If you haven't been able to tell, I fell off of the face of the Earth. Yes, it's true. August came and went without a blog post. I swear that we did actually do things here: Rockies baseball games, hiking, and lots of work.
The Rockies game were awesome - no they did not always win, but they were good games. I'm posting pictures of the games too. Brant's grandparents were out here, and we were able to take them to a game too. We even got fabulous seats - ones without much walking, not too many stairs, and a GREAT view!
Work has been busy. Things in the Medical ICU have picked up considerably, and I'll start teaching the pharmacy students next week. I apparently am also going to serve as an advisor for at least 4 students next semester. I don't feel prepared for that job. I know what academic advisors are supposed to do, and I do not feel prepared for that at all. It will be good experience for me though.
I know that this is kind of disappointment given my long vacation from blogging; however, my life has been mainly full of work not much fun.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
A 14er
It happened! My legs are incredibly sore, but I did it. I climbed a 14er - well, 14,206 to be exact. The guys that I went with were more experienced climbers than me - which would not be difficult since I had never climbed before. I took frequent breaks, drank lots of water, and tried not to think about the pain in my legs... and I eventually made it. The guys had a microbrew waiting for me at the top... and beer had never tasted so good. The view was spectacular, as you can see from the pictures!
Grays is the tallest peak in its range (the Continental Range - part of the Continental Divide). It is connected, via a ridge to Torrey's peak. We did not do Torrey's because there were clouds rolling in and we wanted to get off of the mountain before it started to storm (a mountain top is not the place you want to be when thunderstorms roll in because of lightening). We hustled down the mountain and made it to the care before it started to actually rain even! Yay good timing!
It was a lot of work and a lot of pain because I had never done this before - but SOOOOO worth it! If you ever have a chance to do a 14er or a 13er (13,000 ft), take the chance. It's so rewarding!
Grays is the tallest peak in its range (the Continental Range - part of the Continental Divide). It is connected, via a ridge to Torrey's peak. We did not do Torrey's because there were clouds rolling in and we wanted to get off of the mountain before it started to storm (a mountain top is not the place you want to be when thunderstorms roll in because of lightening). We hustled down the mountain and made it to the care before it started to actually rain even! Yay good timing!
It was a lot of work and a lot of pain because I had never done this before - but SOOOOO worth it! If you ever have a chance to do a 14er or a 13er (13,000 ft), take the chance. It's so rewarding!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Exploring Denver: magic foods, museums, parks, and more!
It has been a while since my last post - and we have done a lot of things and found a lot of things. We have been trying to go places on bikes, though not easy given how big Denver is. Brant did bike downtown (~8 miles) to go to a Rockies game with some of his friends. We have explored our neighborhood, and I finally have pictures to post of the reading park - if you look closely, you'll see "READING" in the leaf and "GARDEN" - so cool. They lined the park with concrete books in the retaining wall too!
Everything out here is green or greener than what we are used to. Okay, well not everything. I have officially given up my Iowan citizenship - my driver's license is from Colorado, and after doing the emissions test, the VIN verification, obtaining my title, and paying the state some more money, my car now has Colorado license plates. Brant says that it'll help my car fit in better out here - you know, a Jetta with Colorado plates. So now it's time to send my Palo Alto plates back to the courthouse - so sad. Throughout this process though, I did really miss being able to just go to the courthouse and ask for plates or get my photo taken for my license. I waited for 2 hours for my license and 1 hour for my plates at the DMV, on separate occasions.... the Colorado DMV - not such a friendly / awesome environment.. I was a little nervous the whole time I was there. It could be worse though.
There are lots of bikers out here too, but they do not always obey the traffic laws - which can be a little frustrating when trying not to hit them.
With the whole "green" theme in mind, we are trying to make more of our foods at home. I made alfredo sauce for the first time today - why have I not done this before? Sooooo easy! We live 2 blocks (literally) from an Albertsons, so getting groceries is just a short walk away. That has been a huge perk of living in Lowry! I found potato chips with 4 ingredients - yes, it's true.... and they even taste like potato chips! Magic foods - I swear!
So, to the whole "not everything is greener" that I wrote about earlier... I miss the no-smoking laws in Iowa. We went out some of the other residents from UCH last night, and at the end of the night, I had more drinks and cigarette smoke on me than I could remember in a long time. While it was very fun (for me), it was a long wait: 20ish minutes into downtown, then parking, then walking back to LoDo's, then 15 minutes at the door, 2 minutes at the bar for a drink each (go me for scouting out the non-busy bartop), 10 more minutes in a line to get to the upstairs patio, then 15 minutes in (another) line upstairs to get out onto the patio... yes, it's true: it took us an HOUR to find my friends at the bar. That's Denver though! Brant also made a great observation (as one of the two guys with our party): more and more increasingly drunk guys came to chat us girls up - but our number never changed. Their odds went down with each man approaching. What's even more funny is that two of us had our boyfriends, one is clearly married, and three were not interested. Awesome night! But, I do miss the no-smoking laws... for those of you still in Iowa, enjoy them for me! :)
We may have become old-people over night. We are members of the Denver Museum of Science & Nature. It sounds kind of lame, but it is awesome! The Body Worlds exhibit is currently in Denver at this museum, so we went to see it. We became members since it was cheaper to become members and pay $12 each to see Body Worlds than to just buy the tickets outright. They have so many awesome exhibits: dinosaurs, mummies, space/moon travel, animals from all over the globe. We didn't go into many of the wings - now that we have a membership, we can go whenever we want! We're planning on going to see an IMAX movie about the Hubble telescope soon too. .. We are big science nerds.
Work for me has been awesome. I am truly loving what I do - for now at least :) In a few weeks or months I may have a different story, but for now I am loving it all! Saving people with drugs... so cool. I know that it's kind of morbid and disturbing that I could/would be so excited about people being incredibly sick, but those are the people that I can have the biggest impact on. The doctors have all been awesome so far too - they call me back and say "hey, this is xxx (insert first name)". I love it! They want my help, and they are always calling and asking questions. The computer system has been a steep learning curve, but so far I am really enjoying it!
Everything out here is green or greener than what we are used to. Okay, well not everything. I have officially given up my Iowan citizenship - my driver's license is from Colorado, and after doing the emissions test, the VIN verification, obtaining my title, and paying the state some more money, my car now has Colorado license plates. Brant says that it'll help my car fit in better out here - you know, a Jetta with Colorado plates. So now it's time to send my Palo Alto plates back to the courthouse - so sad. Throughout this process though, I did really miss being able to just go to the courthouse and ask for plates or get my photo taken for my license. I waited for 2 hours for my license and 1 hour for my plates at the DMV, on separate occasions.... the Colorado DMV - not such a friendly / awesome environment.. I was a little nervous the whole time I was there. It could be worse though.
There are lots of bikers out here too, but they do not always obey the traffic laws - which can be a little frustrating when trying not to hit them.
With the whole "green" theme in mind, we are trying to make more of our foods at home. I made alfredo sauce for the first time today - why have I not done this before? Sooooo easy! We live 2 blocks (literally) from an Albertsons, so getting groceries is just a short walk away. That has been a huge perk of living in Lowry! I found potato chips with 4 ingredients - yes, it's true.... and they even taste like potato chips! Magic foods - I swear!
So, to the whole "not everything is greener" that I wrote about earlier... I miss the no-smoking laws in Iowa. We went out some of the other residents from UCH last night, and at the end of the night, I had more drinks and cigarette smoke on me than I could remember in a long time. While it was very fun (for me), it was a long wait: 20ish minutes into downtown, then parking, then walking back to LoDo's, then 15 minutes at the door, 2 minutes at the bar for a drink each (go me for scouting out the non-busy bartop), 10 more minutes in a line to get to the upstairs patio, then 15 minutes in (another) line upstairs to get out onto the patio... yes, it's true: it took us an HOUR to find my friends at the bar. That's Denver though! Brant also made a great observation (as one of the two guys with our party): more and more increasingly drunk guys came to chat us girls up - but our number never changed. Their odds went down with each man approaching. What's even more funny is that two of us had our boyfriends, one is clearly married, and three were not interested. Awesome night! But, I do miss the no-smoking laws... for those of you still in Iowa, enjoy them for me! :)
We may have become old-people over night. We are members of the Denver Museum of Science & Nature. It sounds kind of lame, but it is awesome! The Body Worlds exhibit is currently in Denver at this museum, so we went to see it. We became members since it was cheaper to become members and pay $12 each to see Body Worlds than to just buy the tickets outright. They have so many awesome exhibits: dinosaurs, mummies, space/moon travel, animals from all over the globe. We didn't go into many of the wings - now that we have a membership, we can go whenever we want! We're planning on going to see an IMAX movie about the Hubble telescope soon too. .. We are big science nerds.
Work for me has been awesome. I am truly loving what I do - for now at least :) In a few weeks or months I may have a different story, but for now I am loving it all! Saving people with drugs... so cool. I know that it's kind of morbid and disturbing that I could/would be so excited about people being incredibly sick, but those are the people that I can have the biggest impact on. The doctors have all been awesome so far too - they call me back and say "hey, this is xxx (insert first name)". I love it! They want my help, and they are always calling and asking questions. The computer system has been a steep learning curve, but so far I am really enjoying it!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
No new adventures out in the big city because I've been training at UCH. Training has been going well - there is a LOT to learn about a new computer system, new "preferred" medications, and personalities.
Brant has continued to look for work: Starbucks and a few local restaurants. So far, he hasn't heard from the places, but we have not given up hope.
This weekend we are taking another adventure - this time we're going home via Omaha. My co-resident from my last year of residency is getting married on Saturday, and we are excited to witness this awesome event! There will be pictures from the wedding coming!
We are really loving Denver - the people, the sites, the mountains, the attitude, everything. At the end of this month, I have plans to climb a "14-er"... and for the "sea-levelers" (yes, Midwesterns are actually referred to as this) it is a 14,000 ft mountain. I'm going to hike with 2 of my bosses and possibly one of the past residents from my program. It should be pretty awesome - if I can make it to the top of the mountain :) I will definitely have my camera on that hike!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Exploring
Between unpacking the boxes and finding "homes" for everything in our home, we have taken some time to go exploring. Our travels have taken us quite a ways away, which is what this post is all about.
On our way out to Colorado, I made Brant stop (for a second, literally) in the town of York, Nebraska. There's a balloon! I'm fairly sure that it is the watertower, but I've never stopped there on my way through and decided that this was the time.
While my parents were still out here, we went to the Celestial Tea Factory in Boulder. Highly recommended, and it did not disappoint! My favorite room was the Mint Room - with peppermint, spearmint, and cap nip (who would have thought that this was a mint!). Scott & I were pretty sure that Mom bought out the entire gift shop or at least could set a record... then we saw a sign that said "If you buy more than 15 boxes of tea, one cloth bag is free". Oh were we wrong about Barb setting a record at the gift shop...
In the last week, Brant and I have done some exploring on our own. We went up to Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado and have walked around the neighborhood finding about a dozen parks, including a reading park. Pictures of the reading park are coming. We also went on a candy tour at Hammonds Candy Factory where we were the odd ducks. We were surrounded by small kids with adults or older adults remembering "how candy used to be made". It was really a cute, quirky place - lots of candy all over the show room. I had a lot of fun there!
More pictures and stories of exploring coming soon!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Goodbyes are Hard
The time has gone so quickly - we found out in March that we would be moving to Denver this June, and yet, somehow it snuck up on us (okay, me). Brant did most of the packing, and we loaded into two trailers. With the help of our families, we (and all of our stuff) have made it to Denver, CO. Pictures will be posted soon for the new apartment.
Many tears have been shed with goodbyes. There have been so many goodbyes in the last few weeks, it's hard to handle any more of them: people at work, friends in DSM, friends in Ames, family... Just too many. We are fortunate that our parents are available and capable and willing to help us move partway across the nation.
The hellos are possibly as difficult as the goodbyes. There are lots of hellos still to come. We have taken care of some hellos that we did not anticipate, for example meeting an insurance agent as the insurance "rules" in Iowa are not the same as in Colorado. My first day at University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) was Monday, June 28th... I'll try to continue to count the hellos and introductions there. Between looking for jobs and unpacking the boxes that contain our lives, Brant has been busy. I am so fortunate that I am paired with a patient, kind soul who understands the demands on my time right now.
Many tears have been shed with goodbyes. There have been so many goodbyes in the last few weeks, it's hard to handle any more of them: people at work, friends in DSM, friends in Ames, family... Just too many. We are fortunate that our parents are available and capable and willing to help us move partway across the nation.
The hellos are possibly as difficult as the goodbyes. There are lots of hellos still to come. We have taken care of some hellos that we did not anticipate, for example meeting an insurance agent as the insurance "rules" in Iowa are not the same as in Colorado. My first day at University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) was Monday, June 28th... I'll try to continue to count the hellos and introductions there. Between looking for jobs and unpacking the boxes that contain our lives, Brant has been busy. I am so fortunate that I am paired with a patient, kind soul who understands the demands on my time right now.
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