Portmanteau Suitcase

San Diego Quaren-Queen!

What does a blog that mostly focuses on trip reports and travel do when travel is off-the-table for awhile? Go dark, in this case! But I want to continue writing so while COVID-19 is limiting travel, I’ll start writing my deepest, darkest, TMI secrets. I kid. There is absolutely no way that’s happening. I have been reading blogs that are on pretty impressive writing streaks so, no time like the present!

After spending the first part of May in a hotel room in LA, I came back by bus on 13 May. The Mercy pulled in on Friday, 15 May and, overall, it’s great to be back. It’s an honor to serve and be part of a ship whose mission brings so much hope. It’s also nice to be back home since the surge/backup capabilities of the Mercy weren’t needed- which is a good thing! I’m glad LA didn’t have an overwhelming situation similar to NYC.

You know who else is happy to be home? The birds. That may be an overstatement. They loved my in-laws house. They seem to tolerate me. But at least they were good houseguests (by report) and they certainly don’t seem to have missed any meals. #quarentine15, but maybe in grams.

Things looked pretty good when I got home. The houseplants and garden looked good, and I have one baby zucchini, one stunted tomato, and lots of blossoms. Fingers crossed! I also fixed the internet, aka, waited for the Spectrum Repairman to fix the internet. Two-part solution: replace the corroded external connector and, when the connection was still dead, replace the modem. Success! The internet is now “blazing fast!”

So many pieces that look the same. Sand!

I have started many quarantine hobbies. SMS and I are working on a puzzle. I cannot think of a more mentally draining endeavor. I sit down enthusiastically and within 5 minutes, I feel like an eye-strained, pattern-blind monster with no energy. It’s great!

I also made sourdough bread, which turned out pretty well. Starter thanks go to my sister- and brother-in-law. I followed the Tartine recipe, which is insane. I took it one step at a time. It made for a delicious loaf of bread. My tips for next time (oh, yes, there will be a next time) are to use my standmixer at the first combined dough step and, biggest thing, use baking flour, not all-purpose. I mean, the recipe even said this but I had what I had on-hand.

Finally, I bought knitting kits and started the first one. Now, I’m the proud maker/owner of a cowl, perfect for the start of Summer!

I have read a lot over the last three months. I watched Call My Agent/Deux Pour Cent, which is an amazing French show about a Parisian talent agency. I’m trying to figure out a show that SMS and I would both like, but that’s sometimes tough. The Great is out. SMS knew that from the period piece costumes alone. I’ve heard great things about Ozark but we watched the first episode and he thinks it’s a show I’d quit because of violence/nightmares, a là Breaking Bad. That could happen. The search continues.

This past weekend, we extended our quarantine bubble and had a Medlock Ames wine tasting with my in-laws (4 other people, 6 total). The takeaway lessons were low since it was easy to talk over a Zoom tasting but everyone thought the wines were great. We also talked about the book Cork Dork and the utility of the Coravin system.

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Finally, I got some super-cool Facemasks as a frontline worker from Mark’s cousin’s company Goldsheep! They are great and I’m really appreciative to Keri and her team!

More Mercy

Hello from Restriction of Movement (ROM) status! Since SARS-CoV-2 decided to show up on Day 16 of the mission (boo!), our leaders not only moved quickly to take care of the patients/close contacts, they also decided to minimize the hazards of close quarters shipboard living by sending most of us to hotels. Today is Day 10 since I moved off the ship the morning of 4/16.

So, the above picture shows my last lunch on the USNS Mercy and it was delicious! I’m dining al fresco because one of the initial social distancing measures was putting a mess tent/dining area on the help pad. It was a gorgeous afternoon. They must have known we were about to leave for the deliciousness of hotel food and they decided to up their game.

On 4/16, I woke early for my last Mercy donut 5K. I was a little slow but I knew that this would be my last chance for awhile. Gorgeous morning.

Here I am on the bus with our silly t-shirt masks. The rules kept changing, which is fine. We’ve never been through anything like this before. We now have to wear N-95 masks outside of our rooms.

The first hotel I stayed at was the Doubletree Downtown. It was nice. The room was a reasonable size and there was a small area that I could roll out my exercise mat. Each lunch and dinner came with a DoubleTree cookie which is delicious but they are very rude and put the calorie count on the back of the bag. Why is a cookie that small 330 calories?

The food was fine, but not great PLUS my friend and I had a craving for delicious food. The above picture is of my friend Sable (urologist) and I having a socially distanced lunch of Onigiri. Yum!

And I had visitors! Mark’s cousin Amy, her husband Johnny and their son came over. They were so nice and brought presents! They are the best and repping their GoldSheep masks, a company owned by another one of Mark’s cousins. We had to follow ROM rules so I couldn’t invite them in but it was a nice moment of social contact!

On 18 April, my family had a Zoom promotion ceremony for my brother’s promotion to Major! Huge news and an amazing achievement. I had the honor of administering the oath. It was awesome and we had a great family conversation afterwards.

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The next day, I had an awesome Zoom meeting with my college friends. It seemed a little touch-and-go based on schedules but it worked out! We had a great hour-long hangout and it was really special! What’s also special is my face- thanks for picking the best picture, Karen.

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On the 23rd, a significant number of people were switched to the Westin Bonaventure. Not sure why, but it is nicer and the food is a lot better. Above, you see my current level of critical decision-making regarding which bed do I sleep in. Sigh. I’ll get back into the OR someday.

In the interim, I have been on Instagram a lot. Popeye the Foodie Dog is an old favorite and fjamie013 is pretty funny with his fulfillment of photoshop requests.

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I have also started to take online Blender tutorials. My goal is to learn how to use the software package to make medical models off of CT scan DICOM images. For now, I set monkey heads on fire and make doughnuts (in progress).

Finally, here’s my cute cloth mask from a general surgeon’s Mom. He got a lot and offered a mask to all the surgeons in our chat group. I also have my own care package on the way with Goldsheep– I can’t wait!

Mercy, Please!

Hello, from the USNS Mercy! Here are two very different pictures of me but I’m smiling in both, I swear! The left is me eating cake on 4/1, a day before my 40th birthday and the day of the Chief’s establishment/birthday. My birthday was much more wine-free than I would have liked but it will be made up for at some point. On the right is from today when I decannulated a trach, aka pulled it out. It was not really a big deal but PPE is a big deal these days so I was protected!

Things have been slow, but this is a good thing! That is, we’re here to be emergency back-up and LA has it under control. I am a little bored and wish I were doing more but since elective surgeries are a no-go until at least 1 June throughout DoD, I wouldn’t be doing a lot more back at home. So, instead, I eat. Above are a few meals that I’ve had. A little lacking on the fresh veggies but tasty. Bonus: no dishes to clean!

So, how do I keep from looking like James Garretson in Tiger King? Exercise! I’ve run a 5K almost every day and I’ve also done a good number of yoga sessions with the urologist. She’s the only other female surgeon so we call it the Ladies of DSS meeting, usually at 10 am.

I also avoid the ship’s store, which sells unhealthy snacks as shown below:

They are also not good breath friendly, which is tough when we are supposed to wear masks. We are following the CDC guidelines, meaning cloth masks which we are pretty sure do next to nothing. But we are an organization of rule-followers so there’s that-

I have also run the ramps:

I have also run outside, where I sometimes see my friends, mask-free!

We keep a running casualty report. It usually involves the toilets/head:

The galley has machines with bossy signs, some inscrutable and some obvious:

We also stuffed plastic eggs for Easter. The eggs were provided by the USO- thank you!

View from the brow- we are very close to land!

My new favorite painting:

Catch-Up and Upcoming Trip

Over the years, I have had sporadic breaks when I wasn’t traveling/I was busy/I was lazy/etc. There has never been a month break where so much has happened. I don’t have any deep thoughts about the COVID-19 pandemic but I implore anyone reading to please listen to the experts. By this I mean, CDC, WHO, and the national treasure Dr. Anthony Fauci. My career is based on science, facts, and a healthy respect for the number of unknowns that exist in our understanding of exactly how our miraculous bodies work. Acknowledging these unknowns is a sign of humility and strength, not a reason to thereby dismiss everything someone is saying. Total certainty is impossible and while it’s comforting when someone offers it, it is likely a shallow and fallible.

So, how has COVID-19 affected me? Well, I’m embarking on the USNS Mercy to our mission in LA. While things could always change (and we were told something different up until yesterday afternoon), it seems this will likely be the destination since it was announced by the President. SMS is here in San Diego and we’ve had a great week together. Our families are healthy.

Since I do like to document my travels on this blog, I’m going to briefly sum up the last month prior to 12 March or so. This is not to trivialize the current situation. As for updates from the Mercy, I will certainly be writing privately. Not as certain what will be on the blog but I will try!

SMS and I are social media stars. Ha, ha, not really. But we are in Lucid Motor’s promo video from the reveal event. So, I grabbed a screen capture for posterity!

On 19 Feb, Michelle and I had a ladies of ENT workout and slumber party. In the evening, we went for a run in the beautiful Del Mar Heights area. Then, we drank some wine. Not a lot, but I had planned to stay over so we could workout early (5:15 am) in the morning. We took an ok aerobics/toning class, followed by an awesome spin class. Hooray for work colleagues/friends!

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That next weekend, SMS and I went on a hike on 2/23 to Muir Woods. We went in the “back way” so we could park on the road along a trailhead up Mt. Tam, near the highlighted Mountain home parking. We went on a 5 mile hike and it was awesome! There were beautiful redwoods in the gully and, as we went higher, we cleared the treelike and saw beautiful vistas.

Afterwards, we went to Sausalito and had some oysters and soup to re-energize us. We went to the Fish Peddler and it was really good. It was also a little less expensive than the restaurants in the heart of “downtown” (it’s really a small place overall).

The next weekend was the Lucid battery team’s 4th annual ski trip. We skied at Northstar and were finally able to use our Epic passes, which really do save money. We won’t get to use them this Winter but since we skied two days, we saved about $50 overall. Maybe next year we’ll try again.

Lakeside selfie on a dock near our AirBnB

We stayed at a really cute AirBnB. I would want to stay there again in the Summer, but can I tell you one annoying thing about AirBnB? The cleaning fee, taxes, and admin fees aren’t included in the room rate that pops up during the initial search. It really can add quite a large percentage to the actual amount paid. However, in fairness, AirBnB has had an amazing (for the renter) cancellation policy for COVID-19. So, I’m not anti-AirBnB, I’m anti-hidden costs and fees. Also, hosts that add a sizable cleaning fee should just rethink their room rate. Unless maybe there are tax reasons for doing so?

It snowed our last night there, which led to some adventures with tire chains on the way home but it was very pretty to look at from the inside of a warm house.

Then, things started changing. This is my colleague when we went to PAPR training. This was Tuesday, before I knew anything about the Mercy, which I first heard about on Wednesday. Such a compressed timeline!

And, in case you want to know about another problem of mine, here’s a screen capture of my camera roll. When I get home, please stage an intervention.

Weekend Review

After four weekends in a row away from Menlo Park, SMS finally got a break and I travelled North. I took Valentine’s Day off not because it’s a holiday we go all out for (honestly, it feels like Christmas just happened and who wants back-to-back gift buying pressure?), but because Lucid was having a special reveal party for reservation holders. That’s us!

The event was called, “Love is in the AIR.” The attire was evening smart and it was an incredible party. I would have loved to be there from the start, but I arrived 45 minutes into the party due to insane (but typical) traffic from the airport. The showroom was open for the first time and the interior was exquisitely luxurious. There was a craft cocktail bar, which was for the party only. Lucid will not promote a drinking driving culture in everyday operations. There were special cocktails named after the different interiors. I ordered a drink with whiskey, fig, and a sprig of burnt rosemary that they flamed then and there. Impressive!

There were a lot of delicious hors d’oeuvres that were passed. I tried most of them, but didn’t act disgracefully. I always remember a party I went to where the poor server carrying the shrimp got mobbed by people who acted like they hadn’t eaten in days. Who knows, maybe they hadn’t. But it looked like a shark thrash zone with chum in the water. So, yes, I had some food as it showed up in front of me but afterwards, SMS and I realized we hadn’t really had dinner so we split a kabab plate at Oren’s Hummus.

The car reveal was preceded by a 20 minute-ish talk by the CEO/CTO highlighting some specific advances/innovations/exclusives of the car. Then, the garage door opened in a haze of fog-machine produced atmosphere and the car rolled in. It is a beautiful car and everyone was very impressed.

We spent the rest of the party trying the VR car viewer followed by talking to several Lucid employees. It was a great time and I’m so glad we went.

Biscuits and Gravy- can you feel the romance?

The next day, SMS had to work and I hung out in Palo Alto. I went to Rumble Boxing, Blue Bottle (twice!), the mall, and the grocery store. I also did some laundry and cooked dinner for Valentine’s Day. Forget “Engagement Chicken,” I made SMS some biscuits and gravy! It turned out pretty well although I think the sausage we used the first time was better. Then we had molten lava cakes for dessert, which were very tasty. I know the menu is not pleasingly cohesive but, hey, it worked for us!

Avocado Toast: We’re such Wannabe Millennials

On Saturday, we had a Blue Bottle breakfast and shopped for veggies at the small farmer’s market. Then we headed up to Lafayette to hang out with Jyotsna and Akshay. It was a fun afternoon of eating, drinking, and socializing. We went to their friends’ house in Orinda for a bit. It was nice to talk to them. We had met once before and got along well. We headed home for dinner. I made a Zuppa Tuscana that was pretty tasty and a dupe for the Olive Garden soup for those in the know.

Sunday was our more active day. We ate breakfast at home and then went for a hike on Windy Hill. It was a gorgeous day. I feel so lucky to be able to go on such great hikes! I also made a veggie lasagna that was pretty good. Thanks Smitten Kitchen!

Monday was another work day for SMS/holiday for me. I went to Rumble and Blue Bottle. I was going to go to the museum but Jyotsna invited me to a farm tour!

We went to the Nest Box farm and it was a delight! We fed cows, chickens, goats, and sheep. We collected eggs. There was a small picnic that we supplemented with more food and (surprise!) wine. We looked at the barn, garden areas, and pet rescue rabbit area. It was a beautiful day to be outside and a really cool experience. I want to go back with SMS and stay overnight, which will allow us to do more on the farm like milk a cow!

SMS came home a little after 6. We had some dinner and after that, it was time to go to the airport since I needed to head back so I could be on time for my Tuesday clinic. It was such a great weekend!