it's that time again!

and i don't mean furniture rearrangement... except for i sort of do! it's true. we're moving again.

but don't worry, we didn't get kicked out of our current place. we kicked ourselves out. our lease is coming up in another month and it came time to decide - stay another year or move on?

it was our hope when we moved to this apartment a year ago that we would stay here for two years - until the end of my med school (and probably our move out of birmingham). we made a lot of compromises picking our current place - no dishwasher, tiny bathroom, oldoldold everything, putting our washer/dryer in the dingy basement, shady parking situation (which most of you know resulted in my car being totaled last summer), etc. we thought that the awesome location, the millions of windows, the gas range, and the "charm" would be enough to hold us over. unfortunately, we were wrong.

even so, it wasn't necessarily our intention to look to move. i'm in the middle of my stressful 3rd year (as i'm sure can be deduced from my recent posts) and henry's nearing completion of his master's degree... not exactly the most convenient time to undertake a move. but we have had our eyes open for a few weeks looking at what's available. we'd talked it out and agreed that we would only go through with the huge task if it would solve a few major problems: kitchen, bathroom, laundry, and parking without creating any major new ones: location, overall size, price. we also really wanted to be saving money rather than spending more or even paying the same amount. pretty tall bill, eh?

so our new place, discovered almost by accident, is a 2bed/2ba behind the summit. it will save us $175/month baseline on rent. ! this is 1 more bathroom than we have now. laundry INSIDE the apartment. huge kitchen with dishwasher. walk-in closets. marked parking spaces in a lot. etcetcetc. compromise? probably location. we'll have to factor in the drive to work. all that said, henry and i are ecstatic. there is a unit available exactly when we need to move in, and what's more, henry's employer is "preferred", so the app fee and deposit were cut in half. everything fell into place so smoothly and fit our incredibly tall order - it's easy to be confident this is where we're supposed to be.

so... in 3 weeks... we return to the land of buildings which are 1. up to code, 2. relatively level, and 3. free of lead paint and excessive amounts of mold. can't wait to take a bath in a tub that hasn't been PAINTED. !!!!!!!!! (not kidding there.)

celebrations

happy chinese new year! xin nian kuai le!

it's been a big weekend for events: opening ceremonies of the olympics, chinese new year and valentine's today. other events going on in the city/region: mercedes marathon, mardi gras parades, and a "snow-storm".

ah, the olympics. i've had the opening ceremonies for the olympics on my calendar for a few weeks; i get pretty excited about the olympics. my obsession probably started when i was in the 3rd grade when i was asked to do a project for class. that was the winter olympics of 1994 in lillehammer. shortly after, my family moved to birmingham and the olympics were in atlanta in 1996. i saved clippings from the newspaper and made an olympics "scrapbook". some of the soccer games were actually in birmingham, so it was incredibly close to home. in summer 2004, i pretty much watched every event that was televised, as i was bound to the couch after having sinus surgery. i've never really been a kid with any hopes of competing in the olympics; i'm not an athlete and don't dream of being one. there's just something thrilling about the games, all the nations, the drama of it all that has kept me excited through different ages and stages in life. this weekend i've found myself once again transfixed by the competition. here's to two more weeks of hypnotizing entertainment!

we had a very low-key new year's celebration with henry's parents last night, and his mom brought us sushi today. mmmmmm. always good food.

valentine's day was also a pretty low-key celebration for us. henry got sick at the end of the week with some sort of yucky upper respiratory infection, so he's been taking it easy. we were pretty lazy all day, and it was wonderful. the idea of valentine's day sort of conflicts me; when you have a valentine who treats you special every day it seems silly to ask him to go above and beyond that already high level of awesomeness on some made-up holiday. still, henry surprised me with flowers and a cookie cake. i'm a lucky lady to be married to such a consistently loving, caring partner in life.

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last weekend, henry and i made the trip up to louisville, ky to visit my sister beth and her husband drew. they recently bought an adorable house with oodles of charm. we spent time with them eating, playing, watching movies, and generally having the time of our lives. on sunday morning, we drove to lexington, ky where my dear friend amanda and her husband ben live. we planned to have lunch with them there. another dear friend and college roommate, laura, came down from cincinnati with her boyfriend to meet us. what a reunion! the whole weekend made me long to live closer to both my sister and my close friends.

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back to reality. this week i'll be in the well-baby nursery at uab. it's where all the freshly born, healthy babies go when they are not with their moms. it should be a fun week! i mean, there will still be lots of screaming babies, but at least they won't be sick. next week i'll be on inpatient hem-onc... those kids will be sick. i'm interested to see how that will go. then pediatrics will be over. i won't lie - i'm not sad for it to end. glad for the experience, glad it will be over. such is the story of third year.