Ch ch ch changes!

It’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks!  With the wedding behind us I’m now focusing on the next major life event: relocating to Nashville, TN.  I’ve made it to The Music City safely and there are no words to express my excitement and contentedness.  It’s just so amazing to be reunited with Adam and live in the same apartment.  We keep reminding each other “Hey I’m your wife/husband and we live here together.” Pinch me. Okay…yeah, vomit.  Sorry.  But seriously, we’re just so thrilled.  All is right again!

Hooray! Officially a Tennessee resident!

Adam is working nights and I still haven’t started my new job yet, so we’re in this strange twilight world land all the time.  But… I’ve been using the time to do all the work that you sort of forget about when you get married: thank you notes, name change stuff, moving stuff, etc. etc.  Most of it requires a lot of paperwork and running around, but I’ve made some decent progress and I’m feeling good!

We also drink out of these fancy glasses when we’re bored.

Speaking of work… I found a new job and I’ll start in a couple weeks!  The position involves a LOT of travel, which I’m excited/scared about.  I used to travel a ton for another job and it makes ‘balance’ in life a very tricky thing.  HOW WILL I BRING MY WEIGHTS IN MY SUITCASE?!?  A crisis I still haven’t settled.  I know being healthy on the road will be a challenge, but something that will force me to be more creative than ever before!  Plus I’m so used to this whole ‘healthy’ thing and I love it.  Well, I love how it makes me feel.  That’s something I definitely don’t want to give up.

Speaking of healthy… as promised I am just giving myself a get out of jail free card and just enjoying food to my heart’s desire.  Honestly the week or so before the wedding I was pretty stressed and didn’t do a good job of “everything in moderation.”  I didn’t really purposefully deprive myself, but let’s just say I was really ready for some pizza after the wedding.  (Note: we did order a pizza the Sunday after the wedding).  But… now that I’ve had my fill of chocolate and chipotle and deliciousness I have been reminded of why I generally try to eat well in the first place (And why I stay away from deprivation: it just makes you want more).  You. Just. Feel. Better.  I’ve toned down the candy this week and I’m already feeling a bit more like myself.  Adam and I are planning to start P90X3 one of these weeks before I start my job and I’m looking forward to getting back into a routine.  Though this mental break from exercise and meal planning has been welcome.  I’m a huge fan of planned breaks – it always is a good reminder of why you put in the work to stay healthy in the first place!  Though I do feel a bit rebellious to admit how little I’m exercising and how much chocolate I’m eating. Wahaha. Everybody needs a break right?? :)

And finally… my “bridal style” has been featured on a blog!  I know, right!?  Nuts.  I’m planning on doing a couple wedding posts once I get gather the energy to do it right :)  So in the meantime, check out the blog post with a few of the professional shots!! :)

Yay fancy wedding pictures!

 

 

http://www.theblacktiebride.com/black-tie-bride-style-kelly-at-the-fountainview/

Have a great week!

-Kelly

Run-cation, Nashville, and an Audition!

It has been an exciting and busy last couple of weeks around here!  I took my first trip to Nashville to visit Adam, celebrated the 4^th, and managed to squeeze in an audition.  I feel like I’m running, running, running! (Okay – bad use of the word running…I’m still not physically running, le sigh).  Remarkably I’m feeling a bit better about the whole not running thing.  Or maybe I’ve just started to accept it as the best thing for right now.  I’m still hopeful a fall race is in my future – though I am also accepting the reality that a sub 1:50 half-marathon is not very likely.  And that’s okay.  At this point, I’d be happy just being able to run at all!  I’m going to pull the trigger on a race sometime in August when I need to start my training.  For the next few weeks I’m going to enjoy a real break from running and focus on fitness in other ways.  I’m thinking of it as my vacation from running.  I also have enough other hobbies to keep me verybusy!

These guys are feeling sad and neglected.

Nashville

Last weekend I made my first voyage to Adam’s new home in Nashville!  It was a wonderful visit and awesome to check out his new place.  I wasn’t able to help him apartment search so it was my first time seeing his apartment.  He did a great job picking it out – great location and very cute.  It’s definitely small, but the location makes it worth it.  We had fantastic weather and spent time helping some friends from college apartment hunt.  You read that correctly – two of our close friends are also moving to Nashville!  How cool is that?!  The weekend was far too short, and it made me a little jealous of the three of them down there without me!  Patience Kelly.  On my drive back to Indy I was pretty sad.  Okay, really sad…but it makes me so happy knowing Adam has an awesome gig down there!

Out with friends – the new Nashville crew unites!

Adam also officially started his residency!  Scary stuff.  He’s really a doctor now (crazy!) and has 4 years of training to continue learning.  Adam is one of the most calm people I know- just cool as a cucumber, seriously…nothing ruffles his feathers.  The day before his first day of work was a different story – he was nervous, stressed, quiet, distracted.   I was actually fascinated by it!  It was so interesting to see a totally different side to him.  He has now survived his first week and is settling into things.  The days are long (12-14 hours) and he only gets 1 day off a week for this rotation (no 4^th of July celebration for him), but I know he’s really happy with his program and is learning a lot!  He’s not really getting workouts in, but at this point I’m just hoping he eats food and sleeps!  Priorities people!  It will be interesting to see how we settle into a new routine of long distance with his extreme schedule.

Absolutely I took a picture of Adam walking into his first day at the hospital like a creepy stalker.

Celebratory sushi! Here’s to the first year of residency! Hopefully not like Grey’s Anatomy.

Look – I’m a doctor now… I get an iPad.

Nashville itself is an awesome city.  I can’t wait to spend more time there.  We ate a lot of great food, heard a lot of awesome music, and soaked in the fabulous warm weather.  It’s an exciting next step!

I love brunch, lunch, dinner, and late night – how convenient!

Our first breakfast out and about in Nashville!

An Audition

One of my favorite Christmas classics, White Christmas, will be on stage in Indianapolis!  I adore the music and story and couldn’t wait to audition for it.  I thought the auditions would come sometime in September, right before rehearsals.  Surprise!  They were Monday of this week – yes, it’s July!  They did joint auditions for another show (which I may or may not have also auditioned for?), which is in September, hence the earlier audition.  I found out about it last week and scrambled to get myself ready in time.  The only problem: I have extreme audition anxiety.  It’s terrible!  I love performing and have been doing it since I was a kid (singing, dancing, acting)… but auditions are a nightmare for me.  I could hardly think on Monday… talk about nervous wreck.  In light of this extreme anxiety, I still did pretty well at the audition!  My definition of pretty well?  Really I just want to perform my pieces well (1 minute monologue, 16 bars of music, dance combination).  Auditions are so much more than just ‘nailing it’ and you get the part.  The director also usually is going for a specific look, age, etc. etc.  There are so many factors going into the final casting – all I hope to do is perform my personal best.  And I did!  I was thrilled.  I may not be what they are looking for – but I showed them what I can do!  I anticipate it will take up to a week to hear any word, and everyone that auditioned will get a call whether we are in the show or not.  That is such a relief to find out either way.  My fingers are crossed!

Number 25 – my FAVORITE number. Can you tell that I’m beyond nervously sickly anxious?

Wedding Dresses!

With both my Maid of Honor and Matron of Honor in town for the 4^th – we made good use of our time and went bridesmaid dress shopping!  Wohoo!  I was hoping for a dress that complements mine, but  also fun and something they love.  Essentially they could pick any dress they wanted as long as it didn’t look dumb.  :)  I’m easy to please.  Amazingly enough we all settled on the same dress!  We all love it (or they are really good liars) – really there couldn’t be a better fit!  It looks amazing on both of them, is comfortable, the same material as my dress (shh… a clue), and has pockets!  Could it get any better than that??  The only issue?  We don’t know what color… yeah slight hiccup.  Unfortunately the store didn’t have samples of the fabric in sizes larger than tiny so we couldn’t decide.  I’m leaning towards blue, gray, and ivory as my “colors” – but there were a couple of shades that fit that category.  Adam is thinking navy would look best against a winter backdrop, as it will add some contrast.  But… a beautiful light periwinkle might be gorgeous too!  Any opinions on the colors?  I keep hoping I will wake up in a moment of epiphany and know the perfect color!

Hmmm… blue? (Not this dress…but this fabric)

Or gray?? (Not this dress, but this fabric)

Or one of these colors??

Happy Hump Day!

-Kelly

Any opinions on bridesmaid dress colors?  Have you ever auditioned for a musical?

Match Day Excitement!

Ahh Match Day.  For those of you that know nothing about Match Day, it is best summed up as the day that medical students work towards for 8+ years.  It is the day where all students know where they will go for their residency.  Adam is in his last year of med school, so we had the pleasure (or torture) of going through Match Day this past Friday.

What is Match Day?

Residency placement is unlike the normal job interview process.  Instead of interviewing at locations, gathering offers, negotiating and choosing the best one, you rank them and are ‘matched’.  Adam interviewed at many schools across the country, and once he completed all his interviews, he submitted a ranking.  He could rank the schools in whatever order he’d like, but the list would then be compared to the programs’ own rank lists (of all the students they interviewed).  All of the information is put into a computer and the results are spit out, matching each student with a slot at a program.  This is the way it works for all med schools and residency programs across the entire country – insane, I know!  You can learn more about the match process here if you’re curious.

The Ceremony

Adam finished his interviews in January and ranked the programs in February.  I was an absolute wreck going into the ceremony Friday.  I ended up taking a day off of work to experience it with him.  The ceremony was also live broadcast so family and friends could join in across the country.

Students were called up in groupings of 5 and handed the envelope with their placement. After receiving their envelope, they could open it on stage to announce it to the room, open it in line, or take the envelope and leave the room.  They even provided a screen for students to go behind if they wanted some privacy to open their results.  Adam and I opted to go up on stage together (you could bring a loved one with you if you so desired –  wives/husbands, brothers/sisters etc).  We also decided to open the envelope on stage instead of opening it a few minutes prior.  We wanted our family/friends to see our reactions.

The ceremony started at 12 and was over at 1pm.  All of the results were posted online at 1 (actually 1:05), so it needed to be short and sweet.  Adam had a financial aid meeting from 9-11am before the ceremony (talk about not being able to pay attention!).  I had breakfast with my family, who was in town visiting, and then headed over to meet up with Adam.  I expected to be nervous – but I honestly didn’t expect to be quite that worked up.  It was a lot of emotion.  Adam is very gifted so I knew he would be okay (this is my chance to brag about how proud I am of him!), but still you never know…

We made our way up to the room of the ceremony and sat with a big group of friends.  Noon hit and the first group of names were called.  I couldn’t believe my nerves – I wanted to be sick!  The minutes ticked on and his name wasn’t called.  Finally a few friends were called, but still no Adam!  It reached 12:40, and I was actually starting to relax.  The more time  went on the more resigned I was that whatever was in the envelope couldn’t be changed.  Finally around 12:52 Adam was called!  We anxiously went up to the line for the stage.  He was handed his envelope, and we sort of mindlessly made our way closer to the stage.  He grabbed my hand and we were up.  I stood behind him as stepped up to the microphone.

The Result!

“I really hope this says Gryffindor”

Opening the envelope.

“Hi I’m Adam, and I have matched into Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville!”

Shakingly make our way off stage and hug…a lot.

We made it!  We know – the information was now in our hands. Vanderbilt is a great school, and Adam was very excited to be placed in such a fantastic program.  I’m so proud of him!  This will bring some complications as Nashville is about a 4 hour drive, but we’re excited as we start figuring out what this match means.

Guess we need to buy some cowboy boots :)

-Kelly