Parliament Chocolate and $5 Pizza.

Since the start of this crazy medical school adventure if there has been one constant great thing it would be my friend Amber. She was my life saver before I got to Grenada, and she continues to be an incredible friend and constantly helpful. Sometimes I feel awful about all the questions I ask her, but she never seems to mind. Recently she's taken me to Costco, and most recently we went shopping, did some errands, and ended the afternoon with a trip to Parliament Chocolate.

Let me tell you about Parliament Chocolate. Redlands is full of fun little hipster, locally owned shops. Parliament Chocolate is one such shop. It's very hip and they are all about using organic dark chocolate. It's all hand made in the shop. I joked with Amber about how it brought me back to these days, back in good ol' Grenada. Indeed, my first true introduction to dark chocolate and love at first sight.

I got some goodies to take home, which were absolutely amazing. Mostly it's fun to just do simple things like run errands with friends., and find cool places around town.

In other news, I have found THE WORLD'S BEST $5 pizza. As you may know, I take my pizza very seriously. And I take inexpensive pizza, almost more seriously, as there is a pretty intense pizza hierarchy. Being in a new town, I have to get the low-down on the pizza market. And this, is amazing pizza.

Eating pizza and chillin' in our fancy furniture.

Carolyn's Cafe

I mentioned in this blog post about how much I love to explore our new little neighborhood. Another highly recommended eatery was Carolyn's Cafe. My friend told me that their coffee cake was to die for. I take my coffee cake pretty seriously, so this was a tall order.



Ross's current Internal Medicine rotation has been great because besides the days he is on-call, he gets done pretty early. Carolyn's Cafe closes at 2pm so I patiently waited for the day that I could convince Ross to go there when he got home, or possibly when he awoke after being on-call.

We got an order of coffee cake and some breakfast. 

The coffee cake was easily the best coffee cake I have EVER had. Look at all that warm melty butter all over! I found out that you can get a whole pan of coffee cake if you give them 24 hour notice. I half jokingly told Ross to please get that for my birthday cake this year. It was amazing. The only bummer is that the cafe closes at 2pm so the World's Best Coffee Cake availability window is slightly small. 

I will come back for more of you coffee cake!!

Family Family Family!

Ross and I have been spending almost all of our weekend free time with family Palmdale or family in the valley. I love having a car that can get me back and forth so I can see my family when I can. My brother and sister are still in town before they leave for school. They came down for a visit. Being new around here we weren't sure what would be good to do. We settled for some hanging out, hot tub time, Chinese food, and walking down Center Street into a bizarre consignment/ antique store.



At the consignment store they had a lot of little Victorian/ vintage cards and keepsakes. I loved this one because it reminds me of a picture of me and my sisters from our childhood.

That weekend we celebrated my cousin Ricky's birthday at my grandparent's home.

Name that Widdi game!!

This picture of the mustard and ketchup framing the chocolate cake makes me laugh every time!

Poor Ross was on call the night before. So he bowed out and snoozed on the couch. 

Hopefully he gets this whole hospital-24-hour-call thing down so he gets some decent sleep. 

While we were in Palmdale this weekend we had a final hurrah. One of my favorites, roasting s'mores in our makeshift fire pit in the backyard. A fire pit that kind of looks like a trashcan. 

We didn't want to get out freshly laundered clothes dirty, so I came up with a clever solution. 

Over the many years of us kids working for a certain polo uniform requiring establishment, my parent's closets have accumulated quite a few. Said establishment is pretty picky about their logo being on the interwebs, so we found a creative way to take a "ballin'" photo while covering the logos. Also had some bucks from said establishment that are given to employees for good work. #swaaaag

We all roasted marshmallows in our fancy matching polos so we could just throw them away afterwards. Dad had the idea to do a hot dog wrapped in bacon. Synge really wanted to get at that. 

It was a fun weekend. I love spending time with my family, and it is always so hard to leave and get back to business as usual. 

While we are on the topic of family, let me take a minute to brag about my own great family. Medical school can be pretty crappy. But every once in a while I get to see a glimpse of my clever, creative, thoughtful husband. Like when he made me a unicorn crepe!

Settling In: New Apartment!

The past couple of weeks have felt like a couple years. Like a monsterous marathon that ends in me running full-speed into a brick wall.

I'm now in the post-marathon-smash-into-a-brick-wall phase. Now I just want to lay on my freshly vacuumed (praise the Lord) carpet and tend to my achy joints and drink Gatorade.

Or something like that.

These weeks have been filled with some highs and a lot of lows. I'm currently in a love-hate relationship with my apartment/ apartment complex.

Even looking back a couple weeks to when I wrote this blog post, that was only at the tip of the iceberg!

The good news is that Ross and I found a place, even it is was the only and last one left on our list. We were in a definite crunch time, but we signed for a place and moved in pretty quickly, with no thanks to the awful Complex Manager. I am not trying to complain, but nothing about moving has been particularly easy. It is exhausting, but we made it.

In honor of "making it." I'm going to go ahead and list some of the highs of this whole adventure.

1.) I think I'm getting really old cos, I just dropped $200 on a vacuum and felt amazing about it. Maybe it's all those years of custodial work but I'm a little obsessed over ... My vacuum.

2.) I love exploring new places. And just because I live back in boring old America, in a semi-familiar location, I am not deterred in finding new and fun things to do in the area.

Going up to Big Bear Lake isn't new so much as it is fun. My family came down to see our new place and we grabbed some lunch first at this local place called Nick's Burgers. They had some serious hamburgers and they were delicious!



We wanted to get to some cooler temperatures so we headed up to the mountains.



Apparently everyone else in the world had the same idea because parking was positively horrendous. But once we got parked we had a fun time. They had a huge chili cook-off going on, which we thought would be fun, until we realized how expensive it was.

Saturday August 16th, 2014

That's okay. We are more ice cream people anyways. 

3.) When you move to a new place, you are sure to get at least a few overlapping recommendations from locals. One of those overlappers was the summer concert series at the Redlands Bowl. With moving in and Ross starting rotations, and summer drawing to a close, we weren't sure we would make it.



But we did! We decided to walk instead of braving parking, and I am glad we did because it was a lovely 10 minute walk right at sunset. When we reached the bowl we laughed and wondered if we were really permitted to be there because we could only see a handful of people under the age of 70. But that is what you get when you have a Glen Miller Orchestra playing.

Tuesday August 19, 2014

The concert was, to borrow a word from the older generation, a "hoot." The music was amazing and it was fun to be able to recognize some of the pieces even though it was before our time. The stage was all lit up and Ross got us some snacks. Here in Redlands you get a strong sense of community pride. It's definitely a different concept for me, but a very lovely one at that.

4.) Another "must-see" is the farmer's market here in Redlands. It is every Thursday night. As much as I complain about our apartment, it is in the perfect location. I love taking walks and it is only a short walk from our place to the farmer's market. This farmer's market is a far cry from the dinky one in Lancaster. But when I got thinking about it, it makes sense because we are so much closer to growers and farms in general. Ross and I got some BBQ pulled pork fries.

Thursday August 21, 2014 

They also have a couple flower vendors with bouquets of flowers for only $5! Ross encouraged me to pick one out.



I love how bright and happy it is.

5.) Ross and I are officially moved in to our apartment, but not moved out of boxes just yet. I feel like when it comes to unpacking, it goes quick, then you always have a couple boxes that take forever.



Those pictures were from when we just barely moved in. I'm already shuddering at having to pack it all up and do it again. It makes me never want to buy anything ever again. But moving is the life of a IMG and therefore mine too.



But since this post is about the positives of life lately, I will focus on how wonderful it is to be in possession of all my stuff again. When I opened my kitchen boxes I positively wanted to weep at the beauty. Those colored knives are awesome and I can't wait to use them again. Real dishes and cookie decorating tools, and a slow cooker! I really appreciate the little things. It was also fun to unwrap our stuff and see it wrapped in local Provo, UTAH grocery adds from December 2011. It's now AUGUST 2014 and I haven't seen this stuff since the year we got married. It's fun to have almost brand-new, nice things to start the next chapter with.

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center

This is just a rough estimate... but about 3.5 million times these past few months people have asked me what the heck is going on.

Is Ross getting paid now?

What is Ross's specialty?

How does Ross like residency?

When are you going to move next? How long will you be in the area?

Are you going back to Grenada? When does he start? What is his first rotation?

And the list goes on. I thought I would give a quick run down of where we are currently.

Quick Break Down:

Medical school = 4 years (August 2012 - Spring 2016)
      - 2 years "book work" aka Basic Sciences....................................Finished! Grenada years.
      - 2 years in-hospital work aka Rotations/Clerkship/Clinicals.........Current. Redlands, CA years.
After that -and let's not get ahead of ourselves- comes residency and then a fellowship in a specialty.

No, he does not know what kind of doctor he wants to be.

But he has time too!

Ross is starting his 3rd year of medical school at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, CA. The third year consists of "core" or mandated rotations. That means he spends anywhere from 6-12 weeks doing hands-on work and study in a specific study of medicine. The core rotations for the 3rd year are:

Internal Medicine

Family Medicine

OB/GYN

Pediatrics

Psychiatry

Surgery

There can be specific study within each rotation, but that is the general overview. 

Next Spring/ Summer Ross will take the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge exam. Remember the younger sister Step 1 which he took Summer 2014?

After that he will begin the 4th and final year of medical school. You can check back in at that time.

Going back to the present. Ross wanted to check out the hospital before his first day. We also needed to return our rental truck, so we headed west on the I-10.



You can tell I haven't been back in the U.S. very long because I was shocked to see that you had to get through a metal detector just to step foot in the doors. You have to have a reason to go in, with a specific department destination. You can imagine security's confusion when we explained that we just wanted to see the hospital.



The next Monday morning Ross was there, in much less casual clothes, ready to begin his adventures in a REAL meal deal hospital.

Monday August 18th, 2-14

I was really curious to see if it would be a short or long day. We both knew this isn't a "read over the syllabus and get on your way" type of 1st day of school. And indeed it wasn't. Ross texted me later in the day to let me know he was assigned to be on 24 hour call.
Me: Umm.... like you get to come home and if they "page" you, you have to go back?

Wrong. 24 hour call means you get to sit at the hospital and work for 24 hours. Maybe sleeping for an hour or two if they let you. You can definitely say he started his 3rd year off with a bang!



When he came home the next morning he was tired but definitely happy! So it begins!

And for your final and pressing questions... No he is not making money. Yes we are still giving them A LOT of money (at 9% interest thank you very much). No we are not moving anytime soon, at least not for a couple years.

Music Monday #12: Time to Move On

If I'm blogging, there is a good chance that I am putting off something that really needs to be done.

This time it's packing.

Again.

I've lost count of the number of times I have packed up this summer. Moving or traveling, I find myself here again. But this time with a little more finality.

This morning I woke up with a few lines of this Tom Petty song stuck in my head. Although I have many daunting tasks today, these random lines made me so happy. They made me happy because there are some musicians that will always remind me of my dad. Shoeless summers in the Palmdale heat, Saturday morning house cleaning, or just riding in the car windows rolled down with the wind in my hair.

Always happy memories, put to the tunes of the best of them all.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers -Time to Move On

I can't think of a better way to put the last few days. I feel like Wednesday - Saturday were 4 years, not 4 days. I haven't been back in California for a week but I feel like I've been here a month. But at the same time, things have happened so fast. It's been a bit chaotic.

Apartment hunting was a true nightmare - but we signed for a place.

We weren't anticipating to buy a car - but we did!

I sit here and reflect on everything. And the one thing that keeps coming to my mind is the chorus and beginning of this song:

"It's time to move on, time to get going
What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing
But under my feet, baby, grass is growing
It's time to move on, it's time to get going"

Ross and I are starting a new chapter of our lives (and I'm trying as hard as I can to yank the door shut on the previous chapter). But we are still in a great bit of uncertainty. We don't really know what lies ahead. But as Petty sings, the grass is growing under our feet -new things are happening and hopefully this means greener pastures.

The song has some great lines. It talks about forgiveness, moving on, and looking forward. Some of the last lines:

"Like a deer in the headlights
Frozen in real time
I'm losing my mind"

I almost laughed when listening to these this morning. I could only think, "Yep!" The whole ordeal is a bit nerve-wracking. I can only hope that Ross and I have made good choices, mostly to be sure that losing my mind was the only and best option.

Week Wrap Up #12

Now that I am in California and about to start a new chapter in my life I can't decide if I want to keep "Week Wrap Up."

Obviously very important life decisions being made on this blog.

I don't have a ton to "wrap up" this week, some big changes yes, but for now I will just mention the hilarity in the horror of apartment hunting. Ross and I spent the last few days peeking and peering into what feels like hundreds of apartments. So many phone calls and appointments to lead to almost nothing. One of my favorite complexes was called "The Orleans." It had a certain eerie Haunted Mansion type feel to it.



I'm 99% sure they contacted Disneyland as asked for the rights to whatever font they used.

This one apartment was totally bizarre. It looks like it was a house that incorporated the patio into the living room. It resulted in a tiny (bed?)room that had a glass window peering into the living room.

Hard to explain, but definitely odd.



After a long day of apartment hunting, I landed smack in the middle of a big mud pile. I guess I should just be glad it happened near the end of the day.



Synge really enjoys smoothie.



Now that Ross and I officially have a place, I have moved on to begging for a kitty. This is no easy feat because Ross doesn't particularly like cats. I would like to believe he is warming up to the fact, but it is taking an incredible amount of work. Lately I've been looking at shelters for kitties to rescue. They call out to Ross for help.



One of my favorites is the little dude with the afro. And pumpkin up at the top.

Packing never dies in the Petersen household. It was packing to leave Grenada, packing up to leave Utah, packing up the new things we acquired in Utah, packing our old things in Utah (from storage), packing up our things in California, packing our things in storage in California... I think you are getting the picture. The upside of packing up means finding old memories. When I was younger I loved getting mail, and I understood this meant I had to send mail as well. So I wrote. I wrote to friends down the block over our summer vacation. I wrote to friends serving missions in Sweden. I wrote to elementary school teachers on vacation in Europe. I wrote to friends on vacation in Utah. And now I have at least one box filled with all these memories. It is so much fun to go through them and see what was important to me at that time in my life.

Ross and I are enjoying our time with my parents before we officially move on to the next chapter. This includes getting as much Thai food as possible before we have to scout for a new location in Redlands. Fortune cookies are always fun because everyone pretends like they don't care, but then we all jump on them. I always think of this Jim Gaffigan stand up. Sure, I have gotten some funny ones, but Ross was so pleased when he read his. 

"You could prosper in the field of medicine."

I sure as hell hope so. We are already pretty deep into this ordeal. The look on that kid's face is priceless.

Happy 28 Years of Life!!

As I have mentioned before, I love to go over-the-top on birthdays so I was pretty bummed when I turned out that Ross's birthday would be in the middle of apartment hunting. There was no two ways about that, unfortunately.

We tried to kick things off early and right with some celebrations in Utah. One with his friends and one with his parents. But it was still kind of a bummer. I tried to make it special though.

For lunch we went to this really good italian food place. We got a cannoli for dessert and when Ross was gone using the restroom I asked the waiters if they could bring him a birthday treat so he got some spumoni ice cream too. We were pretty stuffed.



At the end of the very long day we came home and had Ross's favorite birthday dessert, his mom's cheesecake with his favorite Danish Dessert strawberry topping.



All those candles are starting to be a fire hazard.

Opened some presents too.

I hope this was the most happy miserable birthday he has had!

Back to California

I've been traveling a lot this summer. Planes, trains, cars, just short of boats. Which has kinda made my final summer trip destination very unreal. It was a two day trip but it's just dawning on me that this isn't another quick trip. Next weekend I can't just run up to Ogden for some Farr's ice cream.

Long story short: Ross and I were unable to secure a car before we left. Lucky for us, my grandparents were up in Utah for my second cousin's wedding (you know, the one we couldn't go to because of car problems?!). And they just so happened to be willing to give us a ride back to California. The plan is to secure an apartment first, then Ross will fly back to Utah, load up the moving truck, then drive it down. The timing is all fairly precarious.

But for the time being, we have a couple days to hang out with my grandparents. I don't blog about my grandparents nearly enough. They are my favorite people. When I was living in Palmdale I would visit them about once a week. Everyone in my family was super jealous that I got to go on a road trip with them!

It was a pretty luxurious trip. My grandparents like to break up the drive and stay the night in Mesquite. Traveling in their jaguar was really really nice. I have never been more comfortable on a road trip.

We took our time and my grandma wanted to make a couple stops before we got to Mesquite.

We took a tour of a couple places of Church history interest. When I was younger I was really into historic fiction. I think my creative mind allows me to really be interested in history, because I can see it in my mind.

We took the of the Brigham Young Summer Home with one other couple. The guide would ask us if we knew what certain contraptions were in the home. And my grandparents, being avid antique collectors, knew everyone and could answer right away. I was pretty proud of that. The guide would mention how "back in the day" this is how they would iron their clothes this way... So I wanted to laugh out loud when my grandpa said, "Yeah, that is what my mom used to iron when I was a kid!"

My grandparents are pretty funny.



Yes, historic stairs, must be steep to be historic. Also, did someone just get done sleeping in that bed? Why is it so disheveled? Yes. That concerns me.

Before too long we were back on the road headed to Mesquite. the casino we stayed at was pretty cool. Old, but not dingy. It was called Casablanca and had a huge rock waterfall out in front. My grandparents were pretty impressed that it had a valet too. I wasn't impressed with the hallway from The Shinning replica.





Before dinner my grandma and I hit up the $10 and Under! store. You know, the things that cost about ten cents to make in China?

I found this funny cheapo ring. My grandma looks over and goes, "It looks like someone took a poop!" Haha. So great. She also gave me some good advice on buying cheap jewelry. She advised me to buy one that is believable. If they are fake diamonds you can't go over the top. Here are two examples. Make wise choices kids!

We went out to dinner at the restaurant in the casino there. My grandparents were pretty beat so they headed up to their room. But right before they left my grandma grabbed my hand and said, rather sternly, "GO HAVE FUN." I laughed a little.
"I mean it!  Don't let us old people slow you down! Have fun."

My grandma is the best. Who else has a grandma that encourages them to run wild in a casino?

Didn't think so.

Ross and I wandered around a little, mostly out of boredom, but also because we needed to stretch our legs. The hotel has a cool lighted pool area with a rock waterfall. We found out that we would be horrible gamblers. Not because we don't have good sense, but because we have no clue how to play the slots. I didn't know there was an art. Apparently I need to read some directions somewhere because I had no clue what was going on.



Another thing I learned, Mesquite is pretty much Vegas for the 70+ crowd. It isn't as far as Vegas, and is a lot cheaper. You know you are hardcore if you are playing the slots in Mesquite on a Monday night. There were lots of older people just zoned out with their game card around their neck, and a cigarette in the other, poised over ashtrays already filled with butts. Classy place.

Ross and I got hot chocolate before going to bed, because there wasn't much else to do in that place.

The next day we hit the road pretty early. We pretty much went straight through. Ross even got the opportunity to drive the Jag! Favorite status immediately granted.

Whole lotta nothing on the road.

We headed to my grandparent's cabin to check on a few things. My grandpa doing the rounds with Ross, and me chilling with my grandma checking out the critters hanging around.

After that we headed to my parent's house. It was fun to be able to see them again. I hadn't been home since I surprised my mom for her birthday, though in fairness, they came up for the Fourth of July. 

And of course I can't forget how much I missed this lovable lump of fur. 

The road trip is over, and apartment hunting starts tomorrow!