Comments and Other Stuff

Dad said he tried to post a comment and that it just disappeared. I changed the settings where you no longer have to be a member (or signupper) of anything nor do you have to type in the encrypted word before being able to post a comment. Hopefully that works.

Also, Wendy and I are really lame about taking pictures with us actually in them. I'm always kicking myself when I'm writing these blog posts and have no pics of us enjoying these things. We'll work on that.

Relishing the Chicago Lakefront

Today was another great day in Chicago! (we're kind of on a roll right now) Mid 70s and sunny with, as usual, a chance of rain. I got out of work around 11 (the great thing about my current rotation is when I'm not on overnight call I'm either off or I'm going home early). I took care of a few things around campus, came home and did some laundry and, seeing there was a good chance of rain, I opted for an indoor workout up in our facility in the condo building. After a decent workout, and seeing that the skies weren't threatening, I decided to go for a little impromptu jog. I had expended a good bit of injury with my weights workout, so wasn't sure how far I would be able to go. P.S. I'm not a runner.

Our place is about a mile west of downtown and the lakeshore. It makes sense that when you leave our place to go for a run, you beeline it east and a little north to get to the lakefront as fast as you can. This certainly beats running north and west to the Cabrini Green . I'll save the mystique of that place for another blog, perhaps.

The Chicago Lakefront Trail is easily one of the top five best things about living in this city. It stretches an astonishing 18 miles from somewhere near Evanston (where the Northwestern undergrad campus is located) down to 71st Street. This spans not only a great distance, but traverses the foliage and flowers of Lincoln Park, the beautiful concrete jungle of downtown Chicago, the Field Museum and Soldier Field, deep down into the Southside of Chicago and the grounds of The White City of the Columbian Exposition of 1893. As you can imagine this trail sees not only a change of scenery but a huge socioeconomic contrast.

The best way to get to the lakefront from our place is to head east to Michigan Ave. (The Magnificent Mile) and head North where you can take a tunnel underneath Lake Shore Drive to get over to the trail. Today, more so than any other day, (and maybe because I know I'm leaving in a year) I was completely taken by the beauty of Lake Michigan and the awesomeness of this trail and this city. The fatigue that was with me for the first mile disappeared and I(with the help of Flo Rida) was rejuvenated. The people watching wasn't what I had hoped for, but I'm not sure what I was expecting at 2pm on a Monday. My path took me just north of Oak Street Beach headed north. I continued on towards Castaways/North Ave Beach to the volleyball courts. I then cut over through beautiful Lincoln Park before making the turn to head back home.

This was such a great day to spend the afternoon and will definitely be one of things I miss most when we don't live here anymore.

Chicago Pride Parade

This is one of the country's biggest gay pride parades, attracting close to 300,000 spectactors. Wendy and I used to live on the parade route, but for whatever reason (out of town, work) have never taken part in this spectacle of an event. This was an absolutely perfect Chicago day (75 and sunny) so we were not gonna miss out this year.

After mixing up some to go beverages at the house, Wendy and I hopped on the train to head up there and had to cram our way onto one of the cars because it was so packed with people headed up to the parade.

Once we arrived at the Belmont stop, the spectacle was on. After meeting up with our friend Courtney at the station, we immediately bought some beads, and proceeded to the best possible vantage point as the parade came underway.

The floats started off mildly with a group of mounted policeman, a few politicians, and even Mayor Rahm Emmanual coming through and shaking some hands. Soon, however, things became slightly more risque and each float seemed to carry people (male and female) with less and less clothing and more and more party music. The energy was palpable and we found ourselves being taken by away by the music and the excitement surrounding us. See the video below for an idea of the magnitude of this event (sorry couldn't figure out how to rotate it).

After getting our fill of house music and half-naked dudes on steroids, we headed over to Clark and Addison (caddie-corner to Wrigley Field) to Vines, a great outdoor bar for some drinks and some Cornhole (a game I've come to love almost as much as washers).

Overall, this was a great day to be a Chicagoan. And we were able to cross off yet one more thing on our Chicago Bucket List!

This is my life...for now.

You'll have to excuse me if I tasfdaj;nkaail off a little bit as I write this post after a 28 hour shift in the MICU at the VA Hospital. This was the beginning of the end, so to speak; my first shift as a third-year senior resident. And boy, did we start it off with a bang! This was without a doubt the busiest night of my life as a physician. For starters, if it was my first day as a third year, guess who started their first day as a doctor?? That's right, my intern. The guy was a great sport and took it all in stride for the most part. But this was a taxing shift. It was a day that included sick, sicker, and sickest. Started off with a garden-variety emphysema flare that required a ventilator. Continued with a 2 for 1 special from the ER around 6 that included a heroin shooter with a fever and altered mental status and an alcoholic who's blood was about as acidic as the "fifth of brown liquor" that he drinks every week. Finished it all off with end-stage lung cancer who is probably the sickest patient I've ever taken care of who's family ultimately decided to withdraw care at 4am this morning. As a bonus, around 5:30 the same patient up on the floor kept cardiac arresting, after which my colleague turned to me, seriously, and said, do I have blood on my face?

Moral of the story. Don't go to the hospital. And especially don't go this time of year!

Let the Blog Begin!

My name is John Cluley, and I am a Medical Resident at Northwestern in Chicago, IL. Today is the last day of the second year of my three-year residency. I recently found out that I received a fellowship position at UT-Southwestern for Gastroenterology to start July 2012. My wife, family, and I are all Texans so this is great news. However, we have grown to love living in Chicago and will be sad to leave in a year. That said, 365 days is time enough for a lot of fun and a lot of memories. I've created this blog to chronicle my final year in Chicago, one day and one adventure at a time!

My goals for this blog (and this year) are as follows:

1.) To write at least a little bit of something each day

2.) To give family and close friends an idea of what my life is like on a day to day basis

3.) To use this blog and these words as motivation to get out and enjoy the city.

4.) To remind myself (and show others) how wonderful it is living in a city like Chicago!

I look forward to sharing this year with you!

JDC