I realize that it has been a long time since I have updated. I shall do my best to recap. Spring quarter ended which means I finished my first year in the mph program. Although the quarter proved to be extremely stressful and taking a physical toll on my body, it was nonetheless a fun time and I learned a lot. My practicum was a really positive learning experience and gave me that feeling of public health involvement I was looking for. I came away with A's in my classes. I'm really proud that I’ve been getting good grades this year. I walked away from my undergrad experience thinking I was a bad student. Now I realize that while my methods are flawed, the products of my effort are still good. Summer started, I flew to LA for a week. It was nice to be back since I hadn’t been there since winter break. I got to see a bunch of friends, visited UCLA and began the process of easing myself into the summer break lifestyle, aka sleeping, eating, and watching lots of tv. After a week, my mom and I flew up to Sacramento just in time for the birth of my niece and nephew. By just in time, I mean that luckily the babies didn’t arrive earlier than their scheduled c-section date. While the rest of the summer was really a blur, I remember the day of the birth really well. 7am, Dan and my sister make their way over to the hospital. I shuffled out of bed at 7am to give them a hug…and then promptly went back to sleep. 9am, my mom, dad and I drive over to the hospital. We joined Dan’s parents began our anxious wait in the lobby…waiting to hear the news. I remember going to get breakfast and taking forever because I couldn’t find a fast food place and ended up almost driving back to my sister’s house before I realized how far I went. Finally came back and then spent the next two hours reading, on the computer, playing my DS. Finally, 11:30am rolls around and Dan comes out, wearing scrubs, almost looking a little shell shocked but very casually tells us everything went fine. Healthy girl, healthy boy. We exclaim our sighs of relief and then decide to go have lunch. My mom was really concerned about my sister and was insisting on staying in the lobby to wait for her but we convinced her to go have lunch because it was going to be another hour before we could go in. I take them to Mongolian BBQ. We come back, we go back to the recovery area and we see my sister and the two little babies. They were so tiny and so adorable. I remember tearing up when I picked up the boy because I couldn’t believe how beautiful they were. Anyway, after that, we journeyed to the private recovery room…and then it’s a blur from there on. I just remember lots of pictures, people crowded into a small space and two very cute babies
July came and went so fast. I kept thinking “Oh yeah, I’ve got lots of time here” but then all of a sudden, I only had two more weeks. Then it was one more week, and the it was the last day. But seriously, one of the best times of my life. I was just so proud of how healthy the babies were and how well my sister was doing and how great everything was. Yeah there were hormones, yeah there were lots of dirty diapers and pee on me, and yeah, sleep was lost. But there’s really nothing more amazing then those moments where you’re holding a baby and they’re sleeping and all you can do is stare at the craziness that’s bundled up into a 6 pound sack of flesh, poop, blood and tears. And then they start crying and you’re like “Um….Grandma! Baby is asking for you!!” Leaving Sacramento was really hard. I was on my way to Seattle for the weekend for a friend’s wedding, and all I have to say is thank god I wasn’t flying directly back to Philly. I think I cried for about half the car ride to the airport…poor Sherrie didn’t know what to do with me. Usually I’m able to contain the tears til the airplane but it was rough.
Anyway, our trip to Seattle was a lot of fun. Kevin, Sherrie, Bryan and I rented a house on Lopez Island for the duration of our trip and it was a fabulous time. Our cottage was located out in the middle of bum f-ing nowhere…the main road turned into a small road. The small road turned into a gravel road. The gravel road turned into a unpaved road with grassh growing down the middle. And then that turned into just grass. The cottage was small but comfortable. Deer came and chilled in the backyard. We had so many running jokes during htat trip…since we were out in the middle of nowhere, Bryan got it in his head that we were going to be killed by a seriel killer with a chain saw. We had to make a pact that we would not fuck with anyone while they were sleeping…luckily we all stuck to it. Anyway, David and Erin’s wedding was really beautiful. They had a small cozy wedding that was physics themed (they’re both physics phd students…). They made a lot of their own stuff for the wedding: flower arrangements, centerpieces, decorations, wedding cake, etc. It was really nicely done and it was clear they put so much work into their wedding. I'm not sure if I would have the same patience to make everything! Even though everything was homemade, it was really classy and professional looking...I'm thinking they should abandon physics and start a craft company! Anyway, the next day, we ended up waiting a long ass time for the ferry back to the mainland but made the best of it. Sherrie, Kevin and I stayed an extra night in Seattle. We did the Underground Tour which was really awesome. We didn’t get to do too much site seeing so all the places that you’re supposed to do when you visit seattle (Space Needle, Pike’s Place, etc) will have to wait for next time.
Finally, it was time for me to fly back to Philadelphia. And so here I am. I’m really glad that I got to see Kevin pretty often during my summer at home. I have to say that this trip back home made me realize how much I wish I was on the west coast. I know I have a purpose here and that I’ve got lots of things for me here, but I’ve finding that it’s becoming less and less of a motivator for me to stay here. Especially now…Kevin’s on a camping trip with no signal, Cass is doing a three week trip home to Washington. And I spend my days putzing around, trying to fill it with the gym, neftlix movies, the library, WISEWOMAN, American Heart and now a part time job at J Crew but it doesn’t adequately replace people and home for me. I know I sound pitiful but I just so desperately want some feeling of permanence in my life. Well. I suppose there’s always tomorrow. To end on a less depressing note, here are some recent highlights: - my sister got me an ipod touch. I'm obssessed with it. - I've decided to take up painting again because my scrapbooking has hit a creative wall. - I've lost a bunch of bras. I don't really know how. But I'm missing 4-5 bras. I think the laundry monster ate it. - I used my American Express points to get a new yoga mat. I'm excited to not have to use the gym's smelly community mats. They've seen more feet than I'd care to think about.
- I've been doing sudoku like crazy in hopes of being able to do better at this year's National Sudoko Championship.
- I'm caught up in True Blood. Hot damn.
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