Redwoods, Santa Cruz, and Alice's Restaurant!

I know my life is incredibly exciting since 97.23% of the time it consists of studying, studying, and more studying.  But... little known fact: I do get out and have fun every once in a while!

Last weekend I went on a hike through the beautiful Redwood forest with two of my classmates, Liza and Jay.  There is something so peaceful and inspiring about the giant redwoods that I just can't put into words.  Trust me.  The trees tower over you for what feels like miles into the sky.

And then there's the smell of the forest.  Love.

My favorite part of the hike was when we were walking along and Liza all of the sudden gasps... It took about 0.0239 miliseconds for me to go into "freeze-in-place-and-look-frantically-around-me-for-a-Grizzly-bear" mode afterwhich Liza calmed me down and showed me a cute little Banana Slug on the ground. Apparently it is normal to gasp at the sight of a Banana Slug in California.  You can't the the Alaska out of the girl.  :)

This weekend, between hours of studying, I got to have some fun too!  Saturday I drove to Santa Cruz to visit my bestest San Diegan friend, Carrie.  She was visiting her parents for the Easter weekend and since she was so close, I HAD to go see her!  An hour down a twisted, foggy road and I arrived in misty, beautiful Santa Cruz!

We went on a nice long run in the rain along the coast, followed by a delicious breakfast at a local cafe.

It was so good to catch up and see my favorite girl!  Luckily I get to see her again in just 3 weeks when I go visit San Diego for Becca's wedding.  Cannot wait.

My Easter Sunday consisted of early morning mass, studying for 6 hours at a bakery, then... the fun began.  We drove to pick up Nana, the Griffin's amazing Irish Grandma, and we all headed into the hills for an early dinner at Alice's Restaurant.

Best sweet potato fries I've ever had.

Dinner was a phenomenal Fish Salad and more of those yummy sweet potato fries.

After dinner, I had a big task waiting for me back at the Griffin Household. The Easter Bunny's Alaskan assistant had come and visited the Griffins early in the morning on Sunday while they were all sleeping, so they had an exciting Easter egg hunt when they woke up.  Somehow, the Easter Bunny's Californian assistant decided to come back and rehide all of the eggs so that I could find them too!  After searching high and low, I finally found all of the eggs and proceeded to overdose on Starburst Jelly Beans and Whopper mini eggs.  To complete the night, we watched a marathon of Disney movies.  I don't know if you remember, but I have an obsession with Disney songs.  Is it just me, or does your voice sound spot on when you sing "Be Our Guest" (especially when you haven't sung it for 12 years since the last time you watched Beauty and the Beast.)  It was the perfect Easter. 

A Whole New World

What is it about being at home that makes it so hard to focus on studying? When I got home yesterday from studying with my good friend Alia, somehow the following seemed far more urgent than opening up the books again:

1.) Doing my roommate's dishes while listening to Aladdin in the background.  (And by listening, I mean watching intently).

2.) Looking at recipes on pinterest for our "Pinterest Potluck" this Friday. (Anyone have an awesome pinterest find to share?)

Don't worry Centro Medico del Carmen friends, you know I would never use vegetables in a dish for you. 
That would be far too healthy.  This does make me drool though.

3.) Since the recipes made me hungry and drool all over my laptop, of course I had to stare into my fridge longingly and settle for a delicious lean cuisine.

Note: Lean Cuisine meals are not the same as this-

Red Velvet Cheesecake? Heaven on a plate.

4.) My delicious dinner was interrupted by a spot-on performance of "Prince Ali" sung by yours truly at the top of my lungs, followed by an awesome rendition of "A Whole New World." Man, I love that movie! It's a good thing I was home alone.

I could probably write a book on the subject of Procrastination. A perfect example is the words you are reading.  I like to think that writing on my blog is a stress management technique but let's be serious here, my books aren't going to study themselves and I'm just postponing the inevitable.

LOVE those adorable laughing babies.

After procrastinating for long enough, I reluctantly dragged myself upstairs to my study torture chamber as the Disney movie marathon of Cinderella and Lion King continued. My rafiki, Katherine, will agree that Lion King is the best Disney movie of all time and that not watching it was quite an accomplishment.

Katherine, we need to buy this shirt.

I had a few successful hours of studying, but was then distracted by another important task: updating my resume. Eek! Talk about a chore! If anyone wants to write it for me I will pay you with approximately 15 candy bars of your choosing. Any takers?

Resume writing made me think of the question I get from most people these days: "What do you want to do after graduation?" My initial answer is "never work again" but I don't think that's going to pay the bills...

In all reality, I have no idea what area of medicine I what to make a career out of!

- I like family practice a lot, but it is also a very challenging job.  Not trying to be harsh, but every day is like ordering diabetes with a side of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and obesity.

Oh medical humor....

- Surgery- love love LOVE it and could definitely make a living doing it.
- Anyone who knows me, knows that I love babies more than the average person, so naturally I love OB/GYN. However, in Alaska it is more of a NP driven field, so I'm not sure what opportunities will be available.
- Ortho? Hmm... I do love being in the OR....
- I also learned that I love hepatology (liver specialty) after my rotation in liver transplants at Stanford. But I'm not so sure I could find a job in Alaska in such a specialized field.
- ER medicine? Love it as long as nobody is flatlining.

See my problem? I like it all! I suppose it just depends what job openings there are for new grads!

The other interesting question I get from almost everyone is, "Are you moving back to Alaska when you graduate?" Apparently it seems completely reasonable for me to work in San Diego and Jake to work in Alaska and have a successful, healthy marriage.

What do you think, Jake? Do you think it'd work? Ha! Don't worry, I'm coming home the second I get my diploma. I miss you far too much. :)