a day of thankfulness

Yesterday was a good, good day.  Maybe I should count my blessings...  Here are a few:

I started off Sunday morning waking up from a good night's sleep (1).  It was cool and comfortable weather (2), something I can't get enough of here.  My cup of tea was perfect and hot (3), the sun was shining (4), and I got all green lights on the way to church (5).  If you've ever driven Clifton Road through the Emory University campus, you know that's a pretty big deal.

I had a good time of fellowship and worship at church (6), followed by lunch with friends (7) to which one friend sneakily treated us all (8)!  In the afternoon, I went to Sarah's house (a first year DPT student) to borrow a guitar (9) for the rest of the semester.  That evening, I went to dinner with more friends and had another really good time (10).  Incidentally, I wish that dinner could be a model for international relations - we had 1 Jew, 2 Christians, and 4 Muslims all enjoying dinner and conversation together.

Later that night, before bed, I tuned the guitar and played for a while.  It makes me SO happy to have a guitar to play (#9 again)!!

such a cute little guitar it is!

service of gratitude and civil war history hike

Yesterday I attended the Service of Gratitude for the first year DPT class.  This service occurs after the first semester as a Thank You to those who anonymously donated their bodies to science for use in the anatomy lab.  I chose to attend since I also was able to learn from the cadavers used by this year's anatomy class since I helped out in lab 6 or 8 times this past summer.  It was a very nice service with three musical tributes and two speeches from the first year students.

Today was one of the few Saturdays where I didn't have to work, so I collected a couple PT school friends (3rd year) and one climbing wall friend and we headed out to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park for a hike.  None of the first years could make it as their White Coat Ceremony was today.  It was the site of a battle in the Atlanta Campaign with the Confederates eventually losing the city of Atlanta to the Union Army.

The weather was pretty much completely overcast - we all expected it as we had individually ascertained that there was a 70% chance of thunderstorms.  Not too hot, but mercilessly humid.  Unfortunately, we chose a day where the trail club was doing trail maintenance, so the area surrounding the visitor's center was very crowded and noisy, as were the first mile and a half of the trail.  Thankfully, it got a lot quieter as we went along.

morgan and marius by a cannon along the ridge

paige looks like she might be up to something

yellow demarcates our route

On top of Little Kennesaw Mountain, Marius pointed out that the sky was getting pretty dark.  We stopped and looked all around at the sky, consulted a smartphone weather app, and decided to press on.  Shortly after we crossed Burnt Hickory Road, Paige suggested we take the next turn to loop back since Morgan had a dinner to attend this evening.  As we were hiking back, it rained a bit, but not hard and not for long.  We stopped for lunch at a collection of logs, and then made our way back to the start.  After looking for a while at the map, I believe we went just over 6 miles round trip.

We made a brief stop at the visitor's center, and then walked back to the overflow parking lot where we'd started.  Paige's turnaround suggestion timing was prescient - it started raining again right after we left the visitor's center building, and was pouring by the time we got back to the car.  It rained hard off and on for the entire drive back, and was an absolute downpour when I got home.

So, another successful hiking trip.  The weather didn't lend itself to photogenic scenery, so those were actually the only two photos I took.  Now it's time to gather my materials and think about studying for Wednesday's "Quiz!"

4/9 done!

My final practical for the summer semester was almost a month ago.  I realized that although I am less than halfway done with my program, I am MORE than half done with classroom work - of the remaining 5 semesters, 2 are spent on clinical rotations!  So far, I know that my first one will be in San Diego - I'll be there from early January through mid-March.  I'll hopefully know within the next month where my remaining two clinical rotations will be.

I had a great learning experience at Benchmark Physical Therapy in Woodstock, GA.  My clinical instructors allowed me to treat at least a dozen patients in the course of my two weeks, from neck to toes!  They challenged me in the best possible way, having patients tell me if I was able to match any given technique they applied.  I wished I could have just stayed there and worked with them instead of going back to sitting long hours in classrooms.

I spent most of my very short break working, although Saturday afternoon and evening was spent making dinner for a few first year DPT students as they studied for their anatomy finals - written and practical.  Dan (a 3rd year) and I prepared both Vietnamese spring rolls and chicken potstickers.  This was my first attempt at potstickers instead of wontons, and my first try with chicken instead of pork filling for dumplings.  It was successful, I must say!

katherine and dan with the spring roll fixings

sultan and moire making potstickers

potstickers!

michelle, sultan, and moire full and ready for a movie!

We finished off the evening watching "The Princess Bride."  Since Michelle had never seen it, we all agreed it was necessary.  For some reason, I couldn't get my DVD player to work with my TV, so we ended up watching it on my computer monitor.  The screen is about as big as the TV anyway, and better quality!

Garden update - I've been enjoying my occasional cherry tomato (ate one yesterday) and have eaten one of my cucumbers.  I think there are 5 on the vines right now, and they're funny - they're pear-shaped!  One of them is becoming slowly less pear-shaped, I'll probably pick it and eat it soon.

the first cucumber as it lost its pear shape

School has started again, we're in the third week.  Our first "Quiz" is Wednesday.  Apparently, the faculty have been requested to call all tests "Quizzes" from here on out.  We'll see how that goes...

this gorgeous plumeria is in a front yard i pass daily on the way to school

The first Sunday afternoon of the semester, Rob, Jessica, and I visited Zoo Atlanta.  Not much was going on - the weather was pretty muggy, so I don't blame the animals for not wanting to do much.  It was still fun!

jessica and rob - possibly the first ever bearded meerkat!

the elephant was enjoying his bath

only one of their 5 otters was moving around, and not for long

sleepy red panda

giant panda on the move

My schedule this semester has a nice twist compared to previous semesters - the times are almost completely consistent from week to week.  Now if they could only get us in the same room from week to week for each class, it might feel like a normal school!