Saturday, December 3, 2011

Thanks-GIV-ing!

(The title is a poor written form of how I hear Adam Sandler sing "Thanksgiving" at the end of his turkey song. I have a thing for male singers who sound as if their voices are about to crack- I always whisper a silent prayer, "Oh, please don't let them crack." Ok, I don't REALLY pray. But I do stress.)

Anyway! Thanksgiving was great! Mechen came down on Wednesday night and even though his flight was super-delayed, at least I knew which airport to go to this time. I picked him up, made him wait outside on the deck while I lit 38(!) candles on his homemade cake and then I let him in while singing "Happy Birthday!" It was his birthday the day prior and I didn't really have it together to send him a card so since he was visiting a day later, we had his birthday party then. I made him a homemade German chocolate cake (delish!) and bought him a bottle of D&G The One cologne. Mmmmm, it smells incredible. And, yes, I know it's in part a gift to myself but he loves it too!

The next day, we slept until 2. Sagoy! I was SO TIRED from work and we hadn't gotten back from the airport until 1 so I can definitely believe it but I haven't slept in like that since college. I hopped out of bed, put the turkey in the oven (prepped the day before) and then, once human after coffee, we started making our Thanksgiving sides. From smitten kitchen.com, we made a delicious cranberry sauce. Thebittenword.com provided our stuffing recipe (amazing!), green bean casserole (burned the milk and spoiled the dish although Mechen gallantly ate some) and gravy. The mashed potatoes we winged and then the sweet potatoes were loosely based on a foodandwine.com recipe + what I could remember from my Mom's recipe. It was a feast! The stuffing I really loved because there were little bits of greens from kale and surprise moist bites from stewed plums (read: prunes) that gave great texture and way less gross to think about than canned oysters. We ate, ate and ate. We also watched the Cowboys game, which was very exciting.

The next day, we slept in again but actually made it out and went to Benjy's for Happy Hour and a light round of appetizers. We took it easy b/c I was on call Saturday (boo), but overall, it wasn't TOO bad of a call day although busier than I wanted. Finally, we went back to Benjy's for brunch on Sunday where I had the most amazing shrimp and grits dish ever, even better than Urban Solace in SD.

We also finished the entire first season of Downton Abbey over the weekend. It was amazing and completely absorbing. I HIGHLY recommend it, even if an early 1900s English period piece doesn't seem to be your gut instinct for great viewing. And Maggie Smith's character and line delivery was tart and clever.

This past week was back to reality in a big way since I got the gift of lots and lots of clinic. I didn't write any notes b/c my presentation was on Tuesday so I was preparing for that. I spoke a little too quickly and probably could have fleshed it out a little more on the sentinel lymph node biopsy (I was told not to though since it's been covered in the past). But it was well-received and, most importantly, it's OVER!!!

This weekend, I have Friday/Sunday call. Today was spent recovering from the constant paging that marked my night and I'm about to do laundry. I did go for a run, although slower than my normal pace. My legs felt a bit heavy. Tomorrow, I'll go for a run before my shift start and then head into work for some mega-note writing. *Sigh* Hopefully next week will be a lot less clinic. Next weekend, I'm going to check out the Menil Collection, King Tut exhibit and go to the Nutcracker with Jen!

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