Touring

About a week before Scientist and I left on our farewell tour, a friend of mine commented on how "romantic" it was of Scientist and I to drop everything and move to West Virginia with nothing. While, on one hand, I totally agree with her--there is something romantic about giving up most material possessions and leaving all family and friends behind all in the name of "love"-- the older I get (I'll be 31 in almost exactly a month) the more I think its just crazy. That and I'm not really a romantic as much as I am sarcastic and cynical. Romantics and idealists usually become hard, bitter people once they've been around the block a few times, so I just skipped my idealistic stage and went straight on to being skeptical of everything.

But I digress.

Once we had all our stuff for our initial trip to Missouri packed up and ready to go (the remaining stuff was sitting in my mother's garage), Scientist and I headed to St. Louis for a few days. Unfortunately, we managed to hit STL in the midst of a nightmarish heat wave that lasted the entire 13 days we were in Missouri. In fact, when we arrived in STL it was a balmy 95 and then proceeded to rise up to 100 degrees (the heat index was actually 109-114 the last few days we were there) by the time we left.

The good news is Scientist's sister, Teacher, took me to David's Bridal where I found the Gown of My Dreams (as a bride this is what I'm suppose to call my wedding dress). Okay, so I didn't know it was the Gown of My Dreams until I came back to CR and tried it on for my mother, but whatever. It is beautiful and, most importantly, will look beautiful on me: its form fitting, strapless, and has a bit of color. I love it. I don't want to give anything else away because some of you who are reading this will actually be at my wedding next August.

Once we left STL we headed down to Springfield, where we hung with Scientist's cousin's family and his wonderful 91 year old grandma. I had been to Springfield once, a long time ago, but hadn't really gotten a chance to do much. Since Scientist knew the area so well, we were able to find lots of cool stuff to do. We even found a gym to work out at (I know, we're obsessed).

On Saturday we decided to visit Scientist's friends in Kansas City. I was really looking forward to walking around KC, but after about an hour or two of dragging ourselves around the main plaza where all the cool stores and fountains are, both of us were sweaty and thoroughly exhausted. Scientist's friends were cool though and it was interesting to meet people that knew him when he was in college.

Sunday and Monday we spent packing up our stuff and tying up loose ends in Cedar Rapids. Unfortunately, I also started to feel icky Monday night. My ickyness would turn into a cold/upper respiratory/sinus infection from hell would drag out for about ten days and which I'm still getting over.

That brings up to our time in Morgantown, which I'll attack in a later post.

We're Moving....No, really....

So, as most of you know, there have been plans in the works for Scientist and I to move since Christmas. And finally finally finally we have a decision. We are moving to Morgantown, West Virginia...in less than two weeks!

Scientist had originally applied for a job in St. Louis (which, as luck would have it, he was offered almost immediately), where he would've been working for Saint Louis University as a post-doctoral fellow. Now, this job wouldn't have been so bad: I really like STL ( no matter what anybody says about it), Scientist's entire family is there, it isn't that far from my Mom and the School of Public Health at SLU (Saint Louis University) is very good. It's in a really shady area in which I was forbidden to walk through alone at night, when most of my classes would've been, but whatever.

Scientist's job in Morgantown, however, is SWEET. He'll be working for a branch of the CDC there, studying cool stuff like "black mold". When we went to Morgantown about a month ago Scientist met with a lot of people in the department, who all seemed cool, and gave a seminar about his work.

The School of Public Health at WVU isn't as old or well established as the one at SLU, but I was impressed by how unbelievably nice and welcoming everyone was towards me. The faculty member I met with was super super cool and very nice, and once I told her about my background etc., there seemed to be no doubt I would get in. Another bonus is she laid out an academic plan for me that allowed me to graduate in summer 2008, which is nice. That means I can plan and have my wedding in peace, without worrying about going to school, plus we can go our honeymoon, which will be overseas and awesome in September after all the tourists have left (more about the honeymoon in a different post).

When we got back from Morgantown we really agonized about what to do. We didn't want to base our entire decision on money, but the job in Morgantown paid $16,000 per year more and the cost of living would be considerably less than in STL. Still, the idea of moving to STL was very alluring; Morgantown is nice, but it doesn't have a lot going on. It actually reminded me of IC before the hospital began building facilities like crazy: the downtown was small, had mostly inexpensive stores and restaurants and a little on the boring side. That and it is a little isolated.

So, we deliberated and deliberated. Then, I got my financial aid notification from SLU. It was $9000 short of the estimated cost of attendance. That meant we would be living in a much more expensive city (rents aren't cheap unless you want to live in the 'hood), with a lot less money and barely enough dough to cover my tuition. So, we decided to move to West Virginia.

I'm very excited. Very. It will be nice to finally, once and for all, get out of Iowa City and see a totally new, not to mention absolutely beautiful, part of the country. We will be three and a half hours from two of my favorite people (Ellen and Brian), not to mention 5 hours from a good friend of our going to grad school in Charlottesville, VA.

I've got a good feeling about this!

Early on a Friday morning, just a few days before Memorial Day, I got a call from my Mom. I knew immedately something was wrong--her voice sounded strange, there was a lot of noise wherever she was and it was 7 am. My mom never calls at 7 am.

Apparently, my 89 year old Grandma had had a brain aneurysm. In fact, she had 2 by the time they transported her from my hometown to the University of Iowa hospital. My mom told me to get to the hospital soon, because it didn't look good.

Over the course of the next few days my family pretty much watched over my Grandma day and night. The neurosurgeons, neurologists and physicans in the Pallitive Care Unit at UIHC were shocked that she made it past the first 24 hours and even more shocked that she made it through the weekend and ended up being transferred to a hospice where she lived for about a week..

Luckily, I was able to spend a lot of time with my grandma. I was able to talk to her and tell her how much all of loved her. I was able to apologize for not sending her a thank you card for something she sent me a few weeks ago, but most importantly I was able to just sit with her.

On Sunday, June 3, 2007 she passed away in her sleep. She lived a full life and will be missed by her family, friends and church.

Hangovers and Christmas

My head hurts and I'm hungover. Out-of-town Ellen and in-town Ellen, along with Darcy, Karen, and I all went to Formosa, this Asian Fusion place, last night for three dollar martinis and I drank a bit more than I'm use to (which is nothing, usually) and now my head hurts. I guess this would be why I don't drink much, huh? That and I was forced to drink huge amounts of alcohol in Ukraine and I'm totally done with doing that to myself now.

As most of you probably know, or guessed by now, I was in St. Louis for the weekend preceeding Christmas with Scientist. We did the usually family stuff, which was pretty fun. I got some nice things from Scientist-- a cool striped sweater and a gift certificate for a massage-- and his family. I got nothing hideous or stupid.

Scientist and I actually got up at the butt crack of dawn on Christmas day and drove back to Iowa, where we went for Christmas dinner (best ever--my aunt and uncle are awesome cooks!) at my grandma's place and opened even more presents. Scientist told me later that he was a little nervous about meeting my whole family (grandma, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc.), but totally relaxed once he realized my family is completely unintimidating. That, and three of cousins had significant others with them, one of whom was new to the scene as well, so it took a great deal of pressure off him.

Since then we've been chillin'. Actually, I've been working and chillin'. I don't know how my manager got the impression I like closing, but I've closed nearly every shift at this new store and I really don't like it. Closing sucks.

We've also been doing a fair amount of cooking (big surprise). For Christmas I bought Scientist an Indian cookbook (along with the new Killers CD and a sweater) and convinced my mom to buy him a rice cooker/food steamer. It ROCKS. We fixed broccoli with cheese for lunch and Butter Chicken for dinner yesterday. Who knew appliances could be so much fun?

Back from St. Louis

I hope everyone had a fabulous, relaxing, work free Thanksgiving. I know I did. I didn't do shit. Actually, that's not true....

I pretty much met all of the Scientist's family--his aunts and uncles, grandma, and cousin's family. They all seemed very nice, although I didn't get a lot of time to talk to each of them individually. His grandma seemed especially sweet, and for 90 years old she seemed really really with it (who still does crosswords at 90--the only person I know who will still be doing crosswords at 90 is Jake).

On Saturday night Steve and I went out with two of his friends from high school, Ice Cream man and his girlfriend, Candle Girl to the Hill, an Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. Everyone had so much pasta and toasted ravioli (a St. Louis thing; afterwards, everytime I told anyone that I had never had toasted ravioli they all got these incredulous looks on their faces and said, "REALLY?") we could barely move and punked out early. We're all 32 and 30 respectively and we're already going to bed at 11 on a Saturday night during Thanksgiving break. Christ.

It was, in all, a really nice, fairly stress-free weekend. I still love St. Louis and would not mind moving there with Scientist next year, and I got to spend time with people he loves while not overdoing it. Hopefully Christmas will be the same, although I doubt I'll be able to go to STL because of my shitty minimum wage job. GRRRR.....

Sore Arse(s)

This is a picture from our fabulous biking vacation in Augusta, Missouri. Actually, at the time this photo was taken there had been no biking whatsoever done. We were, in fact, enjoying a very nice meal at a local brewery the night before our aforementioned fabulous biking vacation.

Let me back up and start from the beginning. Friday afternoon we took off from Iowa City for Augusta. We had, er, Scientist, rather, had made a reservation at the cutest, sweetest little bed and breakfast in Augusta. Apparently, this part of Missouri is known for its wines, and it attracts a fair number of tourists interested in combining some nice uncomplicated wine with biking. An admittedly uncommon combination, but one that works nevertheless.

Anyway, we spent our first (and only night) in Augusta enjoying some semi dry white wine and a nice meal at a local brewery. It would've been nice if one of the wineries had actually stayed open later so that we could've enjoyed sat outside, drank and relaxed, but apparently this time of year they have really funky hours and don't stay open late. We were a little disappointed at first, but it ended up working out well: the food we had at the brewery was good, the waitress was nice, and we got some awesome pictures taken of us together and of each other.

Then we made our way back to our room at the bed and breakfast and relaxed in the semi-broken jacuzzi bathtub (the bubble maker didn't make any bubbles, it just leaked water all over the floor, which in turn dripped water through the ceiling into the restaurant below). Our bed was huge (I literally had to run and jump onto it to get in it--no joke) , comfy and warm. I was out like a light.

The next morning we got up and had the most fabulous breakfast ever--Eggs Benedict. God damn, I love Eggs Benedict! Is there anything better in the world than eggs smothered in hollandaise sauce? In fact, I would venture to say that the bed itself, along with the breakfast made the insane price we paid for everything worth it--maybe that's why it's called a bed and breakfast (badoom ching!).

Then, we started out 26.8 mile ride. It was pretty chilly at first, but we warmed up a bit as time went along. By the time 4:30 rolled around we weren't really talking: not because we were mad at each other, but because both of are respective asses hurt. I didn't believe Scientist when he said we'd be sore by the end of our ride.

Saturday night we visited Scientist's sister, niece and nephew, and then made our way back to his parents place where I fought the urge to crash at 8 pm like the old woman I am. By Sunday afternoon we were back in Iowa City and our little den. What a kick ass weekend.