Scope for the Imagination

While I do hope to do a verbose blow by blow account of my trip, I decided first to get my pictures arranged, as I have a tendency to neglect that (I don't think I ever posted my Guatemala pictures or Africa pictures). It took a long time to sort and label them, but I think I managed to convey some of the stories.

So here it is: http://picasaweb.google.com/jcd1013. They're arranged by date, counter-chronologically. Once you click on an album, the side bar can tell you the rough location of where I was at during that day. More than a few are utter crap, but I like them anyway. :P

I haven't really been suffering from jet lag (residency is a wonderful thing for curing you of any type of internal clock. My melanin hasn't worked properly in years), but I do find that I am absolutely exhausted by 10-11 pm. It's a very weird feeling. So I guess I'm off to bed.

Ireland is very green. And rather wet and chilly. I guess that's how it
stays green.

Staying in Dingle right now, right on the harbor. We're surrounded by salty
fishermen. It's very lovely. Today we seek on Fungi the dolphin. Fun!

It has been one hard week.

My trip to Ireland just about fell through. I found out on Monday that I had been scheduled for jeopardy call (meaning that if someone called in sick or had another type of emergency, I would be pulled from my regular rotation to cover) smack dab in the middle of my vacation.... See, my vacation was scheduled a year ago, for the last week of May. When Chris and I started discussing meeting up at the end of his travels, we decided that it would be best for all involved if it was the first week of May, instead of the last. Since I knew I was going to be on Neurology that month, I discussed it with my Neuro program director, he said that would be no problem, and I made the switch, contacted my clinic, found someone to cover my phone calls, etc. It wasn't until about a month later that it dawned on me that I should ask Internal Medicine's permission as well, because of the possibility of being pulled for jeopardy. I had already purchased my ticket by that point, so I meekly emailed them, told them what I had done and stated that I would be willing to do jeopardy any other time that month (except Laura's wedding. I also didn't exactly ask for their permission on that either....) and didn't hear back from them. Not a word. I assumed, naively, I guess, that it meant that they had no problem.

Until of course, I opened up that schedule. I pretty much haven't eaten all of this week, I've been absolutely sick with how I was going to fix this and dreading the repercussions when I told them that I was NOT going to be canceling my vacation over this.

Luckily, I received another email today, switching my week of Jeopardy call to the end of the month. It does mean that I won't be able to go down to see Susan and her baby that weekend as planned, but we arranged things so I'll be going down for a shorter time this weekend.

Oh the joys of being in two programs at once! I'm still rather upset that I found out a week before about the scheduling conflict, when it states in the official policy that you'll know your jeopardy schedule several months in advance. Even if I had had just a month, I could have at least not felt quite so pressured to get it resolved now. I'm still somewhat on edge, waiting for someone to say "no" and mess it up again.

***
I went shopping for a skirt for Laura's wedding today. Apparently spring is the wrong time to find a plain black skirt. Add to the shopping joy that instead of losing weight like I had hoped over the last two months, I've gained at least 10 pounds since November and weigh the most I ever have and jumped up yet another size. I did find some cute shirts that made me feel a little better about myself, but ugh.

****
Vienna Teng's coming to concert in Chicago tomorrow. I had actually asked a boy to go with me... and he turned me down (had a good excuse, true). It's okay. The relationship with him has been turning into exactly every other relationship I have with men: friends only. I'm just frustrated, frustrated that I am close to 30 and still playing the dating games of a 16 year old.

I had decided to go by myself anyway, to treat myself after this week... only to find out, as I clicked to buy tickets that it's sold out. I could do the 10 o'clock show, but then I wouldn't be back to Milwaukee until 3 in the morning... not good. So much for that.

***
Chris got back from his "bush adventures" across the southern part of Africa today and is now in Johannesburg. And I haven't heard from him yet. *chews lip in worry* I'm sure he's fine (I wouldn't worry if it had been any other week, but sad to say, I do get a tad superstitious once in a while). Hopefully, he'll be meeting up with claidheamhmor and melancthe in the next couple of days. I do hope that it all comes together and you have a lot of fun!

Anyway, must to bed. Another exciting day awaits me. *sigh*

I think, I'm pretty positive, that I have figured out my trip to Ireland!!! And I'll get my sister's wedding as well! Whee!

I'll be flying out to Ireland late, late Friday night (late enough that I won't be missing more than an hour at most of work) and will arrive mid afternoon, Chris will be flying in from someplace in Africa (he still hasn't gotten that figured out) and meet me there. We'll spend the rest of the day in Dublin, and the next day take a tour bus up to Belfast (I'm hoping to convince him to go cheap here and just take a train up ourselves and wander around) for the day. Then, we'll leave the next day for a 6 day jaunt across the Southern Isle, before coming back to Dublin and I'll fly out the next morning.

Then it'll be work for a bit, and finally flying out to SLC on Thursday for the wedding weekend.

See! A little planning, a lot of nagging, a dash of begging, and it all comes out in the end. And Ellie, it just hit me.... I'm going to be at the places where our little letter game took place! I'm going to be coming home with so much info, maybe we'll be able to resurrect it!

Whee!

I love days off. More than that, I love call nights where I get almost 8 hours of (uninterrupted, but still restful) sleep and then have 2 days off back to back after that. That's virtually 3 days off people. 3!

I spent most of yesterday trying to figure out how to do Laura's wedding and Ireland in 1 week. I have a feeling that Ireland isn't going to happen. :( It'll be okay. I've been fretting about the cost anyhow--while the tickets are supercheap (as in $500 dollars. Yes, you read that right.) and never will be so again, I'm in tons of debt still from moving and all of my travels last year. So being a little more frugal isn't a bad thing. A boring thing, when I was so yearning to be a world traveler again and see the Cliffs of Moor and the Blarney stone and practice my grotesque Irish accent.

I'm still mulling over her engagement. I've always known that Laura would be the first of the D****** sisters to get married. She's always been the athletic, pretty, popular one, whereas Karin and I have been much more plain. In high school, where I struggled to make friends (and fared a little better than Karin did, which is saying something), Laura was the queen as she was funny, smart and friendly. She's had dozen of boyfriends (not that she's introduced any of them to the family) and I figured she's be married by the time she was 21, so I'm really happy that Laura's undergone a few more years of maturity.

I just wish I wasn't such a failure, a nonstarter in the relationship department. I think it comes down to jealousy. That even though I knew that Laura's much more dateable and marriageable, I still had hoped that somehow it would be me first.

Enough with that.

When I was tired of manipulating days and http://www.sidestep.com (the best website for travel. It looks at every site and you can find really good deals), I found myself on YouTube watching episodes of Dr. Who. Yay! Finally! I've wanted to watch this show for absolutely forever, ever since eponine119 started posting about it on her LJ and wrote this awesome Sawyer/Dr. Who crossover which I adored even though I had never seen the show. Then all of my flist seemed to be going Dr. Who fanatic and David Tennant was that nerdy cute that makes my heart go thud, but I didn't have cable to watch it and the Blockbusters down the road didn't carry it, so I thought I was never going to get to watch it.

And then, behold the power of YouTube.

So far I've seen The Girl in the Fireplace, Christmas Invasion, Doomsday, The Impossible Planet, The Satan Pit, The Idiot's Lantern, part of The Parting of the Ways, and The Runaway Bride. It's cheesy, but a good cheesy. :) And David Tennant is just lovely. Which others do you recommend and which should I stay away from?

Other browsing squees of the day:

I haven't been the biggest fan of the Harry Potter movies as they always seem to let me down, but I do like the previews and the behind the scenes look and the next one at least looks amazing so far. Helen Bonham Carter looks absolutely perfect for Bellatrix, as does the young Evanna Lynch as Luna. I'm so so on Umbridge.

Anyway, behind the scenes clips of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix .

Two Phillip Pullman books are being made into movies. One, The Ruby in the Smoke, is a BBC production and stars Billie Piper for the Dr. Who fans (see, everything comes back to that show!), and will be playing on Masterpiece Theater on Feb. 4. Between that and Jane Erye playing this weekend, it's almost enough to entice me to get cable again.

The Golden Compass is also coming to the big screen and it looks fabulous. So excited and can't wait for the trailer!