Baby, It's Cold Outside

Once again I have fallen off the blog-wagon. I apologize to everyone who still reads this blog. I especially apologize to my friend, Kristi, who I told I would have a new post after Thanksgiving. So I have about 3 months of catching up to do. This might be a lengthy blog. And you know how much I love to use the bullet points for long update posts, so here goes...

* We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving. We had a small group gather at our place. Chris (Travis's classmate who has been living with us since June) and his fiance, Jasia, and her little girl, Chloe, came up, as well as another classmate named Luke. Jasia made pumpkin pies from scratch! I was so impressed. All I've ever known is pumpkin from the can. Travis made a fabulous, melt-in-your mouth turkey. The day was filled with movies and Disney Scene-It, which Chloe really enjoyed.

* I have not pulled out all of the Christmas decorations this year. I have a few token items, mainly things my mom sent me in a care package. Our new apartment is set up in a way that our Christmas tree will not fit without causing major maneuvering issues. Because I could not stand the idea of tree-less living room, I made a make-shift Christmas tree:



* For the last few months the weather has been pretty mild, but all that changed a couple of weeks ago. We had our first snow last Saturday. You do not know the horrors of Christmas shopping until you have shopped while it is snowing. I called it quits after only a couple of hours. I don't know how people live daily lives in this stuff! Today it has been snowing pretty much all day with wind gusts of 40 mph. And because there was a nice layer of non-plowed snow Travis, Chris and I indulged in some much needed parking lot doughnuts. Here are a couple pictures from our patio. Sorry they are not very scenic...I was all about staying warm.





* Work has been rather intense lately. Fall is a very busy time. I have been dealing with applications coming in, coordinating the interview days, preparing committee meetings, sending out acceptances letters and everything else in between. December 1st was our deadline for applications. Deadline time is when we receive large amounts of mail. On one day alone we received over 250 applications. The past two weeks have been rather crazy around the office, but now that receiving applications are done, we can devout time to all the other tasks that need to be complete.

* Because we have been understaffed, a few of us have been helping out with the recruiting events. I helped out with 3 different events. In early October I went to an event at UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago). At the end of October I accompanied my boss to an event in Normal, IL at the Illinois State University campus. My final event was at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. All three of these events were great opportunities. I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with all of the prospective applicants.

* Travis has been doing well. He really enjoys his third year, mainly for the fact that he has more down time. This week is his last week of his capstone classes. Since June he has been involved with 6 week classes on devoted to different medical fields. He has completed Radiology, Orthopedics, Surgery, and this week he will be done with General Medicine. He will have two weeks off and then he will begin his month long rotations. He has mandatory rotations in the Chicago Area and then he has 8 electives. The schedule is fairly ok with the exception of this spring when he will be gone from February to the end of May. Once we get past that hurtle, he will only be gone for periods of 1 or 2 months.

* Here is Travis's schedule for the next year and a half:

January--West Side VA in Chicago
February--Greenly, Colorado
March--Greenville, Texas
April--Houston, Texas
May--Southbend, Indiana
June--Chicago Area (internal medicine)
July--Temple, Texas (Scott and White)
August--San Antonio, Texas
September--Chicago Area (emergency medicine)
October--Chicago Area (Stoger Hospital of Cook County)
November--Ft. Worth, Texas (John Peter Smith)
December--Chicago Area (Stroger Hospital of Cook County)
January--CRIPS (CRIPS is the interview process for residency. He will be in Texas for this.)
February--Chicago Area (Mt. Sinai Hospital)
March--North Chicago VA
April--Vacation Month
May--Chicago Area
June 2012--Graduation!