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.