babies, babies everywhere

So this sounds like it's going to be a post about how my maternal clock is ticking away and every time I see a cute baby I can feel my ovaries scream. It's not, although those things are sometimes true.

Many people around me are having babies or actively trying to have babies. And they're my age. I am not old. In fact, it strikes me as odd that anyone I know would be having babies without the requisite freak out about school/life/keeping it/etc. Basically, I still feel like my friends, peers and I are in high school, and that we ought to be, I don't know, avoiding pregnancy like it's the plague. Sure, we've gone on to college, joined the army, started businesses, gotten married, and so forth, but we can't possibly be old enough to have babies responsibly. (There's a bumper sticker I used to want that said, "We are the people our parents warned us about." Now, I would add to that, "and we're suddenly in charge.")

Except we are. And that terrifies me. Because my friends/peers are mostly good parents, responsible parents who attempt to do everything right. It's a strange time when friends you used to hang out with while wearing diapers now have children.

Also, our radio stations are sneakily morphing into the "new" oldies stations. I heard Nirvana referred to as being "Classic Alternative" the other day.

patients

Our school has a several opportunities for students to work with and interact with patients. One of them is a free manipulative medicine (OMM) clinic that second years can rotate through. Another is a local free clinic for low income patients. In both circumstances, students are precepted by physicians, but there is an awful lot of autonomy given to us in our little tasks. I have had the great fortune of working in both situations; sadly there are not enough spots for every student to participate. In my time in the clinics, I have seem a lot of patient overlap, to the point where I saw a patient regularly in the OMM clinic only to see her the other day in the free clinic in town. I really enjoy this patient; she's a feisty lady. Anyway, when I went out to call her in for her appointment, we had the following exchange.

Pt: It's you again.
Me: I hope that's a good thing...?
Pt: Don't you ever sleep? You need to sleep.

I think she's just great.

Rotations

So we've had our rotations lottery. I got *undisclosed location*, which allows my husband and I to stay in our current apartment. This brings us great happiness, as we really like our apartment. It does mean that I'm going to be completing a 45-50 min commute most days, but I've done that before and it really doesn't seem that bad to me.

Now I'm just excited to get out of the classroom and into the hospitals. Yeah, the hours will suck, but I won't be sitting for 8-12 hours a day.

I can now run a 10 min 54 sec mile.