Mission Bridal Shower - Accomplished!

   And it turned out pretty well! Congrats F & C! :)

Happy Medical Monday!

   Happy Medical Monday, y'all!  Last week BF and I drove to LA to take Step 2 CS.  It was actually pretty tough!  You see 12 standardized patients (actors pretending to have things wrong with them) in about 8 hours, which was exhausting.  Props to primary care docs who do it day in and day out, because it takes a lot out of you.  Anyway, I'm pretty sure we passed, especially considering U.S. med students have a 97% pass rate on the first time taking it.  It's nice to have that over with!  

We were lucky enough to visit some friends while in LA!

Gamma Phi friends!

J, my bestie!

This is Ollie

One of my old roommates and UCLA besties!

   Now I just need to sort out my personal statement.  I spent 6 hours working on it yesterday, and now I have my second draft, but it still needs a lot of work.  I'm meeting with some of my OB/Gyn advisors this morning, which I'm nervous about because what's left of my confidence doesn't need to be beaten down anymore, but hopefully they can point me in the right direction. 

Melvie Has a Girlfriend

   My lovely friend from college, J, was in town this last weekend.  So we decided to introduce our dogs, Melvie and Pretty (short for "The Prettiest Princess").  They instantly fell in love.  Well, more like Melvie was smitten with Pretty.  She was trying to play it cool.

J, Pretty, Me, and Melvie

Switch dogs!

Melvie is infatuated with Pretty

I was cracking up because Melvie kept running towards BF, who was taking the pictures

Melvie putting his arm around Pretty

Melvie and Pretty, star-crossed lovers

Life Goes On

   One of the main reasons I haven't posted in a while is because I've been so busy having a blast on my OBGyn rotation, obviously.  But also, in my small amount of spare time, I've been having some fun too.  One of my favorite fall activities is to go to Apple Hill, where you can pick your own crisp apples and gorge yourself on a million apple-themed foods.  A few friends and I went last weekend, and it was as awesome as ever.  Here are some highlights from apple hill and other recent adventures:

E and I getting glitter tattoos. Yes, we're 10 years old.

   

Glitter tattoos!!! Yay! Sparkly things!

BF climbing to reach a good apple

Apple pickin'!

               

Who says you can't have a romantic date in your own backyard? 

   And just in case you wanted an update on the kitties (honestly, no one probably cares.  Except mayyyyyybe Solitary Diner lol) they are doing fabulously.  They spend their time napping, staring at each other awkwardly, chasing each other around, and every once in a while, they rub their faces together.  If you know anything about cats, you know that this is a *scandalous* gesture in feline body language.

Sif being a drama queen about getting attention

Zoey is too fat to sit in the window, so I open the door and let them look out the screen so she can participate too.  I call it "equal opportunity kitty window time"

Another Year Older, A Teeny Bit Wiser?

   It's my birthday tomorrow, and I was sure that being on my surgery rotation meant that I would just have to forget about having any sort of festive celebration this year.  I was completely surprised, however, when my friends/BF pulled through and made it absolutely amazing.  Two of my sorority friends from LA showed up at my door, which completely caught me off guard.  I didn't even know they were in town!  Then, later I went to dinner at a BBQ restaurant which has my favorite mac and cheese, and all my friends showed up!  What an awesome surprise :) and BF put it all together with my friends.  I'm so lucky to have such an amazing BF and friends!

  I really wasn't expecting anything to happen this year, which is fine, but this was just so fun.  Watch this video my friends took of my surprise to see how shocked I was:

Food Adventures In My Free Time

   One of the great things about being on psych is that you get evenings and weekends off.  I was lucky to be able to get Mother's Day off, so BF and I went hiking with my mom and sister.  As one of my presents for my mom, I made rosemary pineapple sorbet from scratch.  (And yes, I do in fact love putting rosemary in everything).  

My beautiful mom!

Me, mom, sister

BF, me

   This last weekend, A (my "partner in crime") and I made a delicious fondue feast for BF and Y.  It was super gluttonous, but sooooooo worth it.  I don't know if you can see in the picture, but I made some delicious rosemary watermelon lemonade from scratch with my juicer.  Like I said... rosemary all up in errrryyything!  

Peru: Land of llamas and ruins

    I really wanted to do something fun after taking boards, a sort of "last hurrah" before starting third year.  So last year, I told my sorority friend J (who I have traveled with in the past to Cabo, Vegas, etc) that I wanted to go on a big trip.  She has traveled a lot, so she has been to tons of places all over the world.  I told her I didn't really care where we went, I just wanted to get away - FAR FAR AWAY - after boards were over.  We decided on Peru, which wasn't exactly a lay-on-the-beach-with-a-cocktail kind of trip, but it was a blast!

Carpooled to the airport with A and Y (who went to Taiwan)

Had to pee REALLY bad on a 2 hour taxi to Ollantaytambo, so pulled over on the side of the road.  Thanks, J, for capturing the moment...

Incan healer at work

Mirror where we could see eachother laying in bed. We thought it was funny.

This is from a cooking class we took.  After she cut up this raw beef, she just put the knife right back into the knife block without even rinsing it... I thought, "I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that."

Llamas errywhere

My favorite pic from the entire trip

Look how tiny I am!

Part of an odd painting I saw in a museum

Llama three-way