Kristi and I have had a very busy final year in Ohio. The kids have all been very active with tennis lessons, horseback riding lessons, football, soccer, hiking, school, and taking care of me when I stumble home to study or prepare a lecture before I rumble back to the hospital.
 |
| From Fall 2010 |
We have been in Ohio for 4 and a half years now, and are getting excited about leaving. Not because we don't like it here, but because it just hasn't felt like home to us. Interviewing out in Prineville, and just being back in Oregon made us both realize that it is really home for us. We will definitely miss lots of things about Ohio. Here, we are just so close to so many amazing things and places. We have a great church, good medical care, wonderful parks and libraries, lots of good zoos and science centers to visit, and museums all over.
Kristi and I were able to get away this year to interview at two places, and she also came with me to the annual conference of the American College of Surgeons in Washington, DC! That was fun. The conference was a bit of a zoo, and I wasn't really impressed with the quality of many of the lectures that I attended, but there were some neat ones, and our spare time was packed with sigh-seeing. Was really neat to visit so many fun places where so many imposing historical events and people have been. We toured the Capitol, the White House, the National Archives, National Library of Congress, National Museum of Art and the other Smithsonian Museums on the Mall. Kristi went back to the Holocaust Museum as she has read lots of books about it this past year, and saw lots of things without having to hear me whine about having to use the bathroom or my feet hurting, or hear about how hungry I was. Was also nice to not have the kids to go with us this time, but in a way would have been really fun to have them experience it with us, especially the older ones.
I think our favorite part of the trip was getting to see the National Portrait Museum, where they had a very large exhibit of Norman Rockwell paintings (from the private collections of Spielberg and Lucas mostly) and many we had not seen before. We also spent a day at Mt. Vernon, and that was also really fun.
Now we are getting ready for Christmas, Pati's birthday, and thinking that not too long from now we will be selling our house here, packing up some of our things (hopefully we can leave lots of it here) and heading back home to start a new life together.
I read today a really good article in The New Yorker by Atul Gawande, and if you get the chance it is worth reading. Let me know if you are interested and I will send you the link, or just send you the article. It is on end of life care, and how to approach it. Not something in the Christmas spirit, I know, but something I think we all should think about more and have nailed down ahead of time.
Looking forward to a good next 6 months of getting lots of loose ends all tied up as I have a medical license to obtain, cases to finish up, lectures to give, house to fix up and sell, belongings to pack up and move, need to find a place to move to, and of course the biggest exam of my entire life in the board examination which I will take and hopefully pass in August.
 |
| From Washington DC 2010 |
Leaving this time with a quick picture of Kristi and I at Mt Vernon. Will see what I can do to post something after Christmas so you all can feel like you were here.
David
