Thread Drift

[Crankin]

Yeah, surgery is out for my friend's son, too. He wants to do ER med, so he can have a regular schedule or possibly sports med, as he is already a personal trainer.
So, last night we went to a meet and greet with the president of my younger son's college, alumni, and other parents. This is the son that was in the Marines for 9 years. He has a full scholarship for vets that they have. It was amazing! We didn't know what to expect, as we went to huge state schools and this is a small, highly selective private college. So when I said I was Scott's mom to the prez, he actually knows him and could ask us questions about him. We met a board member who went there, and he had tears in his eyes when we told him Scott's story. Also, the president's assistant knows Scott and his wife quite well. The young alumni were amazing, as was the 90 year old man, who happens to live down the road from me.
This is a world I have had little contact with. It made me very proud of my son, as this place is tough!

[Blueberry]

I don't think ER would be my top choice for a regular schedule. They work about 10-12 shifts a month, but they are all 12 hour shifts and they usually vary (with lots being overnight). You have a lot of free time (which you need to recover), but it's not really regular.
I looked at doing the ortho residency-sports med track - but it's really long and ortho is quite a tough field for women (still). I could do primary care/sports med, but I fear I'd lost the sports aspect of it (and get swallowed by primary care). So many decisions, so little time!

[shootingstar]

One of my sisters has been an ER doctor for over past decade and longer. She drives nearly 50 min. to get to her hospital. She only works several days per week but yes, she does tend to work 12 hr. shifts with most overnight. She also has 2 young children. So this work schedule has worked for her..though she says she's probably shortening her lifespan by working night shifts. The reality is that for her (and other physicians I know, including a medical intern who is wife of a nephew..She is specializing in pediatrics.), there are a limited number of openings for physician specialists ...at least across Canada OR a physician specialist can consider working in more rural areas of which there is some demand. But that gets into other personal preferences in terms of lifestyle, any spousal needs re job choices/where they are at in life, etc.

She seems to like working in a smaller hospital that is still close to major teaching/research hospitals in Metro Toronto.

What is interesting to have heard from her, is the elitist attitudes of certain medical interns trying to enter into some of specialty medical areas. My sister of course, had no personal connections /relationships as an intern, within the medical field (because she comes from a poor, immigrant family) to help her network and wiggle her way in terms of certain internships she might have desired via the medical establishment.

[Pax]

Gotta say, packing the condo up a scant 15 months after we unpacked it, is tiring. And we know this move is temporary too since the apartment we rented will be cost prohibitive when we're retired. Might be time to go back to the days of my 20's when I could move in my car... in one trip.

[ny biker]

Gotta say, packing the condo up a scant 15 months after we unpacked it, is tiring. And we know this move is temporary too since the apartment we rented will be cost prohibitive when we're retired. Might be time to go back to the days of my 20's when I could move in my car... in one trip.

Yeah. I've had a lot of my stuff in a storage unit for a long time now, as contractors have been in my condo doing various things, and I wanted to minimize the amount of stuff they had to move around in order to work. Now as the new floor installation gets closer -- new floor everywhere, including the closets, with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom -- I really have to pack up and get stuff out. I'm doing lots of purging along the way; there's a big pile of stuff in my living room ready to go to Good Will. It's very tiring, even doing it a little at a time.

And when I'm done with the floors, I'm still not done. First there will be touch-up painting to do. After that a lot of stuff can come out of storage. But my next project will be re-doing the insides of my three closets so that I can store stuff more efficiently. Which means it won't make sense to unpack a lot of the stuff that I'm packing up now.

The good thing is that it all gives me a chance to see what I really don't need to keep. If something has been in storage so long that I've forgotten I had it, it's easier to overcome my pack-rat tendencies. I also get motivation from my parents' experience cleaning out the apartment of an elderly aunt after she died. It was so much work and took so long to go through everything, figure out what needed to be kept, what had value and could be given away or sold, and what should be tossed.

[Pax]

I'm starting to think those minimalist people I read about have the right idea. Some own only 100 things, total... I have more than 100 things in my bathroom!

Number 4 http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lif...s-or-less.html is my downfall, I own some very expensive made-in-the-US tools that I could never afford to replace, but even though I haven't had a motorcycle in two years, I lug them around with me.

[ny biker]

I have learned to ignore that rule. Every year when I take my winter clothes out of storage I find at least one old sweater that ends up becoming my "new favorite" for the year, or the new comfy sweater that I wear instead of a sweatshirt when I'm just bumming around the house. And this summer I am wearing the too-large jeans that sat in the bottom of the dresser drawer for years, because I am up 10 lbs and not fitting into many of my summer clothes.

Besides you might end up buying another motorcycle, and then you'll be glad you had those tools.