the first holidays of the year

I broke my tradition this year... instead of a vegan thanksgiving at my place, my family left for Scotland, and I spent the day with Mark's family in Andover. It was nice, but very different then what I am used to. Mark's mom loves everything PERFECT. The china dishware, the pre-sliced everything, it must look perfect. And she loves to spoil her children, which is probably the only thing about Mark's family that irks me from time to time, but I need to suck it up and deal with things that are not how I would do it. My mother gave me a nice little lecture about being a control freak in certain situations. She is so right, but it is funny, in some situations I can be irrational and weird about controlling things, yet other situations I am completely comfortable to sit back and let them happen as they might. I missed being in charge and cooking all the food myself, but I made some delicious eggplant boats (which no one else ate since Mark;s mom made enough food for 12 even though there was only 6 of us). I also made a chocolate banana pie, which was too banana-y at first, but with time really grew on me, and I loved it. Mark's mom also made me tofurky and there was a sweet potatoe dish and stuffed mushrooms that were vegan. It was very sweet of her.

I spent most of the non eating time talking with Mark's mom and his sister Jackie. Mark and his little brother (my age I think) and his dad spent their time drinking beer watching TV...so cliche.

The night before Thanksgiving was, well, kind of a shit show. I went out with Mark, his friend Josh, and his sister Jackie. We got WAY too drunk. I don't remember parts of the night. It is all a blur. And we all woke up with roaring hangovers. Not doing that again for awhile, but at least it was the first time I have done it since June I think.

I have spent most of the rest of my four day weekend studying for boards here and there. People keep telling me not to worry, and amazingly I am not worried (I take it in two weeks) but I will feel guilty if I am totally lazy and then don't do well, so I am going to study a moderate amount and then feel confident i will pass, which is all that matters.

I am on ambulatory now, good hours 8-5, but it is a two hour commute for me, so my days are still sickeningly long. But once I get through this rotation I am basically done! It is all elective time, except for my three week pathology rotation, which is known as the easiest rotation we have. And the more I ride around with dairy vets and visit farm after farm, and see the conditions, I am so fucking glad I am vegan.