Tomorrow is my last day of this clinical rotation in O’Neill, Nebraska. I was here for four weeks. I tell my patients that it went by so fast – and in some ways it did, but when I think about it, it seems like a VERY long time ago that I was home. With my bed, my stuff, my closet, my kitchen, and my husband. Everyone talks about me-time and such, but frankly I am over it. 1 month with me was long enough! Haha.

Since my somewhat voluntary exile to the peaceful rural Nebraska setting, I have basically wished that I was at home. Leaving to come here the morning after we moved to our new house didn’t go well (as predicted). I usually get off work at the hospital between 4:30 and 5, so I have about 6 hours each night to do whatever I want. Thanks to Microsoft Word, I have an 8-page list of things I want to do…at home. Stuff to clean, things to buy for our new house, plans for our anniversary (1 year Sunday!), to-do’s before we can move the garden plants outside, projects I am eager to start, and food that belongs in my belly. The last two categories take up most of the list.

And this list only includes the things I am looking forward to doing! No laundry, no buying textbooks for summer classes (which start on Monday), and no grocery lists (although I have another document with 2 weeks of meal plans. And a third document with a food plan for a future BBQ.) Ching! (That was me awarding myself a housewife gold star).

I can’t adequately convey how frustrating it is for me to simultaneously experience more free time than I have had in the last 6 years, more energy and fun to-do’s than long before wedding planning, and zero outlet. I feel my brain quivering. I count the day over as soon as I get out of bed to shower. I run loops around the little town. I have eaten 2 jars of peanut butter. I lay awake at night while my mind talks to itself in Spanish.

I coped by brainstorming MORE things to eat, paint, build, buy, make, or do. Enter vicious cycle, resulting in increased frustration and the 8-page word document. And exponential pinterest pins. Pinterest is a website that essentially functions as a “favorites” center to collect pictures. My favorites menu was approaching stress-fracture level of overuse; I like a lot of stuff – guilty. Now I can click “save to pinterest” from any website to save a picture into any category I create on my account. I have categories (called boards) for food, clothes, gift ideas, house ideas, yard and garden ideas, craft/DIY ideas, and a junk drawer category for things that don’t fit anywhere else. It’s a brainstorm photo-list! Other people can look at what I pinned and save it to their own boards if they like it. People I know may be able to creep on what I am considering buying for their babies, but that was unavoidable.