bull city, here we come!

I'm pretty sure this terrible phone picture was taken on Aaron's very first day of residency. Look at that cute physician tag on his ID and his sweet, optimistic face! It's been a long 2.5 years since, full of demoralizing weeks and terrible hours (my thoughts on medical training: it's legal hazing), and we can't wait for it to be over. And now we know where we'll be going when it finally ends:

NORTH CAROLINA! 

He's going to be a Duke Blue Devil!

We are psyched at the prospect of affordable housing, lots of job opportunities for yours truly, and the possibility of having a dog. See you in June, NC!

on love and fear

*

Following this exchange, Aaron came outside and severely disabled the menacing grasshopper that was blocking my path to the front door. (I have a phobia....yes, STILL.)

What would I do without him? I'll tell you, I'd wander aimlessly around Philadelphia until the grasshopper found another porch to stake out. Could be days. Maybe I'd have to sleep at a friend's house. Or stay indefinitely in lab. Fulfill my dreams of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler'ing in one of Philly's many lovely museums. The possibilities would be endless, except for entering my house, of course.

So it's a good thing I'm married to him! Grasshopper gladiator = my one true love.

*I realize that's the wrong it's in the top message, and I'm missing a lot of commas. I blame my terrorized state. 

night float

I stay up as late as possible, reading until I can't keep my eyes open anymore.
That way, I minimize time spent alone in the dark lying awake in bed, freaking out about every creak and imagined burglar. After finally falling asleep (sometimes with the light on), I get up at 6:30 AM so I can shower before Aaron gets home just after 7:00 AM. We meet in the kitchen. He asks me about my day, I ask him about his night. I run through my list of things I wanted to tell him but couldn't because he was asleep when they happened (picked up that Amazon package! did you see that link on Facebook? guess what crazy thing my labmate said yesterday!). Opening the fridge, I point out the leftover dinner I made that he will eat, 20 hours off from me. While he puts on an eye mask and climbs into bed, I pull on my backpack and walk to school. Later, he'll get to the hospital before I leave to come home, make dinner only one of us will eat fresh, and read. Lather, rinse, repeat. Two weeks.

Not exactly ideal circumstances for Valentine's Day, but it reminds me how much I love Aaron and how much better life is when we get to hang out for longer than 30 minutes a day. Last night was number 14, so 'til next time, night float.

Can't for next time to be non-existent.

"this shall keep me safe from the hot mexican sun"

-me, referring to my SPF 50 sunscreen that I applied religiously

and also -Buster Bluth

A few weeks ago, Aaron and I took a graduation celebration vacation to Playa del Carmen in Mexico. It was the perfect opportunity to relax and do something fun before the monster that is residency began. 

Let's start with cenotes. Cenotes are giant sinkholes found throughout the Yucatan Peninsula caused by limestone dissolving in the earth. They make for awesome places to do my new favorite activity: SNORKEL. We swam in three different cenotes, two of which were underground, full of bats, and super cool (literally and figuratively). The other one was above ground and had the clearest water I have ever seen.

Underground cenote + Aaron's arm I'm too lazy to crop out. This was connected to several other cenote chambers that we snorkeled through. Not pictured, but also cool: there were a lot of long tree roots hanging in the middle of the cavern, growing toward the water from above the ground. 

Ultra clear water cenote + my blindingly white skin

So, let's talk about snorkeling. When I was younger, I was terrified of swimming in any natural body of water. I think it was mostly because I couldn't see what was under there and having some random plant or heaven-forbid fish brush up against me was horrifying. Guess what fixes that! Swimming in clear water with a snorkel mask! Having eliminated fear of the unknown, snorkeling was so much fun. We got to swim with turtles in the ocean twice. We also saw a couple of stingrays, a lion fish (!!!), lots of tropical fish whose names I no longer remember, and coral reefs. 

You know what is really hard? Taking pictures of fish. National Geographic photographers, I salute you. 

We went to two different Mayan sites, Tulum and Chichen (UGH I keep typing Chicken) Itza. Tulum is right on the ocean, and if I were a Maya, that is definitely where I'd want to have lived because it is gorgeous. 

Wouldn't you want to live in that stone hut? Iguanas could be your best friends! We saw a million of them here. 

Chichen Itza is further inland and is more restored than Tulum. It's actually a pretty big site.  I was expecting just to see the one iconic Wonder of the World pyramid, but there are a lot of other stone buildings and a huge ball court. Fun fact: the Mayans never used a keystone arch, so they had to use a ton of pillars in any large building to hold up the ceiling. 

skullz

While in Chichen Itza we overheard a tour guide throwing around the names "Nephi" "Lehi" "Lamanites" and we were like....MORMONS?! We had found the Book of Mormon Mexico tour group! Whenever I run into Mormons outside of church, it takes a lot of self-control for me to not be like "I'M A MORMON TOO! ISN'T IT CRAZY WE RAN INTO EACH OTHER IN THE WILD?!" I held back the urge this time though, and we continued on our heathen tour, learning about virgin sacrifices. 

I also wanted to record for posterity that we ate a lot of tacos and guacamole all over the place, and it was so good. Also, there was a little Venezuelan restaurant next door to our hotel, and that was also so delicious we went twice. Couldn't get enough of the kaxapas and arepas! 

Huge thank you to Wendy for loaning us the underwater camera so we could actually take pictures! If it weren't for that, all we'd have to document this trip would be a single photo of a taco on my phone (though maybe you'd prefer that after scrolling through this post). Yay vacation! Yay snorkeling! Yay tacos! 

look what aaron did!

Apparently, this is what it takes these days to break me out of my blogging absence: you have to graduate number one in your med school class at a top 5 med school in the country! I mean, it's a pretty low bar. 

Aaron's parents came in town to celebrate, and we took a quick trip to New York, since they've done most of the Philly touristy stuff already. We took a food tour of Greenwich Village (which is kind of dorky but it was my favorite part of the whole trip), saw Aladdin on Broadway, ate a delicious steak dinner, went to the Met, and got a cronut. Here is an example of why Wendy is the best mother-in-law ever: she trekked all the way down to SoHo and waited in line with me for almost two hours for a freaking croissant-donut. She is awesome! 

I am so proud of Aaron for this accomplishment. No one knows better than me how hard he worked for this, and it's really exciting to see that recognized. Soooo many nights and weekends of studying and looking up papers and preparing patient presentations. And it's finally over!* He did it! He's a doctor!!!!!! 

*Minus the three more years of residency, followed by 4 years of fellowship before he will actually be a practicing physician. SEVEN MORE YEARS. I try not to think about that too much. Remind me to let you know what I think when people complain about doctors making too much money. 

more tall candles

Sorry the last post was kind of a bummer. I am really grateful for everyone's texts/cards/facebook messages/calls, etc., and I didn't mean to minimize that! I love hearing from everyone on my birthday. And I still had the birthday cards displayed on my bookcase until last night, when I replaced them with Aaron's birthday cards because he turned 27 yesterday!

Aaron made his own birthday cake and frosting this year. It was the same cake and frosting for my birthday that we just can't get enough of (recipe here, we subbed water for coffee and it is still insanely chocolatey goodness). We also ordered Chinese takeout, watched a bunch of episodes of "Chuck", and Aaron worked on his puzzle. You can count on us for a wild night.

With spring weather finally FINALLY here, a quick trip to Utah planned for my grandpa's wedding, and dissertation committee meetings (me) and board exams (Aaron) out of the way, life is looking up. This winter was really hard, and though not a ton has fundamentally changed, I feel better about things. Amazing what 60 degree weather can do for you.

Enjoy your weekend!

aaron is no longer on anyone's insurance but his own

It was Aaron's birthday last week. We made a pork wellington and chocolate cake with mint frosting to celebrate. Also, 20 balloons (and the birthday sign I made last year):

sorry, really blurry!

Do you like his black socks? He has to wear a shirt and tie every day when he's seeing patients, and then he doesn't change his socks when he comes home and changes into normal clothes.

sorry, weird cropping?

Aaron made it to 26 years old. More than a quarter of a century! I think that's a pretty good accomplishment. 

march madness commercials are pretty great

Aaron finished his shelf exams yesterday, and we are so happy. It's been an absolutely lovely Saturday with those out of the way. Today we cleaned the church, cleaned our shower (East Coast mold is the worst), went grocery shopping, bought shoes for Aaron, got bagels at Spread (so good-you should have one), and watched a lot of basketball.

Tonight we will keep "watching" basketball and also make risotto. I have watching in quotes because I will actually be working on preparing for my candidacy exam/getting distracted by pinterest. Speaking of basketball, though, I'm really proud of the fact that I'm currently winning the Elder's Quorum bracket. Especially because it's the first time I remember filling one out. YEAH TAKE THAT BOYS.

Also...go Duke!

The end.

this started out as a youtube share and morphed into a full life update

I can't stop listening to these songs.

"Heartbeat" by The New Electric Sound

warning: shirtless man!

Probably because it would make a great (maybe a tad slow?) cha-cha. 

"Suitcase"

Sad that I get into the Provo music scene a year and a half after moving away from Provo. Alas!

Unrelated, but sadly funny (maybe ironic? I'm afraid to label things as ironic): the $100 iTunes giftcard I got when I bought my MacBook a year and a half ago lasted longer than the computer itself. I guess it had had enough after I fell down the stairs with it, and Aaron spilled a full cup of Crystal Light on it. RIP pretty MacBook. 

It's not the end of the world though, because Aaron doesn't really need his laptop anymore, so we stuck my harddrive in it, and now here I am, typing away!

In other news, Aaron is working in the hospital full-time now, and he is doing fantastically. He's there from 7 AM to 7 PM most days lately (weekends too, ugh), and then comes home and studies until midnight-ish. This was not an easy adjustment...but I think we're getting better at it. And by that I mean, I've stopped crying myself to sleep over feeling lonely and freaked out about how much worse residency will be. Woo! Plus, I stay longer on campus and get more done, which is good considering...

...I have my candidacy exam coming up in March, and this determines whether I will be allowed to continue pursuing my PhD. I have to write up a paper giving background on my project, explaining what I've accomplished since I started working in the lab, and telling what future plans I have for my project. I also have to put together a presentation with basically the same information, present it to a committee of 3 professors, and then field tricky questions from them. Ah. AH.

Also in March, Aaron takes his first shelf exam. Guess how much we're looking forward to that month!

too many scan cycles

A conversation between me and Aaron, just after I'd woken up, having fallen asleep at 9 PM on the couch:

Me (very confused and somewhat angry): Ugh, my neck hurts from sleeping on it for 800 scan cycles.
Aaron: What the heck are you talking about?
Me: I don't understand why you don't understand! A scan cycle!
Aaron: Umm...?
Me: You know, like waiting for it to scan 1 nanometer at a time!
Aaron: You sound like a crazy person right now.
Me (now very angry): Whatever, I'm going to bed.

What can we learn from this?
A. I hate waking up at 11:30 at night. Or actually, I should say that I hate waking up from naps, regardless of when they occur.
B. Apparently I have been using the CD spectrometer too much, because I know that was what I was thinking about when I decided to start using scan cycles as a unit of time (much to Aaron's bewilderment).

(Does this make me a good grad student now? Maybe I can be less stressed about not being stressed enough because science has infiltrated my just-barely-consciousness!)

2012, found in a poem

"The Suitor" by Jane Kenyon

We lie back to back. Curtains
lift and fall,
like the chest of someone sleeping.
Wind moves the leaves of the box elder;
they show their light undersides,
turning all at once
like a school of fish.
Suddenly I understand that I am happy.
For months this feeling
has been coming closer, stopping
for short visits, like a timid suitor.

2012 started out really rough. I remember sobbing in the library multiple times thinking about all the horrors of December 2011. I finally experienced the reality that terrible things happen to good people through Aaron's family and tragedies of close friends, and it shocked me how much it hurt. I think I'm still trying to reconcile myself to that truth. Slowly, though, things have gotten better. "For months this feeling has been coming closer," and 2012 ended up better than expected. Remarkably so, I'd say. We went on fun trips: DC, New York, the Grand Canyon, beach in North Carolina, my lovely Utah. We got busy with school: Aaron finished up the last of his sit-in-a-classroom-all-day-classes, and I started researching full time. We got a new niece: who is unbelievably adorable and beautiful and we love her. And we love Philly and we love each other and 2012 was all right by me.

"Suddenly I understand that I am happy."

I hope that 2013 brings us all happiness, too.

two years ago today

We got married. And hey, guess what. We still like each other quite a lot.

Happy anniversary, Aaron dear!

aaron made ricotta against my wishes

Last week I came home to Aaron standing over the stove. I thought he was making something delicious for dinner until I noticed the paper towel-lined strainer next to him.

Ricotta!

I don't know why homemade dairy products gross me out so much, but they do. Homemade yogurt-ick. Homemade mozarella-also ick. Homemade ice cream-exception. The idea of heating up milk and cream and then curdling it and collecting the curdled milk/cream is pretty disgusting. I should probably mention that I don't drink milk because I also find it disgusting, so you know, this opinion might be a little tainted by that small fact. Anyway, when Aaron had told me he wanted to make homemade ricotta a few days prior, I said no way. But once Aaron has an idea fixed in his head it's pretty hard to dissuade him, so there he was in the kitchen, bringing milk and cream to a rolling boil three days later.

It took a substantial amount of persuading to get me to eat said curdled milk masquerading in the form of ricotta cheese, but it was actually delicious. And way cheaper than what we paid for ricotta at the grocery store, never mind what we paid for it at DiBruno Bros. For all that, I'm still grossed out by the process, so I shall leave all future ricotta making to Aaron.
We're even though, because I make all the chocolate chip cookies.

one more for june

This morning Aaron and I went and picked our own blueberries and peaches. It was a blast. Got any good recipes for either fruit? I can freeze blueberries, but there are 30 peaches sitting on my counter that need to be eaten...

But I bet Aaron's family can help us finish them off since their flight gets in tonight!
PARTY!!

hb

Tomorrow is Aaron's birthday, and I had all these plans to have an awesome grilled steak dinner and make banana cream pie, but then I found out I have to grade the final for the gen chem class I TA tomorrow afternoon. Last semester we didn't finish until 10:30 PM, and I have no hopes this semester will be any different. So, we had a mini celebration tonight instead, featuring grilled chicken and corn on the cob and early birthday cake.

Aaron loves it when I take his picture.

The spacing's a little off, but I didn't misspell anything! Win!

Twenty-five years old on the 25th of April, how about that?

Happy birthday darling!

(you can wish him a happy birthday too, if you like, on his blog!)

more from the graham canyon (have been craving that ice cream for a week now)

I don't really have anything to say so here's an award winning haiku written by Becky and two more Grand Canyon photos.

I'm double stuffed

Cause I ate an Oreo

Stretchy pants today

Sunset at the Grand Canyon is epic (especially in vivid color!)

Aaron came up with the concept for this picture: "The Girl Who Kicked the Hermit's Rest."

(get it, get it? Aaron calls that book series "The Girl Who Did Dangerous Things," which I find pretty amusing. also, ignore my large thighs.)

While we're talking about anything in this post, have you guys heard that there's an official air date for Legend of Korra? April 14th everyone. April 14th. I'm going to have to use all my internet skills to find it online since we are still lacking in cable, which is fine since we just Hulu everything anyway. I wonder if Nickelodeon shows are on Hulu? 

I must investigate. 

an average morning in philly

A series of text messages I received from Aaron this morning:

7:45 Dude the south street bridge is gone! it fell in the river!
7:46 I am swimming across the river!
7:47 I got my hair wet!
7:49 Zombies! they did this!
7:50 It is cloudy! i cannot use the solar power to defeat them!
7:53 Falcon punch!
7:55 I made it to class! until next time zombies!

That boy.
As my grandma would say, "What a character!"

xo

Here is a little known fact about Aaron:

He loves puzzles.

When we were first dating we put together the bottom puzzle (3,000 pieces). After moving to Philly last summer and not having a ton going on we did the top puzzle (4,000 3,000 pieces as Aaron pointed out the box in the picture says). It's currently on our wall in our study. Over the break Aaron's parents got two 1,000 piece puzzles for Christmas, which we did, along with the 1,000 piece puzzle of the Sistine Chapel they brought back from Europe. Figuring out which pinky-peach angel skin went with which angel was freaking hard. This summer, Aaron plans on buying a 5,000 piece puzzle of some sort of Roman scene. We'll hang that one on the wall too. 

Here is another little known fact about Aaron: one time he watched Fiddler on the Roof on youtube in 15 minute clips. The entire three hours. I'm still not really sure why.

Sometimes, I just have no idea what he's going to do next. Being married to him makes life pretty darn exciting, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Love you A Sauce. Happy [late ] Valentine's Day everyone!

(please excuse inconsistencies in photo sizes...was playing around with blogger and then got bored and gave up.)

on goldfish and apple jacks

I bought one of those giant things of goldfish crackers at Target last weekend with three huge packs of fishys, and we have already eaten 2 of them. That dang box was supposed to last us a month! The same thing always seems to happen with cereal, too. I'll buy 4 boxes when it's on sale, and we'll go through them in a week and a half. I don't know how we'll ever be able to afford to feed anyone but ourselves.

Moral of the story: buying things in bulk is not actually cheaper for us. We just consume more food in the same amount of time. I would be frustrated, but, I really like goldfish.

one reason to celebrate:

A year ago today I married my best friend, and what a year it has been.
I love you Aaron!