Two of Five is Almost Half Done

Trail marker at the head of the path to Happy Bay

It’s Sunday June 10th, and tomorrow Carina heads into the second block week of her second semester.  This means we literally won’t see her all week.  And, as there are four blocks per semester, it also means her second semester is almost half over.

Wow.

Wow!

Okay, now that I’ve gotten the “wows” out of the way, I do also have to say that it’s nice not having Cari being in her first semester any more, for a couple of reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

Grandma, Grandpa, Andi, Piper and Tanner down on the beach below our condo

Well, tomorrow morning life is going to change dramatically. Again.  Cari goes back to school, and I go back to work.

For Cari, it’s been a fantastic, relaxing, rejuvenating and much needed three week break. For me, it’s been a… (searching for just the right words…) a … an unexpected  but inspired four month weekend.

Just today I got word that tomorrow I will start a short-term contract for a company in Minneapolis to code a new web-based application for them. It’s not a long term gig, but it’s work. And I’m grateful.  On one hand I never thought it would take this long to find a company that would let me work entirely from a remote location, but on the other hand, not working the first semester of Cari’s schooling is exactly what our family needed while we all settled in to this strange new land.

But more on this later.  Right now I want to focus on my Mom & Dad’s visit and on Cari’s break. Happily, my parents were able to arrange there visit to coincide with Cari’s freedom so we could all spend time together.  And we had so much fun!  I’m not even sure where to begin, so, let’s start with Cari’s birthday. Read the rest of this entry »

Carina and her lab partners

Around my neck was my plastic AUC id, as it hung from the lanyard, I lifted it up to show the guard at the entry gate and he let me pass. My Molecular Cell Biology final would commence in T-minus 20 minutes and it would be the last of many exams taken over my first semester of medical school.

Four months ago, but an eternity in other ways, I walked in to the gross anatomy lab for the first time wearing my new blue scrubs and all my insecurities tucked near the surface of my wavering facade. There in front of me was a very sterile looking lab room and immediately I locked gaze with the large black bags atop ten tables. The smell was completely unfamiliar. I thought after spending hours in a surgery internship that the smell of human flesh would be nothing new. So I learned that living tissue is completely different. The preservation method to keep these bodies fresh required formaldehyde, and this was a new smell that burned my eyes and seared my nasal passages. After hundreds of hours, I never really got used to it.

Our class of 90 students was divided up into groups of six people per lab table. I was assigned to table 3. I wish I could describe how I felt as I stood next to the airplane bag (they called them) with my cadaver inside. Surreal. Our professors gave a brief dedication and we gave a moment of silence to recognize the lives of those who offered their bodies in the name of science and for the benefit of our learning. Read the rest of this entry »

Carina getting out and enjoying the shops on Front Street with family and friends

Block weekends are no fun, for anyone.  “Blocks” are just a nice way of saying “killer exams”, and all of Cari’s classes have them on the same Monday, four times a semester.  For most of the week leading up to blocks we don’t see much of her. And the weekend before, we don’t see her at all, unless she’s asleep in bed.  Okay, she still comes to church with us, but other that those three hours, she is held up on campus with her nose buried in text books, flash cards, notes and anatomy videos.  For 14 hours a day.

On Block Monday she gets up extra early and gets in a last few hours of review before she spends pretty much the entire day taking exams.  When she comes home she is finally able to relax a little, but she’s on pins-and-needles until she is able to get online later that evening and see her results.

On those Monday evenings we’ve usually made it a point to do something fun, like go out to a movie and dinner.  But the real fun comes on the weekend after blocks.   That’s when we kidnap Cari for an entire Saturday and bring her to places on the island we’ve been enjoying all along,  but which she hardly ever gets to see. Read the rest of this entry »

The Crookstons is proudly powered by WordPress and the Theme Adventure by Eric Schwarz
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).

The Crookstons

Work hard. Play often. Be nice.