Goodbye Columbia

Today was our LAST DAY OF CLASS!!!!!!  So now we have had our graduation ceremony and our last day of class, now all we are waiting for is our last day of clinical and then I get to move to CT!  In honor of our last day of class we brought a couple bottles of champagne in for a toast while we watched a slideshow that Emily put together (the first part doesn't have sound, you aren't crazy).

Robert Moses State Park

Emily has her car in town for this clinical rotation (she is at Westchester) so this weekend we took advantage of our access to wheels and Emily, Eric and I drove to the beach!  We went to Robert Moses State Park which is on Fire Island:

 

You may recall that Emily and I visited a friend at her summer beach house on Fire Island last year.  The day was a bit overcast but that was good because it meant the beach wasn't quite as crowded.  It was still warm enough for us to get in the water a couple times and sunny enough that we got a little color on our pale skin!

Macios and Laurin's Wedding

Last weekend Chuck and I took a road trip to Boston because his college friend (Chris Macios) was getting married!  They had the ceremony in a very cool church and then we danced (for six hours) until I couldn't feel my feet.  We woke-up to a beautiful day Saturday so we went for breakfast at Moogy's (Chuck used to eat there in college) and then walked it off with a stroll around BC before driving back.  I only have one photo for you of us at the wedding:

It turns out that being a guest at a wedding (as opposed to a member of the bridal party) is REALLY fun.  And when you aren't stressing about helping to keep things running smoothly you don't remember to stop dancing long enough to take some pics ;)

Farmington River Tubing

I took the bus up to CT after work on Friday so that we could go tubing on Saturday!

Kaley, Nathan, Angie, Nick, Chuck, Paige

The Farmington River runs through Connecticut very close to West Hartford.  There is a company that rents tubes and runs a shuttle for tubers, Chuck and I did this last summer and had so much fun that we thought we would invest in our own tubes so that we didn't have to pay to rent them every time we wanted to go.  This weekend we took it to the next level and decided to leave a car at the take-out point and then put in further up the river so that we could get a longer float.  We met up with Angie (she works with Chuck and is basically my first CT female friend), her boyfriend Nick, Nick's co-worker Nathan and his fiancee Kaley - did you follow that?  Neither did I.  We got about 4 hours of tubing in, only popped one tube along the way and now we have more CT friends - success!

Coney Island Mermaid Parade

Last weekend Emily, Eric and I headed to Coney Island for their annual Mermaid Parade.  We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  From what I found online, this seemed to be a parade celebrating the official opening of the Coney Island beaches for the summer.  It turns out that it was really just a celebration of the weirdness of Coney Island.  Emily had some friends in town from Ohio for the parade - I didn't realize that they were actually here to be IN the parade!  We show up and they have an "art car" decorated in a tiki hut theme:

 

We got to ride in the car which gave us a pretty prime view of all the crazy people that had come out for the parade in their hand-made costumes.  I still don't really have a good explanation of what the parade was all about but I can tell you that it was very fun, we got to eat some very tasty corn dogs and, somehow, the tiki car WON for best parade float!

NYU Langone Medical Center

I'm at my LAST CLINICAL SITE!!!!!!!!!!  I started my rotation at NYU on June 19th.  Recap: Memorial Sloan Kettering, Cornell, Maryland Shock Trauma, Methodist, Westchester, Danbury, Long Island Jewish. Ahhhhhh!  I can't believe it!  NYU is in midtown east on the corner of 34th and 1st.  I still haven't figured out the most efficient way to get there (I have biked, I have taken the bus, I have done a combination of bike and bus) but I am just happy to be back in Manhattan for my last rotation.  We still have class every Monday but I have taken my last test and turned in my last assignment so I am truly on the home stretch here.  Chuck and I found an awesome apartment in West Hartford, our lease starts there August 1st and my last day of clinical here is August 17th.  I will be spending the last two weeks of August moving and settling in and then I will get down to business studying for boards in September.  We have to pass a national certification exam to become CRNAs (certified registered nurse anesthetists) instead of just GRNAs (graduated registered nurse anesthetists), so that is the next big hurdle on my horizon.  It feels weird to be getting this close to the end of my days as a student - weird but AWESOME.  Here is an early-morning view of the East River from NYU:

Patti and Danny's Wedding

Patti and Danny

I am about a month behind in posting - oops.  It turns out that senoritis affects all aspects of my life, not just school-related ones.  It is extremely contagious.  About a week after the CU graduation ceremony Chuck and I flew to Orlando for Patty and Danny's Wedding!  Our flight landed around 8pm on Saturday night, Laura and Kacy were bridesmaids so they were at the rehearsal dinner but when they got out we met them for drinks before heading to bed.  

Kate (8 months) and I

Kacy and Laura had more wedding party duties on Sunday so Chuck and I spent the day lounging at the hotel pool with Elaine, Jay Bacon, Brett and baby Kate!

Brett, Jay, Chuck

The ceremony was Sunday night (Monday was Memorial Day so we all had it off) and then we all headed home Monday.  The trip was WAY too short but it was very fun seeing everyone!

Kacy, Elaine, Laura, Paige

Paige and Chuck