I made it!!

After Lauren flew back to LA I had a few days in Chicago to relax and explore. Sunday I went to a Mother's Day brunch which was great, then went downtown to the museum campus and saw the Field Museum. There were a few really interesting exhibits- there was a recreation of cave paintings from 20,000yrs ago, a whole exhibit devoted to bioluminescent insects and sea creatures, and a forensic reconstruction of several mummies from 3D CT scans.... Cool stuff. That night I had dinner with my friend Tiana and then went to bed early. 

Monday I went to the planetarium and saw some cool stuff there. Again, I went back to the apartment early to get some sleep and catch up on some Netflix. That night Riva and Gabe came back from their trip to Costa Rica- they were gracious enough to let me crash at their apartment while I was in Chicago. Something had happened with their flight so I wasn't sure when to expect them back. It was a nice surprise! We caught up and traded crazy travel stories from our respective trips. 

The next morning I went to brunch with Riva and Tiana, then we all went and saw Iron Man 3 which was a lot of fun- mainly action, but it was funny and we all enjoyed it. Later that day I took a cab to the train station for my last leg of the trip. My cab driver turned out to have a master's degree in biology from Ethiopia.... But he couldn't get a job with it here in the states. He said his son was his hope for a better future. Crazy.... Anyway, I got to the train station and as I've come to expect from this whole trip I hit a small snag. Amtrak has a 50lb weight limit on all checked bags.... And both my suitcases were over that. Lucky for me the lady at the counter gave me a moving box for free and didn't charge me for the third checked piece of luggage. 

A mere 12hrs later and I'm here in my new home... Not my room, but I'm in the house at least. The cool electronic keypad lock on my door is out of battery so I'm waiting for my landlord to come by with the key and replace the battery.... At least I'm here!! 

Update- the long road to Chicago

When we last left our heros, they were sitting in the Toyota dealership in Tulsa, OK waiting for the sketchy mechanic to come buy the car.....


Long story short, the guy bailed on us... We tried calling him and sending him repeated texts, but no answer. At this point I was starting to worry because the rest of our plans hinged on getting rid of the car. We went back to the used dealership and asked of they knew of anyone who might want to buy even for parts or something... The guy there told us to try Carmax which was right down the street- why he didn't tell us this the first time I asked him hours before is anyones guess.

After all the trouble we had encountered up to this point, the representative at Carmax who helped us was a breath of fresh air- we had been hearing "well I really don't know..." from most people all day, but when I told him I really needed to sell my car, he replied "well we really want to buy it!". It turned out that he was telling the truth- he went out of his way to explain our situation to his manager so that we could work something out (the title is in my dad's name so there were some issues...). We eventually sorted everything out and caught a cab to the airport to pick up our rental car.

I think the rental guy could tell I was at the end of my rope because he gave me a big discount and upgraded us for free. The car we got was a Ford Edge and I'm not sure whether I liked it so much because it's a nice car, or because it was simply a car and we were on the road again. Either way, we were back on our way.... we drove all night, stopping a few times for food and naps.

We arrived in Chicago around 9:45 am, giving Lauren  roughly six hours before she needed to be back at the airport. I wanted her to be able to at least see some of the city, so we rushed to make the architecture boat tour. We made it just in time, the tour went down the three branches of the Chicago river and the docent explained all the different types of architecture used in the city. Lauren took tons of pictures (this is true of the whole trip- I'm sure she will post them soon) and we had a great time. After having lunch we walked around Millennium Park and got to take some pictures with the Bean.

At this point I have to admit that sometimes I tend to run a little late.... this may have been one of those times. I did not anticipate there being traffic (like 2mph, bumper-to-bumper traffic) on a Saturday night going OUT of the city. Needless to say, we were running late to catch Lauren's flight home... I got her to the terminal at 5:40pm for a 6pm flight. Luckily she make the flight!

Exhausted, I got gas for the rental car and returned it before taking the train back to my friend's apartment where I'm staying. When I got there, I planned on sleeping for a little while and then getting a late dinner. I woke up this morning having slept through my alarm and all night. I'm so grateful for all the people here in Chicago who have helped us by putting me and all my stuff up for a few nights.

We had a crazy trip... to say the least! Now that I have a couple days before I take a train to Rochester, I plan on relaxing and trying to prepare myself for the next crazy part- actually starting school again!

Goodbye to my little car....

So the news about the check engine light was the worst case scenario- meaning they suggested that I replace the transmission, which would have cost me more than the car is worth at this point.... Lucky for me there was one of the mechanics at the Toyota dealership who was willing to buy it from me for parts. After checking with the Toyota used car dealership across the parking lot (and the dealer telling me they were not interested in buying my car for any price) I decided to sell the car to the mechanic and we set about trying to figure out how to get to Chicago in time for Lauren's flight back to LA. 

Lauren had the idea that we rent a car and drive to Chicago, then I could take the train the rest of the way to Rochester. After checking with the rental car companies this seemed to be the most cost efficient option. Through out today (and the whole trip really) Lauren has been really supportive and always helps me stay calm when I start to worry about....well everything! 

One of the benefits of moving via car was that not everything needed to be in suitcases. I have 4 vacuum bags of clothes that I was using as padding for the bass. In order to get ready to leave my car we had to repack everything so that it could potentially be transported on a train or bus. I bought two giant suitcases and packed everything that was loose and we tried to consolidate anything we could. It was quite a sight- all the car doors open in the "Super Target" parking lot (for those that have never seen one, a Super Target is like 5 regular targets and a Walmart put together...), with suitcases, pillows, clothes, and my bass all strewn about around it. We got some great looks. There was a really sweet couple with a baby that stopped to ask if everything was okay and if there was anything they could do for us... I guess it was obvious we were having a little bit of a rough day. 

Now we're just waiting for the mechanic to get off work so we can sell him the car, and then we'll take a cab to the airport to pick up our rental car. Hopefully it won't be too long until we're back on the road!! 

Stuck in Oklahoma

Our second day started out great, we started driving right when we planned and made good time. We drove about 680 miles before the check engine light flashed on as I pulled out of a rest stop. We got off the freeway and looked for somewhere that was open to check out the car. Unfortunately, since it was after 6, there were no repair shops open. We stopped at an auto parts store to have them check the code. 

As we walked in, the guy at the counter was saying something along the lines of "yup, this is the calm before a tornado...." through a giant wad of chewing tobacco. As if we needed anything more to stress about. After checking the code, we found out that either way- if it was an easy fix or the more involved fix- the dealer would be the only place around that carried the parts which meant we had to backtrack 40 minutes south to Tulsa. 

We're trying to stay positive, the service department opens at 7 and hopefully it'll be a quick fix and we can get back on the road. 

If there was going to be a picture for this post it would have been me standing with the hood up staring at the engine pretending that I know something about cars (the few words I could understand from the auto store clerk through his dip might have well been in another language)... Lucky for me, Lauren did not take any pictures of my confused pondering on where to find the transmission or any of the random things the auto store clerk suggested I could try to fix on my own... Ha! 

Santa Fe, NM

We drove all night and arrived in Santa Fe early this morning. The drive was a little tiring, but overall not too bad. One of the great things about driving at night was once we crossed into Arizona there were so many stars, it was beautiful!  We were able to check into our hotel early and then we headed out to find some breakfast. We ended up eating at a little family owned cafe and had some great breakfast burritos.

 

There were two main reasons we decided to stop in Santa Fe- Lauren wanted to visit the Georgia O'Keeffe museum and I wanted to take a tour of the Santa Fe opera. When we arrived, I looked online to find the tour times, but it turns out that this week there are no tours.... Quite a bummer. So after breakfast we walked to the museum only to find that they were in the middle of preparing for the summer show and they were closed...but we were able to go on a tour of the Georgia O'Keeffe research center which had a lot of her supplies, color samples, and sketches. There was one of her paintings there so it wasn't a total bust, and it was interesting to see some of the details of her process. We were also the youngest people on the tour by about 20yrs...

Before the tour we wandered around and walked through the St. Francis Cathedral which was built 400 years ago. Lauren has been taking tons of photos, this is what most of our walk consisted of...

After the research center tour we came back to the hotel and planned on taking a short nap and then heading back out to see some more of the museums and other city sights. Three hours later we woke up having slept through all the alarms we set. We both really needed to catch up on sleep after the drive, especially considering tomorrow is our longest drive of the trip.

We went to dinner at a place my friend Jessica (who used to live in Santa Fe) suggested. It was amazing- we had "sopapillas" which are light, melt-in-your-mouth thin pastries kind of like tortillas which are served with butter and honey as a starter (we both agreed that we could have just eaten those for dinner). For our main course we had stuffed sopapillas, which were also great.

We're getting ready for our big drive tomorrow, the adventure continues! 

Road Trip!!

Well the time is here for me to embark on another adventure, this time the destination is Rochester, NY! For those that don't know, I will be attending the post-bacc pre-med program at University of Rochester, which is a 14 month program that prepares students to apply to med school. This past month has been a crazy blur, I finished my online math class and started packing and clearing out my room all while working full time. Last week I resigned from my job as an EMT and became unemployed for the first time in two years. It's been a stressful month, but the time is finally here to start the road trip!

My car is packed to the brim and our route is (loosely) set- I will keep this updated with some pics and stories from the road, and then continue while I'm in school. Lauren and I are leaving tonight on a crazy fast trip across the country- our major stops will be Santa Fe, St. Louis, and then Chicago for two days before she flies back to LA. After that I will be visiting Iowa City, Madison, and Lebanon OH before moving into my new place in Rochester. I'm excited and nervous about moving across the country and studying subjects that have been tough for me in the past. This is a huge change for me and I'm really hoping I can succeed! 

Changes all around...

Many, many changes happening at the moment... First thing is that I'll be moving to Rochester, NY in a few months to attend a post-bacc premed course. I'm terrified and excited about the prospect of goodng back to school. One of the things that I had to get used to when I graduated was that I didn't have thing I HAD to do on my days off. I was able to go to work, do my job, and then go home. In my line of work, I don't take work home and besides keeping up with my continuing education, my days off are completely mine. Now I'm having to switch gears back into that academic mode with my least favorite subject- math. I'm taking an online math course in preparation for the post-bacc program. I'm still trying to get into the swing of doing school work again. Hopefully this will begin to prepare me for the insane amount of school I'll be doing for the next few years.

I'm currently in Chicago on vacation, which has been great! I really REALLY needed a break from work. I'm looking forward to not stepping foot into a hospital for the next couple days. The main reason I'm here is that my little sister Iris is auditioning for musical theater programs here. Today she had her first one and she was confident and energetic despite being really sick. I was so frustrated because I know what an amazing performer she is and I wanted the panel to see what she can do at full steam. After the audition I told her that if they didn't accept her she should tell them who her brother is and let them talk to me! I realized a little while later that this is (almost word for word- just replace "brother" with "grandpa") what our grandpa used to say to us before and after every audition. He was fiercely proud of us and was never afraid to express it- he did so every chance he got. Iris is such an amazing performer and I am just as proud of her as our gramps was- I'm glad I can carry on the support he always gave us!

When I get back to LA I will be starting a new shift, working a 24hr 911 car in LA county. My old shift, a Critical Care Transport shift, was too much for me. We were running for 22 out of our 24hr shifts, going without sleep and food for hours on end.. it was intense and exhausting. Occasionally we would have a truly critical patient (stroke, aneurysm, trauma), but the majority of our calls were for insurance reasons. I really enjoyed working with everyone in the program, but the call volume was just too high and I was really feeling run down. I'm excited to get back into running 911 calls regularly. Even though we get a lot of bs calls, we get to meet a ton of people. Also, since I'll be working in the same area every shift I can get to know the paramedics and ER staff better.

All this change has inspired me to set some new goals to work towards this month. There isn't anything that says I can't start my New Years resolutions in February right? I've been playing bass a lot more recently, which has been great. By the time I graduated from college playing and practicing felt like a chore- something I came to dread. Now I practice to relieve stress, it has become a way to escape in a focused way. It feels great now to practice a passage and work it up, it feels like I accomplished something. It also gives me a chance to focus on something in order to clear my head. My work makes it difficult to eat healthy, there have been a few shifts where dinner was eaten standing at the 7-11 counter at 3am. I would like to try and change that- make meals to take to work, cut out all fast food again, and start exercising regularly. There, now it's in writing so I have to do it, right?

This afternoon has been relaxing, I'm sitting on the couch watching the snow fall while listening to Tchaikovsky's symphony #6.... I thought it was a good time to reflect.