I Survived

The title says so much. Yesterday I took my last final of my 2nd semester of grad school, and May 1st I celebrated a year of being an official resident of the District of Columbia. This past year has been quite the adventure. A few things that I've learned in the past year:

1. The reason people in the city look like they're always in a hurry is because they are, and they have to be. Your life depends on public transportation. Missing the metro and then having to wait even 3 minutes for the next one could be the difference from being on time or being 20 minutes late. Missing said metro could mean that you miss the bus and then have to wait 20 minutes or more for the next one to come.

2. Good public transportation really is a blessing. It really nice not to have to worry about traffic, parking, etc.

3. It actually is possible for it to snow more than 1-2" - a lot more.

4. Yes, our legislators are as out of touch with reality as they seem. Maybe it's because their staffers have no real life experience outside of the Hill - just a thought.

5. The nicest people live in the South.

School, wedding, school, wedding, and more school...

School and wedding. That's pretty much all my life consists of right now. School more so than wedding really. I do have one more week before finals. A little time to catch my breath and try to catch up before the cycle starts again. It is easier said than done though. I've been trying to write my final paper for ethics, and you wouldn't believe the things that have distracted me (like updating my blog...).

As far as weddings go, I did finally find a wedding gown. I think it's really pretty and is exactly what I was looking for - simple and elegant. It came into the store yesterday, and I should be able to pick it up next week. For a while, I thought I was going to be the only bride without a dress! Additionally, Collin got fitted for his tux yesterday. He was getting ancy about not having it ready on time (he's decided to buy one), so we went and picked one out so that it will be ready soon.

Next weekend, I'm going to B'ham for a baby shower (my future sister-in-law's) and a bridal tea (for me). I will also get to finalize some wedding details, like the reception food. That has been the biggest pain. My wedding planner has been awesome in negotiating with them, but I still feel like I'm being taken advantage of. The problem is, it's probably the best deal in B'ham. The businesses there probably have a pact to take a bride for all they're worth. If only Del Toro was big enough...

On another note, I did lose my keys...again. I must have inherited this from my mother. Not the car keys this time though. It's possible that they're in the apt somewhere, but I have no idea where. For now, I'm using the spare keys. I just hope I don't lose those too because then I'd really be SOL...

Crossing my fingers that I don't lose my mind soon...

How is it April already?

I looked at the calendar this morning - Sunday, April 11. Where was March, and how did I miss it? 2010 has flown by. I've somehow survived an endless round of exams, presentations, due dates, etc. I knew this semester was going to be hard, but wow - this was way more than expected. Most of the time, I feel like I barely have my head out of the water with the waves churning and crashing over me. There were more than a few times where I thought, "If I don't pass this semester, then what will I do with my life?" Thankfully, I think I'm going to be ok...for now. I have at least 2 weeks before my next exam, so maybe my sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) will have a little relief.

In addition to studying, I've been trying to stay involved in wedding plans, which seem to be coming together nicely. Thank God for my wedding planner though! If I didn't have her, I'd still be trying to pick a date. The hardest part right now is the guest list. We've somehow gone from 100 people to 130 invitations. There are so many more people we'd like to invite. We're also still working on the reception menu. Since we both love Mexican food and don't have access to really good Mexican food in DC, we're having the reception at a Mexican restaurant in Bham. The place is really cute, and their regular menu has exactly what we wanted. However, when I saw their catering menu, it was not really even Mexican food - they didn't even have salsa on it! I sent back a menu of what I wanted, and somehow the price per person increased. Casual Mexican food is supposed to be cheap. If every person that's coming to the restaurant ordered their own entree, it would be MUCH cheaper. Now I feel sorry for my dad with his 4 daughters.

It hasn't been ALL work and no play. C and I did make it down to the Tidal Basin last weekend to enjoy the beautiful weather and peak cherry blossoms.

Will it ever end??

After having one exam Thurs and another Fri last week, neither of which were even close to being "easy," I had to turn right back around and prepare for a test on Fri (yesterday). This one involved sooo much information, I barely had time to go through it all. And to make it even better, it's a 5 credit hour class (which means it carries a lot of weight). I studied all weekend and all week long. My brain felt like mush by Friday, and the test was brutal. I hate walking away and having no idea how I did because my mind usually goes towards the worst. "If I guessed wrong on this many questions, then I'm screwed" - that kind of thing.

To decompress, I went home and took Duncan on a walk. That didn't help at all because it was super windy and cold, so it made my ears hurt. My next attempt at decompressing: I watched "Julie & Julia." Such a cute movie. It made we want to go get Julia Child's cookbook and start working through it, too (I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought that after seeing the movie). I guess if I don't make it through anesthesia school, maybe there are other options for me.

It's not French, but I did make skirt steak tacos and guacamole for dinner. I'm not sure what Julie Powell or Julia Child would've thought of that, but they were pretty yummy. And it helped relieve a little stress. Now, the cycle begins again today. Is it Dec 2011 yet??

V-day and Week from...you know

Since DC tends to make everything a little more stressful, C and I decided not to try to brave the Valentine's Day crowd. Instead, we went to ACKC, one of the best DC chocolatiers, before having dinner at my apt. ACKC was, not surprisingly, pretty crowded. It was V-day, so one would think that they would be prepared for a large crowd, but it was like a comedy of errors. Everything in the store was broken. One of their big draws during the winter is their flavored hot chocolates, but something was wrong with their flavor, so they only had regular hot chocolate. Luckily, we weren't there for the hot chocolate - we wanted their chocolate and wine. We had gotten a "DC Tasting Table" e-mail that touted the store's new chocolate and wine pairings. When I got to the front I ordered 2 of the "2 chocolates and 2 wines" tasting, which are 2 wine tastings each paired with a chocolate. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I'd like 2 of the "2 chocolates and 2 wines"
ACKC guy: Ok, 2 of the what?
Me: I want 2 of the "2 chocolates and 2 wines." Meaning, I want 2 in quantity. I want 2 champagnes and 2 of this red (which I pointed to him on the menu).
ACKC guy: Ok, what year is that? I'm not old enough to drink, so I don't know.
Me: No problem. It's this one, the 2007 (again pointing on the menu).
ACKC: So, you want 2 of those?
Me: Yes, I want 2 of those plus 2 of the champagnes for the "2 chocolates and 2 wines."
ACKC: Ok, that'll be $9.
Me: For 2 of them?
ACKC: Oh, you wanted 2. Ok, look at this and make sure I wrote it right. 2 champagnes and 2 2007 Cotes du Rhone.
Me: Yes, that's right.

We sat down at the bar and watched them scurry around in the back, making hot chocolate. When they came to our order, the lady went to the cashier and had basically the same conversation with him that I had. If naming something "2 chocolates and 2 wines" was going to be so difficult, then should have named it something without numbers.

When they finally straightened out the confusion, they brought us our order in these cute little glasses where the chocolate is in the bottom and the wine is in a small glass that fits in the top. The only flaw is that the top glass doesn't have a flat bottom, so you can't set it down by itself; C almost learned the hard way. The email and menu made a big deal of how good a pairing could be and listed out all the different, unusual chocolates that would match well, so I was a little disappointed when I saw that I had 2 dark chocolate truffles and C had 1 dark and 1 milk chocolate. The champagne and truffle was fabulous! I was definitely impressed by the matching, no matter how simple. The 2nd was gross. The chocolate was delicious, but the wine tasted like butter water - yuck.

Anyways, I didn't mean to turn that into a review. It was just an amusing experience for us. For dinner, we had baked grits with proscuitto and mushrooms (C did an excellent job on the sauce), salad, and skirt steak with garlic cilantro sauce. It was really yummy and so much easier and more relaxing than fighting a DC crowd.

Avoiding stress on Sunday night was especially important since Monday was the beginning of the week from Hades. As mentioned in my previous blog, we had a lot of snow that caused me to lose 4 days of school. Not that I really minded at the time, but I knew it would come back to haunt me. This past week we resumed a normal schedule, but it consisted of a lot of catch up. The way it was originally designed, I was to have exams on a fairly consistent schedule: Thursday (of snow week), Wed, Wed, and Tues in consecutive weeks. Our redesigned schedule moved our snow week test to the next Thurs, and the Wed test was pushed to Fri. What it meant for me: back to back tests. Not fun. I made it through the first test and pulled a college-style (semi) all-nighter to survive. I made it - just to start the cycle all over again next week.

Snow Days

Well, once again, I've fallen short on blogging. It's been a crazy couple of months. I finished my first semester of anesthesia school - only 6 more to go. C and I went to NYC after I finished my finals and right before Christmas where we got engaged (!). He did a really good job, and I was completely surprised. Now, I'm trying to figure how to plan a wedding long distance and how to make it work with my school schedule.



We went to Bham for Christmas and had a great time seeing family. For New Years we went to Nashville and had a blast ringing in 2010 with friends.

Before I knew it, it was time to start school again. This semester has definitely been heavier than the last one - 2 extra classes will do that. A few things that have happened thus far to make my life a little more interesting:

-My car was involved in a hit and run. It snowed on the last weekend of February, and C made a grocery store run for me. He was parked on the side of the street when a car came by and scraped my car. The other car subsequently drove away. C chased him several blocks and was able to get the license plate number. The car did stop, the driver rolled down the window, and drove away again! Luckily, there were several people outside playing in the snow that witnessed it. One guy even got pictures.

-Between Fri and Sat February 5-6, it snowed 25-30 inches. I've never seen so much snow in my life - total! It was beautiful. When I got up Saturday morning, it was already up to my knees, and it hadn't stopped snowing. It was fun because I never lost power, most everyone I know lives within walking distance, and my landlord shoveled my walkway.






-On top of the record amount of snow from Saturday, it snowed 7-10 more inches Tuesday night. I haven't been to school since Friday.

-While it was still snowing this morning, I lost my keys. I had taken Duncan out, and when I reached for my keys to let myself back in the apt, they were not there. The best I can figure is that when I pulled a bag out of my pocket, my keys fell on the ground. This normally would have been noticed, but since there was a lot of snow on the ground with more coming, they must have landed softly. Needless to say, I still haven't found them. Luckily, my landlord lives upstairs, so he was able to let me back in.

I'm not sure I can take much more excitement while trying to survive this semester. I've had some good study time this week, but one can only take so much. I just hope this doesn't affect my spring break...

Oops...

Please forgive me, I am WAY overdue on a post. I started grad school 2.5 months ago, and I feel like it's been non-stop since then. In fact, I should be studying at this moment, but a whole weekend of studying can really drain you. Anyways, let me give a brief update on past couple of months.

Amanda and Jace came to visit at the end of August. Amanda hadn't been to DC since 1990, and this was (obviously) Jace's first trip (and first plane ride!). Needless to say, we had a full schedule for the few days they were here. On the first day, we saw the National Mall, the Capitol, Washington Monument, American History Museum, and National Archives. Jace was really excited about seeing Paul "Bear" Bryant's football from his 315th win (a 28-17 victory over Auburn). The next day we went to the National Zoo, and while he napped through a good portion of it, he eventually woke up bright-eyed and excited to see all of the animals. After the zoo, we went to Georgetown to walk around campus a little. Since Ronald Reagan National Airport is only about 5 miles or so from DC, airplanes fly overhead all of the time. Well, this little boy LOVED the airplanes, and pointed out each and every one. On Saturday, we headed to the Museum of Natural History and Air and Space Museum. Jace enjoyed looking at the big animals and really loved touching the planes. His favorite place of all though turned out to be the Botanic Gardens. Outside they have a garden area where kids can dig and plants seeds, and they have 3 big vats of water with fountains. Jace had a blast running from vat to vat, splashing everytime. He must've played there for over 30 min and would've played more if we hadn't made him leave. On their last day, we went to the WWII monument and the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials.

It was an absolute blast having them here, and I hated leaving them at the airport!