Roses and pot pie

Check out what I scored at Kroger on Monday:

Valentine's Day leftovers for 75% off! First I saw the "Valentine's Day"-specific rose bouquets, and was going to buy 3 roses with some filler for $3.25 (originally $12.99), but then I saw, over by the regular flower display area, that ALL the roses were 75% off, so I got these beautiful terracotta-colored ones for $3.75 for a DOZEN, no filler (originally $14.99). Sweet!

They were kind of cruddy looking, but that's where working at a florist in college comes in handy. With some love, some lukewarm water, sharp scissors, and some floralife, they perked up immediately, and bloomed beautifully. The fact that they were already "past their prime" when I brought them home was OK, because they're all maximally open right now, and I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a long weekend, so I was able to enjoy them to their fullest potential.

And then, check out what I made on my (unexpected) day off yesterday:

Chicken pot pie, inspired by this Real Simple recipe:


The only thing that could have made it better (other than a little more salt; I didn't season it enough) would have been a cute casserole dish like the one in the magazine. I need more pretty baking dishes. NEED. On Sunday when I was cleaning out the refrigerator, I salvaged some almost-bad chicken breasts by poaching them in water, then stuck the cooked chicken back in the fridge (I intended to cook this recipe on Monday after I got the pie crusts, but things got put off...). I wasn't able to salvage the already-bad chicken thighs, so those got tossed. I hate wasting money like that.

Here are some action shots for you:
First step: Sauteeing the mirepoix (the celery was my addition, since I had some; but why would you write a recipe with just onions and carrots and not make it the full mirepoix?).


Last step: Eating! It's a store-bought frozen pie crust (the package came with two and I used them both) and I also added frozen peas, as per the recipe. We discussed pot pie today at work and decided potatoes would also be good in it (although I hardly ever buy white potatoes any more; what do you think of sweet potatoes in a pot pie?). If you added bell peppers you'd have a mirepoix AND a trinity!

As I was cooking it, I realized I was making a "lite" version of a regular white sauce, and I was annoyed I hadn't read the instructions a little more closely before starting to figure out what their method was. No butter?! Give me a break. I have to admit, though, that the pot pie was very good, aside from my too-little-salt error, and WAS very rich-tasting. And then I looked back at the recipe and saw the butter omission was on purpose. They meant for it to be a "lite" pot pie. Oh well. At least now I know that I know the method of making a pot pie sauce the right way -- BUTTER and flour, then some wine and stock and milk :)

Now I have a confession: A mere 24 hours later, that entire 9x13 pan of chicken pot pie is gone. I had it for lunch yesterday immediately after it was cooked, as a snack a little while later because it smelled so good and I'm a pig, for dinner last night while watching Lost (OMG, what happened to Aaron?!?), for lunch today, AND for dinner tonight. If I weren't leaving for 5 days tomorrow morning I might have let it last longer, but really, it was THAT GOOD and I didn't at all mind eating it so many meals in a row. I already said I was a pig, so we're covered there.

And with that, I'm off to Snowmass, for one final year of skiing -- I mean, learning how to be a better student leader. My goal: black diamonds without shaking in my boots! And since I'm a lazy fourth-year medical student with growing senioritis, I hope I DO get snowed in on Tuesday morning and have to stay an extra day... or two!

Done with interviews! Part 3

If you've actually read parts 1 and 2 of this series, congratulations; you're more of a glutton for punishment than I would have thought. But never fear, we're almost to the end!

Date: January 7, 2009
Program: Temple
Social Event: Happy hour at Penang, a Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown. When I was younger and we lived in Princeton, we would go to Edison, NJ, to the original Penang. It's a great restaurant, and I've never been to the Philly one, which opened about 5 or so years ago. But wait! Some quick Googling just now turned up the fact that they are different restaurants, but with very similar logos. This is the one I used to go to in Edison, which also has a location in Princeton and Bethesda. And this is the one in Philly. Regardless, what I actually need to tell you is that I didn't make it to the dinner, because the bad weather in Philly prevented my flight from leaving Chicago on time. I was actually pretty happy, as you might remember, although I was sad to miss out on the Malaysian food.
Breakfast: More pastries, including muffins and donuts.
Lunch: Wraps, potato chips, soda, and delicious brownies. This lunch was notable for the fact that as I was surveying the wraps, the vegetarian one all of a sudden looked extremely delicious, and I chose it. This is notable because, although I love vegetables, I am first and foremost a meat eater, and I always always always reach for meat when I'm out of the house. In the case of sandwiches, I first lean to roast beef, then to turkey. But this time, those grilled zucchini were calling my name, and they were really good. Afterward, I had a turkey wrap to top it off.
Where I stayed: Marjorie's apartment, for the last time of the season. She and her roommate were both gone.
How I got there: Southwest to Philly. I haven't flown Southwest to Philly too much, because from Louisville you have to stop in Chicago (whereas US Air and Continental both go nonstop from Louisville to Philly); I usually save Southwest for flying nonstop to BWI from Louisville. However, this time it was cheaper, and I decided I didn't care that it was going to take me an entire day to get from one city to the next, and it ended up working out for me, since I got stuck in Chicago and missed the social event.
Other notable events: I ran into Matthew, from the Drexel and Sinai interviews, again, and he gave me a ride back to Marjorie's apartment at the end of the day so I wouldn't have to ride the subway and walk in the rain; also, we discovered that we would be interviewing at GW together in two days! I had dinner with Duc at St. Stephen's Green and I had a really good chicken quesadilla that had great spicy poblano peppers in them. That night was notable because I had nothing to do -- no social events or pre-interview dinners -- and got to watch Top Chef and relax. At the end of the night, I got ready to take a shower, and a series of events unfolded that involved my legs suddenly breaking out in crazy hives. I popped some Benadryl, hopped quickly into the shower, and started freaking out because the hives were spreading up and down my legs (but not anywhere else on my body). I couldn't figure out what had caused it, but dug around Marjorie's medicine closet for some Benadryl cream, went to bed still slightly itchy, and woke up totally normal. The pattern made it seem like it was a contact dermatitis, but the only thing that had contacted my legs were my pantyhose from earlier in the day and my jeans, which I had been wearing for hours already by the time the rash started. Two days later, when rehashing it all to Eric yet again, it finally hit me: When I was getting ready to take the shower, I took off my jeans, then started absentmindedly scratching my legs while gathering up my toiletries from around the apartment. I still had poblano residue under my fingernails, so in the five minutes I was scratching, I deposited all that pepper oil onto my skin. The funny thing was, when I finally figured it out, I suddenly flashed back to a memory of me sniffing my fingers before taking a shower, and thinking that they still smelled (in a good way) of quesadilla. So there's a lesson for you: wash your hands before you scratch anything, and always after eating spicy peppers.
Cost of interview: $189, for the flight to Philly, WiFi in Midway Airport (hey, I was bored), and a couple of cab rides.

Date: January 9, 2009
Program: George Washington
Social Event: TGI Friday's by GW. Potato skins, crudite, and wings -- the usual. Of note, the program director was at the social, and was very social! I don't think that happened at any other interview dinner.
Breakfast: I grabbed breakfast from the hotel (banana, yogurt, coffee), and grabbed a croissant from the platter of pastries at the interview. Later in the morning, while we were waiting around for our actual interviews, there was another spread put out, including cheese (which I sat right next to), crackers, brownies, cookies, and more crudite. I ate more cheese that morning than I have in a while. But how could I resist -- they had babybels and laughing cow cheese in addition to the usual cheddar and swiss.
Lunch: They bussed us out to INOVA Fairfax hospital, where the residents do a significant number of rotations, and fed us lunch there. Lunch was weird: salad (fine), some sort of mystery meat that looked like stir-fried beef, but nothing else that resembled Chinese food, like rice; then there were some roasted potatoes. It was an odd combo. However, they did have fruit salad and really good cheesecake. On the downside, though: diet sodas only. Seriously, what is up with offering only diet sodas!?!!?? Are you assuming that's the only thing people drink (obviously not true)? Or are you insinuating that I should be drinking it (in which case, I take offense and get huffy!)? I hate hate hate diet soda. Yes, I fully realize that regular soda is full of empty calories, but I don't drink a lot of it, I only drink Coke for the caffeine, and I make up for it by limiting my calories in other ways (not that I've given you any evidence of this...). So that's my gripe about programs that only serve diet soda. Given how good breakfast and the snacks were, it was disappointing that lunch was so bad.
Where I stayed: Residence Inn on Vermont Avenue, just north of the White House. Driving around DC made me remember how much I love DC. Yeah, Philly's nice, but I really really love DC. Sigh. The Residence Inn was nice, although they only had wired, not wireless internet, but they did provide ethernet cords, thank goodness. The bed was really comfortable, but the towels were thin, scratchy, and small. There were tons of choices for breakfast, but I was rushing out and could only grab a banana and yogurt. Of course, the whole point of the Residence Inn is that it's for extended stay guests, so there's a kitchen and all that in the room, but I didn't need any of that. I got a good price for it on Priceline, though!
How I got there: Rented a car from Philly, and drove back to NJ for the night after the interview was over.
Other notable events: This interview was memorable because I didn't know I was going to have it until the last minute. I was supposed to interview at Abington on this day, and for a variety of reasons, I really didn't want to go, but was forcing myself to. GW was the only program I had heard nothing from (at least Hopkins and Pitt were nice enough to let me know I was rejected), and I assumed they were just too rude to inform me of my status. However, two days before Christmas, I got an email from GW inviting me for an interview on January 9! I accepted without hesitation and in the next breath sent an email to Abington to cancel. It was good, because I still had my crappy Temple interview to go to, but I was re-energized for January. (And don't worry, I wrote on my anoymous feedback form that they should tell people who are on the wait list that they are on the wait list so they don't wonder.) At the interview I saw Matthew again, as I knew I would. Saw another girl from Penn State who I had met before at Christiana. Saw another girl from Wayne State who I had met before at Christiana. And saw another girl from a Carribean med school who I had met before at Einstein. And so ended my six degrees of Kevin Bacon interview season experiment. I interviewed with Matthew 4 times, which was the most of anyone. I interviewed with Beth from Jefferson three weeks in a row, which was a lot of fun. I interviewed with Lisa from Penn State three times as well, and with a bunch of people twice. And a lot of people were concentrating in the same area as I did -- a lot of east coasters, and a lot of Philly and DC people. I didn't interview in NY at all, or I would have intersected with another whole set of applicants, I'm sure. I'm really sure I'm going to end up with co-interns who I met on the interview trail, and I'm excited to see who they turn out to be! Everyone I met was, for the most part, really nice and cool and smart. There was only one person I can identify who I would dread working with -- he goes to Johns Hopkins and I ran into him at both Maryland and Pennsy. He's an ass, for sure, but he's the only bad apple I met all season.
Cost of interview: $292, for a rental car to DC, Pricelining the Residence Inn on Vermont Avenue for $80, and the flight back to Louisville.


So there you have it. Ob/Gyn interview season 2008-2009, completed. I can't share my favorites with you yet, because it would be really embarrassing if I didn't match at any of them, but I hope you've enjoyed reading what I can share with you at this point. I'm the first person I know (who's not doing the military match, at least, which already had its match) to be done with interviews -- as of Friday, most people had 1 or 2 more to go. On the down side, I started in mid-October, whereas most people start in mid-November. On the up side, I am now DONE, whereas internal medicine goes well through the rest of January, and ER goes through February.

Now I just need to make my rank list, reconcile it with Eric's rank list, and submit at the end of February. Pretty soon I'll go over the rank algorithm with you -- it's pretty interesting, and mind-boggling to think of a computer running through the algorithm for every residency applicant in the country! For now, it's relaxation time and working -- but not too hard -- on internal medicine.

Done with interviews! Part 2

When we left off, I had completed seven interviews in six weeks. December was going to be much more busy, though.

Date: December 5, 2008
Program: Christiana, Delaware
Social event: The dinner was at the Washington Street Ale House in Wilmington, with a full open bar and great food, including sushi and good hummus. We ate a LOT at this interview dinner, and drank a lot, too.
Breakfast: I grabbed breakfast from the hotel before the interview
Lunch: I don’t really remember lunch too much in detail, other than the fact that there was a lot of food, a crudite platter, a gorgeous fruit display (I ate a lot of strawberries and pineapple), and TONS of desserts. There was a platter of dessert pastries, including cream puffs, of which I had at least two, and there was cherry cheesecake. There was only one guy on our interview, and he claimed he couldn’t eat any cheesecake because he was worried about his figure. And yes, he used the term “figure.” In response, about 5 of us girls goaded him into eating cheesecake and made fun of him for being a sissy. It was an odd role reversal for sure.
Where I stayed: Christiana was notable for being the only program that paid for my hotel room. (Actually, one other program offered to pay, but I ended up canceling that interview.) Eric picked me up from the Philadelphia airport, and we checked into the Fairfield Inn in Newark, Del. After we checked in, we got a call from the front desk – someone had dropped off a welcome package for us! It was like we were attending a wedding. The package was all the information about the program, as well as some candy, which Eric enjoyed.
How I got there: Southwest to Philly; then rented a car to get from Philly to Baltimore for the Sinai interview
Other notable events: Christiana was another interview where spouses and significant others were invited to the social event. After this interview, I decided it would be nice to go to a program that had a lot of money. (That second sentence is unrelated to the first.)
Cost of interview: $358 combined for this interview, Drexel, and Sinai, including plane tickets, car rental, and a couple cab rides

Date: December 6, 2008
Program: Drexel
Social Event: Dinner at a resident’s apartment. The food was barbecue sandwiches and fried macaroni and cheese. Even though those are totally southern things, I totally associate them with Philly, because I used to eat at a really good barbecue place in Manayunk and gorge myself on fried mac-and-cheese when I lived in Philly.
Breakfast: A full assortment of not only pastries, but also bagels, fruit salad, and food-truck-style breakfast sandwiches. Yum.
Lunch: None; the interview was over by lunchtime.
Where I stayed: At Marjorie’s apartment.
How I got there: Eric dropped me off in Philly the day before, after the Christiana interview.
Other notable events: I saw Lisa from Penn State (and the Jersey Shore interview) again, and met Matthew. I also met a Muslim guy from Elizabethtown, KY -- this was weird, because no one is from E-town, and because we tried to play the "who do we know in common in Louisville game" and it failed. Drexel's program is known for having a lot of male residents, and as a result, they get a lot of male applicants; there were more guys at this interview than I think at any other interview I went to.
Cost of interview: $358, combined with the Christiana and Sinai interviews.

Date: December 7, 2008
Program: Sinai, Baltimore
Social Event: Happy Hour at the Mount Washington Tavern in Baltimore. Crudite, wings, and some unmemorable hors d’oeuvres served during dinner time. But good wine and hard liquor were available!
Breakfast: Bagels and pastries.
Lunch: Sandwiches, chips, fruit salad, and cookies.
Where I stayed: With Paula again.
How I got there: Rented a car and drove down from Philly. I flew back to Louisville out of BWI on Southwest. I think it was this trip that earned me the last of the credits I needed for a Rapid Rewards roundtrip, which I’m using for our Napa honeymoon in May. At least one good thing came of all these interviews!
Other notable events: Only two residents showed up to the social event. It snowed as I got to Baltimore, the first snow I had seen this winter. I unexpectedly saw Jonah at the interview – he rotated at Penn this summer when I was there, and he and I have similar stories, in which our significant other is already in the Philly area and we are trying to join them. I had no idea I was going to see him at this interview, and once we got sick of the social event, we left the private room and went to the bar to get a real dinner and discuss our interview experiences. Of note, he relayed a story that Temple girl #2 had told him when he had met her at another program – I find it endlessly fascinating how you run into the same people on the interview trail! I also unexpectedly saw my friend Osman at this interview. Osman goes to UofL with me, and I had no idea we had both applied to this program, let alone chosen the same interview date! It was really nice to see him, because I hadn’t seen him in months. Finally, both Matthew and the Muslim guy from Drexel were at this interview as well, and in the final play of "six degrees of Kevin Bacon," it turns out that Osman knew the Muslim guy from Elizabethtown. (I need to note, so that I don't come off as completely racist, that I only mention that the E-town guy was Muslim because Osman is, too, and there is a running joke in Louisville that all "brown people" know each other, since the community is so small. The funny thing was, it was true this time!) This interview was held on a Sunday, which was kind of nice for scheduling, but also pretty rare. After the interview, my mom and sister met me and we had dinner together. My mom had just gotten back from Belgium, where she and my dad live, and I hadn’t seen her since March, so the timing was great. Also, right before this round of interviews, I got a notice saying my wedding dress had been delivered to my apartment, and I wasn’t there, so I was pretty anxious to get home and see it.
Cost of interview: $358, combined with the Christiana and Sinai interviews.

Date: December 13, 2008
Program: University of Pennsylvania
Social Event: None
Breakfast: More pastries.
Lunch: A waiter-served banquet lunch at the Inn at Penn – fancy schmancy! We had a mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette that was the consistency of dense mousse instead of the consistency of a vinaigrette, and then a chicken breast of some sort with roasted potatoes and sautéed veggies.
Where I stayed: At Eric’s mom’s house in Exton. I arrived in Exton a little before dinner time, helped clean out the basement some, and we ordered Rocco’s pizza again. We eventually found the 1949 version of Little Women, with Elizabeth Taylor, on TV, and I was completely entranced. I need to rent that some time to finish watching it.
How I got there: I drove to Pennsylvania from Louisville since I was now on winter break and would be driving between PA, NJ, and MD over the next three weeks and wanted to have my car with me. It snowed through Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. I brought Moxie and Mojo with me, and they eventually made their way to Eric's apartment in NJ, where they are now and where they will stay until we find a new place to live this summer.
Other notable events: I can’t really think of any…
Cost of interview: $49, for a Red Roof Inn in St. Clairsville, OH (near Wheeling, WV) where I stayed as I drove east. I hate making the drive between Louisville and the east coast by myself, and if I'm doing it myself, I try to break it up over a night. Red Roof Inn is my new favorite on-the-road motel chain, because they accept pets for no additional fee, and the newly renovated ones have very comfortable beds, large towels, and great shower water pressure. I highly recommend them for your next budget motel stay.

Date: December 17, 2008
Program: Lankenau, Pennsylvania
Social Event: A real, sit-down dinner at Yang Ming, a Chinese restaurant in Bryn Mawr. The restaurant claims to be both authentic Chinese and fusion Chinese, but I found it to be not very good of either. Nevertheless, the food was pretty good, and it was completely free. We ordered appetizers, soup, entrees, and dessert -- the only thing that wasn't covered was alcohol, but that was OK because the dinner was so generous, and I didn't want a cocktail anyway.
Breakfast: We sat through grand rounds before breakfast was served, but luckily I had coffee with me. Breakfast was bagels and pastries, the usual. I think there was fruit salad, too.
Lunch: Pasta and chicken and hot roast beef that was meant for making sandwiches with but that I ate as an entree. There was a salad that had cheese on it and one of the residents asked if I would mind identifying it as either goat or feta for her. It was goat. She apparently doesn't eat feta. Oh yeah, there were also really good rolls (I eat hardly any bread usually, but when there are good rolls at a restaurant I tend to go nuts) and chocolate-covered pretzels and cookies for dessert.
Where I stayed: At Marjorie's apartment.
How I got there: Drove from Eric's place in NJ.
Other notable events: I saw a girl who I had met at Einstein, way back on October 31. I gave her a ride to 30th Street Station after the interview, and she took my email address. I hope she emails me; she was really fun.
Cost of interview: $0

Date: December 18, 2008
Program: Thomas Jefferson
Social Event: Happy Hour at Dr. Watson's Pub, near Jefferson. It was really crowded, and at first I had a little bit of trouble figuring out who was a resident and who was an applicant, but it was OK. The only food was a crudite platter and a dish of buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks. The mozzarella sticks ran out quickly, and it's hard to eat wings while standing up and trying to hold a cocktail plate, so I mostly stayed hungry while I tried to socialize, while not drinking too much beer. A full 30 minutes before the scheduled end of the event, the people from the bar told us we needed to clear out for five minutes so they could set up for the live band that was coming in next. Instead of waiting, Ananda, who I had met at Washington Hospital Center, and I left and grabbed a slice of pizza in the gayborhood. (By the way, I just want to say that I think it's awesome that GoPhila.com has totally embraced the term "gayborhood.")
Breakfast: You know, bagles and pastries.
Lunch: Wraps and diet-only sodas. Grr.
Where I stayed: At Marjorie's apartment.
How I got there: SEPTA to Center City, then walked a few blocks to the hospital.
Other notable events: Jefferson did not validate our parking, and does not give free parking to its residents. Saw the aforementioned Ananda, from the Washington Hospital Center interview; saw Welles, who I met at UofL and who goes to Jefferson; saw a girl from Cincinnatti who I met at UofL; saw two girls from VCU, one of whom I had met at Maryland, and one of whom I had met at Christiana. The program gave us a Big Bus Tour of Philly after the interview, which was quite enjoyable. Granted, I've done that exact tour before, but I had nothing better to do for the afternoon, and it was fun to see all the historic stuff again. After the tour, I dropped off our Save the Dates at the post office!
Cost of interview: A couple bucks for SEPTA tokens and a few bucks for a pay lot downtown for the happy hour.

Date: December 19, 2008
Program: Pennsylvania Hospital
Social Event: Dinner at the hospital the night before the interview. More Italian food -- lasagna and eggplant parm and salad. Beer and wine and soda and water.
Breakfast: Pastries and yogurt.
Lunch: Hot food. I don't remember what the entree was, but I know I had rice and steamed veggies and the food was good.
Where I stayed: With Marjorie again.
How I got there: Since Pennsy validated my parking and the hospital is a little farther south of Market than Jefferson, making traveling by SEPTA just the tiniest bit more annoying, I drove to the interview.
Other notable events: A bunch of people from the Jefferson interview the day before were at Pennsy, including Welles, the guy from Jefferson, and the girl from VCU who I had met at UMD. Lisa, the girl from Penn State, was there, and so was my friend Jonah, unexpectedly. The hospital is cool because it is the "Nation's First Hospital," with the first surgical ampitheater, the first Ob/Gyn residency program, was home to the nation's first intern, and has the oldest medical library in the country. It has a wall containing plaques of the names of every intern who has ever trained there. For history dorks like me, it was a really fun tour. The evening of this interview, Marjorie and I drove up to Princeton to have dinner with our friend Chris from high school, and the next day we met up with our friend Karen, and the three of us went bridesmaid dress shopping, which was a huge success - both Marjorie and Karen found dresses!
Cost of interview: $0

That concluded the second part of my interview season: 7 interviews in 3 weeks, including two sets of three-in-a-row. EXHAUSTING. It was over these weeks that I complained to Eric the most about how tired I was of interviewing, and how much I couldn't stand the thought of doing two more interviews in January. I talked to numerous people about how much I didn't want to keep my January interviews and wondered if it would be legit to cancel them (it wasn't; they were legit from a geographic standpoint, and it would have been really unfair to Eric to cancel them just because I didn't want to go anymore).

Done with interviews!

I can’t believe it – I’m done with interviews! It is a huge relief and feels wonderful. I’ll share with you my synopsis of the last 3 months, leaving the information about the actual programs out, just so I don’t play all my cards yet. What I can share, however, is what the interview days were like from a mostly food perspective. That’s the most important part after all, right?

Date: October 16, 2008
Program: Jersey Shore Medical Center
Social event: None
Breakfast: A platter of pastries and plenty of coffee and tea
Lunch: Subs and Snapple – the subs were notable for being delicious, Jersey-Italian-style subs, with tons of oregano, oil and vinegar and thinly sliced deli meats. Often imitated (especially by the Penn Station Subs chains in Louisville), but nothing beats an authentic one. I also remember eating a really delicious brownie.
Where I stayed: With Eric in Ocean City, NJ
How I got there: US Air to Philly, rental car
Other notable events: I forgot to bring my EZ Pass on this trip, and was using a rental car, so I had to grab a handful of change from the Ocean City house in order to navigate the Garden State Parkway. It was here that I met Lisa, who goes to Penn State.
Cost of interview: $349, including $75 to rent a car from Cincinnati to Louisville because I misread my flight confirmation, missed my flight from Philadelphia back to Louisville, and flew standby to Cincy instead. Stupid mistake.
*Note: the reported cost of these interviews does not include eating during the trip, since I didn’t feel like keeping receipts from all the random airport places I got food from. It also, for the most part, doesn’t include SEPTA (Philly) or Metro (DC) tickets, and doesn’t include tolls.

Date: October 23, 2008
Program: Washington Hospital Center
Social event: I missed the pre-interview dinner because my sister, who was picking me up from BWI, and I completely missed each other at the airport. She was waiting inside at baggage claim, and I walked out to the sidewalk. She left her phone in her car, and I called her for 45 minutes straight frantically, wondering why she wasn’t answering. By the time she realized she didn’t have her phone, went back to the car and got it, found me, and we reached DC, I had missed the entire dinner. I was worried because it was the first one I had had, I had been told how important they were from my point of view, and how important they might be from the program’s point of view, but it all turned out OK.
Breakfast: Breakfast the next morning was bagels and fruit and coffee and juice.
Lunch: Lunch was amazing – salad, baked chicken breasts, roasted potatoes, and some amazing desserts. I definitely stuffed myself that day.
Where I stayed: I stayed with my sister in her College Park house for this interview, and slept on a couch in the basement curled hesitantly on a college house basement couch amid fears of spickets (officially called camel crickets, but we call them spider+cricket=spickets in our house) jumping on me in the middle of the night.
How I got there: Southwest to BWI; Metro from College Park to the hospital
Other notable events: After the interview, I took the metro back to College Park and realized, after taking Shuttle UM to the campus, that I had left my cell phone on the metro. It was an adventure getting it back, but miraculously, I got it back! At this interview I met Gayatri, who goes to Temple, and Ananda, who goes to University of Vermont.
Cost of interview: $213 plus minor cost of Metro card

Date: October 31, 2008
Program: Albert Einstein, Philadelphia
Social event: None
Breakfast: Breakfast was unmemorable, but probably coffee and pastries again.
Lunch: Lunch was pretty unremarkable as well – some sort of sandwiches, I presume. I remember eating something that I thought was prepared weirdly or badly… like chicken salad that needed seasoning or something like that.
Where I stayed: At my friend Marjorie’s apartment in Philadelphia. She gave me a copy of her key on long-term loan since I would be staying at her place so often over the ensuing months.
How I got there: Continental to Philly
Other notable events: I was in Philly on the day of the World Series parade, but unfortunately couldn’t really attend – as soon as I was done with the interview, it was time to make my way to the airport, and in all of the parade madness, I almost didn’t make it. At Einstein I met Beth, from Thomas Jefferson, and we discovered that we would be interviewing at Cooper together the following week.
Cost of interview: $235

Date: November 6, 2008
Program: University of Louisville
Social event: The interview dinner was held that night, for both my group and the next day’s group. Dinner was pasta catered from somewhere local, bottles of wine, and a cooler of beer and sodas held at a resident’s house. It was a fun event and a nice, casual vibe. Spouses and significant others were expressly invited, but since Eric was in NJ, he didn’t come.
Breakfast: None; this was an afternoon interview, starting at 11:30 am.
Lunch: Lunch was sandwiches, a large bowl of kettle-cooked chips, and cookies. The sodas were all of the diet variety, and the iced tea was Nestea, which I don’t like, so I had bottled water. I hate diet soda. Also of note, the lunch was sponsored by a local bank, and it was made very clear that the lunch was sponsored, which I found odd. Can’t the department afford to pay for lunch for its interviewees?
Where I stayed: My own apartment
How I got there: Walked.
Other notable events: Along those financial lines, parking for the day was not reimbursed, not that it mattered to me personally, since I just walked to school like I normally do. But still, I found it really annoying, and thought it was a poor reflection of the financial stability of the department. At this interview I met Welles, who also goes to Jefferson and knows Beth.
Cost of interview: $0

Date: November 7, 2008
Program: UMDNJ – Cooper University Hospital, Camden
Social event: The social event was held that same evening at Bahama Breeze at the Cherry Hill Mall. Eric joined us for the social (again, spouses and significant others had been specifically invited), where everyone got two drink tickets for beer or wine, and the servers brought out tons of orders of appetizers, including quesadillas, jerk chicken wings, coconut shrimp, flatbread pizzas, and spinach dip.
Breakfast: This was another afternoon interview.
Lunch: Lunch was lasagna, a chicken-and-broccoli pasta dish, and buffalo wings (a weird addition) with garlic breadsticks and salad. Notably, the plates were paper, which meant all the pasta sauce leaked through onto the tables, and there weren’t enough serving utensils for the food. Also, it’s difficult to eat buffalo wings neatly while wearing an interview suit.
Where I stayed: Early the morning of Nov. 7 I flew Continental to Philadelphia, was picked up at the airport by Eric, and we drove to the hotel I had Pricelined for the night before. He stayed at the hotel the night before just for fun since I had booked it, and I got there with just enough time before checkout to take a shower and get ready for the interview. At the last minute, we decided I would “accidentally miss” my flight that night and we would Priceline another hotel, which was a great decision.
How I got there: Continental to Philadelphia
Other notable events: The first hotel I Pricelined was a Hyatt Place, and it seemed pretty nice – the shower was good, anyway. The night of the interview, we Pricelined a Wingate by Wyndham, which was comparable to the Hyatt Place but with better toiletries. Of note, they provided robes in the bathroom, so we pretended we were in a luxury spa and wore robes all night. I had a little bit of trouble getting my flight rebooked for the next day, but in the end I did it without any fees. I saw my new friend Beth from Jefferson and Gayatri from Temple again, and met another girl who goes to Temple (we’ll refer to her as Temple #2 because I can’t remember her name). Gayatri and I ended up coordinating a switch of our Jefferson interviews in December, which worked out perfectly for both of us.
Cost of interview: $255

Date: November 14, 2008
Program: University of Maryland
Social event: Was held at Lucy’s Irish Pub in Baltimore. The pub food was pretty good, your standard wings, spinach dip, etc. In typical fashion, it was appetizers-only, even though it was in the middle of the dinner hour.
Breakfast: Breakfast the next morning was more pastries and coffee
Lunch: Lunch was sandwiches and cookies. I remember the desks we were eating at (old-school elementary school-type desks, where the desk portion swings up to let you get in and out of the chair) were slanted, so you couldn’t put your drink on the desk lest it slide toward you and spill. I also remember I stole an extra Coke for the road before leaving.
Where I stayed: For this interview, I stayed at my friend Paula’s house near Arundel Mills (she’s a resident at UMD), and we went out that night to celebrate her sister’s birthday with Chinese food and bowling.
How I got there: Southwest to BWI, rental car to the interview
Other notable events: This interview was on a Friday, and I flew into BWI on Thursday. On Wednesday I was on call on pediatric surgery and met a visiting fourth medical student from North Carolina who was rotating with the pediatric and adolescent gynecologist (which I’m going to do in February). We got to talking, and it turned out she was also interviewing at Maryland on Friday, and we were taking the same Southwest flight the next day! What a small world. We shared the experience of having our plane in Louisville develop mechanical problems, at which point the Southwest crew deplaned us and reboarded us on the next available plane extremely smoothly and easily. Have I mentioned yet that I love Southwest? At the pre-interview dinner, I saw Beth again unexpectedly – we interviewed together 3 Fridays in a row! I also saw Temple girl #2 at this interview.
Cost of interview: $364

Date: November 21, 2008
Program: UMDNJ – Robert Wood Johnson, New Brunswick
Social event: The pre-interview dinner was at an intern’s apartment, and they brought in lasagna and delicious gourmet pizza and Yellow Tail wine.
Breakfast: I had breakfast at the hotel (oatmeal, hardboiled egg, fresh orange juice, and coffee) just in case the interview breakfast wasn’t very good (I’m not a pastry person, really), and it was a good thing, because breakfast was scrambled eggs and pancakes. Definitely not what I want to be eating before an interview – the risk of ketchup and syrup getting all over me is just too big!
Lunch: Lunch was great – pasta, chicken, antipasta, and baked desserts. I definitely like north and central Jersey for the Italian-American cooking.
Where I stayed: I Pricelined a room at the Staybridge Suites, which is an extended-stay place, and it was really nice.
How I got there: US Air to Philly, rental car to New Brunswick
Other notable events: On the way back to Philly, I took a detour and picked up Hoagie Haven in Princeton. YUM. It’s been so long since I’ve had the pleasure of devouring a Hoagie Haven chicken parm, and they had avgolemono soup to boot. I met Eric and his mom in Exton and we ordered Rocco’s pizza and went to Quizzo in Phoenixville, where we got second place, which is a $50 gift certificate (we often get first place, which is $100 cash).
Cost of interview: $339

That was the first seven interviews, over the course of six weeks. One interview a week for six weeks (plus the extra thrown in on week 4) was very tiring. For my first interview, I was coming off of night float, and that was my first day back on a daytime schedule in a month, which made the interview pretty exhausting. For the rest of the interviews in October and November, I was on pediatric surgery and, in order to comply with my attendance requirements, would take call two days before an interview, stay up all night, then fly to the pre-interview event on my post-call day and try to sleep on the plane. It was quite exhausting. After Robert Wood Johnson, I got a week off for Thanksgiving, and Eric came to visit me in Louisville. After Thanksgiving, it started back up again, with even more intensity…

Stuck at Midway

So here I am, stuck at Midway with an estimated departure time of 5:45 pm, instead of 4:05 pm. But guess what -- I couldn't be happier! You see, I've spent the last couple of weeks dreading the interview I have tomorrow, for a variety of reasons, but unable to cancel it in good conscience. Yesterday, I was really about to cancel it, but I was worried about coming off as rude on the interview trail (the program coordinators talk to each other on a listserv!). On top of dreading the interview itself, it was going to be kind of a pain getting to the airport today, and getting to the pre-interview dinner tonight on time, so it was going to be an all-around annoying experience.

But when I woke up this morning and turned on my trusty Headline News, they warned me that flights in the mid-Atlantic region would probably be delayed today, so I was sort of expecting this. My flight out of Louisville was delayed about 30 minutes, also, which was good because it allowed me to leave the hospital once I was actually done for the day, and not have to cut out early, and it allowed me to grab something for lunch -- key! I napped the entire flight to Chicago, so now I'm refreshed and not cranky -- also key!

Now, I'm not getting to Philly until 9 pm, which is when the interview dinner will be ending, so I can get to my friend Marjorie's apartment without worrying about a time crunch and trying to still make it to the dinner. Sweet! I still have to interview tomorrow, but I'm not feeling so mentally exhausted and filled with dread about it.

Thursday I'm doing a second-look visit at my top choice program (no, I'm not going to tell you which one it is), and Friday is my last -- LAST!!!! -- interview. Even though I'm completely tired of interviewing, I don't mind the one on Friday, because it's at a really good program that I had given up on after not hearing from them all season. But over winter break, they emailed me and offered me a spot for Friday, and I took it. I must have been on some waiting list and a spot opened up.

So my interview season is almost over, and next comes a few weeks of anxiety before Match Day. But before that happens, it's time for My Traveling and Residency Interviewing Tips, which I have developed as I have become an expert traveler over the last 3 months.

My first interview was October 16, which was very early in the interview season, at a small community program in NJ. I have to give this disclaimer about my interviews: I had very little trustable guidance about programs in the mid-Atlantic region, simply because my advisors don't know those programs as well. And I wasn't sure what I was looking for in a program or what my plans for my future Ob/Gyn career might be (fellowship or not, academia or not). So I identified my geographical region of interest, and applied to every. single. program. in that area, for a total of 31. I was really convinced I wasn't going to get any interviews at good programs, so I scheduled all the interviews I was offered at these tiny community programs as early as possible. So starting October 16, I went on one interview a week for 6 weeks straight. In week 3, I interviewed two days in a row. And every single one of those interviews required a plane trip east. After a week off for Thanksgiving, I interviewed three days straight on Dec. 5, 6, and 7, had another on Dec. 13, and had my most recent three on Dec. 17, 18, and 19, for a total of 16 interviews. Whew! (In case you're wondering, I got 12 other interview offers and either declined them right away or canceled them later on, was rejected by 2 programs, and never heard from one random, weird program.) So here is the routine I developed:

Figure out how to pack everything in carry-ons only. First of all, if you're just flying into and out of town for an interview, you don't want to run the risk of your suit possibly getting lost. Second of all, have you seen the new checked baggage fees on non-Southwest flights?? So I bought a really nice carry-on sized rolling suitcase with a suiter compartment (we needed one anyway; our old luggage was falling apart), and I bought a really nice new suit (I needed one anyway), and started a little collection of travel-sized toiletries. I will say that it's key that I use Bare Minerals makeup, because if I had to pack liquid foundation, the whole process would have been a disaster -- I fill my one quart-sized zip-top bag to the very breaking point! Find non-liquid versions of other essential toiletries, too, like makeup remover wipes instead of a bottle of makeup remover. Need travel sizes of high-end styling products? Check your local salon or Sally's Beauty Supply, or if you're really really lucky and know someone with a cosmetology license (like I do), tag along when they go to a licensed-people-only salon supply store. If you need to, get a small empty container and fill it up from your full-sized product container. If you happen to use products from The Body Shop, go into your nearest store, act like you've never tried the product you love before, and ask for a sample to take home -- they'll gladly give you one.

Wear shoes that are easy to remove while traveling -- it really slows things down if you have to tie shoelaces at the security line. I wore a pair of ballet flats usually, and they were dressy enough to wear to dressy-casual pre-interview dinners.

Are you an overpacker like I am? Quit that bad habit right now. Bring shoes that are multi-functional and lightweight, like flats. I wore my ballet flats (did I mention they're purple?) and packed my interview heels, and that was it, for the most part. Sometimes, like today, I wore my Danskos, because they're better for yucky weather. Decide what you're going to wear ahead of time, and pack only that. There will be no unexpected clothing needs on an interview trip, I promise. All you need is something dressy casual to wear to the pre-interview dinner, which can be what you wear to travel, your interview suit, and possibly a third outfit to wear on the plane ride home. Extra underwear and pantyhose, though, are always a good idea and they don't take up much room, so definitely pack extra. To pack shoes in a way that doesn't involve plastic bags (it works, but for some reason I don't like it as much), put each one in a shower cap to cover the dirty soles, and then you can put them anywhere in your suitcase. I actually swiped a bunch of bouffant hair caps from the OR instead, but same difference.

If you're still an overpacker like I am, make your second carry-on bag one that does double duty as your interview bag. I bought a huge laptop/work bag at Target to stuff the rest of my crap in and stash under the seat in front of me, and then bring it along to the interview to complete my put-together business person look (anyone who knows me knows I am not that person at all!).

Bring a snack and a water bottle. Forget overpriced airport water bottles -- bring along an empty bottle (you'll have to take it out of your bag to go through security) and fill it up at the airport water fountain. I've drank Louisville, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore airport water and I'm still alive, so I'm sure you'll be fine, too. Snacks like Clif or Luna bars are there if you need them, and can be a lifesaver.

Pack a breakfast. Instant oatmeal in a zip-top bag works really well. Most interviews feed you breakfast, but it might not be right away, and it might not be what you like to eat, so it's better to show up with some food in your stomach. But no matter where you're staying the night before, you'll be able to find some hot water and a spoon and a receptacle of some sort to make instant oatmeal in. Likewise, packing a couple teabags along can work really well in your favor.

If you're traveling on Southwest, check in 24 hours ahead of your flight to get a good boarding number. When you get to the airport, make sure you have nothing in your pockets -- at the very least, take all that loose change out of your pants pocket and shove it in your jacket pocket before you put your jacket on the security belt -- and have your boarding pass and ID ready. Check to see if your airport has instated the different speed lines at security. At the Louisville airport, there is an "expert traveler" lane, a "casual traveler" lane, and a "family and liquids" lane. The casual traveler line is always really long, and there is never ANYONE in the expert traveler line, even though they go to the same place! So I use the expert traveler line, get right to the front, and because after 2 interview trips I WAS an expert traveler, I can speed right through security. Keep your bag of liquids easily accessible and be ready to take your laptop out of your bag. Work quickly but efficiently and leave those clueless people in the dust!

My No. 1 recommendation is to bring a pillow with you. I have a comfy pillow I made a while ago as a throw pillow that is the perfect size for traveling. The scheduling parameters I had to work under to schedule my interviews and not miss too much school required me to travel on post-call days very often. So I'd go to work on day 1, stay the night on call and get very little sleep, get out of work post-call sometime in the morning of day 2, go home and get 30 minutes to 2 hours of sleep, grab my suitcase, and go to the airport, get to the destination city and have to go to a pre-interview dinner, and then do the actual interview on day 3, fly back home and go back to work on day 4. It was a very exhausting process, so being able to sleep on the plane both ways was a lifesaver. With a comfy pillow, an airplane blanket, and a large pashmina that doubles as a scarf and blanket, you can sleep in total comfort on a plane, I promise. It probably helps that I'm only 5'1" and can scrunch very comfortably into very small spaces, but still, you can do it, too. And if you're lucky and the flight isn't very full, you might end up in a row all to yourself, in which case you can lift up all the armrests, put on an eye mask, and lie down for glorious, wonderful sleep. I sometimes get weird looks when traveling with the pillow, and one time a guy in my row asked me to explain myself, but I don't care that I'm a 27-year-old woman carrying around a pretty striped pillow like an 8-year-old -- I sleep in comfort on planes, so there!

Keep your suitcase 90% packed at all times. In between trips, I would hang my suit up, take out my toothbrush, hairbrush, and makeup bag, and leave everything else in the suitcase. I washed my shirts and undergarments as needed, but made sure to have extras that I left in the suitcase at all times. That way when it was time for the next trip a week later, I simply threw my daily necessities and suit back into the suitcase and left. No wondering if I had packed toothpaste or deodorant or underwear -- the travel versions of everything stayed in their zip-top bag, and there were always extra clean undergarments pre-packed.

Bring your box of thank you cards along with you, and a book of stamps, and you can write your thank you notes after each interview while sitting in the airport. Believe me, once you're home, you won't have any desire to write them, so just get it done in the airport.

Make sure you sign up for all the frequent traveler accounts for all the companies you do business with! Booking so many flights with Southwest for interviews earned me a free roundtrip flight, which we're using for our honeymoon in June. I signed up to be eligible for quick service at the car rental companies I used repeatedly, so I could go straight to the front of the line. This applies to non-travel as well, but make sure you're using a credit card with a rewards program of some sort. Points, cash back, or miles, it's your choice, but make sure you're getting something back in return for all the credit card usage you're giving them!

And, as always, shop around. The residency program may give you a list of local hotels that offer "discount" rates for their applicants, but the discounts probably aren't that great and there's no real reason you have to stay where they suggest. Check Sidestep.com and don't be afraid to Priceline something else. For things like car rentals, check to see if you qualify for any group discounts based on memberships you already have. For instance, if you're a member of AMA or AMSA, they offer discounts when booking with certain car companies.

So those are my recommendations for being a pseudo-business traveler without the expense account of a real business traveler. And after 13 weeks of nearly constant travel, I finally understand why business travelers hate traveling. I never used to get it -- I loved flying, loved the excitement of traveling because it meant I was going somewhere fun, and the minor hassles happened so infrequently that they were truly minor hassles. But now? Now I know. So after this Saturday, when I fly from Philadelphia back to Louisville, I will not be flying anywhere for quite some time. Thank goodness. But in case you need to, I hope my travel tips have helped. I still have 45 minutes before my plane takes off -- this is the longest layover I've had all year, but like I said, I'm kind of enjoying it!

After these last two interviews, I'll share a little more about the programs I interviewed at and what I might be thinking as I get ready to submit my rank list. It's definitely exciting times!

An observation

When you wear a Phillies shirt while flying to Philadelphia via Cleveland on the day after the Phillies have won the World Series, you get a lot of good attention. So much so that it doesn't matter that you've only gotten two hours of sleep and are traveling halfway across the country falling asleep at every down moment -- it ends up being a good day anyway.

When you try to fly out of Philadelphia on the day of the celebratory parade, however, and the whole city is in a public transportation panic, things are not as fun. Not even if you are wearing a Phillies shirt.

When the buses forsake you and never show, despite the SEPTA website saying everything is hunky-dory, when the line to get on a regional rail train is over 3 hours long, and when the few cabs that drive down JFK are already full, you start to panic. You take out $100 from the ATM, thinking that this might be the day that cash can do some talking for you. You flag down every cab you can, and you agree to share one -- if it stops -- with two very drunk men from Downingtown, as long as they will let you go to the airport first. You start wondering how much you would be willing to pay a cab to take you to the airport. When someone tells you they heard that cabs aren't allowed to stop for anyone on the street, and that they are only picking people up from 30th Street Station, where the line is 2+ hours long, you start to worry. Is this what the end of the world feels like?

And then you hail a cab, it pauses long enough for you to yell, "Airport!" and pulls over for you at the next corner, and you share a ride with another woman going to the airport, and it only costs you $25 each (instead of the normal flat-rate of $28.50) and you miraculously make it to the airport in plenty of time, when 10 minutes previously you thought all was lost. It turns out the cab driver was attracted by your suitcase, and was looking for an excuse to get the hell out of Center City because he didn't like the mob scene. Thank goodness.

And then you see the curly haired, Phillies-sweatshirt-wearing dude at your gate, the same one you saw the day before, and you realize he flew into town from Cleveland just for the parade, and he smiles at you and recognizes you wearing your (same) Phillies shirt, and asks how your job interview went, and everything is happy again.

Go Phillies!

Pine Mountain, revisited

Remember when I did this?

Well, now the NY Times has done it, too.

(OK, he hiked and I drove. But still -- driving alone up there is JUST as scary as hiking, I promise!)

(And, sniff, I kind of miss Whitesburg now. Until I think of that Super 8 I lived in for a month. No "stately Salyer House Bed and Breakfast" for me, unfortunately.)

Reading as a chore

When I got to Belgium, I had 900+ unread items in my Google Reader. I wasn't surprised, as the last couple of weeks in Whitesburg I had been neglecting feeds such as Weddingbee and Slate, and only paying attention to short-attention-span feeds (ie, Cheezburger and Cute Overload), and then I spent a good 4 days straight travelling and not reading anything at all. A full 400+ of those unread items were from Weddingbee, and I started knocking them out while sitting at the Philly airport (their wifi is free on the weekends!) waiting for the first of my ridiculous flights.

I just finished all of them. And everything else in my Reader. It's 2 am here in Brussels. Yikes.

And lest you think I'm wasting my trip to Brussels, I've really walked around and seen everything there is to see in Brussels other than the museums, and I'm not in a museum mood. So other than that, it's spending money on food and drinks, and I'm not feeling that so much, either, although I think tomorrow will consist of a decent amount of beer and chocolate and frites. Plus, it's hard to do the nightlife thing by yourself when everyone else you're with has to go to bed early so they can wake up for work the next morning. The weekend will be more fun, I promise.

made it to belgium

Thursday: Worked my last half-shift in the ER, packed up my car and left Whitesburg. Drove 4 hours back to Louisville.
Friday: Took my family medicine final exam and had a standardized patient quiz. Found out I passed the test and now I am officially done with third year!!!! Packed up the car and left Louisville at 5 pm. Made it to Pennsylvania around midnight and slept in my car at two different rest stops.
Saturday: Made it to Downingtown by 11 am, for a whopping 18 hours spent in the car. Relaxed. Played on the best slip-n-slide ever. Went to a Phillies game.
Sunday: Day from airline hell #1. Eventually made it from Philly to JFK, but missed my connection to Belgium and spent the night in the airport.
Monday: Day from airline hell #2. Eventually made it from JFK to Atlanta and made my connection to Belgium, but found out that my luggage didn't.

The only good thing about the continuous lack of sleep from Thursday to Tuesday? I was so exhausted I went to bed at a normal Brussels bedtime last night and got over my jet lag immediately. Looking forward to exploring this city and drinking some good beer. Oh yeah, and my luggage is supposed to be delivered today.

Babies and Bluegrass

Thursday. Was. Awesome.

I delivered THREE babies and was 1st assist on TWO LAVH-es (that would be lap-assisted vaginal hysterectomies).

OK, maybe it was two and a half babies, but still. The third one seemed stuck and I was afraid of pulling any harder (of course, I was barely pulling at all). I am featured prominently in the first photos of a baby girl I will never see again. That's a weird thought. (Side note: I wish I had shorter hair so I could wear a surgeon's cap, rather than the stupid-looking bouffant cap. Stupid wedding I'm keeping my hair long for.)

I pulled a 13.5-hour shift and didn't even notice it. Contrast that to my grueling 8-hour shifts in the family medicine clinic from hell that leave me exhausted and drained and so frustrated. It's true that work truly doesn't feel like work if you're doing something you love.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last night I drove to Pikeville and met my friend David for an evening of bluegrass, courtesy of his preceptor. We drove for about an hour from Pikeville, up into a "holler" (at one point I had to say that word to someone, and I knew I couldn't pull off "holler," but "hollow" also sounded very, very weird), and to a "sportsman's club" that was really two large, wooden shacks. The doctor who brought us is a "picker" on guitar, and he and all these other guys get together every Friday evening for bluegrass jam sessions.

I wish I had had my camera with me, but I had left it in the car. I didn't have my cell phone camera, either. Upon realizing that, I started taking mental notes of the scene so I could recreate it for you, but I'm not that good a writer. the basic scene was a bunch of guys -- at one point, 8 guitarists, two banjo-ists, and a mandolin player -- seated around a table, just making awesome sounding music, surrounded by others who were just there to enjoy it. All were dressed in variations of "mountain casual" and "Appalachian," David and I were the only people under 30 -- actually, under 40 -- and I was the only girl. The bluegrass was great, and I'm sure I'm never going to do anything like that again. It was really neat, and I can think of multiple people who, if they had been there, would be gushing about it for weeks. We drove back to Louisville afterward, getting in around 2:30 this morning. It's a totally different world back here in the city, and it's strange to think about the dichotomies of this state.

Whitesburg: Week 1

I've explored all of Whitesburg and beyond.

Wednesday I drove up to Jenkins, about 10 miles north of here, and further off the main road into Burdine (second syllable rhymes with "line" not with "lean"), then turned back on the back road, eventually ending up in Seco and reconnecting to the highway. (You can follow along on Google Maps.) Seco is a tiny town, with, surprise of surprises, a winery. I'd like to go back and check it out soon. For some reason, a man named Bill Thayer who is somehow affiliated with the University of Chicago has devoted a section of his website to his 2005 visit to Letcher County, including Highland Winery in Seco. You can see from his pictures that the winery is held in the town mining company's former company store. I'll be honest; when I was driving on KY-113, I was pretty nervous. I didn't have a map with me, the road was tiny, and I had no idea where I was going. What reassured me, however, was the knowledge that, having looked at an area map previously, I was sure that all roads either became dead ends or ended up connecting to a larger road. And all roads in the area either lead to Pikeville, Hazard (by way of Whitesburg), or Virginia, so it would be pretty difficult to get lost.

That knowledge has served me well this week.

Yesterday I got out of work by 4 and took a little road trip up Pine Mountain, which separates Whitesburg from Cumberland to the south. If you click on "terrain" on that Google map, you can tell that it's a pretty steep drive up -- over 2,000 feet at the highest, with lots of sharp mountain turns.

This was taken from a scenic lookout point on the highway (KY-119 over the mountain is a 2.5-lane -- the extra half-lane is cushion in the middle to allow for out-of-control turn-taking -- well-paved highway; the only thing that limits faster driving is the steepness of the mountain). See that little hamlet of civilization in the valley in the middle of the picture below? That's Whitesburg about 1,000 feet or so below.

The reason I decided to drive to the top of the mountain was because of signs at the bottom indicating that up the mountain was Kingdom Come State Park and Bad Branch Falls -- the names of both of which intrigued me. For some reason, I thought 119 just went to the top of the mountain. I was wrong. Anyway, yesterday I drove about 5 miles up the mountain (that would be 5 lateral miles, not vertical), then saw a turnoff with this sign:

I know it's hard to read, but it says, "Kingdom Come State Park 14 miles."

Well, about a mile prior to that, I had noticed that my gas light had come on -- when I started out, I had over 1/8 tank of gas, but the steep uphill climb had made my car think it had less than that, so on came the light. It made me nervous. Nevertheless, 14 miles sounded pretty short, so on I pressed. (The flaw there was that it had taken me nearly 15 minutes to drive the 5 miles to that point, so in my head it seemed as though I was just as likely to get to the park as I was to get back to Whitesburg before running out of gas.) The road got much narrower -- barely 1.5 lanes wide, making any instances of passing cars (there were only a couple) pretty nerve-wracking. And it was very curvy, with even more steep climbs. Going those 14 miles at no more than 20-25 mph made the distance pass very slowly. Especially with a gas light on. But it was beautiful nonetheless. Here's the view from Creech Overlook, at 2,760 feet up:



Once I actually GOT to Kingdom Come State Park, I was so nervous from being so low on gas that I just turned around. I could have kept going on the road, but I really wasn't sure if there would be gas on the other side of the mountain, if the road would keep going up, or what might happen. On the other hand, I knew it was less than 15 miles back to Whitesburg, and downhill 99.9% of the way. Decision: Turn around. And that's when I noticed what the road I had been driving on was called:

Primitive, indeed. (To be clear, that primitive road is Little Shepherd Trail, aka KY-1679.)

I coasted pretty much the whole way down, which was quite enjoyable for its gas-saving properties and the thrill of letting gravity do most of the work. Unfortunately, gravity and narrow mountain roads can be a recipe for disaster, and I had a close call with a downhill switchback and a pile of leaves... luckily there was a runaway car pull-off to save me. Whew!

Here's what my gas gauge looked like on the way down:
That made me really nervous, because that was heading downhill, which means it was registering all the gas in the tank (my gauge registers as being more empty than in reality when I'm headed uphill, and more full when headed downhill). But when I got back to the bottom and pulled into the gas station, here's what it looked like:
No more gas light! I filled up anyway. I think I took a year off my life worrying about being stranded at the top of that mountain, out of gas with no cell phone reception or battery (oh yeah -- I had started out with only 1 battery bar, since the hospital eats up my battery life every day).

Today I decided to try again. With a full tank of gas, a fully charged cell phone, and a study of Google maps before I got in the car, I was off. This time, I took 119 all the way to the other side of Pine Mountain, rather than taking the primitive road at the top to the park. Along the way, I saw the turnoff for Bad Branch Falls -- I'll have to explore that one another day. Once in Cumberland (KY), I took the main entrance up to the park, which was still a steep climb.

Here's a map of my route (click for larger version):
The red line is what I did yesterday -- there and back along the same route. The blue is what I did today, taking 119 to Cumberland (point B) on the map, then up into the park (the blob of green partially obscured by the "B"). The green line is how I got home from the park.

I initially planned to go to Kingdom Come and find a nice spot to read for a while. After all, hiking alone is pretty stupid. But it was overcast, hot, and humid, not good sitting-and-reading conditions. And after driving an hour (covering a mere 25 miles) to get there, I was tired of sitting. So off I went on a hike. Stupid, maybe. But then, so is driving up a mountain with no gas and no cell phone charge, and I had already survived that, so I figured why not?

Besides, it was only 3/8 of a mile to the top of Raven's Rock, according to the trail map, so off I went. Straight up. Ugh.
I don't know if this conveys the steepness of the trail or not, but here it is. Picture me huffing and puffing all alone in the hot sun, with lots of insects buzzing around, areas of overgrown trail (and I was wearing capris and short socks), and me imagining how I was going to survive if I were to be bitten by a snake or spider. Stupid overactive imagination, aggravated by the fact that in the park there was NO cell phone reception, making hiking alone all the more stupid. I reiterate: Not a smart idea.

Once I got up to the top of the rock, though, the view was gorgeous:
This is looking south/east into Virginia. The pictures really don't do it justice, sorry.

I took a different trail back to the car, allowing me to walk under Raven Rock for the duration:

All told, I hiked about a mile, and it took about an hour. After getting back in the car, I decided to take Little Shepherd Trail to the other end, continuing from where I had turned back yesterday (the green line on the map above). Here's the primitive road heading west (again, coasting downhill most of the way):


I ended up on KY-160, and just kept going, following the philosophy of every road leads back to civilization eventually. A sense of direction helped as well, telling me to turn right when I got to Route 7 in Blackey, rather than left. Despite the map saying that I drove through lots of towns with names, what I actually drove through were at best small enclaves of abodes (some houses, some trailer homes). Blackey was the only town that had any signs alerting me to where I was, until I got to Isom.

Did I mention I was driving with the top down? :)

It took me another hour to get home. All told, I drove about 65 miles today in about 2 hours. That's the mountains for you.

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Here are some unique things about Whitesburg:

The back of the Super 8 sits along the river:

Which leads there to be a set of ducks who hang out at the water but have clearly learned that people will feed them:

This evening they were sitting in the parking lot, and didn't even blink as I drove past them (rather closely, I might add):
(It's kind of hard to see them, but you can sort of see the light reflecting off the female's eye.)

And this is totally weird, since we're nowhere near the beach, but I've also seen this sandpiper dude:
I added the arrow because he kind of blends in. If he's not a sandpiper, he's definitely closely related.

And here is some small-town humor for you:
(Also taken this evening, sorry for the darkness.) I wonder who the 2 grouches are... Also, I was indignantly informed the other day that the town actually has closer to 3,000 people; the 2000 census was done based on old city limit lines (just around the town center itself) that had been redrawn prior to 2000, but the 2010 census should reflect the new city lines accurately. So sorry if I offended. There is an RC Cola distributor in town, hence the sign sponsorship. And the doctor who owns the Mountain Heart Center alluded to at the top of the sign is quite the businessman; he has an office in every town I've driven through. I'm sure he's the only cardiologist in the area, and only visits each town no more than once every week or so, but still, that's quite a business.

Anyway, that was Week #1 of living in Whitesburg. There's not much to explore, other than the scenery, and with gas at $3.95/gallon, I don't think I can afford to drive around aimlessly any more.

Still to come, Week #1 of medicine in Whitesburg. With pictures, don't worry!