Ok, so I finally bit the bullet and broke up with the new boy.
I feel horrible about it. But it had to be done. The timing is shitty, but I decided that it would be worse to spend christmas with him and his family and put on a false front and THEN drop the axe.

He's given me a little attitude (like when I gave him his christmas present, he said "what's this? a breakup gift? 'now take this and get out'?"). But overall he seems to be handling it ok- already has some chick on facebook chasing him, and I think has a date tonight- or at least is making it seem that way.

But the weird part... within an hour of that, my phone rang. It was Dan. I did not answer. He left a really nice message about how just wanted to check in and make sure I was doing OK with the snow and wasn't snowed in or anything. The timing was just so weird. I was like "OMG he knows"- but there's NO WAY he could have known.

In any case, it's nice to know he thinks of me still. :)

Then this morning I went to work... first day back at ECMC, blech.

But so it's a whole new batch of patients and I have to get to know them. We walked into one guy's room... 30something.... Came in as a John Doe... riding his bike a few weeks ago, and was hit by a car. Bad head injury. He's not braindead or in a coma or anything- like he may look at you if you talk to him, he may wiggle his toes if you ask him to- but there's no glimmer of recognition... he can't talk... can't feed himself... it's really really sad. And far too common. :(

But what makes it even more sad... He has an unusual last name. And I know one other person with that last name. And she's about his age. And she has a little baby. I just thought 'oh god, I hope this is not her husband". And I looked around the room for requisite family photos... and there's a pic of a baby that looks like this girl's baby... but then again, all babies sort of look alike... So when I got home I sent her a message.... turns out it's her brother.

I mean it's always sad, but somehow it's just that much more tragic when I have a personal connection to the patient- even if it's really indirect. So who knows... sometimes these patients make amazing recoveries. But... a lot of times they do not. :(

But on a cheerier note, I'll end with a few pix....




My little tree... in varying degrees of photo quality, and varying light conditions. :) It makes me happy.



My street, as I came home from work yesterday morning. AWESOME plow job, no?

A few Santa Pub Crawl pix...

SHOTS!




(my bus boyfriend on the right. Not sure who he's cheating on me with in that pic. ;) )




And saving the best for last, a few new baby pix. :)

Has anyone heard anything about secret santa? did I miss it?

AHEM AHEM IMK! ;)

Ok, I'm afraid this is a stupid question, but...

I want to print something, and it says to do so, I need to have a printer that can print 600dpi, and that is PostScript compatible.

My dumb question- how do I know if my printer does postscript? I don't even really know what it is... do I use it every day and not know it? Or is it some crazy high end graphic design stuff, and if I had it I'd know it?

Thanks!

Wow, last night was the most fun I've had in so long... Too bad now i'm kind of hungover. And today I *must* get my christmas tree.

So first, there was lunch at Panos (see previous post) [waiter has not called yet, btw]. Then I talked to Dan, for the first time in over a month- it was his bday. Had a nice chat. But, then he ignored my texts after that, so I guess we're back to not talking.

But so then D and I went to Coles. My ex, M, was doing his Santa Pub Crawl. A thing they've been doing for 5 years, for charity. Their first stop was coles, then cozumel. I figured we'd swing by and say hi at coles, have a beer or two, and that would be it.

Well OMG it was great. M was really hilarious and fun- more so than when were together, heh. D was ridiculous as always- for example, when the santas would ask here what she wanted for christmas, she would say 'penis'. Or when one guy asked us why we were there- she said "to find true love. Or maybe intercourse. Or maybe just getting groped in the bathroom. Something like that." The thing is, she's really not a total slut or anything, even though this makes it sound like she is. She totally doesn't pick up random guys. She just talks a lot.

We got totally adopted by the Santas, and were their little groupies. M had told me to bring mistletoe, and I had this funny little mistletoe headband I got years ago and had never opened... well that was a big hit. We even got invited on their bus. When we got on the bus everyone hooted and hollered. So, we went on a pub crawl with 57 santas. And we were like the only girls. they loved us. We felt like celebrities or something. I have not gotten so much attention in a looooong time. One guy thought I was 23. HA!

After Coles we went to cozumel. One particularly drunk santa seemed to get all upset that D was wearing the mistletoe (we took turns) and said something to us, and she responded, and he said something like 'um do you think I was talking to YOU? I was talking to the girl whose mistletoe you stole" or something mean like that. Ass. Later she cheered for the sabres, and he accused her of not being a real fan, and she was like 'um, I have a sabres tattoo' and he's like 'no you don't' so she's like 'um, ok, wanna see?' and he's like NO and she's like 'don't worry it's just on my foot', so she takes off her shoe and sticks her foot in his face. Everyone loves it and starts taking pictures.

Then on the bus to the next stop she sat with him, and I guess they worked things out b/c by the end of the night they were making out. HA! Some guy ended up sitting next to me on the bus... he asked how I knew about it, and I said I know M, and he goes "oh THAT guy? he's a loudmouth." Later I said we dated and he was embarrassed and was like "well, he IS a loudmouth. he's bigger than me, but I could take him." He found out what I do, and was like "you're a doctor? omg did you meet eric? do you want to date a 34 year old who sells IT equipment and bartends at cozumel and is pretty good in the sack?" First I thought that was Eric, but it was him. so he was my Bus Boyfriend for the rest of the night. He was pretty cute. And pretty drunk.

Then we went to Lafayette tap room. Then 67 west. Then ended at SoHo. By the time we got to Soho, everyone was pretty drunk. M was still being friendly and flirty and dancing with me. Sucked my face off a few times too, which was fun, but wrong, since he's engaged. But at one point he was like "this is so fun! How come we never did this when we were together!" and he also said 'you know I love you, right? you're great. You'll always go down as one of the good ones.' Which was nice to hear, b/c our breakup was kind of ugly. Actually, I think that's right about when I joined here, and I think a lot of my early posts are crying about him. It was also kind of funny b/c no one knew I was his ex, but he's one of the 'original' santas from the first year, so he's kind of like the boss or something, so I felt all VIP for getting attention from him all night. he would make sure we got seats on the bus and always had drinks etc.

Then a bunch of the Sabres showed up. D was beside herself. Got her picture taken with Gaustad. Asked Miller, but he said no.

Finally it was about time to head home. Went to say goodbye to bus boyfriend, who gave me his number and said "i've always wanted to fuck a surgeon". awww, how romantic. he actually texted later, for me to meet him at Nektar. I did not go. I was asleep.

But wow... seriously the most fun I've had in a long long time. And the whole night cost me: $10 in cab fare home.

These are my only pix and they're awful. Hopefully some more will materialize, b/c I know I posed for a bunch. One is M in his beard, the other is a bus full of santas. You can kind of see the row of hats.

nt...

First- thanks for the advice. I know you're all right. I know how I would want to be treated, b/c I know how much it all hurts. It just sucks, any way about it.

But, a totally new story.

So... my girlfriend S is in town for the weekend. So she and another friend (D) and I went to Panos for lunch. Ok, now- D is ridiculous. Hysterical, and I love her. I felt a little badly for the tables around us, b/c phrases like "omg what a pirate hooker vagina face" were being issued rather loudly. At one point she was debating whether or not she is slutty, and said something about "I guess I just love weiners". Right then, the waiter came to the table. We were laughing, and he was confused. She said "oh nothing.... I just love cock."
This was after, when he first came by and took our orders and asked what he could get for us, she said "a boyfriend who's not a douche?" It was the kind of thing I could never do b/c I'd be mortified, but somehow she could pull it off.

She ended up leaving him her number on the check- but in her usual fashion couldn't just leave her number.

She wrote:
Hi, I'm D. I promise I'm not totally crazy. xxx-xxxx"
Then she added "I love cock"
Then she wrote "I'm totally kidding"
Then she wrote "sort of"
Then she wrote "do me"

hahaha, i'm curious to see if this guy actually calls her.

The ridiculous part of it all is that I don't think she was even trying to flirt with him, or pick him up. She just has crazy inappropriate verbal diarrhea. And lacks a filter.

So...
I have to give my Grand Rounds presentation tomorrow.
It's kind of a big deal. But only kind of. I.e., it's required that we DO it, but there is no requirement that it be GOOD. But... you're up there in front of the whole dept- would rather not look like an ass.
I've know about it for like a year. Of course, I started it.... saturday? Supposed to be an hour long powerpoint. Or 45 min with questions.

But my topic sucks.
My topic is "fecal occult blood- assessment and management"

Yeah.
Hot.

So, I thought I was done. Had a spiffy powerpoint... did a practice run- 19 min. CRAP.

So now i'm working on padding it with garbage.

God I can't wait for this to be over!

And my work xmas party is tonight, and I'll have to miss it.

Bummer.

My niece is so freaking cute. I love the fuzzy hair!






















And the best of all...

This one is kind of cute...

So I was working with a medical student on the vascular surgery service, and she was scheduled to help out with an amputation the next day. It was a BKA, or Below Knee Amputation. We suggested that she go home that night and read about the procedure, so that in the OR she could really shine.

Well so the day of surgery comes along, and the poor thing is scared to death...

She said "I tried to read about it last night... I looked and looked but I couldn't find it ANY of the books! I even went to the library! I couldn't find "Baloney Amputation" ANYWHERE! How do you spell it??"

Haha poor girl.

I'm such a sports retard. haha. And I totally don't care.

First of all, I saw a pic of a friend with some guy. I didn't recognize the guy, but it totally looked like a "pose with the celebrity" pic. I figured it was like when I met Ryan Miller and didn't know who he was. So I asked a friend "hey, who's that?" and she said "Jim Kelly". (I guess it's a crime to not recognize Jim Kelly.) But even worse than that, I had to say "Who's Jim Kelly?"

I was also teased for not knowing about 'wide right'.

Beh, whatever, I really don't care if people make fun of me for not knowing football.

But then on sunday I went to the game... that rain was miserable. I think snow would have been preferable. At least this time I thought to bring a blanket to sit on. That helped a lot.

But here's a prime example of my sports idiocy.

the sentence was "JP Losman's pass complete to Fred Jackson."

But what I heard was "JP Losman's pass completes a French Accent".
So I asked "what's a French Accent?" thinking it was some play or something. And everyone just looked at me like "french accent?? wtf are you talking about?"

heh.

Oh and I went to the disco sat... it was really fun! I went last year, and it was kind of blah... maybe b/c my feet hurt. But this year was a blast. Yay!

now back to work... was on call last night. It was the busiest I've even been at BGH. Yuck. But apparently people talk, b/c this morning someone stopped me to say "I heard you did a great job last night."

Huh? I don't think I did a great job... I was so cranky and tired I was about to kill someone.

But what the hell, I'll take the compliment! In fact, it kind of makes my day...

Now it's off to sleep, and to wait for the cable guy, who will show up "any time" today. I tried asking "ok, any time before when? 5? 8? midnight?" and they said 'any time. not midnight.'

whatever. a bunch of my HD channels have disappeared, so he needs to come fix it.

oh- and random aside.

so one guy at work is a rabbi. he's a great guy. but he was all sad on monday- turns out the rabbi killed in Mumbai was like his sister's husband's brother's wife... something like that... they were all close friends. :( How sad.