FL Trip and The Luckiest Man Alive

Since I started work in October 2012 there was little hope of my getting any time off for Thanksgiving in November 2012 so Katie and I booked a trip to Florida for January 2013 to do a make-up Thanksgiving that would coincide with mom's birthday!  I worked until three on Friday afternoon and then took a bus down to NYC.  Katie and I were on a 6am flight Saturday out of LGA, needless to say we landed looking pretty haggard.  Mom picked us up and drove us directly to Clearwater Beach where we had a picnic lunch of tuna noodle casserole and soaked up the sun for the rest of the day:

The next day we met up with Fred for another beach day at Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin:

Our vacation was cut short when Katie received a phone call that Sheldon had been admitted to the Cardiac ICU at New York Presbyterian's Weill Cornell Medical Center after suffering a cardiac arrest at the gym.  We drove from the beach directly back to the airport and took the next flight back the NYC.  Dad and Julie picked up Katie and I and drove us to the hospital where Chuck was keeping Sheldon company (Sheldon's parents were out of town as well and couldn't make it back until the following day).  We later learned that Sheldon had a previously undiagnosed genetic disease, called Brugada Syndrome, that had caused his heart to go into ventricular fibrillation.  Luckily he was at the gym so that he was found immediately by people trained to give CPR and use a defibrillator - this likely saved his life.  Mom flew in the next day and we spent the remainder of our vacation at Cornell keeping Sheldon company and loosing to Chuck at the card game Wizard. 

XC Skiing

In addition to a Ski Sundown we have a park near us, called Winding Trails, that has a pretty extensive set of cross-country ski trails.  I had the day off today and Chuck had to work so I convinced Debbie (Chuck's mom) to come check out Winding Trails with me.  We rented skis, took a lesson and only wiped out a couple times ;)

CT Whale

Last night we went to watch the CT Whale (a feeder team for the New York Rangers) play hockey at the XL Center in Hartford!  We got invited by our new friends Phillip and Carrie.  Phil went to BC, he and Chuck met about a month ago at a BC meet-up.  It turns out that Phil and Carrie live about a block from us and we have had a great time getting to know them these past few weeks!

L to R: Paige, Carrie, Chuck, Phillip

Ski Sundown

My new year's resolution is to start posting again!  Chuck and I have decided that we are going to put a solid effort into skiing this winter so we bought gear and signed up for lessons at a local mountain called Ski Sundown that is about 30 minutes from our apartment.  We have both skied a few times before (on vacations) but we have plans to take a trip to Vail in February with Jason and Dani so we don't want to be rusty.  Today was our second lesson and we did a couple black runs!

Sox Game

Chuck's parents got four tickets to a couple Boston Red Sox games this season as a Christmas present for Chuck and his sister, Liz, last year.  At the time, Liz was living in Boston where she worked as a teacher so it was pretty easy for them to all get up there for a game, but a few months ago Liz moved to LA so I got to be a stand in for Liz at the last game:

I like to have people take their sunglasses off in pictures so that you can actually see who is in the picture with you (see above for exhibit A).  Chuck disagrees with this request because then you are painfully squinting into the sun in the photo.  This debate will continue for all of time.

Apple Picking

I will admit that I am getting kinda pumped for fall. I obviously love the sun and summer but the leaves are changing, the weather is cool enough that I can leave the windows open all day and when I go on an evening walk I can smell some wood burning fires (this is one of the few things missing in our apartment). So last weekend I went into full fall mode with Angie (who works with Chuck) and her roommate Erin when we went apple picking:

Erin, Paige, Angie

We went to a local orchard that allows you to pick-your-own apples.  After we had picked our fill we headed home and baked some pies:

Go Eagles

Chuck and I have season tickets for BC football this year.  The Eagles have had three home games so far this season and we have been to all of them!  We are such good fans.  A couple of Chuck's college friends (Tom and Nuck) still live in Boston so it is nice to hang out with them.  We go to a tailgate hosted by the Mucci family, they have five family members who have gone to BC so, as you can imagine, they throw a pretty serious tailgate.

Nuck, Chuck, Tom

Paige, Chuck, Tom, Nuck

Paige, Chuck, Jason, Dani

Welcome Dinner

A few weeks back, right after I moved to CT, Chuck's parents (Chuck and Debbie) took Chuck and I out to dinner to welcome me to town!  We went to a restaurant called Apricots which is right on the Farmington River (the same river we tube on).  The food was great, the company was great and the view was amazing:

CRNA at St. Francis

I am happy to report that I will be beginning my career as a CRNA at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, CT.  I interviewed here in early 2012 when I was staying with Chuck during my school rotation at Danbury Hospital .  We don't get the opportunity to rotate to St. Francis as students at Columbia so I interviewed for a position at this hospital without knowing what it will actually be like (everyone is nice during an interview!).  It is a level one medical center, it is a teaching hospital and, most importantly, it is less than a 10 minute drive from our apartment :)  I have signed on to work 40 hours a week and I have the option of taking call shifts if I want them.  I am excited (and nervous) to start - wish me luck!

P. Redfield, CRNA

27 months ago I was much more tan, I was nervous about getting lost on the subway, I didn't know the dose of succinylcholine (or what it did) and I thought that living with an 80-year-old in an apartment with no air conditioning in NYC wouldn't be that bad - I was so new.  On August 14th 2012 I finished up my last clinical day at NYU, I rode my bike back to my apartment (I am no longer afraid of the subway but I am familiar enough with it to know that it is nearly impossible to get from my upper west side apartment to a mid town east hospital efficiently) and finished packing up all of my belongings.  The next morning dad came and picked me, and all of my stuff, up in his truck and we drove to Put to pick up my car and a few boxes of things that never quite made it down to Manhattan after I moved back from LA.  Then we drove to my new apartment (Chuck had moved in at the beginning of August) in West Hartford!  I then buckled down for four weeks of studying for my boards.  After you graduate from a nurse anesthesia school you have to pass a national certification exam to ensure that you really did learn everything you were supposed to.  Columbia sets up their program so that the first year is didactic (just classes) and then the second year is clinical (working in the hospital).  As we all know, tests of book knowledge don't always line up very well with what you actually do in day-to-day practice so the information on that exam was mainly the stuff I hadn't seen in a year!  Ugh.  I had taken a review course back in June so I was armed with a study plan and for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week that is exactly what I did - it was PAINFUL.  And then on September 19th at 2pm it happened - I took my exam and passed!!!!!!

I am now officially a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)!  The exams are self scheduled which means that as soon as I actually graduated (August 14th) Columbia sent a letter to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) to let them know I had completed my school requirements.  The AANA then sent a letter to the National Board of Certification and Re-certification for Nurse Anesthetists (NBCRNA) to let them know I was eligible to sit for my certification exam.  The NBCRNA then sent me an email to let me know that I was eligible and that I needed to find the nearest Pearson VUE testing center and sign up to take my exam.  Pearson VUE is just a professional test-giving company.  You show up and give them two forms of photo ID, they take your picture, scan your palm, take away all of your stuff (purse, phone, last minute study notes, etc) and then put you in a cubicle with earplugs and a computer that you use to take your test.  The test is "adaptive" which means that the computer gives you a question and if you get it correct then the next question is harder, if you get it wrong then the next question is easier.  The computer keeps giving you questions until you are getting about 50% correct and 50% wrong so it knows your knowledge level.  If this level meets the minimum requirement then you pass and if not then it is back to the drawing board :(  Since I didn't know when I would be able to sign up for my exam (paperwork could have gotten lost or I could have filled something out incorrectly and that would have caused a delay) or if I would pass on the first try, I gave myself a little cushion between my goal test-taking date and starting work.  I have spent the last two weeks sleeping, cleaning, finding my way around West Hartford and trying to enjoy the excitement that came with passing while it lasts!

I'm a Nutmegger

Chuck and I moved into our new apartment this weekend!  Technically I have to be in NYC for clinical until August 17th but now that we have some stuff there it feels official.  Chuck convinced three guys from his softball team to come over and help us.  We picked up the U-Haul and were all set and ready to start when it started raining... so we had a beer and waited until it tapered off to a drizzle.  In the end I'm sure the rain made the temperature much more bearable (that is what I will keep telling myself).  Here is a picture of our manly movers - thanks guys!  We couldn't have done it without you!

L to R: Chuck, Chris, Conner, Doug

There are four units in the building, our apartment is on the top left.

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

Sacagawea... that's me!

It has been raining non-stop lately... like deploy the life rafts / build an ark kind of raining. Like I've run out of closets to straighten / am suffering from vitamin D deficiency kind of raining... ugh. Today the sun burst through and DRob and I literally dashed out the door looking to play! What to do? What to do? "Hey", he says, "Hows about a little ROAD TRIP!" Yay! A quick gathering of sunscreen and swimsuits and we were headed north to Weeki Wachee Springs State Park to paddle the crystal clear cold waters of the Weeki Wachee River. Turquoise blue river with plenty of shady spots, NO gators and a reported favorite hanging around spot for manatees. Cannot confirm the manatee claim but as to cold? Boy howdy, dats some cold COLD water, my friend. And a beautiful five miles of easy paddling - made infinately easier by the strong and accomplished nature guy in the back of my canoe - hence the "action shoot" of me above, deftly negotiating the river. Well... all that paddling works up a mighty fierce thirst and appetite, yes? A quick costume change and we find ourselves at BeckyJacks Food Shack... a little hole in the wall WELL off the beaten path - where he finds these places will forever mystify (and delight) me. BeckyJacks was about as big as a doublewide trailer with the coldest beer and finest fish sandwich you've ever stumbled across. (Rolled in crushed cornflakes & potato chips then deep fried. My cholesterol levels have no doubt redlined) Am now home avoiding responsible stuff like laundry and noticing the sting of a little too much sun on the tops of my feet. Clearly my sunscreen-application-skill-set needs more practice which can only mean that nature guy is on the hook for another run somewhere soon. Yay!

Hiking in Harriman State Park

Yesterday Katherine, Sheldon and I went hiking in Harriman State Park.  You may recall that Katherine and Sheldon went hiking in this park once before and had a run in with a pretty large rattle snake.  I am happy to report that there were no snake sightings this time around!  Sheldon cooked us a delicious lunch:

And we also hiked to Claudius Smith's den: