D'Backs vs. Tigers 6/19/10

Kate & I decided to go on a road trip to see the Tigers play baseball in Detroit. The reason we picked the weekend we did is because they were playing the Diamondbacks - which is Kate's favorite team! It was a LOT of driving (it's 10 hours from D.C. to Detroit), but we were able to see my mom, my kitties, and meet two of our classmates, Aaron & Darren for breakfast. 

The game was fun, we had incredible seats 25 rows up behind home plate. Kate was able to get her favorite player to sign a picture for her before the game. The picture to the right is of her waiting her turn! The funny part was that the picture he signed was a picture of him signing her t-shirt at a different game!

 
Anyway, we missed the Tigers batting practice so I didn't get any signatures. There was also a wedding held on the field immediately after the game. How much would it cost to do THAT I wonder?!

Kate is moving on the 30th to Mississippi for her post-doctoral position, so I won't see her for awhile. I am going to miss her a lot!

Home In Miami

So it has been an interesting week in the world of apartment hunting in Miami with my two future roommates (in pic on left). As previously mentioned in this blog we had been working with a realtor down in Miami to help us find places to live. On Thursday, two days before we were to leave, we got a message from the realtor's colleague that she was not going to be able to show us around, but that he would. On Friday, the colleague told us that it was "not worth his time" to spend Saturday looking for apartments with us. So, we are 5 hours from flying out to Miami with no realtor and no plans for what we were going to do. Luckily, Jessica found another realtor on Craigslist who ended up being AMAZING. He was able to find us a place on Miami Beach! 

The apartment is one of the older buildings in Miami Beach and is called Seacoast Suites (www.seacoastsuites.com). The building is part hotel and part apartment complex. The picture above is of the apartment building. The side of the building that our apartment faces is the bay side (seen below).  

Because the building is part hotel it has a resort-feel to it in that it has a little convenience store, a restaurant, and little huts outside that have different services. Our favorite is the massage station!

The other side of the hotel has a slightly amazing view....

  

Honestly, we're still in shock that we found such an amazing place, but the deal is not 100% done yet. The apartment is about 15-20 minutes from the hospital, which seems like nothing to us D.C. people. Anyway, we're hoping to sign in the next week or so and have a great place to stay for our year in Miami!!

Long Time No Post!

So an update on what I've been up to over the past few months:

1. Advocacy Days with the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry - I spent a day up on Capitol Hill meeting with staffers of several congresspeople. I got to meet specifically with people working for Carl Levin (senator from Michigan) and Jim Webb (senator from Virginia). I basically spent the day with a bunch of psychiatrists from the AACAP and we had a bunch of "talking points" we were given to discuss with staffers. It was pretty interesting to see how the process of lobbying works!

2. Washington D.C. Zoo!   I went with Kari to the zoo and had an excellent time. The zoo here is free! That is amazing to me. Although lacking penguins and giraffes, the zoo had an excellent display of big cats. 

3. Kate's Internship Graduation & Weekend of Fun! I traveled to Pittsburgh for Kate's internship graduation dinner. The dinner itself was nice, but we had the most fun on Saturday at a place called "Color Me Mine." At this place you pick out a piece of pottery (bowls/mugs/picture frames etc.), paint it as you like, and then they fire it up in the kiln. This was so much fun, and Kate and I had some pretty nice products when we were finished if I do say so myself!

4. Flag Football - I joined a random flag football team for the spring season and have had a blast playing. I've met some great new people and I really like being involved in a social league sport (it's not high competition by any means). Our team record is 2-2-1 and we have one more game before the playoffs. Unfortunately I have not scored any touchdowns though :(

Other Important Events:
-I am officially finished with the volunteer portion of my experience here in D.C. (working with kids who have diabetes). This means I will be working three or four days a week for the rest of the summer, and working on my dissertation the other free days.
-The wonderful air mattress I have been sleeping on (and blowing up every night before bed) has died. It was sad before, and now that I am sleeping on two foam pads on the floor, its even more sad. But don't despair, a replacement is ordered and on the way!
-This weekend I am heading to Miami to look at potential places to live. VERY excited for this and I will post some pics when I get back!