2009 In Review

A Year In Review - 2009 -

Over the past 12 months, Meaghan and I had the opportunity to travel to a couple of great places and experience new places and people. As residency is a challenging time, the opportunity to travel and experience new places has become that much more important.

We started the year escaping the cold weather of New England for the sandy beaches, and crystal blue waters of Turks and Caicos. We highly recommend visiting Provo, if you get a chance. Its an easy three hour flight from BOS and they speak English, so we were totally in our element. The only challenge was driving on left side of the road. Meaghan was up to the challenge and we marked it down as another adventure.

In May, we stayed local and made a trip out to the Cape and the Islands. We spent a night in Chatham and took the ferry to Martha's Vineyard for a couple of days. The weather wasn't the greatest, that always seems to be our luck, but we had an excellent time nonetheless.

Its seems like we always find the rain when we go on vacation. What's the deal... It never rains when we travel to Washington to visit the Pacific Northwest, just the Cape, the Caribbean, and Europe.

In October we expanded our horizons a bit and visited Europe; Switzerland and Germany to be exact. We had an excellent time, visiting the Campbell's in Zurich and the Elton's in Germany. We drove on the Autobahn, visited the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart, and the castle's in Heidelberg, Germany. The scenery was to die for and we had such a great time. We look forward to returning soon.

Besides our traveling and vacation time, we haven't done anything too terribly exciting in 2009. Meaghan has been challenged with her second year of residency. She loves being a doctor, but finds the 24 hour shifts to be mentally and emotionally draining. She is thinking about applying to fellowship in two years, so is busy planning for that.

We never realized that how important it would be to have a great bed, so we have to give a plug for our Nature's Rest Latex Mattress from Jordan's Furniture. It probably is the best purchase we have ever made. Who knew a bed could have such a positive effect on your life.

I have tried to stay busy while Meaghan works. My job continues to be challenging with lots of opportunity to travel and experience new things. I had the opportunity to travel to many different locations and see the country.

Highlights included St. John's Newfoundland, Mississippi, and New Mexico. Meaghan is always sad when I am gone overnight, but I think that's mainly because I am not available to give foot massages and make dinner. Life is good being an elite member of American Airlines and Marriott International. Its so nice to fly first class every once in a while.

We also added a new member to our family in November. Meaghan decided it was time to trade in her 2001 Honda CRV and buy her first new car. The locks didn't work, so she decided that was an important thing to have in a vehicle. We welcomed a 2010 Honda CRV EX-L into the family and boy is she happy. The car is looker, with heated leather seats, and an I-pod dock. We wish the old car the best as it moves on to a new family.

We know that 2010 will hold many challenges and new experiences. We look forward to skiing the slopes in Stowe, VT in January and taking my parents to Disney World in April. We look forward to everything else that might happen in the new year and we look forward to sharing our new experiences with friends and family. Bring on 2010...