Quickies: Exams, In 'n Out, and Old Friends

I know it has been a while since I last posted. It has been pretty darn busy round these parts lately. Here's a little update:

1. Exams:
I took two exams over the weekend. On Thursday night, after finishing work around 630pm, I drove to Bakersfield and spent the night because on Friday morning, bright and early, I had my Surgical Shelf exam. 100 questions, multiple choice, 2 hours. Not too bad. We must pass this exam in order to pass the Surgery rotation. When that exam finished, around 1030am, I went back to my hotel, packed up, got in my car, and drove to Los Angeles. I spent the weekend at the Crown Plaza Hotel (a very nice hotel, indeed - I wouldn't want to pay the rack rate for a room, but I got the room through Priceline and was extremely pleased with the comfort, friendliness of the staff, and location - my room had a view of the LAX runways so I got to watch airplanes all weekend - HEAVEN!) Well, I didn't watch airplanes ALL weekend...the majority of my time was spent studying and preparing for my exam on Monday - the USMLE Step 2 CS exam. About 8 hours, this exam has 12 standardized patients (actors) who you must act as the Doctor for and conduct a thorough history and physical exam. Lots of fun. The exam finished right around 430pm - dreaded RUSH HOUR and my only freeway was the 405. Luckily, I was able to avoid traffic until I reached the 10 freeway, where the 405 became a parking lot. Therefore I did the only logical thing: took the 10 to Santa Monica beach and chilled on the beach for a few hours until traffic went away, then I zoomed to Fresno in about 3 hours.

2. In 'n Out:
Over the weekend in LA I spent quite some time at the In 'n Out by LAX on Sepulveda Blvd. That place is ALWAYS a zoo with a bunch of people and even more cars in the drive-thru outside. But the reason I love it, besides the food, is that the airplanes are LITERALLY just over you coming in for a landing at LAX. Took my breath away time after time after time.

3. Old Friends:
Despite being holed up on the 14th floor of the Crown Plaza studying vigorously, I still did find some time to hang out with some old friends. I saw friends from Fresno and LA and spent a little time in the evenings unwinding with them, which was super nice. I even met up with a friend who I had not seen since graduating from high school in 2000. That was pretty darn cool.

Overall, Santa Monica beach and boardwalk pretty much became my new favorite place because I spent so much time there over this past weekend. It has been just a busy month. My Pediatric rotation at UCSF-Fresno is amazing, but super busy. Between long hours there, trying to studying for my exams and actually going down to SoCal for the exams, I'm exhausted.

Time to sleep.