Back to work!!

Last Wednesday was my final day of what has essentially been a prolonged vacation.  I have worked a little here and there since the internship ended June 30th, but have also been quite fortunate to enjoy a good bit of time off!  I moved into a new place on Wednesday that is right on a lake and about a 10 minute drive to work.  I'll take some pictures around here one day and make a post about the new digs.  I will say it was the easiest move I ever made...not far from Jill and Tony's house, and literally took about 5 minutes to unload the car.  My life currently fits into 2 duffel bags, 2 book bags and 9 flat rate boxes...crazy, but kind of cool at the same time!

Jill had the afternoon off on Wednesday, so we adventured on a hike up Moolani, which is a small ridge between Kailua and Ko'olau Mountains.  The trail went pretty much straight up the knife edge of this ridge, no switchbacks whatsoever...crazy Hawaiians....  Towards the top, there were several rocky areas that had ropes hanging down from them so you could half rope/half rock climb to the top.  The view from the top was pretty amazing though, so well worth the hike.  The trail had continually narrowed as we ascended, till eventually we were standing about 5 feet below the summit, solely because there was a little area where the trail widened to about 2 feet wide.  Anywhere below or above this was more like 1 foot wide, with very steep drop offs on either side, so we were both happy to stop there.  And now when I hear the phrase 'tipety top', this peak is what I will think of!  You could keep going along the ridge from this point, but the description of the trail said it got harder and narrower still...we both thought that the 1st peak was enough for that day =).

Climb on, Jill!

See that slightly rocky knife edge along the ridge?  Yah, that's the trail going up the third peak.. You can also see the Ko'olau Mountains in the background, they still amaze me to wake up to in the mornings!

View from the other side of the ridge, looking over Kailua and out to the ocean.  The lake at my right shoulder is actually where I live now!

I started at Feather and Fur on Thursday, working the swing shift and helping get the clinic ready for our new late hours of operation.  I totally struggled the first day, trying to remember where different vaccines go, learning a new computer system and trying to learn everyone's name.  The latter parts are improving daily, but there is still lots of general practice stuff that I'm pretty sure we didn't learn much of in school...or maybe I've just forgotten it after a year of emergency work.  I made my first surgery appointment for a mass removal -- something in the past year I would have said, "Please go see your regular vet"....now that's me!  The staff is very nice and work well together so far from what I've seen.  There is a huge difference in skill/responsibility level of the technicians here compared to the internship though- so definitely need to re-learn some things that I haven't had to think much about in the last year simply because our staff took care of it in Annapolis.  Here, it's not that they couldn't do the same thing with training, but just that it's not normally part of their job to do.  My guess is that this is more the norm for practicing hospitals, and we were a little spoiled during the internship and at school since they were bigger, referral hospitals to have such an advanced set-up.

Saturday before work, my new housemate and I headed to the beach park to see if we could catch her friends playing volleyball.  There, one of several similar Hawaiian type experiences occurred, something that I'm totally loving about this place.  We didn't find her friends, but ended up at a fully set up volleyball court with a guy sitting at a picnic table beside the court.  He said he sets up his net every weekend for people to play on, no charge or anything, just people having a good time.  We chatted with him for a bit, and then bumped the volleyball around for about 20 minutes or so as I would need to leave for work before enough others showed up to play a game.  When we left, it was to fond farewells, invites to join them again, offers of whatever food/snacks he had brought to share, etc.  Several small encounters have been similar in passing- such as my boss letting me borrow his extra car, no questions asked about my driving record, insurance, etc.  People just seem pretty up-front and nice to others in general.  I think it's all the sunshine...

Monday was Labor Day- and even though our hospital is now going 24/7, too many people had arranged time off in advance for labor day to stay open that day.  My suggestion for our new door sign- "Now open 24 hours, 7 days a week....most of the time...."
I checked in at the hospital that morning to look in on the last few patients that were to be discharged in the AM.  Then, I was fortunate enough not only to have the day off, but to be off when the rest of the world also had a day off!  Jill's parents were visiting from Maui for the weekend, so I was adopted for the day to tag along.  We played tennis for a couple of hours, followed by delicious snow cones to cool off from the hot sun!  The place we went to is now pretty popular because President Obama visited there on a recent trip to Oahu.  There's a picture of him on the front door with the sales clerks, all sporting their Aloha shirts.  After living so close to DC, it didn't really phase me that he had been there as we frequently would be in the same place of reference as the President and family.  Playing kickball in front of the White House, eating at his favorite burger joint, being stuck in traffic for the motorcade to go by or seeing Air Force One fly overhead, Michele Obama and kids eating at the restaurant you just ate at the night before they were there....but I can see how it would be such a cool thing, being so far from DC on the island.  And somehow, it also made me feel more at home- even though we are on a distant island, we're still part of the country, still close enough for a visit from the chief.
For the afternoon, we went on a hike through the botanical gardens, with a little inadvertent, off-trail adventuring to boot!  The whole family had a good sense of humor about the adventure though and we made it back to the car all in one piece save a few bug bites.  To top off such a great day, we all enjoyed a delicious Italian meal, followed by an evening of playing board and card games at Jill's place.
So although some things are different here, some things are much the same- reminding me of good times and friends from the years gone by.  This definitely helps in the adjustment phase of this new part of life, but I hope you all get to experience the uniquely Hawaiian aspects of island life for yourselves!