A Day In My Life

I was inspired by All Things G&D to write a post about a normal day in my life. Who knows, maybe I'll even document an entire week! Could be interesting. So here we go...


6:00am: Alarm goes off, hit snooze (don't remember hitting snooze).

6:15am: Alarm goes off again, apparently hit snooze again.

6:30am: John's alarm goes off along with mine, he starts rubbing my arm and trying to gently wake me up.

6:45am: John gets frustrated and insists I get up, I know he's right but I'm still mad, I grumble and stumble to the bathroom, take a 15 min. shower, think about how I need to start working out and tanning (bathing suit season will be here before I know it), get dressed (makeup/hair etc.), no time to fix breakfast- grab a Greek yogurt and mug of coffee.

7:30am: Head out the door with John, he drives while I eat my yogurt, we talk a little bit but mostly just listen to talk radio.

7:50am: Pull into the parking lot, start the 10 min. walk to school.

8:01am: Get into the building, get a lecture from John about needing to wake up earlier because we are now officially late.

8:15am: Our class president announces that our oral surgery lecture has been cancelled because the professor forgot about it, we're all pissed because we could have gotten an extra hour of sleep.

8:30am: Do a little "patient management" (aka go through my list of patients and write down who needs to be called/scheduled etc.).

9:00am: Go to the oral surgery clinic for day 2 of my 2 week rotation, see 3 patients- do an extraction. Almost pee my pants at one point during the morning... without giving any specifics lets just say that for a minute I thought we were going to have a scary medical emergency on our hands. Everything turned out fine though.

12:00pm: Go to a lunch and learn about patient management and patient retention, had 2 slices of pizza (blah, that bathing suit body isn't off to a good start).

1:00pm: Head back to the oral surgery clinic for the afternoon session, extract another tooth, the patient doesn't speak any English- fun, float around the clinic helping classmates here and there.

4:00pm: Review some cases with the oral surgeon supervising us, have a group discussion on odontogenic infections (fancier way to say tooth infections).

4:30pm: Get dismissed from oral surgery, head over to the general practice clinic to help John clean up from his afternoon patient so we can leave a little early.

5:00pm: Leave school, do the hike to the car, head to the VDA (Virginia Dental Association) building to help load some stuff into the new MOM(Mission Of Mercy) project truck.

5:45pm: Get home, veg out on the computer, become familiar with Dooce, snack on leftovers from my father-in-law's birthday dinner at P.F. Changs (last night).

6:30pm: John walks down the street to help his dad do some work on a house that they own together and rent out.

7:40pm: Do a little cleaning and discover that the vacuum cleaner is not sucking. Sad.

8:00pm: John comes back with DIL (dad-in-law) to show him our progress on a room we're redoing.

8:15pm: DIL leaves, and I fix the vacuum! It just had a clog, but I'm still very proud of myself. After my big accomplishment I decide to do some spakeling in the "in progress" room.


**I'd like to interject something... I was a thousand times more impressed with myself for unclogging the vacuum than I was for extracting those teeth... I paraded the functioning vacuum around the house with my head held so high. I'm ridiculous.**


9:00pm: Sit down at the computer to try and find the latest episode of Million Dollar Listing online (John watched it on-demand last night while I was sleeping on the couch and doesn't want to re-watch it... grrrr), couldn't find it, watch Private Practice instead, eat leftover mashed potatoes and peas.

9:40pm: Quit watching Private Practice, that show has gotten so ridiculous, start reading blogs.

10:00pm: Start writing this blog, it has taken longer than I thought it would. John is watching Top Shot, one of the contestants on the show is a guy that John went to high school with, Ashley Spurlin, he's in the elimination round right now. :-( John's feeling tense...... whew, Ashley is safe!

11:00pm: Thinking about going to bed (but might take over the TV when John goes to bed and watch Million Dollar Listing).

12:43am: Get out of bed to edit this post... I had originally written a little bit more information about the patients I saw today. Nothing much at all, but just enough to make me uneasy about the whole doctor/patient confidentiality thing. So I decided that if I was ever going to get any sleep I'd better drag myself out of bed and tweak the wording of a few things. Shew, sometimes I wonder if blogging is worth it. (never did watch Million Dollar Listing btw)

And completely unrelated to A Day In My Life today... here's a picture of us from the MCV Winter Ball that we went to on Feb. 25th. Again, I hate posts without pictures.

ugh, I need to photoshop that shiny forehead out

Today I Wore My Husbands Scrubs to School. F.

Just sitting there in class, minding my own business, listening to a lecture on nerve damage... I look down at the pen occupying the pockets in my scrub top and what do I see neatly embroidered above it... John Reynolds Dentistry Class of 2012. Bummer. I guess in the hurry of the morning I grabbed the wrong pair. It was bound to happen at some point. We each have 5 pairs of scrubs that are the exact same color (just different sizes... and with different names obviously). Every single day we were the exact same thing. After I get through these 4 years I swear you'll never catch me in "Hunter Green" (which is really much more of a kelly green) again.



Anywhooo...

School as always has been kicking my behind lately. I wish I could come up with some clever way to blog about it without violating any kind of patient/doctor confidentiality. Because truth be told... as much as I love writing about my life outside of school it's the life inside of school that really "inspires" me lately. Inspires = fills-me-with-the-urge-to-write-big-long-(sometimes optimistic but often just bitchy)-posts. I wish I could just give all my patient fictitious names like Princess Buttercup or Cruella De Vil (guess which one I like better) and then blog about the trials they put me through. Not that any of this would be the least bit interesting to anyone besides a fellow dental student... but at least I could come away from the keyboard feeling at least a little bit lighter. Carrying the weight of all these experiences can feel so exhausting! Most of the time I make John listen to my rants but I know that's not always fair. He has to go through his whole day, dealing with all kinds of difficult situations that are no different than mine... but then he has to hear about all the stuff I had to deal with. By the time I finally get around to asking him about his day he usually responds with something like "it was fine" or "eh, nothing special". I know he has more to say.

So you see... I need to find away to blog about my life which includes a new marriage, an old house, 2 crazy dogs and DENTAL SCHOOL. Did you watch The Bachelor last night?? If you did then you have an idea of what I'm talking about. Ashley H. and Brad couldn't even make it work because he didn't see how their lives would fit together... because her life is so dictated by DENTAL SCHOOL. Which reminds me- they need to stop saying she's a Dentist. She's a student and the difference between the two is H.U.G.E.

I need to be in clinic in 3 minutes. My time here is up. Who knows what is in store for me this time...

k.bye.

Update

I have been a terrible blogger... what's new. John and I are in the home stretch!!! We officially have one more till we're DONE with our second year of dental school. Can I get a hallelujah!! This year has been tough to say the least. We're pretty much living one exam to the next... we cram... we take an exam... we recuperate (if we have time)... then we cram some more... take another exam... and so on and so forth. It has felt like a never ending cycle. We haven't had a ton of time for friends, family or much fun. I know, I know... cue the violins. I sound super whinny, I really don't mean to. I honestly wouldn't be giving an accurate description of our lives right now if I didn't mention how swamped we've been with classes, labs, exams, practicals, clinic etc. BUT despite how down-in-the-dumps I sound, we're really not down-in-the-dumps at all. Just pretty darn serious and in "get 'er done" mode. We have both been needing more alone time than we normally need... time to just veg out and unwind. Lucky for our house! Seriously, we both tend to gravitate towards house projects when we really need to relieve some stress so we've actually been doing some good stuff to the house. So like I said, lucky for our house!

John has been spending a lot of time in the garage working on a new workbench that he's building and I have been... give ya one guess... yep, painting. We repainted the front room and I'm now working on painting the trim and doors throughout the house. It has made such a HUGE difference. I didn't realize our trim was actually more of a brownish-yellow before, gross lol. But now it's become a clean and glossy bright white! It really looks great. It looks great on Maylene's booty too. She sat one some wet paint and is now sporting a white speckled rump. Haha, I should write a post tittled "You know you're a DIYer when..." and lead off with "Your chocolate lab is currently coated in Behr Premium Plus Interior Hi-Gloss Enamel Paint" lol.

Oh yeah, and then there's this little thing called a wedding... we've been working on that too. Actually it's all starting to really come together and I'm getting more and more excited! Here, I'll list all the stuff we have figured out so far (it'll make me feel like I've accomplished a lot): ceremony location, reception venue, food, drinks, my dress, band, flowers, photography, bridesmaids dresses and shoes, honeymoon, my veil, makeup for the girls, invitations, a photo booth, rehearsal dinner, registry. We still need to get rings and figure out the cake and the guys tuxes. And after that it'll pretty much be down to the little details like where I'm going to get my nails done and what kind of flower am I going to put in my hair. I'll have a lot more wedding dedicated posts as we get closer to it.

And just because I personally can't stand posts without pictures... Here's a picture that my cousin took at our family reunion at Fripp Island last summer. He found this little toy octopus on the beach. I think he's an artist/photographer in the making!

My Apologies

Dear Blog,

I am so sorry for neglecting you over these past few months. Like always life has been jam packed with school work, house projects, and trips. To summarize: 3 weddings, 1 funeral, 3 beach trips, 1 Mission of Mercy Dental Service Project, 1 Maylene back in Richmond, 1 bathroom makeover, about 7 exams... whew! Sadly I am terrible about remembering to bring my camera on all these activities. But luckily I'm a good facebook stalker and can steal other peoples pics!....

First there was my brother's catch of the day at Fripp Island (Beach trip #1)

Then there was lots of Kylie lovin at the Outer Banks (Beach Trip #2)

Next, it was off to Wise, VA for the Mission of Mercy 2 and a half day dental service project. It was an amazing experience! I wish I could post more pictures because just the one does not do it justice... watch this video to find out what the MOM project is all about (you have to click the "View Video" link on the left of the page) and then click here to see more pictures for the Wise project that John and I were at this past summer. (I'm the one in the maroon shirt in the waaaay back to the left of that first picture... that's the only picture I made it in lol).
Right after the MOM project we started our second year of dental school and then spent that following weekend having a good ol' time with our friends at Cate and Andrew's beautiful wedding (oh! and my 23rd birthday happened somewhere in there!)

We then attended wedding #2 and got to spend the weekend with my family.

Then we traveled up to Annapolis for Tina and Nick's wedding.

After this came Labor Day and beach trip #3 at the Reynold's beach house in Va Beach, unfortunately this was very quickly, and unexpectedly, followed by the funeral of what sounded like an amazing young man (John's cousin) that sadly I never got a chance to meet. We spent this past weekend in Winchester with the group in that previous picture visiting different wineries in the area... obviously we had a wonderful time. I'll post pictures of our bathroom makeover another time, for now I'd better get going on the laundry and packing for yet another weekend trip. We're headed home for the VT vs. Miami game (and more importantly the chance to introduce the Reynolds and the Boylands)! Tailgating, turkey legs, Enter Sandman, Maroon Effect, Blacksburg in the fall, Mom, Dad, Joe, John's family, hopefully Colorado (college friend),.... cannot wait for tomorrow!!!

Should Be Studying

Thought I'd take a quick break from carcinoma memorization (always a thrilling topic) to write a "preview post". Whenever I get a chance aka tomorrow when this exam is over I'll post pictures from our project filled weekend. Friday after class we built little fence for our vegetable garden to keep doggies out and Sunday we ripped up the carpet in the "front room" of John's house. Two things we had been itching to do! I know you're shakin in your boots with excitement.

p.s. Today I ate a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich. I'm currently taking a pathology course which is the study of diseases so naturally I'm going through a phase where I think I have every disease that I study. Today I managed to convince myself that because of my lack of meat intake I'm not getting enough iron which means that my poor little hemoglobins can't bind enough oxygen and therefore my brain isn't getting enough oxygen and that's why I'm doing crummy on all my exams. And hence the chicken sandwich. Looks like the year of vegetarianism is over.

Finally Had Time To Post Something

John and I had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We left after class on Friday and went straight to West Point where his family has a house on the Mattaponi River. The weekend was filled with boating, meeting new people, laughing at Kyle's (John's baby nephew) nonstop cuteness, a few river house projects, and time to just veg out. Sadly Tuesday was spent studying for a pathology exam which we then took this morning. Lets just say I'm less than thrilled with my results but c'est la vie. I tried my best. My less than stellar exam was then followed up with an afternoon in the clinic practicing administering local anesthesia on each other. Gave two shots, got two shots in return. My nose and lip felt all tingly and fat for about an hour... not something I'm in a hurry to experience again. Needless to say I was in much need of some retail therapy by the end of the day so I took myself shopping. Between gift cards and some awesome discounts I managed to only spend about $23 and here is what I got........... 12 cloth napkins, 4 napkin rings, 1 little spice jar, 1 larger spice jar, a grill basket, 4 glass storage bowls, a tea pot (finally!), 2 decorative cups/candle holders (super excited about these for a very specific reason), a garden tool, and 2 flower pots. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself ;-) So why the excitement over the cups? Well if you're even half as obsessed with This Young House as I am you should be very familiar with these specific 2 cups/glasses/candle holders (still not sure what they are) that seem to pop up all over their house! I swear you can spot these two little cups in almost every other picture taken in their house (whether featured in a magazine or posted on their blog). You could seriously play "Where's Waldo" with those cups on their website. Apparently they give a room/shelf/table etc. that just-a-little-too-lovely-for-real-life-but-perfect-for-a-magazine vibe. You know the vibe I'm talking about. I told myself if I ever found decorative pieces even close to those cups I would buy them right then and there, no questions asked. Lo and behold as I'm browsing the shelves at TJ Maxx I look down and see two little cups staring up at me. So I made my purchase..... no questions asked. Just to take it a step further (probably too far) I'm going to give you a taste of what I'm talking about (mom you already know).

The next 3 pictures are various spots in their house where the cups showed up:
And here are my cups:

Does it look like it's out of a magazine?? Does it? Does it? Okay... so not really. But I'm telling you these little cups will fulfill their picture-perfect destiny someday.

**pictures taken from the This Young House website** (not sure if that's necessary but better safe then sorry right?)

Getting to know you....

Time for the introductory post as promised... and I know mom is the only one reading this but I don't feel quite right just jumping into things without some form of salutations (it's the ocd side of me coming out). So as I mentioned in the "About Me" that you'll see to the right of this post (I feel like a tour guide) I am 22 years old, live in Richmond, VA, and am currently working my booty off trying to become a dentist so in 2012 I can sign my posts "Dr." Jenni! Overall I'm really enjoying dental school although it definitely has it's own special way of getting under my skin at times. I'm sure there will be plenty on that later. So a quick re-cap of the past 5 years:

Graduated high school, Pamela moved to Michigan, started college (Virginia Tech), decided to go to dental school, met Will, decided medical school sounded better than dental school, worked at Bath & Body Works for an awful 6 months, declared my major (Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise), took a zillion classes, spent a summer studying abroad in Paris, decided dietetics sounded better than med school, became a Wellness Peer Educator, almost called the whole health profession thing off to pursue a career in interior design, switched back to dental... then med once more, April 16th happened, spent an amazing week in MI with Pamela, began studying for the MCAT, halfway through began studying for the DAT instead (yep... went back to the dental school idea), applied to dental school, Will and I went our separate ways, interviewed at VCU and Penn, fell in love with Penn, chose VCU, graduated from Tech, got a puppy, started dental school, puppy had to go live with Mom and Dad, Joe joined a band, started an Outdoors Club with Disa, fell in love with John, survived the first year of school (barely) and here we are!

And yes, that was very "Marley and Me" inspired. I swear I do have a life beyond school... I think. Now what is the opposite of a recap? Hmmm.... Well here's a glimpse into the future (obviously no pictures this time): Taking NBDE (National Board Dental Exam) Part 1, moving in with John, bringing the puppy back to Richmond, family reunion with Dad's side in South Carolina, week at Nags Head with Mom's side, a couple of weddings, a visit from Pamela (fingers crossed) and hopefully LOTS of time spent at the river, doing fun projects on the house, and playing outside. Activity for the day: planting a vegetable garden! Maybe I'll even take pictures and post them (my poor little blog is a This Young House wannabe).