Moving On

Crazy week, people. This week has been absolutely crazy, but I guess what else is new, right? I’m scrambling to get my kindergarten classroom in order, with mixed feelings, as thoughts of this being my last setup float in and out of my mind. I only have five students signed up, which is due in large part to the astronomical amount of tuition they are charging per week for kindergarten. $217. Or you could go to the public school for free. Decisions, decisions. However, I certainly don’t mind coasting on out my last year here, so I am certainly not complaining!

D started his Neurology rotation this week. His final grade for Rads was…drum roll please…HONORS! :) He was told that he received one of the highest scores on the exam. He was also told that his personal statement was wonderful and that it would make him stand out among applicants. And the same person wrote him a stellar recommendation to go along with his Residency Application. God is good. This Saturday, September 1st, he can officially send out his online application to the programs he is applying to by simply clicking the “Submit” button. He has been diligently working on it and is actually showing signs of anxiousness, which is very, very rare. I, on the other hand, am relieved that we will finally start the process of discovering where we will be moving to in less than a year! Labor Day weekend will be a much needed time of rest and relaxation.

Yesterday we had a few friends over for a picnic dinner. I made pulled pork in the crock pot for sandwiches and had corn on the cob, chips, baked beans, and watermelon to go along with it. It was the easiest dinner I have ever made. Mom said she wants me to make it for our Labor Day party and informs me that I can get all the ingredients when I go food shopping with Dad on Saturday morning. I guess Dad had recently informed her of this shopping trip. He definitely has not forgotten about our Saturday morning tradition, what a cute dad, I miss him.

In other news, the countdown is on until D leaves for his Rads rotation in CT. I'm glad he is going, but I will really miss him...obviously! My mom is "sending in the troops" (her words) and has assigned my grandparents, Nick and Kristina, and her and dad each a weekend here with me. D will probably be coming down with Nick and Kristina. I will be flying up the last weekend for four days and driving back with him. And then Mom had this other great idea: Instead of D driving up by himself that Sunday before he starts, she suggested we come up Friday night, stay the weekend up there and then I'll fly back Sunday night and use the other half of the round-trip ticket when I fly back up for my four-day weekend. Brilliant! Genius! Know why? Because the Big E will still be in town!! I always want to go every year, but can never manage to get up there during that time. Now...we will be!! Also, I feel better about not wasting part of an airplane ticket. A one-way ticket to CT is over $500 and a round-trip one is $250. So I was just going to use one part of the ticket and not show up for the last leg, but now I get my money's worth!

Alright, enough procrastinating, on to that much-dreaded chore of packing...

Well, last week was the last week of field trips for summer camp! Unbelievable. We rounded out the summer with a trip to Build-A-Bear where I made this bear. The first year I made a bear and decked it out in green scrubs and a medical kit and David was...not too impressed. Don't know what I was expecting him to be, but I was all happy about it and he was wondering what the big deal was. So last year I made a bear for my friend at work and this year I made this bear for me. More than I wanted to write about the bear, so moving on...

Friday night we went into the city to finally experience the Lights of Liberty Show. We discovered it a few years ago as we were walking by the Liberty Bell/Independence Hall area and it seemed like a really neat experience. Fast forward to Thursday night when D received a buy-one-get-one coupon in his inbox from Philly FunSavers and it was finally meant to happen.

What is the Lights of Liberty Show? Here's what their website says, "Experience the American Revolution, as it happened, where it happened – through state-of-the-art technology at the Lights of Liberty Show, the first ambulatory sound and light show of its kind in the world. As you journey through Independence National Historical Park, the story is told through beautiful hand painted images that are projected up to 50 feet high onto the buildings where the events actually took place over 230 years ago. You’ll hear a moving musical score composed for the Show and performed by musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra plus dazzling effects produced at Skywalker Sound. The voices of Walter Cronkite, Ossie Davis, and Charlton Heston tell the tale." You can read about How They Do It, too.

Since it's a light show, tours begin at dusk and continue every fifteen up until the last tour which leaves at 9:15. We had an 8:45 tour time, so we got our headphones and met our group of thirty people near Independence Hall. Our headphones did most of the narrating as we walked through the five city blocks around Independence National Historic Park, but we also had a tour guide and two crossing guards that stopped traffic and lighted our way with flashlights.

First, we walked to the first Post Office which is at an entrance to the alley that leads to the site where Ben Franklin's house used to sit. Get all that?! Our headsets started playing at this point and we soon learned about the riots that Franklin caused by being such a vocal proponent of independence, about the meeting at Carpenter's Hall by a group of people later calling themselves the First Continental Congress, about how they amassed soldiers with the help of George Washington, about fighting the redcoats (with real smoke (fog) and everything!), and about how many, many people gathered outside Independence Hall to hear the first reading of the Declaration of Independence. That's where the tour ended, with us listening to the reading of a portion of the Declaration of Independence followed by a choir singing "God Bless America." It's definitely one of the better Philly attractions, and different, too, because you're touring the historical places at night. We didn't take any pictures for obvious reasons, but here you can see some of what we saw here (choose "dial-up" or "broadband" near the bottom of the page).

My mother has a sense of humor about her. I found it funny that she listed every single item in the bag that she sent down with Ryan and Yana except for this shirt:


At first glance, I thought it was a cute shirt. Not a big fan of Disney, and I know Mom knows that, but it was the thought that counted.

Upon closer inspection (and two offended-sounding gasps later), though, I noticed that Tinkerbell wasn't in her usual cute, flying-fairy type of pose. See?


I'm assuming this is why Mom failed to mention that this shirt was in that bag...

Like I said, Ryan and Yana arrived Thursday afternoon. They came to my work to get our apartment key and the kids really, really enjoyed seeing them again (they spent some time with my kindergarten class in March when Ry was taping a lesson for my Master's program). A few comments I overheard:

We had the best four days with these people. They were so appreciative of our hospitality and they spoiled us way too much. Can't wait til they come back in October!!

This was a fun week. I had to take it one day at a time otherwise I would have gotten stressed out with all that was going on. But, success, everything went as planned and we even enjoyed ourselves in the process.

Monday was bible study, per usual. We decided to double up on chapters in order to finish the book by early September. Come September, everyone turns busy. A couple of us might start a different book and meet every other week. Either way, this book, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, has been an incredible read. I like all the practical applications is has to offer and am trying to integrate many of them into daily life. I thought life after my Master's would slow down, boy was I wrong.

Tuesday was a D and I day. Can't exactly remember what we did, but I'm sure it included eating dinner and going on our 30-minute walk. Wednesday, our summer camp went to New Jersey to the Adventure Aquarium. It was an interesting trip, made more interesting by the realization that summer camps ends and my last year of teaching kindergarten begins in two weeks. That evening, with salad in hand, we arrived at our friends' house for dinner. We've never been there before so we visited their neighbors before finally ringing their doorbell. The night was thoroughly enjoyable which means we stayed out too late on a school night. We still had to return the cat to her house before we went to bed. Ryan and Yana were coming on Thursday and they are not cat people.

They arrived safely and thus began our long weekend of fun. More to come...

We recently made a new discovery. On the way out of our local Pathmark food store (had to take advantage of the $0.79 Sprite and Barq's for Ryan and Yana's visit!) David saw a DVD vending machine. It's the neatest invention. They offer a selection of about 60 DVDs to rent, many of them new releases. You choose the DVD(s) you want and it deposits it(them) through a slot, just like a soda machine. It's a one-night rental and the cost -- a very reasonable $1.49. What's better, D put in his email address to get return confirmations and he also received a rent-one-get-one coupon. So we've taken advantage of this offer a few times and have gotten TWO new releases for $1.49. We rented:

The Contractor (A)
The Contract (A+)
Premonition (B)
Because I Said So (Yet to see)
Pathfinder (Yet to see)

Haven't found a better deal yet! We saw Premonition with Ryan and Yana last night. It was one of those mind thrillers. I'm still confused by it. The first two movies were recommendations from my mom and they actually turned out to be great. Go Mom!

Well, we're heading off to the beach now. And by "we" I mean Ryan, Yana, and me. D'll be joining us when he wraps up his week of Nuclear Medicine (the field his dad is in!). It feels weird to have a day off and not be in CT. I was able to sleep in and get a few errands done this morning which felt great after this whirlwind of a week. Looking at the stuff we've packed, it looks like we're staying for a month. We're not, though, only a night. But it'll be a fun night. I'm excited about eating fried dough on the Boardwalk. Yum.

D was on a cooking spree this weekend. He made hummus from chickpeas (he'll be more than happy to email you his recipe, he already sent it to both of our dads!) and made us blueberry pancakes for lunch today. Considering he doesn't make much, I would call that a spree. Both were excellent, by the way.

We got sooo much done this weekend, it feels wonderful. We dropped the cat off back at her house late Thursday night and picked her up Saturday afternoon. I slept so good those nights, and we shut the bedroom door last night which resulted in another good night's sleep. So that's the trick.

I wasn't really planning to do much this weekend because we have a super busy week coming up, but I guess these things needed to get done. First we went food shopping at Aldi. We LOVE Aldi, not a lot of name brands but a lot of good prices. We spent $63 and that'll last us a month. Yes, no joke, a month. I refresh the fruits and veggies, but that's about it. I have to laugh at people's hundreds of dollars worth of grocery bills because they have to have name brands or some sort of other complex. I guess it helps that I only eat dinner at home (I eat lots at work :)), we don't eat red meat, and don't buy a lot of prepared stuff, but whatever it is, I love Aldi!! We stopped at the post office to mail some books we sold and the bank to get quarters for laundry. Ironically, when we got home, D saw that we sold some more books, so another post office trip is in my future.

All this running around required a nap, so I got some energy back to do some cleaning, ugh. Ryan and Yana are coming on Thursday, so I figured if I started on the weekend, our apartment will be presentable by then. I'm excited about seeing them again. They both have the week off and are in New Hampshire at Mt. Washington at the moment. They'll go home for a few days, then come to visit us as their finale. We're going down to the shore Friday afternoon (I took the day off) and D'll meet us down there when he gets done at the hospital because we're staying the night. I'm excited about using our beach tent and am praying the weather isn't oppressively hot.

The last two weeks of summer camp trips are here, then there is one more week of no trips because teachers have to set up their classrooms. We're going to Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey on Wednesday, which is always a fun trip. And then that night we're invited over our friends' house for dinner. I somehow got away with just making a salad. Busy weeks make me itchy...

David did! I'm so impressed with his God-given ability to know and to remember so much. I have a pretty good memory, but I usually remember most of the details. David, however, remembers ALL of the details and can even offer an articulate commentary on the subject. And he's always summarizing some article or other that he has recently read...by his own initiative. So yay for David, although no one is surprised.

Other happenings include the arrival of my Master's degree diploma. I was expecting some sort of envelope but was greeted instead by a good-sized box complete with bubble wrapping inside. Here it is, all official looking:

So that's over and done with once and for all!

Tonight, we were brave and went into the city (summer and/or weekend nights don't make for ideal city-visiting times). Our beloved jazz station sponsors Smooth Jazz Summer Nights at Penn's Landing each Friday night in July and August. I told D about this a few weeks ago and tonight was the first time we were able to make it...and we tacked on dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Philly, The Mexican Post, to make it a complete date night. It worked out that the restaurant and Penn's Landing were within walking distance of each other. And it also worked out that we had a buy-one-get-one coupon for dinner. And it also worked out that the jazz concert was free. And what also worked out was the weather. It went from being oppressively hot to cold (not cool, cold!) and windy. Can you tell by my hairdo?

David recently got his OB/GYN grade back...

HIGH PASS with the following comments:

"Mr. K is a conscientious, serious, responsible, and bright medical student. He participated fully in all clerkship activities, and gave patient care discussions careful and reasoned attention. He is professional in demeanor. His knowledge base is above average. He gave an excellent student presentation on third trimester bleeding, which was comprehensive and detailed. Although his overall evaluations are only a strong pass, several of his evaluators recommended him for a high pass. His strong sense of personal responsibility and good work ethic, his attention to detail, and his fund of knowledge already evident at this stage in his training make him an excellent candidate for residency."

I'd like to talk to the evaluators who only gave him a strong pass...

Also, I asked D for a list of the residency programs that he was applying to. I told him that I wanted to post them on my blog and he gave me this horrified look. That, to my surprise, is supposedly just not done. So you will just have to be happy with this:

He is applying to 13 residency programs in all. Seven in Connecticut, one in Rhode Island, three in Massachusetts, and two in New York...at this point. He may apply to some Boston ones, but is not sure at the moment. They're all roughly within two hours of our parents, which is certainly better than the 4+ we are at now. Obviously we'd love to be in CT, but any of these locations would be fine, too. It gets more complicated because he has to do a transitional/preliminary year (also called a throw-away year...by me) right out of med school, so he is also applying to those programs. They aren't hard to get into, you just have to coordinate which programs you want to do depending on which residency program you get into. A fractal tree of sorts. Oh and transitional programs are easier than preliminary year programs, but, for that reason, are harder to get into. Get all that? Many of the ways of the medical field still remain a mystery to me. Like, I just found out recently, that after the one throw-away year plus the four radiology residency years, it's highly recommended that you do another year, called a fellowship. Let's add: 4 college + 4 med school + 5 residency + 1 fellowship = 14 years. By that time, if you don't know what you're doing, then you really shouldn't be in the medical field. Nothing to worry about with our David, though, "his strong sense of personal responsibility and good work ethic, his attention to detail, and his fund of knowledge already evident at this stage in his training make him an excellent candidate..." :)

I took on the responsibility of cat-sitting our friends' cat while they're away on a two-week vacation. I opted to bring the cat, Dorie, to our apartment so I wouldn't have to make daily runs to their house ten minutes away. She isn't declawed, so I was wary of her scratching everything to pieces. I covered the couch, the chaise, and the overstuffed chair with sheets so a) she wouldn't get hair on them and b) she wouldn't scratch them up.

After I picked her up last night, we hung out for a bit. I don't think she's even noticed Dougie yet, not that I'm complaining! I showed her where her food dish and her litter box were and that's pretty much all the attention she wanted. She knows her name so when I'd call her, her head would pop up, she'd give me an annoyed look, and she'd lay right back down. That's progress.

I woke up around 4am when I heard her jump off of our bed. Which led me to think about all the things she could get into, even though I closed the bathroom and closet doors. So I had to get up and check--everything was fine--but then I couldn't fall back to sleep. Bad cat. I think the rest of our time will go more smoothly, now that I know her routine and she knows ours.

I plan on bringing her back to her house next Thursday when Ryan and Yana come for their visit. Until then, we get to spend over an entire week together. It's okay, though, because when I watch these same friends' little boy (however cute he certainly is!!) I am very content with the fact there is just the two of us. And now that I'm watching their cat, I am very content that Dougie (in a cage) is our only pet!

Making herself very comfy:

Well we checked a few items off of our (my) Summer To-Do list. We saw Bourne Ultimatum and D is handing in all his yearbook stuff today. I like the page layout. It was supposed to have 4 pictures, plus his professional picture, his signature swatch, and a text box. But I cut it down to 3 pictures because the last two would have been so small I don't know if you could really tell what they were. However, I can't take full credit for the idea. I had all the yearbook stuff spread out on the coffee table when Sara and Ron came over Friday night. I was discussing my dilemma with Sara and she suggested having three instead of 4. It was a Duh Moment. These are the pictures we chose:

The one that didn't make the cut:



We wanted to make sure our family, as well as different Philadelphia hot spots, were included in the pictures, so I think we pretty much succeeded. D's text he wrote for the text box is really cute, but I won't give that away just yet.

And Bourne Ultimatum (A++). I'm only sorry we didn't rent one and two before going to see three. I have a mish mash of movies in my mind and don't quite remember the exact plot of the previous two, but the third one was incredible. We LOVED it and I think I'll be getting one and two at some point this week/end so we can see those.

All in all it was a great weekend because it went by at exactly the right pace. D also started to fill out his Residency Application that can be submitted as early as September 1st. I told him to blog about the process, but he informs me he doesn't have the time. I'll get a list of all the places that he's applying to and post them here...when he has the time to give it to me ;). It's a really exciting time and I'm trying to enjoy it without trying to just get past it so we can move on with real life.

I guess I'm resigned to basically posting weekly entries. Somehow the week always gets away from me before I can blog a few entries. So here is this week's:

Monday night continued on with Bible Study. We figured out that it'll take us into mid-September. It always makes for a hectic Monday, but it is well worth it.

Wednesday our summer camp went to the Philadelphia Zoo in 90-degree weather, which always makes for an interesting day. The kids were awesome, though, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed their time there. The last time I was there was in October of 2004 and they didn't have some of the exhibits that they now have, so it was a new experience. I even managed to take 68 pictures. Well I took most of them, I did let some of the kids use my camera because they liked how they could see the picture afterwards. I got a lot of animal backsides and just plain sides because the heat was near-oppressive so most of them were laying down. See?

Oh but my Wednesday did not end there. Some genius planned an Open House for the same night, after a long day at the zoo being all hot and sticky. And Wednesday was also the day that I needed to get my TB shot read. So somehow I survived the day and was home at 7pm and asleep by 9pm. D was productive and changed the oil in his car with the contraption that his parents got him for Christmas. It's come in quite handy and has saved us some dollars over the months.

It was so incredibly hot on Thursday that D offered to take me out to dinner. I actually was not, yes you read correctly--was not, in the mood to go out to eat. Probably because of the heat, but D was insistant because he didn't want me cooking and heating up the apartment, so we ate a yummy meal at Friendly's. D's meal even came with a happy ending sundae: Ghirardelli chocolate ice cream with strawberry topping and a cherry on top. He gave me the cherry.

Yesterday I was so glad it was Friday. I got home around 4 and fell asleep around 5 for an hour. I didn't even hear David come in and the door was but six feet from me. I would have slept longer, but we had to pick up our friends' little guy around 6:30 so they could go out. I didn't have much of a chance to play with him because when we got back here, I fed him, talked with him until his bedtime, swaddled him, put him on our bed, and he promptly fell asleep like the good little baby that he is. We weren't expecting his parents to pick him up for a while, but they came around 10pm. Of course D and Ron got playing the Wii, and Sara and I didn't have any problem chatting, so finally around 1am we decided it was a good idea to call it a night.

And now, I smell the blueberry muffins the D so thoughtfully offered to make. What a great start to a weekend. Be right back...

In other news, D completed his first week of Radiology, Rads as it is known in the field, and is really loving it. Which is a relief because it is what he wants to do for the rest of his working life. I guess in this rotation they grade you weekly, so D already got his grade for Neuro Radiology:

• Attendance: HONORS
• Attentiveness: HONORS
• Knowledge: HONORS
• Comments: "Great job!!"

And he also met with his letter-writer (each med student gets a letter from the Dean of the School of Medicine, except that he doesn't write it. This letter isn't generic...the wording of the letter depends on your grades. D's key adjective is "excellent.") You have to hand in a personal statement, a CV, and a transcript to this letter-writer, who is also a doctor and professor at Temple. Anyway, he was really impressed with David and said that he didn't need to talk with him about a backup plan because he knows D will be able to get into a Radiology program. How's that for a compliment?! Obviously no one knows until they've been matched that they're matched in a program, but it's nice to know that we're on the right track at this point. Rads is highly competitive, so there's always some doubt about getting into a program, but I'm incredibly proud of David. If anyone can do it, he can.

When Sara and Tony came to visit us this weekend, they wanted a tour of Philadelphia. Well I think they got just what they asked for:

First stop, Liberty Bell. All the tickets for Independence Hall had been given out by the time we went to get ours. So we settled for pictures, but got a chance to see the Liberty Bell up close and personal. D and I had visited it back in 2004, I believe, and probably 2005. I remember when we first moved here everyone who came to visit wanted to see the Liberty Bell, so we became fast friends. It has been a while since we've been back, so it was nice to get an updated picture...one that just might make it into the yearbook.



Then, it was on to The Bourse for lunch. It reminds me of the food court part of a mall. D and I shared a Fiesta Salad from SaladWorks, making sure to leave room for the stuff we were going to get at Reading Terminal Market.

And speaking of the Market, that's where we headed to next...after a quick stop at Ben Franklin's grave. Reading Terminal Market is my favorite of favoritest spots in all of Philly. Everyone we bring there can't get over how much food there is, the variety, and how good everything tastes. There was an "ice cream celebration" going on that day where you could sample all sorts of flavors, but I got my tropical smoothie and pretzel and they were quite enough for me! I so enjoy being there. I guess it takes me back decades ago to the era of open air markets and street vendors. Whatever it is, I'll never, ever get sick of going there.

We piled back in the car and headed over to the Art Museum a.k.a. the Rocky Steps. It was incredibly hot outside, but that didn't stop us much. There were some cool, and refreshing, looking fountains nearby. I stuck my feet in one of them to cool down and proceeded to slosh around in my flip flops for the next few minutes. It was well worth it.




That's pretty much where the picture-taking ended. We made one more stop before heading home -- South Philly, Home of the Cheesesteak. D and I stayed in the car while Sara and Tony stood in line at Geno's.

We had such an enjoyable visit and hope they come back soon to tour the other half! Free Philly lodging available until May 2008 :).