Benzonia

*whew*

In the past week and a half, Mike has had two job interviews, a job offer, and an entire move to a much different part of the state (the latter just this past weekend). In other words, his world has been completely transformed in just a matter of days. Luckily, my next exam isn't until Friday this week, so I was able to lend myself fully to his cause! Friday he and his guardian went Benzonia to go apartment hunting. After a few successful but less-than-ideal leads, they landed the jackpot in Beulah, right next to Benzonia. An older couple owns an enormous house that is sectioned off into one-bedroom apartments, right on the shore of Crystal Lake. Let me tell you, I thought I had it good living on the Muskegon River (relatively speaking, of course ;) ), but damn, does that boy have a great view! There's not a bad seat in the living room for staring out at the water, and when the windows are open you can hear the waves rolling in . Like the freakin' ocean!

The apartment itself is very charming, and a great place for him. Working together we got all of his things unpacked and put away, and I was happy to go home knowing he was settled. I miss him a lot already though. :(

Tomorrow is his first day teaching and he has parent-teacher conferences in the evening, so I'm not sure when I'll get to hear from him. But I can't wait to find out how his first day goes!! :D *proud*

GREAT NEWS!!

Mike interviewed for a teaching position at Benzi Central High School in Benzonia, Michigan this past Friday, and he just got a call back today and found out that he GOT THE JOB!! OMG!! OMG! I'm incredibly proud of him, and so, so happy that he gets to do what he truly loves. I know he'll be an amazing teacher! :D

He was called in for an interview last Friday morning, and got a call back for a second interview almost immediately after they were finished interviewing the other candidates. Yesterday (Monday) we drove back up for him to meet with the Superintendent, who would pick a final candidate from the hopeful three that remained. This morning on our way to the grocery store the principal called him back with the job offer!

He'll be teaching 10th and 11th grade English, along with a college-prep writing class. Oh my goodness, was he excited, and for good reason. The job market for teachers in Michigan is practically nonexistent, but his patience and positive attitude paid off, and now he gets to go after his piece of the world. I'm so happy for him. I'm so proud. I didn't even know how to tell him how much. To be able to do what he's doing, exactly what he loves, is what The Dream is all about, and not everyone can honestly say they pulled it off.

I love you, Mike. I love you, I love you, I love you, and this is me, being the most proud of you of them all. :D

Pharmacy Day #2

Pharmacy Day was this Friday, which meant no classes! Woohoo! The "fine print," however, says that we have to attend a career fair and boring seminars all day, which end up longer than class would've been in the first place. Uuuuugh. Beth and I, in our unlimited brilliance, hatched a better plan.

We were supposed to be at the auditorium for check-in at 8:45, but around that time, we were feeling pretty hungry, so we decided to have a relaxing breakfast across the street at McDonald's instead. After that, we showed up fashionably late at around 9:10, where we very nonchalantly blended in with the other masses of students. After pretending to mingle with the vendors for about a half an hour (which was more than enough time to get the free-bees we wanted), we scooted off to the nearby Starr Building attached to the auditorium, found a lounge, and hid for over an hour. At around eleven we came back to have our TB tests read, ate lunch, and sat in for a seminar in the auditorium (during which we complained to each other in heated whispers and paid no attention). We decided we'd had enough of this, and after finishing out lunch, we got up and acted like we were going to throw our stuff away outside. We stealthily left the building, ripped off our name tags, and took a sneaky, winding route back to my car. While driving back to the house, we laughed over our miraculous escape.

Arriving back home hours earlier than planned, we decided it would be a better use of time to blow up the inner tubes and float down the Muskegon River. Much better use of time. Now that's my kind of Pharmacy Day. >:-D

I'm still alive, I promise

Oh man, I've just been really busy. That's probably my most used lame excuse. More so than that, I don't have a ton of stuff to report. I've come through a few exams and done well, school is otherwise going just fine, and I love living at the house with Beth. I miss Mike a lot, and I hate having to study constantly again, but eh. That's old stuff anyway.

In actual news, my city lottery was held last week, which will determine my placement for my third year of pharmacy school. I got Kalamazoo!! Which, obviously, was just what I wanted. ;) YAY!

This Friday is Pharmacy Day, so that'll be a whole day worth of.... stuff.... followed by a free t-shirt. Heh, ballin'.

Mike is coming tomorrow. *SQUEE*

Love and the Logical

I LOVE my blog. I love going back and reading where I've been. I sound so friggin' hilarious (and pathetic) in retrospect. ^_^ I'm gonna keep on bloggin'. It's just what I do.

STP

Shruti took her MCAT last Friday, so she finally had enough of a social life for a visit from ME! Woohoo! I drove down to Kalamazoo to visit with her on Sunday, and boy did I miss that girl (and that town!)!! It's been foooooorever since I had seen her, and we had quite a bit of catching up to do. We hit up all our old stomping grounds, and even got kicked out of the mall a half an hour after it closed. :-X Mostly though, we found places to sit for a long time and just talk. That's what we do the very best, Shruti and I. :) Going to school isn't half as much fun without her.

I miss being in Kalamazoo quite a bit too. What's really awesome though, is this Thursday the College of Pharmacy is having its "city lottery" for the second year pharmacy students. For our entire third year of school we will either be in Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo, and the city lottery is for deciding our fate! Most of my classmates want Grand Rapids (because a good majority are from that area), so I'm not worried at all about getting Kalamazoo. Which means a year from now I'll be back in town! Woohoo!

I really do need to study. Geez, I'm so out of studying-shape.

My River

I have to admit, as a drag as pharmacy school can be with its lacking social opportunities and ceaseless workload, I feel extremely lucky this year. First of all, my roommate Beth and I could not be better matched as living buddies. I'm not sure precisely why this is, but it makes me feel pretty damn happy to know that living in such close proximity isn't slowly shredding away the threads of our friendship. Living together can be pretty rough, even with the best of friends, so I'm very happy it's working out. Also, being exposed so frequently to the first year pharmacy students shows me just how much I've accomplished since I was first accepted here. I'm in my second of four years as a grad student, and for the first time in my whole college career, the end does not seem so incredibly far away. Finally, I've come to love this place that I live. Today, while taking one of those rare breaks from studying, I went tubing with the crew down the winding Muskegon River, along a plotted out "course" that is quite popular among Big Rapids residents. It took about two and a half hours, and it was the most enjoyable afternoon I've had for quite a while. It's so peaceful--you can almost forget the rest of the world.

:)

Karma

The other day I was reeeeeeeeally tired before class, so I thought I'd buy myself a pop to keep awake. I go into the lounge, open my change purse, and I am distraught to realize that I only have a quarter. A mere quarter of the buck and a quarter that I need. But!! Low and behold, there before my eyes is a whole dollar hanging out of the pop machine, apparently rejected. I mean, oh my goodness! The irony! The luck! This only happens once in a lifetime! I only rejoiced in my good luck momentarily however, before that paranoid feeling that this was some ethical trap began to creep into my head. Should I take it or not? I finally took it, not wanting to fall asleep in class. When I got home many hours later, I rummaged around forever in my book bag searching for my change purse. I never found it. It's totally gone!

KARMA!!

I knew I shouldn't have taken that dollar. I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON AHHHH.

Labor Day

I'm back to school after my amazing Labor Day weekend!! For the second year in a row, Mike and I visited Nick's cottage with his girlfriend Colleen, and it was a blast! Nick and Mike have been best buddies for years, and now Colleen is in pharmacy school with me--yay! On Friday after class got out we drove over to Lake Michigan to see the Sleeping Bear dunes which I didn't even realize existed!! Oh man were they beautiful, but I had to take many breaks on the way up! My lungs are not used to that kind of breathing. O_O After that, we drove over to Nick's cottage on Burt Lake, where we spent the remainder of the weekend tubing, water skiing, boating, playing games, and just having some fun hanging out.

On Labor Day we all got up really early to walk the Mackinac Bridge for its 50th anniversary walk! There were a ton of people there! We waited in line over two and a half hours just to get on the shuttle bus, and then the bus ride itself (which only takes you over the bridge, mind) took an hour and ten minutes! We finally got to walk, and it was a blast. We were very hungry, sunburned, and tired afterwards though. I took a ton of photos, as did the Irresistible Jeeber, which you can take a look at here if you're interested! :D

I'm back in Big Rapids now and almost finished with my second week of grad school year #2. Oh course, it wouldn't be a new school year if I wasn't sicker than a dog. I've been sporting a delightful head, nose, and throat disease, which doctors have been so creative in naming the "common cold." I pretty much want to die. WOOHOO!

I'd tell you all about my awesome fish named Grizzy that I bought last week, but he's dead already. Yep, that's a new record for me.