Tetris

This may be one of the few instances when years of playing video games actually benefits you in real life - moving day. Chad and our good friend Jason drew on their Tetris experience to load our moving truck in the most space-efficient way humanly possible. Not only did they load all of our belongings in about three hours (without much help from me, I must admit), but I have never seen so much stuff crammed into such a small space in so cohesive a fashion. Very impressive.

I spent numerous hours over the past several weeks packing boxes, cleaning, wrapping fragile items in newspaper followed by washing newsprint off my hands, and forcing myself to part with that pair of shoes I haven't worn in four years (still painful), but I somehow managed not to do much lifting come moving day. I guess the boys would have rather had me out of the way than interfere with their masterful packing. Fine by me!

After the truck was loaded (thank you again, Jason), we went to dinner with the guys for one last hoorah before Chad left town. He truly is lucky to have such an amazing group of friends.

A 10-year upgrade

My parents were generous enough to purchase my first two cars for me: a 1994 Toyota 4Runner then a 1997 Honda Accord. The Honda has been with me since I was 20, but it was never officially named until my brother-in-law dubbed in "LaFonda."

LaFonda and I have had a love-hate relationship that has evolved more into a hate relationship recently - she has one window that slipped off track and is now nonfunctioning, she leaks oil (very safe; good thing I'm not a smoker), she makes a symphony of noises with her various squeaky belts, and she goes from 0 to 60 in about a minute and a half. But....she is a Honda, and you know that means she will chug along for the next 100,000 miles or so.

However, it seems that I will not be with LaFonda for her next 100,000 miles. I was shocked and completely surprised when Grandma called to tell me that she and my Grandpa were going to rescue me from the Honda by buying me a car as a graduation gift! I know, I know - I sound spoiled rotten, but they did give me a price limit and they made the same offer to my cousins in the instance that they graduate medical school/law school/get a masters or PhD/etc.

I initially thought I would play it safe and go for another Accord (newer, of course), but I made the mistake of test-driving an Infiniti on our first trip to the car lot....and I immediately became a car snob. No pesky keys or cloth upholstery for me! Give me a car with push-button start and air-conditioned seats! I regretted even knowing that such a car existed because I was sure that we couldn't afford one until we found a 2007 Lexus IS350 with all the ammenities you could ever imagine in our price range! Now I'm driving the most wonderful graduation gift in the history of graduation gifts....and I have washed it 3 of the 4 days since I got it. We'll see how long that holds up. Thank you thank you thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!

On our way to Kentucky....

Chad and I thought someone somewhere out there might want to know what we will be doing with ourselves when we leave town, so we decided to start blogging about the little and the big things going on in our lives....

For those of you who don't already know, I matched into the Urology residency program at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. This means I will be doing specialty training in Urology and genito-urinary surgery for the next FIVE years! And since Chad is such a good sport, he will be making the move away from his friends and family to spend the next few years in Lexington with me.

When I received the phone call from Dr. Strup at UK in January letting me know that I matched there, he surprised me by informing me that they had kept Chad in mind when they were making decisions about residency candidates: they have connections with KODA (Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates), which just so happened to have an opening at their branch in Lexington! This means that Chad will still have the opportunity to work within the organ recovery field, but he will now be working with the organ division rather than the bone and soft tissue division. This job will be quite a bit more time-consuming than his job at ARORA (Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency) i.e. he will have to actually go into the office more than twice a week :)

Right now, we are in the midst of packing and our house is becoming a maze of boxes! Chad will move in less than a week, but I still have school obligations for another three weeks, so Roxie and I will be left behind with an air mattress and some plastic utensils...