A month in the life of the real Dr. T

I know, its been a while but I will try and give you the short version of a long story.

I am officially, Tamieka Howell, MD. It's a strange sounding title. I had an awesome time with friends and family from near and far. The festivity weekend began with a service to have our hands annointed (rubbed with oils that were blessed by a priest for those of you who are wondering). I know it was risky for me to participate in this activity, and I too thought I ran the risk of my hands spontaneously combusting, but it all worked out fine, blessed palms and all. There was an awards ceremony where I was awarded not one, but two awards. One was for commiment to Family Medicine and the other was for service to school. I also received a few gifts from our minority student associations. A pen with my mew name on it and an alumni license plate. I will be putting it on my car today.

The big grad party was on Saturday, May 21st. It was so mush fun that I am not sure if it was legal. I a had friends that I hadn't seen in a while there, but I was very excited to see them help me celebrate. Some I have known since before I was ever in med school, but most were people I had met in the last 4 years at school, in hospitals, at the airport or in my various jobs. It was awesome. And Thanks to Christine and Rena who were determined to find a bar to shake their rumps, that just made the evening that much better.

Graduation day itself was great! It was held in Carnegie Hall on Monday, May 23rd. Yes, THE Carnegie Hall. There are more ways to get to Carnegie Hall besides practice, practice, practice. I had some people there I love and can't ever be able to express how much I appreciated having them at my ceremony. Of course there was the famous and bestest Aunt in the world, Aunt Viv. I had my mother and family friends Denise and Nylin there as well as two of my good college friends Eric and Nelson who all came in from AZ. My best friend Cristin drove up from VA and of course, my sister Dianna (aka bestest sister in the world) was also there with Jason from CT. And my friend Dwayne came up from NC. Aunt Viv and Eric had air horns (yes, in Carnegie Hall). It was way too cool. I got to be on stage, have my name called, Dr. Tamieka Howell, and I didn't trip on the stairs or go sliding across stage in my new shoes. It was a GOOD night!

Things have been coming along with getting the house. I am just waiting for my closing date of June 17th. Everything else is in order. I shared a moving van with a friend and moved all of my belongings down last week and put them in storage. It was cheaper to do that than to wait and move my stuff by myself. Eric came down with me a got to see the house. The owner was there and was nice enough to give us all the tour and tell me things about the house that the realtors could never fill me in on. Of course, since it was Erics first time in NC, we had to do something fun so we rented motorcyles and rode our little hearts out for a day and half. We stayed with Dwayne who doesn't ride, so he had to be my 'bitch'. (That's motorcylce lingo for the person on the back seat). I dropped Eric off back at the La Guardia airport on Sunday evening for the the longest aiport run ever (we drove straight from NC).

Whew! What a week! I am worn out. I am now back in CT spending my last few days in the Northeast with Di and Jay and the Doggies.

No updates with WW...too much partying, vacationing, spending time doing other things. Will be back on track soon.

Well that's for now! I will try to figure out how to get some pics on here for you guys soon.

Ta Ta for Now!

Tamieka Howell, M.D.