especially in michigan

life is my friend

rake it up to take it in

wrap me in your cinnamon

especially in Michigan

~red hot chili peppers

Fun fact: Rockford is the #9 least safe city in America. Oops. I would have liked to have taken that into consideration a year and a half ago when we were choosing our first internship sites. (I should clarify that technically, I live in Loves Park, and while I work in Rockford, the clinic is in a very nice, new part of town.) Anyways, that just gives me an excuse to get out of town on the weekends, so this weekend, I ventured Michigan to visit my pal Kaitlin who's doing her first internship at Detroit Receiving Hospital. (Side note: I have her to thank for getting me started with this blog-- she started hers first and I was inspired! Here's her link: The End of My Beginning.)  

Thankfully (because Detroit stacks up at #2 on that same list), Kaitlin is staying with her aunt, uncle and cousins in Davisburg, a gorgeous country-esque township an hour from the city. Lucky for me, my last patient on Friday was at 1p, so I headed out of town at 2, and-- even luckier--didn't hit a lick of Chicago traffic, meaning the drive only took me six hours. I rolled in at 9:30 Eastern time, having driven on several dirt roads to get there, and was welcomed by a huge, gorgeous house in which every single room smelled deliciously of fall- pumpkin, apple, cinnamon (candles and Glade Plug-Ins, I believe). Kaitlin and I spent the rest of the night catching up and sipping her awesome homemade sangria.

We slept in Saturday morning (I forgot what it was like to not wake up to an alarm), and headed to the mall, where we ordered some tasty fall beer (I looooved Michigan Brewing Company's Screamin' Pumpkin Spice Ale) and caught some of the U-Michigan football game at Bar Louie, then found cute $8 skirts that will be perfect for our trip to Africa in a few months! That afternoon, we hit up to Spicer's Apple Orchard with her fam, where we were shuttled out via hay ride to pick our own apples. Then, I participated in my very first wine tasting. The hard cider and honey white (made with real Spicer's honey) topped my list of favs.

We got home at 7, and rushed upstairs (we ate dinner in bed) to catch the live stream of the NSC Stars (MN's pro soccer team) game online. Kaitlin's boyfriend, Captain Kyle, scored the first goal of the game, which turned out to be a 2-1 win. It was an upset over the best team in the league, and it allowed the Stars to clinch a playoff berth!  Here's a link to a video of their postgame celebration-- their rendition of Oasis' "Wonderwall," which makes me laugh every time I watch it (Kyle is #16, the crazy one with the Gatorade water bottle): Lockerroom Cele.

Even though we were hundreds of miles away from the game in North Carolina, Kaitlin and I were pretty pumped about the W, so we decided to hit the town to check out Davisburg's bar scene (and by that we mean lack thereof). We got sidetracked, though, by a roadblock a few miles away from the house. Apparently, someone's horses had escaped and were grazing by the side of the (pitch black) road. No one got hurt, but we didn't leave until we found the rightful owner- who, we concluded, was under the influence of some kind of narcotic. The first bar we tried didn't meet our expectations, so we drove back to the mall to Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill, which was also pretty dead (probably due to the mediocre country band playing some awfully twangy songs). But, we made the best of it by riding the mechanical bull--Kaitlin in her Stars jersey and me in a Blackhawks shirt, deep in Red Wings territory. Check that one off of the bucket list!

Sunday, we headed to Lansing, where we watched Kaitlin's alma mater, the Gopher women's soccer team, take on Michigan State. It wasn't a great game, but it was fun to be outside on a beautiful fall Sunday and to explore a new campus. On our way to check out the hockey rink, we came across a bus full of Canadian hockey boys, who tried to convince us to go back to Canada with them. I was tempted (Kaitlin wasn't). We decided against it. We had a late lunch at Dublin Square Irish Pub, where we watched my Vikings (though I will no longer refer to them as "my" after that game) throw away a 20 point lead to her Lions. Way to go, Purple.

Hockey makes me happy.

We spent the night relaxing, watching movies and making a dent into the apples we had collected, but went to sleep at a reasonable hour because we had an early morning. Kaitlin had to be at work at 8, so I headed out of Davisburg at 6:45. It rained the entire drive back, but a few things helped the drive fly by-- 1) breakfast from Panera, 2) The Help on audiobook (which honestly made 200 miles on I-94 feel like 20), 3) the fact that I gained an hour coming back into CST, and 4) an email I got from my clinical instructors at my next internship, Children's Hospital Clinic in Maple Grove, which informed me that my 3-day weekends will continue through Christmas (I have Fridays off! This pure joy/excitement ate up a good 20 minutes of the drive). 

I was back in Loves Park before noon, though I dragged the rain back with me. But not like that'll do much to dampen my mood-- check out what I have lined up for this week:

--tonight = I played hockey. Need I say more?

--tomorrow and Wednesday = Surgery time. I'll head over to Rockford Spine to shadow one of the region's top spinal surgeons, Dr. Roh (I'm talking valedictorian in his med school class at Brown, then chief resident at Columbia, former team physician for the Yankees...the list goes on). I'll meet a few of his patients on Tuesday, then scrub in for their surgeries on Wednesday. Good thing I've spent the last two weeks catching up on Gray's-- I'll need a stomach of steel (and probably a very light breakfast) for my first experience in an OR! Then, off to an Ice Hogs (the Blackhawks' AHL affiliate) game at night. (I know two of the rink managers and the equipment manager--should be a fun time!)

--Thursday = my only full day in the clinic. 

Of course, there will be none of this this weekend.

--Friday through Monday = off to Clinton, New York! I return to the Eastern time zone for the second weekend in a row so that I can hang out with my rugby stud of a brother to watch him play, and really to just pretend like I'm in college again. Hamilton College may well be the most beautiful college campus I've set foot on, and rumor has it the leaves will be absolutely perfect come this weekend.

All in all, a successful weekend, based on the fact that all of the homemade Butterfingers I brought were gone by the time I left-- and, of course, that I got to explore Michigan for the first time in my life and see Kaitlin. Thanks for a great wknd, chica!