Ordinary time

Today is pure heaven.

This -- my last month before maternity leave -- is my "ambulatory" rotation. Mostly, it's like being a medical student. Medicine residents rotate through various non-medicine specialty clinics: this week, I've spent time with orthopedic surgeons, dermatologists, podiatrists, physical therapists, neurologists. Later this week, I'll wander through obesity clinic and pain clinic. I know next to nothing about most of those specialties and since no one expects me to know much, my job appears to be trivial: I shadow, I learn, I see what's interesting and ignore the rest. I come late and leave early.

But today -- after a grueling morning shirking work and squinting at warts in dermatology clinic -- I have a precious "reading" afternoon. And it's raining. So I'm sitting under a canopy at an open air cafe, eating a salami sandwich and drinking a latte and feeling entirely, completely, blissfully happy. In a few hours, I'll pick Sam up from school and maybe we'll go to the library or the craft store. But for now, I'm updating my blog with pure fluff, then reviewing a little clinical hepatology in preparation for my upcoming in service exam this weekend. Or maybe just reading the novel I have stashed in the bottom of my purse.

There are big changes coming for our family. A new baby. The end of residency and the beginning of a demanding fellowship. But today is easy, and I'm soaking it up.