Stress on the beach

2003-05-23 - 8:38 p.m.

Last Tuesday I went to work for half a day then got in my car and drove to Asilomar. I've never driven there myself, but I managed to get there without getting lost. I ended up being the first person from my institution to get there. I stayed in the Guest Inn at Asilomar which is perhaps the nicest accomodations they have, but in the least ideal location. No view of the ocean, that's for sure. And really far away from the places where everyone else was staying. I ran into a bunch of people I haven't seen in ages. Seems like I've been doing that a lot recently. I ate dinner with a couple of residents from a nearby Sacramento hospital and then we walked down to the beach and walked in the sand and looked in the tidepools. On the way back I ran into Zorro and the huge gang of residents that work at her hospital. I tagged along with them for the rest of the evening. We went back after dark and had a few drinks on the beach. Then they walked me back to my middle-of-nowhere cabin where I met my roommate. She ended up being a girl from South Carolina doing a DI (drug information) residency in Colorado. She was really nice and we stayed up quite a bit longer talking about random things. The worst thing about our cabin was that there were seven girls staying in it and only one shower. Two bathrooms, but only one shower. But we managed it amazingly well. The next morning I slept in until nearly seven then got ready and went down to Fluffy's presentation. It went pretty well. I think not his best, considering the fact that we've practiced our presentations in front of each other half a million times. Well, ok, twice. I had lunch that afternoon with Daisy and then we headed over to see Slick's presentation. She also did a very nice job. Then I went back to my middle-of-nowhere cabin and practiced my presentation over and over to hopefully avoid stumbling over words. Then I walked over to my building and gave my presentation. It went off almost without a hitch. Which is great! I was really happy with how it went. Who says you can't complete a year-long residency project in one month, eh? Anyway, that night the Mole and one of the other preceptors took the third preceptor and the four of us residents out to dinner at Chart House, which was quite yummy and had an awesome view of the bay. We stayed there until after ten and then went back to the girls' place where I saved the day by being the only one capable of building a real fire in the fireplace. We sat in big comfy chairs and yammered by the fire for several hours, and then off to bed again. The next morning I got up and went to other people's presentations fairly early. Then Slick called me and a bunch of us went to Carmel to look through the shops. Back to Asilomar where Daisy gave her presentation and then we were done. On the way back to Sacramento, Daisy and Slick rode with me. That was nice to not be alone. Not that I mind alone. Not really. I got home pretty late and went straight to bed. It is so incredibly hot here. At Asilomar we were lucky to get up to the 60's. It's been in the 90's here. Time to squeeze my tubby thighs into shorts again. Look out world!