Week 7-HELL week take two

I have no pictures, and no fun things to talk about.... This was the WORST week of my entire life, I did absolutely nothing from sun up to 2am except study, with occasional breaks to eat and workout.  The fact that I was able to maintain my workout routine throughout the week is the only reason I was able to stay sane...  I have never studied so much in my entire life.  I think I studied more in the last two weeks than I did all of last semester combined.  I have had three tests in the last 7 days! 

Ok, so enough complaining, on the bright side my wonderful husband has cooked for me, and been very patient while he's been being ignored.  I did try to help cook one night and the following picture is what happened....

So I was studying on the stove and turned on the wrong burner, next thing I know my notes are on fire!

On Friday, I did get to cut loose with some friends after my big Physio exam.  We went to happy hour at J. Paul's in G-town and had $1 Oysters and beer, watched some olympics and shared some great conversation with some good friends...

The only downside is that I have another exam on Tuesday, so I have to keep on studying... Which kind of presented a bit of a motivational challenge, but I'll make it through.

Week 6-Valentine's Day and Beyond...

Sunday was Valentines day!  Richard and I started our day with delicious chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries and cool whip.  Then I recieved my V-day gift, a box o f chocolates from a local pastry shop, called the Heidleburg Bakery (see pic).  We continued our celebration with homemade pizza for lunch.  Followed by the GRAND FINALE, Scallops Bonne Femme with Asparagus, Potatoes, and Salad, accompanied by a nice bottle of wine from the Italian Store.  Thank you husband!

MONDAY-Back to reality, we have a lot of catch up after that monstrous snow storm!  Luckily I didn't drive today, because they closed down the Key Bridge for 3 hours this afternoon (this is the bridge I have to cross to get from VA to DC to get to school).  So Nicole and I decided to walk home, in the snow... I didn't wear my snowboots today, my feet were wet, cold, and injured by the time I got home.  They had to close the bridge to plow, because only 2 lanes of the 4 lane bridge were open, TRAFFIC NIGHTMARE...Study pharm...
TUESDAY- Study pharm...
WEDNESDAY-Study a little patho but mostly PHARM!
THURSDAY-Pharm Exam I  (which sucked!)  Also I was 20 minutes late thanks to the snow that is still drastically impeding the roadways, which did nothing for my performance.  Anyway as soon as I got home I had to start studying for tomorrow....Patho
FRIDAY-Study patho...go to physio...PATHO EXAM!  This exam was much better than yesterday's and I did very well. 

Then I finally got a little break... Tom, Sara and the kiddos came over for dinner.  It was so wonderful to get a night off and enjoy some good food and company.  Tom's birthday was last Sunday, so I decided I would make him a birthday cake.  So Sara said he like coconut, I had never made a coconut cake before, so I had to consult MOM.  Fortunately she gave me a fantastic recipe, I made a delicious cake, and got to use my kitchenaid mixer (which I don't get to use much). 

More Valentine's pics....

Week 5- TWO BLIZZARDS in 5 days...Are you kidding me?

So, the last time I wrote I really had no idea what was in store for me this week.  Monday came and went and I studied, studied, studied, I didn't want to waste a free day.  Then Tuesday came, and no school again, this is 3 snow days, plus Saturday and Sunday I have been cooped up in this apartment, 5 days so far.  So I decided I better go to the store again, yes I remember what I said last week, but I was off and Richard had to go to work, and bottom line I LIKE TO EAT!  So I did it again, I faced the insanity, which was slighly subdued in comparison to last week, but still significantly elevated from the status quo.  I got more food to last us through another Blizzard, but the roads are still awful.  There are about 2 inches of ice caked onto the roads, and I was sliding all over the place.  Not to mention the fact that yes, many roads have been plowed but there is no where for the snow to go, so roads 4 cars wide barely have room for one car. 

Richard went to work Monday and Tuesday so at least he got to get out of the house for a while.  He takes a major thoroughfare to work so it was in pretty good shape.  He also was able to stop in the burbs at a grocery store to secure some milk and eggs for our upcoming blizzard, no more soy milk for me!  He made it home about an hour after the snow started...

Then between 4pm Tuesday and 4pm Wednesday we got another 12-14" of snow on top of the 26" we got on Fri/Sat... I have never seen so much snow in all my life.  I thought it was crazy Saturday, now it is super insane.  Did I mention that this is now the WORST winter in the history of Washington DC?  Cause it is!  Needless to say, I did not go to school Wednesday either, and Richard stayed home and worked diligently from the office while I studied and stalked people on facebook.  I also found out today that we are supposed to get another storm on Monday, hopefully not too bad, I can't handle much more (neither can our gov't).  Oh and on the plus side they confiscated our President's Day to make-up for the snow.

Thursday I was supposed to have my first big exam of the semester that I've been studying hard for all week, but you guessed it, NO SCHOOL!  This snow has brought my entire world to a screeching hault, and mass chaos will be the reward.  At this point I am going absolutely nuts being locked up in this house, I'm dying to get out and have some fun...good thing I bought some wine at the grocery store and we've had plenty of delicious food to keep us company.

FRIDAY...The world restarted (maybe a little too early).  I had my first OR Observation at Fairfax INOVA hospital so it was nice to be in the hospital again and to see an OR and induction now that I actually have some anesthesia knowledge.  The roads were still in pretty bad shape, so on the way home it took me forever to get to school.  The bridge had two lanes closed due to the snow and everyone in the city was out and about.  But it didn't even compare to the traffic friday night.... Some friends and I were supposed to go to an aerobic pole dance class and we decided to drive.  It took us 2 hours to get NOWHERE, so we finally just pulled over and had some dinner and drinks while awaiting the Apocalyptic traffic to pass. 

Friday was also my one month anniversary of working out 6 times a week, eating less than 1800 calories a day, and eating at least 5 fruits and veggies a day.

Heyni's now happy because we had food and drinks....

The BIGGEST single serving of muscles in the WORLD!

Vacations!!!

So I am pretty much living for my school breaks these days!  So let me tell you what we have coming up.

In March I have spring break from the 6th-14th.  Mom is coming to visit on the 3rd to the 9th!  So excited, hopefully the weather will be a little better then.  Then we're going up to NYC with some friends for a long weekend, including a New York Pizza tour!  The best part about it is that it doesn't involve school.

In April I get 5 days off for Easter, the weekend before the Cherry Blossum Festival.  This break is also right after my busiest week of the semester so it will be a wonderful rest!  Let me know if you want to come for a visit, this will be a beautiful time in DC, and Rich and I will have plenty of free time this weekend!

In May I get an 11 day break from May 21-31, and Rich and I made some plans.  Get ready, this is the rally exciting part.  We are going to San Juan Puerto Rico for a few days prior to a 7 day southern Carribean cruise.  We will stop at 6 different Carribean islands!  Plus, it's a nonstop flight from DC which always makes the travel a lot easier.  It is these breaks that are going to get me through this semester, my lights between tunnels so to speak!

Again if anyone wants to visit I have a pretty light schedule from May 12-20, it would definately be a good time for us to have visitors. 

Week 4- "We survived Snowpocalypse 2010"

This was a wild weather week for us here in the nation's capital... If you read my last post, you know we got about 8 inches of snow last Saturday and spent the entire weekend safely tucked away in our apartment. Then Wednesday we got another 3 inches... But this was the day that the "severe weather warning" was issued for Friday and Saturday. Thursday, I decided it would be a good idea to go to the grocery store since we only had one more meal to make (bad idea #1)... Unfortunately the entire CITY had the same thought. My grocery store is pretty small, with a tiny parking lot in the basement of a big office building, so when I arrived at 8:05 Thursday evening I had to wait 10 minutes to get a parking spot...but I pressed on (bad idea #2) So I got into the store, saw the lines and decided I'd come too far now (bad idea #3). I was only able to get about 1/2 of the food on my list. They had no chickn, no milk (i had to get vanilla soy, which is not bad to say make french toast or oatmeal), all the produce was rotten, I bought the last pound of ground beef, I thought it was the end of the world. The lines went down the frozen food aisles all the way to the back of the store, I needed some frozen veggies for my veggie soup and people wouldn't even move to let me get into the cases so I just had to get in that line. So, I was slightly perturbed by the time I got home, I vowed never to go to the store again. Richard's response "By never, you mean until like next week?" However, friday and saturday I sure was glad I had plenty of food, because I definately didn't want to leave my apt. Moving on...

Friday morning they upgraded the storm warning to a "BLIZZARD" warning! It started snowing about 11:30 but it was 35 degrees so it wasn't sticking yet. I didn't have class until 1:15 on friday so at 12:30 as the snow was getting much thicker (so I thought at the time), but class wasn't cancelled. Richard got home right before I left. Luckily my friend Nicole (from North Dakota) came and picked me up so I didn't have to walk or drive in the snow. However, once we got to campus, they cancelled class 15 minutes before it was supposed to start. Thanks G-town, really helpful! So we stuck around and did a little studying, and again thanks to Nicole had some delicious cake! (yes, I'm still counting calories, I ate a piece of cake and a bowl of pasta in the same day and still met my caloric goal of 1800) I got home about 3:00 just as the snow was starting to stick. About 10:00 is when it actually turned into a blizzard, and we decided to go out in it and I made my first snow angel (of my adult life). By the time we woke up Saturday, we had 2 feet of snow outside, and it continued to snow until 8pm. Needless to say, Richard and I spent our second weekend in a row inside our apartment. Thanks to my trip to the store we have eaten really good through all this... Friday we made sausage rosemary pizza, for breakfast Saturday we had nutella and banana french toast, then homemade vegetable soup and corn bread for dinner, made a little snow ice cream for dessert (sounds a lot better than it actually is).

Sunday we decided to go play in the snow....but it was terribly cold (16 degrees). But we did jump out of our window into the thick fluffy snow and play for a few minutes, but then I was really freezing and our neighbors were taking our picture which was kinda creepy. On the plus side SNOW DAY TOMORROW!

In addition to the weather and associated drama Richard met Lauren and her brother Sean this week when we went to Eat Bar wednesday night. I am organizing a kickball team which is alot more work than I would have ever anticipated. School is starting to rev up too, I have my first exam next week in pharmacology, so everyone say a little prayer for me Thursday at 9am (8am Central). Now I'm blogging during the super bowl, pretty exciting! That's All Folks!

Week 3 Getting Sick to Getting Adjusted

It seems Richard brought me a cold when he arrived (not really, they just coincidentally showed up at the same time).  So I've felt like death all week, with a severe sinus/upper respiratory tract infection and that horrible hacking cough...if you've known me for awhile you know the one I'm talking about.  So it's been difficult to keep up with my schoolwork feeling so lousy, but I managed ok.  It also killed my workout routine, I had to take 4 days off last week.  No worries I'm back on track now.  I did go to the doctor and get a nice antibiotic which made me more sick, but ultimately helped.  I feel a lot better now.

This week was another typical week in school, the only difference is my motivation.  Now that Richard is here, I have a reason to come home and get my studying done, if I get it done I get to hang out with my husband.  I am finding it very helpful thus far, we'll see when I get really busy in a few weeks though. 

Monday was Richard's first day in his new job.  It's a slow start, lots of training/reading/learning, so who knows if he'll like it yet?  It's going to take him some time before he even figures out what he's doing.  But he's here and that's the important thing.  His commute is only about 15 minutes in the morning and 20 at night (he's got the reverse commute).  His office has a nice gym, so he won't need to join Gold's.  He works a 9/80 work week, meaning he works 80 hours in 9 days so he has every other friday off.  There are definately some good parts...  But he is also functioning in a completely new role as a quality engineer (he has worked in manufacturing and operations for the last 6 years), so it's always difficult to start a new task.  Hopefully he will eventually enjoy it.

Wednesday we went to happy hour at La Tasca (are you seeing a trend, that's 3 weeks in a row) with some people from Raytheon.  We met a few new people, and met up with Kurtis and Katie (Katie got Rich the job), so it was nice to see them, and of course enjoy some delicious tapas.

We spent the weekend cocooned in our apartment because we got 8 inches of snow on Saturday.  It literally snowed all day long, I didn't mind I needed to catch up on my studying, and somehow Rich managed to entertain himself.  It was the most substantial snow I've ever experienced, but the aftermath is no fun!  It's dirty, and sludgy, and you have to swear hoes that won't be damaged by the salty sludge, plus it's cold.  Angel doesn't much care for it either, but she's coming around.

See ya next week!