Thursday, July 9, 2009

boredom

Strangely, the schedule last week offered me a whole 48 continuous hours off this weekend. Knowing that my family was playing in the sun, swimming, having a picnic with good friends, and enjoying a family reunion made for an acute case of homesickness. Hanging around the intern house during a holiday weekend seemed like a bummer. With KD's car still in the shop, leaving the intern house meant either walking or a bus trip.

So KD and I ventured out on Sun Metro Route 50 to the movie theater. Public Enemies was playing, and given that my dad had quite an interest in outlaws, and our family had toured Little Bohemia when we were kids, it seemed like the movie of choice for the day. It was enjoyable, and fun to try to pick out the Wisconsin locales where some of the scenes were filmed. And a trip out of the intern house always brings an opportunity to flush the toilet paper, which we all do with great delight when we're away.

But a movie, even a movie that you get to on a bus ride, only kills about 4 hours. We knew when we left that we would probably miss one birth, because the mom was not a first timer, and she was already at 6 cm dilation when we left. Sure enough, she had birthed by the time we got back. Two more women were in labor by then, and seemingly neck and neck to the finish line. So, even though I wasn't scheduled to work, I put on my lab coat and hung around the clinic. There's always something to do if you're a willing body.

Because the two women were really birthing quite close to each other, I ended up assisting at the second birth. Then, because I really didn't have much else to do, I helped with the clean-up. Then I helped package tools for sterilizing. Then I attempted to sterilize. Then I hung out and talked with the 1st on (KD), and the staff midwife. Until 2:20. In the morning. What was I thinking?

So the next day, I was up only an hour or two later than my normal. I ended up spending most of Sunday on the couch. Literally. A total couch potato. I've read the books I came with, I've knitted some things, I've done my laundry. I've looked up a lot of random things, much to my roommates' chagrin because I always share the information with them. And while the intern house could use a little cleaning, I was really not that motivated for that kind of activity. Oh, yes, and the internet at the house/clinic is still non-functioning. Computers really aren't that fun without the internet.

Along comes an innocent enough FaceBook challenge from my sister, Juj. She got 63 words out of Charlotte, and could anyone beat it. Honestly, I really only wanted to get 64 words--sibling rivalry and all. I spent about an hour, and had 65 acceptable words. So I posted my count, and even my list. It's turned into a pretty funny interchange among Juj and her friend Toni and me. And it served to help me kill another 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

There were no births on Sunday, but seeing that there are 54 clients scheduled to birth sometime this month, something tells me that there won't be much leisure time for me between now and the time I leave. Which, by the way, is only a little more than a week away!

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