sea.side

The past eleven days of my life, summarized:

Friday: Pick up Clay from the airport a whole 45 minutes later than planned, thanks to the bomb scare (AKA plumber trying to check a bag full of pipes) that morning at MSP. Hit the road, and after a rainy, windy and winding drive, arrive in Seaside, Oregon at 10. Get Pizza Hut to go. Check into our home base for the weekend complete with ocean view, Inn at the Shore, and venture down to dip our toes in the (even colder than we imagined) sea. 

Saturday: Rise and shine early to grab a view of the Pacific before the beach fills with people. Wander a mile down the beach at low tide towards downtown Seaside, complete with stops to check out sand dollars and crab shells, and for Clay to play tag with the lapping waves. Grab breakfast in town, and take the famous Promenade back to the hotel, strolling parallel to the ocean. Drive down Route 101 to Cannon Beach to explore Haystack Rock, where we encounter sea anemones and starfish galore. Discover how much I love the word "anemone." Roll up our jeans after losing a battle with the waves to get close-up shots with the sea life. Explore the 1960s-ish downtown Seaside, especially the candy stores (Clay's fav). Try crab cakes for the first time at Norma's (thanks for dinner, Kim :).

 

         

Sunday: Head towards Cannon Beach, and make a (great) last-minute decision to navigate through the rainforest to Ecola State Park. Hike, climb, traverse, watch the (totally crazy) surfers and get a little muddy. Drive past eight moose grazing by the side of the road. Swing by the Crab, Seafood and Wine Festival in Astoria, the little city that has been home to Free Willy, The Goonies, The Guardian, Kindergarten Cop, Into the Wild, and The Ring Two. Sample crab (I'm hooked), taste wine, and eat corn dogs for lunch (don't judge). Introduce Clay to Parkland, and to my host, Vilma. Open up an account at Blockbuster so that I can watch all the great movies Clay can't believe I've never seen this week. (Hope the decision will make me more fluent in movie quotes.) Get all fancied up and head to The Melting Pot for dinner (thanks, Mom!). 

Monday: No work! Drive to Seattle in the morning to stock up on fresh seafood for the week from Pike Place Market and grab fresh sushi for lunch, just one day before some crazy May Day riots broke out around downtown. As for that afternoon and the rest of the week...

Our cooking triumphs: coconut shrimp with thai ginger linguini; seared scallops with roasted red pepper orzo; chicken quesadillas with chipotle sweet potato fries. 

Movies to check off the list: Goodfellas, Blow, Dumb & Dumber, the Social Network, and just for fun-- Easy A and Cruel Intentions. Didn't get to Silence of the Lambs. (darn.)

Memorable meals out: Violet white chocolate mocha and teriyaki pineapple eggs in Gig Harbor; Orange Creamsicle drink & Bang a Gong and Slow Ride pizzas at The Rock; parmesan fries to die for from Harmon Brewing Co. in Tacoma.

As for weekend number two-- Witness the Twins' seventh win of the season, a 3-2 victory over the hometown Mariners at Safeco Field on Friday night, where we battle cold and drizzle, listen to Pearl Jam's lead guitarist strum the national anthem, seat-hop (watching Capps seal the deal in the bottom of the 9th behind home plate) and sample some grub. Explore Gig Harbor on Saturday morning. Play two rounds of mini golf at the impressively well-kept Parkland Putters. (round one: we tie. round two: Clay wins by 2, meaning I buy the smoothies.) Concocted the Clay Breakfast Special-- southwest hash browns, eggs over easy and French toast- on Sunday morning, followed by a serious movie marathon. 

                

    

But alas, all good things come to an end. After an awfully memorable 10 days, Clay headed home this morning to resume his job as interim editor at the Monti Times, while I began my 7th of 11 weeks at MVP, complete with a whopping seven evals and the first double booking of my young PT career. Though the warm and sunny weather was conducive to my 4-mile lunchtime run, it made for a high cancellation rate, so thankfully 7 evals became a much more bearable 3. Back to reality this week, AKA studying for boards, working on my Emergency Medical Responder certification, and perfecting my resume...

On that note, I need sleep first. Good night from the West Coast :)

happy earth day!

What a whirlwind of a week. Long day Monday, then a smooth trip home on Tuesday, where I was greeted at the Humphrey Terminal by Clay and his beautiful bouquet of flowers. Despite two early mornings (5 am CDT/3 am PDT), it was so great to see Mom, Dad, Ben and Clay. The interview itself, for the Fairview/

Institute for Athletic Medicine Sports PT Residency, was awfully stressful but it was a good learning experience. Though it was hard to say goodbye a whole 32 hours after I arrived, knowing Clay will be landing in Seattle this Friday made my departure was just a little easier. 

(FYI: In honor of Earth Day, in addition to my extra Earthy photos, everything in BLUE is a link.)

Point Defiance

Albeit, life here is slightly less interesting and more solitary than life at home. Here's how I've spent the weekend:

- Eating a lot of taco chicken chili. (Yum. But I easily have 10 meals worth...so slightly less yum.)

- Running around Point Defiance-- but I guess I didn't do a very good job of staying on Five Mile Road because I only ran 3?

- Catching playoff hockey on NBC... at 10am (Giroux! 14 points. Flyers are going far. And WHO is this Holbty guy?)

- Spending quality time with my boards review book. (I won't bore you with details.) 

- Listening to my awesome Basilica Block Party 2012 playlist on Spotify (Train, Mat Kearney, Avett Brothers, OAR, The Head and the Heart, Fitz and the Tantrums, Tyrone Wells and Imagine Dragons...)

- Wasting time on my new fav website: Greatist. Addicting. It tells me that St. Olaf, Bowdoin and U-Pitt (where Ben starts this fall) are amongst the nation's top 25 healthiest colleges!

- Drinking sparkling lemonade, my weekend treat from Trader Joe's, out of my German beer stein.

How convenient-- my top 2 played artists in the past 6 months are BOTH at Basilica!

As I get ready to face the work week, the countdown continues: t-5 days till Clay lands! Fun fact: my CI's birthday is next weekend, so we both get next Monday off-- meaning we can take our time as we venture back from our weekend in Seaside, Oregon. Woo! 

Last but not least, a bon voyage shoutout to Ben, as he tackles manual farm labor and conquers swing dancing competitions living in France over the course of the next three months. Safe travels, bro!

soak up the sun

Another week down in the clinic-- hard to believe I've already been here 3 weeks, and have been away from home nearly a month. Life at MVP is pretty good. I'm learning lots from my CI, and see an average of 8-10 patients a day. My current favorite patient is a 90-year old man recovering (quite well, I must say) from a hip replacement. Despite the fact that we communicate solely through an interpreter, we get along quite well. I've seen loads of shoulder patients so far, am becoming more comfortable with the neck, and even have a high schooler with chronic regional pain syndrome, the most bizarre diagnosis I've seen in an orthopedic setting yet. 

can you spot the only hockey memorabilia in the clinic? (at least it's a signed Miracle On Ice photo!)

Considering many Tacomites are employed by Boeing or JBLM (Joint Base Lewis McChord), a huge Air Force base, we see quite a few vets, and kids of military men who incessantly call me "ma'am," regardless of how many times I ask them to call me by my first name. MVP also plays host to future PTs, PTAs and ATs who are looking to boost the volunteer hour numbers on their grad school applications. Pretty cool to be followed around and to field PT questions-- I love teaching!

We've been blessed with sunshine most of this week and weekend, which resulted in several lunchtime runs through Lakewood. I maintain that the best way to really see a city is to run though it-- that's how I got to know Brunswick, Northfield and Rockford. During the rare rainy days this week, I was introduced to "sucker holes," as they're lovingly called, which refer to temporary breaks in the clouds which suddenly turn back to rain. Thought it was going to be a sunny day after all? Sucker! One day, it was sunny on one side of the building, and around the corner, it was pouring. I rest my case. 

As for this weekend- I've ventured back into the kitchen, where I've spent little time since living in Rockford. Alas, I'm taking a hiatus today, as I no longer have any A) free Tupperware, or B) room in the fridge. Between Friday and Saturday, I whipped up: 

-a thai shrimp spinach wrap with zucchini (my own creation, nice and zesty)

-baked apple cinnamon chips (so dang easy, and just as healthy-- delicious)

-sweet barbecue crock pot chicken (my #1 favorite recipe, maybe ever)

-no bake energy bites (quick energy, perfect for when I'm en route to the gym)

-coconut-crusted French toast (not my best meal yet)

-quinoa mac and cheese (the ONLY way I'll eat quinoa from now on--awesome)

quinoa mac & cheese, with leftover bbq chicken

I couldn't be more excited for this week, well until next week, that is (when Clay visits for 11 days!, and we head to the ocean!). 12 hours in the clinic Monday, then on Tuesday, 1) I will be officially 8 weeks post-op (with full ROM, and rapidly improving strength :), 2) Train's latest release, California 37, will be music to my ears en route to... 3) sweet home Minnesota! I fly out that evening for a brief 30-some hour trip back to the midwest.

Let's hope the next few days fly by so I can fly home. In his words, only one more edition of the Monti Times before my sports writing beau picks me up from MSP. See you soon, MN!