London, England

Traveling is exciting, and fun, and often filled with mishaps that can blossom into crazy amazing unforgettable experiences.  But let's be real, traveling is also kiiinda stressful isn't it? There are lots of unknown variables (which is a problem if you are Type A), and living out of a backpack, or coordinating time tables and navigating conversations in languages you don't know can actually be pretty stress inducing.  One of my very best friends sent me a book right before we left, one that she treasured reading while doing a similar trip in Europe last year.  Inside the cover was a note to me, which ended with one huge piece of advice: ROLL WITH IT.  Do you think she knows me well? Ha. Well I took her message to heart.  I hate feeling stressed out and anxious, especially when traveling.  So I put her advice in my heart, and resolved to remember it when things got tense, I promised myself I would say "this situation might be _______, BUT, WE ARE IN EUROPE".  A little reality check is almost always a good thing, especially if it serves to remind you that you are on a trip of a lifetime with your best friend.  

So, why lead with that?  Well... our trip accidentally started out pretty stressful.  JP wanted to get to the bus station well in advance so that we wouldn't have to rush around like crazy chickens.  But as you may well have experienced, sometimes it's really hard to get out the door at the right time, especially when you are leaving for such a long international trip and you've got puppy children to coordinate.  Anyway, we made it to the bus station with a reasonable amount of time to spare. But then I realized I had left my ID and all my credit and bank cards on the table. At home. AHH.  Sprint Ubered it back to the homestead, full out ran, and sprint ubered back.  I literally jumped on the bus as they were closing the door.  JP was just standing there shaking his head at me.  But, we made it!

Still not psyched...

Anyway, first crisis out of the way, just makes room for more adventure, right?  First stop: London! We chose London for a few reasons, one of which was to have a slower acclimation into the trip in a land where they speak English.  JP, understandably, was nervous about traveling in places where we had only mastered the words Hello, Goodbye, and Thank you, and he wanted to ease into it.  I am less wary of that because my sister Emily and I have traveled together often, and quickly realized that we have amazingly weird abilities to communicate in foreign lands with our hands, body language and facial expressions almost exclusively... so mostly I just try to heed Renae's advice and I roll with it. 

We did a pretty darn good job of packing lightly if I do say so myself. Everything for me fit in the green bag (30L) with room to spare!

In Hyde Park, directly off the tube from the plane

We also chose London because (nerd alert), the Harry Potter studios are just outside the city, and I really wanted to see them. Side note, have I told you about our trip to Universal Studios Wizarding World of Harry Potter yet? I know, I'm really behind, BUT eventually I will have to share that magical (har har) trip with you here as well.

See the "Death Eater" bridge in the photo above? 

Last but not least, we wanted to come visit our friend Ben who lives in this fair city.  A good friend of my brother Joe, Ben is a very talented musician, who actually recently did a Europe tour with Joe and their friend Grant!  It always helps to have an insider's perspective and guide when traveling and we thought we should tap into that resource as well!

We had a really excellent time in London.  We had an overnight flight, and landed around 9:00 AM, bravely facing a day fighting off the wonky aspects of jet lag.  When we emerged from customs and took a deep breath, we realized the adventure had begun! And then immediately realized we didn't know how to get out of the airport.  We found a helpful person wearing a sandwich board who directed us to our two exiting options, and we were on our way.

My cousin Eileen and her new husband Rodney had just gotten back from their European honeymoon tour, and they sent us their Oyster Cards, which is the card you need to ride the tube in London, so we were already armed with access.  I always think I have a terrible sense of direction, but I realized on this trip that that is not true.  If you approach a new transportation system with confidence, (and ample time, and strategically predownloaded map apps), I learned that I can figure out most anything. 

We stayed in Shoreditch, a hispter neighborhood just outside of the thick of things.  Just outside our apartment was an artisan chocolate shop, multiple thrift stores, and a restaurant called the Cereal Killer Cafe, which served only cereal.  There was so much life and fun in that neighborhood! We spent a few days just wandering and people watching.

But I tell you what, something that I was not expecting at all?  The graffiti was phenomenal.  Not just the art itself, but also the public support of it.  It wasn't like a sneaky dead of night enterprise, it was pretty celebrated.  I could not stop taking pictures, and JP pulled me out of the way of people (and bikes) on more than one gawking occasion.  But seriously, there was some magnificent pieces.

And after all that, I didn't even tell you about the Harry Potter studio tour.  But that's because I was a bit disappointed in it.  Which was probably a three part issue: 1. It took us waaaay longer to get there then we anticipated because we didn't realize there was an express train and we took the pokey local 2. We subsequently arrived later than our ticket entrance time AND we hadn't eaten in way too long 3. When we went to universal studios I felt like I WAS Harry Potter, and this just felt like I was looking at ten different jackets that Daniel Radcliffe once wore... you know what I mean? It just wasn't very magical.  There, I said it. But also, the hangry issue was probably the biggest driving factor.

So, there you have it.  Our first stop: London.  It was a really cool city, one that I could actually see myself living in, which was a pretty big surprise for me as I tend to walk away from huge cities with the opposite impression.  Lots of cool things happening, it felt open and spacious, the people were nice, and there was so much to see!  But man was it pricey!

dream vacation

When we first got engaged, one of the things we immediately knew we wanted was to back pack in Europe for our honeymoon, something we had always dreamed of.  We didn't think we were the type of people to do a pre paid beach package vacation.  I mean, we had never done one before, so why start now?

Well, then wedding planning reality set it, in the form of a million billion decisions to make and plans to devise, and all sorts of other little micro manag-y things that I probably didn't need to think about but my brain wouldn't let me not.  As our big day approached, it was pretty clear that an epic European adventure honeymoon would stretch ourselves waaaaay too far.  I am just too much of an over researcher to be able to have planned both things at once, and since I struggled quite a bit with the wedding, I knew I needed to focus all my planning abilities on that event.

So, in between dress fittings, and food truck tastings,

between flower purchasing, and mason jar gatherings,

bunting sewing, and craft projecting,

we found and booked a pre packaged, pre paid, pre everything you can think of vacation to Mexico.  Our requirements were pretty simple: beach, relatively inexpensive, beautiful location.

So that's what we did, and to be perfectly honest I do not regret it one single bit.  It was what we needed after the huge whirlwind of family and friends and celebration and emotional upheaval.  It was a vacation like we had never had before, we lounged on the beach at whatever hour we happened to wake up, we drank floofy drinks with umbrellas, we sat in cabanas, had a hot tub on our private balcony.  It was pretty ridiculous, but so relaxing, and rejuvenating.

That's not to say there weren't draw backs.  When we travel we usually rent a local apartment or house, or stay right in the thick of the locale, and it was very strange to be in a resort compound with almost no interaction with any locals.  And as a GF person, I have to say most of the food was atrocious.   Like, really not good at all, but that's what happens when you have huge buffet lines for people set up at all hours of the day.  So everything was certainly not perfect by any means, and I don't know that we would ever do that type of vacation again, BUT for what we needed at the time it was perfect for us.

So, was there a point to all of this? Didn't you go on your honeymoon over a year ago?! Well....yes, and no. Here's the point.  We wanted a European backpacking adventure, realistically it just wasn't in the cards for us at that point, but we didn't give up on the idea entirely.  On our honeymoon we jokingly called it our "first honeymoon", with every intention to some day go on our "real honeymoon" in Europe.  And so we did.

Let me back up.  Remember when I quit my job recently?  Well when I was interviewing, and nail chewing, and anxiously awaiting an offer, I said to JP "hey, how about we go to Europe if I get this job?  I could just take time off in between!".  And as ridiculous as that sounds, that's actually kind of how it happened.  Things started falling into place with my new job, and when they asked me to start at the end of September I asked for an extension until the beginning of October.  Two of our close friends had just done a similar thing when she switched from the trauma team at one hospital to critical care team at another hospital. They gapped it and went to Europe for three weeks.  We decided it was now or never.  When would we have another opportunity like this? We don't have kids, or a mortgage, or huge responsibilities that can't be left for a little while, so we just did it.

And it was AMAZING.  And I am going to tell you all about it in the next few weeks, so hold on to your hats!

and life swept on

I'm not even really sure where to start.  I've been so absent here that thinking of writing again makes me feel like I am decades late for an assignment and I just want to close the book and pretend it doesn't exist.  I've done so many things since I last wrote here, tiny miniscule things, and great big adventures.  My work life changed dramatically, and I am about to fully realize that change next tomorrow.  I took time off to travel, and explore, and celebrate a year of marriage to my sweetheart.  I enjoyed summer, and visits from family and friends. It's all the things and I don't know where to start.

So let's start with the basics, what do you do for a living?  After struggling with the decision for quite sometime, and chasing down many different paths, I gave my job my two months notice. (Side note, two months?! Apparently that's standard in my industry...doesn't that seem like forever? A very long, awkward, drawn out, forever?)  I am leaving family medicine and moving to an urgent care associated with the big hospital network in my area. It's a good change in many ways, though scary, and seemingly momentous for me.  I don't particularly like change, because it takes away my control, but I think it's good to let go of that a little especially when you find that a big part of not wanting to change is just fear of the unknown. I don't want to be a person who makes choices based on fear.

Leaving family medicine was hard. I think I was finally getting it. Not the medicine, for better or worse I think I've hit some small kind of stride in that regard, but the actual field itself.  Family medicine.  It's hard because it encompasses everything, it's difficult to get new grads into because there are so many other specialties that have more prestige or more money or more something else.  But I was starting to understand some of why my dad loves this field.  I was reaching the continuity part where I had been seeing my patients for over a year, and the visits were actually more like 'check ins' instead of frantic 'trying to learn your whole medical history' visits.  I could picture faces to names now, and could tease some people when I knew I was telling them something they weren't happy to hear, because I knew they personally would appreciate it. I found family medicine difficult for many reasons, most of them bureaucratic, and too exhausting to get into.

But, I won't have to restlessly and wildly speculate for much longer as I start on Monday.  And since I've had a month off to wipe the slate clean, and find some of my old self again, I should most definitely be ready.  Right? Right.

Anyway, I'm hoping to bring writing back into my life. Writing and picture sharing.  Here's hoping I can do it.

Bar Harbor, ME

One big thing I regret about my time in Colorado is that I was always so busy with the mundane everyday obligations of school and work and studying and blahhh that I never really got to explore as much of Colorado as I should have. I mean seriously people, I never even went skiing the entire time I was there! Sheesh. So, I am putting in an effort to make sure I am taking in all that Maine has to offer, which is really quite a lot!

A few weeks ago JP and I went up to Bar Harbor for a weekend in a cabin with Joe and Emma.  We had never been up there, and really wanted to take in some of Acadia National Park.  What a trove of natural beauty and wilderness!

We went on a gloriously foggy hike on the coast, taking in the beach and a little mountainous parts as well. We climbed down on the rocks and skipped stones, created obstacles for each other, and had contests to knock down rock structures we built specifically for knocking down purposes. It was a little chilly, but absolutely beautiful, and we ran into only a few other people during the whole hike. Oboe climbed like a champ!

The next day was sunny and hot, we found a few more trails to explore and Joe supplied us with facts and interesting tid bits about places around the area as he built trails up there when he was in Americorps.

As with any family trip, the food often takes center stage, and this trip was no different. We made a glorious pile of lobster nachos that we almost couldn't even finish the first night.  And then we found the perfect local restaurant with a huge gluten free menu and we warmed ourselves up with individualized mac and cheese's and blueberry margaritas.  We found a bar with a shuffle board and spent quite a long time there in competition, ending with a few rousing rounds of air hockey to end it all.

 It was so nice to escape from Portland for a little while, get some much needed relaxation and perspective.  It's always good for me to remind myself of the world around me.  I have a tendency to tunnel vision my focus over time and I need a shake up every once in awhile.

Don't these pictures make you want to come to Maine?!

crawfish for the birthday boy!

JP recently had a birthday, and by recently I mean almost a month ago, and this is how up to date I am on blogging...shhhh I haven't written since February.  Well, that's not technically true, as I have like five unfinished posts sitting as drafts, but I've been in a writing and creativity rut lately and I can't seem to get anything out there!  But, I really love to write, so I am going to work on that in the next few months.

So, to get back into the swing of things, I am just going to do it by doing it.

For JP's 29th birthday he sweetly requested no surprise parties. Last year after work I had a crew of friends and family waiting for him at one of our favorite restaurants to celebrate with delicious cocktails.  While he did love this, I sometimes forget that he is really much more introverted and is more then content to spend his birthday at home with just me and the pups. Which is exactly what we did for his actual birthday this year. We slept in, went out for brunch, walked the dogs, went to a bookstore and made delicious food together, completely relaxed and laid back.

BUT, of course that's not all we did, because this year for his present I wanted to bring him a taste from his Louisiana home, I know he misses all the southern food from there, but most particularly he misses crawfish.  So I arranged for 20lbs of live crawfish to be delivered to our house that Saturday, and we had a really small gathering the following afternoon.  JP and his childhood friend Nick were happily up to the task of keeping them alive in the interim, and they faithfully took the package outside every few hours and hosed them down in the yard. 

 Success! Almost every one survived!

We borrowed a turkey fryer from Dr C and fired it up with corn and potatoes before whipping up two batches of crawfish.  It was so much fun to bring a little piece of Louisiana up to Maine.  I think everyone enjoyed them, at least they enjoyed the novelty of it all! We rounded the occasion off with Abita beer, zapp's potato chips and bread flown in from Louisiana too.  And of course lots of dirt cake, JP's favorite.

So there you have it. Another year come and gone, but I think he's gonna like 29!

snowy day and snow days

One unexpectedly delightful thing to come out of working primary care is the ability for an office closure in the event of a blizzard, thus creating an adult snow day!  A lot of my friends practice hospital medicine, and that means they are always expected to show up for their shifts no matter the weather conditions, hospitals are never closed.  But, outpatient for the win finally!

We have been getting dumped on recently, Juno brought us two feet of snow in about a day and a half, and my office had the foresight to believe the weather predictions and close beforehand so I didn't even have to muscle my way to the office and back.  Instead JP and I hunkered down on the couch.  He worked from home, and I watched Downton Abbey while knitting next to the space heater.  Glorious.  In between episodes I got outside for a few blizzardy tromps in the fresh powdery snow with Liz, Amy, and Oliver.  We enjoyed the day much more than Oliver did unfortunately.

There were no cars on the roads so O was off leash trotting up and down checking things out, we saw people snowshoeing and skiing in the middle of the road, we even saw one girl who had seriously snowshoed to the gas station for two pints of Ben and Jerry's.  We are hard core around here.

And what were we venturing outdoors for?  Absolutely nothing expect for the thrill of running full speed and jumping into gigantic drifts of snow.  We had to go outside in shifts because it was so windy and bitterly cold, but also absolutely beautifully peaceful in the way only snow can bring about, shutting down the day to day working parts of a bustling city.

I know my in-laws think I am crazy, but I swear with the right gear it's actually exciting and fun!

JP, however, did not leave the house.  Last weekend in between storms we went to LLBean and got him geared up completely so now he has no excuse: new snow pants, jacket, and gloves, and a toasty scarf that I knit for him during the chaos.  

Last weekend my sister came to visit, and she brought Oliver a more appropriately sized vest.  We tested it out on a very windy walk around Mackworth Island, once again appreciating how gorgeous and how cold winter is around here.

We are bracing for some more snow starting later tonight and in to Monday, maybe another 8 inches? Welcome back to winter in New England.

rewind: christmas and new years catch up, oh and that time I turned 30

Christmas this year was strangely warm, with no snow.  No snow! I think the last time that happened was back when we lived in Denver and I biked in spandex shorts on practically my birthday.  But this is Maine, and apparently we saved all the snow for the present day. And this is me, so apparently I saved all the holiday cheer for just such a snow day, so really it's a good thing the blizzard is outside my door and keeping me on the couch, reliving the holidays.


















My family came out for a week, and we rented a house out on Peaks Island.  We rode the ferry out there in staggered groups as flights arrived, and settled into a perfect home complete with wood burning stove and plenty of holiday cheer!

Peaks Island is only 20 min by water from Portland, but really it feels like a different world at times.  Island time applies even when you are moored in Maine apparently, life feels more relaxed and upbeat, allowing for ample nature exploration and appreciation that is sometimes hard to come by in the city.  Without the convenience of easy access to grocery stores and restaurants, it's nice to settle in and really be present in the moment.

We tromped and explored, teased the pups, and tried out mom's spanking new slingshot (courtesy of one thoughtful JP).

New Years was.....me asleep by 10:00, exhausted from visitors and a long week in primary care. Ha! Really we are not very new yearsy people from the get go, so the decision to order pizza, drink a glass of champagne and turn in early was embraced fully once the pings (and text messages) of guilt were suppressed!

Oh, and in case you were counting, I did in fact recently turn 30.  And I did it with a bang, in the form of the most ridiculous birthday party that I have ever experienced, complete with hairdresser AND photographer, coordinated by my amazing friend Niki.  Here are three of my favorite shots, just to give you a little sample of the craziness...