Phew. It's days like this, that I know why Southerners move so slow. Moose can't even go outside in the heat of the day, it's just miserable. Ugh.
In answer to a challenge posed to me by my friend Gregg (yes, K, there are multiple people who are silly enough to spell Greg with two g's!!) and for good amusement for many of you: here's the count of my shoes.
Casual or sandals: 8
Boots: 9
Sport-specific: 16 (climbing, hiking, running, biking, rollerblading, skiing, and a pair of hockey skates)
Heels or dress: 18 (highest: 4.75 inch. When I wear them, I am 5'11" and i love seeing over crowds! a little tippy after a drink or two tho)
not by much, but the heels win. I'd have not thought that. This is just about as funny as seeing that according to surveys, I'm right brained!! apparently there's a side of myself that i just do not express very often. Most days I wear flipflops, I have a pair of Merrell kicks for the clinic and Chacos for REI. Alas, my heels tend to be lonely :(
I need to set aside some bags for Goodwill... :) I have a lot of thinning to do before I leave HotLanta...
Monday, July 21, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Kayaks, crepe myrtle, and toes
Today I took my new kayak (her name is Sunshine!!) out on Lake Acworth. It was about a 2mi paddle, pretty easygoing, bc tomorrow I'm headed to Foster's F
alls to climb, and I wanted to save the arms :) I will tell ya one thing: It is hot around here. Whew. I was pretty glad when some clouds showed up and occluded the mid-day sun.The blooming of crepe myrtle is a marker of summer in Atlanta. When they bloom, it means it's officially hot!! I think they may be somehow related to jacaranda trees (sp?) that bloom in California in late spring. I'm not really a pink person, but these are pretty nice:
The last part of the subject line? Wednesday I was babysitting baby Zooey, who is a little over one year old. I didn't realize that I had taught her the word "toe" until Bri came home and heard Zoo say it - I guess it was her new word for the day :) A good one to learn from Aunt Amy!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Comedy of Errors
This past weekend, the last stretch of my school break, I zipped up to Boston. My primary goal was to have face-time with Dr. Stephen Franson, my chiropractor from Beverly MA, with whom I would like to "associate." An associateship is to a freshly-graduated chiropractor, what a residency is to a new MD, or a post-doctoral fellowship is to a just-minted PhD. Dr. Franson runs one of the most successful, high-volume practices in New England: his business model is a well-run ship, to say the least, and the opportunity to train in his practice would be pretty much like learning how to start up a company with Donald Trump as your personal mentor. Dr. Franson and I have been in spotty contact since I came here to Georgia (did I mention that he is the reason I decided to embark on the journey to become a chiropractor, and also the reason I am here at Life U in Atlanta?) and for the past month or so, we have been trying to set up a meeting with him. He is a busy man. He can be very difficult to connect with - i get that. So when he said that sometime the 11th or so would work, I went ahead and arranged a trip, though I had no solid date, time, or meeting place. There are very few people to whom I would extend that kind of trust.
The trip, as it turned out, was a comedy of errors - the kind of thing that you have to maintain a sense of humor about. Let's start with Wednesday, and five hours of yardwork in the mucky heat of a Georgia summer, and mild heat exhaustion / dehydration. OK, stage is set. Thursday, my flight was due to leave at 3:10 - so, still moving kinda sluggishly, I got it all together Thursday morning and left the house at 1:15, for a 20-25 min drive to the airport. (note to Dad: seeeeeeee how early??) Mid-day in Atlanta, no prob, right? Heh heh construction vehicle abandoned in the center lane of 285. Ten mile backup, right before the airport, crawling bumper to bumper. Ooooo-kay... So I finally get to the airport and scam it into the terminal thinking oh, crap, I'm so gonna miss my flight... Thankfully the flight was delayed for 2hr, due to thunderstorms. (warning bells!) That gave me enough time to backtrack to Kat's car to text her very specific directions on where it was parked, since she and Jake were due to arrive the next day and pick it up (file this fact for future reference, it becomes important).
Several more flight delays. I am now about to miss my connection, in Chicago. What's that you say? NEVER fly through Chicago in the summer on an afternoon? Oops. I look at the radar map. There are two bands of thunderstorms - one in Atlanta, the other swooping down across Minnesota towards Chi-town. Looks like it should hit... right as we land. And that it did - we zipped into O'Hairy not 5 min before all hell broke loose. The incoming front was just a wall of black. We got stuck on the tarmac for an hour, due to lightning strikes. I'm thinking, hell, I'd better decide whether to just tell them to put me on a flight tomorrow... after all, I am 80 miles south of Mike Hayward, and it's his 50th birthday (happy bday again, Mike!!) I was pretty close do doing that - but I really wanted to get to my meeting with Franson. So i decided to stick it out.
We left O'Hare at 1230 Central time. And I don't sleep on planes. Landed in Boston at 330 eastern time. (Note: my reaction to the Boston skyline was similar to a sailor's first view of land in months!) Michelle picked me up at Logan - and she will be getting a LOT of cookies for that airport run!!!!!! We get back to Chez Michelle at 430, and i'm thinking, how the hell am I gonna get it together to meet with Dr. Stephen? I am not really functional on sleep deprivation - as many of you know. I decide to check my email at Michelle's: message from Doc, he has had to shift plans around due to a funeral, is 11am ok? No prob, at least now we have a solid time and place. I go to reply... and Michelle's internet crashes. It's now dawn.
Cambridge, 9am, I am showered and about ready to scootch down the road, the phone rings. It's Franson. "Did you get my message? I was hoping we could meet at 9am here in New Hampshire." oh CRAP! Indeed, no. We rescheduled for Saturday - frustrating, but probably better, I was more likely to be functional by that time :)
Shift of plans. Like i said, the purpose of the weekend was to meet with Doc - all else was to be juggled around that. So, juggle I did.
Michelle and I headed out to Salem to have lunch with Charley, ah, Indian food in Atlanta is just not as good!! Charley decided to be really bad and play a little hooky - it was friday afternoon, after all - and we went out sailing on his 16" Hobie Cat! Conditions were just stellar:
Got back to Chez Charley, zipped back into Cambridge, and Michelle generously lent me her car so I could drive out to meet up with ACBK. Amy K and I had a lovely visit, including yummy red wine and decadent tiramisu at Bertucci's :) then I drove back into Cambridge, to prepare for Meeting with Doc, round 2.
Saturday am. Still didn't sleep well. I get ready and leave at 1045, the drive should be about 45 min and we are due to meet at 12. Except....... I forgot something very important. The Hampton Tolls. Total CF; I didn't make it to the cafe until 1230. Doc is a busy man, and has set aside an hour to meet with me, and look what I do... but wait, it gets better. I walk into the cafe and he has brought one of his kids - beautiful towheaded four-year-old, long hair. In my exhausted and traffic-addled state, I forget that his daughter Emma is less than two years old, and don't realize that the kid with him is his SON Sam. Hint: If you are trying to gain ground back after showing up 30min late for a 1hr meeting, do NOT suggest to the man's man who you're meeting with that his son looks like a girl. Bad.
It was lovely to catch up with Doc, but I didn't feel like the meeting went all that well. He knew I was looking to ask him about an associateship; unfortunately, he has a lot of really amazing projects he is digging into right now, and he is not sure where his practice is going to be headed in the near future, so he's not able to give a definitive answer to anything until October - to me, or to the other 2-3 people who have expressed interest.
I have to admit I am disappointed. In my best case scenario, I hoped to leave Boston with an offer, and to know where I will be in nine months. This will not be the case. However, the door is not shut, which was the worst-case scenario. It's simply a wait-and-see. But with such a comedy of errors surrounding my meeting with Doc, I have to wonder whether working for him is what the universe has in mind for me. There are other docs in Boston with whom I can associate, for sure. And to return to Boston is still my firm intention :) especially after the absolutely lovely time i was able to spend with a few of my peeps - I am so lucky to have a hometown to return to, that is home base to so many of my great friends.
Which brings me to the happier part of this post - Being up in Boston was wonderful, i can't wait to go home. After meeting with Doc, I drove over to Darcy and Chris' new place in Groton, MA. The pix I had seen were terrific, but Darcy hinted that they may not accurately convey the place's awesomeness, so true - Their new home abuts an expanse of greenspace, with endless opportunities for biking, hiking, snowshoeing, xc skiing... Beautiful. Darcy and Chris had arranged a late afternoon BBQ, so I got to visit with Tom and Brenda, Owen and baby Zach, and Andi and Russell.
Russell, the crazy handsome Brit, and Chris had been for a ride (i had been hoping to join them, but scheduling nixed that); Owen has grown into a recognizable human being with good taste in hats (Tom and Brenda rule!!):
Zach is so cute that he could make just about any woman want to have a kid; and Andi requested that I update my blog more often, a comment I have heard from a few of you... So ya can't curse the length o' this one!!! Darcy, the amazing woman she is, managed to find a six of my favorite beer, Stone IPA, which is DANGED hard to come by - Duuuuuude. Darcy, u so rock :) in a dozen ways!
After people exodused (ya i know, not a legal scrabble word) Darcy and Chris and I got to hang out. Their sunroom is divine:
and we watched some animated Batman shorts in their entertainment room.
I got a few short hours of shut-eye (actually four, then i had an asthma attack and decided to take a barefoot walk around the neighborhood at dawn), then hit the road at 7am for my flight, stopping by en route in Cambridge to walk Michelle's pup Billy (no longer a pup, that's for sure!!! He's taller then Moose!). I got to the airport and thought hm, why do I feel so woozy? OH! because I forgot to eat today, and because I haven't had a full night's sleep since nearly a week ago??
So it turned out that Kat and my ingenious plan to car-swap at the airport crashed and burned. Kat and Jake forgot their keys in Boston... and some other stuff. I'm not the only one who had a rough trip to Boston! Luckily I had not locked their keys in their car at the airport as we had originally tossed around :) That would have sucked. So it was pretty easy for me to get home, and I didn't have to bother anyone for airport pickup.
Moose did quite well, Celeste and Aryn took awesome care of her! I was a little worried, as this is the longest I had left her since her surgery, and she still has a tricky stomach. But she did awesome. I need to stop by the vet at some point and see how much she has put on. She might be cracking 90 pounds at this point. I'm looking forward to when it cools down around here a bit and I can walk her more - with her black fur coat, walking is at a minimum right now. But we'll get in some hiking this fall :)
It's now wednesday, and i'm still recovering. Classes have started, same crap thrown at us, a few different teachers (one, McCoy, is a real arse - his inferiority complex is evidenced well by his domineering management of the class). Looking forward to some playtime this weekend. Headed to Foster's Falls to climb with a group from Atlanta Rocks.... see, anywhere I go, I get drawn into the climbing community :) Not that I mind. At all.
The trip, as it turned out, was a comedy of errors - the kind of thing that you have to maintain a sense of humor about. Let's start with Wednesday, and five hours of yardwork in the mucky heat of a Georgia summer, and mild heat exhaustion / dehydration. OK, stage is set. Thursday, my flight was due to leave at 3:10 - so, still moving kinda sluggishly, I got it all together Thursday morning and left the house at 1:15, for a 20-25 min drive to the airport. (note to Dad: seeeeeeee how early??) Mid-day in Atlanta, no prob, right? Heh heh construction vehicle abandoned in the center lane of 285. Ten mile backup, right before the airport, crawling bumper to bumper. Ooooo-kay... So I finally get to the airport and scam it into the terminal thinking oh, crap, I'm so gonna miss my flight... Thankfully the flight was delayed for 2hr, due to thunderstorms. (warning bells!) That gave me enough time to backtrack to Kat's car to text her very specific directions on where it was parked, since she and Jake were due to arrive the next day and pick it up (file this fact for future reference, it becomes important).
Several more flight delays. I am now about to miss my connection, in Chicago. What's that you say? NEVER fly through Chicago in the summer on an afternoon? Oops. I look at the radar map. There are two bands of thunderstorms - one in Atlanta, the other swooping down across Minnesota towards Chi-town. Looks like it should hit... right as we land. And that it did - we zipped into O'Hairy not 5 min before all hell broke loose. The incoming front was just a wall of black. We got stuck on the tarmac for an hour, due to lightning strikes. I'm thinking, hell, I'd better decide whether to just tell them to put me on a flight tomorrow... after all, I am 80 miles south of Mike Hayward, and it's his 50th birthday (happy bday again, Mike!!) I was pretty close do doing that - but I really wanted to get to my meeting with Franson. So i decided to stick it out.
We left O'Hare at 1230 Central time. And I don't sleep on planes. Landed in Boston at 330 eastern time. (Note: my reaction to the Boston skyline was similar to a sailor's first view of land in months!) Michelle picked me up at Logan - and she will be getting a LOT of cookies for that airport run!!!!!! We get back to Chez Michelle at 430, and i'm thinking, how the hell am I gonna get it together to meet with Dr. Stephen? I am not really functional on sleep deprivation - as many of you know. I decide to check my email at Michelle's: message from Doc, he has had to shift plans around due to a funeral, is 11am ok? No prob, at least now we have a solid time and place. I go to reply... and Michelle's internet crashes. It's now dawn.
Cambridge, 9am, I am showered and about ready to scootch down the road, the phone rings. It's Franson. "Did you get my message? I was hoping we could meet at 9am here in New Hampshire." oh CRAP! Indeed, no. We rescheduled for Saturday - frustrating, but probably better, I was more likely to be functional by that time :)
Shift of plans. Like i said, the purpose of the weekend was to meet with Doc - all else was to be juggled around that. So, juggle I did.
Michelle and I headed out to Salem to have lunch with Charley, ah, Indian food in Atlanta is just not as good!! Charley decided to be really bad and play a little hooky - it was friday afternoon, after all - and we went out sailing on his 16" Hobie Cat! Conditions were just stellar:
Got back to Chez Charley, zipped back into Cambridge, and Michelle generously lent me her car so I could drive out to meet up with ACBK. Amy K and I had a lovely visit, including yummy red wine and decadent tiramisu at Bertucci's :) then I drove back into Cambridge, to prepare for Meeting with Doc, round 2.
Saturday am. Still didn't sleep well. I get ready and leave at 1045, the drive should be about 45 min and we are due to meet at 12. Except....... I forgot something very important. The Hampton Tolls. Total CF; I didn't make it to the cafe until 1230. Doc is a busy man, and has set aside an hour to meet with me, and look what I do... but wait, it gets better. I walk into the cafe and he has brought one of his kids - beautiful towheaded four-year-old, long hair. In my exhausted and traffic-addled state, I forget that his daughter Emma is less than two years old, and don't realize that the kid with him is his SON Sam. Hint: If you are trying to gain ground back after showing up 30min late for a 1hr meeting, do NOT suggest to the man's man who you're meeting with that his son looks like a girl. Bad.
It was lovely to catch up with Doc, but I didn't feel like the meeting went all that well. He knew I was looking to ask him about an associateship; unfortunately, he has a lot of really amazing projects he is digging into right now, and he is not sure where his practice is going to be headed in the near future, so he's not able to give a definitive answer to anything until October - to me, or to the other 2-3 people who have expressed interest.
I have to admit I am disappointed. In my best case scenario, I hoped to leave Boston with an offer, and to know where I will be in nine months. This will not be the case. However, the door is not shut, which was the worst-case scenario. It's simply a wait-and-see. But with such a comedy of errors surrounding my meeting with Doc, I have to wonder whether working for him is what the universe has in mind for me. There are other docs in Boston with whom I can associate, for sure. And to return to Boston is still my firm intention :) especially after the absolutely lovely time i was able to spend with a few of my peeps - I am so lucky to have a hometown to return to, that is home base to so many of my great friends.
Which brings me to the happier part of this post - Being up in Boston was wonderful, i can't wait to go home. After meeting with Doc, I drove over to Darcy and Chris' new place in Groton, MA. The pix I had seen were terrific, but Darcy hinted that they may not accurately convey the place's awesomeness, so true - Their new home abuts an expanse of greenspace, with endless opportunities for biking, hiking, snowshoeing, xc skiing... Beautiful. Darcy and Chris had arranged a late afternoon BBQ, so I got to visit with Tom and Brenda, Owen and baby Zach, and Andi and Russell.
Russell, the crazy handsome Brit, and Chris had been for a ride (i had been hoping to join them, but scheduling nixed that); Owen has grown into a recognizable human being with good taste in hats (Tom and Brenda rule!!):
Zach is so cute that he could make just about any woman want to have a kid; and Andi requested that I update my blog more often, a comment I have heard from a few of you... So ya can't curse the length o' this one!!! Darcy, the amazing woman she is, managed to find a six of my favorite beer, Stone IPA, which is DANGED hard to come by - Duuuuuude. Darcy, u so rock :) in a dozen ways!
After people exodused (ya i know, not a legal scrabble word) Darcy and Chris and I got to hang out. Their sunroom is divine:
and we watched some animated Batman shorts in their entertainment room.
I got a few short hours of shut-eye (actually four, then i had an asthma attack and decided to take a barefoot walk around the neighborhood at dawn), then hit the road at 7am for my flight, stopping by en route in Cambridge to walk Michelle's pup Billy (no longer a pup, that's for sure!!! He's taller then Moose!). I got to the airport and thought hm, why do I feel so woozy? OH! because I forgot to eat today, and because I haven't had a full night's sleep since nearly a week ago??
So it turned out that Kat and my ingenious plan to car-swap at the airport crashed and burned. Kat and Jake forgot their keys in Boston... and some other stuff. I'm not the only one who had a rough trip to Boston! Luckily I had not locked their keys in their car at the airport as we had originally tossed around :) That would have sucked. So it was pretty easy for me to get home, and I didn't have to bother anyone for airport pickup.
Moose did quite well, Celeste and Aryn took awesome care of her! I was a little worried, as this is the longest I had left her since her surgery, and she still has a tricky stomach. But she did awesome. I need to stop by the vet at some point and see how much she has put on. She might be cracking 90 pounds at this point. I'm looking forward to when it cools down around here a bit and I can walk her more - with her black fur coat, walking is at a minimum right now. But we'll get in some hiking this fall :)
It's now wednesday, and i'm still recovering. Classes have started, same crap thrown at us, a few different teachers (one, McCoy, is a real arse - his inferiority complex is evidenced well by his domineering management of the class). Looking forward to some playtime this weekend. Headed to Foster's Falls to climb with a group from Atlanta Rocks.... see, anywhere I go, I get drawn into the climbing community :) Not that I mind. At all.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
checklist
phew. our three week break between quarters is already over. dangit. i was pretty productive tho. i managed to knock a bunch of stuff off of my "short" list.
- cleaned the house, top to bottom;
- finished the stone patio out back;
- did quite well in clinic: logged 65 adjustments on 20 different patients, four xrays and five accessory credits, started up two new patients, did two complete CMRs and am midway thru a third;
- set five new routes at Atlanta Rocks;
- spent some time with some climber people here in Atlanta that I've wanted to get to know better;
- finished Atlas Shrugged, and re-read the Way of the Peaceful Warrior;
- got out on my bike;
- took a trip to Boston. I got to meet with Dr. Franson briefly, and got some wonderful quality time in with friends whom I miss dearly.
i'll write a separate blog on that one within a few days :)
A few things didn't get ticked off the list tho - I didn't get out climbing in North Carolina with Webster as planned, due to REI scheduling conflicts and an injury sustained by Webster; I didn't manage to get to a swimmin' hole as planned WAH!!!; I haven't picked up new kayak yet (pictures will be forthcoming soon); and I chose to not write a new set of Norm's Notes for Biochem I, due to a philosophical issue I realized I have with spending my time creating something that I know will be plagarized and misused, and that I know I will not be properly compensated for. (Ayn Rand moment). All in all, though, I feel like i accomplished a lot.
Back to the drudgery of classes tomorrow. Show me the hoops! three more quarters of school (about nine months), and it'll be time to move on with my life...
- cleaned the house, top to bottom;
- finished the stone patio out back;
- did quite well in clinic: logged 65 adjustments on 20 different patients, four xrays and five accessory credits, started up two new patients, did two complete CMRs and am midway thru a third;
- set five new routes at Atlanta Rocks;
- spent some time with some climber people here in Atlanta that I've wanted to get to know better;
- finished Atlas Shrugged, and re-read the Way of the Peaceful Warrior;
- got out on my bike;
- took a trip to Boston. I got to meet with Dr. Franson briefly, and got some wonderful quality time in with friends whom I miss dearly.
i'll write a separate blog on that one within a few days :)
A few things didn't get ticked off the list tho - I didn't get out climbing in North Carolina with Webster as planned, due to REI scheduling conflicts and an injury sustained by Webster; I didn't manage to get to a swimmin' hole as planned WAH!!!; I haven't picked up new kayak yet (pictures will be forthcoming soon); and I chose to not write a new set of Norm's Notes for Biochem I, due to a philosophical issue I realized I have with spending my time creating something that I know will be plagarized and misused, and that I know I will not be properly compensated for. (Ayn Rand moment). All in all, though, I feel like i accomplished a lot.
Back to the drudgery of classes tomorrow. Show me the hoops! three more quarters of school (about nine months), and it'll be time to move on with my life...
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