A little update

My parents and I spent 5 days at a conference center located just outside of Windhoek that had no internet capabilities, therefore I wasn't able to send my weekly update. The conference center is run by an Austrian, now Namibian, with a beer belly and no capability of buttoning his shirt completely. We were there for an annual conference for African Inland Missions of Namibia. There are about 25 missionaries in the country of Namibia that are with the same organization that my parents are here with. Those 25 couples/individuals represent the States, Cananda, Germany, the UK, and Scotland. Within those 25 couples/individuals are 25 children... Missionaries do know how to raise up families! Of those 25 children that we spent 5 days with, 3 little boys were from Scotland, and I was ready to take them all home with me, however their parents were attached to them pretty well. Children with little accents are cute. One little girl, Erin, who has an adorable British accent, started crying because she "can't get my pants over my tubby bottom".

Poverty, no matter what form it is in, is disheartening to see, but so much more in children than adults. While making rounds with my dad at the local hospital, I met a little 10-yr-old boy David. David had been brought to the hospital by his 18-yr-old brother who was desperate for help. David, and his 11 siblings, were left home alone for days on end as their parents went back to the farm where their extended family lives, and David had no food to eat for 5 days. David's parents are part of a particular tribe in Namibia that have no qualms about leaving their children. David also had a fungal infection on his head that left open sores on his head. I met another boy named Vernon. Vernon had idiopathic esinophilia. A disease in which his white blood cells attack his body for no reason. I met Vernon on a Friday and his grandmother was the only family member there. Katatura hospital, where my dad primarily works, is the last resort for children in the country. It is common for children as young 4 years of age to be put on a bus from their local village and will travel alone for hours on end to get to the hopsital for treatment. To Westerners, this may seem appaling, however many parents have children to care for, farms to run, and jobs to continue in order to put a meager amount of food on the table for the remaining children at home. They call it survival. I met Vernon on a Friday, and by Monday he had succomb to the disease. Even in the States, the disease has a greater than 95% fatality rate. My dad has had to become accustomed to 6 or 7 children dying a week. I still think its difficult for him, even though this has been his reality for more than 9 months.

In other news... despite it being the middle of the dry season, there are still bougainvilleae every where, beautiful, and the clumps of them look like velvet. Its pretty common for fires to break out around town in the fields, but all the homes are made of cement, so no one really gets too excited. Maybe the one fire station in town will respond.... maybe not... :)

I have 2 more weeks here, and I hope to spend some one on one time with my parents. Part of their ministry over here is to host people in their small flat. Currently the front door is a sliding glass door, but I really think a revolving door is more appropriate.

American Football season is starting and I'm ready to get back to the states to watch it! We have a lot of cricket, rugby, soccer, and Australian Rules Rugby. If you ever get a chance, check out Australian Rules Rugby. Very cool. Very rough.

That's all for now. Take care. Eat some Mexican food for me. :)

a change would do you good

When I was 18, about one week post high school graduation, I cut all my hair off. Literally, my hair was about 1.5 inches long at its shortest. I was excited to do it and even though I decided to grow it back out a week after I did it, I was glad I tried it.

Today, I did something equally as drastic and I was nervous through a lot of the 3 hours it took to do it... Yes, 3 hours. Things in Africa can sometimes take a little longer than in the states... and let's be honest: I have a lot of hair. As I was sitting in the chair, watching my hair transform before my eyes, I wondered why the change was so much harder 9.5 years later.

Change is a lot harder as we get older. The less change that happens, the harder it is to deal with when it does happen. AND it will happen.

So, changing yourself every now and then, even if its a small change, is good practice for when the big changes happen.

So, here's to change!

sleep can be good

Last night, I crawled into bed at 7pm to take a "nap". This morning I woke up at 8am. Longest nap ever! I was pretty tired, to say the least. Having company can take a lot our of you. it wasn't the best sleep ever though because I dreamt a lot. Vivid, weird dreams about giving palative care to my local weatherman as he died. so weird, I know.

How do you show a person a good time in Boston? You give them the full Boston experience of course: Newbury Street, Beacon Hill, Regina's Pizza, and a good 'ole fashion towing of their car. Yep, a friend came to visit me and I got their car towed!! Apparently I have a gift of getting cars towed.

Well, it's another rainy day in Boston, and I have to go into work to catch up on some paperwork. Work conditions at MGH don't allow for leaving on time because you have company. Have a fun Saturday!

Let's start with the crappy things about Boston:



1. Bostonians "celebrating" the World Series Win via vandalizing our car... Apparently some Bostonians think that cars only need one side view mirror. NOT COOL!



2. Not having any friends... I'm meeting people at City Life but I just haven't met anybody yet that I click with. I work with some really great people, but all of them have families/signifcant others and not a whole lot of hangout time.



3. Our car getting towed for a 2nd time. 'nough said.



Good things about Boston:



1. Using the subway to get around everywhere. It's great, I don't get stressed out commuting in a car in a car every morning and I can sleep on the way!



2. It's cold here now! I lovvvee the cold. And this weekend I made a serious investment in a Marmot Gore-tex jacket. I know all about Gore-tex and layering now. I went to this really nice outdoor/wildnerness store and I got the saleslady to give me a tutoring lesson on what gore-tex is and how you dress with it. I really had no idea how to dress for cold weather before moving up here.



3. My job. I love my job. Even though I'm working 50-60 hours a week currently because I'm super-slow at the paperwork, I know that part will definitely get better.



4. Uburger. I go there once a week for my share of a delicous hamburger, fantastic fries, and it doesn't hurt that the 2 Greek owners are pretty cute.

5. City LIfe Church. Great Worship, Great Teaching, I'm so glad God directed me there.

6. Our apartment. I'm still so thankful to God for directing us to this fantastic apartment. I love it!

That's all for now. Much love from the far Northeastern Country -- Em

God is good

A-mazing. God is Amazing. One week after I lost my cell phone and three hours after I ordered my new phone, at the Holy Spirit's prodding, I call the J.Crew store for the third time. They had my phone!!!! I called them the day I lost my phone, the day after I lost my phone AND I left them my name and home phone, just in case they found it. I never got a call, I thought all hope was lost. Fortunately the Creator and Sustainer of my hope kept it alive.

In other news, I made it through a week of work. I've now realized there are some skills I'm lacking that would make my job infinitely easier. I need to be able to speak: Russian, French, Spanish, and whatever Indian dialect my last evaluation spoke. It's pretty frustrating. We are given one hour to get a history from a patient, perform a physical exam, and give them some sort of appropriate intervention. In a patient who speaks perfect English and doesn't ask too many questions, 60 minutes is the perfect amount of time. Unfortunately, only about half of my new patients speak English. Seriously folks, if you have a difficult time understanding conversational English, you should not tell the secretary who schedules the interpreters that you don't freakin' need one!!! Sorry, maybe I'm being a bit extreme. The thing is, when this happens it makes me want to pull my hair out!

Riding on the train is always a fun experience. Recently it's been especially interesting. On Friday nights the trains suddenly transform into a party bus for all those under the age of 32. Last night riding home the train was packed with people all ready to get smashed and do a lot of things they'd regret later...er, i mean, have fun! Anyways, there was one guy who was standing against the doors with a look of angst on his face that only love gone wrong could cause. My suspicions of his current emotional state was confirmed when he started singing very loudly "And she willlllllll be looo-vvedd, and she will be lovved" I really thought Simon Cowell was about to come out of the throng of people to tell this guy he sucks. Unfortunately, we all soon realized this guy was serious. Needless to say I was so glad to see my stop.

Okay, gotta go get my hair cut, for what I'm hoping will be a good price. And not a bad cut.

WARNING: Venting Session Ahead!

So, interesting how just today, twice in fact, I (as professionally as I could) explained to several of my patients how our bodies react just like our emotions due when we are under stress. You take a person in an already stressful state, add to that 1 tiny thing that goes wrong and all of a sudden *KABOOM* That person totally blows up completely stressed out, crying, etc.... (Note: it was at this point of the conversation that my "professional" talk wasn't so professional as I back-pedaled to explain that their arm wouldn't actually blow up....)

So, I'm in the middle of my 5th week of work. I have a good number of patients with at least one new evaluation today. On top of that the clinical specialists (i.e. the really smart PTs who have been working for 20+years) meet with me on a daily basis to discuss how my patient treatments are going, my rational for treatments and I use them as a sounding board and they give me feedback. It's really a great set-up. Except right now my brain is a little overwhelmed with all these thoughts of how I'm going to treat Patient A, and I need to e-mail Dr. Soandso, and What is going on with Patient B, and holy crap I've got to treat that patient tomorrow with a clinical specialist and I have no idea what to do with them!!! so all this to say, I'm a little stressed out. Enjoying work, but stressed. No big deal. Well, this past week, Satan has tried to shut the system down by throwing some wrenches in.
On Saturday, I lost my cell phone:
The cell phone that I just had to buy in July at full price because my contract wasn't up yet.
My cell phone that is my only link to all my support system back in Texas.
My cell phone that has all my bill due dates programmed in to give me reminders.
Oh..yeah. that cell phone. I think I lost it on the T, because no one has used it, and before the battery died it would just ring. (which is what it does when you're on the T, because there is no service). So Tuesday afternoon, when i'm supposed to be off work at 3:30, I left at 3pm, spent an hour riding out to the end of the T line, (where i was told to go) only to be informed that "no, that silver cell phone we found was not yours, somone else came and picked it up)... suck. So I head back to work, an hour and a half totally wasted, it's now almost 5pm and I still have two hours of paperwork, filing, billing etc to do. And I got to work at 6:30 that morning....

Other wrench that was just thrown in tonight:
There is a street behind our house where we can park. On one side of the street we can park there all the time except (apparently) for the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month. The other side of the street we can park for free from 8pm to 6am because we have a resident sticker, but from 6am to 8pm we have to pay the meter. And the meter only accepts money for two hour time blocks. So, where in the world do we park our car every 1st and 3rd Wednesday when we are at work and school all day?!? So, I, unknowingly, parked the car on the wrong side of the street and it was towed. Towed, meaning I have to find a ride, out to a suburb of Boston, pay a ridiculous amount of money to get the car back (though I will say it's a blessing that it wasn't more because it was a private towing service) and spend all the time it will take to do that, probably at least 2+hours. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

And now, it's 11pm, I have to leave for work in 7 hours and I just wasted all your time as you read this. Thank goodness it's almost the weekend, I'm running out of funny.

The Green MOnstah

Work this week was full of more 10 and 12 hour days. I'm learning to appreciate the weekends even more. Tuesday it rained all day and I was forced to break down and purchase my first ever umbrella. Yep, first ever. yeah, it does rain in Lubbock, but you drive every where and just run through the rain from door to door. You can't do that here in Boston. I walk about a total of 20 to 30 minutes at least every day. I know that doesn't sound like very much, but when was the last time you walked outside for 20 minutes that wasn't for exercise?

So, I went to CVS and purchased a black, inexpensive umbrella. I quickly learned some important facts about umbrellas:

1. Every other person in Boston owns a BLACK umbrella. Sure glad I picked an original color...

2. It took a total of 2 seconds of walking in the wind for my umbrella to turn completely inside out. stink.

3. There's such a thing as "umbrella etiquette". There are a lot of people in Boston and walking on the sidewalk is usually a crowded experience. Carrying umbrellas adds about 2 feet to your width. So when you're walking with umbrellas and walking past someone you either lift your umbrella up or pull it way down, so they don't hit. I'm still working on my coordination, but no one's lost an eye yet.

I went to my first REd Sox game the other night. It wasn't a huge game, but it was a lot of fun! I totally stood up with the crowd to sing "Sweet Caroline" in the middle of the eighth, made a game of trying to talk to the not-so-friendly New Englander next to me (she totally said 2 whole sentences to me by the end of the 8th! We're so bff), and I tried order funnel cake when it was called "fried bread". Note: Fried Bread and Funnel cakes are NOT even close to the same thing. Fried Bread is gross, and leaves you feeling like you ate a ten-pound dumbbell. This is me, sad because we lost the game, but even sadder that I ate some of that fried bread.

And then, the weirdest thing happened. I don't know if you're familiar with "Kidd Kraddick in the morning" but I used to listen to him all the time on the way to school. And they had this "intern" on there named Adolpho. Interesting character, that Adolpho. Long story short, Rich Shirtenlieb, the funniest guy on there, moved to Boston to do radio up here and brought Adolpho with him. Well guess who I spotted while I was leaving the Red Sox Game? You guessed it, Adolpho!! And I was soo excited to see a fellow Texan and someone not-really-famous-but-more-well-known-than-me, that I went up to him and started talking really fast, and then Ashley got her camera out, and this was the result:

He's kind of like a Hispanic Chucky doll if you look close. And the guy that took our picture was either a)drunk b)on drugs or c)both. And he totally left us feeling violated... I won't go into that story, but I'm glad Ashley was with me and glad I had my mace..

Well, I have another long work week ahead of me, another week of totally relying on God's Grace and Wisdom to get me through.

Much love to all my friends and family, I miss ya'll a lot this week.

Moral conundrum

okay, well apparently being a working woman is time-consuming. I got home for work at 8pm tonight and I have to be at work tomorrow at 7am. Monday nights just kind of suck. So, since I have to be at work in T-minus 10 hours or so I can't do a long post.

In other news....I love Boston. It's fabulous. I love it, super-fun, super-easy to get around, I walk pretty much everywhere. I love it!

The Highs and Lows

How do you bring joy and laughter to the world if you’re me? Apparently by attempting average-athletic endeavors and failing miserably at them (and eventually falling on your rear). But I digress. Since I have been absent from the blogging world for the past couple months, I’ll give you a quick update.

May 19-Graduated
July 2-Passed the National Physical Therapy Exam, on the first try!!!
July 27 – Received a call from a great Boston Hospital offering me a job as a staff physical therapist!!

So, I applied for this job, not even expecting to get an interview because the ad was calling for PTs with at least 3 years of experience… My years of experience? A big fat ZERO!! So they called me for an interview and I went, and I was very nervous and very sweaty! I took the train and had to walk a couple of blocks to get there, in heels, which, by the way one of my heels got stuck in a crack in the brick sidewalks and I walked right out of my shoe! It would have been hilarious had I not been on my way to a very important job interview. Long story short, by the absolute Hand of God, they offered me the job! Not only that, but I had been praying that whatever job I got they would pay for all my moving expenses. The estimated moving cost? $3092. Their moving reimbursement? $3000. God is definitely good.

Last weekend, my best friend got married. It’s still surreal at this point. Really no words to describe how wonderful it was to witness the blessed event.

I’ve been in Boston since Sunday night, Graham and I are camping out and our stuff comes tomorrow. Woo hoo!! I already have several fabulous Boston stories to tell, one at a time though.

So, yesterday after walking all over Boston with Lex and Graham we ended up at Graham’s school. As we were walking around the campus, there was this pole, about 4 feet high or so. Both Graham and Lex “leap-frogged” over it, then I decided I wanted to take some pictures of them doing so.

After this I decided that I really wanted to try it myself. So Graham and Lex both patiently explained how to do it. And I attempted my first try: didn’t even make it off the ground! Again and again I tried, and it was like there was this invisible wall that was preventing me from hoisting myself off the ground. Then this guy walked by and Lex says to him “Look Emily, even this guy can do it, it’s so easy” so this guy proceeds to hop it himself, then gives Lex a high five and walks away grinning. 34th attempt: I get my feet off the ground, but I just hang there with my hands on the pole. I walk back, getting ready to try it again, and this different guy comes running up, leap-frogs it with just one hand, and runs off grinning. I try again, and again. No luck. This third guy comes walking up watching and says “Hey, you can do it! Let’s see it!” So, under the encouragement of a cute guy, I attempt again, hoisting myself up on the pole and instead of going over, I swing around it in a weird pole-dance-move and end up flat on my butt. All three guys are laughing so hard at this point, they can’t breathe. Yeah, even the stranger. Smooth Em, real smooth. The stranger walks off laughing, looking back as I attempt it again, and fail again. I try two more times, two more failures. (Lex informs me at this point that the stranger had been watching to see if I made it, and he finally walked off laughing) I go again, almost making it, but still not all the way over. Up walks this short, but somewhat muscular girl. Lex shouts out at her, “Hey Emily, I bet she can even do it!” So at this, the girl, who is shorter than me, leap frogs over it! I’m determined at this point. I have to do it!! Another failure. Then, this lady walks out of the building we are adjacent to, laughing as she watches me attempt two more tries and tells me I should stay close to the hospital.

Graham and Lex are still laughing so hard, not being able to breathe. Finally, despite many failures, and Graham and Lex telling me to move on, I make it. Not once, but twice! Whew. Also, that lady, Lex tells me, watched me fall on the ground while she was at one end of the building, watched for awhile, then came all the way out the other end of the building to see my progress.

I hope all those strangers that wet their pants laughing at me, read this blog. I DID IT!!!

The Twilight Zone

Some people may consider a city with 200,000 people big, but Lubbock has always felt small. When I graduated high school I wanted to move away because I thought I would be constantly running into people I graduated with and that was the last thing I wanted to do. I think most of the people I went to school with liked me, I was nice and smart, however in junior high and part of high school I wasn't the most attractive student in attendance. I was chubby with big hair that never did what I wanted it to, glasses, and braces. Not exactly a recipe for popularity.

Fast forward seven years. My fears of consistently running into fellow alumni were completely unfounded. Perfect..... Uh, that is until this past week.

Monday: While running errands with Graham, (with no make-up on) we stop at Chick-fil-A (soo good!) so he can eat lunch. And who do I see? Matt Davis. Matt is a guy that I had a crush on in junior high. I can't remember him actually ever talking to me (communication is sooo overrated) except for once in 7th grade when he asked me to use my "Accelerated Reader" points to buy him a basketball jersey the school was selling. Yeah, I was that girl, the one with the obscene amount of Accelerated Reader points.

Tuesday: Wearing baggy jeans, an old t-shirt from high school, and still no make-up, I meet my fabulous friend Allison at Zoo-kinis. I walk in and upon not seeing Allison there yet, I sit in their waiting area. I'm the only person waiting, but I don't really mind. Who should walk in? Matt Davis. Yeah, same guy. Seriously? Yep. I'm just that lucky. Do I say anything to him? Of course not, I revert back to my junior high self and sit there mute. Allison finds me and we get seated and where do they sit him? At the table right next to me. *sigh* If you get this chance, two days in a row to talk to somebody you haven't seen in over 7 years, don't do what I did. Don't chicken out, take the chance.

Wednesday: While eating at Abuelos (actually wearing make-up and looking nice!) I see Lara and Chad. I went to school with both of them, had classes with both of them. I very brazenly (and uncharacteristically) wrote in Chad's yearbook our senior year, something to the effect of "if you ever break-up with Lara, call me!"... uh yeah. I don't think Lara really liked me after that! HA! I can't say I blame her. I ran into Chad sometime in undergrad and after a short conversation with him, I realized how glad I was that he never called. I think they're married now.

Friday: On our way to Rosa's (Pause: I promise I usually don't eat out this much in one week) Graham asks me about a girl that I graduated with that he was pretty sure he saw the last time he went to Rosa's. I tell him that the girl he saw was probably Lacey. I have no stories about Lacey. She was a cheerleader and I, uh, was not. We just never talked. No interesting stories. Anyways, we get to Rosa's and who do we see? Lacey!

What a crazy week, it felt like the Twilight Zone. I'll probably make an effort in my appearance for my last week and a half in Lubbock, just in case this trend continues. The good news is that we don't have to be defined by who we were in junior high or high school. That was ages ago. We, no scratch that, I should be living in the present and glad for where God has brought me.

stuck in the middle again...

Well, I think my trips to Boston are cursed... Okay, not really. But they sure are blessed with lots of rain and delays. I'm currently on my way to Boston for a job interview. And I've been sitting in the Austin airport for the past 3.5 hours, and I have 2.5 more hours to go. Then I'll fly for 4 hours to Boston. I should get to my hotel room around midnight tonight. sheesh, i'm tired just reading that. Maybe I'm being a whiny baby about it, but seriously, why can't they control the weather?!? :)

My interview is at 11:45am EST tomorrow, accepting all prayers for a blessed event.

Tiger Beat

Well, I did it. I applied for 3 PT jobs in Boston! Phew, what a weight lifted just to apply. God is completely in control of it, now I'll just wait and see what He does.

Graham and I will be travelling up to Boston to look for a place to live in the middle of June. I've contacted a realtor and he says finding a 3br/2bath in the area we are looking, for less than 3000 is "very hard to find". So, next time you pray, pray that we would find a safe, nice, 3br/2bath for less than 3000! And yes, that's $3000 a month! Eek!!!

I kind of like not having a job (well, other than studying for my licensure) and getting to sleep as late as I want! I've been catching up on all my trilogies. [is that spelled right? sure looks funny] I'm currently over half way through the Lord of the Rings, and plan to rent the 2nd Pirates movie soon, so I can see the third. After that I am going to watch the first 2 SpiderMan movies, just so I can see the third. Whew! A lot of movies. The trilogy that I'm most looking forward to is the "Bourne Ultimatum"! I love me some butt-kicking-Matt-Damon! Annnnd he's from Boston. Coincidence? Nope. However, Viggo Mortensen is no slouch either.

Let's Compare:

Hmmm, tough call. I think Viggo is more consistently good-looking, but Matt Damon does have his moments... On the other hand, the horrific creatures that Viggo battled were a lot tougher than the super-secret spy dudes Matt fought. *sigh* yep, tough call. I guess I'll just have to meet them in person before I can make an appropriate decision.

Remember the Tiger Beat magazine? It had tons of photos of all the cute boys, and they were literally boys. I think they need Tiger Beat for those over 25. I'll have to think of a better name for it though. Maybe "Hottie Beat"? Is that too obvious and superficial?

oh well, I still have Google Images

I'm guilty.. I know

GAH!!! It's been over a month since I have posted... I've become one of those people I don't like, well, not that I don't like but whom I get irritated with. What's the point of having a blog page if you don't update it? Now, I'm one of them....
Well, the guilt of not posting finally got to me tonight at 11pm when i'm SUPPOSED to be going to bed to get ready for my last week of school: Seminar Week, where tomorrow morning I will take another mock-licensure exam at 9am. I'm sure it's going to be GREAT since i haven't studied AT ALL since I took the last one. (dripping sarcasm here) oh well.

So, for those of you who have been sitting on the edge of your seat thinking, where has she decided to move????? BOSTON!
Let me tell you, Boston is one lucky city to get Emily Louise. And I'm very excited. God has already provided a roommate and now i"m looking for a room to go with the roommate and a job. Minor details.

Also: tonight I watched Deja Vu... A little farfetched, but if you watch it with an open mind it's an edge-of-your-seat-thriller with a fattened Val Kilmer. Who would've guessed the Ice Man could pack on a few pounds? Not me, that's for sure. Then again, who would've guessed Maverick would go crazy? I think it was all those times he was pushin' G's and had low oxygen levels...

Anyways, here's your post, I'll update again real soon.

Hasta

Oui Oui

What other profession can your instructor grab your gluteals and call it "education"? Only in Physical Therapy... That's what my 25-yr-old-i'm-only-5-months-older-than-you instructor had to do today when teaching me how to transfer a 6'2'' 200+ totally dependant patient from his chair to his bed. What was my only recourse? Yes you guessed it, grab HIS gluteals and practice on him. "Anything you can do I can do better, anything you can do I can do better than that" Also, a patient gave me a box of peanut butter eggs and a box of coconut cream eggs. Apparently she not only likes me, but thinks I need to fatten up a bit, gladly!

Nothing new to report here from Danville. I miss hanging out with people my age, but that's okay. I take it one day at a time. We had an inservice today by a wheelchair company and the presenter was telling everyone about their manufacturing plant in Nashville,TN, how they "talk slow, but they really do know what they're talking about." Gee, thanks. :)

sooo tomorrow is Friday and that is reason enough to be GLAD!!!

So I've been here in Danville for a little over a week. It's taking time for me to get used to the narrow roads. There's this one STREET, accurately named "Jacob's alley". It's a street and yet at the same time it is the size of an alley. crazy. here are some pics I took today, they're not very good, mainly because my hands were freezing cold and I have no gloves and I didn't feel like taking the time for a good pic. The first ones are the picturesque and then the next two are labeled. My camera has "paint" program on it, which is fun, but it sure is hard to write that tiny!These are shots of Danville as you drive into it, crossing over the Susquehanna River.

I work just to the right of that big tan building.

So, I've had two male instructors for my clinicals, both have been married, older, but both a lot of fun. When my mom heard I was having another guy for an instructor, I think she prayed that he'd be young and single. Well, my instructor is just shy of being 5 months older than me. Yeah, 5 months, and he's already an instructor. He is cute, and muscular, but deeply committed in a releationship that I obviously don't have the experience to understand. Yesterday he was getting his name branded, er scratch that, tattoed on his girlfriend. Apparently to him its a sign of fidelity. It's hard to remember that he's my instructor and not just a guy in my class. But in his defense, he's been really good so far and as the week progressed, limited his use of the f-bomb. Much appreciated Scott. My tendency is to tease and joke a lot, but I'm being ultra-conservative on that end, not wanting to disrespect him since he is so young.

Anyways, nothing else interesting right now. I got two shirts on sale at the Gap for $13. Total. I love the Gap sometimes....

Falling in,

em

Off I go!

In two weeks I'll be heading off to my very last clinical in Danville, PA. Understandably, since Danville is small, I don't expect any of you to know where Danville is located. Thanks to Mapquest, you no longer will have an excuse of ignorance:

Danville is really only about 1700 miles away, that's approximately 130 half-marathons. Needless to say, I won't be emulating Christian McEvoy, I'll fly there. There are some pretty big differences between Danville and Lubbock which will take a little bit of time to adjust to. Probably the biggest: the weather.

Today in Lubbock it is a balmy 74 degrees, sunny, minimal wind, 13% humidity. Pretty nice. It should continue like that for the rest of the week, with lows being in the mid to high 40s.

Today in Danville it is a chilly 42 degrees (which is actually warmer than it has been in the past couple of weeks.) Snow and freezing rain expected throughout the week. My Aunt Kathie (whom I'll be staying with) said that they don't usually expect spring-like weather until June or July. WHAT?!? June or July? Apparently, no one has informed the northeast that June and July are both considered to be "summer months"

From my favorite topic of weather, to my next favorite topic: food. and Target. The closest Target to Danville is 50 miles away...! For those of you who are away from friends and family, my recommendation to you is to visit Target. Whenever I'm away on clinicals I always go to Target because it is the same no matter what. And you feel like any minute you'll run into an old friend. Continuing on, after performing a Yahoo Yellow Pages search of "Mexican Restaurants" in Danville, I found 2. Apparently the "Arizona Cafe" has the market on Mexican food in Danville. The nearest Taco Bell is 28 miles away. (NOTE: I do not condone eating at Taco Bell, it is definitely not my favorite, however it was the only name I recognized.) Now, when I perform the same search for the Lubbock area I come up with 54. 3 of those 54 being my beloved favorite "Rosa's". I'll probably come back 10 lbs lighter due to my lack of taco intake. Side note: the nearest Sonic is 61 miles away in Ephrata, PA. Apparently Sonic may be America's Drive-In, but it sure isn't Pennsylvania's. If Sonic and/or Rosa's goes out of business over the next 10 weeks, you'll know why...

Feel free to write me while I'm gone. I love letters. Especially Fat Letters. And Love Letters. And Fat Love Letters. Okay, I'm overdoing it, but seriously, write me. However, if you want my address you'll have to e-mail me or message me on facebook. I can't be throwing addresses around in cyberspace, you never know who will catch them.

In conclusion, I, Emily L Brown, do solemnly swear to continue using the word "coke" meaning any caffeinated, carbonated beverage that may or may not include Dr. Pepper, Sprite, and Minute Maid Orange cola. Furthermore, I do thereby promise to not replace my verbage of "y'all" with "you guys" I will remain ever true to Texas except in instances of minor persecution and distress, while I am away in the nether regions of the east known as Pennsylvania.

Super-Fun Weekend

Last weekend I went to Austin with Graham and Allison. We flew, of course, because that's the way we roll.

We had to stop over in Dallas of course, because that's the way SWA rolls... [PS: to the cute doctor on the plane who looks like Jonathan Silverman, you should definitely call me. You need someone around to keep you from buying another pair of turquoise cowboy boots.]

My fantastic sister Sara picked us up from the airport {thanks again Sara for letting us invade ya'lls house!} and Saturday morning we got up early to pick up our race packets.

Also, I bought a new pair of running shoes. I'm hopeful they will make me faster, because I am certain that they were made out of the same material that they also use on speed boat decks.

After that we headed downtown for some lunch on Sixth Street, and as we meandered across the street for some Jamba Juice, we noticed a "Pro-Life" parade coming our way. Normally, this is no big deal, but we had my 8-year-old niece with us and I wanted to make sure she wasn't exposed to anything she shouldn't be at such a young age. After trying to explain abortion to her on her terms (she asked what they were marching for) she responded with "Is my smoothie ready yet?" Obviously, she's not quite ready to become a political activist. Towards the end of the parade, there were some graphic posters of fetuses, so this is me trying to distract Paige.

Some other fun stuff we did pre-half marathon: Ate Amy's Ice Cream at the Arboretum and hung out on some stone cows. Yes, that's 8 girls we got on one cow and yes, you should never try to vault over a stone cow. Not a good idea...

I also enjoyed my brother-in-law's (Frank) delicious cooking, watched American Idol with my sister and had fun hanging out my beautiful/handsome niece and nephew. Colton is almost crawling!! Right now he just kind of rocks back and forth on his hands and knees, but I'm sure it will happen any day!

So, I guess you're probably thinking, "Get to it already! Did you guys actually run? Did you win?" Well, yes, we ran. And yes we won, in the sense that we finished and we ran the whole time, and those were our goals. We definitely had fun, but it was different then the first time we ran. It was still cold, but by Mile 3 it had warmed up and I could feel my fingers again. This is us at about mile 9, the knee pain had definitely kicked in, but this is me faking it for the camera!

We finished in 2 hours, 26 minutes. Not a record-setting time by any stretch of the imagination, however we did finish almost 10 minutes faster than last year and there were definitely more hills this year!

And as you can see, Graham finished ahead of us, about 30 minutes faster than us. And he didn't start training until November or December. He's good, real good.

So, it's finally done. But I'm looking forward to next year, another run! One thing I've learned: don't take more than a week off of running! You lose it sooo quickly. And you know what? If I can run 13.1 miles at a snail's pace, anyone can!

yada yada yada

Colton is now 6 months old! It's incredible how fast the time has gone by. When Ryleigh and Paige were growing up I was right there through everything. I saw every monumental crawl and diaper change. But now, it's different when he's so far away.

This weekend we went to the mountains of New Mexico, hoping for snow. The snow came to Lubbock. Irony sucks.

When we stopped in Lovington to eat lunch, my mom was putting her trash in the trashcan and oops! The tray slipped, and went in the trashcan. My mom threw away the tray of a multi-billion dollar hamburger chain! I don't think that makes her a felon though, thank goodness, I need her around to teach me all her fantastic cooking skills, that way when I go to grate cheese, I know what side of the grater to use. (I know now people!)

I've heard kids are cute, but....

Sooooo I started my 2nd to the last clinical this week. That means that in 15 weeks from now I will be done with PT SChool!!! Yahoooo!

This first clinical I'm working with kids 0-3 years old in the homes and with special ed. kids in the school. I've learned a lot already in just my 4 days on the job: (Uh, note: when i say "job" it's not really a job, the only pay i receive is in the form of experience. however, experience doesn't pay my baby's daycare ya know? :) }

1. kids with special needs require extra special care. I've met a lot who get neglected at home. It's super sad.

2. If you hear your work talking about having "reflective supervision" meetings: run. run for the hills! My first day I spent an hour, sitting in a circle with all women, minus my instructor who is a 6'3'', 300lb man, talking about our feelings and what we did over the Christmas break. There was no escape! Even I had to talk, despite the fact that I had just met my instructor 30 minutes prior and knew no one else!

3. If you see a drooling toddler running for you: make any attempt you can to get out of the way: we saw a kid that was slightly hypotonic. (Brief lesson: all of our muscles have "tone" however when there is not enough tone, or too much tone, it can cause some problems) anyways, kids with low tone have a tendency to drool, a lot! So this 2 year old kid with drool all over their mouth and chest (they were just in a diaper) came running at me full throttle as I was sitting on the floor at their house. What was I to do? Where was I to go? I was all by myself! They flailed their arms wide and gave me a huge hug (sweet) and gave me a huge open-mouth kiss on the cheek (not-so-sweet) and managed to COVER my hair and face with drool. Little kid drool. As if that wasn't enough, this kid came in for a second hug attack FROM BEHIND and managed to get the rest of my hair soaked with drool. Not-so-awesome. If that kid wasn't adorable and so freakin' happy (also if the mom hadn't been sitting right there) I would have been mad. But you can't make an "ewwww" face and wipe yourself when the mother is watching everything.

4. I've learned that pediatrics probably isn't for me... I know, it's only been a week, but i have a feeling. we'll see. it's good though, it's kind of like cutting your hair to see if it looks good short. The only way you'll know is if you actually do it, so just go for it. So, I'm trying it.

Boston is one of the cities I'm considering moving to. If you've ever been there, let me know what ya think.

Merry CHRISTmas

Whomever said the Brown family isn't stylin' apparently didn't know us in Christmas of '88. Because if they did, they would have noticed us sporting the oh-so-festive Christmas sweatshirts (not sweaters, we keep it cas' around here). They would have also noticed that we were going to therapy for lack of photogenic-ness. Sara had already graduated from the program, I was nearly done, but I'm afraid Ally and Graham got a late start. Don't worry, after years of intensive therapy they are now beautifully and handsomely photogenic.

You know how Oprah does her "Favorite Things" show every year? Well, I thought I'd do a little list of my own. I have no free cashmere jumpsuits to hand out, but really, who wants a cashmere jumpsuit? I sure don't, especially if it has spider webs on them. sick.

So, here's short list of some of my favorite things:

Jeans: Citizen of Humanity
Christmas Candy: Brachs Christmas Peppermint Nougats
Running Shoe Brand: Brooks
"Old" Book: Pride and Prejudice
"New" book: Life of Pi
Cartoon: Get Fuzzy
Socks: Argyle Cashmere
Hobby: Knitting
Car Brand: Volvo
Store: Target
Candle: Cricklewood Candles "Coffee House Blend" votive
Makeup: Macs
Cereal: Kashi "GoLean" Crunch
Sports Drink: Blue PowerAde or Watered-down Lemon Lime Gatorade (uh, don't knock it until you've run 5 miles and tried it)

So remember this Christmas season, the things people need the most are the intagibles: peace, love, joy and you definitely can't buy those at the store.