loose ends...

1) Boards: OVER! AWESOME! I took them June 27 and got my score on Saturday. I am shocked and thrilled about the outcome, and that chapter can now be laid to rest. :-)

2) Friends: I have the most wonderful friends ever. A 4-layer homemade cake, 24 beautiful roses, and a bottle of champagne? Amazing. Thanks guys! I could NOT do this if it wasn't for you. Seriously, I need my friends to keep me in line if I start getting too weird from this process...

3) Vacation: Before my rotation, we went to Pacific Beach for the weekend with some of the previously mentioned amazing friends. Kite flying, swimming in the ocean, delicious meals, knitting, good books... How can you get better than that? Then my Dad came down and we had hiking and sailing and more good food. Again, awesome!

4) Rotation: I seriously won the rotation jackpot! I am at a community health center in Seattle that serves a wide variety of people, including low-income, non-English speaking, HIV, OB, families, students, people with fluctuations in their insurance, sex-workers, drug users, grandmothers, doctors at other local hospitals, and others... What a phenomenal variety! All of the providers are incredibly compassionate and brilliant people, and I am learning a ton. As part of this rotation, I am spending one half-shift per week in the ER at a local hospital (quite a trip!) and one lunch-hour per week taking blood pressures and chatting with people at a community lunch program. This is the best rotation I could imagine.

5) Cats: I love being a foster cat mommy! Last week I was dropping in on two young kitties as a friend was out of town. At the same time, another friend had her geriatric cat stay with us while she moved to a new home. It is so nice to get some kitty-time without having to make a huge commitment. Yay!

More soon I hope!