Saturday, March 26, 2011

70 days and counting....

70 days from today, a mere 10 weeks, I will be a married woman! It is kinda scary (in a good way) to think about it.......but so incredibly exciting! We continue to make progress in planning for the big event. The hope is that 2 weeks from now, there will be beautiful weather in the Raleigh area (praying for a fabulous day) so that I can get my bridal portraits taken (really excited about that!). We are still making progress of solidifying our housing once we're married. I have now officially been released from my lease obligations here in Boone as of May 1. That is exceptionally exciting -- at the most, we'll be paying 2 rents at a time if Jon is unable to find someone to sublease. (Even then, he is paid up through the end of his lease -- so it's already taken care of.)

School is moving along. 6 weeks from today, I will be a college graduate which, let me tell you, is a wonderful feeling at this point. Less than 5 weeks of class remaining plus a few days of exams are all that stand between me and finishing undergrad! Mixed in there will be two relatively involved papers, a few exams, lots of busy work (that's all thanks to one class) and MOVING (I hate moving...lots). However,

I have made significant progress on one of the papers, of which the first draft is not due for nearly 2 weeks (highly unusual for me). The "funny" part of this that I used the paper to procrastinate other homework and studying. Ironic, isn't it?

March Madness

So, it's a relatively well-known fact that I am not a huge sports fan. Before my involvement in sports medicine, it could be said I couldn't tell you the different between football and soccer. (This is a large exaggeration -- but you get the point. I never paid attention to it!)

As life has continued on past sports medicine, I still maintained an interest in some sports. Football, basketball (college only) and baseball were of primary interest, as these were the three sports I devoted my time to during my time in sports medicine. I also gained an interest in hockey as the Carolina Hurricanes gained greater popularity. While I have interest in other artistic sports (gymnastics and ice skating), the aforementioned sports are easier to find on the television due to their higher overall popularity.

Currently, we are in the middle of what is known as March Madness. The series is smack in the middle of the games known as the Elite 8. I have never filled out the all-to-famous brackets before. However, it is an annual thing in my fiancé's family to have a competition (round-by-round) to see who can be more successful at filling out their brackets. This year, I was invited into the competition. Unfortunately, I have no background in filling these things out (yes, I knew how to do it but I've never paid attention to March Madness in previous years and had no premise on which to base my selections on other than the team's seed). The exception to this is that I recall quite a final game last season between Duke and Butler. Butler (ranked 8th, 5th seed for the West division), the unknown underdog, made it all the way to the championship game against the Duke (ranked #3, #1 seed in the South division). Even then, they only lost to Duke by 2 points (61-59).

Monday, March 21, 2011

Another cooking adventure!

Earlier this week, I found some recipes that I was dying to try...and so, Sunday seemed like the perfect day since I would have company for lunch. :-) (Sunday is Jon's productive day at my place: laundry time. It's also the day he is guaranteed a home-cooked meal...though, it's not always something he's had before. You might could call this "guinea pig day". He's a good sport about it.

The theme of the day: apples, or something "apple" related.

I have been itching for some pork so I got some pork chops earlier this week with the intention of cooking them on Sunday for my wonderful fiancé. Yesterday, I made another run to the grocery store for some apples and applesauce once I realized I could have a theme! Haha...

So, here's what I made:
  • Marinaded pork chops
  • Stewed apples
  • Applesauce bread

Friday, March 18, 2011

Common courtesy goes a long way

This week, I have seen numerous people on crutches. I don't know what happened over spring break to these folks but they were apparently having too much fun. So much fun that they came back to school with foot, ankle or leg injuries. I, personally, feel sorry for those people (unless, of course, they did something ridiculously stupid...then it's their fault). While I was in high school, I was on crutches for 4 1/2 months. It was no fun. At all. And, at that point, I only had relatively flat ground to cover. Here, they have hills...big hills and stairs...lots of stairs. I can only imagine how miserable they might be climbing all the hills and stairs.

Here's something else I've seen: these folks riding the bus and having to stand, balancing on one leg and 2 crutches as the bus climbs hills and makes less-than-smooth starts, stops and turns. I have been a late-comer on the bus each of these times and had to stand myself (an adventure when you can stand on both legs) so I had no seat to offer to these people. These people are wobbly and bumping (or half-way hopping) into the people who are seated as they try to maintain their balance and not fall on those seated or standing around them. Each time I have seen this, the people who are sitting stare at the one hobbling around on the crutches and as the injured one apologizes to the ones they bump into, these people continue to stare and say "oh, that's fine"...and refuse to offer their seat.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Spring break, part 2

Spring break flew by! It's strange to think that this is really going to be the last spring break I have as a student. If I do, in fact, go into teaching, I will continue to have them...just from the employee side. So, here's how the rest of the week went...

Monday, I worked a 24-hour shift. It was exceptionally busy but the night was wonderful. We slept all night but we're not too sure if it was as a result of a truly slow night or if it was due to the pagers not activating (there were LOTS of issues with them all day). Either way, I was happy to take it.

Tuesday, after I got cleaned up from my shift, Jon and I spent the morning and first bit of the afternoon looking at apartments. We settled on one that we loved, filled out an application and are currently waiting to hear if we get it. The one that's on "hold" for us at the moment, the current tenants move out on April 30 and with a 5-day turnaround from the apartment complex between tenants, it will work out well with our desired move-in date of May 8 or 9. I also had dress fitting number 1. It went pretty well and it should be finished the last week of March. I'm excited!

Wednesday, I had to head off to work for meetings and training. It was fun and informative (helped me catch up a bit on what I've been missing out on over the last few months that I've been in school).

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Spring break, part 1

I am on day 3 of spring break -- and I've gotten a fair amount of stuff done during these last few days.

Jon and I came home on Thursday after his last class of the day. His last class wasn't held so we were able to get home at a decent hour, which was quite nice. Friday began early for me as I got up for an appointment with my eye doctor that never happened. I went there only to find out that they had been trying to call me for the last week to say the doctors would be out of town and needed to reschedule. The only problem was that they were calling the non-existent house phone at my parents' house. My appointment has subsequently been rescheduled to this coming Thursday. After my visit to the eye doctor's office, I had an appointment to get my hair cut with Janelle, someone who I have known for years but has never cut my hair. It's been several months (5, to be exact) since I got it cut. I also wanted to discuss the possibility of her doing my hair for the wedding. She said she'd love to -- and she liked what I had thought of, so we're on the same page for what's going to happen, I think. :-)

Following my new hair cut (really, just a trim), I had lunch with Dad. It's something we used to do often when I lived in Raleigh but we haven't done it in a while. After lunch, I was off to collect Jon so we could head off for the first 2 hours of our premarital counseling with the pastor who will be marrying us. The session went well and we have one more this coming Friday, hopefully getting it all finished up then. Before work on Friday evening, I went with Jon back to his house to hang out for a few hours and have dinner with him and his parents. Work was mostly uneventful, which was nice. Only 1 call for the 12 hours. I have a feeling I'll be paying for that with my shift tomorrow.