Viva

Oh, hello there Blah-g. Hi.

No, my Christmas present was not a one-way trip off the face of the planet, but it has been brought to my attention that it may have appeared that way to anyone who only keeps up with me through this blog. Oops.

The truth of the matter is that I got pretty wrapped up in living this past month and a half and got a bit overwhelmed with things to write about so… well, I didn’t. I just decided to go with the flow and see how things panned out (and any of those other cliché phrases for “take no active participation in the present because… *flap hands in helpless worry*”).

Turns out two things have happened in that time: (1) Things haven’t slowed down, and (2) I’ve filled my creative outlet time with facebook and trashy celebrity gossip.

Gross.

So I think perhaps it’s time to pick back up the cyber-chronicling---“e-emoting,” if you will---and stop telling myself that I’ll get to it when I have time. Because it seems that I’ve simultaneously got no time at all and all of the time in the world.

Here’s the quick n’ dirty version of what’s been going on in the lives of Mrs. & Mr. Dr. D over the past month or so. I may end up fleshing some of these things out in the (hopefully near) future:

• We had a wonderful holiday visit in California, and I said my goodbyes---or I guess more like "see you laters"---to my childhood home. Mom & Dad are currently in the process of moving to Texas, which is proving to be quite the adventure, and not necessarily in the more positive sense of the word. Yee-haw?
• Dr. D is kicking all sorts of butt (in the most healing, professional way possible) in his rotations, and is currently half way through his 12 week internal medicine rotation. He sees his own patients and works full days... can't we just call him a real doctor now?
  
• I'm taking 3 evening classes this semester on top of working full time, amassing upwards of 400 pages of reading each week. I'd be incredibly indignant if I were having to pay for such torture, but the classes are a free benefit of my job, sooo.... sucking it up now.
• We've taken to re-writing the words of popular rap and pop songs, as I'm sure many pet owners do, to somehow incorporate J-dog so that we can sing and dance with him around the house. It originally started with us singing "J-dog da poodle!" to the tune that Jason Derulo sings his own name (IN EVERY SONG! WHYYY?!), but has morphed into intricate reworkings of complex lyric genius. I'm talking moments of brilliance where we switch words like "dougie" to "doggy" and "slizzard" to "blizzard." I mean, wow.
• We survived snOMG/Snowmaggedon/Snowpocalypse. I can tell we've finally been acclimated to the experience of winter, because we were like "What? Only 7 inches? Where's the 20 they promised?" Apparently Chicago got it all... no fairsies.
• Dr. D and I braved the Cheesehead Chatter (another Dad-coined term) on a connecting flight out of Milwaukee this past weekend (Yes, we get it. Green Bay is in the Superbowl, dontcha know!) and flew to Las Vegas to surprise Dr. D's mom, Lil Momma, for her birthday. We got to wear disguises and everything! (and consequently almost got kicked out of the casino by the staff because our disguises were so obviously fake... heh)

So yeah, that pretty much gets you up to speed. I think I'll leave you with a haiku, since I tend to write them in my head while I put off reading for class, which is exactly what I'm doing now...

I'm totes focusing
on this reading about hist---
Yuck. My dog just burped.

'Tis the season

Christmas in CA

Dr. D and I are now safe and sound in our Californian hometown for the Christmas season, although we somehow managed to bring the poor weather of the Midwest along with us. I don't really mind the rain so much, though, because I'm focusing on everything that this season and our hometown visits inevitably bring:

1. Mom's expertly decorated Christmas tree, complete with matching wrapping paper on the presents below---someone give this woman an interior design job, stat! She'd probably also settle for hosting a show on HGTV... just throwing that one out there for all of you television industry folks who are devoted readers of my blog.
2. Swapping music, youtube clips, and stories with my Hollywood-dwelling, drum-playing Broseph.
3. Lovin's from my other homedog, Old Man. (shh... don't tell J-dog)
4. Engaging in the extreme home sport that my father has coined "Power-Lounging," which consists of deftly flopping onto furniture for extensive relaxation sessions.
   
5. Fretting with Dr. D's mom on the sideline of intense impromptu living room wrestling matches between the boys (Dr. D, his dad ODP, and his little bro Six). Love manifests itself in many ways, folks.
6. Time spent with friends we've known for 15+ years, typically eating midnight donuts at our favorite 24-hour donuts shop (yes, there are multiple in town).
7. Driving around in my parents' '68 Mustang, looking cool but secretly hoping it doesn't break down on us.
8. Running into people from high school, which typically turns out one of three ways: (1) Awesome, (2) Pleasant, (3) Awk. Ward.
   
9. Food. Massive quantities of it.
10. Laughing. Even more of it than food.

Old Man

"Prepare to encounter real life!"

That's what the sign says on the back of the door of my childhood bedroom, written with one of those battery-operated squiggly pens from the '90s (remember those?). It's a constant reminder from my 12 year old self that life gets much more complicated beyond that wooden door, so it would be best to prepare oneself.

And that's what I've tried to do over the past 24 hours, as our 10 day vacation came to a close and we flew back to our newest home, across the country and far away from the family and friends with whom we filled those short but seemingly infinite days.

Real life, indeed: 200+ emails in my work inbox and tornado warnings. Thank you, Midwest.

Still, there's plenty of reasons that make being back home a reason to celebrate. Among the more notable are: a reunion with J-dog, our own bed, an upcoming gathering of our local friends, and being back in the land of $4 (or less) malty beverages.

Our vacation kept us very busy--one of those vacations that makes you want another vacation to recover--but we packed it all in. The main events were a wedding of our dear friends (in which Dr. D was a groomsman and I was an impromptu day-of coordinator, but more on that later) and my birthday, which I happen to share in common with my mother. It was great to be able to spend our birthdays together and indulge; mother-daughter mimosas and chocolate fondue were definitely a must. I love how in-tune our tastes are.

Now it's back to the grind. Work will start getting very busy for me starting in August, and Dr. D starts his 3rd year of med school and first rotation (family medicine) on Monday. Should make for some interesting stories!