First Saturday in May

No Derby for me this year; I declined an invitation to drink at Churchill and stayed in. I wasn't in the mood to be at the track if the weather decided to stay crappy, but the sun is now out and it's a pretty day. Oh well. My liver still thanks me. And in theory, if I open my psychiatry book at all today, my brain will thank me as well.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about this time of year. Two years ago, Eric and Duc ran the Derby marathon, and Duc and Joel and Marjorie all came for a week of Derby madness. One year ago, Eric and I got out of town for Derby for a family wedding and Karen's baby shower. I was studying for boards like mad. Paula got married. A month from now, we went to Alaska.

It's a nice time of year, because the flowers are blooming, the weather is nice, and the whole city gets ready for Derby. On Thursday it took me over 20 minutes to drive the 5 blocks from the hospital to home, because Broadway was already a zoo in preparation for the Pegasus Parade. But it was nice to see everyone out and about.

Here's a funny thing about this city and Derby: Derby becomes like a holiday of sorts. "Have a Happy Derby," all my patients have said to me at the end of their appointments this week. I never really thought of it as a greeting before. It does do great things for the local economy, though. One patient I had this week works at the largest limo company in the city, and he said all 400 limos had been rented out for the weekend, at a rate of about $4,000 each for the whole weekend. And there's another huge limo company in the city on top of that one. Restaurants have been booked up for months, and all the chi-chi boutiques get plenty of business from the celebrities who come in.

One year from now, I'll probably be going to Derby, since I won't have ANY studying to do. I'll be a lazy fourth-year med student who knows where she's going for residency, and it will be the start of graduation week festivities and one week before graduation and my graduation speech (yikes). And three weeks before the wedding. Geez, time flies by.

On the one hand, it feels like the next seven weeks, the last of third year, are going to take FOREVER to pass by. On the other hand, there are all these wedding things that preoccupy my mind as though they need to get done NOW, as though there isn't still a whole year until the wedding.

One weird realization: I have four weeks to get this apartment cleaned up and ready for two strangers to move in. I have to streamline the office and pack up some of my clothes so my new roommates have places to put things. And while I'm at it, it just makes sense to pack some of those things up (books, random stuff) for good, because in "just a year" we'll be moving anyway. Kind of weird to think about.

Happy Derby!