Heads and Tales: OR, bird cages, wreaths, and paintings...a conglomeration of my month!

This is possibly the longest I've gone without blogging since I started The Tale of Two Heads. I haven't necessarily been busier than normal per say, but I've been pretty damn tired. Being in the OR this month has really taken it out of me. Not so much the early mornings but more so having to go to class in the afternoons and study at night. That's the hard part. But being in the OR is so two-sided. It's very easy as a student to be pumped about assisting in surgeries, but it almost feels a little wrong to be so excited when you stop to think about the nervous and worried patients behind the charts and drapes, well, except for the elective procedures...I don't feel quite so bad getting excited about those. But with that being said, it's all part of the learning process, right? Anyway, I've seen some pretty awesome stuff in the OR...a facelift, mastectomy, craniotomies, rhinoplasties, total knee arthroplasties, vasectomy, tonsillectomies/adnoidectomies, diskectomies, cervical fusions, pancreatectomies, spleenectomy, inguinal hernia repairs, cholecyctectomies, sigmoidectomy, uterine prolapse repair...hmm, that might be all. :) And I've loved all of it. With that being said, I'm very curious about exploring the medical side of medicine. Surgery is incredibly interesting, but I can't wait to see what else is out there.

We have one week left of the semester and then summer break commences ... just in time for everyone else's to end. OMG I'm so ready for a break in school. Gonna be honest. I'm so over everything right now. I'm over living in an apartment, I'm over living in Birmingham, I'm over going to class every. single. day. To make myself feel better I daydream about living in Charleston and visiting the ocean every single day instead. Mmmm. Can't wait.

So, not much has been going on here in Bham. A few weeks back we went home for a retirement party for our band directors. They've played a significant role in both mine and Adam's lives, and they're very close friends of both our families so we most definitely wanted to support them. It was wild seeing so many alum there! And it's always fun to catch up and hear what everyone's doing now. As much of a whirlwind weekend as it was, we're both glad we went.

These past two weekends we've gotten the dogs out of the house and visited a farmer's market and a sidewalk sale in downtown Homewood. There definitely are fun and cute little areas of Birmingham. This weekend we also went to an antique store. I'm on the lookout for an old bird cage...I wanna make something kinda like this...

See, I've kinda neglected my plants outside and some of them croaked on me. :/ So I figured if I got a bunch of succulents it'd be pretty hard for me to kill them! And why not display them in a cute little bird cage?? Anyway, we found several little bird cages, but I didn't feel like spending $40 on them so we walked away. Can you negotiate in an antique store? I don't even know...

Over the past month or so I also made a few wreaths! I made one for myself and one for Bryan and Whitney for their new home. This one is B&W's:

And this one's mine:

I like mine, I'm just not sure I love it. It's growing on me still. I'm much happier with the one I made for B&W's new home, which is a good thing because I don't think you should keep your best work for yourself. Anyway, I actually gave it to them a few days after July 4th (their housewarming party was on the 6th), but I see nothing wrong with showing a little patriotism at anytime/all the time. If I wanna hang a little red, white, and blue after Independence Day then dammit I will! Merica! People have American flags hanging year round, right? No difference.

I'm about to make this wreath for my sister-in-law. I'll report back on how it turns out later.

Last thing. So, you may remember me talking about a painting I saw in Charleston back around Christmas. It was at a friend of a friend's house, Adam and I were staying there to visit the city. The painting was very inspirational and really helped me get past the big bumps in my first two semesters of PA school. It's my computer backdrop and the lock screen photo on my phone. To refresh your memory here's a pic of the painting:

Well as it turns out, this painting now belongs to me. :) The friend of a friend got married recently, and in the midst of combining homes with her new husband it was decided that she didn't really need it anymore so our mutual friend, Katie Stone, passed it on to me. It meant a whole lot to me. As silly as it may sound it's very special that I get to keep this. Thank you Jordan and KPS. :)

So anyway, that's about it. That's all the updates I've got! Adam and I have a busy break planned so there'll be a bunch to come, but until then!