Sunday, December 13, 2009

Almost Done!

We're rounding out the last of the residency inverviews...I can't wait until we're done!  There's one more in Dayton, OH at the beginning of Jan. That one will be nice because we're staying with my grandmother (whom I haven't seen since the wedding!) and we'll be able to eat at Maid Rite - the BEST hole-in-the-wall restaurant EVER!  However, we'll be in Ohio, in the winter, which is usually not very much fun!  We're so ready to get these all over with, I wish we could just stop by Ohio before we head back to Memphis...although I'm totally ready to be back in my own bed and be able to dress in clothing from my closet and not at bag!  I'll do a wrap up of the interviews after we get back home.  I know I said i'd be blogging along the way, but things have been so busy! When you're living a nomadic lifestyle and you have to get out of each room by 11 or noon every morning, and then find your way around cities you don't know, there's not as much down time as one might expect!

I also know that I haven't officially told you all my surprise!  I'll tell you (those that I haven't spoken to in person, yet) - I cut my hair! Its oh so short and I LOVE IT!  I'll post a photo when I get back home of before and after photos, but I don't have them with me now.  I realize that many of you probably thought I was pregnant after reading the last post, so the hair cutting thing isn't as exciting, now.  That wasn't my intent, but I wrote the last post quickly at work on the day that I made my appointment for (it was that evening) so I was excited.  I got home and told Adam what I did and he says, "you know everyone is going to think you're pregnant now!"  Oops....sorry!  So...photos to come.

On a completely different note, I'm also ready to get done with this interview crap so that we can rank the programs and then begin the long wait until March 16th for Match Day.  Not that I'm excited about waiting until that date, but I'm sooo ready to start moving on with the next phase of our life.  I feel like we've been on hold since the wedding...it sucks not to be able to have some sort of loose plan for your life...and I'm soooo ready to get out of our apt.  Not that I haven't liked it or the location, but Adam and I are ready to have something that's our own. I want to be able to buy/make Christmas Decorations that I have room to store after Christmas rather than be limited to putting up only 2/3 of our actual tree because we don't have the floor space for the whole tree!  I want to frame photos and art and actually have a place to put them rather than just back in the closet.  I want to buy throw pillows for the couch but actually be able to know that they'll go with the color of our living room rather than having white trim, beige walls, darker beige furniture, and no real anything to pull the room together.  I want to be able to go to an antique store and buy an old chair to have reupholstered.

I just feel that everything is on a stand-still right now and so up in the air...Can't I just take a peek into the future about 8 months from now?  Please, pretty please??

Thursday, November 5, 2009

sshhh...

I have a surprise...

But I can't let you know until after this weekend!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Interview Madness!!!

And so it begins...

This Wednesday night, Adam and I will go to a "get-to-know-you-dinner" at one of the Memphis OB/GYN resident's  house to meet (officially) and mingle with the residents, physicians, and their spouses.  We'll eat dinner, they'll size us up, we'll be pleasant, chatty, the happy couple you know that we are ;) and the next day Adam will have his first of many interviews for residency.  The interesting thing is that we're beginning with the program that we want to end up at (at least as of right now) and I hope that the next two and a half months of road trips are all just to serve as part of the crazy rite of passage into the world of being a Doctor of Medicine...

Here's our schedule so far...I sort of hope that there aren't many other interview offers, because I see no physical way of fitting many more interviews in!

This week's  interview in Memphis Adam has been told to use as a practice interview since he knows the program and they know him.  So we have Memphis on the 29th, then the following Sunday (after a fantastic Halloween party at some friends' house) he'll fly to Atlanta to interview in Macon, GA.  He'll come home Tues 11/3 and then the following Friday, we'll drive to Maryville (!) for a cousin's wedding reception and then drive onto Greenville, SC to interview on 11/9 at East Carolina University.  However, don't forget the customary "Get-to-size-you-up" dinner the night before!  Why do we go to the dinners, you ask?  Well, it just so happens that the residents, NOT the physicians of the program, have the majority of the choice in who's ranked to come to the program after the initial interviewees are chosen from the pile of applications.  The official choice comes from the Physicians, but we've been told that if you miss the dinner the night before, you might as well not even interview the next day because the residents won't know you...that's how important they are.

"No pressure, you know, its just fun...casual dress...here, have some complementary alcohol , you're our guests and we want to show you a good time!"

{note to self: DO.NOT.GET.DRUNK}

East Carolina University rounds out November, for the time being, but then comes the doozie of a trip we have planned for December.  You ready for this? Here goes...

Dec 3, drive to Knoxville for lovely dinner, Dec 4 interview in Knoxville

{weekend at home, deep breath}

Dec 6 drive to ETSU for dinner, Dec 7 interview at ETSU - haul ass to Chattanooga for dinner, Dec 8 interview in Chattanooga, drive to Atlanta

{Hello there, lovely Kevin!  Sure is nice to be in a city we're not having to interview and be sized-up, we already know that you love us}

Dec 10 drive to Savannah for dinner, Dec 11 interview in Savannah

{Weekend, PARTY IN SAVANNAH!!! You can drink on the street there, you know...}

Dec 12 hangover (just kidding - maybe), Dec 13 drive to Columbia, SC for dinner, Dec 14 interview in Columbia and LONG, TERRIBLE 12 hour drive back to Memphis.  If all goes well, we'll get in about 3am and then we both have to work the next day!

{Yay...}

Add in a dinner and  interview scheduled for Jan 5-6 in Dayton, Ohio,

{Hello, Memaw!}

then one last dinner and interview at Tulane University (New Orleans) for Jan 14-15,

{Party in NOLA!}

and you've got the gist of our next two months or so.

Oh yeah...then ranking the programs...we'll think about that later...gotta get through the interviews first! The amazing thing is that through all this traveling, it works out that I'll only have to take 6 days of vacation.  Unfortunately, I'm on call for Thanksgiving so we won't go home then, but we'll still manage to go home for two days before Christmas and I'll even have some vacation time left over.  Its too difficult to completely explain how all this is working out, but lets just say that if I'm at work for even an hour, I don't take vacation time.  In addition, I have two personal days to use aside from my regular vacation and I was able to find a conference to go to the day we're in Atlanta and thus was able to take three of the days during that trip as "Travel time" and not count against vacation.  This is where being in a salaried position REALLY pays off!!

So, that's all for now.  I think we're going to go purchase some luggage tonight so Adam has something to fly with (we've been borrowing up to this point and really need our own).  I'll be chronicling these events as we go...I'm sure they'll be interesting and Lord knows I'll have the time while Adam is in his all-day interviews!  There will probably be some interesting road stories, as well as interview freak-outs.  Don't be surprised if you start to see tons a few alcohol photos (all aesthetic, of course!).  We plan on stopping (as much as possible) at brew pubs along the way to sample the local fare.  Hey...we've got to have something pleasant to keep us going from city to city or we might never make it!!!  Interviewing just might drive us to alcoholism!

{just kidding, maybe}

Friday, September 25, 2009

new name needed!

So...I'm not planning a wedding anymore.  Haven't been for 13 months, almost. I think its time for a new name.  I like the useless ramblings part...but, what to follow?  Any suggestions?  Adam and I are coming up on the joys of residency - he's applied to about 20 programs and is starting to schedule interviews, all within the months of Nov and Dec - so something tied to this upcoming adventure would be appropriate - but i'm not married (haha, knee slapper) to the idea.

Thoughts?

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Am I going to die?

So...I've been sitting in the board room at work watching my coworkers stand in groups of four, place respirator masks on their face, then place bio hazard helmets over their masks and proceed to have crap sprayed in their faces while they march in place, shake their heads and make sure they don't smell the pungent spray. Lovely! I can't wait for my turn!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

it's been one whole year!

oddly... in the days leading up to our 1st anniversary I found myself longing to be working on wedding projects again!  Am I crazy?!?  Then, today at work, I had the realization that I had finally stocked up on a decent amount of sick time and realized that its because I haven't been sick this year (knock on wood!).  Its surely the lack of all the stress of planning a wedding, albeit a fabulous one if I do say so myself, alone, from across the state and making almost EVERYTHING!  However, it was so much fun and I got to play with a lot of new ideas and toys!  It felt like it was getting old after doing both Heather's wedding as well as my brother's wedding, but I wouldn't have it any other way!  Maybe I just need to get back into making something, anything... I haven't made any jewelery at all since I made my wedding earrings the night before the wedding.  However, I have been organizing, cleaning, sorting, and organizing again...which does feel good, and considering that we'll be moving in a little more than six months (where is the pivotal question, here) all my organizing and purging is a good thing.  However, I don't get to bask in the moments during the day when someone says "You MADE that?!  That's beautiful!"  It is a good feeling.  So...here's to making something....and soon!

So, back to the actual title of the post.  Adam and I celebrated our one year anniversary this holiday weekend (and the perks of getting married around any holiday is soo nice for the prospect of vacations in the future.  My parents were married around July 4th, my brother got married around memorial day and we were labor day...maybe its in our family's blood....but I swear, none of it was planned!  Adam did have to work, both on Sunday, our actual day, as well as yesterday for Labor day, so no trip this year, but its just as well...we've been paying for a lot lately -- new computers, phones, residency applications, board exam fees...etc. etc. etc.  Friday night was Zoo Brew, a fundraiser at the local zoo....which was AWESOME and we'll definitely be back again as soon as they do the next one.  For a small donation of $25 to the zoo, one receives a fun little shot glass, actually about 3.5 oz that has the zoo logo on it and the Zoo Brew logo as well.  Not glass- plastic, but definitely sturdy enough to keep and reuse.  We then were handed a brochure of the listings of all the beers available to sample.  In all, there were 20 tables with 85 different brews from 38 different brewers!  Heaven!!  You simply walked around from table to table and handed them your shot glass.  They were supposed to fill to the 2 oz mark, but most of them filled you up all the way!   Most of the tables were different brews from single breweries, so you could try different brews to compare instantly... At least that's what we did.  I saw many people (mostly women :/ ) who obviously would have been happy with their Miller light (ugh!) but we definitely enjoyed it all!  Not that we had some from every brew...we can't hold our alcohol that well!  But in all, Adam had 15 samples and I had 13 samples.  We had tried many of them before, and some we knew we didn't like, so we didn't get them even if we hadn't tried the specific brew.  I personally found 2 new favorites that I would definitely like to have again.  It was a perfect event to start off our anniversary weekend...especially for those of you who have heard our stories from the honeymoon.... Lots of local breweries in Colorado, people!

Other perks of the night...I went to purchase a Yazoo (Nashville based brewery) pint glass ...we've begun a nice collection of pint glasses picked up when we travel... Adam wasn't with me at the time, he was talking to the couple that joined us for the evening... and I definitely scored a free pint glass!  I was ready to pay and everything!  He was just like, nah...keep it, but don't tell anyone!  Now...it could have been b/c he was nice and they're cool, local, micro-brewers, or that he didn't want to deal with the fact that he was going to have to process my credit card when there was about 30 people in line waiting for samples...or he could have just thought I was cute!  (we'll go with the latter!)  In any case, I got a free pint glass, ended up collecting lots of new and different bottle caps, for an as-of-yet unrealized craft project....if only I could solder better!...and to top it off, I found 5 bucks!  Score a free buddy's bar b que sandwich at the end of the night.  A perfect meal to top off two hours of beer sampling!  The event was actually 3 hours, but we were all ready to go after two.... So much fun, though, and definitely worth it to go again. If anyone wants to join us next time, let me know!  May 28 and Sept 3 2010 will be the next events...if we're still in Memphis that is!

Two things before I continue...I realize this post has been mostly stream of consciousness...and I apologize, but I don't feel like fixing it tonight.  Secondly, I promise we're not alcoholics.  We just tend to drink in spurts when we find opportunities to try new beers!

As for the rest of our weekend...Since Adam had to work on Sun and Mon, we decided to go out for a nice dinner on Sat.  After asking the social workers for their favorite restaurants (I work with a bunch of foodies!) we chose to go downtown and eat at Circa Restaurant ( http://www.circamemphis.com/ ).  A local small restaurant that has fabulous food!  Here's was our menu for the night:

Appetizer:

a sampler of our choosing of three regular apetizers.  We chose Crawfish Beignets - with roasted red pepper remoulade, Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus roasted and served with creamy gorzonzola (my favorite!), and Beef Wellington. Adam also had some creme of tomato soup and they brought out a small appetizer (an amuse bouche, if you will - add a french accent to that one) of the evening that the chef had prepared for all guests - salmon merangue on a small baguette. Also very yummy!

Dinner: We each had a glass of wine paired with our meals

Adam - Sorghum Cured Rack of Lamb with sweet potato shiitake flan and cranberry-rosemary jus; Wine - Earthquake, Zinfandel 2006 (Lodi, California): Huge, black, spicy, endless… guaranteed to rock your world!

Moi - Roasted Quail with Delta cheese gritts (I'm lacking the actual description b/c this was a new menu item and I couldn't copy it from the website!); Wine - Bliss, Merlot 2006 (Mendocino, California) Merlot-everybody-loves; cute, easy, uncomplicated

Desert:
Il Diplomatico - coffee-rum soaked sponge cake with dark chocolate mousse, raspberry sauce

Oh my goodness....words are not enough for how good this was!  It was served with fresh strawberries and blueberries in the raspberry sauce as well and we added some french press coffee to go along with it.  Yum!  Then, they brought out two chocolate covered strawberries as an anniversary treat.  Always tell the restaurant you're making dinner reservations for your anniversary!  You never know!  The strawberries were appropriate as well, because our hotel sent us champagne and chocolate covered strawberries to our room the second night of our honeymoon.



So in all, fantastic food!  We had a good time...we payed for it, but it was fun to get dressed up for our first anniversary and go out for a lovely meal.  Memphis was having a street music festival this weekend so we walked around for a bit before going home for the evening.  We had planned on taking a carriage ride around the city (not quite as romantic if you've got a carriage ride through central park floating through your head, but would have been fun all the same).  However, we were stuffed and really tired, so we decided to call it an evening. We did decide that we want to incorporate something similar in our house one day.. perhaps as a divider between a kitchen and dining room that would otherwise be somewhat open:

Circa wine display

Sunday wasn't much as Adam was at the hospital until 8:30 pm, so I ordered a pizza when he was on his way home and we got out the rest of our wedding cake top to eat on our actual anniversary.  I have to say that we were skeptical, and I also have to say that we actually ate most of the cake we brought back from the wedding shortly after the honeymoon as we didn't want to waste perfectly wonderful cake after having it sit for a year in the freezer.  So we left a good hefty two slices and proceeded to wrap it... first in freezer paper, then a layer of plastic wrap, and then finally, a layer of foil.  And there it sat, in the back corner of our little freezer for a year, until I dug it out an let it thaw on Sunday.  When we unwrapped it, it smelled like fresh cake!  It looked and felt fresh and not freezer burnt, and definitely not dry.


So, we dug in....and in about 10 minutes that sucker was gone!  It was soo yummy!  We definitely should have left the whole top for the anniversary, but we never thought it would have been this good!  So, for those of you yet to be wed, save that cake (make sure its a good fresh cake to begin with), and then wrap that sucker with all your force, let it age for a year in the freezer, nearly forgotten....and then when it thinks you've abandoned it, pull it back out and celebrate one year of marriage.  Our year has been as wonderful as our cake - a bit unconventional, but yummy, fresh tasting, despite a year of age, and definitely leaving you wanting more, lots more of that wedding cake (and the marriage!)

Monday, August 10, 2009

More photography, anyone?

So, Adam is looking at a new format for my blog, hopefully to help with the formatting of the text around photos that I put in my posts.  Well, looking back at my posts, there really aren't many photos - at all.  So, I'm going to be better about posting photos.  I'm not sure how each of you prefer to view my blog, but I can tell you that it seems to be best viewed in Google Reader....of course Google would have one of the best options...I love Google!

So, until I realized just how sparsely photoed my blog is (is "photoed" really a word?  My computer's dictionary says it is), I was going to title this post "Summertime" and tell you how much I love the summer because of this beautiful fruit:

Watermelon!

Yum!  Its so good!  I ran last night, which brings me to the thing that I hate most about Memphis - the absolutely stifling heat!  Its suffocating sometimes - I opened the door for a minute while I grabbed the trash to take out and was sweating before I left the doorway!  It was NOT a pleasant run!  However, my re-hydration/dinner of ice cold watermelon was lovely!

If I remember correctly, I also mentioned my 1st attempt at photographing fireworks in my last blogpost.  So, here it is, for your viewing pleasure.
fireworksFireworks 2


The bridge in the photo is I-40 and we're on the little bridge going over to Mud Island.  Adam and I went out the night before to scout out a prime photo spot and it was perfect!  However, when we actually got out there on the 4th, there was a crazy wind blowing straight at us!  If you look at the light trail from the fireworks, you'll notice that they're zigzags!  It isn't noticeable much otherwise, and the ziggy lines of the light trails are fun and unique. Adam and I also played around with some light painting as well and came out with a nice ghostly image!

Ghostly Mabes

So, that's all for now!  Have a good night!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

this is a happy math formula!

Student discount + Tax Free Holiday + Back to School +  the Apple Store =

overview-gallery4-20090608

Not to mention that we also got a new printer/scanner/copier AND an ipod touch for almost nothing after rebates (Adam wanted to pay an extra few bucks for the 16gb touch)

Have I mentioned that even though the stores become madhouses, Tax Free Holidays are AWESOME!?!

Friday, July 31, 2009

knock, knock...

Psssst...is anyone home?  Wow, its dusty in here, there's cobwebs everywhere! There's not really much around here but old cans of spam, old moldy spam at that (and its pretty pathetic when even the spammers give up on your site). Who's job is it to clean around here?

oh...thats right, me...

So, i'm not sure if anyone still checks this thing or not, but I guess I'll sit and tell some stories and see who comes out to listen...

I've had urges to blog from time to time, but I was always in the middle of something, then the thought quickly went away.  I decided last night that I am offiially diagnosing myself with wedding adversion and possibly a bit of adjustment disorder (ya know, there has to be something that the insurance will pay for).  Of course, I didn't realize this until I actually got excited about a wedding - well, technically an anniversary - related project.  I think that not only doing our wedding, but then jumping right into Heather's wedding and then a month later, Dane's wedding was a lot -- not that I regret doing even one second of work for either wedding, it was an honor to be that involved in the marriages of my close friends and family.  However, when I was done, I stepped away from blogging, (reading and writing), crafting, printing wedding photos... If it was creative, it didn't happen.  Taking photos was about the only thing that I still wanted to play with, oh, and

organizing, cleaning, purging, organizing, cleaning, purging, organizing, cleaning, purging

That was all very cathartic. Not 100% organized, mind you, but we'll be packing boxes in 6-10 months or so, and its at a level I can live with for a while at least.  I do have a very nice craft table to work on now, handmade by Adam - not carved out of a tree, he's still in med school!  But he varnished the table top (butcher block countertop from Ikea) and added legs...too bad it wasn't there in its full function when I was doing so many crafts!

I've not accomplished some things that I really should have (thank you cards - I'm horrible!), but there's been so many decisions going on, this year really has been filled, but not really going anywhere at all.  Adam is done with his boards (HALLELUJAH!) and we're trying to talk ourselves into a final, and I do mean final, choice for a specialty (OB/GYN, anyone?) and really hoping with all our might that we'll still be in Memphis for another four years.  If you would have told me two years ago that that phrase would have ever crossed my mind I would have admitted you to the Memphis Mental Health Institute right away. But really, I have the perfect job, we are at least a drivable distance from home, and we know the area and some people here.  It could be worse.  In any case, Memphis or not, we've got our apartment for 6 more months which should take us to March 1 - sixteen days before we find out where we'll be living for the next four years. Then its just a decision of looking for a house in Memphis right away or paying month to month until June when we'll move to, well, wherever.  So, we have had, and still have, a lot to think about and prepare for, but at the same time, there's not really much we can do about it.  Its an odd feeling - to have so much riding on something that you really have no influence over.  So, we'll see.

There are a few things that I want to do, but haven't.  Partly out of fear - start an etsy shop,  photograph a wedding - and partly out of lack of time or money - frame concert posters and wedding photos, make an anniversary album, try some photography projects (i did pull off a couple pretty good fireworks shots on the 4th).  I was just offered a chance to photograph a wedding, actually (thanks, Scarlett!), to which I first said no, then got up the courage to seriously consider it, and while I was waiting for more information, the person found someone she could afford.  Which is fine, weddings deserve professional photographers, not just serious hobbyists and there's a lot I'm lacking in terms of taking on someone's beautiful wedding all alone.  However, if it was me or no one, I would have done it and I know that I could get a decent amount of photos for the couple.  More than anything, it let me realize that it was something that I wanted to do and probably could have done a mostly decent job.  So, it was a good thing in all.

What made me realize I was ready for creativity again? Well, it was the anniversary album that made me notice I was coming out of this post wedding funk.  I saw a handmade album with pages for each year's anniversary to keep sort of a journal and add a couple photos each year.  I almost bought it, I liked the idea of it being handmade.  It wasn't too expensive either.

So, for all you out there who don't do the crafty thing, I'm about to tell you the biggest downfall of all time for a crafter - "That's an awesome idea -- I could make that!! But I'd add this or change that" and before you know it, that little idea becomes a beast that cost 3 times as much as the original item (handmade really does cost more to make than people usually sell it for) and 5 times longer to make than you first intended.  However, you know this on the front end, but then there's nothing that could top the one that's so perfect and now framed neatly in your mind and its that exact design or you'll have nothing at all.  So, this cool album?  After reading the reviews, I found that it had some cheesy prompts in it about things like "our favorite song this year" and such...  Also, the cover was nice, but...

So, to esty I went (because I don't know the first thing about proper book binding, which is the way it should be - remind me of that later when I tell you its something I want to learn to do).  After a few minutes, much quicker than I assumed, here is the fruit of my efforts:  http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5744911

And now for the real work...I like the horizontal books, with the open spine, in the spring green bookcloth, with the criss crossed ribbon binding, approximately 100 pages, with the rough edges, and a photo of me and adam stitched to the front with possibly our names and wedding date printed next to the photo....I'll send to her the ribbon we used for the wedding (b&w stripe) along with some of the paper we used for our envelope liners to place on the inside of the covers. oh yeah, throw in one of those matching cases to store it in - I can't have my lovely getting dusty during the year between our anniversaries...

But it doesn't stop there...oh no!  So, when it comes to me, all perfect and beautiful, well, the pages are blank... and one has to understand which pages belong to which anniversaries, right?  So, out comes the Gocco, to which I'll print on every other page or so a number along with "anniversary" to which will correspond to each year of our marriage.  Maybe a small something or other for decoration, but that'll take some designing.

So, now....finally, its ready to be lovingly filled with memories and thoughts of the celebration of each passing year (just wait until the kids come, they each will need their own books, too.  Matching in style if at all possible). Done, right?  Weeeeellll, the Gocco really isn't made to print just once or you've wasted a lot of materials.  So, while its out, there's bound to be other uses for it!  See?!?!?  See what goes through my head?  Its a wicked, exhausting, expensive, time consuming, mind consuming process.... and it happens quick!  All those ideas came in about 5 minutes after finding that website. Wow, all of a sudden being a social worker doesn't seem so exhausting after all!

Anyway, I've rambled enough, we'll see how this blog thing goes now that I have a renewed creative energy.  I hope that there are a few people still hanging around the rafters :)  Have a lovely evening!