I need to vent!!

I'm so damn mad at my school right now, it's fucking bullshit because being in graduate school they know they have all this damn power over you and there's nothing you can fucking do.

So, let me start in the middle. Brent didn't get any NWT spots, he is stuck in southern Cali next year. The first totally fucked up thing is that they didn't even release the spots in Corvallis that should have been given to the SoCal kids to choose from (there were 6 that should have been made available). So, there were only 2 actually decent spots in Tacoma and Salem, but of course the people who DID get NWT from SoCal didn't want to switch. BUT then a girl from the NWT who got Portland, offered to switch with Brent. This should work, yeah? I mean, it's an easy swap. Well, that's the second fucked up thing, they said no, this wasn't possible. We met with one Dean a month or so ago who said that if Brent got in the NW and it wasn't near my spot, we could try to switch me around to get near him. But, since he didn't even get a spot, we decided to ask someone higher up if he could completely switch with this girl in Portland. Not only did we get a No from one Dean, but another angry message from the other Dean. (yes, it's so complicated). Sooo, now we are stuck in the middle of political bullshit. I'm over the fact that we aren't gonna be even close to each other next year, now I'm just pissed at the school for being such assholes. Of course Brent sent both Deans emails back just saying that his main concern is to be with me next year and didn't mean to upset anyone, but it's still all messed up. I don't really understand what happened with my school. Last year everything was great, there was none of this higher power bureaucracy, but this year has just been a shit show.

Urrrgghhh. On a happier note, I only have one test left of the semester and then I'm heading back to PDX on the 19th!! Yay, so stoked!

Okay, back to studying. Hope to hear from you girls soon!!

Home for the holidays!

We missed you ladies who could not make it to our mini reunion.

Hope to see you all soon!

Website of the day

Wordle.com - find out what you're really saying! This site will take the content of a chunk of text or a blog and create an image that places emphasis on the words used most often. I thought it was pretty cool, and promptly began creating images. Here's one for our blog.

No time now for an update, but just wanted to share my nerdy excitement with all you lovely ladies. Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving! xoxo

Help! I'm technologically challenged!

Hey ladies!

I'm not sure if this is going to work, because I tried to test this without success already. It says that I'm "5117 Girls." Do I need to be added as an admin or contributor? Eek! There are so many things that I've been wanting to share with you. I miss you all so much.

Lots of love <3

Nora

Things they are a changin'

Whew Kim, quite the blog post! I was just about to get on here and write about what was going on with rotation stuff. The good news: I got Portland. The bad news: I got Portland. Sounds kinda weird, but it's the truth. If Brent isn't able to get a NW track spot (and we are being picky, so only if Tacoma or Corvallis are open) then I will switch my rotation spot and go wherever he gets. If he doesn't end up getting a NW track spot, then he is going to stay in CA and our vacations will be lined up together...and I'll stay in PDX. Although both sound great, I'm really hoping he will get a NW spot so that we can still be together. I know we will be incredibly busy, but I think it would just suck not having him around. Plus, now we have Tink, and she would have to live with only one of us. We have both grown pretty fond of her, so that would be hard. AND, we both have been sharing things for our apartment, so who would get to keep what?!?

Anyway, things are a bit crazy as usual. We are waiting to see what tracks are left over on the 19th, and then we will know exactly which rotation spot Brent gets by the 30th, so stay tuned.

I will be home next Tues (I get in REALLY early, like 8am early) but will hopefully be studying my butt off at a cafe in between a run with my cousin (anyone is invited to join). That sucks you work so much Kim, it's Chris Allen's B-day on Tues so I was planning on going out with him and was going to see if you wanted to come (again, all are invited, I don't know what the plans are though). The only other plans I have are for a Turkey Trot on Thursday morning. Chris, you should really come up to my family's Thanksgiving dinner, it's amazing food!!!

I leave Sunday morning at 7 am, so we need to plan something. I'm not sure a Seattle trek is going to work out, I have a respiratory test the Wed after Thanksgiving, so I'm going to try to study during most of the day and just have fun in the evening time...

Okay, I have two finals this week, so back to studying I go.

Can't wait to hear more from all of you girls! What the heck has been going on?!?

Love you,
Ash

Dying to hear more!!

Ashley! I'm dying to hear more details about your Portland placement for next year!! When do you start? When does Brent find out about his rotation? Where is tink going to be??

Em, curious about your Thanksgiving weekend plans...which day would work best for you for me to head up to Seattle?
Ash, I work Mon, Tues, Wed that week.... So what days can I plan on hanging with you? Are you planning on being in ptown over your winter break at all?

How has everyone else been up to? Jesse & Taren I'd love to plan on seeing you when I'm up in Seattle over thanksgiving if possible!! What are your plans?

My (almost blind) date with H1N1 :0)

Wow so my date with Hunter last night….He is awesome. Almost intimidating so. He picked me up and we had some beers and some HH food at the Nightlight in SE. Lots of just relatively basic information, get to know you convo. He is super polite and nice. We had lots to talk about. He talked to me a lot about this Naturopathy school deal (because I asked a lot of questions about it!), and it is super interesting. He is obviously incredibly intelligent, has a very interesting ideology, and is still really down to earth. He is also really well travelled. He studied abroad in Australia, visited New Zealand. Spend 4 mos traveling & backpacking in South America!! (all by himself). Has also done traveling and backpacking in Eastern Europe…(yes I’m screaming with envy!). Both his parents were dentists (he has freakin perfect teeth), and in general is definitely damn good lookin. He is really athletic: played soccer for Pomona college (which is how he best knows Lech), is really into outdoor stuff like hiking, camping, kayaking etc. (yes, melting…). And has a hot body to go along with it (and yes I got to see a bit of it :0))))))
Okay, so seriously. He is really awesome, but I kinda went from being super intrigued and swoony to just feeling like, shit, this guy is why beyond me. I guess I’ll let that be up to him to decide. But I kinda already feel like falling for this guy is going to lead to heartbreak. Can we say COMPLETELY different playing field than ex-bf!?!? So I’m a little confused right now. To top that off: definitely doubting why the hell I’m even going out on dates with someone anyway because I am really not ready nor wanting to dive into another relationship. I really have no idea what his take on that is nor did we have any extensive conversation about our past relationships so…
After HH we came back to my place and made pear cobbler dessert (with the massive amount of pears we’ve collected from the tree in our driveway). It turned out delicious. And he hung out (and we made out) til, well, really really late…like um, 6 O’clock this am…just in time for me to head to work (ed day) and him to head to class…
We are suppose to hang out sometime this week…for a hike maybe, weather permitting….But for some reason I am just not sure how excited I’m about it…maybe I just need to get some sleep and re-energize my head.

Meet Tink

Hey girls!! Just a quick update. We got a 10wk old kitten, still considering a dog as well to join the little family!! I don't really know why we think we have time for pets, but I guess we do...kinda. I'm excited we got her though, she's A LOT different from the cat I got in undergrad (that peed everywhere!). She's got a really spunky yet lovable personality, and we have only caught her peeing on some of my recycled brown bags that I put in her path of getting behind the fridge. She's definitely more time and energy than we realized though, and now are debating on the dog issue. The dog is a 6 mo old mutt, who has a little bit of everything in her. She was seemingly quite and mellow, until we took her out for a walk and she became CRAZY! I just don't know if we have time to train and care for a puppy, and a puppy with a lot of energy. I keep saying that it'll make me run more with her around, but it could also just be plain exhausting. The dog Britt got in undergrad was SOOOO much work, and I don't want another experience like that! Any thoughts?

Anyway, other than that, nothing else is really new. Gonna go wine tasting for my birthday this wknd, it's our first REAL free wknd, where we have absolutely nothing that we can study for (well, other than our board exams in May, but that's just plain crazy). Tomorrow we are learning more about rotations selections, and Brent and I met with the head honcho for rotations who said that she would do her best to keep us in the same city. She didn't guarantee PDX, but she did tell me to try for a rotation in Portland so I'd have bargaining power...we will see what happens! We are hopefully going to know our schedule by Thanksgiving...

Soo, how are you other quite ladies doing? Lena, did you end up going to SD to visit that guy, and how is all of that going?!?

Miss you all. Can't wait to (fingers crossed) see you at Thanksgiving!

Loves,
Ash

Drama

So Halloween was a blast! All you girls were missed! Of course the best part of halloween was taking hundreds of pictures with everyone's camera. The first night Kim, Lena, Katie, Richy and I went to a house party in N Portland. There were tons of people there! Ran into so many random people and realized how small portland really is. So many connections I didn't even realize.

On halloween Kim, Lena, and Myself along with two of my co-workers from Pottery Barn, Konrad and Michael, came along to Mike's house (Kim's old roommate). That was a lot less crazy but still really fun. After him house we headed down town to dance party at the Ace Hotel, pretty simple but so fun.

Pictures were up the next day and I got an email from michael (My mike) and he was actually really upset about a picture I took with Konrad. I quickly called Kim to have her take it off facebook. I don't EVER want to make him upset or make him feel disrespected. We fought for a bit about it, my argument being that Konrad is Flaming and he really shouldn't care. But after the blow out, he sent me an email with all these picture of us where I am kissing his cheek :( He basically said that he didn't want his girlfriend's lips on any guy but his.... Ok mike never reacts like this and frankly I was really confused at first but now I'm embracing it. It shows he does miss me and actually does g

et jealous. In 3 1/2 years this is the first time he has ever acted like this. (not counting the "kissing contest" in vegas )

Kim, I know you were not so happy about having to take it off facebook but I appreciate that you did.

I want to know what you ladies think.

a break in the action

howdy all.

i love to hear how all of you are doing. chris, your projects are awesome and you are going to be a killer graphic designer! kim, i can't believe that you are going to move down to the ER (sometimes)!!!! that's super cool. way to be versatile and find new ways to expand your knowledge base and resume.

as for me, life is somewhat back to normal. after ten days of hell (four exams and a quiz) i feel like i can breathe again. the fresh air in colorado helped refuel my soul (and feel like a person again) and seeing mitchell filled my heart with joy (sap tastic i know!). tests went aok... still a med student... and i'm finally feeling like i can survive the shit show that is medical school. colorado was awesome! it was fun from beginning to end. we got to hike, wander, go out to breakfast, drink wine, sleep lots, go to a great fancy restaurant, and even ski (in october!!!!). it was wonderful. my friend gretchen's family has a condo in frisco, co which is a sweet little mellow town surrounded by mountains. it was the most perfect mental health vacation ever!

seeing mitchell was of course wonderful, but of course left me a little broken hearted. chris, how have you been doing this long distance thing for so long?!?!?! it is truly killing me. we had such a great time together and i could be fully myself... i miss that here in omaha. i don't yet feel like i can be fully me around everyone here... we are still in the "getting to know you" phase a bit... even though it has been a few months. last night was a girls night for some of the ladies in my class and i finally began to open up a bit more. it was super fun.

i'll be in seattle for a week over thanksgiving (the 24th through th 1st) and again for christmas (the 27th-2nd) and i hope to make it down to portland on at least one of the trips. if anyone wants to take a road trip to seattle too, i would LOVE to see you!!!

i hope everyone is doing great! Love you!
Em

Recent Class projects

Here is a project from one of my classes. The assignment was to design an informative WPA poster, which was fun. I know that my art will always imitate my life in one form or another, but I going to try and focus my work on things NOT related to Mike.

For this class I also had to design a sticker to put on the back of all my projects, its got mike all over it, but I'm really happy with it. The application I did it in, Photoshop, is so intimidating to me, mainly because I'm not as fluent in it as I am in illustrator (which is paint on steroids). When Michael was here we went to Skamania lodge and it was really romanic (blaw blaw blaw) and one of the things we did was draw on each other's chucks, so mike drew the little image that I incorporated in my design.

The ER and more J disaster waiting to happen

Taren it was so awesome to hear from you! I meant to write back/comment on your post earlier, but I was in NY when I got it. I seriously start laughing out loud, DYING, when I think back to the mysterious 'phone in the wall' incident. OMG, freakin hilarious, I have yet to see such a collectively air-headed performance repeated to that degree. Miss you guys like crazy all the time.

Ash its so good to hear from you! Sounds like you had a great weekend with Brent's family: that's awesome. I am SO anxious to find out where you'll be place next year: maybe even more anxious than you!

I'm just getting ready to work my 2nd (and last) day of orientation to working in the ER. I agreed to float down there when they need people. Partly because we had been going through a period for about 3 months where our unit had a really low patient census and a lot of people were getting canceled, but I'm really just doing because I think it sounds like a great opportunity to get some work in a different area. The ER is still a "critical care" area so they'll probably tend to give me the sickest patients, but I'll get to see lots of non critical patients as well, which I think will be a big step closer (or at least a good window into) more primary-like healthcare (because the ER is actually where most of our population goes to get primary healthcare). I'm really excited and nervous about this new role, but I think once I get handle on the new pace and patient flow I'm going to like it a lot.

The ICU has been pretty fun lately, although because we've been so 'slow' lately I haven't gotten to see many open heart surgery patients. A big part of us having so few patients was nobody was signing up for elective surgeries: people not going into the hospital or doctor...possibly because they've lost there insurance lately. But the slow bubble as already seemed to limit itself: none of us could believe that less people in the hospital was actually a sign of people getting healthier. We are already getting busy again: now with patient's needing emergent OHS. I'm going to keep myself from ranting about this right now...

Emily, I'm excited to hear about your anniversary weekend with Mitchell! How was Colorado?!

J and I hung out over the weekend. It was actually almost a date had not Chris, Katie & Richy not come along. We went and saw "where the wild things are." It was kinda weird that he had asked me to go with him, bought the tickets in advance...awfully 'date-like.' The weekend turned out pretty awkward because he pretty much overstayed his welcome, invited his friends to hang out on Saturday, and I didn't really handle it well because I was too polite, I guess in letting him hang out for longer than he should have. He admitted later when everything hit the fan that he did want to take me out on a date, reminded my that it would have been our 3rd year anniversary, and we had to have the whole conversation all over again about why our relationship it not going to work. It made me realize that I am getting over things because I truly believe that we are over. Maybe he isn't getting over it as well, and I don't think I'm helping at all because I'm being too nice. Of course I can't help it though because I do still care about him and don't want to keep hurting him. ugh. Somehow I've agreed that it would be fun to hang out halloween weekend, but the more I think about it the more I think that we are just foolishly setting ourselves up for a disaster.

I am excited about putting together my halloween costume though! I'm going to be "the government bailout." Its going to be fun.

Gots to go. Loves & hugs to everyone of you.

Long time no talk

Well, it's been a while for all of us it looks like, but hopefully we can start this up again! Chris, how was your birthday and the party on Friday night (a few Friday nights ago?!?)

Sorry for being a complete train wreck the last couple of weeks! Cardio is finally done, and I'm finally feeling back to normal. I didn't do anything about my abnormal tests because in all reality, it is probably nothing. I have started doing meditation with a bunch of my classmates, and just trying to minimize stress where possible which has really helped (or so I'm telling myself). I realized that I am irrational a lot of the time, so I'm trying to cut that out as well :)

Anyway, things are going well. We finished our hell week of midterms with OMM and Cardio, and I'm really starting to feel like I could be a somewhat decent 3rd year medical student. I.e. I can probably answer basic pimping questions from my attendings and not look like a total idiot in front of some patients. Well, I'm getting there. As the date nears for when we choose our 3rd year rotations, I'm feeling less and less anxious about where I'm going to be next year (and where Brent will be as well), things will work out, it'll all be okay.

I think this wknd helped the most. We left on Thurs right after our OMM midterm and drove up to Northern Cali where Brent's family lives. It was so nice to see the seasons change; see the leaves turning yellow, red, and orange and have the smell of fall in the air. It reminded me that despite the 80 degree weather in LA, the world is getting closer to the holiday season. We stayed the night in Danville and then drove to Tahoe the next morning. Brent has an amazing cabin on West shore, and his family came up to hang out for the wknd. I've never been there so they took me bike riding, hiking, and his sis and I even got our makeup done while he had ski patrol classes. It was exactly what I needed, and it really helped being in a place so like home, with people that I really enjoy who aren't constantly talking medicine. Well, they all talk dentistry, but it's nice to be able to tune it out I guess.

Anyway, that's my little blurb of an update. I'm sorry it was so hurried, I'm now trying to play catchup for renal, I'm already 14 hours behind. Oh well, I'll continue to just breathe.

I hope you all are doing well. I can't wait to hear how everything is going. Miss you guys like crazy.

HOLY SHIT I'M TURNING 25

So, I'm turning 25 this Tuesday and I'm a tiny bit freaked out. Not really the fact I'm getting old (because I don't think 25 is old), but because I AM STILL IN FUCKING SCHOOL! (pardon my french)

OK, on the bright side I love school and the major I have now! I feel like I have been in school forever, and all my friends (you guys) are getting couriers around me and I'm still buying back to school supplies. But seriously, I am so happy with my classes, I love doing my homework and feel like an over achiever in my classes because I'm always the first to upload my homework (we do a lot of homework involving flickr, photo version of facebook), and have not procrastinating. I am also one of the best in my classes, that is a first. Business classes were so lame and boring and BLAW, never took the time I should have to do well. Now the profs are asking me to show the class what I figured out and using my work to display in display cases as school. I have found my place!

Oh by the way I changed my major to Graphic Design... I'm going to be a graphic designer.

I'd like to thank Mike because one night in maui I was expressing to him how envious I was of my friends (Kim, Jessie) and him for having found a courier they love, and that I wish I could have that. So he asked me "what would be your dream job?" I told him "designing logos for companies" he said "well, why don't you do that?". Seemed simple enough right. So that was in the middle of a term when that happened. When I got home I met with the Art Department Director, showed her my credits from Art School that wouldn't transfer and my work from classes, she waived a lot of the classes I took and next thing I know I'm an art student again!

I also would like to thank Jessie! I was so jealous of your job and wanted to know how to get into a position like yours, you totally motivated me to figure it out!

Ok that is my school situation.

Being that I like to plan ahead, I had all these elaborate plans for my birthday and started with going to napa with the family and Michael, to Disneyland with Michael, to Vegas with you girls and Michael, to a fun weekend in Seattle with Michael... do you see the common denominator?

Well Mike couldn't get work off... when does he tell me this you ask??? the day before flying to see him 3 weeks ago, hmmmmmmmmmm I was pissed and disappointed in him. So, after getting over the fact that he could not get work off despite his efforts due to seniority (it turns out), I cried. Because shit I'm turning 25, major birthday, and you were suppose to be in all my plans, not because it was my idea but because it was YOUR idea... (that was me talking to him :) So I called him last week after getting home from maui and sobbed on the phone to him. My parents didn't want to come down to Portland in the middle of the week due to work, all my friends are either moved away or gone in general (except for you Lena but you get what I'm saying. What started as this elaborate event turned into a solo birthday. So anyways Mike is flying in on Monday night at 11pm and leaving Thursday at 10am. Its going to be a short visit, and yes I know I just spent two weeks with him in paradise, but ALL I WANT FOR MY BIRTHDAY is my boyfriend, can you blame me. We may go to the Skamania Lodge for the my birthday night and do some wine tasting... it will be fun

I am having a dinner party on friday the 9th, everyone is invited :)

I'd like to Welcome Taren to the blog, its about time lady!

Chris Ritter

Friday Nights...Three Years Later

First and foremost......HELLO lovely ladies of 5117. Second, there better be a spellcheck on this thing, and yep, there is:) So, I couldn't resist but share this story with all of you as it serves as a perfect intro. into my contributions on this blog. With it being Fall and all I get nostalgic when 'Back to School' time rolls around thinking about our old White Palace and all the memories I had there....tear....literally....rolling down my cheek right now. I think back to countless dinner parties, the time we were SURE Genieveve's (sorry, spell check wont help with that doozy of a name) phone was trapped in the wall and we called Dana to confirm what we were sure was a haunting of some sort, and of course; Friday nights.

Oh, Friday nights. It seems like there was always great anticipation of what Friday night would hold. In the early days, it seemed like there was always some party that involved us dressing up, which of course involved us first making a trip to the Lombard Goodwill and purchasing literal crap. As time progressed, Friday nights meant we were actually hosting the party, or someone had somebody special visiting from somewhere; be it Pat McCormick, or that guy that had a thing for you Lena where the visit ended in a blow-up on the porch and Courtney and I snooping on the other side of the creaky screen door....all that to say, I look at my life now and laugh at how different things are.

Right now, Gabe is literally snoring on our couch. He's exhausted with the new job, though he becomes excessively irritated when I suggest that it's having an effect on his energy level. The guy is counseling kids who have been removed from the public school system for drug and alcohol abuse as his first real job out of college so I don't blame him for being tired, but I can assure you we weren't scoping out costume parties for our Friday night plan. Instead, one of my co-workers at the Bank was turning 30 something so we had a shindig at a cute little New Mexican restaurant up by the Woodland Park Zoo. But the best part about the night for me, was when we were sitting around the table and talk turned to college, and Gabe and I started retelling the story about when we had a party at Ashley's house where Gabe turned into Schindler List when he had to barter with Public Safety and usher Me, My Sister, and oh, Ryan Wilbur out of the attic because we were sloppy drunk. I think Jessie got her first MIP that night.....correct me if I'm wrong;) Needless to say, here I am 3 years after I moved out of one of the 'angled' rooms in the basement (shout out to Chris with that one) and my favorite part of the night is reliving one of the memories from life spent with all of you.

All that to say, I love all of you, and cherish all of those memories so much...and that I can't wait to get into the hang of this blog thing.

Testing

Please don't kill me for being obnoxious and trying to test this first...

Issues of the heart

So, not to be just always in a shitty mood, but today sucked as well. (other than I got a new computer which rocks b/c my other one completely crashed on me).

I know I keep talking about my high blood pressure and high heart rate, but I really needed to get a womanly check up done so I made an appointment at the school medical clinic, and I'd figure I'd ask them about these other issues (just to finally lay to rest my increasingly terrible paranoia about mine and my friends/families health). Well, low and behold the first reading they take for my blood pressure is 155/118 (for those non-medical girls, this is BAD, this is stage 2 hypertensive), we decided to take a series of pressures both manually and with the machine and my blood pressure was continually elevated (although not to this degree). "We" then decided to take an EKG, and then run some other tests. I'm thinking, ok this is scary, I didn't realize my blood pressure was that high and, really, I don't feel like I'm an unhealthy person...but ok. So, we take the EKG and the seemingly wonderful PA who is my "doctor" (sorry to be snide) doesn't know how to read them. All she sees on the read out is that I have an irregular rhythm and the print out says something along the lines that I have an abnormal EKG. She then immediately wants to refer me out, and doesn't even give me advice as to what to do from now and when I go and see the cardiologist. So, I'm freaking out even more, because unlike her, I CAN read an EKG, and it looks like I have bradycardia (random) with Type I mobitz SA block with ST elevation in the posterior leads. So, all I really know is how to read it and just the very bad things these could mean (myocardial infarct, sudden death, etc. etc). Ok, the sudden death is me being melodramatic, but seriously Kim, what the hell does this mean?!? What can I do, and I'm honestly a lot less stressed out about this now because this happened this morning, but I am really scared. I do NOT need this right now...

On the flip side, we are going to Disneyland to celebrate our 1 year on Friday (it was the best time we had off). It's corny, but amazing, and the good times with Brent definitely outweigh the bad. So we will see. I continually just need to stay positive, because the negativity is obviously affecting my health.

Love you all.

Holy Moly, look at all i've been missing!

So I might have just changed the group's photo to one of myself. Since it is semi-late and I have quite a bit I want to do before bed, I am not going to try and teach myself the ins-and-outs of blogger. Or how to get it set up on my gmail...Kimmie? how do i make my own account?

HI GIRLS.

it was so great to read through all of your blogs. Chris set this up right as I was leaving for California/the Midwest in August so I honestly forgot about it. Now I am sooooo excited for it.

I can seriously hear each of your voices as I read the posts...it definitely brings me closer to all of you.

right now, as most of you know, things are super hectic. actually, as i just started writing about all of it, i got all stressed, so i am going to focus on fun things.

kimmie and i had a wonderful picnic today off the banks of some cutesie beach in Lake O which my friends from out of town discovered. Apparently most of Lake O knows about it and i am just silly.

today i went and played SOCCER on a rec team. The son of one of my coworkers is in a league and i promised i would play for them. the last two weekends i didnt make it out (i realized shin guards were mandatory....hahaha). thanks to kimmie, who lent me hers today, i finally made it out. in sneakers. which everyone was super impressed by? is it harder to play in sneaks? probably less traction. i was so nervous because i have not played soccer since soph. year of h.s. when i got a concussion and brought my soccer career to an end. i mean, i was scared i'd have no ball handling skills. and i was worried about my bad ankle from a few years ago. and the fact that i dont have regular insurance if something were to happen. in the end, all was well. i played a ton, got my fair share of ball-time and it was fun. my butt feels great. going to do it again next weekend. yay!

yesterday i coached my 8th grade and 7th grade teams at a vball tourney all day. it was cute. they are cute. i get along with them well. i will normally be coaching just the 7th grade team and i hand-picked girls who i wanted to establish closer relationships with...call it mentorship. the opportunities to connect with these girls as their coach both in school and on the court is awesome. i basically get to keep them accountable for their school work, hang out with them, pull them out of class to have informal mentoring sessions when needed and encourage them on the court. it's wonderful. last week after one of the practices there were rumors of a fight that was going to break out between one of the vball girls and an arch nemesis. long story short...one of the asst. coaches of the other team (a parent) and i had to run across the park which is adjacent to our school in order to chase a group of kids down who were running from us. i hopped a fence, tore my shorts and finally caught up to a bunch. i gave them hell. then i ran around to the front of the school where the asst. coach was attempting to get the two girls to talk. they had migrated into a gravel alleyway. i ran over, was in between them. then, PUNCHES AND NAILS broke out. awesome. i was right in the middle. we restrained one of the girls. it was just so much fun, let me tell ya, didnt leave work till 7:45 (practice was over at 6:30). STREET CRED.

what else? oh. san diego. so for those of you that don't know....when i was in israel i met a boy from san diego. we were friends during the trip, i found him to be very intriguing and interesting, i began developing some feelings...and the last night we drunkenly hooked up. ok...fast forward 2.5 months. since the day we got off the plane, i have been in an exclusive texting relationship with this character. some of you know this already...and the extent to which it is absurd. we text each other every day. in the past 2.5 months there have maybe been less than 10 days where we havent texted (and that was in july). we also began emailing occasionally. i have not heard his voice since july 13th. yet over the past two months we have gotten to know each other well, aka enough to keep whatever it is we have going, going.

this "relationship" has been roller coastery due to the following reasons:

a. our means of communication...texting/emailing leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation

b. the fact that both of us are sassy (he is dry and witty, which can come off douchy)

c. me finally getting fed up with all of the above.

that all being said, i have decided to go visit him in san diego. (i am sparing all the unnecessary paragraphs of other details). this has been a contentious topic between my mother and i, plus i have been going back and forth and back and forth on it. why isn't HE coming to portland? why am I the one to always put myself out there? etc. etc. my mom obviously is throwing the dave situation in my face. and telling me it's against "moral principles" and such. i am doing a good job holding my ground. i need to make my own decisions and learn from my own actions, not listen to some sort of obscure "principle." when she really didnt know what to do anymore she was like, "fine i'll see what your father thinks." while i didnt listen to the conversation, she came back defeated. dad thinks i'm a smart girl who can make her own decisions. smart or not, i have nothing to lose. jonathan is an incredibly smart, witty and interesting person. he has a rocky history, of which i know a bit. he admitted to me in israel that he hasn't been the same person ever since his cousin, who was like a brother, died last fall. he is more reserved and serious because of this. he puts up a bit of a front to protect himself. but i am attracted to his personality. i see in my and his relationship something very similar to the relationship i have with pat moran, who just understands and completes my thoughts.

all this being said, "the resistance" kicked in. i told jonathan i was apprehensive about coming via FB chat a few hours ago. it just felt that me flying there was like presenting him with a silver platter. when his responses didn't make me feel better, i didnt know what to say. i was upset. i asked him to please let me know when it was that i could stop making a case for him in my mind. that was vague and passive-aggressive on my part. it's been over two months of buildup, though. i dont know how to handle it. because he is more emotionally reserved, i need to make sure he ihe's made efforts. quite a few of them. and i know it's not his style to be all excitey. despite this i got all angsty and passive-aggresive...i called him self-entitled. not so cool- he felt my passive aggressiveness. he told me he wasnt the freak-out type. that said, he then told me that "everyday that i hear from you i smile at having such a unique like-minded friend." he asked what i wanted. i finally i told him i needed to know he was excited about me coming. and he did in a cute way. and with that i was consoled. and i felt like a girl. and i dont like feeling like a girl. but oh well. tomorrow i check with bosses to make sure i can leave and then i buy the ticket.

i am ridiculous. and optimistic. and if nothing else, i just want to spend time with this person who i have felt understands me and i him, in person.

some of you have listened to me go off and off and off about the jonathan sitch and for that i am sorry, but also thank you. i feel 12, but at the same time, feel good. there is something drawing me there, whether it is a friendship or more.

so my friends, that is a NOVEL. i am sorry. time to sleep. i love you all so much.

The view from the wagon

I never thought I'd ever feel the need to pledge sobriety, but I haven't had a drink of alcohol for 14 days now. Which is probably twice as long as I've ever gone without drinking alcohol since my freshman year of collage. I mostly just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, which was not so much an exercise of not consuming alcohol as much as it has been proving to myself that I can go out, hang out, and meet new people even when I'm sober. I also had an amazing moment realizing my self-control when I cordially turned down offers for drinks from friends when I went out for Last Thursday, an event I would normal expect myself to get at least slightly-sloshed attending.

Frankly, going through this break-up with J, I cannot go to bed alone at night even the slightest bit intoxicated without wallowing in self-pity and pathetic loneliness. Going to bed sober and lonely is a much more reflective and wholesome experience. Its been an exercise in my self will and reassurance in the fact that I am above my habit. But don't worry, I am not vowing an eternity of sobriety, and will be back off the wagon soon :0) I'm leaving for New York on Friday (wooo-whooo!!) and I plan on allowing myself drinks while I'm there.

J and I are on good terms. We haven't talked in just under two weeks, but have sent each other some emails. Two weeks prior we had quite the blow-up after our shenanigans of not being together, but continuing to mess around failed. Surprising, right. We had smoothed things over on the realization that we really shouldn't be talking to each other and hanging out etc. while emotions are still so raw. The few (3) emails have been mostly just little updates on how we are doing, but he did decide to mention in his last email that he misses me and does truly hope for us to be "part of each others lives" in the future. I feel the same way, but hearing this from him makes it harder to get over it. And he knows that. I'm just trying to actually move on. And its still really hard right now. I still catch myself running scenarios through my head of how we could still make it work. Ugh. Em, when you wished for me that I'd find another guy soon to get me through this, I thought that was silly, but I really think finding another guy to fixate on is the only thing that's going to get me out of this cycle!

In other news:
My little sister, Haley, got busted drinking in the dorms her 1st weekend of school (at Western Washington). I think she got off with just a warning from an RA, but not so hot of a start. She's got her head screwed on right though, I'm sure she'll get sneaker fast.

My little brother, James, is abroad studying in the Czech Republic. He is keeping a pathetic girlfriend at bay back home and his freakin Facebook pictures made me want to smack him for her. And I don't even like his girlfriend! Basically, he looks like a freakin' tool. In the majority of his pictures he's got his arm around some chic's shoulder or some girl hanging off of his. I may be regretting this soon, but I couldn't help but send him a bit heated message about what a dick he looks like. And told him if he ever expects his family to have any respect for his and Tiffany's relationship that he better start showing some respect for it himself. Yikes, I know.

Richy is sick. Like, hopefully its just a cold, could be a flu, could be H1N1!! (j/k...sort-of). And expect me to be pissed when I'm sick just in time for me to leave to go to New York! Dammit!

Other things in life are good. Enjoyed a fantastic day today watching boats made out of cardboard and duct-tape race on the Willamette. An event titled "Float-or-die." Its 1st annual in PDX, sure to be the first of more epic years to come. Pure entertainment! Will post pic on FB soon.

love you girls! xoxo kim

Shitty week

Hey girls,

Well, it's been a terrible few weeks. Without going into all the gorey details, I'm getting sued for $30,000. It was from a slight fender bender I was in two years ago, the day before I left for India. Anyway, now the guy is claiming soft tissue neck and back problems. Ugh, it's annoying.

Then, Brent and I had a fairly serious fight and nearly broke up. I don't really know what to say because we worked it out, but it really made us both step back and think if we want to be long term. That's definitely a hard question to figure out. I know I love him, and I'm more in love with him than anyone else I've ever been with, but is that enough? He can be so pig-headed sometimes, and never thinks he's in the wrong...but then again, who ISN'T like this sometimes. We are doing really well other than that, and living together has been great, except for the minor hiccups along the way.

To top it all off, we were supposed to have our second cardio exam on Monday. But, then some guy in our class thought it would be a great idea to send out an old test from 2007 (that was blatently stolen from the admin office) to the entire classs via his westernu email account. So, I guess there were too many of the same questions and our head honcho prof cancelled the exam. This is actually a REALLY bad thing because now we have nearly 70 hrs of test material for our final. I know this will be a good way to feel like we are taking our boards, but it's also really shitty. I didn't do that well on the first exam and was hoping to make this next test my buffer so I can actually pass the class.

I honestly think I'm getting more and more depressed being here. I love being in school, and I love Brent, but I absolutely hate Southern California. It is freaking hot, there is no where that I can run, and because of the heat I barely ever run anyway. I'm so excited to move home (or closer to it) next year. I also think that school is just depressing as well, even on our off wknds we are studying our asses off, or, we are feeling guilty about NOT studying. I have high blood pressure, a high resting heart rate and an overall general feeling of shittiness. I think the worst part about it though is that I'm bringing Brent down with me, he's such a positive person and it's almost like he has to be positive for the both of us. The guilt of this is nearly worse than being depressed.

Wow, sorry for the negativity. I just needed to get it off my chest. Things really aren't that bad, and there are some really good times here, I just need to remember those and get over it.

Okay. time to get back to studying. We will be in the library on our free Sat evening until close to 9 :(

Late summer evening

Thought I'd post a couple pics my mom took from our family dinner at Anthony's on the Seattle waterfront last night. My mom and stepdad are in town for a visit from Anchorage, and it's always great to see them.

Emily, how did your exam go? Mitchell is coming soon! What's going on with everyone else?

Have a great week. xoxo

Good luck!!

Hey,

Just wanted to say good luck to Emily on her first Medical School exam tomorrow!! You will do great!

Also, good luck to everyone else on having a great week. I'll be 1/3 done with cardio, woo-hoo.

Just remember, there's always something to be happy about!

Love you girls,
Ash

Cardio begins

Jessie, I love the pics (but only two?!). I didn't even realize you went to China, I'm very out of the loop! Good luck starting up with work again!!

Kim, how did the funeral and seeing all the fam go? I'm sure it was a very tough wknd! I am thinking of you constantly.

Em, how did last week go for you!?

The rest of you girls? How goes your lives? Chris, where have you been?

As for me, things are going ok. We ended Endocrine on Monday and started up with Cardio. My entire outlook on patients and people has been all endocrine based (I see Type II diabetes in just about everyone), I'm really nervous about cardio and thinking the worst. I'm already pretty sure I'm tachycardic with a potential atrial fibrillation...ahhh!

We actually had our first three day wknd w/o a test after it. I don't think I've had one of those in about a year! Brent and some of our friends went up north to Morro Bay and hung out by the beach. My family ended up visiting and we went to Disneyland (surprise, surprise). It was great seeing the family, my sister turned 28 today and my niece just turned 3 (brother's daughter). I am soo scared though that my little niece really will end up having child-onset T2DM. Honestly, I think all I saw her eat all wknd was ice cream and McDonald's happy meals. I just don't know how to tell my brother and sister-in-law though, none of us feel as though it is our place to say anything. But, if we don't say anything and then she really does become a diabetic, how horrible will that feel?! Any suggestions on that tough cookie?

Other than the stress of that, things are going ok. Still enjoying living with Brent. We are going to celebrate our 1yr anniversary at some point within the next month. We finally decided on Oct 3rd as the day we "officially" started going out, but I'm pretty sure it was sooner than that, so who knows (wow, I sound like I'm 12 again!).

I'm sorry this is yet again so boring. It really is great to be in the loop though of all of your lives, so I hope you will continue writing. This thing takes away a lot of the boredom of studying, honestly.

Love you all, can't wait to hear from you!

Ash

Quiet Labor Day

A rainy weekend, with slim crowds at Bumbershoot (I didn't go, thereby contributing to the lower attendance). I finally started editing my photos from China in April, with help from D's Photoshop genius. See the joint effort above, from a boat cruise in Suzhou, if I remember right. I didn't feel like journaling on the trip, and now I regret it because it's hard to remember all the details.

Back to work tomorrow, starting with my 4:25 a.m. alarm for rowing practice.

Kimmie, I'm thinking about you and your family. And good thoughts to the rest of you girls! xoxo

Violated

I've been waiting for this check to go through I had sent to pay off my Ikea bill (for my fabulous new couch that I'm still totally in love with!), but it had been taking a long time and I was starting to get a little concerned. Sure enough, I check my account yesterday and there is, instead of the check for Ikea, a $490 charge to Sears. WTF.

Apparently, its not a very good idea to leave bills in your mailbox for the post man to pick up in this neighborhood. Obviously someone must have stolen my mail and the check and used my account and routing number to pay off their own bill!! I spent 2 hours on the phone with my bank, Sears, and the PDX police. UGh. What a nightmare! My bank reassures me that I'll get the money refunded. I seriously hope this person is caught because I don't want anyone to get away with stealing over $400 from me that easily. I don't want people to think that its okay to steal someone's mail and their account! I feel so violated. And foolish for leaving my mail in my mailbox!?


My aunt died on Monday. We are going up for the funeral on Saturday.

resurfacing

hello ladies,
it is so good to read about your lives, but it really makes me miss you that much more. kim, i am beginning to think that disaster needs company and your story supported my point exactly. my uncle died about two months ago, and about two weeks after that my mom's first cousin died from a massive stroke in her bathroom getting ready for work (she was only 50)... it's all just too weird. i'm so sorry to hear about all the family troubles. i hope that your dad can maintain sanity and nothing else disastrous happens.

jessie, it is so good to hear that everything is going well for you in seattle. you and david have been together at least 3 years now right? it's amazing how time flies.

med school and omaha are as good as they can be. school is grueling and everything that everyone told me it would be: HARD, draining, a good reason to binge drink often, and super time-consuming. i made and ass of myself at a party at a bar post first quiz last weekend... i fell on my booty not once but twice while i was black out drunk (i have the skinned knees and cut up hand to prove it)! oh boy! ash, i kept on thinking the next day that at least i didn't get picked up by the cops! ;)

to be honest, i'm having a little bit of a hard time... i'm really missing mitchell and you guys and i only barely passed my first quiz. going from a completely flexible schedule where i could see all my portland girlies for happy hour, lunch, dinners, whatever, was so wonderful and now i need to adjust to a TOTALLY different life style. i think i just need to make it over the first test hump, see mitchell again (he's coming september 24th!!!), and change up my study habits. it feels like i just jumped from little league to the major leagues! on the upside, the people here are so nice thought and i think that i am going to really like my class.

gotta get to the nightly study sesh.

loves and kisses, hugs and misses to all!
Em

Furloughed

First of all, Kim, I'm so sorry to hear about your aunt and the rest of your family. I'm sure it is a comfort to them that you can understand the medical aspects of the situation, and they must be appreciating your emotional support as well. Take care of yourself, too!

I'm off work all week on mandatory leave, and it might be the best vacation I've ever had. No airport security, car rental hassles, eating/sleeping in strange places (not that I don't love all those things), just hanging out in Ballard and therabouts. My friend from work (also off this week) and I signed up for a 10-day intro session of hot yoga for only $10 so we're making the most of that. Best $1 investment for a 90-minute workout ever. It reminds me of the days when a bunch of us were going to that studio in NW - Core Power? I think some of you still go there?

Other than yoga, I'm trying to get some stuff done around our condo. It's hard to believe D and I have been here for almost two years already, and it's amazing how things accumulate. Taren has taken some well-loved clothes off my hands in the past few months, and is helping me sort through/mend stuff to attempt to sell at Buffalo. I made a Goodwill run today. It always feels so good to get stuff out so that I can actually see the things I really love.

Well my dears, I hope you are all safe and sound and happy. Miss you! xoxo

Fantanstic weekend! Then bad news...

I got back from our Mt. St. Helen's climb and camping weekend. I'm pretty exhausted, but it was great! The weather held out for us and turned out to be perfect! Not too hot and just windy and chilly at the top. None of the pictures will do St. Helen's justice: you have to see it for yourself. I was especially grateful of the view given I've climbed that fuckin' half-ass of a mountain bitch twice before, but this one time all of my effort and exhaustion was justified in being able to stand up on the crest's edge and look down into the crater. I was surprised to see how active it was: plumes of steam in several areas and areas where you could see hot sulfur had be spewing. Very very cool. Not to mention the sudden rock avalanches that would come loose around the edges of the crater. You would hear a distant rumbling (which gave me the heebeejeebees), then you'd look over and see a waterfall of rocks and dust rolling down and edges. On our way up I definitely said to myself "This is it, this is the last time I'm doing this fucking climb." Then on my way down I thought "I totally doing this again next year!"

I was happy that Ami and Julian were able to come on the hike and camped with us for the weekend. This was the beginning of their 3 month long road trip around the country! They are really stoked. They have their station wagon loaded up and pimped out to live out of for the next 3 months. I'm planning to fly to New York to meet up with them in October! I just need to get on buying my ticket....

After getting back to civilization and cell phone service I discovered that my Aunt Sandy suffered a massive stroke and is in the ICU in Vancouver. This is especially horrendous news so soon after my Grandma past away last month. My Uncle Leland, husband of Sandy, had been the closest to my grandma before she past and took her death very hard. He is now losing his wife. The news of Sandy's sudden stroke, literally shocked my Aunt Karla (older sister of Leland and my dad) so much that she ended up also being admitted to an ICU! (Apparently she had multiple underlying issues making her unable to process such emotional stress: pneumonia, fatigue, dehydration, and severe electrolyte imbalances). At least my other Aunt Mary just recently got out of the hospital after breaking her sacrum shortly before my grandma died. My dad seems to be keeping it together. Sandy had a massive clot in her brain which they treated with a blood thinner (tPA), after which she then began to bleed out into her brain. They had to take her to surgery to remove part of her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain in hopes of saving tissue. Her best chance right now would be to get back to the capacity she was at before the surgery which was completely paralyzed on her right side, minimal movement on her left, non-verbal. If she doesn't begin to recover in the next 72 hrs then they will remove the breathing tube.

Also, while we were gone for the weekend, our bathroom rug grew maggots in it!

God I'm bored...

So it's a Friday night and I'm studying for my Endocrine final. I've been checking this thing and facebook every 10 min (ok, that's an exaggeration, but not by much)...will someone please write something that is going on with them, asap. I have a wknd full of more studying fun things like diabetic foot ulcerations and cushings disease (the list goes on and on), but PLEASE give me something to occupy my time with when I need a break!!

Ok, that's all from me. Jessie: to make your own post you have to actually sign in to the blog and then hit new post. I didn't realize that either.

Vegas wknd

Well, this wknd we decided to drive to Vegas. It was great, we got an awesome deal where we were able to have two AMAZING rooms at Caesar's Palace (we got upgraded for free), plus it included a spa package. There were four girls, and then about 10 guys, so while the guys went and shot guns, we hung out in the spa. I would definitely do that again! It sucked though because we have a minor quiz on Monday, and half the day yesterday the girls just wanted to study. I sat out by the pool by myself and tried studying, then sleeping, then drinking. That was pretty lame, but I guess it comes with the territory of going with medical students. Last night we tried getting into a club, but with a ratio like that in Vegas, it was pretty impossible. So, we all played craps together and Brent won a grand at poker (yay him!) I lost $60.

Other than that, nothing else is really new over here. It's actually pretty mild weather wise, which is nice, and school is just trugging along. I'm really surprised, I'm actually enjoying Endocrine. Not sure if I could be an endocrinologist, but hormones are freaking amazing. This is the last week of the class though, and then we have our final next Mon and start Cardio. I'm getting nervous for Cardio, it's supposed to be one of the hardest classes in our second year! Oh well, bring it on (and get it over with)!!

Em, how's school?!?! I want an update ASAP! Taren, Lena, Nora, seriously what is going on in your lives?! Get your butts in gear.

Anyway, miss you guys like crazy. Hope everything is going well. Can't wait to hear from you all. :)

Muah.

Back to Portland!

I had an awesome time romping around the Midwest! But I'm also so glad to be back in Portland: Hello Heat! Jesus, 95!

Em, it was so nice to see where you'll be spending the next 4. I have a picture in my head of where you are and it makes me feel like you're not too far away :0) I'm curious to know how the first week is going...

Nora it was so fantastic to see you! I love that after only a few hours I forgot that its been years that we've been apart. Kansas City totally rocks! And fuckin' Deborah Harry really rocks!! I'm already craving more Grinders Pizza.

I got some new, totally awesome, tires for my bike today! "Armadillo Skin" I'm hoping not to get any flats. Ever. Or at least not for a long time.

J and I talked today. He is registered for FULL TIME classes at LCC for the fall. I'm so happy for him. But this fits my theory that me being out of his life is actually better for him.

If anyone is down for some dumpster diving: The transformer blew at the Freddie's over here in SE and they are giving away/trashing a ton of their freezer stuff.

Mike Left

So my little visit from Michael was great. He was suppose to leave on Saturday morning... but he had a little to much to drink the night before. I took him to the airport that morning and around 10:30 (when he should have been in the air) I got a call from him "I'm not flying today". Poor guy got on the plane and once they closed the doors and started to pressurize the cabin, he instantly felt sick and actually have to utilize the throw up bag in his seat. They let him off the plane, probably because they thought he had swine flu or something. But good news that I got to bonus days with him. I told Mike from now on he should tell me he is leaving 2 days before he really is, makes it easier.

On another note, my job at LA Fitness is getting old, in terms of scheduling. I love working there, mainly for the benefits of a free membership and discounted training but there is so much drama. It doesn't help that my boss and her assistant are my age, actually my boss is younger then me. I always work Tu/Th closing and noticed there was no closers this week, called this morning and asked if she had me working tonight and all she said was "nope". You know that short answer, nothing followed by the response "nope". We'll see where that goes. Hopefully I'll be getting rid of all these college student jobs and get connected with an internship that has be doing what I actually want to do.... oh yeah, and what I'm going to school for :)

Taren, Nora, Jessie.... Where you at ladies??

Chris Ritter

First week of classes

Well, things are as boring as they could be. We've started school, it feels like we've never left. The only difference is I live with Brent, and there are kids who are even more freaked out than we are... But, my class is really social, so I've been busy every day of the week, and subsequently, are already behind.

Brent and I are doing really well so far living together (yes, it's only day 6). We've gotten the place pretty much put together. We bought a bed frame two days ago and put his bed in it yesterday. It's from IKEA, so not the greatest quality, and yesterday when I got into bed, the whole thing fell thru the frame. I felt like a fatty. We are going to Home Depot today to get wooden supports so it hopefully won't fall again (right now we have old textbooks holding the bed up!)

Anyway, just wanted to give a brief update to let you guys know I'm thinking of you. Kim, what did you end up deciding to do about J and hiking St. Helens?? I'm soo jealous you guys are all meeting up in Omaha for Em's white coat ceremony, I wish I could be there :( Chris, how is having Mike home, and how long is he in town for?

So, we either need to figure out the Vegas thing or not. I actually might "have" to go to New Orleans now for Halloween. There is a conference there with the club I am an officer for, and they need delegates. I'll keep you updated, but I'd like to know what you girls are doing so I can plan accordingly (i.e. either ask to go or just keep quiet).

Love you all, can't wait to hear from you!

Drunkin IMing

Ugh.
So last night I got home from hanging out with Lindsey and Liz at their spectacular condo they rented on the river. These are the girls I'm doing the bridge pedal with on Sunday. I had a wonderfully fabulous drunken night, but still had enough coordination to ride my bike home.

Then, there I am, lying in bed, missing J. As tempted as I am, I restrain myself from making a drunken phone call to him.

But then, I decide its necessary to just SEE if he happens to be on Skype at 2am. He is! And I literally stumble on the keyboard, and seriously, accidentally call him by double clicking his name. With my computer on mute, I didn't realized that I was calling him and by the moment I did he had picked up and I just immediately disconnected the call. Then I realized I'm a not a middle-schooler so I IMed him and he replyed.

It was weird. Having a typed conversation with so many charged emotions and him being a slow typer and me being drunk. Ugh. It was mostly polite, catch-up convo until towards the end when we were saying good-bye and he asked when were we going to talk about our St. Helens camping weekend and I just don't know how I feel about it!

I think us not talking is absolutely nessessary and I don't know how to plan that weekend without things getting confusing, emotionally draining, and being high tension. But I really want to climb and camp that weekend, and part of me (the part that wants to be a complete selfish bitch) wants to tell him and his friends they can't go. I have the permits. I paid for them. I'm going with my peps and you're no longer invited. The other part of me (the one that is still completly in love with J) wants to just plan the weekend like we would and try to be a normal person about it.

In the mean-time....I have a pseudo-date to got see M.C. Esher at the Portland Art Museum! So I'm going to get my hung-over ass out of bed and start my day and forget about J for as long as I can.

HOLY SHIT, MIKE SURPRISED ME!

Well actually my Dad and Mike did. I'm at my Hendricks Family reunion in Blaine WA this weekend. I'm dead asleep last night and JR gets a call at like 1:45 in the morning. Shes all frantic like, like someone has just died or something, this was her reaction. She runs to the door (I'm still in bed confused), opens it and has this blank, confused look on her face, then in walks my dad...OK so whats all the fuss about, "who died!" I'm thinking!!!! 

...then Mike walks in! He surprised me! I was so confused and asleep, my response was "I look awful!"

So I am on cloud nine right now and pretty stoked we are together..... So all that talk about him being an awful planner... just disregard that, OK :)

-Chris Ritter

Hello Hello!

So no one saw my first post (see comment on Chris's original post). I'm still figuring this stuff out...Kim, how do I change the notification to go to my gmail instead of my yahoo account? I guess it doesn't really matter, but I'm set up on this thing via my gmail.

Anyway, yet again unable to sleep (it's 4am), I think I'm doing too much thinking. Em, I know where you are coming from with all of your emotions, but just remember to enjoy your first year. Mitchell loves you, every time you feel crazy girl coming on, write it here and maybe we can help first before putting all that burden onto him (or call us, I will always try to be available to at least answer calls and chat for a few minutes). Number one thing I think I forgot to tell you; don't get caught up feeling sorry for yourself about all the shit you have to do and how hard it is. He'll listen for a while, but that is one of my friends Kristen's biggest complaints about her med school bf Matt, she's got issues she'd like to discuss, but for some reason his complaints are so much more important than hers (because he's in med school and blah blah blah) so she never really gets to vent to him, but has to hear it all. They are doing ok, but I know that not feeling like a partner in their relationship (or being de-valued) has really put a strain on them, it's a common theme I've seen all last year.

Chris, I love what Kim said about just planning your birthday! I think that is a great idea. Amazingly I have nothing scheduled for the wknd of Halloween (i.e. no tests the following Monday). I love the idea of going then!! I have a feeling that people from my class might want to do that again, although there weren't as many people all dressed up and crazy for Halloween like you would have thought. We had about 30 plus people all dressed up in Viking costumes, so we were pretty noticeable. I would love it though if we could put a theme to dressing up...maybe like the superheros theme (yes, I stole this from Mikha and Greg but don't tell them, it really is a good idea)...I mean, how many times do you get to wear your wonder woman costume Chris??? Vegas with you girls would be amazing. We could also do a champagne brunch and celebrate your late birthday and my early birthday :)

Okay, this blog only took me 10 minutes to write, I was hoping to waste more time :( But, maybe I'll go shower and try this whole new curling my hair thing. I know it's retarded, but I haven't seen Brent in three weeks and I want to look really hot. Haha, how ridiculous! He is picking me up at the airport, we're going to have some "alone" time and then he's going camping and leaving me to fix up the apartment! I'm actually really excited about having it to myself to beautify, and I think my friend Kristen is coming over, so some girl time with her will be good.

I can't believe it is already Aug. Life goes so quickly. I'll keep you all posted on how things are going, the next three weeks are going to be boring with Endocrine, but then we get into Cardio and I'm sure I'll have questions to ask you Kim. Also, I'll know where I'm headed for my third year by Nov 9! I might even be up in Washington Taren!

Love you all lots, keep us posted!
Ash

My Tattoo!

I totally posted this picture of me on facebook because my waist looks so small!

Here is the close up. The "NW" represents where I'm from, the "16" is of course that crazy number in my life, and the two S's represent my parents' name's "Scott" and "Susan", and then they face it makes a heart... :). 

My sister Sara was asking me why I latched on to the whole nautical, anchor thing. I was trying to trace back my thoughts to when I started this whole thing and remembered is was Halloween, 2nd year at the house. I like the anchor for one because its not attached to ANYONE in my life, especially guys I have dated, but I like those pin up girls from the 20's. they have REAL BODIES, and you all know how my weight is always a topic on my life, I like that they have this hot, curvy bodies, in cute little sailor outfits....

Now you know :)

Tell me what you think

~Chris Ritter

Love being in touch with my BFFs :0)

Hey Ladies!
This is awesome and I hope we will all find it convenient to stay in touch! I'm going to set a link to the blog through my gmail homepage so I'll see right away if anyone has made a new post. I emailed all of you through the "administrator" account Chris set us up with. I'm hoping though that we will all be able to sign in with our own accounts to contribute to the blog. I got bumped off the page earlier with a message saying "Someone else has signed into this account with the same user name" and won't let me sign back in for a while. So check your email and hopefully it is as easy to manage as it should be.

Wine & cheese last night was so much fun! Lena, you were much missed. (not to mention, Taren, you are ALWAYS being missed). I truly hope that as we spread ourselves away from each other following our dreams and goals, we will always stay close!

Chris, I think you should just plan out the birthday in Vegas your dreaming of and hopefully most of us, if not all, will be able to join! Mike will figure his shit out has the time comes closer and make it happen because thats what people who don't like to "plan" do, and he knows how important it will be for him to be with you on your birthday. Oooooo, but thinking about Vegas in October: we should just plan on meeting there for halloween!!!!!!!!!!!! How freakin awesome would that be: all of us together on the best holiday of the year! Ash, I know you were in Vegas for Halloween last year: but this year it could be 100xs better with all of us girls!!!!! Chris, what do you think!?? Birthday/Halloween adventure in Vegas!!!

I'm all in

It's Em checking in for a first post on this amazing Blog. I'm so excited to keep in touch this way.
Good idea team!

My update is pretty boring... I'm presently sitting on the floor with my laptop because all of the furniture in our apartment is gone and all I have here are some miscellaneous odds and ends. I'm off to Omaha with Mitchell on Friday morning and the journey is going to be grand. Mitchell anticipates that the highlight of the drive will be passing through Sturgis, South Dakota during the "Sturgis Motorcycle Rally" (see http://www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com). He says it "is a once in a lifetime opportunity" and Chris said that we better lock our doors. Sounds interesting.

I am feeling a barrage of emotions right now including, but not limited to being scared shitless of starting school again, super sad to be leaving PDX and lots of fantastic friends, worried about my relationship surviving the 1700 mile distance (Chris I am taking notes from you and Mike's success), curious about the culture shock I may feel moving to the Midwest (or Middle East as Dana so named it), excited to meet new people and FINALLY set out toward this goal, glad to have such supportive friends and family, and stressed about packing and the drive.

That's the low down on me for the time being. I will try to be good about posting updates as often as possible.

Loves to you all!
Em

Our First Post...via Chris Ritter

So ladies welcome to OUR blog, compliments to Kim and Ashley for thinking this up, (and myself for getting it started). In stead of calling everyone across the country to tell your girlfriend about how much your boyfriend is your ass hole, you can share it here!

For example....

I'm turning 25 this year and want to plan and fabulous and fun trip to Las Vegas with my fantastic boyfriend Michael, but every time I bring it up he gets his panties in a bunch about planning...

...then I start sounding like a crazy girlfriend "do you plan on breaking up with me???? is that why you don't want to plan with me??!!!"

I'm not aloud to bring up ANYTHING that has to do with planning, until brings it up...


So that's a little blurb on me and how this blog will go. Post pictures and update us on the latest, good and bad :)