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Julia was right: It is fun to be on a team. We pisces fish are so solitary that it feels good to have a little hospital family. I'm the "youngest," so everyone looks out for me and makes sure I'm not getting in to trouble. My slightly older sister, the sub-i, will arrive tomorrow. Our fraternal twin sibs, the interns, look up to our big brother, the R2, who is our bridge to "dad," our attending. Of course, my "dad" isn't much older than I am... The twins somehow remain sweet and smiley despite living at the hospital. They do remember what it was like to be me. D said he would never mind staying an extra half hour at the end of the day to help me out, teach me, answer questions... and this from a guy who is actively sad to be away from his young daughter. And C said my four favorite words to me early and often: "You should go home." Whenever someone said, "We are on call tomorrow," I was like, "WE!" That word that says we are together, a group, a mini tribe, a unit, with connections between us, roles, give and take, help and be helped, community!

When D the intern writes orders, he starts them with "please" and ends with "Thanks!" So cute. I gave him a little bit of a hard time about it, and he was like, "I know, and the nurse who carries it out doesn't even see what I write, but it still feels wrong to just write a command."

Similarly, I was so impressed how everyone kindly addresses the pretty-much-unconscious ICU patients. They are unresponsive, tubes and cords everywhere, and people still say, "Hi, Ms. Quiroga, I'm going to take a look at your leg rash now, OK?" Strong work, team.

Of all the patients we have right now, I instantly gravitate towards the ones who have psych issues. Spinal cord infarct? OK OK, but how is he adjusting to the fact that he is paralyzed from the waist down? I'm all about the guy's drug abuse and suicidal ideation. (I remember when "SI" meant Sports Illustrated to me.) Fast-growing neck mass? But he had a major depressive episode 6 months ago! Even though I didn't have the breakthrough moment about my specialty this year, I still have the small joys of confirmation.

Sleep time. On call tomorrow.

And a happy belated birthday to Ali!! Sad I couldn't celebrate with you yesterday, my dear.

And safe travels to Chunk, who heads to LA and then onto his great Latin American adventure tomorrow. A much-deserved, long-awaited reward for too much work of the grindstone variety. Buen viaje! I will miss you!