moving

 

Before I tell you about the amazing place we are living in and all the fun things we have seen and done since arriving in our new city, I will tell you a bit about the moving.  As you might imagine, moving an entire house between just the two of us was kind of stressful.  Add to that two dogs who were in a panic about what was happening around them and terrified of being left behind, and it gets a little worse.  The whole packing, lifting, shuffling, heaving, arranging and cleaning portion of the journey is probably best left not remembered.  It was looong and sweaty and back aching and long.  I always forget about that part and how stressful and strenuous it is, I just like to remember how exciting moving is and how much fun a new place will be to decorate and a new city will be to explore and omit in my memory the parts that suck.  Unfortunately they still exist, but FORTUNATELY I am in the finish part and I can begin the work of remembering how great moving is and forgetting how horrible it can be so that I will be ready to be excited the next time around!

We have been incredibly fortunate in the weather department since we arrived, but I am currently cozied down with a fresh steaming cop of coffee sitting by the window watching and listening to the rain outside and I thought it just might be the perfect time to blog a little.  Rainy days are glorious for me still, although that will probably change pretty quickly, because it barely ever rained in Denver.  Here it has been drizzly, wet, and windy since yesterday and it's been lovely.  Sometimes I think Denver made me forget how brilliantly green grass can be over large spaces, but the park we live across from is doing a good job of reminding me. 

The pups did an amazing job once we finally got out on the open road.  The four of us crammed into the tiny cab of the truck actually wasn't too bad!  I think they were so incredibly exhausted from constantly making sure we hadn't moved without them that once they saw we would all be jammed in close they just passed out cold.  It was kind of a miracle, but they sure were more than ready for a beach run when we finally arrived!

on bicycles and leaving

Not so long ago, leaving Denver wouldn't really have meant all that much because I didn't really have any connections at all, I was just floating on by studying and doing my own thing.  Now though, I actually have an amazing friend that I hang out with every day and bike with and work out with and drink mimosas with and commiserate with!  And now I am sad!!  I know I get to move to a city that has built in friends, and will spend the next two years with a family of sorts as 50 of us students struggle side by side to learn medicine, and that is going to be awesome in its own way.  I am just remembering how incredibly heart breaking it was to leave Minneapolis just a few years ago.  Eric, Pigeon, and I drove down the highway while tears just streamed out of my eyes for miles and miles.  IT WAS SO HARD.  I know this time is different in a million ways, but this time will be hard too I think in ways that I haven't yet considered.  BUT luckily I am bringing my best friend with me on this adventure, and our two ridiculous dogs are great for comforting even if all four of us will be smooshed in the cab of a u-haul for hours on end!  I think perhaps most big changes must be mourned and then let go so that the memories can live on however they will.  In any case, this is a sappy post and I am okay with that.

Now I will tell you that my friend Renae is raising money (soon) for a ride she is doing in August.  She is biking her first century (100 miles) in the Rockies no less for the Tour de Cure raising money for diabetes research!  Once she gets a donation site up I will plaster it up here and ask you all to support her, but for now you are off the hook.  We have been training together, and it has been so nice to ride my old training routes and do them with someone else!  I didn't realize how lonesome my training was when I was by myself!  In any case, Renae and I got out on Saturday for a 35 mile ride in 78 degree weather along Clear Creek and it was absolutely lovely.  She didn't even mind when I kept making her stop so I could take pictures, even when one of the was mid-climb..  Hope you all are having as beautiful weather as we are!

the search continues

You know what?  Picking a new place to live from afar is hard.  We are extremely lucky to have eyes on the ground that are checking out the places we find and finding places for us that they can check out.  It's a pretty good scenario all things considered, but if you know me, you know that I need to get my hands right up in there and see for myself.  It turns out that in the face of stress, control is a HUGE thing for me.  Hahaha, who would have guessed?  With moving day coming up in..err yikes, two and a half weeks, we are starting to feel the stress a little bit more.  Aside from the whole not having a place to live issue, the realization of both of us being unemployed is starting to become more real.   HA.  I don't know why that makes me laugh, but I think it's more of a nervous-isn't-it-hilarious-that-we-are-so-blindly-forging-ahead kind of laugh, and I am doing it more and more often.  I know I always "have faith in the bigger plan" and really do believe things happen for a reason, but as with most people I wish I knew all of the reasons ahead of time all the time so that I could be prepared.  See what I mean about the control?  So, I am trying to take moving across the country with so many unknowns yet to be answered as an exercise in trust and patience.  The reality of the situation is that we are doing as much as we can from where we are, and that is just about all we can do.  We are closing in on the end of our jobs here (one week for me and two for him), and then the next adventure will begin!  Don't think for one minute that this anxiety is raining on our parade over here.  I am the queen of powering through, and both JP and I (and hell, probably Oliver and Yin too) are extremely excited to call Portland home.  The weather has been great for grilling here, and I have been peppering JP with Portland facts and information, showing him beaches and lighthouses we can visit and looking up the google street views of all the apartments we have considered. I think it's safe to say that Maine is going to be very different than Colorado, but we've done the Colorado thing for a few years and now it is time to try Maine on for size.  JP's first purchase for the move was just a few days after I was accepted, and it was an insulated hat/facemask/warmer thing from REI so he will be ready for whatever cold nor'easter blows his way.  What a trooper this Louisiana boy is!

 

Well, so you don't think that all we do over here is worry and wring our hands in desperate pleas for assurances (mom, don't worry, I am remembering to breathe occasionally), I will tell you that we have been shedding our anxieties with some slurpee filled scooter rides lately.  We also dragged our butts to the midnight movie release of the Hunger Games last night, and after working a twelve hour shift prior to the shenanigans, I think I am maaay just be getting too old for that kind of fun.  That, or I really should just give up once and for all on believing that any film version of a book I love will ever live up to the expectations I desperately want them to.   So there you have it.  Apartments, working, hand wringing and some hunger games.   That's life here!

And for the record, Oboe is really trying not to let the stress get to him too much.

the ups and downs, and portland

Hello again,  I have been drowning with work lately and have had little time for any other activity.  Twelve hour shifts three days a week sounds like a pretty good deal most of the time, but sometimes it spaces out wrong and you end up working six twelves in eight days and you want to fall asleep on the floor without even taking off your nasty scrubs.  Lucky for me I have crossed that off my calender and have four cloudy stormy days spread out before me with no obligations except spin classes with Renae and whipping up a few new recipes.  Now that's how life should be! I am nearing the end of my time at the hospital, and as my sister reminded me, I only have nine more shifts to work for the next two years!  Scary and exciting to think about!  Let's get those financial aid checks in the mail please and set me on the road to piles of debt!  I am hoping to secure a rather competitive scholarship if I can.  The odds are long, as with most things involved in the entire PA school process, but you can't get there if you never try.  The scholarship is from the National Health Service Corps, and awards the recipient with full tuition for two years as well as a monthly living stipend while in school.  In exchange, you are obligated to practice medicine for two years in a medically under served area or population.  This would work out perfectly for me, as I want to work in those areas already!  Clearly this opportunity is the holy grail of financial options, but even if I don't get the scholarship they have a loan repayment option after graduating that is pretty similar and would be extremely beneficial as well.  In fact, my dad knows the benefits all too well as he had his loans repaid while working his first and only position as a PA at Min No Aya Win Human Services with Native Americans in the Fond du Lac tribe.  I have high hopes of following the great examples my dad has shown me in his practices!  In any case, mulling over financial possibilities and looking for apartments are the things I have been squeezing into my day, and probably doesn't make for the most entertaining post.  I was looking for a picture of the dogs to send to a rental management place in Portland (who require a dog interview in person.. or in dog I guess? either way it's weird to me), and I realized I still have pictures from our p-town trip in January to share!  So here you go, you can join me in my all-portland-all-the-time mentality for a few moments:

 JP and I before heading out to the meet and greet the night before the interview.  Props go to Renae for helping me figure out my outfit, Joe for loaning JP a shirt at the last minute and Em for her fancy grown up jacket!

 I kind of look like a bug in this picture, but this is me in my fancy suit right after the interview, pre-mimosa time/ lobster roll eating/ napping celebration!

Shots of the amazingly amazing pulled pork that Emily made us.  Ohhhh my word it was so good.  I even had some the next morning for breakfast before heading to the ice rink!

JP getting in the the cooking action, making some shrimp as a side to the pulled pork.  Yes, we Walshes sure know how to take down (or as Joe would day, "house") a good meal.  With our limited time in the state, we basically made everything we were craving, and jammed them into meals that might not make the most sense.. but were delicious!

And what sort of Walsh gathering would it be without games?  We played some ping-pong at a local dive bar to end the night. Can't wait to move there!

fat and happy after a loooooooong day moving

Oh my word that was A LOT of work! I am finally, finally done moving after three days of cleaning and packing and prepping and lifting and...shaking? No shaking, but if we had, maybe some things would have broken and there would have been less to do! Did I mention that I live on the third floor in a building with no elevator and two sets of doors that require handle turning to get out?! I think one of the only good things about all of this work is that there is absolutely no energy left to feel sad about leaving my lovely little studio. Phew I will be happy to not have to trudge up those stairs even one more time. My dear, sweet boyfriend, who hates moving more than anyone I know, cleaned and gutted his studio apartment and made enough space to fit all of my crapola in it for the summer. Luckily he has huge closets and I haven't accumulated too many things since my one-car-load-with-room-for-Eric-Pigeon-and-me arrived in Colorado needing a place to live. All things considered his apartment is very full now! He also put his amazing stove cleaning skills to work, practically assuring that I get my full deposit back, for which I am forever grateful as I ALWAYS lose points on the cleanliness of the stove whenever I move. That said, I AM DONE (!) and I LEAVE IN ONE WEEK!! I can barely believe it, but my calender says so, my to-do list is finally starting to shrink the teeniest bit, and I am living out of the box that will be housing all of my belongings this summer so it must be true! I have a crazy amount of things to accomplish this week, too much to even list or think about for very long because it is overwhelming. Some things are getting done though, we booked a flight for JP to San Francisco this morning and I've got a return flight home now too. I tell you, it's a bit intimidating to book a one way flight home from the west coast and fly to the east coast to start. Now I better make it the whole way because I've got a flight to catch! I will leave you with some pictures before I crash so you don't feel left out from all the moving fun since many of you have helped me move at one point or another!

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Practicing for next Halloween there Leonardo? We got the chair moving skills from my dad who moved this chair in the same fashion up those three flights of stairs during my parent's visit in October.

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No room for unimportant things like a clear view of the road!

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We ran out of boxes and in all seriousness moved everything from my fridge and freezer in this here glad bag, well aware of the fact that if the bag didn't hold we would be chasing popsicles, tamari and jalapenos down the hill...luckily we didn't have any casualties but you can see that it was a close one!


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One of JP's now overly stuffed, but quite organized closets.

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Way too tired to move anymore, but we had the perfect motivating solution...

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Pizza and Beer! Real ones for JP and fake ones for me... I ordered him double pepperoni because the place that makes my pizza only does vegan or vegetarian options and I needed some greasy, bad-for-you goodness to end the day!

two weeks 'til lift off!

Yes you read that right, only 14 DAYS until go time. Yipes! With one week to go in the apartment I just started packing yesterday at 10pm.. I guess the college student in me is still alive and kicking! Isn't it funny how the easiest things to pack are also the things you need until the last minute and are also the things that once packed make you feel very productive and accomplished when you glance around the now stark gigantic closet? Well, I diligently packed my closet last night leaving only B&B jerseys amongst the mess of hangers, and thus had to unpack to get dressed this morning.


The time of daily head to toe spandex and then occasionally a real person outfit is not yet here and I need to remember that I can wear actual clothes for two more weeks and digging through a box to get them isn't very practical. Mostly also I had only one decent sized box from my sleeping bag shipment and I foolishly packed all of my books into it. Every time I move I tell myself to spread the book love between all of the boxes and every time they end up in one astonishingly (especially for three flights of stairs) heavy lump of a box. I know if you are Kathy you might be thinking, hey, don't I have five or seven astonishingly heavy boxes of Elise's books in my garage from her last move? Well, maybe we should all take a moment to celebrate the fact that I have an eReader now and hopefully won't be adding many more tangibly heavy books to my life before my next move. And maybe those of you who are in states other than Colorado can take a moment to be glad that it won't affect you either way.

In biking news I was perusing the B&B website and checked out the interactive map for the routes that have already started and they are cool! From your couch/desk/phone or what have you, you can watch us cross the US one mile at a time. The map gives you the miles we've done and the miles we've got left, how many days, where we are at, and I think even links to some of the rider blogs too! Pretty cool stuff, ours is here: http://bikeandbuild.org/rider/route.php?route=P2SF&year=2010 and will be fully fun to tune in to starting June 11th if you are interested. Other then that I've got about a week left before it's time to pack up and ship my bike off to Providence where it will be waiting for me once I arrive. My sister scouted out a trail in Maine that goes to the beach and is maybe 25 miles long so I will have to get my hands on some sort of two wheeled device while I'm there...either that or bask in the glory of a week without exercise before I push off on the 4,138 miles journey ahead!