Hello Internet!
How I’ve missed you!
And yet, this weekend I spent so little time online I almost stopped caring what was going on in the virtual world. Here’s what happened… in bullet form:
1. Thursday, we had a special dinner for all the residents. I put on a party dress and proceeded to sweat my way through the evening. (Note to the residency program: 75 degrees is not an ideal temperature for a room filled with 300 residents and their spouses.) Seriously, y’all… I was sporting twin waterfalls. But there were free wine and mini crab cakes, so all was well with the world.
2. Friday, my client closed up shop early. My husband – who was on a research elective (read: at home every afternoon for two weeks!) – and I went to our apartment complex’s pool. It’s a lovely pool, with tons of seating and lounge chairs. And I snagged a couple of the loungers while my husband read a very good book in the shade of an umbrella chair. Then the wife of another intern came over and we commiserated about life as intern wives. Our husbands joined us a bit later, and we killed a case of Bud Light and had two pizzas delivered and played cards until midnight. It was one of those long, relaxing days in the company of people you enjoy. Made me realize that somewhere along the line, this couple had transformed from mere acquaintances into actual friends.
3. I have an actual sports injury, Internet. This is such a novel concept to me, the former cheerleader who has no hand-eye coordination whatsoever. But this weekend, my husband and one of his (super patient, super kind, and did I mention, super patient) co-interns went out and played tennis. Tennis! The sport I haven’t played since sophomore year gym class. We spent about two hours outside on Sunday, hitting a can of balls back and forth across our complex’s tennis court… chasing after rogue balls I’d hit out into the parking lot… fishing wild balls from the shrubbery along the other side of the court. It was delightful. And I hurt my finger! Which is officially a sports injury, since it occurred whilst playing an actual sport! Let’s carefully ignore the fact that said injury occurred when I hit my own finger with my own tennis racquet while chasing after one of the aforementioned rogue balls.
4. So. In Very Bad Situation News, I learned something that brought the issue back into the forefront of my mind. It’s kind of like a forecast for terrible weather. Maybe you are still recovering from storms that have already passed through. Maybe there’s still damage – damage that may never be repaired. And the weatherman is yakking away about how there’s a big storm cell on its way to your area. But you look outside and the sun is shining, the sky is blue… It’s hard to imagine that storm clouds could be lurking just over yonder. But then maybe, sunshine blistering the sidewalks, you hear the low rumble of thunder. That’s what this news was. Thunder. Still distant. But unmistakable. Sure, there’s a possibility that the Very Bad Situation will turn out to be Much Less Bad Than I Feared. But there’s a possibility that – despite its distance, despite the fact that things seem okay – it’s coming, hard and furious.
You are sick of hearing about the Very Bad Situation, I am sure. But I want to write about it here at the very least as a chronicle of it. Hopefully I will be able to read this blog in a few years and laugh at these posts, from a standpoint of knowing that everything turned out okay. Hopefully.
5. Annnnnndddd… moving on… Saturday we hit the botanical gardens. Woot woot! I took about ten billion photos of flowers. I know you would be DEE-LIGHTED to endure enjoy 35 pictures of the same rose from a slightly different angle… but I will have to save that for never another post.
6. After I wrote about bug murder, I encountered some sort of Insect and Arachnid Uprising. Encounter the First: I was sitting out by the pool when I felt something tickle my leg. I looked down, and instead of a little mosquito or ant, there was a GIANT HAIRY SPIDER. And I’m not really exaggerating. I mean, it wasn’t THAT giant, I guess. Like, it wasn’t a tarantula or anything. But it was about the size of a quarter and it really was hairy. It was actually quite interesting to look at. After I shrieked and brushed it off onto my chair and moved my chair about eight feet away from me and then refused to sit in another chair.
Encounter the Second: I spotted a humongous daddy long legs on the ceiling of our bedroom whilst I was pretending to listen listening intently to my husband talk about something. (Medicine, probably? Who knows. There was a spider about to leap on us!!!!) Being the good husband that he is, Husband climbed on top of our dresser and smacked the DLL with a rolled up magazine. And then he even cleaned the dresser of its sprinkling of popcorn ceiling goop and spider legs.
Encounter the Third: I spotted a disgusting centipedey thing scrolling its way across the floor and again screamed for my husband to rescue me. (Listen. I can kill a (non cockroach) bug if necessary. I am an Independent Woman. But if Husband is around, why bother?)
Fourth: Writing about this is giving me the heebie jeebies and I need to stand up to make sure nothing is crawling on me.
Fifth: I will never write a post about how to destroy bugs again. YOU HEAR THAT, BUGS? Go uprise on someone else.
7. Yesterday marked the first day of my husband’s last rotation of his intern year. You know what that means? Intern year is almost OVER, y’all! I am so! freaking! excited!
8. Memorial Day found me lounging on the couch, reading a new book (Monster Love by Carol Topolski) or watching a marathon of Bridezillas. Now I know this show has been on for years… but I’ve never actually watched it before. I find it fascinating that people are so over-the-top crazy. Makes me think that a lot of people have rage issues in this country. And yet they are all finding love and getting married. WEIRD. We enjoyed 85-degree weather all weekend – and let me tell you, between the resident dinner, the botanical gardens, and our outdoor tennis “game,” I have never sweated this much EVER in my life – but it ended in a massive thunderstorm. Complete with an hour-long downpour, a few minutes of a rather weak attempt at hail, and some especially loud thunder. Thunderous, you might say. But I didn’t care. I spent the non-lounging part of my day making homemade guacamole and fish tacos.
9. Fish tacos are awesome. Also? My husband makes the best hamburgers in the world. (Don’t worry. We didn’t eat tacos and burgers on the same night.)
I believe this Memorial Day weekend will go down in history as one of the Best Weekends Ever – ranking just below my wedding weekend in terms of Love Shared and Fun Had.
How was your holiday weekend?
I loved this holiday weekend too. It must be all the relaxation.
re: Bridezillas. I saw this over the weekend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uqw_dXu7pBQ . I showed Jer and he kept saying “who would marry that girl?” It was pretty crazy how she ruined her cake. Yep, it was actually worse than smashing it.
re: Fish tacos.. Ever had Fish Tacos at Rubio’s in California? They are to die for. I tried making them last week with frozen halibut pieces from trader joes. But then they reeked of a fishy smell despite being frozen. :(So I ended up tossing them. On the upside, I learned that making beer batter is really easy.
Sounds like you had an amazing weekend! I can’t wait to go to Jer’s work functions!
Never been to Rubio’s – but now it is on my radar! I feel you with the frozen fish. We really don’t buy frozen fish anymore because it does tend to be fishier than fresh fish. Totally unappetizing.
Glad you had a nice, relaxing, disconnected (internet-wise) weekend filled with good food! Is there anything better? No.
Also, I’m worried about you and your VBS. I hope that whatever is going on is not, in fact, as bad as it may seem at the moment. I’ve got my own VBS situation going on as well, though I’m not really brave enough to write about it – even vaguely- the way you are. So major props to you. I’m sure it’s very therapeutic.
Lastly, can you guys spray for bugs in your apartment? Ewwww.
After I commented on your post about bugs, I, too, had 3 diferent spider encounters at my house! Did you jinx us all? We’ve angered the bugs, and they’re coming out to get us….
That is terrifying.
Um – you were a cheerleader too?!?!?!? We seriously have so much in common 🙂
Glad to hear you had such a great weekend!! I’ve discovered that Simon likes to eat bugs – very helpful with ants I find crawling across the floor!!
Yay for cheerleaders! And ant-eating puppy dogs!
You forgot about us??? 😉 I lounged out by the pool EVER DAY THIS WEEK. Yup, awesomely fabulous! Super exciting! I’m glad you were able to relax and enjoy! And his year is almost over woot woot!
I could never forget about YOU!!
I had a wonderful weekend and didn’t spend one single second on the computer, either 🙂
So glad you got some quality r&r not only with your husband, but also with another couple!
Funny, how things seem to take so long, and then before you know it, they’re almost over! You weekend was much more eventful than mine. I’ve been reading. I guess I finished two of the 5 books in the series I’m reading, but my classes start Thursday, so I don’t know that I will finish them!
Sounds like a great weekend! I would highly encourage more “unplugging” for relaxing! Although… Bridezillas is a highly addictive show. So maybe that doesn’t count toward plugged time. And isn’t homemade guacamole the best? I love it on nachos.
Love love love homemade guac. Love love love nachos as well. YUMSTERS.
It sounds like you had an awesome weekend. The pool lounging/beer drinking/reading/hamburger-eating/photograph-taking stuff sounds especially great to me. I hope the thunder stays far in the distance.
My weekend was also fantastic. I am still kvelling about what a great time I had: caught up with my favorite friends, drank fancy cocktails, ate amazing food, walked all over the place, got my eyebrows threaded (only $6! it’s like $20 here) and spent time with my favorite guy. Yay for great weekends!
Sounds like a fabulous weekend. 🙂
Stupid bugs.
I got stung by a bee on Sunday. I’m ready to chop my arm off cause it’s so itchy.
NO! That sucks!!
Pizza, beer, friends, pool, cards, staying up late? OMG. I don’t often pine for life before kids, but that little anecdote did me in. Sniff!
Your weekend does sound like one of the best ever! Tennis, good friends, pool time, and tacos sound perfect. That is so awesome that your husband’s intern year is almost over!!! I absolutely know how you feel! My husband started his last rotation for his first year of fellowship today and when I say that to other people, it doesn’t sound as exciting as it feels when my husband and I talk about it. You probably know what I mean by that. So I understand how amazing that feeling really is.
Also, about the tortillas for fish tacos. I use the blue corn tortillas from Trader Joe’s and we love them. They’re only 60 calories each and really tasty. My only complaint about them is that they’re fairly thin and the fish can soak through them if you don’t eat them quickly. I’ve also bought the handmade corn tortillas from Trader Joe’s and those are great too. They have more calories (maybe around 100 or so) and are a little thicker.
xo
Valerie
OMG – when my husband gets to that last rotation of fellowship year, I am going to be ECSTATIC.
Thanks for the tortilla recs – I will have to try both of those out!
Sounds like a fab weekend, you deserve it. I a fantastic one myself, will post about it later!
Aww, that sounds like a nice weekend, MINUS THE SPIDER CRAWLING ON YOUR LEG. I WOULD STILL BE SCREAMING. Seriously, WORST THING IN THE WORLD.
I’m hopeful to hear about your Very Bad Situation though–that would be amazing it if it got better and you could look back and laugh! Here’s hoping.
Yes, here’s hoping!!
I was very tough. No screaming. Just some mild shrieking. 🙂
Sounds like you’ve been doing a lot of exciting things while away from the internet! Any event you get to wear a dress to and eat anything containing crab cannot possibly be a bad thing regardless of record high temps. But seriously, glad to hear you’ve been out and about doing fun things, and even inside relaxing over the holiday weekend. My life has been mostly uneventful as of lately.. but who knows what kind of things summer will bring.
Time off WITH an intern hubby is an amazing gift. I’m so glad you got to enjoy your time together.
The bug drama is cracking me up.
I’m so glad you had a wonderful weekend! After reading about the bugs, I too had to remind myself that the hair tickling my shoulder was just hair…haha.
How great!
My weekend was sooo good too. It could not have been better. I love holidays. I think we should have three day weekends once a month. Think of the improved quality of life!
congrats on #7. i’m jealous. though, we’re rounding our way into fourth year which he tells me will be a breeze. here’s hoping!
I’m in the midst of a Very Bad Situation that has no end in sight. I’m trying to focus on the good seeing as I can’t control the VBS and it could be going on for a long, long time. Sigh.
Glad you found sunshine! I had a great weekend of cuddling, so I found mine too 🙂
Sounds like a fantastic weekend… well, except for all the encounters of the bug kind.
Eek, just reading it makes me want to look around and make sure nothing’s crawling on me!
Congrats on intern year almost being over! What a sigh of relief (I won’t mention that 2nd year comes with more responsibility and has been even tougher…oops, wait, I didn’t mean to type that!) 🙂 Either way, it’s something to be celebrated for sure!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
I would totally sweat it out for free booze. HA!
I’m so glad you had a great weekend. I hope everything else is okay though…sending you hugs!!