Proud new owner of a white coat

Lots of stuff going on this weekend.

Yesterday I did the 5K AIDS Run/Walk with some of my classmates. It was a gorgeous day for it, the setting was beautiful with the downtown skyline and the lake, and we had a great time. Afterwards, we went out for pizza. And then I came home and totally crashed... it's been a busy week and I was just done.

I managed to get up early this morning though, since I had stuff to do. I did some laundry and went grocery shopping. I wanted to get a new pair of shoes to go with the outfit I was planning on wearing to the ceremony but I decided that would be too extravagant. Unfortunately the shoes I had were really uncomfortable and I wound up standing and walking for far longer than I had anticipated and by the end of the night my feet were burning with pain. But I saved money. :)

I was rather ambivalent about the white coat ceremony to begin with, not for reasons intrinsic to the ceremony itself but because of my family circumstances surrounding it. My parents went through a bitter and nasty divorce a few years ago and things are still really rough. My mom told me that I had to choose... I could invite her or my dad but not both. Although she definitely has her reasons for being very angry with my dad, I thought (and still think) that this was entirely inappropriate. So basically I told her that I wasn't going to play that game. I sent an invitation to each of them and I said that if she didn't want to come then that was fine with me, but that I wasn't about to take sides. She elected not to come, and therefore none of that side of my family came (I don't blame them for not wanting to get in the middle of this). She did call me this afternoon and told me that she wished she could have been there and that she hoped I could understand why she wasn't. I don't, really, but I just let it go. I wish I could make her see that this sort of behavior only hurts herself and hurts me, but I can't.

So, anyway, my father came down from Milwaukee and my boyfriend came down from Madison and I was very happy to have them there, especially since they both just had to turn right around and drive back to Wisconsin, so it was pretty much a giant pain in the ass for each of them. Sunday evening seems like a pretty silly time to hold this sort of event to me but, whatever. It was very well done and I'm glad I went.

Afterwards, I went out and met a bunch of second and fourth years, along with a smattering of my first year classmates. It was a great time and I met some people from my class that I hadn't really had a chance to talk with before, so that was good.

O-Week, here I come!