Catching Up

Hello all?

It's been a bit since I've updated y'all on what's happening down here in the Sunshine State. 

The last time I posted was on my birthday.  That night, I was so nicely surprised by my amazing friends.  I thought I was just being treated to dinner by a couple of them, but when we showed up to the restaurant, there were a dozen people there waiting for me.  I didn't even know where we were going.  But they surprised me with sushi, a cake, and gifts.  It was a great birthday!

Mmmmm Sushi

Maria, Austin, Stephanie, Brendan, Me, Cally, Kristy, Tina, Christina

This semester, I've also been playing 4 on 4 flag football with some guys from class.  We were just playing in the Rec League so there wasn't a championship or anything, but I think we came away only losing 2 games.

David, Austin, Me, BJ, Jeff, Danny

 Florida has been the source of a lot of new experiences for me.  One of which was jury duty.  I lived in Utah for 8 years and never got called up for jury duty.  I haven't even lived here a year and I got a summons.  I don't know, I was actually kinda excited about it.  Never done it before and wanted the experience.  So, I got excused from school, went to the courthouse, and made it through the 1st round of prescreening.  Then they separated us into groups and sent us to courtrooms to go through the selection process.  Well, the group I was in was further divided in two.  My group sat in the audience while the other group was grilled by the prosecuting and defense attorneys.  Then they sent us out to lunch.  When I got back for my selection process, they decided to send me home because I had to be in a mandatory class on the date the trial was scheduled for.  I was kinda bummed for two reasons. 1) I didn't get selected for a jury and was robbed of my Twelve Angry Men experience and 2) I wasted an entire day just to find out that I wasn't selected.

Oh yeah, and I've been doing lots of this too...

But it hasn't been all book work.  I've gotten to do a lot of fun hands-on stuff too.  Check it out...

And this...

I also got to see a locally produced play with my good friend Mayra.  It was a quirky modern comedic take on the classic tale of Robin Hood.

And lastly....the moment I had been waiting for all year...drumroll please....Clinical year schedule!

So, Gainesville is my home base, but it looks like I'll be spending quite a bit of time out of town.  My first month rotation will be surgery at the Naval base in Pensacola.  That's really far away in the panhandle.  I think it's even in a different time zone.  Then the 2nd month I'll be commuting 50 minutes to an Urgent Care clinic.  I'll spend the month of December in Jacksonville.  In March, I have another hour commute each day to another primary care clinic.  

But the really good news, is that during those months where it says "Elect," I will probably have rotations in Utah!  I'm super lucky that the Asst Director of my program used to be on faculty at the University of Utah's PA school.  She's been using her connections to try and find me rotations there.  So far, she's found a Pediatric Cardiologist in Orem that I could precept with...which would be amazing.  I can't wait to be close to my girls again.  I miss them a ton!

Well, there you have it.  You're all caught up on the last month or so of my life.  A lot has been happening and I am so close to being done with the semester.  Just 2 more exams and an ACLS course and I'm 1 step closer to being a PA!