University of Washington

After a two week hiatus for Christmas and New Year's, the suit is back from the dry cleaners and I'm once again perfecting my small talk skills. To re-cap my weeks off:

We had a lovely (rainy) Christmas in Seattle. Adam decided to stay on the west coast and was subjected to a crazy Christmas, Tylee-style. He took some nice pictures of us all and the puppies. New Year's was another rainy adventure. Adam and I were at REI (not an uncommon place to find us) when he got a call from his roommate that his garage was flooded. We raced to his house to find a steady drip coming from the garage ceiling. Have you ever tried to get a plumber to come out at 9 pm on New Year's Eve? Given the steady rain we had had in Seattle since Christmas, there were a lot of flooded basements and backed up sewers. So Adam's broken pipe was low on the priority list. We turned off the water, I went out and rented movies, Adam cleaned up the flood, and I made dinner. It actually was a lovely evening.

Today I had my interview at UW. I was unsure what to expect. After UCSD, I was so sure I wanted to go to San Diego that I actually didn't want to like UW. I didn't want to have to choose between Seattle and San Diego. I was hoping I would hate the UW, and it would make my decision easy. No such luck. I loved UW, which I guess I knew I would. I have enjoyed every rotation I have done here, and have loved everyone I have worked with. It's an excellent program and I would do very well to get my training here.

UW is a more competitive program that any of the others I have interviewed at, so ranking it first is not a guarantee that I will end up here. But I feel like it is the right choice for me. I will rank UCSD 2nd, and would be thrilled to end up there as well. It then becomes a tough choice between OHSU (Portland--west coast! great city! close to Seattle and mountains!) and Michigan (Ann Arbor--great program! nice, smaller city! close to Detroit!).

I still have a few more interviews. I ended up canceling University of Arizona, because it just isn't going to be competitive with the programs I've already interviewed at. I also canceled Beth Israel, in Boston. I think I'm really interested in going to a smaller, less prestigious program where I won't have to work so hard to make it clear how brilliant I truly am. I also like programs that have a less well defined hierarchy, where residents and interns are not treated as though they are the low man on the totem pole (even though they are). UW is considered a fairly well known and well respected program, but it's the west coast. It's a different world out here. I also added UC Davis, just for kicks.

My updated interview schedule for the remaining month:

Jan. 12th-13th--to Boston, hang out, go to museums, eat in the North End

Jan. 14th-15th--tour small liberal arts colleges with Kendell

Jan. 16th--interview at Dartmouth and return to Seattle

Jan. 19th-20th--fly to Sacramento, interview at UC Davis

Jan. 26th-29th--skiing in Tahoe

Jan. 29th--return to Seattle in time for Adam's 29th birthday!!

Feb. 3rd-6th--fly to San Jose, CA and drive to Carmel, CA for a conference; skipping out on the conference after I give my talk on Friday and drive to Big Sur and various other central coast attrctions

Feb. 11th--road trip to Montana!!

Feb.12th-Mar.10th--lovely Great Falls, MT hanging out with Kat and Tom, introducing them to the wonderful Sip-n-Dip Lounge at the O'Haire Motor Inn!