Even More Things to Come

If that last post wasn't enough craziness for our family, this next one might do us in. It's difficult to imagine a busier month than the last one, but we have one coming up. First things first, however, I only have three more days of residency! I have clinic today, then two nights in the emergency department. And then... I'm unemployed. Only for a month, however, as I start working at Brentwood Pediatrics at the beginning of August. I can't wait to get started and begin forming new relationships with my coworkers and patients. It's going to be scary at times, but I'm confident in the training I've received thus far.

Once I finish my last ED shift, then I'm off for a couple days to collect my thoughts. Then we're off to Portland for the marathon on July 4th. The training has been going alright, although I'm not going to be able to meet the time goal I set for myself at the beginning. Reflecting on the training experience, I don't think I'll choose to train for a 26 mile race in the desert during the summer again. Seriously, running 20 miles on a Sunday morning is brutal, and that's not even factoring in that I had to start at 5am so it wasn't 100 degrees before I finished. While I had an initial time goal, I'm just happy to have completed the training without giving up. That leads me to my next lesson learned: it's tough to train for a marathon by yourself. Emily's never claimed to enjoy running, and I've been doing all of this training for the last six months solo. In total, I've run over 500 miles with nothing but my thoughts and some Mumford & Sons to keep me trucking along. At first, it was nice to have some time to think, but on the 16th mile of a 20 mile day at over 90 degrees, I'm ready to have someone running alongside me tell me to keep going. Portland is going to be a great place to run, compared to here. The weather forecast has a high in the low to mid 70s, and I'm sure my pace will reflect that a little.

After the race is complete, we're going to have dinner with David, Emily's cousin, then drive up to her old stomping grounds in Seattle. Well, we're first going to take a brief trip up to the San Juan Islands and go orca watching. Emily took me there for our first Valentine's Day when we first started dating, but there weren't any whales. Here's to hoping we actually see them this time, but if not, the islands are beautiful and very relaxing. We're then going to spend a few days in Seattle hanging out with our friends, Matt and Kelly. I'm sure Emily will have some spots she'll want to visit, and a few restaurants to experience one more time.

After we get back from Seattle, I have a day or two in Tucson, then I'm off to Nashville to find a home. We'll be renting a house for the first year at least, as the prospects of selling the condo in Nashville are pretty bleak at this time, and it's too small for us. Emily's not coming with me on this trip and is trusting me to pick out a house for our little family. It's a little intimidating, but at least I'll have help. Emily's mom, her dad, my parents, and Mary Payne have all offered to go with me on the hunt, and I'm sure they won't let me pick something that Emily would not like. I only have three days to find a house though, so if anyone knows of a rental house in Nashville that has a fenced backyard for dogs, please let us know. Luckily, our realtor, Tim, has sent out an ad to potential home renters in the area. I won't share it here, but it's pretty ridiculously awesome. While I'm in Nashville, I'll likely be buying a car. My old Impala was sold several months ago, and we've been managing on a single car for awhile. I live pretty close to the hospital, so walking isn't awful, but I'll be glad to finally have my own transportation again.

Upon returning from Nashville, we have a few days off before we head to Lisa's wedding in Orange County. I can't wait to see some of our college friends again, and it's going to be a great way to say goodbye to the West. Dan and Mary will be riding back with us to Tucson, and they're going to help us move back across the country. We shouldn't have too much packing to do, as about 90% of it is already in storage, so that will hopefully be as pain free as packing in 110 degree weather can be. First, we're heading up to the Grand Canyon and spending a night in Flagstaff. Then we're heading east with stops in Amarillo and Little Rock before celebrating our reentrance to Tennessee with some Rendezvous ribs on the banks of the Mississippi.

By the way, if all of those things weren't enough, I'm going to be studying for my boards and Emily's going to be helping to make sure Make Way for Books will keep running without her. We both have a lot on our plates, but I'm confident that the two of us can do anything together.

A Busy Month

This last month has been insane. If I haven't mentioned it before, the owners of our house had been trying to sell it, off and on, for the last two years. In our opinion they were charging way too much for it, but that left a little security for us, since we figured we wouldn't have to move if it didn't sell. It's been a royal pain having to vacate the house with the dogs every time somebody came by to look at it. We figured they wouldn't appreciate two 50lbs dogs jumping on them without their owners present. Unfortunately, the house finally sold... one month before we were supposed to move back to Tennessee. We were told at the end of May that we'd need to be out within 30 days. Normally, we would have been able to do it, but I've been working nights in the emergency department this month. There were very few times when both Emily and I were home, which didn't help for coordinated packing. To add to that, my graduation came a couple weeks ago, coupled with a visit from my parents. We loved having them here and had a great visit, but it came during one of our few weekends off before the move. Last week I worked four nights in a row from 6pm to 3am, followed by waking up at around 8am and packing all day, only to repeat again the next day. Luckily, Ruth came into town to help pack and keep us on track. Abby also helped out a bit on moving day. Honestly, the move would have been a TON worse without them, and we thank you both tremendously!

One thing I didn't mention above was the drama over where we'd be moving. Finding a rental house for only one month that will accommodate two moderate sized dogs isn't the easiest thing in the world. We found several fully furnished places that were 400-700 sq ft, but that would have been quite cramped with two people and two dogs, especially when one of them is a boxer with no sense of his size or surroundings. Luckily, an attending of mine had a rental house available, and we locked in our living arrangements for this month about two weeks ago. It has a pretty big back yard for the pups to run around in, although I think Annabelle figures she's broken free for the first few seconds every time I let her out. The move this past weekend was brutal, as it came during the last of those four days in a row I mentioned earlier, but we made it. It was quite emotional leaving our old house, and I broke down a couple times. I think it had to do with the way we were leaving our first home and the fact that we were only moving on to a temporary arrangement. We truly loved that old house, and I will definitely miss the neighborhood.

Should I add any more to the last month? Oh yeah, I became an uncle! Jenny finally had her baby, Myers Anderson Frank. It's very surreal with Jenny in mommy-mode, but our family couldn't be happier. I'm not going to meet the little guy until August, most likely, but I've gotten to spend a few video chats staring at him and talking to Jenny. I couldn't be prouder, and I know my parents are over the moon about the whole thing. That's it for last month, next stop, an even busier month ahead...