This week has pretty much flown by! I have been working from about 8-5:30 each day. It's a little busier than I expected an Infectious Diseases service to be, but on the other hand I think being busy has been good for me so I don't miss my sweet husband so much! I've gotten settled into the Evans' home and they are so welcoming and have just made me feel like a part of their family!
This weekend I got to have my real first taste of the area. We started out by going out to eat Friday night downtown at a restaurant called Rana Loca. We sat outside to enjoy the fun and artsy downtown scene and I personally pigged out on mole-braised pork. Yum! I would guess that Winston-Salem is somewhere around the size of Mobile. In contrast, the downtown area is actually SAFE, and there are more restaurants and museums than there are bars! Most of the restaurants offer outdoor seating close to the street which gives everything kind of a relaxed and quaint feel.
After dinner we went for a little walk downtown where I spotted a local artists' gallery with fun (and cheap!) paintings, as well as an Indie theater and a Mediterranean restaurant! It was almost too much to handle!
Saturday we decided to work off all those calories and head out of the city a little ways to Boone, NC. This is the home of Appalachian State University, and has some really nice hiking trails. We decided to head out on a 5 mile trail a little outside of the city. Some of the leaves had just started to change and it was just gorgeous! We even saw some wildlife!
Start of the trail
Wild turkeys! My dad would have been excited.
Made it to the top AND climbed the fire tower for the view!
After the hike we had worked up our appetites and headed into downtown. We first followed heavenly smells into a homemade ice cream and fudge shop. I sampled their pumpkin walnut fudge which was probably as delicious as it sounds! We left quickly to avoid buying lots of treats and low and behold what was outside the door but a makeshift farmers' market! Apparently North Carolina is where all great apples come from, and there were a bounty to pick from . There were kinds of apples I had never heard of before!
We got half a peck of apples and headed on down to a little restaurant called Our Daily Bread for dinner. As the name might imply, this is a sandwich shop that makes their own bread daily. I had a BLT with apples and brie which I will be recreating for my husband when I go back home!
Our trip turned out to be a day-long adventure and we all had a great time! This morning we all have some sore muscles from the hike but it was well worth it for those apples and the lovely mountain views!
Thanks to God, my Prius, and my mother-in-law's GPS, I made it safely to Winston-Salem, NC on Sunday! I (hopefully) conquered step II on Saturday, then drove up to Gadsden that night. Early Sunday morning I hit the road for NC! The drive up was really long (7 hours), but also really pretty. I've never been to the Carolinas before. It really seemed like as soon as I crossed the Georgia state line that the scenery changed from flat to hilly with tons of gorgeous trees!
Of course I made the trip alone as Stu has to stay behind and work. Traveling with him would have been much more enjoyable and entertaining. I did see some interesting things as I drove, though. I learned that Greenville, SC is apparently the home of PET milk as I passed their factory. I also crossed something called the Yadkin Pee-Dee River Basin just outside of Charlotte. Not sure what that is, but I think I'd like to visit sometime!
When I arrived in Winston-Salem I was warmly greeted by James, Kathryn, Spencer, Cooper and Lizzy Evans (2 of those are dogs). They are graciously allowing me to stay in their gorgeous home which is a convenient 2 blocks from the hospital! They are family friends of the Saulters', and I had never met them until I pulled up in front of their house with a car full of stuff! So they are definitely awesome people to open up their home to me!
Yesterday I started work. I was a bit nervous and very much lost in a new hospital that has over 1000 patient beds and a confusing layout! It was a difficult day ... mainly because I failed to be patient with myself and kept getting frustrated about getting lost/not having computer access/etc. It was kind of like starting third year all over again, but without knowing anyone. But today was a lot better! I felt a bit more confident. I still got lost, though not quite as much! The people here are really nice and so that definitely helps in the transition. I've also already gotten to have two really interesting patients, and am reminded by all the posters on the wall that I am working at "one of the US News and World Report's best hospitals in America". So that's pretty exciting!
That's all for tonight. Hopefully this weekend I will do some sight-seeing and be able to give you a tour of Winston-Salem!
I wish I was computer saavy enough to take a screen shot of my Google Calendar and post it onto here. Let's just say the next 4 months or so are going to be excitingly hectic for us! And it all starts ...
Tomorrow: I take Step 2 CK. There's no other way I would rather spend 8 hours of my Saturday. Just kidding. I'm crossing my fingers and saying a prayer that I have studied enough! I wasn't nearly as motivated as I was for Step 1 studying. After that, I'll grab a big coffee and head upstate to Gadsden to spend the night with my family!
Sunday: I drive from Gadsden to Winston-Salem, NC! I'll be there for a month doing a rotation in Infectious Diseases. I really have no idea what to expect, but I'm staying with the Evans family ... who just so happen to be friends with Stuart's family! I'm sure that staying with them and having a connection will help ease my nerves a bit. Maybe I'll get to see some super neat infectious diseases ... I'm hoping for a parasite or two!
Sept/Oct: I will be in NC while Stuart will be working here. The first week he actually flies out to Texas to do a little recruiting for Chevron. I'm sure he won't mind the free trip and hotel! The second weekend, we will be meeting each other in Greenville, SC. The last weekend of this busy month we will be meeting in Charlotte, NC and driving home together. And if you're wondering why all the random places, these are all candidates in my residency search!
November/December/January: This is when it gets even more busy ... Interview season! So far I've been offered 5 interviews. I have been pleasantly surprised since I didn't think offers were supposed to go out until October. Hopefully there will be even more to come!
Wish both of us luck as we begin this new and exciting process. Pray for wisdom for us in choosing where we will live for the next three years (yikes!), and most importantly pray for our marriage during this time of absence and stress. And of course ... I'll be blogging!
This weekend, while I should have been studying for my board exam, Stuart and I traveled to The Loveliest Village to watch the Tigers (and the Dawgs)! It had been a year since I had been back, and Stuart can attest to the fact that I was basically giddy as we rolled into town. Unfortunately I am old and all my college friends have moved on to different parts of the country, but our memories are still at AU in full force! Here's a not-so-quick rundown of the weekend:
Thursday night, I slaved over a hot stove (literally ... I was sweating) and concocted some pumpkin cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream frosting. They were delicious and had just the right subtle orange-ness for the tailgate. Friday morning my dad had neck surgery, so we headed up to Bham at 4 am for that. The surgery went wonderfully (dad can swallow again, hooray!!) and after we visited with the post-op Morphine-intoxicated dad for a while, we drove down to Auburn.
Saturday morning we headed out bright and early to my old stomping-grounds. The highways on the rolling plains of Dixie were covered with cars which were covered with tiger tails and flags. We came into town and parked at the Arboretum, where I used to host College of Science and Math events. The sky was cloudless and the weather was perfect!
Our first stop, after dropping off the aforementioned cupcakes at our tailgate, was to get a gameday button from the Haley bookstore. These are one of my favorite gameday traditions. Students send in cheeky gameday slogans and the winner gets featured on a button which is mass produced and free to all fans! This game's slogan: Bulldozed.
Can you guess what game this was from?
After that my wonderful husband suggested we go see Tiger Walk! I almost fainted but immediately accepted the offer! You can read a chill-inducing article on Tiger Walk here, but I'll give you the short story. The AU athletic dorms are a short 1 block walk to the stadium. The players used to walk from their dorm to the stadium as a team on Saturdays. In the 1960s, students started running down the street and lining up to watch and encourage them. The Tiger Walk has been in full force since then!
The band getting everyone fired up
Large amounts of people ... usually can't see the players but still fun!
After Tiger Walk came the main event! Stuart and I, nervous that our marriage wouldn't survive the game (just kidding), headed up the stadium ramps to our upper deck seats. I was overjoyed to find that in the MSU section where we were sitting, half the seats were filled with Auburn fans! I felt right at home. Stu had some MSU people beside and behind him, so we both had some camaraderie.
The pregame show contains two of my other favorite gameday traditions. One is the AU band ... first marching once around the stadium and playing the fight song, and then afterward spelling out Auburn on the field.
Look at us in our opposing colors!
Pregame fight song
Band marching on for the pre-game festivities
After the players ran out (carrying the American flag, I might add!)
Of course the other favorite is the Eagle's flight! There are several stories as to how this tradition got started ... I don't think anyone really knows. But all you really need to know is that "War Eagle" is a battle cry, NOT a mascot!!! It's really rare for me to get through this without a tear in my eye. And Stuart, a non-AU fan, even admits it's one of the coolest football traditions out there. This week though, was a flight I will never forget. See the video to find out why!
Ummm ... what just happened??! Bobby Lowder must have been in that box seat. I don't know what I would have done if Spirit smashed a little harder into that window! He gave some people in the crowd a scare, but I have never seen a more intense flight!
Of course if you watched the game, you know the results. It was basically a shoot-out, and Auburn won ... literally in the last 5 seconds of the game. Stuart and I cheered our guts out (my fingers "swol" up around my rings from clapping so fiercely) while sitting right next to each other and didn't even exchange dirty glances. I'll call it a success!
After the game was over ... I gently persuaded Stu to come witness the toilet papering of Toomer's Corner. For his sake, we just watched from the outside because I didn't want to rub anything in. This tradition (started as a way to notify the townspeople after Auburn away game victories) is still going even after Harvey Updyke. He may have ruined our trees but he can't break the Auburn Family spirit! The two oaks were noticeably thinner and brown at the top compared to last year. Hopefully they can hang on ...
Is this a postcard picture or what?! =)
After the game, we headed to Provino's, a local family owned Italian restaurant that has these garlicky buttery rolls that will make your breath stink for days. The next morning we headed out bright and early to the Auburn CoC to hear a wonderful sermon from Jim Brinkerhoff - the man that married us just over a year ago!! And what is a good sermon if you don't get a good Sunday meal afterward?! Well, we headed on over to Opelika to Whispering Oaks plantation house where they do some mighty-fine soul food cookin on Sundays!
Entrance to Whispering Oaks. You know this is a good sign.
With our bellies full of lima beans and dressing, we made the trip back to our little place on the shore ... with some new memories and secure knowledge that our marriage is based on more than college football =)
Tropical storm Lee has past, and left us with some lovely fall weather!!
Unfortunately he decided to make landfall right around Labor Day, just when our family was coming in to town! Oh well ... We originally had a great and exciting weekend planned, full of events like:
Kayaking in Mobile Bay!!! We even had reservations!! Obviously this picture is not from there as there are no dolphins in our Bay. Or mountains.
Visiting the white sandy beaches of Gulf Shores!
But the weather obviously hindered our plans.
We had a great time anyway! We drove over to Memaw's house in Moss Point, MS for a family cookout. I think we literally drove through the worst part of the storm. That always makes for good times. Once we arrived, her yard could have provided us with a kayaking adventure.
That's like 6 inches, folks!
We also laughed away several hours playing Balderdash, which is one of my favorite board games. Did you know that in Oklahoma, it's still illegal to steal another man's melons at night? I didn't either until I played!
And of course, I got my baby fix (which doesn't take too much), with our little niece Vera Kate! She is kind of adorable, and is now walking everywhere! She can almost talk, too. You can see an intense expression on her face break out and you know that she really has something to tell you, but all that comes out is "BABABABA! BRRRRR? HIEEEEEE!!" She also entertained the dogs
This picture reminds me I must blog about Winston (white dog). We adopted him, had to give him back, then adopted him again. Story to come soon perhaps.
And of course what do I enjoy more than cooking for friends and family (and myself)? I think the favorite dish of the weekend was an untitled dessert ... a lemony pudding custard thing. I learned how to make it when I lived in Panama, from a friend who was Costa Rican. So we'll call it my Latin Lemon Lush. Here's the recipe if you like!
Ingredients: 1 can evaporated milk, 1 can condensed milk (the little can), 1 pack of Maria cookies (found in the Latino isle), and 2-3 lemons
The cookies
Directions:
1. Open the cookies. This is probably the hardest part. If you just look at the cookies the wrong way they will break. Once you open them, try one! They kind of taste like 'Nilla wafers, but a bit milder. Now layer these in a pie pan.
Don't cry over broken Maria cookies! They taste the same!
2. Grab your blender. Make sure the jar is on securely so you don't spray stuff everywhere like I did once. Pour in the two cans of milk. Turn the blender on and begin squeezing the lemon juice into the mixture. This is not an exact science, but super nifty. You can squeeze through the first lemon pretty quick, but slow down on the second. Keep squeezing until you see/hear a texture change in the blender. I don't know how this happens, but it does. Don't keep squeezing or else you'll end up with a clumpy mess. It usually takes me 2 or 2.5 lemons to get to this point.
3. Pour some of the pudding stuff on top of the cookies.
