Monday Nirvana

Ah, the magic of music in one's quest for relaxation. After a long day at the hospital and my first case presentation for my current preceptor, Dr. Hilleman (who's just one of those guys that almost everyone finds intimidating at first - mostly due to his extremely sarcastic nature and his reputation for being extremely intelligent), I came home with the intention of chilling out, catching up on friends' blogs, and figuring out what I'm going to do tonight. I decided to put on the Telepopmusik Pandora station, and four songs in, I'm already feeling much better! Zero 7, Moby, and Bliss have followed Telepop with some very chill tunes, and my high stress level around 2 pm seems very distant.

My journey to a potential residency is nearing its end. I have just one interview remaining, in Philadelphia, this Thursday, and then March 5th is when all students have to rank their sites by preference. March 17th is when the match list comes out (St Patty's Day!), and any residency you match with you are contractually bound to. In another instance, I might not even consider ranking a few of these sites - I wouldn't be too keen on moving to Wabasha (or Winona), Minn on my own as a single young professional. As it turns out, however, Amy and I have decided that our next step in our relationship should involve living together, which would be especially important if I end up at a residency that's not in Minneapolis. With the knowledge that I'll have my best friend with me, it makes just about any destination exciting and interesting! I consider myself so damn lucky. In fact, this past weekend we celebrated Valentine's Day a weekend late, and had a fantastic time on Saturday night as I made New  York Strip with mushrooms, onions, and green peppers, plus some asparagus and a wine that we purchased last fall at a wine tasting in Nebraska. Then we saw Shutter Island (totally recommend it - one of the best movies I've ever seen in the thriller/mystery genre). Also, on Friday night we went to an Omaha bar that is the home for the area's techno and house music scene. My freshman roomie at Wisconsin is a DJ living here, and he performed some of his original work - and it was very, very good. Relaxing, chill house music at its best.

One of my long-standing M.O.s, and one of the reasons for success that I've found is to always have contigency plans, and to give yourself as many options as possible. This served me well when applying for pharmacy schools - I was accepted to Wisconsin, but because I received a B- in my last semester of undergrad, I was de-accepted. I knew that it was a possibility that I might have issues with Wisconsin, so I also responded to Creighton, stating that I'd be attending there, too. So, in effect, for a while I was a new incoming student at two pharmacy schools. It worked out, because had I not had a backup plan, I wouldn't have started pharmacy school when I did... The same thing applies to residencies. I certainly don't have to interview in Philadelphia. But, if I were to not match at one of the other 8 sites, I would kick myself if I didn't at least look at Philly. So, it's more work up front, but it often ends up saving you a lot of headaches down the road. At least, that's how things have played out for me so far.

The thrill of victory!

As I sit here watching the women's downhill at the Vancouver Olympics, I still find it amazing that my stepmom, Coke, participated in the Los Angeles Summer Games in the early 80s in handball...who cares if very few Americans have any idea what handball is, fact is, Coke can always say she was an Olympian, and you can't take that away from her! It was awesome to watch Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso go 1-2 in the downhill, and just watching skiing makes me so jealous - I miss racing downhill so much. I also can't wait until I make it to my first Winter Olympics - obviously, as a spectator, but who cares? Probably not Sochi, Russia, in 4 years, but in 8? We'll see...

Anyway, the past weekend was a crazy whirlwind of hanging out with my brother Dane in Madison, meeting Amy's mom for the first time, and then fighting off sickness to bang out 5 different residency interviews with University of Iowa-associated sites in two days' time. Coming out of them, it's tough to say which I'd enjoy the most - they were all THAT good - but it is possible that I could end up in Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Mt Vernon, Davenport, or Iowa City, IA this coming summer. The important thing is that I think each of them, though slightly different, would prepare me well for a career in community-ambulatory pharmacy, as well as help me work on my teaching, public speaking, and research skills!

My new rotation began today, Cardiology, with one of the most intense professors at Creighton. I already have homework for tomorrow (a drug review on a drug of my choice) that I still have to work on - so off I go!

Gophers, Badgers, Hawkeyes, Oh My!

Well, the past week has been a sort of whirlwind! Let's get down to it...

Last Thursday, your intrepid Midwest adventurer took off from Omaha for Minneapolis, since I had an interview planned for Friday morning at 8 am in Wabasha, MN, for an ambulatory pharmacy residency with the University of Minnesota (Gophers!). The drive wasn't bad minus the freezing rain I encountered in northern Iowa - an area of the country I absolutely loathe driving through (you'd understand if you've ever heard of the time I hit a deer around midnight on my way up to Minnesota from Omaha...but I digress). And let me tell you, freezing rain is only really freezing rain if it sticks to your windshield enough where your wipers alone don't do the trick. You have to continually spray washer fluid as well, plus blast hot air on your windshield, to minimize the amount of ice buildup.
After arriving at Amy's for the night and having a relaxing drink at McCoy's in St Louis Park, I was all set for a good night's sleep prior to my early wake-up call (5:30) the next morning. Unfortunately, I slept like crap that night, and woke up in the morning pretty exhausted. It didn't get much better as I began my drive, since snow had been falling most of the night, and the roads were not in great shape! I spotted multiple accidents along the way, and was slowed down enough to where I had to call the Wabasha Clinic to let them know that I was going to be a half hour late! Not a great entrance...especially when you arrive to find a conference room full of physicians and pharmacists awaiting your arrival, certainly cutting into their schedules. Luckily, the interview went terrific, and after a great lunch at Stacy's in Wabasha with Kurt, the director, and Amy, their current resident, I found myself thinking that it wouldn't be so bad for a year - closer to home, not too far from the Cities, low cost of living...
That night, after trekking back up to the Cities, Amy, Erin, my mom, and I went to watch Michael's basketball team, the Waconia HS freshmen boys, take on Litchfield. Though Michael put his heart into coaching, and lost his voice in the process, the Wildcats came up a little short in the end. It was fun to watch, though, and got me motivated to do some coaching down the road, too. My dad was an excellent coach in basketball, football, and baseball while I was growing up, and I'd love to follow in his footsteps when it comes to that!
Saturday found Amy attending a review session for her Biochem class (what a dedicated trooper!), shopping at Southdale for a blender (protein shakes!) and new running shoes (surprisingly - Nike, but they felt the most comfortable) and later on, all of us attending the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. I'd recommend the place - the dinner was well prepared, and the show we saw, Nunset Boulevard, was pretty well done. It was great to spend time with my mom and step-dad as well.

Sunday we found ourselves at a Super Bowl party, disecting both the game and the commercials. Luckily, the Saints dream season came true, and what appears to be the most beloved team in the NFL not named the Packers gave their rabid fan base a chance to celebrate, Mardi Gras style. I was happy for them, though I wished the game had been like the last couple of years' - down to the wire!
Sunday night, the snow started falling again, with storm estimates of 7 to 12 inches of snow by Tuesday. Not good news, since on Monday I had plans to drive to Eau Claire for another residency interview, and then hightail it back to Omaha that afternoon and night. It was not to be. First off, even though I gave myself an extra hour to get there, I still ended up being late (again!) for an interview, though the staff was completely understanding. I liked the program there as well, and though it has some in-patient focused learning, I still think I would prepare myself well for a career in ambulatory and academic pharmacy. After arriving back in Minneapolis to gather my things for the drive back home, I looked at the Iowa DOT website, and noticed that my route was deemed "hazardous" and that no towing of stranded vehicles was allowed due to the storm. That sealed the deal, and I stayed the night at Amy's once again (not that I minded...). We ended up watching District 9 that night, the Peter Jackson sci-fi flick, and I can't say it lived up to what the critics were saying. But still, not too shabby.
Tuesday I got on the road after 10, and didn't arrive home until after 6 pm (it's usually less than a 6 hour drive). Schools were closed throughout northern Iowa, and I could see why - blowing snow over the interstate made travel pretty tough. The underpasses were all very slippery, and at times blowing snow made seeing the road nearly impossible. But, slowly but surely, I made it home safely, albeit exhausted.
During that time, I received info from SuperValu that they wanted me to interview in Philadelphia in a few weeks - so, last night, I booked my flight and hotel for that trip Feb 24/25. Not that I'm excited about paying for the travel, but I loved the program after my interview at Cub Foods in Minnesota, and it could only help my match chances to interview out east.
After that whirlwind of a weekend - it would make sense to take it easy for a bit. But no! I'm off to Madison tomorrow to visit Dane for the weekend, catch a Badger hockey game Saturday (Badgers!), and hopefully play some tennis. Amy had planned on coming down from Minnesota originally, but has a chemistry exam on Monday, so decided it would behoove her to stay home and study up all weekend. Smart move...those classes are tough from what I recall!
The reason I planned on going to Mad-town in the first place was because Monday/Tuesday next week I have interviews with the Univ of Iowa (Hawkeyes!) community pharm residency program. My first interview is Mon morning in Dubuque, less than 2 hours from Madison. The others are in Cedar Rapids, Mt Vernon, Davenport, and Iowa City. Monday night I'll be staying in Davenport, which I've never been to before, in a hotel room being paid for by the U of I! Finally a residency taking care of its candidates!
To be honest, I really would just like to stay home this weekend and rest up, since I'm pretty exhausted, feeling kind of sick, and start a new, difficult rotation in cardiology next week. But, I'd rather have interviews than not, so this is what I've got to do, easy or not. It's all part of doing what I have to do to get where I want to be, which is having a job in pharmacy that I enjoy, is challenging yet rewarding, and allows me to use my knowledge in the best way possible. And I want to honestly say that I did everything in my power to get to that point, which is why I titled this blog "Dream --> Reality" in the first place.

The workout "high"

Ahhh! I just finished my protein shake following a great workout, and the endorphin rush is in full effect. What a great feeling it is to push your body physically and see a change take place over a period of time. With the type of workouts I'm doing, and the healthy diet I've been abiding by, I feel like I can already see a change...I know that is likely wishful thinking, but even if it's in my head, it's going to motivate me to continue to workout at this pace. Not to say that I've gotten fanatical about it, but just that it's become a more important part of my life as of late. And it feels good!
Other good news rolled in today - I was emailed by the coordinator at the Cub/SuperValu pharmacy residency, and they want to see if I'd like to interview with their program site in Philadelphia. Of course, there's only one position there, too, but if it gives me another shot at getting the type of residency I want, then I most likely should probably go ahead and go for it! Not that I really am in the mood to fly to Philly in the next month, but that's what I'd have to do. So we'll see, I emailed them back to let them know I was interested in finding out more about their program.

Tomorrow I'll be back on the road, and I feel better knowing I'll have AAA on my side at last! Up to Minnesota for my interview Friday (Wabasha, MN) and Monday (Eau Claire), and a weekend with the family. We have reservations for the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre on Sat night, which I'm looking forward to - dinner and a play, what a great idea! It's supposed to be pretty funny performance, so I'm excited about the prospects of laughing some wine up my nose at some point.
Today happened to be National Signing Day in college football, and, like always, Wisconsin's class was not highly ranked by national scouts. However, as is the case with their basketball team, intelligent, well-coached athletes often trump over those more athletic yet undisciplined. Hopefully that will continue to be the case for Wisky. Though neither team has or likely will win a national championship in the near future, both teams are consistently solid-to-excellent, if not exceedingly "exciting to watch" on the field or court - that is, unless winning's your thing...  :)
Well, I have laundry to do, as well as packing, plus a little research for my preceptor tomorrow, and the night is flying by. Have a great weekend!

Looking back at Ireland: Day 1, Dublin

So what I plan on doing here is posting the emails sent to friends and family from my Europe trip this past year. Some of the writings are from my mom, since we jointly wrote them, so I'll add any notes afterward if I can think of anything. Enjoy!

November 27-28, 2009

Ceile meile failte! Or at least that’s what we heard upon arriving in Ireland – one hundred thousand welcomes. So, Linda and Trev sit here after a very interesting first, oh, 30 hours. We both arrived in New Jersey with no problems, and then the fun began. Our plane for Dublin had “mechanical” problems – so after sitting for awhile  on board, we were sent over to another plane, hopefully problem-free.  And it was. But that’s not to speak of our flight crew. They were…interesting, to say the least. One of them decided Trev was going to be their new best “male” friend…uh…and he offered me a beer on the house. Terrific… He never got around to getting it to Trev, but the gesture sure was thoughtful…hahaha. Anyway, our plane was A) HOT, B) crowded, and C) late arriving to Dublin. Other than that…well, what do you expect? It’s Continental J 

So, without really any meaningful sleep, we grabbed our luggage after landing (which included more “mechanical” problems on the baggage claim belt…”) and after maneuvering around pushy Germans to buy our bus tickets, headed to Dublin’s city center. The Ashfield House is a former church converted into a hostel…yes, Linda is staying in a hostel. We “freshened up” in the luggage room, and after storing our bags and eating the continental breakfast they provided, headed to Trinity College to take the Historical Walking Tour of Dublin.

3 hours later and much smarter we crashed!  For 3 hours…  then we showered and got ready to go eat a real Irish meal.   Someone steered us to a great place, O’Shea’s, not touristy.  We had the stew and soup and brown bread and oour first Guinness and Jamison.  Then on to Long Stone pub, and it was really neat.  Then the highlight!   Oliver St. John Gogarty’s where we found traditional irish music, wher e people just jumped in to play, it was great, and Trevor got calledLinda’s husband and we got quite a few looks!  And laughs amongst ourselves  haha! We even liked their music enough to buy their CD, fully of all kinds of reels and jigs and Irish ballads…should be good.

After Linda decided her stomach was too full of alcohol and a little light on the sustenance factor, we hit the streets for our hostel and, well, here we are! Having a blast and the weather has even cooperated so far. We are a little concerned that the flooding in SW Ireland may change our plans a little because eof closed roads, etc, but no big deal, it will be fun in any case.

Tomorrow we plan to visit Trim Castle in Trim, the castle used in Braveheart’s Sterling Castle scenes. Lookning forward to it!

Notes: I can't remember the last time I was as tired as when we were doing the Historical Walking Tour. It was a pretty good tour, I'd recommend it, our guide was a life-long Dubliner and former Trinity student who told some good jokes, and even went longer than scheduled, but by the last hour I was just zoned out and can't say I really enjoyed everything as much as I would have liked. Dublin certainly doesn't have the big name sights that Paris, Rome, or London do - and we never even made it to the biggest of them all, the Guinness Storehouse! That's kind of like going to Paris and missing the Louvre! But it's ok, gives me something to see next time. 

Also, luckily the floods never did affect us, other than a slight detour on the bus while driving from Limerick to Galway. But the pictures we saw in the news of some areas of the country were pretty bad, and a few towns had to be evacuated completely.

7 weeks 'til MN

It is hard to believe that over 3 weeks have already gone by since I arrived back in Omaha following my 5 week vacation to home, Ireland, and Mexico. Pretty soon I will be on my 7th and final Omaha rotation, and then I'll be living with my sister and brother-in-law in Minnesota. And my time in Omaha, though a good experience overall, will have come to an end. The reason this is on my mind is that I am currently wishing I was there, and not here, and I have been having to make quite a lot of trips up north recently, and will be doing so again Thursday for a weekend with Amy & the fam, plus two interviews. Sure would save some money on gas and oil changes!

Speaking of traveling - I finally joined AAA! I had no idea it was so cheap to join, and that membership came with so many benefits. I highly recommend it to anyone else who does a lot of traveling, and I know it would have come in handy a few times over the past couple of years during all of my road tripping to MN and WI.  It was only $58 for the entire year, and short of fixing your car, they'll do just about everything for you, incl towing and changing batteries. Nice!

I have recently discovered that my desire to look and feel healthier has really taken ahold of me. I've found myself going to the gym or working out at home pretty religiously -and I can tell a difference already. Just from watching the P90X commercials, I've pretty much designed my own workout, and I haven't been this sore in awhile! Feels great and I think that tonight I may take a night off from the muscle building and concentrate on leaning up some more. On that note, I also can't wait until it's nice out so that I can play tennis regularly. Watching the Australian Open and playing last week with Amy was a blast and with the new racquet I have, I've never played better, especially after a long layoff.

My NAPLEX (pharmacy boards) review book came in the mail yesterday, and I already have started looking at its cardiology section in preparation for my next rotation, which I anticipate being my most difficult, due to material and preceptor. So far it looks like a pretty good book, and I'm sure I'll spend a good month with it leading up to the exam. That reminds me, registering for the Naplex and law exams costs over $1000, which is outrageous IMO. I mean, I'm already in waaay too much debt, and then I'll be adding that on top of my tuition loans. Sure is an investment in yourself, isn't it? It will be nice to finally have a positive cash flow in the next year!

I know I spoke of how excited I am at the prospect of becoming more fit earlier, but one thing I do really enjoy that doesn't so much coincide with this idea is my love for trying new craft beers. I've recently discovered Beer Advocate's website, and their list of the top 100 world beers - and so now I have another list to pick at. Most of them aren't even available in Omaha, which is good, since I don't really have the money to spend on these beers - since a 6-pack is usually closer to $10 than not - but everytime I'm at a bar that offers new beers I haven't tried, I make a point of changing that. I tried the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout (9.0% ABV) at McCoy's in St Louis Park the other night, and it was delicious! And the best bar in the Cities as far as craft brews is concerned just so happened to be the spot of my first date with Amy - the Happy Gnome in St Paul. Check it out if you've never been, the food is fantastic and the beer selection is top notch. Just stay away from anything labeled as having a "chalky" texture...