A Few Updates

Well, we've had several exciting events and are looking forward to a few so I just thought I'd share some of them.

First, my grandparents had their 60th wedding anniversary and my grandfather also had his 90th birthday. We had a wonderful party for them and it was the greatest blessing for Jonathan and me to see such a wonderful, godly couple who have lived their lives in such an amazing way. They are both so healthy!!! It's unbelievable. Grandpa still reads his Prevention magazine cover-to-cover every month, and Grandma's still incredibly energetic. The celebration was very memorable, especially the time we sat around and all their grandchildren asked them questions. I will always cherish the answer to my question: "Some people say the world has become a better place, and some say things are so much worse than they were when you were growing up. Having lived through most of the last century, do you think that in a broad sense life is better or worse today than when you were our age." Their response genuinely surprised me and gave me so much perspective on my own life. They both ADAMANTLY stated that things are by far better today. Grandma emphasized how much "kinder and more compassionate" the world is today. As an example, she said that when she was teaching (as a high school art teacher) right after graduating college, poor and minority children were treated badly and discriminated against by everyone, in many cases by her fellow teachers! Although that may still be the case on some level today, she observed that the culture is much less tolerant of this kind of cruelty and for sure it is not culturally acceptable. Grandpa told of his early days in his dental practice when segregation was considered "normal"!! He said that through the '60s he felt overwhelming relieved as his patient population was able to meld into one and be comfortable sitting in the same waiting room. They also told about how much easier life is now. Not only is travel convenient and cheap, but the variety of food and other goods to buy is immeasurably larger. Although they both graduated from Emory, Atlanta was by no means as metropolitan then as it is now. When they moved to the small town they now live in, there were basically no restaurants! We take for granted being able to run get Chinese food, Mexican, Thai, Caribbean, etc. within 5 minutes. I had never thought of how different it would be to have to cook every meal that you ate with limited ingredients from a small grocery store or from what you grew in your garden. I could go on and on….but you get the picture. It made me so grateful for living in the time I do, as well as for my grandparents whose generation made it possible.

One of my favorite things recently was visiting Julia in CA. She is SO FANTASTIC and I MISS HER SO MUCH!!! "Button" has been giving her quite the hard time though. We did lots and lots of lying around and watching movies and talking about the baby. I think only a little boy could be giving his mama such a hard time! When we did drag ourselves out, we had a blast in Menlo Park. While I was there, mom, dad, and Philip also flew out for a few days and we were able to give a luncheon in honor of John (cousin) and his fiancé Jennifer (at a really fun place, California Café which btw I would highly recommend if you're going to Menlo Park). I must say, I am VERY impressed with John. He is bringing such a wonderful person into our family and I can't wait to get to know her better. After that we spent a few days at our family house up in the city. I always enjoy time in SF. It's special on so many levels, but I think the climate's my favorite. What a relief from the southern heat! As long as I live one of my favorite smells will be that of the eucalyptus trees on a cool, foggy morning in the Presidio

Next, in school news, we had SUCH a fun Match Day!!! I was so excited to get my envelope breaking the news that I matched at MCG for my pediatrics residency. I'm incredibly happy to be starting there in July and I am beyond excited about the people in my class, as well as those I've met from other schools who will be starting with me!!! They really are the greatest group and I can't WAIT to get to know them better. I'm a little bit nervous though. My main goal is to not have any casualties during my first year (well, at least my first week). This week is graduation week and it's going to be SO FUN!!! Monday and Tuesday will be downtown and Greenjackets get-togethers a la Judson and Todd (which hopefully I'll go to), Wednesday will be our graduation dinner at Savannah Rapids, Thursday is hooding ceremony (which I'm super excited about, although I look sort of dumb in my hat), and Friday is the big, looooong graduation (which I'm not so excited about). I don't know why we have to have a ceremony with everybody in every kind of school at MCG. I think that graduating from all kinds of school is equally wonderful, but it would be much nicer I think to just have the med school…and MUCH shorter! (PS: Jonathan and mom are having a graduation cookout on Thursday night for moi, so if you have any interest I would love you to come…just give me a call for the time/place).

Next thing - we're having our bathroom remodeled, and I can NOT wait for it to be done! What was orange and black tile with old creaky everything is now a gaping hole. They ripped everything out back to the studs, and thank GOODNESS they are starting to put new stuff back tomorrow (or I guess today actually)! They were supposed to start sheet-roc-ing on Friday, but the trailer with our supplies had a wreck on Washington Road….not so good. I think I may hate dust more than most other things in the world!!! I've been barricading us back in the rear of the house to contain it. Definitely not so fun. It will be so pretty when it's finished though so I'm willing to put up with it.

We're going to Hawaii after graduation!!! Jonathan and I are going to go for 2 wks for my graduation. We're going to Kauai for 6 days first, then Maui for 7 days and then 3 days back in Oahu. Half the fun is in planning it I think. I've been going a little bit crazy ? I was jumping around and yelling last night (Jonathan was mildly frightened) because I got a room for us at the Hilton on Kauai for $80 per night on Priceline! I may be becoming addicted to Priceline!!!!! It's just amazing. SO….for anyone who's been to Hawaii (and I know lots of you are quite well traveled) PLEASE give me your advice and tips. I've been to Kauai and know something about that island, but I've never been to Maui so I REALLY need some help if you have any info about where good areas are to stay, should we take a day trip to Lanai, where are good restaurants, etc, etc…whatever you think of. (Also, I bought several pairs of shoes today of the "hiking sandal" variety, and your opinions on these would be GREATLY appreciated. One was a North Face pair that are just kind of normal and strappy looking, and one was a Keen pair with sort of closed toe-ish design. Does anyone either have these or have an opinion on which would be better?)

I think this is enough. Probably it is way too long for anyone to read. It just goes to show how hard 4th year med school is, especially the week before graduation ! Anyway, please let me know if you have any good travel tips for me, and everyone take care until my next blog….which could possibly be several years in the making.