T-365

That is right.  Only one. year. left.

I mean, its only already been 11 since I graduated from college.

I don't like to talk about work on the blog, it is public after all.  And since most of you know me well, you already know what a difficult year this was for me.  There is something about retrospectacles though that makes you not think so badly about things.  So I feel that I must note some pertinent positives of the last year.

1. Freedom of schedule.  It took me almost 8 months to actually realize NO ONE cared what time I got there or when I left, as long as the "work" was done.  So I did finally start to take deserved advantage of it.

2. Spending time with Ellie.  See #1.  Towards the end I would generally just hang out with Ellie and help get her ready while Mike finished up getting himself ready in the morning. (This was generally after I had gotten back from exercising, see #4)  I will really miss seeing Ellie in the morning.

3. Sitting on the couch and well, sitting on the couch.  There were times I wished I had other things to do, and times that I did, but overall, if I wanted to, I could chill out on the couch once 7:30 hit and stay there.

4. Morning exercising.  This morning I actually broke my rule of 4.  Which is not setting my alarm to start with 4 to go out and exercise.  I got up at 4:41 this morning to go running to be at work by 6:15.  I remember in med school this female neurosurgeon gave us a talk.  She said we (meaning the females) could do it if we wanted.  But she was divorced and got up at 4:30 in the morning to exercise if she wanted to make it to the gym. It sounded like the craziest thing to me.  Look who's crazy now.

5. Ok, I suppose that I did learn something.  Through blood, sweat and tears, but I did learn some stuff last year.

6.  I did everything that I was supposed to with regards to publishing, hitting abstract deadlines, grant deadlines and the such.  Without the support that I was expecting.


7. Pleasure reading.  I read at least 9-10 books purely for pleasure this year.  A lot of it was while I was waiting for the bus, but it was time well spent.  I would much rather have it take me 25 min to get home 1.5 miles if that means I am taking public transportation and having a little time to myself.

8. Lunch dates with Mike.  Granted we mostly ate the bag lunches that we had both brought to work together, but every now and then we would go out too.  It was like a free date.

9.  I survived.  Not a small task to be honest.  And not to say that this year is actually shaping up to be much better.  I have to believe that being back in the hospital will make me happier because taking care of patients and being a clinician is who I am (well at least part).

10.  I did run my marathon, even if I wasn't happy with my time.  It was my personal goal of last year.