I'll Be Home for Christmas

I guess 'home' could have two main definitions for me - home with Mr. in New York or home where I grew up in the Midwest - and being 'home for Christmas' could refer to the actual day or the days surrounding in celebration of the holiday.

Either way, the statement pretty much stands. Since Mr. gets Christmas Day (and only Christmas Day) off during his next rotation, I'm going to spend Christmas Eve and Day in the city and then fly back to the Midwest on the 26th for 8 days in my hometown (which only requires taking 19 hours of my vacation time. woot.).

While I'm a little bummed I'll miss the Christmas Eve service at my small hometown church (and subsequent mini-reunion with the kids I went to Sunday school with who have also left town), I am very curious and excited about the service at my church in the city. Everything is bigger here, and Easter is fabulous across the city as the one day a year New Yorkers go to church. At a church I attended on Fifth Avenue for a few months on a particularly ritzy corner of Manhattan, families would line up around the blocck for the 11 o'clock service, dressed in their finest, few without a fancy hat.

Though my current church is still in a nicer Manhattan neighborhood, we don't have lines outside to get in on Easter Sunday. Most of our members visit family during that time. So I'm curious to see the balance on Chirstmas - will most people be out in the 'burbs celebrating with non-city family? Or will there be droves of C&E Christians popping in on one of the two days a year they go to church?

Regardless, this city is also magnificant at Christmastime. Shopping is a nightmare, of course, but everything is so pretty. There are decorations in every nook and cranny you can find. Filled with holiday spirit and those holiday bonuses, New Yorkers are even more generous than usual. It's a splendid time of year.

Enough about Christmas in NYC, though, and back to the real point of this post. Holiday plans tend to be tricky in most families. It's a time for extended families to gather, but families extend in multiple directions. Who do you see and where and when? In fact, I think there's a movie coming out this winter with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn based in part on this concept.

Last year, when Mr. was an MS2, we went to his parents' for Thanksgiving and mine for Christmas. We were going to switch this year, but the schedule doesn't allow for it. He has a week off the first week of December, but I still have class, and he'll probably use that time to shadow surgeons/network/breathe.

Luckily both sets of parents are awesome and always totally willing to work with our schedules. So when I ask my parents if I can come the day after Christmas, they're totally fine with it and will pick me up from the airport!

Now I'm just hoping my friends from high school (none of whom live in our hometown anymore, but all of whom will drive back for the holidays) will be around after Christmas this year. Last year they were all around prior to Christmas and left Christmas Day or the day after, but I'm hoping since it's on a Thursday this year instead of a Tuesday, they'll be around for the weekend.

It should be interesting to see how holidays are moving forward. I imagine Mr. will usually be working. Pre-kids I'll probably enjoy this as it means I get to go to my parents (not that I don't love the in-laws, but they're not my parents) every Christmas. Once we have kids, though, I'm not sure how we'll adjust. I imagine we'll be hosting. Since I love hosting and only have one sibling who doesn't love hosting, I think it will work out pretty well. That's a long trip down the road, though.

Burnout Avoided

No, not Mr.'s. Mine.

10 Days ago, I stayed in Manhattan following NYU's annual Greek Night. The following night I went out to dinner with my family line. The next morning I woke up early along with Mr. to volunteer for New York Cares Day, and the following morning up early to walk in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. The next two nights I had midterm exams.

Sounds like a recipe for burnout, but luckily Mr. was there to pick up the slack. He went grocery shopping, cleaned the entire apartment, and did the laundry. I think he might have done the dishes once. I'd ask if that's what being in a non-medical marriage is like, but I imagine even in those that level of helpfulness tends to be a special occurrence.

I spent much of the rest of this week playing catch-up, but since Mr. is on his psych rotation at the moment, he's still been able to help out here and there (I got my grocery buddy back today!).

I'll have to enjoy it now, though. It looks like Mr.'s going to go with orthopedic surgery after all. le sigh*.

*I'm just being dramatic. I'm warming up to the idea of him going into orthopedics.

My Latest Project

Hopefully STM will jump on here to explain her latest project, but for now I'll tell you what I'm working on.

Since Mr. is now thinking he wants to specialize in Ophthalmology, I have been charged with finding out what in the world this early match stuff means and what he needs completed by when.

First, I went to SF Match, where I learned:

• You register online no earlier than June and pay $100
• You're applying to start PGY-2
• You also need to go through the regular match for a transitional year
• Each individual program has its own due dates for the application sometime between June and December
• Your match list is due in the beginning of January (for the class of 2009 it's January 8, 2009)
• You learn your match results in January, before you submit your match list for your transitional year.

Awesome. So next I wanted to find out where the top ophthalmology residencies are. Unlike college or even medical school, figuring out residency rankings seems to be a little tricky. So far I've looked at NIH to see which residency programs received the most awards, and then I looked at the top hospitals for ophtho in US News & World Report. The first is flawed because it's three years old and purely based on monetary awards. The second is flawed because its referring to hospitals, not residency programs and thus doesn't focus on teaching, research, etc. (not to mention most residents rotate through a handful of hospitals within a single program). If anyone has other listings, let me know!

Anyway, using those two lists, I created a spreadsheet with 35 ophthalmology residency programs and am going through right now listing the city, state, region, NIH ranking, US News ranking, US News reputation score, CAS deadline, interview time frame, number of positions available each year, contact information, and the website.

I'll ask Mr. if he wants me to add anything. Suggestions welcome!

Might we have a winner?

Opthomology! erm, Opthamology! grrr.... Ophthalmology!!

Mr. attended a 'speed dating' event this morning to help determine what he wanted to specialize in and to network with doctors in that specialty. There actually wasn't an Orthopedics table nor an Otolaryngology table, but the ophthalmologist he met did assure him that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to doctoring the... eye. And in doing so, he helped sway Mr. toward that profession.

Not only is there more going on with the eye than say, the hand (Mr. had recently mentioned specializing in hand surgery...), but there are also symptoms for larger problems that show up in the eye. So, as an ophthalmologist, Mr. would be able to still diagnose larger problems including diabetes and a bunch of other diseases and conditions I had never heard of before/can't remember now.

Of course, ophthalmology has an early match program, so now we're running around trying to find out how it works. It looks like there will still be time to do an away or at least an elective in optho before making any definite decisions. He'll also (hopefully) shadow during his next break and take a week to specialize in optho during his surgery clerkship.

I hope this sticks. When he was telling me about it, he really did finally seem to care about the work/life balance aspect of it. "I've been working hard a long time" (he started working at 16 and didn't stop until coming to medical school, where he's also done research outside of class and worked as a PA in anatomy). "I think I'd like a career where I can spend time with my family."

Hallelujah!

Now, if he changes his mind, yet again, and decides that ortho really is what he wants to do, I will still support him. But I'm still excited about ophthalmology for now. :)

Nights!

Mr. just finished a week of nights. Well, really it ended up just being Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night, but considering he worked 14-15 hour shifts, plus a day shift on Monday and lectures Tuesday day, he certainly had a full week delivering babies and learning ob/gyn.

He worked something like 6pm-8/9am. On days when I don't have class, I leave for work at 8:05am and get home at 6:30pm. That's actually not bad considering my old commute and work hours had me out of the house for a bare minimum of 12 hours/day (7am-7pm, usually closer to 6:50am-7:30pm). BUT, of course that means Mr. and I haven't been home at the same time since I left for work on Tuesday morning. And tonight I'm catching up with a friend who's in town from Hong Kong for the weekend, and then I'm crashing in Manhattan.

I'll see Mr. eventually. :)

Billy Elliot

Last Friday (holy crap, why am I only just now getting to writing this??), I saw the best thing on Broadway right now (with the possible exception of South Pacific). I say that with confidence even though I haven't seen everything on Broadway.

Last Friday was the annual support staff outing for the law firm. All of the partners' were out of town for their annual meeting, which meant we could go party while the associates fended for themselves! (Okay, so there were 5 staffers on, just in case). The partners generously treat all of us non-attorneys to dinner, drinks and arcade games at Dave & Busters in Times Square followed by a Broadway show. Each year there are 5 choices for shows, which we rank in order of our preferences, and preferences are recognized in order of who responds first.

Since the support staff outing was within 2 weeks of Mr.'s next shelf exam and coming along would mean violating his 2 week rule, I made plans to bring my work friend who recently left the firm to have an actual career instead. As soon as the list came out, she and I figured out our preferences. Most of my coworkers were remarking that they hoped they liked the show they were seeing. I was confident Billy Elliot would be phenomenal, and it didn't disappoint.

The opening number, admittedly, is a little weak vocally, and this is not a show you see for the brilliant singing. However, the music is catchy and enjoyable. It's hard to go wrong with Elton John (well, except he does take the melody from the bridge in 'I Dreamed a Dream' from Les Miserables and put it into 'The Letter' in this show. Oh well, it's a good melody).

The story, as those of you who saw the movie (I did not) already know, is heartwarming and perfect for the stage, despite being a little predictable. I won't go on about the plot because I'm assuming everyone knows the premise.

So yes, this production has triple-cast the physically challenging title role with three brilliant young men. I had the privilege of seeing Kiril Kulish perform the role. I was completely captivated. He totally blew me away with his dancing talent. He was performing choreography that would be impressive for an adult professional dancer. And he's barely 14. When I got home that night, I looked him up on youtube to watch his past competitions because I couldn't believe it. I also discovered a video of him playing a difficult Chopin Fantasie on the piano and became angry at myself for not being more dedicated to dance and piano when I was his age.

I realize I'm totally rambling, but go see it. Soon you will not be able to get tickets because I have a feeling it will sell out very quickly. Go. Seriously, go now. If you have any appreciation for dance whatsoever, you have to see this show.