Heading west to discover new territory

I'm not posting my inspiration/interpretation weekly feature today as I'm heading to San Francisco. I'll be back by the middle of next week. I have scheduled some posts in my absence, so please continue to stop by.

Why San Francisco? Each year I've taken a solo trip with one of my oldest and dearest friends from college. These trips started as a semi annual girls getaway (mostly to places where we have mutual friends to mooch off of), but has now become a yearly must do. I don't like to be gone from the boys (hubby included) for too long, but it is so nice to get away and rejuvenate. This is especially nice for me as I'm mostly surrounded by flatulence, dirt, odors, and general boyness. I love my boys dearly and never thought I'd have anything but boys. However, I do like to get out and nurture my inner girliness at least once a year. I recommend a solo getaway to all moms even if it is just spending the night at a downtown hotel.

This trip is also going to be an exploration of the SF area. As C begins his 6th year of residency (more details here), he will soon begin looking for work. Although my local friends don't like hearing about it, I have to keep my options open (believe me, this is harder for me than you). For the last 12 years I've lived at the mercy of medical school and residency. We've been fortunate that everything has always worked out for the best. However, for the first time in all these years, we actually have a say in where we want to be. While many factors have to fall into place, we do have to look at the big picture (job opportunity, schools, community, lifestyle, etc.). I'll report back with photos from the area.

Love this photo I found on Flickr:
Salt ponds in SF Bay, by Kevin Kemmerer

To tweet or not to tweet and the reality of Grey's Anatomy

Yikes, it's been quite a week. I'm grateful to say, that I'm as busy as ever. Switchplate orders are at an all time high (perhaps bc they are an inexpensive way to jazz up a room *unabashed self promotion*). My stores are still ordering which is a fantastic sign in this economy.

I HAVE to start sewing. I am doing a show on June 13 (details to come) and I really need to focus. I'm having so much fun with so many other projects that I'm easily distracted.

I've been a very busy blogger of late. You may have noticed I've enhanced this blog. I'm hoping that it will become a resource (whether for information or just eye candy) that will draw you in and keep you coming back. If you'd like to see something in particular, please let me know. I'm hoping to add a diy video component to it as well. The problem here is time and my lack of it.

I'm also Twittering...what a crazy black hole (see Twitter icon on right to follow *another unabashed self promotion*).

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). - wikipedia

It's a necessary evil in this whole new world of business and social networking. It is truly an amazing way to garner information and spit it back out, but it takes some time to get used to. I'm slowly beginning to use it to my advantage and hope that I'm not annoying anyone to much in the meantime.

Pros:

1) Cyber cube mates: for the person who works from their own home (moi), it's like having an office full of people to run ideas by, share water cooler jokes, and simply annoy. It makes your day less lonely.

2) Gets business information and news out fast (sales, questions/answers, hot topics, etc.).

3) Very easy to use.

Cons:

1) It becomes hard to manage once you begin to "follow" a lot of people. Imagine close to 200 people constantly asking you questions or simply chattering around you.

2) It is highly annoying when people only promote themselves. I've begun to "unfollow" people whose tweets are irrelevant to me.

3) It is a time sucker, as is all social networking.

Solutions:

1) Tweetdeck - a managing tool for Facebook, Twitter, and more. It never ends, people. Each week I'm signing up for something new to manage something old. Argh! But, I only stick with what works. After some research, I signed up for Tweetdeck and love it. It allows me to manage my FB and Twitter in a way that saves me both time and aggravation. I highly recommend it if you want some sanity back in your cyber life.

2) Step away from the computer - okay, this one I'm still working on. But, I'm going to have to start to really enforce some time management when it comes to the computer. I'm spending more time on it and less time designing and making my product.

On a personal note, my husband is approaching his 6th year of his medical residency. This year, he will take chief call whenever the 7th year resident (chief) is off. This week was his first in doing so and a new experience for us all.

In the past 5 years, C was "on call" every 3rd or 4th night in the hospital, which means he spent the night there. He'd go in at 6AM and not come home until mid morning the next day. It took some time to get used to but eventually we did, for the most part.

This year, he will be "on call" less and will be on "chief call" when needed. Chief call allows him to be at home with us but he has to pick up the phone whenever needed and possibly go into the hospital in an emergency. So, while he may be "around" he is still not completely with us. He slept with his pager attached to his shirt each night and would get calls at 3AM, 4AM, etc. I'm hoping I'll get used to this so we can still share our bed.

The life of a resident is one of indentured servitude. The boys and I have gotten used to not having a consistent schedule with C. Our meals and weekends are often alone. If we are invited to a BBQ, he is often not with us. Friends have to plan at least a month in advance if they want to see us as a couple or family. And did I mention the lack of pay?! However, the light that was once a pinhole at the end of the tunnel, is now the size of a quarter. We have 2 more years of 100% no control. It will then go to ~60% no control.

It isn't as seen on TV. When C started his path into medicine, some 12 years ago, we used to watch ER. Soon after Cook County Hospital was blown up for the 4th time on the show, we stopped. BTW, we lived in Chicago at the time. It was too hard to sit through a show with him constantly picking the details apart. We don't watch Greyss Anatomy either. For obvious reasons, I don't enjoy watching residents having affairs with each other and everyone around them. Reality is, residency is long and hard. The family takes a beating as does the resident. In C's specialty, he sees death every day. Whenever I have a "bad" day, I think about his day. I don't know how he does it but I'm grateful for his patients that he does. He's a good doctor.

Yesterday, after a really hard day and long day (he was in the OR and on his feet from 8AM to 7PM with only one break between cases), he told me that coming home to my smiling face was the best part of his day. That was one of the nicest things I've ever heard. I need to work much harder to have a smile on my face for him each night.