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I came into this one blank. Not a lot of ideas rolling around in my head. Weird. So I guess I will just life update and review the places I have eaten.


Life: I have clinic on Tuesdays. I hate clinic. Ergo, I hate Tuesdays. From the moment I wake up on Tuesday, I am usually in a bad mood. Yes, I know this is a personal problem that I can very easily remedy, but that seems to take a lot of effort. And to tell you the truth, once I get to clinic, my distaste quickly dissipates. I like the doctor I work with. Most of the time I like the patients. I will never be a fan of long term care (hence one of many reasons I am going into anesthesia). The issue is more the fact that it interrupts your whole day. You have to do an entire day of ward work in half a day. You come back the next day feeling unsure what happened with your patients and unfamiliar with any new ones. It creates a lot of stress. BUT....after November I will be half way done with clinic! Yay!


Food time
Upstream Brewery: As the name would suggest, this is a brewery. My parents and I actually ate here my first weekend in Omaha. To tell you the truth, I never returned other than for events that took me there - interview dinners, post-Match party, resident appreciation night. Every time I go, I remember why I don't go back, but at the same time, I tell myself to go there more often. Make no sense? I know! Why I need to go more: great happy hour ($2.50 pints and half price appetizers) and really pretty good beer with a great seasonal selection. They also have "beer to go." I am always tempted to do that, but then I remember Matt doesn't enjoy beer meaning it would likely go to waste. The appetizers are pretty good too. I also like their soup. I. Love. Good. Tomato. Soup. Seriously. I could marry that stuff. And Wednesdays are half price beer AND pizza night. Go Becky go! Why I don't go back: the rest of the food is overpriced and not great. It isn't bad, but at the same time, it is always a let down. It always seems like 'just one thing' is missing from each entree. A little lemon? Some more salt? Butter? Plating is always average. Service is average. Selection is pretty good: from steak to pasta to flatbread pizzas. Not too much but not too little. Another conundrum: the ambiance. It is an old warehouse with exposed brick. Love it. It has high ceilings. Hate it. For those of us slightly hard of hearing, high ceilings are the death of good conversation.I said I was going to try and be consistent, so here it goes:


I will try to rate things consistently on a 0-6 scale (had been 0-5 but changed it a little...there goes consistency I guess). 0: never again. 1: if someone else (Matt doesn't count) is paying. 2: If it is a big group and they decide on it. 3: Only on Matt's request. 4: Oh yeah, I like this place, I will suggest this next month or so. 5: Put it in the rotation! 6: GET ME THERE NOW!!!! 

Service: par
Cleanliness: par
Ambiance: 2 step above par (high ceiling and all)
Menu: selection is 1 above par, taste is...par
OVERALL:  3. If Matt wanted to go, I wouldn't resist. I may just eat the soup though. 

Gym People

Ah. Gym people. That doesn’t always bring the freshest picture to the front of your mind, but let me explain. I am a gym goer. I am addicted. I need the gym. I am not all ‘rexi’ about it, but I tend to get very grumpy if I can’t make it to the gym. Life as an intern, however, is a tad bit busy. The last thing I want to do when I get off work at (hopefully) 5:30 is go to the gym. Instead, I roll my rear end out of bed at just shy of 5am, pour some coffee into my oh-so-wonderful travel mug from Costco (shameless plug. It really is amazing. It stays warm, in my car, in the cold, until I drink it at 630am), and head to the gym. Yes, this may seem counterintuitive to some, but it is easier to just roll and go in the AM than to motivate and go at the end of the day. Plus, it is SOOOOO easy to talk myself out of going by the time 6pm rolls around. As a side note, I am very glad our gym doesn’t open until 5am or else I would find myself getting there earlier and earlier every day. Sick. Back to the point.

Gym people. They are the sweaty equivalent to “old men friends at Panera.” They are the people you see there every day; they don’t exist outside of the gym to you. And you to them. My gym people are the following

-“The two early guys.” They don’t work out together. One is short and fat; the other is tall and skinny. At 5:01am you can see them lifting heavy. Really? No warm up people? Come on!

-“The stretcher.” She is short, mid 60s. Runs. Every day. For about 3 minutes; then stretches. Then on again. For 2 minutes. Then stretches. This is pretty much the routine every morning. One day, however, she talked to me! (insert jaw drop). Gym people aren’t supposed to have voices.

-“The pusher.” Deep down at heart, I am work-out competitive. You know the feeling. Someone gets on the stair climber next to you, and you bump up your speed. And let go of the handrails. This girl stirs that in me for some reason. Funny thing is, she used to belong to 24-Hour as well. Whenever I am near her, I feel that I have to work out better than she does, which is tough because she is skinny and very fit

-“The long shower-er.” This may be TMI, so if that bugs you, avert your eyes…now. I have never been someone who doddles (sp?) in the shower. I go in with a specific task and get it done. From end of workout to out the door – with shower, blow dry/curl hair (naturally curly, so easy), “makeup” (read: mascara) – it takes me max 25 minutes. Max. This girl will be in the shower that entire time. Who can enjoy a 25 minute shower at the gym? It isn’t dirty or anything and they are private stalls, but still. A shower at the gym can only be so good

-“The invisible lady.” I really didn’t think she existed until just yesterday. Every day I walk into the women’s locker room (practically the first person mind you) to find some clothes hanging on the wall hooks. 90% of the time it is some skirt and some sort of top. Pretty typical 2 week-ish rotation (not that I am recording or anything. Way too little for me to even imagine wearing. When I leave about 1.5 hours later, they are still hanging there. I thought it was an employee or something. Finally, however, I saw her! No talking mind you. She exists!

And those, ladies & gentlemen, are my gym people. We are like a little dysfunctional family all going to the gym together way too early in the morning

Mexican Food

Sigh. I think I have given up. Not on life. Not of medicine. Heck, not even on marriage. Yes, on Mexican food. Funny thing is, Matt, JC (our friend), and I are actually talking about it right now and trying a new place. Maybe I am not getting the correct type of food. Matt always gets nachos. No matter what. No matter when. He will get nachos. Easy to guess. I try to switch it up however. Sometimes a combo plate, sometimes a quesadilla, sometimes a chimi. And maybe I need to stay away from things not wrapped in tortillas. I feel that sometimes it is easy to just wrap some under-seasoned meat into a tortilla and throw some half attempted sauce on top. In fact, that is usually my cooking at home. But really? At a restaurant? I don't know why I am in such disbelief. Mexican food has been a consistent let down in my life. I find that the best "Mexican" food I get is at non Mexican places. I have hypothesized about this a lot, and here is what I came up with:

True, real Mexican food, which I have had maybe once or twice, is too spicy for regular people to want it all the time. Ergo --> Americanized Mexican food. I am not talking Tex Mex here. I am talking: bland meat - velveta - tortilla - bad sauce - bad garnish. Maybe I need to get the dinner plates (things not wrapped in tortillas)? Maybe I need to suck it up, go to South O, and get me some good Mexican. Anyone want to come? Let's go. This leads up to my restaurant review:

Salgado's: (Yes, it is an urbanspoon website) Matt and I as well as some of his coworkers tried to go here over a year ago. Unfortunately we tried to go the weekend it was writen up in the paper. Oops. Bad mistake. Table for 5? 1hr. No thanks. Take two: this past weekend (heck, we usually go to happy hour at a Tex Mex place for super cheap to get our Mexican nacho fix...and by 'our' I mean Matt's). This time the place is practically empty, but they have Breckenridge Agave Wheat on their menu...cue excited Becky. Alas, secondary to a rough night the night before, I pass. (+) #1....free chips! I strongly dislike Mexican places that charge for chips. Yeah, I said it. We were all thinking it. They bring us 3 dipping choices: salsa fresca, mild salsa, and bean dip. 1 & 2, meh. No thanks. Give me my food processor, and I am 100% sure I can do better. That bean dip? Amazing. Matt ate it all. In one shot. The bite I got was delicious. Matt got nacho's: par. Becky got verde enchiladas: meh. Chicken was tender but under seasoned. Verde salsa was under seasoned. Cheese was...cheese. The rice, however, was actually really good. Usually the rice is something I can do without, resist in fact. Not this time. The rice was really good. The beans were beans. I can never resist refried beans.

I will try to rate things consistently on a 0-5 scale. 0: never again. 1: if someone else (Matt doesn't count) is paying. 2: If it is a big group and they decide on it. 3: Only on Matt's request. 4: Oh yeah, I like this place, I will suggest this next month or so. 5: GET ME THERE NOW!!!! (In retrospect, that seems like an odd scale, but it is what it is)

Service: decent, par. Cleanliness: par. Ambiance: slightly better than par. Menu: slightly below par. OVERALL: 2. If a party were going and decided on this place, I would still go and enjoy the company

I survived cardiology. And to tell you the truth it wasnt too bad at all especially when you compare it to general medicine at CUMC. I am back at the VA now doing general medicine. It is just as it sounds: thrilling and full of old men. Many times when I start updating this I wish I had helpful tips or good points, but I never do. Let's see what I can roll out here regarding medicine/intern year

- Never take it personally. Patients will be rude. Attendings will chew you out. Fellow residents will be lazy or throw you under the bus every chance they get (not neccesarily speaking from experience here). You can only control you.

- Organization is your friend. That goes for med school too. And life I guess.

- Remember to be real and connect with people. I am only gong to be here for one year but that shouldn't keep me from connecting with patients and coworkers. Life isn't about counting the number of friends you have and stopping when meet your quota. We are pople. Not tasks in your inbox.

- Know the love language of your friends/spouse/family. If you don't know what they are...look them up. If you think they are a load of bull...I dont like you. :)

- Learn to like leftovers. I have always had issues with leftovers. Even when I was young. I really dont know why. I usually get up at 445am workout, work, get home at 6pm, and then make dinner. I feel like a failure if I dont make dinner fully from scratch. Sigh. I need to get over that

- Buck up and do your job. This is for everyone and not just interns. God gave you skills and put you in your position for a reason. Enjoy the ride. Stop complaining.

Now that I got all of my "wisdom" out of the way, let's get down to bussiness. And what is business...not sure. I want focus to this blog. Thoughts? Ideas? Comments? All 1 person reading this. All right. Off for the night. To Lincoln tomorrow. I had to experience the power of Go Big Red at least one time before leaving Nebraska.

I kept saying

I kept saying: "I'll post, I'll post." I lie to my self. I lie to everyone. Crap. 2 months!!!!?!?!?! And nothing from me. Weird. Quick update on life

August:
GI at the VA was awesome. Lots of colons. That wasn't the awesome part. Easy hours was the awesome part. My brother got married!!!!! Over in London. I ate way too much and drank way too much. But it was tons of fun. I ate too many chocolate desserts and got very very hyper as well. Matt survived his first trip overseas, and he liked it! Which means he wants to do it more. Yay!

September:
Gen Med at VA. It was okay. Things moved slowly, but they are pretty quick to move patients out and along. Some patients at CUMC may sit around a few too many days because the social workers are overloaded. At the VA, however, they have plenty of social workers who are super helpful. My sister got married!!!!! Again, I ate too much and drank too much! But she got married and she was beautiful. I looked pretty good too if you don't mind me sayin.

October:
Cardio at CUMC. I was dreading this month, but it turns out it isn't that bad. At least not the first 2 weeks. We have some crazy busy days, but I feel that I am learning some good things. I like my team as well. Matt's parents came to visit this past weekend. Ate too much. Drinking didn't happen as much this time. Played my first full court basketball game in over 2 years. Wow. It is one thing to shoot around at the gym, but it is a whole different thing to run around, play defense, and then try to shoot around. Ugh. But I had fun

In other news, I am cooking a lot. I have a great blog post (in my head) about reviewing/pros & cons of food blogs. I look at a lot of them. Not that my opinion matters at all to anyone, but I know what I like and don't like.

Okay. I swear I will post again this month.

Breckenridge

Our ever so long extended honeymoon wrapped up with another trip all the way across NE back to CO and up to Breckenridge this time. With 2 other couples. And we slept on a hida-bed. Very romantic. During a benefit auction this past winter some of Matt's coworkers purchased a long weekend at a condo. One couple had to boge out, so we were the back up friends!!!! At this point I don't remember a lot of details, but here is4-er (14, the general gist of what we did.

We hiked. We wanted to do a full 14-er (14000 ft), but it turns out in late June there is still quite a bit of snow there. Huh. Who knew. The ladies were too scared of wandering too much in the snow - not because of the cold or the difficulty but because of the fear of getting lost off the path. I could picture us being featured on "I shouldn't be alive." So we turned around. Our condo was a little outside of downtown Breck, so Matt and I would walk into town a lot. Everyone else liked to chill a bit more. Matt isn't the best at chillin. We pretty much walked that whole town.

We went rafting. In wet suites of course. 2 people had just died on the river. We didn't die. This was Matt's first time, and he was pretty nervous. He isn't the best swimmer, so I was nervous for him too. It was only 2 hrs. And it was cold. But fun. We stumbled upon some large white water rafting festival. Hippies :D

We rode the chairlift to the top of Breck. Turns out there was snow up there too. For those of you who read about our trip to Chi town last Labor day, you know Matt isn't a fan of heights. Chair lifts are no exception. Again, this was something Matt had never been on. His knuckles were white from holding onto the safety bar so tightly. Cute.

We ate Chic fil a on the way home. Pretty much Matt's highlight.

Milwaukee

Finally on to Milwaukee. I may have lost the will to put up pictures, but we will see how I feel at the end of the post.

If I learned nothing else on our honeymoon, it was how to spell Cincinnati and Milwaukee (w/o the help of spell check). I also learned that Matt and I really like the latter. We arrived in Milwaukee and headed straight to the game as it was a Sunday afternoon game and we figured it would be busy. Man were we right. Standing room only. We paid for parking and standing room only tickets. That was expensive. To tell you the truth I don't remember much about the game. The stadium was not my favorite. Unlike other newer stadiums (this stadium is pretty new too), you can't see the ball field from all the concourses. You could go long stretches without seeing the field. Me no likey. On the other hand, Milwaukee was great.

We stayed at The Intercontinental in the downtown area, and for the first time we actually stayed for 2 nights! Maybe that is why we liked Milwaukee so much, but whatever. In the afternoon we walked around and over to the lake (Lake Michigan). The weather was great, and we loved exploring. It was too early for dinner at this point, so we chilled at the hotel until heading to a brewery up the street for dinner. Matt had grilled cheese. I had beer. And some food. They had tons of old beer cans on the walls including Oly and Ranier as well as Ranier Light. Matt was finally getting his appetite back, so I didn't have to help with the sandwich :(







The next day we actually got to sleep in and not drive 5 hours. Another huge plus! We walked over to a place a friend recommended for a cheap lunch. It was a whole in the wall Mexican place that I can't even remember the name of. It was cheap though. Being the cheap people we are, we only walked by the Harley Museum. We didn't go in. Fine by me. The highlight of the day was the brewery tour - Lakefront Brewery. For $7 each we got 4 8oz samples, a "tour," a souvenir pint glass, and a coupon for a free pint at a local bar. We won. Well, I won actually. As Matt isn't as big into beer as I am, I got pretty much all of his including the pint at the bar. Woohoo. At this point I was a bit tipsy...and it was only 4pm. We chilled for a bit and then stuffed ourselves on cheese. Seriously. I never thought I could hit a cheese overload, but I may have here: AJ Bombers. It has been on Food Wars. I got grilled cheese. And we got cheese curds as an appetizer. And poutine. So good.

Milwaukee also proved to decision point: drive to the Twin Cities or drive home. After much debate we ended this leg of our honeymoon early as we would be heading to Breckenridge in 2 days. We survived all those miles without killing each other and without threatening divorce. It was great. My only suggestion for anyone thinking about it would be to spread......it........out. 2 days in each place would have been way better. More expensive but way better.

On a way better rotation now. Will update on that later.