..summer..

These two goofs are my cousins. They're from Hurley, SD and are standing in Gus's (the one in the John Deere shirt) hog pen. His dad informed me he has 44 pigs named Susan (Susan is my mom's name, so I thought this was a pretty funny joke, and a possible band name)

This is probably my last true summer.  And let me tell you, it's been pretty incredible. Visiting my cousins a couple weeks ago made me a little weepy about summertime and saying goodbye to the long, hot days of freedom and enter into adulthood. 

So here are some summer highlights so far...

1. Nothing will top the "Oregon or Bust" roadtrip last year. Just so you remember how gReAT it was, here is a reminiscent photo: 

2. SSCG and KKas are two of my favorite people. See above. 

3. Matt and I went to DC for a day and we saw an Obama girl walking the family dog (B0) on the white house lawn!!!!! just to reinforce that, WE SAW AN OBAMA GIRL ON THE LAWN OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 

4. My 'rents took me out to a new restaurant near home for buffalo burgers and beer. Please come visit so I can take you there. 

5. I SAW A BEAR. not joking. Some med school friends and I went to a cabin in Wisconsin for the 4th of July, and A BLACK BEAR was WANDERING ACROSS THE ROAD. 

6. Yesterday, I injected a lady's knees with cortisol all by myself. That's a surgical procedure because you go into a joint space, so it's kind of a big deal. 

7. We had a family picnic in Hurley when I was there, and my cousins shot off fireworks for us afterward. One of them was poorly aimed and got a little too close. My grandpa (who can't really hear) mutters "Holy balls..." under his breath, not realizing we could hear him. We about died laughing. 

8. I was running at home and really had to go. so I popped a squat in a seemingly safe place (no snakes, I checked), relieved myself, and looked up only to see my neighbor working on his fence 50 yards in front of me, in clear view. oops. 

9. I've been listening to some great jams that we got in Roch and from the Gudes' collection. Love it.

10. RAGBRAI is coming through Corning on Monday!!! I can't wait to see this event that we have all heard so much about :-)

Our Weekend in Roch

What a WONDERFUL weekend in The Roch! We decided that we could be inside a cardboard box and we would still have a blast. That's true friendship for you.

We did not hang out in a cardboard box this weekend, though. There were lots of fun things to do in Rochester! Our highlights:

-a wonderful Zumba workout at the Healthy Dan Center

-meeting the crazy friends of KKas! Wheewww, there is A LOT of drama going on in that friend group. We got the 4-1-1 on it all. HOLY MOLEY.

-St. John's Block Party, including our favorite new band, Six Mile Grove! We bought their CDs and got to talk to the lead singer! He described their music as, "Americana, root rock, and alt country." AKA amazing, wonderful stuff to listen to and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITE-rS0TrGs

-People watching at afore-mentioned block party! There was a super awkward first date unfolding in front of us that we analyzed the heck out of. We really should be writers for Cosmopolitan or (even better) Country Singles. Who needs med school?!?

-KKas signed up for a half-marathon! (and SSCG is going to find a triathalon to sign up for!)

YEAH FOR FRIENDSHIP!

Roch Road Trip!!!

As I type, the lovely and talented Tracy and Sarah are in my kitchen!!!!!!! Yay! They safely made the trip from Iowa to Southern Minnesota and brought lots of delicious goodies :). Yesterday we had supper and took a long walk outside with a couple of pitstops. Today we are going to the gym and to a concert. Happy morning!

Embarrassment and Excitement

Embarassing story of the week:

Earlier this week I was packing some desk supplies and came across a perpetual birthday calendar. It was 12:30am and I should have been headed to bed, but I got a huge surge of energy and decided to write down/look up important birthdays. Somewhere in the shuffle of papers and late night grogginess, K-Kas's birthday got written down as June 24th instead of July 24th. So that next morning, bright and early, I left a cheery birthday message for K-Kas! I followed it up with an email the next day just to make sure she knew that I was thinking of her on her birthday:

Hi Katherine!

Hope you had a great birthday yesterday!

Can't wait to see you in Rochester soon!!

Love,

Sarah

Reply

Forward

Katherine is not available to chat

Reply

Katherine Kasl to me

show details Jun 25 (1 day ago)

Thanks, you are way too sweet! My birthday is actually in July, but that is still way better than i do for most people! I can hardly wait to see you!

Love,

kkas

To which she promptly wrote back and corrected my faux paux. (or however you spell that fancy french word) Looks like I won't be forgetting Katherine's birthday anytime soon!

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TSTD and I had a lovely phone date tonight! It was great to talk with you, TDbear! Glad we finally connected and hope the rest of your trip/flight back home went well.

Here's the card I made for my move! A good excuse to mess with my new version of Office, courtesy of Drake University. Taking a class there has some perks! I might send them out as postcards? Or I might email them out? We'll see how motivated I feel...

In other news, my aunt + uncle tipped me off to a fun fact: there's an airline that flies directly to Mesa from random cities around the US! Flights can go as cheap as $39 for one-way they said. So if you're ever looking to visit, check out: www.allegiantair.com. They're based in Milwaukee, but they fly out of Cedar Rapids, IA, Rapid City, SoDak, Souix City, and Portland! I thought of my lovely friends, all spread out over the country when I was looking through the sites.

En La Republica Dominicana, una vez mas

Hola chicas!

I'm writing a brief update on the DR to keep you all posted. I also have updated my DR blog, http://www.sabanarey.wordpress.com/, but it is more general and I wanted to include some of the stuff that may interest you all who came down in 2007. It is wonderful to be back and I am going to meet my cooperadora Nini tomorrow. I've heard rave reviews about how incredible she is and I can't wait to find out for myself.

Juan's colmado is still on the corner along Calle Duarte, though it has been repainted a lovely green color in place of the yellow & red that it used to be. Last night we walked down and bought some Presidente, whipped out a bunch of plastic chairs, and sat around while some of the ILAC staff played Dominos. Mari's place is also still in business, and we went there for an initial ice cold Presidente yesterday before dinner. She has totally remodeled. Now she mainly just sells alcohol and candy bars. She put up a wall to divide the store and rents out the other side as a chicken stand. Afterward, we were told we can't go down there anymore--apparently she facilitates prostitution out of the back and it doesn't look good to have us going in and out of there. Sad because Mari is a nice lady.

Also, I ran into Edita (our cooperadora from Venu Arriba) today! She had brought someone from the campo into the ILAC center for dental work. It was so nice to see her and catch up. A few updates--Genesis and Albania are in school and Marco turned 18 this year and joined the seminary! I did not realize he was that old already! Edita also said she received a letter from Megan in May. I sent some pictures for Edita, my family, and Esteban & Louisa. I told Edita that hopefully I would be able to visit at the end of the summer program, so I am praying that it works out.

Well, sorry to talk your ears off for those of you that have no idea who these people are, but I am so excited. I hope you all are doing well, and I will try to post more pictures soon! Hasta luego!

JEHF

Greetings from PiTTsBuRGh!!

Knee-deep in a 3-week internship on addictions, I am happily experiencing the East but thankful for my Midwestern and Creighton roots. 

Eight medical students were selected for this experience in Pittsburgh, and for the past week and a half we have been reminded (grudgingly) of the biochemistry and metabolism of drugs of 

abuse, have learned all about Pennsylvania's system for addictions, and visited several rehabilitation programs in the city. It's been pretty incredible.

I've been to AA meetings before, spent time in homeless shelters, been frustrated with how addictions affect the community, learned addiction and the brain,etc. But it's different here--the sponsors of the program have dedicated their lives to understanding addictions, raising awareness, supporting community programs, and everything in between. Never before have I felt such sympathy for addicts, never have I actually tried to understand who these people are and the nature of the chronic disease that they suffer from. Because 

addiction truly is a chronic disease, and I am discovering more and more what that means for its victims and those around them. Addict

ions affect everyone. (effect? I never know...)

On a lighter note, I have enjoyed getting to know the other students, and have done some "big city" / Eastern US things that have been pretty great. Perhaps my favorite is the TWO visits to Trader Joe's thus far (see picture of the excited

 TSTD pointing to the sign). After hearing about it for years from JEHF and other lucky customers, the anticipation to go to TJ's was huge and it was everything I hoped for and more.

I also found a long-lost super great cousin (LLSGC) who is also in Pitt for an intern-

ship this summer (although he is way smarter than me and doing an intense physics/engineering program with classified information and fancy stuff like that).  So LLSGC and I drove up to Niagara Falls this weekend... mmm roadtrips... We also went to a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game and sat really close. Drumroll please... I loved it!! I'm not a huge baseball fan (as most of you know), but we could practically feel the spray of tobacco spit from the players we were so close.

(REMEMBER: addictions affect everyone!!) It was really fun to watch.

Other things you should know: The Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey team won the Stanley Cup last Friday!! They beat Detroit in an exciting series, and the enthusiasm in Pitt is incredible. It is so fun to be in a winning city!! Yesterday we went to the parade downtown that all the players were in... 350,000 people showed up for the parade! It was incredible. 

Summary: addictions.... wowser; somehow Pittsburgh has made me a sports fan; I love Creighton, the people I met there, and my Jesuit education more and more each day; I have a long-lost super great cousin.

peace and love from Pitt

tstd

 

Welcome!

Hello friends!

Joc, Tracy, and I decided a blog would be a fun way to keep in touch with everyone. So here we go!

And because a blog post is more fun with photos and videos...here you go! A link to my own blog, with lots of road trip memories!

http://sarahsweeneygude.blogspot.com/2009/06/that-word.html

Love,

Sarah