2021 Rememberlutions

Birthday flowers for both of us from a dear friend

The rememberlutions jar isn't as full as it has been previous years. Part of that is me forgetting to write things down; part is having a list on my old phone that didn't make the transition with other files to the new phone; and part is the on-going pandemic providing far fewer ticketed opportunities, although goodness knows there are enough free Zooms to fill in the void!

Here was what I pulled out of the jar:

Every time someone told me they wanted to take my nutrition course. I've described it in more detail here. We're halfway through the month, and I'm hoping a) to get a poster and eventually a medical education publication out of it, b) that the course will be offered regularly at least once a year, and c) that it might give me enough teaching credits to drop a half day of clinic. TBD!

"The best teaching we've ever had." Both interns on one of my inpatient teams told me this during feedback, and it was very gratifying. I am not an expert in clinical reasoning, and I can't cite the latest drug studies, but I can teach other people about the language we use speaking and writing notes, break down concepts into simple terms, and of course broaden someone's horizons through medical history and humanities.

This was the same team of residents that was excited to play hooky from a lunchtime lecture in order to attend my Grand Rounds lecture on the history of polio vaccination. Hey, I gave Grand Rounds as a second-year faculty! You can watch it on YouTube here.

I finally got my own desk and renovated my office space.

Rafting on the Lehigh River with my parents in June, even though I got a wicked sunburn on the front of legs (blog post). Drizzly hiking pic above.

I want to remember every pretty sunrise (or rainbow!) if I happened to be commuting that early, and several lovely sunsets. 

Christmas brunch with Dear Husband was a truly special occasion, a rate date in this time of pandemic that we were able to squeeze in amidst the holiday bustle, work, and COVID (blog post).

The time when a colleague liked my answer to a medical student question about standards of knowledge so much that he said aloud, "Wow, I wish that had been recorded."

A cold if beautiful autumn daytrip to Ohiopyle Falls and Frank Lloyd Wright's Kentuck Knob.

Every time a patient told me how happy they were that I am their doctor. One of the office staff even said that she would come to me if she didn't already have a PCP. 

I've also had a couple coworkers comment on my "style"; I don't think of myself as a naturally fashionable person, but over the years I have accumulated a few signature pieces, and it's nice to be noticed if I put in a little more effort than usual.

Carrot cake for Easter

Watching Rosamunde chase a string around in the evenings. She truly is a fierce huntress!

My ticket to Die Zauberfloete at the Pittsburgh Opera. When it looked like the pandemic was lifting last year, I purchased us season tickets to the PO. The other four shows are in 2022, and I've just invested in some KN95 masks for the both of us. ::sigh::

A really nice walk on the Frick Mansion grounds one fine evening (blog post here).

Hosting Easter dinner for a father and his daughter, complete with plastic egg hunt and ukulele concert.

Everything about our family vacation to Lake Anna: from the location to the company to our 16th anniversary celebration to the model rocket launch to the fishing!

I did a lot of cross-stitch. I even gave another historian of medicine syphilis (below)!

Our weekend stay at the Gaylord Opryland Resort for Thanksgiving/Christmas was the first time I got on an airplane since March 2020.

There were also a couple of older things: the slip that said, "my very last graduation ever--by Zoom/Teams (thanks, COVID)!" was from 2020. (Here's the blog post.) The ticket for our Frank Lloyd Wright tour of the Florida Southern College grounds from 2019, a blog post I neglected to write because we traveled home the next day. I also found a sweet handwritten note from two medical students, also from spring 2020, thanking me for being a good senior resident.