ROL Certified = more waiting

It is official....as of 9pm tonight the match for residency positions for 2011 is closed. All rank order lists from both applicants and programs are due at this time and then the real fun begins because then some mystical computer in some far away place will determine everyone's future. Ah, the wonders of computers and modern technology. Although, I have to wonder that if a computer is picking the final results shouldn't we have them before March 14th which is officially match day? All I can hope is that this "super match computer" is not the same one that collage football uses for the BCS bowls.

I have spent the last few hours making sure my list is certified (the process did border on obsessive compulsive for a few moments). I kept having this weird feeling that I would log in and my list would magically be un-certified. So, I would really log in and see the nice green lit letters "ROL Certified" which only demonstrated that my paranoia was unfounded. I would then log off only to start thinking "what happened if during my logoff I somehow switched my list to uncertified" in which case I would log in again and breathe comfortably knowing that my list was still certified. You can continue this tennis match of certified vs. uncertified in your head for the next 20 minutes and get a feeling of how it really played out in my world. I can NOW say that I am certified and no longer need to check.....or do I? :)

In other news....I am on my 3rd week of Medicine Sub I and I still want to kill myself everyday. I have gotten to the point where during rounds I look around the patient rooms and try to find all the ways to kill myself....sort of Macgyver style. For example, today a patient was wearing a nasal cannula for Oxygen delivery and I thought, "hanging by nasal cannula". Yesterday I glanced at a patient breakfast tray and thought "food poisoning via cyanide". This game is actually quite fun and briefly takes me away from the monotony and boringness of medicine rounds. I honestly don't know how internal medicine residents survive 3 years of residency!! Good news: I only have 6 more days.

Better news: 8 more days and I am out of Brooklyn!!! :)

V-DAY!!

Yes, this day has finally arrived. You know the one....where couples are to shower each other with tacky cards, fattening chocolates, over-priced dinners and nauseating words of love. I am grateful that I don't have to partake in this one day fantasy extravaganza. No....tonight I (and countless others across this single land) will be cozying up to our favorite men....Ben and Jerry's.....and enjoying every bite :)

In other news.....my rank list is certified. After much internal debate and struggle I have picked Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick, NJ as my number 1 with St. Luke's Bethlehem, PA as my very close (could definitely be number 1 but I had to choose) number 2. The process was not an easy one. I spent countless hours on the internet, googling the programs.....their respective cities....the cost of living.....if there was a women's hockey team near by...if there was a Panera bread. I placed RWJ and ST. LUKE'S on 2 post-it notes, firmly attached them to my wall, and then proceeded to switch their positions back and forth...forth and back for days as if my wall was a race track and the notes were horses jockeying for the win. In the end, I just had to pick one...I just wanted the process to be over with....so.....I picked and certified. And now I wait....4 weeks exactly....and then I find out where I will be for the next 3 years of my life.

I hate waiting.

I wish everyone a happy valentine's day :)