scrubs & skillets

As I approach the end of my first year, I find myself exhausted!  Just 6 clinical days to go, and I couldn’t be more excited!  Just three days after I finish my first year, we get on a plane from NYC –> SAN, and nothing makes me happier!  Kurt and I have both been working hard lately — me finishing up the program and Kurt laboring over a project that keeps him in NYC most of the week.  We were both so exhausted that we couldn’t even make proper 4th of July plans, but we were both quite thankful for a relaxed night down on the Long Island Shore, eating food and watching fireworks.

A photo of the shore, before sundown:

Moon Rise!

“The Coolest” huh?

You know how much I love fireworks!!

And in other news, my darling friend Amanda turned 40 last week, and much celebration was in order! We started with a birthday dinner in New Haven with her sweet boyfriend, Ed, and some of our fabulous nursing school friends.

Well here we are, being all cute and looking like sisters with our ginger hair!

Amanda and her girls from our last two clinical groups (-1 lucky duck who is in California right now!) to celebrate!

Amanda and her man, Ed, after dinner (who so kindly walked me home, as Kurt was out of town!):

The next night, Amanda’s actual birthday, we went to a new place called Kitchen Zinc for a couple mojitos, before dinner at my place!  Here we are, self-portrait-ing:

Seeing as New Haven really wears on us after awhile, and seeing as we hadn’t nearly celebrated Amanda’s birthday enough, Kurt and I drove up to Otis, MA on Saturday for a night at Amanda and Ed’s place!  They live in the country (seriously!).  It’s so beautiful, literally in the Berkshires, and just the sort of R&R we needed.  Despite it being her birthday celebration, she and Ed took wonderful care of us, and we had a brilliant time!  My only contribution was a lemon-cornmeal cake, but it was damn good if I do say so myself!

After a delicious glass of red wine upon arrival, and a slice of lemon cake for a bit of energy, we jumped in their car and headed to Northampton, home of Smith College, which was amazing!  How did I not know about all these fabulous northeast liberal arts colleges when I was younger?!  We had a walk through Smith’s Botanic Garden, which was just lovely:

After Smith, we walked around Northampton, where I think I said, no less than 40 times, “Why isn’t Yale located in Northampton?!”.  It’s really adorable, and quintessential New England!  After walking around a bit, we went to a great Indian restaurant for dinner, which completely hit the spot.  They even had Artesa on the wine menu (our favorite!), which we promptly ordered.  After dinner we went to Tunnel Bar, literally built in an old tunnel!  It was super fun, and the perfect place to be as the storm rolled into town!

Amanda and Ed, in the tunnel!

We got back and went to bed, and the craziest storm came through Otis!  Seriously, I can say with 100% assurance that I had never experienced this kind of storm before!  Amanda and Ed literally live in the forest (so Kurt would call it the “woods” but I disagree, it’s forest!), and as we were staying on the second floor, so it was like being up in a tree fort during a storm.  The most amazing bursts of thunder and lightening were right over us, and everything was so loud–the rain, the thunder–it was seriously cool!  Kurt and I just laid there in bed watching it, and of course I kept going “whoa”, “omg!”, “huh!” – spectacular!

Now, clearly I didn’t get a photo during the storm, but here’s a picture from the guest room window looking out (all trees!), so you can imagine what it might have been like in a storm (ok so I’m silly, but my CA friends might appreciate this!):

We really had the best time with them, with all the crickets, frogs (ok frog, singular — Kurt said he wasn’t a normal frog but whatever), trees, good friends and clean air!  Oh, and can you believe they got me on a serious, and I do mean serious (!), hike the next day?  People, it was the real deal!  Photos about hiking, nature, good friends and mosquito bites to come!