the start, one of the mail guys arrived with the handouts, and 2 minutes prior the girl showed up with the sign-up sheets. She had been in a meeting that had run late.
Stressful, and I wish I'd gone down to her desk in the first place to get the handouts, but not the end of the world.

Then, during the conference, my boss emails me to let me know there was a voice coming over the phone, some guy talking about the lake. So, I send a firmwide email to tell everyone invited to the call to turn the mute on their phone, but I guess it kept going. How embarrassing. Today we actually had an external presenter as well, a big deal in restructuring. Stupid conferencing service.

With all of that, though, today hasn't been so bad. You see, I have something very priceless here at work.

That's right. I can close my door. The only door I can close at home is to the bathroom, and the only place to sit there is on the toilet! So yes, it's nice to have a door I can close, and to have something to sit on other than a toilet. Small joys. :)

Residency Search Battle: Round 1

Okay, so we'd had this talk before, but with so much uncertainty, there was only so much that could be said.

Here's a brief history of this discussion:

First Meeting (Pre-first year)-

Mr.MW: I imagine I'll be in New York a long time.

MW: I like it for now but would like to settle back in the midwest.

Engagement (First year)-

MW: I really don't want to stay in New York after med school, far away from our families when we start having kids.

Mr.MW: I will try to get back to the midwest for residency.

A couple months in (Second year)-

Mr.MW: You know, there's a good chance I could end up in a borough for residency. This is where I have all my connections, etc.

MW: Ugh. (or something like that...)

There's still quite a bit of uncertainty, like which specialty he'll go into (though orthopedic surgery is looking likely) or where he'll feel most comfortable. However, we know one big factor that will help determine where we go next: the boards (ie, USMLE Step 1) scores are in, and he did well. Very well.

Upon the hearing the news, a friend of mine responded 'M must be happy,' assuming that with the high score, we now have the freedom to go where I want to go. But, while I'm incredibly proud of and happy for him, I know that this means he will be even more determined to go to the highest ranking program, with little regard to location.

We went round and around last night, getting everything out. It was difficult because he said some things I didn't want to hear (like, 'I'm not going to be home for dinner every night or be able to make it to every game'), but after sleeping on it, I'm ready to accept that his career is his priority. After all, I can find an adventure anywhere, and letting go just makes life more exciting.

...Plus I guess the small victory of discovering there are no borough hospitals on US News & World Report's Top 50 Hospitals for Orthopedics didn't hurt either.

My Story

It's funny how many different paths can lead to the same place. My story's a little different, mainly in that my husband and I've been together since we were teenagers, and in that time he's always known he wanted to be a doctor. We went to high school together, then college, and got married right before graduation. Medical school was always the next logical step for my husband, and I'd always wanted to live in New York City, so when he was accepted to a school out here it was a no brainer.

In the months before the big move, I read all the books on relationships, articles on Manhattan, and forums on med school that I could find. Basically, I completely freaked myself out, and that might be why the transition wasn't nearly as rough as I thought it would be. All the major relationship issues (money, time, etc.) are magnified when one spouse is a full-time student living on loans, but working through those has allowed my husband and I to develop a bond we wouldn't have ever formed otherwise.

So now the board scores are back, and we've got less than two years till this med school ride is over. I can't wait to share it and hopefully learn a little something from everyone else along the way.

Welcome

The end of undergrad was drawing near, I had just completed (and passed) my senior colloquium and was ready to go on spring break with a few sorority sisters when an old friend from high school told me she had a friend moving out to New York for medical school. I should meet him.

Med school... smart, dedicated, career-minded. Compared to the sleazy business students who surrounded me, this guy sounded promising. Plus he looked pretty cute in his facebook picture.

18 months later, he and I are saying our vows in front of family and friends, promising all those things people promise on their wedding day. And so it begins.

This blog is for wives and husbands of medical students or 'student spouses' as our id cards call us. It's not always easy being married to a professional student. Admittedly it's not as difficult as actually being a medical student, but while there are plenty of forums for them, there don't seem to be any for us. So, this is for us - for the stress, the celebration, the confusion, and perhaps the camaraderie of being med student spouses.