If at first you don't succeed, tri tri again

So after my first triathlon last year I've tried to do 2 others.  In both cases I was thwarted by timing at the last minute.

The first was rescheduled because of a massive forest fire in Boulder.  Now, the fire wasn't anywhere near where the race was supposed to be, but the firefighters took over the reservoir  as their base camp.  When things had settled down, they rescheduled the event for a day that I couldn't go.

The second tri  that I wanted to do was the day after my last day of work in Denver.  Yeah, we ended up taking off for Wilmington a few days earlier than expected, so we were driving the U-haul while everyone swam, biked and ran.

Yesterday, I finally made it to a triathlon!

I did the Wilmington Triathlon, which actually takes place in the town of Wrightsville Beach.  Julian's fellow intern's wife does triathlons as well.  We're the same age and so in the same starting wave.  It was a lot of fun to have someone to hang out with before and after the race.  Jules was working all day.

The best part?  I met my goals for the race!
My total time:  1:43:41
My 5k run time: 27:49

Grandma

We took a last minute trip to Denver this weekend to say goodbye to my grandma.

A couple months ago, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. She had several large tumors.

She had been slowly declining until Thursday, when she went from being fully communicative and still ambulatory to barley able to respond. When Jules and I arrived on Saturday, she wasn't responding at all.

She passed away Sunday night, at home, with the whole family around her.

Grandma was the glue that held our family together. Now we are faced with figuring out how to be a family without her.

Oof, Kindergarten!

I have a class of 21 lovely 5 year olds, but man oh man, they are worlds away from the now-second-graders I left in May. I'm having quite the reality check as I teach them how we behave at school.

It's not that they're all naughty, most of them just haven't had to learn this stuff yet.

For the most part, at the end of the day, I'm happy and exhausted. (Just don't ask be an hour before school is out!)

My new school is very different from Vanguard. There is not nearly as much structure in place for the children or the teachers, but everyone has been so kind and supportive. That is one thing I LOVE about living here: everyone is so kind!

Oh, and in the end it turns out that my kids will stay in my class all day. I'll teach them literacy in Spanish, then math, science, and social studies in English. Yay! I love teaching math, science, and social studies, so I'm thrilled!

Post Storm

Well, we made it through the hurricane safe and sound!

Before the hurricane hit, I made a quick foray to the beach to check out the waves. The pictures don't begin to convey how windy it was and how choppy and chaotic the waves were.

Wilmington had minimal damage. There were some downed trees, lots of leaves everywhere, and a friend's neighbor lost 1 shingle of his roof, but overall I'd say we got off easy.

I stayed up until 3:30 Friday night (Saturday morning) waiting for the "hurricane" to hit. To me, it was just a bad storm that lasted a very long time. I kept thinking it would get a lot worse and I didn't want to be woken up by that in the middle of the night. Eventually, I convinced myself (quite wisely) that I just needed to go to bed.

We are so thankful that we weren't hit more directly or intensely, especially as we watch the coverage of the damage and devastation elsewhere.

I know it's said too often and it begins to lose meaning, but our thoughts and prayers are with those whose lives have been devastated.

Hurricane Prep

Remember how I was awed at all the things we have in North Carolina?  Well, I'm not so excited about that anymore. 

As luck would have it, Julian is on the team that is locked into the hospital.  I guess there are 3 teams: one for before, one locked in, and one that cleans up the mess after the hurricane.  Since Jules was supposed to work nights this weekend, he's one of the lucky ones that gets locked in the hospital. 

Which means that the girl that was afraid to move to the coast because of the hurricanes is going to go through her first one by herself.  I could go to a friends house, but I'm too stubborn/ worried about the apartment.  I figure if I'm here and it starts to flood, I can carry things upstairs.  If a window breaks, well I'm not actually sure what I'll do if that happens, but I'll figure something out. 

I have half a day of work today, then it'll be time to lock myself in. 

Update

It's been 2 months since we moved to NC!

Time has flown, but so far I am enjoying my time here. There are definitely some things about living here that blow my mind.

There are these random 2 ft by 2 ft areas on the beach that are roped off. I found out recently that they are sea turtle nests!

There is a big lake/park about 3/4 of a mile from our house that is my favorite place to go running. Here's one of many signs posted around the park.

Yes, I have seen an alligator. I was on a walk with a friend and we were standing on a bridge over a finger of the lake when we saw a 4 ft alligator just chillin' in the water with the turtles. The other day on the news, I saw part of a story about one alligator who had to be captured after wandering away from the lake.

Julian is settling into the chaos that is intern year. Usually, there are so-so days and ugh days, but he's amazed at how fast the last two months have felt. We're taking that as good news.

I've been keeping busy working at a summer camp. I did a couple days of subbing at a preschool and on that second day they offered me a job that unexpectedly opened up in their summer camp room. So, I was a TA for four weeks with them.

On Wednesday, I will start my new job as a Kindergarten teacher at one of the public elementary schools in town. They have a dual-immersion program, which means that they teach the kids in both Spanish and English. Surprisingly, there are only 2-3 native Spanish speaking students in the program (from what I understand). I'll be teaching the kids reading and writing in Spanish, then trading kids with another teacher to teach them reading and writing in Spanish. I still don't know how I feel about the whole thing, but I'm thankful that I have a job.

It Was THIS Big

I don't like spiders.

I know they are a part of creation and that they serve a purpose and I'm OK with all that until they come into my space. Then I freak out. This usually involves running and begging Julian do fix the situation ASAP.

Well, Julian is now officially in residency which means that this morning when the spider inside the front door tried to attack me, there was no one to run to. To make matters worse, that big, long legged creature was holding it's ground between me and the bug spray!

Now I was tempted to turn tail and run, but instead I tempted fate and ran past it. The crazy thing was jumping all around, obviously in an attempt to intimidate me back up the stairs! I made it to the bug spray and came rushed back to the battlefield.

Unfortunately, the spider did not seem ill affected by the ant and roach spray that I doused him with. It just made him hopping mad, literally!

So, I sprayed more, and more, and more until I'm pretty sure he was just drowning. Then I got him with a sandal.

Ha!

Settling In

A quick re-cap of our move:

It somehow took 2 days of careful packing and 1 day of just throwing things in boxes to get us packed up. How on Earth did we accumulate so much stuff?! Fortunately, my brother Daniel and our friend Sam came over to help us load the U-haul.
It took us over 30 hours to drive from Denver to Wilmington. The U-haul's gas mileage was terrible so we ended up driving between 50 - 60 mph after the first fill-up.

The long drive was very nicely broken up by a visit to Brent and Pam, some friends who live in Kansas. We got a 12 hour respite there before the second leg of our drive.

Dan drove down from D.C. to help us unload which we are so thankful for. I like to think I'm tough, but there's no way I could have helped Julian move that couch!

Now we're just down to those last few stubborn boxes that we just don't want to deal with and trying to find the missing things. For example, I have no idea where the camera cord is, so I can't get to the pictures on the camera to post. Oh well.

We've made it to the beach a couple of times and are loving our new proximity. We both really want to try surfing now.

Our neighbors are really nice, in fact almost everyone is nice. It's really odd to me to get into conversations with the cashiers at the store or to be asked my opinion on an outfit by a fellow shopper. I've always heard Colorado was a friendly place, but it doesn't hold a candle to this.

U2 360⁰ (and then some)

U2 was originally slated to come to Denver in June of 2010. That was before Bono slipped a disc in his back,prompting a one year postponement of this entire leg of the U2360⁰ tour. We finally got to use our tickets on Saturday, as Bono and company finally made it to a sold out Invesco Field. It was entirely worth the wait.

As it turned out, it was also well worth camping out for seven hours on the tarmac outside in the general admission queue, and waiting for three more in the crowded "inner circle" under "the Claw". To explain, U2's stage for this tour is gigantic - it reportedly takes four days to set up and two to take down, and consists of a more or less basic center platform surrounded by a runway about 50 feet out. The two elements are connected via two bridges that can move around the radius of the circle. Above the whole thing stand four pillars the bend over the stage to connect in the middle, from which hangs a 360-degrees circular video screen that can expand to reach all the way down to the stage floor. We ended up getting a spot inside the circle between the stage and the circular runway, and the show was EPIC.

Waiting outside in the GA queue.

The Wife two-fisting it. (CAGE questionnaire anyone?)

People left behind everything from chairs to unopened Doritos to untouched six-packs (now you see where Amy got the liquid refreshment seen in previous shot).

Getting ready for the mad scramble.

Inside "the circle". First 2000 fans were allowed in, we were probably around #'s 800 and 801.

In between the opening act (The Fray) and the real thing, all these facts rotated by on the big screen - some lighthearted ("tweets today") and some more sobering ("People who died of hunger today").

The band shows up first on the big screen on their way out to the stage.

Bono on one of the moving bridges - my best shot of the night.

"In the place where art meets science, the super hero who was bitten by a spider and turned into a nerd...on guitar, The Edge."

"A wonder of nature, Adam Clayton became a father in the last year, still a young buck though!"

"Part-Terminator part Duracell Bunny....Larry Mullen Jr on drums..."

Ten feet away.

Bono and The Edge on main stage.

Even Larry got the chance to get out from behind his set and amble about on the runway.

The rhythm section steals the limelight for a minute.

Bono and Adam main stage - this was about 20 feet in front of us.

The video screen was massive, and later in the show expanded down to within about two feet of the stage floor.

Bono breaks out an ax of his own.

Wrapping it up - they would come back out two more times after leaving the stage the first time. Special thanks to the doofus who ruined the shot with his paws.

A shot back at the Claw as we leave the stadium. Thirty+ years and these guys still have it. Amazing show.

Last Test of Med School

Has been taken. That is all.

License

Ask any teacher, getting a teaching license is an exercise in bureaucracy at its finest. (Well, at least in Colorado)

I applied for my North Carolina license about a month ago. Then after starting applications I realized that I had taken the wrong subset of the PRAXIS (think SAT or ACT but for teachers). I took Elementary Education: Content Area while North Carolina wants Elementary Education: Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction.

Seriously?!

I've been working on getting though a loophole, but today when I checked the website I found out that...(drum roll please) I am now a licensed teacher in NC!

It hurts my Colorado pride a bit to admit this, but NC seems to have a great system set-up over there. In Colorado, it would have taken 3-4 months just to find out that they had received the application, then another month for them to figure out I had taken the wrong test. Oh, CDE I will miss you not.

Guate y Zacapa

When looking for a Central American country to visit on a budget, may I suggest passing over more popular destinations such as Costa Rica and Panama for the oft overlooked yet visually stunning country of Guatemala. I was there in 2008 for one month, during which I spent a few days at Lake Atitlan, considered by many to be the most beautiful lake in the world. I returned, this time with the wife, for the better part of the past week during her spring break. It was a trip taken to celebrate a successful Match, secure in the knowledge that the next five years will leave us little time for travel.

After spending the night sleeping on the threadbare carpet of Miami International Airport with an annoying voice loudly jumping out of the speakers to proclaim the time every fifteen minutes, we arrived, after two layovers, in Guatemala City. A short taxi ride to the bus terminal and we jumped on a camioneta (aka "chicken bus") for the 4 hour ride up to Panajachel on the Lake. From there, we took a lancha (aka small covered boat powered by an overworked but compliant outboard) across the lake to our hotel. La Casa del Mundo is perched on a cliff overlooking the lake, and is only accesible by boat. From the dock, you need to climb a bunch of cement/rock stairs to get to the hotel. Nice rooms at $35/night and an array of decks and various platforms, complete with woodstove-fired outdoor hot tub completed the basic picture. My friend Oscar, whom I had gotten to know on my last trip there, still works at the hotel. He was our unofficial guide during our time there, taking us to, in order: a local friend with a backyard sauna; a local restaurant that doled out $2 shots of Zacapa (considered by many to be the best rum in the world); and to the summit of a volcano overlooking the lake. The last of these took us the better part of a morning, and was worth hiring an official guide for. The 40-something year old gentleman proceeded to kick our collective butt in volcano climbing, despite our Rocky Mountain pedigrees. Even so, we got up in two and one half hours (the norm is three), so we weren't completely undone about it.

Otherwise, lots of reading time, with us each reading three (non-medical) books, something I haven't done for a long time. Hammocks are my friend. The water in the lake was clear blue providing for an assortment of refreshing daily dips/swims. At night the sauna awaited, under a glorious sparkling night sky complete with the "Southern Cross" constellation of the southern hemisphere hanging over the horizon. We got back to Guatemala City ("Guate" to the locals) by the same means as we came. This time, however, we needed to change buses three times en route - something that went surprisingly smoothly considering the chaotic-looking scenes that are the change-over points. The flight back included another airport sleep over, this time at the Orlando airport, but we made it home safe and sound - very tired and moderately sunburned, but filled with the memories of our latest adventure together.



Camioneta - 4-hour bus rides complete with overcrowding and nice guatemalan radio music blared at damaging decibel levels for $3


Our room


La Casa del Mundo, our spectacular hotel


Inside view of a lancha


Outside view of a lancha


Amy with Volcan San Pedro, the volcano we climbed, in the background


On the way down


At the top with our friend Oscar (L) and our awesome guide (seriously, he was incredible)


Tuk Tuk, three-wheeled transportation extraordinaire


Be nice to spiders


Also to homeless cats who come and sit on your lap without prompting


Oprah has her Favorite Things (or so I hear); I have my Favorite Spot.


View from balcony outside our room


Inside a camioneta (this one is practically empty)


To pay for the trip, I am selling Amy's car (in any case, there is no way we are taking this boat all the way to NC)

Match Day 2011

My friend Kemeni and I directly after opening our envelopes. We both got our first choices.

Here's the official add-on to the wife's initial real-time post below. I can't tell you how relieved I am after spending the last four years in pursuit of a favorable residency match. Just to reiterate - we matched at my #1 general surgery program choice - New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, NC (we could have matched at any one of the twelve programs on my rank list). It's a small program that takes only two categorical surgery residents/yr. Beautiful location right along the NC coast. I loved my interview day there and then Amy and I were able to make a trip back there prior to making our rank list so she could get a better direct impression. It's a big move, but we are excited to start the next phase of our life together and I'm looking forward to starting my training in earnest!

And the winner is...

Wilmington, NC
This was our first choice so we are thrilled. It's all still a bit surreal!

tick, tock, tick, tock...

The waiting is starting to get stressful!

Step One Down...

...one big step to go.

We matched!

Yay for not having to scramble!

The Die is Cast ...

Rank list submission deadline was last night. Now begin the longest three weeks of my life.

Residency Update

Julian's done with all his interviews! Yay!

We are going to visit a few of the programs so that I can see the towns and to show those programs that we are very interested in going there. So, that will be this weekend and next.

Here's what happens next (the way I understand it):

In February, we make our rank list, a list of the programs that we liked starting with our number 1. (By the way, I shouldn't have made that comment about Wisconsin. Turns out that the program looks amazing and they seem to have a great community there.) The residency programs also turn in their list with the residents they would like to have.

So all these lists, from all the med. students in the country trying to get into residency and all the residency programs, are fed into a computer somewhere and an algorithm matches students to the programs.

On Monday, March 14th, we find out if we matched, or in other words, if Jules was hired somewhere. But we won't know where. Some people don't match for whatever reason, so they go into something called the scramble. Basically, you call up residency programs that have holes they need to fill and beg for a job. You work there for a year and then start your residency. It could be anywhere and from what I gather probably not somewhere you want to be. So that Monday will be stressful!

Then Thursday, March 17 at 11:00 am at Invesco Field with Julian's entire class we find out where we will be spending the next 5 years of our lives, assuming we matched. Since it just so happens to be St. Patrick's Day, I'm sure we'll be grabbing a few beers with friends after we open envelopes.

Cold Day!

I'm living it up at home today.  School was canceled because of our frigid -2 degree high in Denver today.  It wouldn't be safe for the kiddos that have to walk or wait for school buses.

So... I get to be a bum.  It's fantastic!  After a little house work, I think I'm going to build a fire, knit and listen to a book on tape.  Life is good.

I'm so thankful I have a warm place to be and enjoy this day off.  I know not everyone is so lucky.

knitting night

Last night, Kim, Amanda and Libby came over to learn how to knit. We enjoyed wine, pizza and chocolate cake as everyone worked on scarves. The girls were great, but there was a fair amount of profanity as stitches dropped and needles decided to not cooperate.

I love getting to work with these ladies everyday.