When Ross and I first began discussing marriage, he wanted to get married before I graduated from college. He thought it would make the transition from dorm life to living together easier. I think he was right.
Not to say it's hard to live with Ross. I like it fine, and we are not sick of each other or anything. But it IS hard to have moved to a new city where we know very few people. Very different from living with my dear mod. Ross, being an introvert, is taking it better than I am, though he's bored too. I find myself on social networking sites constantly, trying to fulfill the yearning I have for a good in-person conversation or even a mod Dawson's Creek marathon. The highlight of the past week was spending an afternoon with a Bethel modmate, Elizabeth, who is working in the mountains this summer. I can't wait for church tomorrow purely because it allows for social interaction.
I'm also becoming aware that I don't exactly know how to make friends in a non-school setting. It's so nice to just be plunked into a giant group of peers and sort through them to find some you like to spend time with. How do adults make friends? Work, I guess? Church?
18 July 2009
13 July 2009
Life at the Apartment
Ross and I are busy looking for jobs, but as you might guess, that leaves plenty of time to sit around doing other things. I have 3 applications in for research tech positions at the CU medical center and am working on others. Ross is working on making connections with people in the Mennonite agency world to see what that might offer.
So here is what a typical day looks like for us these days:
Morning, starting anytime from 7 to 10 a.m. - wake up, drink coffee, check the Internet to see what's happening in the world, figure out what we're doing today.
Noon-1 p.m. Lunch.
Afternoon - work on job searches/run errands/make meal plans/start cooking dinner/exercise
Evening - eat dinner, then watch TV on DVD. It's been The Office, Weeds, and Battlestar Galactica.
Around 11 - Go to sleep.
I was going to wait to post photos of the apartment until Jess moves in, as he will bring plenty of decor and we'll decide then how to decorate our barren walls, but I've had enough requests for pictures that I decided to go ahead and share them. We've pretty well settled in by now.
This view captures most of the common area of the apartment. I'm sitting in the far corner of the couch that you'll see in the next picture. On the right is the kitchen, and just out of the frame on the right is the door to Ross's and my room. In the upper left, near the lamp, you see a closet next to an open door. The open door is Jess's bathroom and across from it is the door to his room.
The living room seen from the entryway (L) and the bar stools in the kitchen (R).
Here's the kitchen. Over on the left there is our little "coffee station," which contains a coffee maker, French press, and espresso machine (thanks, Grandpa Leo, Aaron & Caitlin, and Aunt Sallie & Uncle Kenn!). It's a veritable coffee shop, although the espresso isn't as good as the professional stuff.
Finally, these two pictures are of Ross's and my room, which you can see is right off the kitchen. We like that it has a little hallway with a walk-in closet and bathroom all in the same suite.
So here is what a typical day looks like for us these days:
Morning, starting anytime from 7 to 10 a.m. - wake up, drink coffee, check the Internet to see what's happening in the world, figure out what we're doing today.
Noon-1 p.m. Lunch.
Afternoon - work on job searches/run errands/make meal plans/start cooking dinner/exercise
Evening - eat dinner, then watch TV on DVD. It's been The Office, Weeds, and Battlestar Galactica.
Around 11 - Go to sleep.
I was going to wait to post photos of the apartment until Jess moves in, as he will bring plenty of decor and we'll decide then how to decorate our barren walls, but I've had enough requests for pictures that I decided to go ahead and share them. We've pretty well settled in by now.
This view captures most of the common area of the apartment. I'm sitting in the far corner of the couch that you'll see in the next picture. On the right is the kitchen, and just out of the frame on the right is the door to Ross's and my room. In the upper left, near the lamp, you see a closet next to an open door. The open door is Jess's bathroom and across from it is the door to his room.
The living room seen from the entryway (L) and the bar stools in the kitchen (R).
Here's the kitchen. Over on the left there is our little "coffee station," which contains a coffee maker, French press, and espresso machine (thanks, Grandpa Leo, Aaron & Caitlin, and Aunt Sallie & Uncle Kenn!). It's a veritable coffee shop, although the espresso isn't as good as the professional stuff.
Finally, these two pictures are of Ross's and my room, which you can see is right off the kitchen. We like that it has a little hallway with a walk-in closet and bathroom all in the same suite.
10 July 2009
Honeymoon
Our honeymoon was short -- just three days in Keystone, CO. We moved into our apartment in Denver and then promptly left for another new and exciting place where all we had to do was hang out with each other, so both of us felt a little underwhelmed. But hey, we like the mountains, so it was nice to be there. We spent a fair amount of time on the internet, since our apartment was without internet. Apparently June is the offest of the off season for ski resorts, which meant a great deal on the condo and also not much officially-sponsored stuff to do. We wanted to go mountain biking on Keystone's ski trails, but that wasn't open yet. So we found places to go hiking. The Arapaho National Forest a few miles down the road made for an easy and picturesque hike. Not much else to say, so here are photos.
Obligatory posed photo with mountains in the background.
Ross was excited to find snow and promptly threw some at me.
It was nice to be in the mountains as water was flowing. The rivers and creeks were all flowing, as were lots of little impromptu springs like the ones in the road that produced this image:
Another sign of early summer in the mountains:
And finally, this was the view from our vacation condo's window in an early-evening storm. The light was amazing, and the photo didn't quite capture it but approximates it as well as can be expected from an untrained photographer with a point-and-shoot camera.
Obligatory posed photo with mountains in the background.
Ross was excited to find snow and promptly threw some at me.
It was nice to be in the mountains as water was flowing. The rivers and creeks were all flowing, as were lots of little impromptu springs like the ones in the road that produced this image:
Another sign of early summer in the mountains:
And finally, this was the view from our vacation condo's window in an early-evening storm. The light was amazing, and the photo didn't quite capture it but approximates it as well as can be expected from an untrained photographer with a point-and-shoot camera.
Our First Real Meal
Pretend that I posted this about three weeks ago. Our internet hasn't been working until last night, so it's time to play catch-up.
Since Ross and I don't have jobs yet, we have been cooking much more "real food" than I anticipate will be part of our lives in the near future. Case in point: Indian food. This was the first meal we cooked, so I documented. Cilla and Nance gave us the wonderfully thoughtful gift of a homemade cookbook of their favorite recipes, so we used the chicken tikka masala recipe from there.
Here's Ross checking the rice, only to discover that I had stirred it. Little did I know you aren't supposed to stir rice. But the slow cooker works very well as a rice cooker!
Here's the chicken tikka skewers. These things were spicy! We have a silly little electric grill on our balcony that came with the place.
Here I am cooking the masala sauce... mmm....
And here is the finished product! It was a little too spicy for us (especially me).
Since Ross and I don't have jobs yet, we have been cooking much more "real food" than I anticipate will be part of our lives in the near future. Case in point: Indian food. This was the first meal we cooked, so I documented. Cilla and Nance gave us the wonderfully thoughtful gift of a homemade cookbook of their favorite recipes, so we used the chicken tikka masala recipe from there.
Here's Ross checking the rice, only to discover that I had stirred it. Little did I know you aren't supposed to stir rice. But the slow cooker works very well as a rice cooker!
Here's the chicken tikka skewers. These things were spicy! We have a silly little electric grill on our balcony that came with the place.
Here I am cooking the masala sauce... mmm....
And here is the finished product! It was a little too spicy for us (especially me).
28 May 2009
House-hunting is exhausting
Ross and I are in Denver for the week, staying with his wonderful cousins Anna and Brian, who were kind enough to put us up (put up with us?) at their apartment. We're looking for a place to live.
We've checked out five places. Two were definite "no"s. One was two floors of a house that were hard to access and smelled weird. One was a house which had about three square feet of floor space in the kitchen and, though fairly clean, had decades of built-up living in it that just made it a little gross. The bathroom and kitchen really could use some remodeling.
We just came back from a row house that would be perfect for the two of us, but since we'll be living with Jess, it just wasn't big enough.
We did look at a house yesterday that we liked quite a bit. It was adorable, nice kitchen, had a great yard, and was decently located. The only drawback was really that it had only one bathroom.
BUT today we found the perfect place. It's a condo (yes, for rent) that's a 5-minute walk from the church we'll be attending, which is also where Anna and Brian live (yes, in the church -- they're the caretakers). It has two bathrooms and a nice kitchen and sufficient space for three people. It's in an AWESOME part of Denver -- easy access to an arts district and a park, across the street from a grocery store, and biking distance to downtown. And since it's a condo, it has free access to a fitness center and a pool.
The best part? It comes furnished for NO EXTRA CHARGE. We wouldn't have to rent a moving truck! Or buy furniture!
Let's hope we get it.
We've checked out five places. Two were definite "no"s. One was two floors of a house that were hard to access and smelled weird. One was a house which had about three square feet of floor space in the kitchen and, though fairly clean, had decades of built-up living in it that just made it a little gross. The bathroom and kitchen really could use some remodeling.
We just came back from a row house that would be perfect for the two of us, but since we'll be living with Jess, it just wasn't big enough.
We did look at a house yesterday that we liked quite a bit. It was adorable, nice kitchen, had a great yard, and was decently located. The only drawback was really that it had only one bathroom.
BUT today we found the perfect place. It's a condo (yes, for rent) that's a 5-minute walk from the church we'll be attending, which is also where Anna and Brian live (yes, in the church -- they're the caretakers). It has two bathrooms and a nice kitchen and sufficient space for three people. It's in an AWESOME part of Denver -- easy access to an arts district and a park, across the street from a grocery store, and biking distance to downtown. And since it's a condo, it has free access to a fitness center and a pool.
The best part? It comes furnished for NO EXTRA CHARGE. We wouldn't have to rent a moving truck! Or buy furniture!
Let's hope we get it.
16 April 2009
Heart
I got to see my heart yesterday. It was awesome.
I've been having some weird pressure and tightness and occasionally pain in my chest for a couple of weeks, and after a couple of pretty bad episodes on Saturday and Monday I decided I needed to go to the doctor about it. I think it's probably stress-related, and so does my doctor, but still, you don't mess around with chest pain. And if it's stress, the anxiety caused by having chest pain is certainly not helping it go away.
So yesterday I went to the doctor. They did an EKG and a cardiac ultrasound and gave me a 24-hour heart monitor (which was uncomfortable; I'm glad to have it off!). The ultrasound was pretty much the coolest thing ever. I'm a huge medical dork, but I'm a pretty healthy one and I haven't had an x-ray or CT scan since I was a baby, so I've never actually seen the inside of my body. So it was pretty fascinating to be looking at basically a cross-section of my heart.
This is not my heart, but it is an image I found on the internet from an adult cardiac ultrasound and looks pretty similar to what I was seeing:
I could see my heart beating, the mitral valve opening and closing really clearly and the tricuspid valve not quite so well. Whenever I took a deep breath, I could see my lungs come in from the sides and obscure the view. So cool!
I won't hear back if there's anything wrong with my heart for about a week. Like I said, there probably isn't, but you don't want to risk it when you're having symptoms that might indicate a problem. Also, I am not looking forward to the medical bills for this. The deductible is so high on my insurance that I'm sure I'll be paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket. ::sigh::
I've been having some weird pressure and tightness and occasionally pain in my chest for a couple of weeks, and after a couple of pretty bad episodes on Saturday and Monday I decided I needed to go to the doctor about it. I think it's probably stress-related, and so does my doctor, but still, you don't mess around with chest pain. And if it's stress, the anxiety caused by having chest pain is certainly not helping it go away.
So yesterday I went to the doctor. They did an EKG and a cardiac ultrasound and gave me a 24-hour heart monitor (which was uncomfortable; I'm glad to have it off!). The ultrasound was pretty much the coolest thing ever. I'm a huge medical dork, but I'm a pretty healthy one and I haven't had an x-ray or CT scan since I was a baby, so I've never actually seen the inside of my body. So it was pretty fascinating to be looking at basically a cross-section of my heart.
This is not my heart, but it is an image I found on the internet from an adult cardiac ultrasound and looks pretty similar to what I was seeing:
I could see my heart beating, the mitral valve opening and closing really clearly and the tricuspid valve not quite so well. Whenever I took a deep breath, I could see my lungs come in from the sides and obscure the view. So cool!
I won't hear back if there's anything wrong with my heart for about a week. Like I said, there probably isn't, but you don't want to risk it when you're having symptoms that might indicate a problem. Also, I am not looking forward to the medical bills for this. The deductible is so high on my insurance that I'm sure I'll be paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket. ::sigh::
30 March 2009
So close, yet so far
When all is said and done, I'm ready to graduate. I am ready to get married and to have my own space that isn't ugly cinder blocks, corporate carpet, and metal bathroom stalls and food that isn't so questionable (except I'm not really that interested in cooking, so I've come to appreciate the caf in its own mediocre way... at least there's a salad bar). I am out of motivation to study. My seminar is almost done and I can't bring myself to sit down and finish it because it doesn't have a deadline.
But I am sad about losing two things:
(One) the people. I have some close friends and a giant circle of acquaintances here, and I like that. I will not keep in touch with most of those people because I am terrible at keeping in touch in the first place, and I don't have truly significant relationships with most of them to maintain anyway. But I like the people here and I will miss the capability to strike up a conversation with an acquaintance on the way to class or at a meal, or to stop by someone's mod or office just to say hi. I foresee life beyond college being lonely in that way.
(Two) Liberal arts. As I've been applying to medical school and then looking for jobs, it is plainly and painfully obvious to me that I will not have electives in my life. I am a huge nerd and love classes. I am pretty much the poster child for general education requirements -- I adored them. I minored in Bible & Religion because of Intro to Biblical Studies. I loved Gender in American History and Media Analysis even though they were lots of work and not required for my major or minor. I even liked P.E. activity classes. It is killing me that pre-med coursework took so much time and I didn't get to take all the electives I wanted to. And I took at least 16 credit hours every semester except this year (I was at 14.5 and 15.5 and didn't want to overload.)
Not getting accepted to medical school this year is already turning out to be a blessing. I'm glad I get (at least) a year off from school. College has been exhausting. So rewarding, but so exhausting. For the first time in my life, I've actually had to study, and at times I've been average or worse. I've stretched myself thin with too many activities and not enough sleep. I've forced my brain into overdrive for four straight years.
I have sharpened my ability to think, to question, to analyze, to manage, to consider, to listen. But I feel acutely this semester how draining the past four years have been. I find myself grasping for words all the time. I can't commit entire botany lectures to memory like I could zoology lectures. I don't remember the content in texts I read earlier in the day, and I am slow to produce answers, even when I know them. I feel like I have lost intelligence, but I think I'm just tired.
But I am sad about losing two things:
(One) the people. I have some close friends and a giant circle of acquaintances here, and I like that. I will not keep in touch with most of those people because I am terrible at keeping in touch in the first place, and I don't have truly significant relationships with most of them to maintain anyway. But I like the people here and I will miss the capability to strike up a conversation with an acquaintance on the way to class or at a meal, or to stop by someone's mod or office just to say hi. I foresee life beyond college being lonely in that way.
(Two) Liberal arts. As I've been applying to medical school and then looking for jobs, it is plainly and painfully obvious to me that I will not have electives in my life. I am a huge nerd and love classes. I am pretty much the poster child for general education requirements -- I adored them. I minored in Bible & Religion because of Intro to Biblical Studies. I loved Gender in American History and Media Analysis even though they were lots of work and not required for my major or minor. I even liked P.E. activity classes. It is killing me that pre-med coursework took so much time and I didn't get to take all the electives I wanted to. And I took at least 16 credit hours every semester except this year (I was at 14.5 and 15.5 and didn't want to overload.)
Not getting accepted to medical school this year is already turning out to be a blessing. I'm glad I get (at least) a year off from school. College has been exhausting. So rewarding, but so exhausting. For the first time in my life, I've actually had to study, and at times I've been average or worse. I've stretched myself thin with too many activities and not enough sleep. I've forced my brain into overdrive for four straight years.
I have sharpened my ability to think, to question, to analyze, to manage, to consider, to listen. But I feel acutely this semester how draining the past four years have been. I find myself grasping for words all the time. I can't commit entire botany lectures to memory like I could zoology lectures. I don't remember the content in texts I read earlier in the day, and I am slow to produce answers, even when I know them. I feel like I have lost intelligence, but I think I'm just tired.
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