Enjoying NYC once again...

Took a while, but I finally got back around to enjoying NYC -- or just enjoying everything in general. I just finished a month on the Acute Care Surgery service at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. I learnt a lot, I worked hard, did 30-hour call (horrible) and actually had a good time. The Surgery residents at Columbia are a fantastic group of people and I had the tremendous help of someone who has helped generations of NYP EM residents survive surgery -- Voula, the acute care surgery service PA. If most PAs are worth their weight in Gold, Voula is worth her weight in Platinum. phew!

First, there were the 3rd row seats in the endzone at the Eagles game in Philly...
I was going to go SCUBA diving during this time off, but that all fell through, mostly due to the fault of annoying bosses and failure of appropriate planning. Oh well. That's why I live in NYC and can salvage! Then there was taking Deka to the dog park (she was spade and forbidden to run for a month). She was so excited, she ran laps for the first 15 minutes. Deka is now 9 months old!!!

Thursday found me at Carnegie hall with Elena to hear Hayden's "The Seasons" -- a piece I was completely unfamiliar with. Turns out that Hayden drew significant inspiration from Handel's Messiah for this work and it was really beautiful! Full orchestra, full choir, soprano, tenor and bass soloists. Each "season" was unique. Spring was calm and pretty, Summer was a little weird because it had a sad feeling to it, however Fall was fantastic with the "hunt" and the french horns going bells up and balls out crazy and Winter was full of BIG choral stuff with a necessarily rousing finish.

All of this was followed by a weekend in DC w/ my college roommate, Genevieve and her husband, Bren which included a stop by the National Opera Company's Trunk Sale where they were selling old costumes -- both G and I walked away with kickass halloween costumes from Madame Butterfly (Bren stayed home).

Now I'm in Chi-town visiting Aileen and Ashley. Irony of ironies, it's actually warmer here than in NYC (as in, 53 instead of 48, but I'll take it). From here I go to Seattle to see Dave and Katie for the first time in almost a year and a half!

..More pictures later. I kindof forgot my camera charger, so I'm taking pics VERY sparingly. oops.