Monday, October 22, 2012

Music Monday

Once again, Taylor Swift conveniently releases her album on a Monday so that I can blog about it.
I am currently in Charleston and will have to travel about 20 minutes away from the nearest Target, but you can bet that I will be driving over there after rotation in order to buy it!

The title of the album is "RED" Why?
"All those emotions -- spanning from intense love, intense frustration, jealousy, confusion all of that -- in my mind, all of those emotions are red. There's nothing in between -- there's nothing beige about any of those feelings -- so I called the record Red."

I could not be more excited about this album, I know it is going to be amazing. As you may already know, Taylor has been releasing a new song every week for the last 4 weeks leading up to the album release.

She released "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together" in August, which I blogged about at the time. I think it is one of those songs that you either love or you hate....as you can probably guess, I love it!


Next, she released "Begin Again" which details a new relationship and how new love can blossom over the past of another.


Next up was the title track "Red" I have listened to this song more time than I can count. I love everything about it!



"I Knew You Were Trouble" is also a great song, but I resisted buying it because the album was so close. It is about going out with someone even though you know that it is going to be nothing but trouble


Last was "State of Grace" which talks about love being worth the fight


Take a listen. Pick a favorite. Buy the album, you know I will :)

....loving him was red

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Back by Popular Demand

I must first apologize for my absence over the last two months. Between driving back and forth to Columbia,  rotating three days a week, and attending classes....my time and energy for blogging has slipped.

I have gotten several requests to come back and keep everyone updated and I must admit, it feels good knowing that people are interested in what is going on in my graduate school life. So without further ado,  here is a condensed version of everything that has happened in the last 2 months.

1. I moved back to Columbia :( 

I must admit, having roommates has been a huge help, especially Cassie. I mean living with your best friend, what could be better? In fact, we still call and text each other on rotation days because its weird not telling each other what is going on. Although I miss my house, my snuggle animals, and of course Jared, not coming home to an empty apartment is nice.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED living by myself, but considering that three nights out of the week I am not even sleeping in my apartment in Columbia, it is nice to not have to pay for an apartment to sit empty. I do still get homesick, especially considering that Jared and I really got in a rhythm when I was on rotation.  I got a taste of what my life would be like as a working genetic counselor and then I had to come back to school. However, second year has been so much better than the first! I am learning on the job and finally making connections between what we were taught during our first year and clinical practice.

Also, my counselor voice, as Janice says, is coming along nicely :)

2. I started rotation :)

After having a wonderful prenatal rotation over the summer,  I was excited to get back to working with patients. First stop: Pediatrics at Carolinas Medical Center. I had the opportunity before I went to genetic counseling school to work in pediatrics at Duke. I loved my time there and getting to work with a variety of counselors, patients and their families.
I think perhaps I thought I knew more about pediatrics than I really did going into this rotation....

Side Note: Coming into genetic counseling school, I had my heart set on pediatrics. I love children and I love the ability to see a large variety of cases and patients. However, after having a wonderful prenatal rotation, I found myself loving prenatal just as much.

It took me a couple of weeks to get used to the rhythm of the clinic, it was much different than my previous pediatric experience. Just as soon as I began feeling as if I was a part of the genetics team.... it was over. Sixteen days seemed like both a lifetime and the shortest amount of time possible. I learned so much more about various genetic diseases and was able to see different counseling styles. Overall I really enjoyed my time there and was able to learn a lot about things I liked and disliked about different working environments.

3. I started working out more regularly

Thanks to Cassie, she and I have started going to our apartment gym on a semi-regular basis (3x a week). We started changing our diet during Maymester and although there are good weeks and bad weeks, I have lost 24 lbs since May :)

We have been slack over the last few weeks because we both finished our rotations but in general we have been keeping each other motivated.

4. Trash TV continues
What is better than trash summer TV? Regular season trash TV! Finally all of my shows are back. Although it is hard to keep up with them when I am on rotation, I have been trying my best to stay updated.

Here is what I am watching this fall:

  1. Grey's Anatomy
  2. Glee
  3. X Factor
  4. Project Runway
  5. DEXTER!
  6. Breaking Amish
  7. 19 Kids and Counting
  8. Big Bang Theory
  9. How I Met Your Mother
  10. Bones
...and of course any wedding shows, reruns of Sex and City or Gilmore Girls and anything else on TLC that catches my eye.

5. I went to see Erin in Atlanta

Over Labor Day, I went to visit my best friend Erin in her new home in Atlanta. Although it is bittersweet that she is there, it is nice to see her so happy in a job that she loves. 


We did so many things, which were all awesome because we were doing them, but here are the highlights
  • Watching NC State LOSE horribly at TacoMac
  • Atlanta Zoo (Pandas were my fav!)
  • Decater Book Festival...where we met some super cool authors and found a wishing tree :)
  • Pizza dinner and wine on the roof with Skye and Tracey
  • Delicious breakfast with Skye and Tracey followed by snuggles with Milo and Leo
  • Shopping at the mall in Buckhead where we found....nothing....but each other's awesome company!
  • Chinese food and Hunger Games
  • Leftovers for breakfast and goodbye :(
Hopefully she will be making the trip to Columbia soon. 

6. Five year anniversary

Jared and I celebrated our five year anniversary on Monday with beautiful flowers and an delicious dinner. It is so hard to believe that we have been together for five years. It has been wonderful and I would not change a thing :)


In addition to our anniversary we also went to the fair with Jared's dad, where we were the only two wearing Obama stickers in a sea of Romeny/Ryan stickers. There was loads of fried food and wonderful exhibits like always...and we were there only for 8 hours or so :)

On deck...

1. Prenatal Rotation in Charleston

After a two week break from rotation, I will be diving back into prenatal in Charleston. I hear that this rotation is the toughest of them all but that makes me all the more excited. I am excited to challenge my skills and learn a lot from the counselors and MFMs. 

After a long, hard search I was able to find a place to say within walking distance yayyyy....with no wifi....boooo.

...but I will be surround by gorgeous Charleston and hopefully be able to enjoy the sights while I am there.

2. NSGC Meeting in BOSTON!

IamsoexcitedaboutbostonIcannotevenhandleit!!! I have never been to Boston and I simply cannot wait. I am also excited about the meeting and getting to interact with of genetic counselors, but I am really excited about being in Boston. 


We found a Guest House within walking distance to the conference which was was pretty cheap, especially for Boston. 

Plans while we're there? ----Sam Adams Tour, throwing a tea bag into some body of water (Boston Tea Party...get it?) and alumni dinner which I am helping to coordinate. 

I think that is everything, well at least the highlights. I hope this was not too long, I really had a lot to catch up on. I am going to try and get back into the habit of blogging and keep everyone posted starting with Music Monday this coming Monday :)


...because Paris wants the first issue back to be a double issue.