This past weekend, I was back in Connecticut for business and pleasure. On Thursday and Friday, I participated in a workshop on laparoscopic solid organ surgery held by SAGES, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. SAGES holds courses for senior surgery residents (4th and 5th years) to help hone their skills, and requirements for participating include SAGES candidate membership as well as approval from a program director. In fact, I was recently in Cincinnati for a SAGES course on laparoscopic gastric surgery held at Ethicon’s headquarters, and this time the course was held at Covidien’s headquarters in Norwalk, CT. Both courses were good - they had talks by surgeons on indications and techniques, followed by animate labs where we practiced the procedures on pigs. Even better, they turned into mini-reunions for my fellowship interview applicants. Along with my Osler board review course in Boston last month, I seem to have been doing a lot of reunions with friends from the interview trail.
This provides a good segue into reunions in that I also took the opportunity to go to my 10th year Yale reunion! Originally I hadn’t planned on going, but with the Covidien course happening the same week, I was able to make it a long weekend and take the train up to New Haven. Thursday night I skipped the SAGES dinner in favor of a trip to Mory’s, the private club/restaurant that is a tradition at Yale. I met up with fellow ‘98ers and even a few from other classes and got to meet the current dean of Yale College, Peter Salovey (with the mustache) and his wonderful wife Marta. The food was great, the company was even better, and we finished the night with the traditional trophy cup full of alcohol which we shared (it was essentially a mimosa, and very tasty). I enjoyed it tremendously.
So, after the course finished on Friday, I traveled back up to New Haven for the weekend festivities. I met up with lots of familiar faces, snacked on cheese and crackers at the wine tasting, and did a little window shopping. Traci flew in to join me, but as her plane was delayed, we didn’t make the dinner at Mory’s that we had planned on, but at least were able to enjoy dessert and wine there, followed by a tasty pizza at Yorkside (they just don’t make pizza like that out here!). We stayed at the Omni Hotel, basking in 5-star comfort at a 3-star price.
Saturday was the big day. I showed Traci around campus, thoroughly exhausting her and pummeling her feet into bloody stumps while marveling in all the changes and improvements that have changed my alma mater for the better. We hit all the high points - the renovated and stunning new Cross Campus Library (now called the Bass Library), my stomping grounds at Sterling Memorial Library, Old Campus, the “tombs” of Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, Book and Snake, and Elihu, and even the Grove Street Cemetery. We attended a lecture by Judith Ann Schiff of the Yale Libraries, who gave an entertaining review of Yale’s history, accomplishments, and illustrious alumni. Since I’m a Directed Studies alumnus, we attended the DS alumni reunion and talked to Professor Jane Levin, one of my DS professors who now heads the program and is also married to the President of Yale. Following this, we went to President Richard Levin’s address, which updated us on the announcement of the creation of two more residential colleges, and saw a performance by the singing group alumni, many of whom were coming back for their 50th (or more!) reunions. The day concluded with dinner and mingling on Old Campus. The meals were far better than anything we had as students - lunch was from Yale’s own farms (which didn’t exist 10 years ago), and the dinner was a New York strip with “organic decadence chocolate cake.” Through the day, I reconnected with lots of friends and had a great time, and I think Traci enjoyed it too - despite her legs being turned into swollen tree trunks from walking miles in uncomfortable shoes.
Sunday we joined some of my friends for breakfast and then shopped for Yale merchandise. I got a new baseball cap, polo shirt, and full-zip sweater while Traci got herself a sweater and flip-flops. We left New Haven in the afternoon, briefly shopped at the Kenneth Cole store at Grand Central Terminal while waiting for the shuttle to La Guardia airport, and spent the rest of the day miserably waiting for our flight back to Indy. While the traveling was tedious, I was still very happy to have spent a wonderful weekend seeing my old friends and showing off my old haunts to Traci. And to my great surprise, despite my feelings of awe at the accomplishments of my classmates, they similarly were fascinated by my career path as well, which made me realize that, hey, I’ve got a really good job. 
Speaking of which, I have only 10 more days until graduation! Yay!
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