Here we go! The studying begins...
OK.... so the first step involves removing the shrink wrap and scratching off the lottery doo-hickie on the inside cover. This bad boy is going to be my bible for the next nine months. My very own BIG ROBBINS!!!
Community Service Day
On the second day of school we did our annual community service day, where we all went about DC and helped out wherever we could. My project was with 9 other students at Bread for the City in North West. What a fantastic operation. The photo is of the community garden, which is just a tiny sliver of what the program offers to the people. They offer clothes, food, legal services, health and social services. This year our school is opening a student run clinic, where we will volunteer health services to the underserved population of the area. It's a rather big deal and we're very excited about it!
Poolside before school starts
Nearly the same group as last years girls' night... minus Kirsten and Zoya who were busy. We spent the afternoon sunning ourselves while dinner was roasting upstairs in my oven. When it was time to eat, we ran up to fetch everything for a picnic by the pool and then the hallway fire alarm sounded. This was not my smoke detector, mind you. We gathered the chicken (hot out of the oven), knives, salad dressings, spinach, peppers, bread, cheeses, wine, Sarah's key lime pie... everything and anything we might need in case this was a real actual fire! The fire engines arrived as I carved the chicken, poolside. By the time we made it to dessert, the fire engines had left already. Dinner was delish! The pool was fantastic.
It feels so good to be back with our old crew of friends as we embark upon... dun, dun, duuuuuh.... Year-2 of Medical School!
Umpqua Lighthouse State Park
Gorgeous campgrounds that are well maintained and optimally located for whale watching and ocean go'ers. Camp hosts are super friendly and interested in keeping this wonderful destination a special place to return to. It is an escape from the brutal world that most of us city dwellers know too well. Please leave your stress behind if you visit! Camp out or splurge on a deluxe yert... $65 and it's cheaper than a hotel room and smells much better! Enjoy the olfactorgasms of pine, campfires and ocean air.
Attractions include a lovely lighthouse, woods, whales, water, harbor, fishermen, lovely locals that smile constantly. People are genuinely happy to live here. It is easy to understand why!
Oregon Brew Tour 2007
In Ashland we met up with Cindy, Eric, Scott and Carlson at the Standing Stone Brewery. Eddie and I shared a sampler and brought a liter of their amber beer back to camp with us. The camping ground was called Emmigrant Lake and had nice lake for swimming in. The site coast $18 and we built a fire. All three tents fit on one plot and we also enjoyed fantastic $.50 showers in the morning. In the morning we went back into Ashland for coffee. Such a cute town! The Shakespere Festival is hosted there every year. The landscape all around in Oregon is so pretty. There are horses, pretty houses, great geological formations, unusual hilltops and friendly people.
Old timie town Dunsmuir
Once we finihsed our swim we head back to Route 5 and approached Mt. Shasta as the sun was setting. We drove back roads to find th eperfect places for photography. We explored the little towns at the base of Shasta and were practically startled with how friendly people are! At the water fountains in Dunsmuir three little girls smiled, said hi and asked us where we were headed. When do children initiate casual converstaion with strangers like that? It was very sweet to have a little chat with them. They gave us a tip off ot the giant slide that we would find in Ashland, Oregon where we were headed. One of the girls used ot live there.
Whiskeytown Lake break
Monday morning we left once I got my camera sorted out. Though it was repaired this summer it worked for two weeks and started flashing the same error message, “CHA”. I had to put another $1000 camera onto my credit card for this trip as insurance gear, in case mine quit working on the road. One word for anybody repairing their Nikon D70 reporting an “CHA” error message, make sure it gets fixed right the first time! When I return from Oregon I’ll send mine back out again. Argh! Poor timing for camera malufunction.
We drove up to Whiskeytown lake and took a 2 hour sidetrip to go swimming in one of my favorite lakes. The water was clear and so comfortable. Being a Monday afternoon, it was very quiet! There was a sailboat tooling around the lake. We swam out to the pontoons and watched the fish swimming around us. Eddie figured they are probably baby salmon. A large portion of the lake is sectioned off with a heavy draping of some sort of fabric, to keep the salmon partioned. Some of them can get out and swim in the rest of the lake, but I believe this has something to do with protecting the salmon, which is a pretty big focus in the Cascade mountain range.
Back to the lab after my last day of work
So my last day of work was two days ago and here I am very tired on a Saturday morning, reporting back to the lab to check up on our progress. Everything has been going super well and I couldn't help but return. It's great to love what I'm doing! We've been treating tumors this week and we are a blink of an eye away from solid statistically significant evidence. Ah! We've waited months.
There aren't many things that will pull me out of bed on a Saturday morning at 7:30am after staying out until 3:30am, but somehow this ranked pretty highly!
Last night I went to the Three Minute Film Festival. It was a blast. I wish the films were posted on YouTube, because there are a number of them I'd love to share. Funny stuff! Afterwards turned into a late night in the Mission. I'm so tired I'm having trouble getting to bed... if that makes any sense! But it's going to be a busy few days ahead with a 6-hour drive to Oregon tomorrow for C-A-M-P-I-N-G!!! ...and brewery tour with a bunch of friends. I'm super excited. Can't wait!!!
Noe Nails-- girls day out with Hiroko
The weekends are numbered before I head back East. This was a good one though. Hiroko made me brunch in her backyard and then we dropped by the post office so I could ship two boxes of clothes home and then we went out for pedicures. After some window shopping I got cleaned up for a date to watch a play. It was Glen Gary Glenn Ross, followed by a bottle of Chilean Cabernet at Nectar, a wine bar in the Marina.
The next morning Dana and I met bright and early for a brunch at Ella's where she put me to shame, polishing off a table full of scrumptious food. But the day before she rode over 110 miles on her bike. She looks great! We had good conversation about the latest adult topics, like buying houses and men? Stern Grove was our next stop, after a little more window shopping in Hayes Valley. The music wasn't bad. It wasn't great either. The weather was sorta gloomy. But it still made for a wonderfully laid back Sunday afternoon. Dana and I went to Golden Produce for a little bit of grocery shopping before I had to leave to get JD who went to the airport with me to get Justine, who flew back from Singapore. She was tired!
And after my fun-packed weekend it was hard to get up for work... in fact, I didn't get up until 9:30am and didn't get into the lab until after 11am! Not a big deal... I'm enjoying the life. It won't be long before 8am lecture is the typical morning once more.
Props to d-Todd for growing a poppy!
Isn't the poppy so cute? Todd's been working diligently all summer to get these babies to grow. They're a challenge and to actually get this far is impressive. He has acquired quite a green thumb!
Fabulous visit with mom and dad
My parents came to visit me in SF and we had a fabulous time together. This trip we were in search for the greatest red zin in Sonoma, so we headed up to Healdsburg and spent two days exploring Dry Creek and Alexander Valley. We tasted a number of so-so wines. Nothing bad, really... but nothing to knock your socks off. I should have written down all the wineries we hit... but there were just too many! The best tasting we had was at Ferrari-Carano. It was the snootiest winery of them all, with gorgeous gardens and stellar wines. The reserve wines tasted like liquid art. The kind that makes you set your glass down and grin from ear to ear.
From Healdsburg we drove the 128 through Boonville, out to Route 1 for the coastal drive back to San Francisco. We stopped at Roederer and Scharffenburger to taste the Anderson Valley sparkling wines...
yummmm!! They were delicious. Roederer is the snootier of the two and Scharffenburger is the same name as the chocolate guy. Both places are outside the town of Philo and give generous pours at their tasting rooms. I highly recommend a stop.
In SF I brought my parents to Alamo Square Grill and they enjoyed it immensely. We paid a $15 corkage fee and brought a bottle that we bought at Roederer. This photo was taken the night before my dad headed back East. The dog isn't ours, but seemed pretty enthused about being in a photo with us while his owner took our photo. It was a great trip! I love my parents!!
