Last Few Weeks

Time for rapid fire catch-up.

San Diego

Gwen and I spent a week or so in San Diego in late February. I was doing several more job interviews; Gwen was doing some stuff for the hiring process regarding her new job. We were also starting to look around at houses in the area.

Thoughts:

-Interviewing is fun in some ways, but quite laborious. There is a lot of variety out there in terms of jobs and luckily I had several decent offers to pick from. By the end, though, I was starting to forget who I had told what, and which specifics went with which job. The process is tiring, but obviously necessary. I think I interviewed for about ten different positions and with more than twenty-five people when all was said and done. (That's a lot of time forcing good posture and being "serious" - not my strong suits.)

-With Scripps Green Hospital pushing off their hiring process until April because of budget issues, my top two choices became an academic hospitalist position at UCSD versus a Government Service (GS) academic position at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego (right next to the world famous zoo). Both seemed great. In the end, both offered me jobs and I went with the Naval Hospital. It boiled down to two things. One is that I already have seven years of service time which can be applied toward a government pension. Two is that I wasn't quite ready for a week on, week off schedule forever, which basically means one spends every other weekend at work. (This includes EVEN the football season. Shocking, I know.)

-So I'll be working with the Navy and I'm already building an arsenal of proper Navy Jokes. Most of them revolve around that Village People song and me clapping, often in a taunting manner. The job itself is about 3/4 clinic, and 1/4 inpatient, nearly all of it "teaching", i.e. with residents. I'm pretty excited about it, especially after slaving, not unlike a resident, at Landstuhl these past four years.

-Regarding housing, there is a ton of stuff on the market, it's all relatively cheaper than the average San Diego market - it's a total buyer's market. And since Gwen and I don't have to sell anything in the same market, it's basically an ideal situation. All that said - San Diego is still way too expensive. But I'll pay - yes I will. I just keep telling myself there is a small "sun tax". I can live with it.

-The rest of the San Diego trip revolved around the usual antics with the San Diego posse. Complex (and not so complex) board games at Eryn's (Best games in order: Wyatt Earp, The Space one that we played until 2 am, Space Alert, and then on down), Rock Band, dinners out, and general hang around time. Always a blast.

-We also had the first annual Iwan versus Adam Mile Race. Not sure how the concept started, but both of them thought they could beat the other in a mile race, or at least were interested to see how it would turn out. Somehow the event took off with a promotion scheme not unlike a heavy weight fight. Going into the race it seemed like no one had any idea who would win. In the end, Iwan won handily, which was attributed to his multiple sessions of weekly soccer as compared to Adam's multiple sessions of weekly Rock Band. But good fun was had, and the race itself is starting to generate ideas of a similar nature - who knows where that could lead. We could be in for an old man decathalon next summer.


Mallory's Visit

Following our return from San Diego my sister came out for her Spring Break from second year of medical school and so she Gwen, and I took a trip to France. The first half was spent snowboarding in Chamonix, and the second half was spent gallivanting about Paris. A good time was had by all.

-I'm going to miss the Alps. I won't miss Euro Herding at the resorts, but I'll miss the natural beauty of the place and the far more open "Off piste" setting of Alpine skiing which allows for more off-trail exploration than in the States. Also the "apres ski" scene in Europe is much better and I've grown to enjoy a tall fat beer in the late afternoon while watching the sun go down over the scenery, followed by a giggily, slightly clumsy last run of the day down to the base.

-I will also miss the restaurant scene in Chamonix, which includes some ridiculously good french food. Once again we made our trip to the Albert Premier restaurant and gorged ourselves on fine cuisine followed by heavy handfuls of bliss from the ubiquitous cheese cart which was followed up by the equally ubiquitous dessert cart.

-We have probably taken our last trip to Paris now, for the foreseeable future I would guess. Great city. I hate to say it (damn Frenchies), but Paris is one awesome town. (Though I could have used a few more "thanks for bailing us out in WWII" comments than I actually received.) I guess I'm not fully decided on how my power rankings of European Cities I've Been To will settle out, but one could safely bet that Paris will be right at the top.

-Always good to see my sis who's in stressed out second year med school mode. How I don't envy those days. Seeing her going through it is just another reminded of how the long the road through medical training really is.



And there it is. Hopefully I'll get some pics up in another post. Things are starting to move pretty fast around here. In just three months I'll be on terminal leave on my way out the Army door. It seems like there is still a ton to do to get properly transitioned, not to mention continue working here and there. If only someone task-oriented were around to help me plan these things...


Lastly, saw Watchmen last night and I really enjoyed it. My take is that if you've read the graphic novel (Joel!) you'll be pretty pleased. If not, good luck getting into it.

And now you're caught up on the essentials.