Snore-onto

I'm back from vacation and sitting on my couch on a blissful Thursday night watching Mars Attacks! Classes and clinics started again this past Monday and I'm already feeling a little fried. As Katrina put it, it feels more like we had a long weekend than a 2 1/2 week break. It certainly doesn't feel like the beginning of fall semester but I can't complain--watching the new D1's start on Tuesday just reminded me how much better I have it this year than the first two years!

Anyhoobie, Josh and I took a short trip to Toronto last week to get away from Ann Arbor a little bit and to explore a big city. I've been to Toronto a few times recently but Josh hadn't been in a long time so we were both excited. We did a lot of research and consulted a lot of friends as to where to shop, eat, and play. Unfortunately, I think we must have missed something. We were unimpressed with the shopping, shockingly had trouble finding restaurants, and got embarassed saying "loonie" and "toonie". To be fair, we didn't exactly paint the town red after dark or quite have the funds to shop in Yorktown. Even still, we just didn't love it as much as we were hoping. It was great to get out of town for a little bit and we did enjoy visiting the Bata Shoe Museum but I guess we'll have to give Toronto a second chance another time. Here are a few pics:


A drive-by pic of the CN Tower


Canadian geese at Eaton shopping Centre


The heart of downtown on Yonge Street


A self shot in a cozy booth at The Pickle Barrel restaurant

Before coming back to school, we also camped it up with our friends Christin and Bob slightly outside Ann Arbor last weekend. It's always good to see high school friends and newly-married Rod even turned up for a day. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the tent the whole weekend so I don't have any pics but we had a good time. I'm hoping to have one more chance to go camping this year before it gets too cold later in the fall but the outlook is not good; 4 of 5 weekends in September are home Michigan football games. We'll see...I didn't quite get my fix of hobo pizzas and campfire smell this year.

I guess much like my trip to Toronto this post has been pretty snore-worthy. Expect some pics and a recap of The Meltdown, the annual dental school welcome back party tomorrow night, soon.

Have a great weekend!

xoxox

A fall kick-off Friday Five

1. What is your local lake/river/sea?
It used to be the Grand River and Lake Michigan but now it's the lame Huron River. It makes for a scenic canoe trip but is only a good ride if it's rained recently--we grounded our canoe in the middle of the river at least 5 times a few weeks ago. I never thought I'd say this but I miss Lake Michigan so much. Wah!

2. Do you believe in dragons and unicorns?
Um, no. However, I did have high hopes for the Komodo Dragon Josh and I visited at Shedd Aquarium last spring. Josh is pretty into said dragons and briefed me about them before our visit. I guess they are the only animal that preys on humans and are only found in Madagascar. I expected Shedd's Komodo to be taunting and leering at us from behind the glass. Instead, he sunned himself on a rock and barely lifted his head. BOR-ing.

3. What is your favorite fruit?
Pineapple.

4. Do you smoke?
No way. I've never even tried smoking because inhaling smoke never seemed very appealing to me. And now that I've seen what smoking can do to your oral health (in addition, of course, to the destructive systemic effects), I strongly encourage everyone who does smoke to quit! (shout out to Mom here for doing a tremendous job trying to quit smoking right now. I'm very proud of you, Mom!)

5. What are your bedtime rituals?
Jump in bed and fall asleep --> wake up startled --> refuse to get ready --> slide out of bed, usually onto floor in protest --> brush teeth, wash face, floss --> change into pajamas --> moisturize (face, arms, chapstick) --> set two alarm clocks (7 minutes apart) --> turn on white noise-producing machine (fan or sound machine) --> sometimes put on sleep eye mask --> hopefully catch some z's!

Sometimes in the winter, I turn on a heated blanket 20 minutes before I get into bed and then turn it off once I get in. Mmmm, toasty. What can I say? I'm a high maintenance sleeper.

xoxox

Dry socket to me!

Perhaps I jumped the gun a little early in my April 16th post; it's actually now that school's out for the summer. Technically, school's been "out" since August 1st but as I mentioned before, I chose to do a 2 week head start rotation in the oral surgery department. It was kind of slow and yucky at times but overall I learned a lot and also did my first dozen or so extractions! I'll tell you, of all the wild and technique-sensitive dentistry I've learned, extractions are perhaps the most unnerving because there's just no undoing a screw up. Let's just say I double and triple checked which tooth I was supposed to be taking out!

In other news, my sister has returned to Beantown after a brief stint in Grand Rapids to start a new job next week. She'll be working for a non-profit organization called Akshaya Patra that provides mid-day meals to malnourished school children throughout India. I couldn't be more proud of her and am looking forward to watching her career grow and evolve with her changing interests and experiences. I'm also thrilled to have a base in Boston again--I plan on visiting the New England area a lot in the months to come as I start my search for post-graduation opportunities. Yikes!

I went home last weekend to spend some quality time with my parents, my pupster, and my sister before she left. We did a whole lotta nothing which is the way it should be when you're home. My Mom made some sweeeeeet homemade vegetarian Swedish meatballs for me which had been on my mind since I jealously watched Josh devour a plate of the real deal at IKEA a few weekends prior. I just love me some Swedish meatballs.

I did whip out the camera twice during the weekend, once for a brief photo shoot with Raja...:



...and another time to snag a picture of this unfortunately named restaurant next to my sister's tailor:



Ah, Grand Rapids. Speaking of my old stomping grounds, Josh and I are scheduled next weekend for our annual East Kentwood High School camping trip at Bruin Lake. It looks like some of my friends from good ol' EK who haven't been able to make it in years past are in for this year and I'm looking forward to it. We haven't even pulled the tent out of the storage unit yet this summer! Here's to two and a half days of dirty feet, smelling like smoke, and burning the roof of your mouth on hobo pies. Hooray!

I'll check in later during my mini vacay with pictures. Perhaps there will be one or two of the CN Tower if Josh and I can swing a last-minute, el cheapo trip to Toronto.

Au revoir!

xoxox