A Beautiful Day

Kody and I saw U2 in Norman last night. Please excuse how beautiful we both look in this picture.



We were in a box. You are jealous, right?



It was awesome.



I will be the first to admit I am not a crazy U2 fan. I like their music, but I don't own any of their music. However, a few of their songs are some of my all time favorites. Sunday Bloody Sunday, With or Without You, Mysterious Ways and Walk On.

I did not get to hear With or Without you because we left right before the encore. It broke my heart to leave before it was played, but I knew it was going to be in the encore and we just couldn't stay any later. Kody had to be at the hospital super early(5:30 AM), I had to drive back to T Town super early this morning (6:45 AM) and we wanted to beat traffic. It was horrible on the way there. Stupid road construction.

The show was fantastic. The set up was amazing. We were in a box (fancy, right?) so we were warm and fed the entire show. It was a great evening. Other than the fact that we walked the ramp to the suites instead of taking the elevators, I have no complaints. We were idiots. It was my idea. We definitely got our workout in for the day. My feet can feet it today. We walked it faster than anyone else there though, so I was pretty proud of our performance.

I've seen a lot of great bands and performers in my short life so far. I'm really happy I can add U2 to the list!

Now I want an Irish accent.

Interview Number Two

The Mr. leaves bright and early tomorrow for his second residency interview. This one is in Michigan. He is really excited and yet very calm. Everyday I ask him if he is freaking out yet. He keeps saying no, but I think it is about to hit in a few hours. I can sense it. He'll be great. He is irritatingly charming when he needs to be. I say irritatingly because it comes so naturally to him when he needs to be "on". I'm praying for him to stay calm and for the right words to come out of his mouth. That boy can talk his way into or out of almost anything.

As long as he keeps the "ums", "ers" and "likes" to a minimum I think he'll be OK.

Eleven students are interviewing. There are two spots. He has an 18.18% chance of getting one of those two spots. Six of the students are from Michigan State. I hope they don't get a home field advantage.

The actual interview is Saturday morning from 8AM to 10AM. Friday night is a dinner with all the other interviewees (aka the competition) and residents. They are all playing Halo (XBox 360) after dinner. He is horrible at Halo. Hopefully that won't count against him.

If they played Mario Party or NBA Jam he would be a shoe in for a spot.

And The New Bachelor Is...

Jake is such a nice boy.

He looks much dreamier than I remember from last season. Score for the single ladies!

Dressing the Part

This is a really exciting week. Kody has interview number two in Michigan. He leaves Friday morning and returns Saturday evening. I tried to ask him some mock interview questions, but he doesn't think questions like, "Why is your wife the best ever?" are relevant to orthopedic residency positions. Whatever. If programs interviewed spouses, my interview would surely get him a spot.

In style preparation for interviews we went suit shopping this weekend. A big shout out to the folks at Men's Warehouse in OKC on Memorial. They are awesome. Ladies, if your man needs a suit take him there. Yes, it is not the cheapest, but they do it up right. We ended up getting two suits. If you bought one you got a second for only $100. In the suit world that is awesome. Two suits turned into two suits plus two shirts, two ties, two cedar hangers and new socks. My mom donated money for new socks. She was bound and determined Kody was going to have nice, new socks. Ha! They are quite fabulous. Thanks mom. He also got some snazzy new shoes. I picked those out. That was my only style contribution to the whole ensemble.

He got a black suit with some muted pen stripes and a gorgeous charcoal colored suit. Love it. I'm not kidding, he looked high class. Kody cleans up very nice. I'll have to get some pictures. They measured him and tailored the suit to fit him just right. Classic and professional. He is totally going to look the part of a future orthopedic surgeon.

A few other weekend highlights:

• I'm injured
• Florida won
• Midori ate one of my black dress shoes
• Bailey loves her "Karate Dog" Halloween costume (she is a black belt!)
• Adventureland is not really a comedy...we were tricked

Coke at the Fair and I Don't Mean Cola

I'm working at the fair tomorrow. The casino has a trade show booth and a couple of co-workers and myself will be there from 10AM to 2PM. It should be pretty exciting. Not because I think the fair is awesome, but because the people at the fair are amazing.

On Monday, another co-worker of mine worked at our booth. She came back and reported that she saw two women get arrested for snorting cocaine behind the Expo Center where the trade show area is. Seriously? Who goes to the fair to snort coke? Ok, who do that anyway...but really? The fair? Does it make the chocolate covered bacon taste better? Maybe the Zipper gets a new, exotic spin. I'm not sure. I just find the fair an odd place to be doing illegal drugs in public.

I wonder what the people of the Tulsa State Fair have in store for me tomorrow. I can't wait.

It Is Only Monday?

I'm seriously out of it today. I drove to Tulsa from Edmond this morning. Strike one. I got up early to get in twenty minutes on the elliptical before I left. Dumb. Strike two. I'm on a mission to add three short sessions of low impact cardio into my weekly CrossFit routine. To top the day off, I still have to go grocery shopping because I have no food. I don't do well without food. I have semi fallen asleep at my desk about three times today. No worries. My hair looks amazing and not in a good way. I'm also wearing a black button down shirt that is two sizes too large that has been in my closet at my parents home for the past six years without use. Strike three to infinity. No, I'm not kidding. I'm just going to consider today a wash. :)

Oh yeah, plane tickets to Michigan for an interview jumped $100 since Friday. Seriously? Ugh.

I'm looking forward to my evening at home with my precious baby dog. She'll probably just sleep all night and ignore me, but at least she will be there.

4th Year Expenses

The fourth (and last!) year of medical school is going by fast. It is already October. Graduation is only seven months and two weeks away. WOAH. Kody and I are currently experiencing our fifth month since May to not live together on a daily basis. It is strange, yet oddly normal at this point. We have adapted to the insanity quite easily. As I have said before, I now have a part time job as Kody's assistant. I check his email daily, send him daily updates on who he needs to call, fill out paper work, update his schedule, schedule tests, make plane arrangements and research programs. Don't worry, I do all of this because I want to. Some spouses aren't as sweet and fabulous as me. I remind him of that everyday. Kidding. Out of state rotations have made it nearly impossible for him to do these things on his own. Internet access is always limited and so is spare time when you are busy trying to show programs that you are awesome.

As much as I have educated myself about the process of rotations, interviews and match there is one area that I was a little unaware of during fourth year. Expenses. Oh. My. Goodness. I knew we would have extra expenses with boards and what not, but I wasn't prepared for what the last few months have been like. Here is a brief rundown for you future fourth year families on expenses you might have to incur:

• Step 2 Boards - $600
  
• Step 2 Board Practical - $1,096
  
• Travel and hotel to Step 2 Board Practical (in Pennsylvania) - $500
  
• Out of state rotations (gas, food, etc) - Whatever it costs to drive over 3,000 miles
  
• Hotel stays during out of state rotations if housing is not provided - $800
  
• Air fare to visit spouse during out of state rotations - $400
  
• Air fare for interviews at out of state programs - $400
• Registering for the match - $60
  
• Mongolian BBQ for student during out of state rotations - Priceless
  

OK, so the Mongolian BBQ is not a normal expense unless it is next door to your extended stay hotel and you visit it DAILY. Ugh. If you do the math, that is a lot of extra money to spend over a small length of time.

Things I am Thankful For:

• A good job that allows us to be able to handle the extra expenses without too much added stress
  
• Programs that interview students during rotations so they don't have to spend money to travel back later (thank you Ohio!)
  
• Kody being able to stay with my family during rotations in Oklahoma City
• Weekends off
  
• Hospitals that have unlimited free cafeteria access for students
  
• A car that can handle the wear and tear of lots of highway travel without problems

Needless to say, so far fourth year has been interesting. It is still going amazingly well. We are very blessed by how everything is working out and optimistic about the future. If any of you fellow OSU spouses have money questions or questions in general about rotations let me know.

I know too much now. I should write a book...