The Tempest

Yesterday evening my mom and I went to see the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis’ production of "The Tempest" in Forest Park.  It was such a great way to spend the afternoon and evening…  We got there early (around 4:00pm) and claimed a nice patch of ground for our blanket right up near the stage.  We did some crosswords and watched the clouds, read the program and wandered the gounds…  Around 6:30m the "Green Show" started.  There were minstrels, jugglers, aerial acts, a shorter/easier to understand production of the play ("Tempest in a Flash") to give people an idea of the plot – many things to keep us entertained.  At 8:00pm the show started and, wow, was it cool.  The stage (see below) was very well crafted and fit right in with the surroundings.  The acting was great, and thanks to "Tempest in a Flash" I could really follow what was going on the whole time.  We had a nice picnic dinner of sandwiches, fruit and veggies, and cheese and crackers.

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Another fun day

Today was totally packed and so much fun.  My mom and I played Whoonu and Hoopla (games from the creators of Cranium) and then set out for City Museum.  We had such a great time there – playing in MonstroCity, watching the Everyday Circus, exploring the Enchanted Caves, and (of course) sliding down the numerous slides!

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There was a snowflake-making table in Art City in the City Museum and there were all sorts of animal designs – they even had a koala!!!  I made the koala one and had it laminated so it wouldn’t fall apart.  It was awesome – the coolest art project I have ever done. 🙂

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After the City Museum, we went and had manicures (three cheers for no more hangnails!) and went grocery shopping for our picnic at the park tomorrow.  Then we stopped at the quintessential St. Louis gathering spot, Ted Drewes, for some frozen custard treats on the way home.

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Golf

Once I was done with clinic and lectures for the day, my mom and I went out to Golf Headquarters to try our hand at the driving range.  Even though I have only had a few short golf lessons, I retained enough to be able to teach my mom how to hit the ball fairly well.  We had a great time (even if it did start to rain a little).

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Miller Fine Art

My mom and I walked up to the neighborhood art gallery yesterday evening for a show….

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We looked at the artwork and met Jeff Miller, the owner of the gallery.  He was an interesting person. 🙂  The whole atmosphere was very laid back and friendly and I enjoyed myself.  I hope he continues to have shows frequently, it’s a nice way to spend some time.

He had an easel set up outside for a "community art project" so my mom and I each added our little bits to it:

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My mom’s corner:

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My weird (and kind of scary looking) doodle:

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Bunny!

You can barely see him in these camera-phone pictures, but it’s as close as I could get without scaring him off.  Cute little bunny. 🙂  I saw him while I was walking home from Starbucks today.  One of his hopper legs was injured and withered up, but that didn’t seem to slow him down any.  I like that we have bunnies living in our neighborhood. I like that when I get up early to leave for the hospital I sometimes see them in our yard.  And when we move back home in a year there are bunnies waiting for me there too. 🙂

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Star Wars III – No spoilers :-)

I saw Star Wars III last night while sitting on a comfy leather sofa at the Moolah.  I will just say it was very good (better than I and II) and I am looking forward to seeing it again next weekend… mainly because I want to take my mom to the Moolah and that’s the only movie it’s playing, but also because it was good and I enjoyed it and I’m sure I’ll understand it better the second time around. 

See, unfortunately for me the whole Star Wars saga, no matter how many times I’ve seen or talked about it, seems to evade my brain’s attempts to hold it in long term memory.  Luke and Leia, Obi Wan, Darth Vader – I can remember them and I know who is good and who is bad…. but then you through in Jabba the Hutt, Darth Sidious, Boba Fett, Count Dooku, Emperor Palpatine, or General Grievous and I get all confused (I had to go to IMDB.com and look up those names because I can’t even remember them..).  Who are they?  Do we like them?  If not, why not?  Were they always bad (or good)?

So confusing it is. (That’s Yoda.  I know Yoda.  He’s cool.)

Internal Medicine

Tomorrow is my last day of inpatient internal medicine at SLU Hospital.  🙂  Then I just have 1 month of outpatient internal medicine before my MSIII year is over.  Crazy how fast it goes… and how slow it goes.  I feel like I’ve been working here at SLU for ages, when really it’s just been 4 weeks.  My time at the VA just flew by, and I’m hoping that outpatient flies by as well (and that I get a lot of studying done!)

I’ve got my summer exams all scheduled now – I take the written USMLE Step2 (CK) on Monday July 11 and I have the standardized patient USMLE Step 2 (CS) scheduled for Thursday July 14 (or maybe it’s Friday the 15th.. I’ll have to recheck).  I’m at that point where I’m nervous about having enough time to study, but I also want to get them over with.

I still haven’t heard from UW or OHSU about my away rotation applications.  Supposedly OHSU started contacting students on May 12th, so  I might try to give them a call sometime next week if I still haven’t heard.  UW claims June 1st as their communication start date, so I’ll just wait with eager anticipation.

AJ got me a nice little stamp that says "Jill Cook MSIV" for me to use next year (well, in a couple of months) for when I sign my progress nots and orders and stuff.  It’s really cool, and even though my handwriting is fine so I don’t really NEED a stamp, I like it a lot and it makes me feel special.  🙂

City Museum

This is "MonstroCity" at the City Museum here in St. Louis.  It is a huge suspended maze of random architecture that you can walk, crawl, climb, and slide your way through.  It was definitely built with adults in mind, because all but a very few little parts of it are nicely sized for adult adventurers.  As you can (kind of) see, there is a firetruck, a big crane, and two smaller airplanes all built in.  It is amazingly awesome and fun to play in!  If any of you come to visit here in St. Louis, make sure this is a part of your trip!  Oh, and bonus for those of you who would prefer to explore such an attraction with minimal children around, the City Museum is open until 1am on Friday and Saturday nights, and there’s a little bar/cafe on the ground floor that opens in the evenings as well.

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