YAY Myrtle Beach!!!Vacation was GREAT! We seriously did NOTHING all week - it was awesome. Got up around 10 or 10:30 every day (of our own will, not by the force of an alarm clock), ate a leisurely breakfast and enjoyed a cup of coffee, slathered on sunscreen (didn't take long for us to need the tough stuff - we were on SPF 70 by day 3!), and walked across the street to the beach. Enjoyed some combination of reading Glamour and/or wedding magazines, swimming, strolling, baking, or just sitting and people-watching until at least 4:30 every day, with a break for lunch sometime where we'd run up to our room, pack sandwiches and run back down to eat them on the beach. Actually, there was very little "running" involved. I tried running on the beach in the morning of our first day, which left me with strange blisters on my "index" toes (I don't know how else to describe them - the ones next to your big toes I guess) and aching calf muscles. In the interest of letting my blisters heal (they hurt like a bitch, believe it or not!) I let the next few days go by without running, and before I knew it I was chowing on pizza and Maggie Moo's and chocolate fondue (Yes, Melting Pot!) for a week with no exercise. Ew. Oh well - it's back to South Beach after the family picnic tomorrow (where I'll do my best, but I know I'll have little control over what's available to eat). Anyway, back to my daily va-cay itinerary (which I know you're all WAY into right now), around 4:30 when Ben's mom had reached the brink of heat exhaustion without the umbrella (the umbrella guy took it back at 4 every day) we'd head back upstairs, take our showers, make dinner or head out to eat, and then hit Barefoot Landing (aka the land of junk stores that you can't resist going into) for some evening shopping. We were always in bed around 11, since I'm just old and need lots of sleep, and Ben literally spent the ENTIRE day, EVERY day, in the water fighting a losing battle against the waves with his trusty body board. He did have to take a brief break at lunchtime to eat and stand there indignantly while I re-slathered him with sunscreen. Yeah, I'm the sunscreen natzi. Despite the fact that I lay in tanning beds from time to time, I refuse to stand idly by while my groom-to-be slowly amasses the genetic mutations necessary for a future date with metastatic melanoma. So anyway, we had a lovely vacation :)
My sexy husband on the beach (he'll kill me if he finds out I put this up!)
While I was away, though, I got THREE more interviews! I can't tell you how psyched I am :) I checked my e-mail in the hotel lobby twice during the week, and I got invitations from Drexel and Maryland. I wasn't super thrilled about Drexel - another school that's farther away than I'd like to end up - but I had to fight to contain my excitement about Maryland (there was some dude sitting at the computer next to me). I'm so excited to get an interview near home! I've done A LOT of thinking about this whole thing ever since we got engaged, and I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I really want to stay as close to home as possible. It's going to be tough enough to start our newlywed lives as I start medical school, with all the demands it will place on my time and my energy, and the whole thing really doesn't need to be aggravated by uprooting us from what's familiar, and from our families. I can't make big name medical schools more important than my marriage - I made that choice when I said yes. That being said, the third interview offer I got is the biggest deal so far... I returned home to a letter from none other than the 11th ranked school in the country and the best school I've heard from so far, Columbia! I don't mean to be braggy, I'm just really excited because it gives me more hope for the big one (yeah, Hopkins). It's another one in NYC, so it's not so much that I'm excited because I want to go there - I'm just thrilled to hear from them because I feel like it's one step closer to Hopkins. It introduces an interesting question though - one that I've been worried about ever since I started this whole process. What happens if I get into Columbia and Maryland, but not Hopkins? Not that rankings are all that important, but to give you some idea (since not all of you are really familiar with what med schools are better than others - I know I had no clue til I started this process, except for the obvious ones), Columbia is ranked 11th, and MD is ranked 43rd. I only hear great things about Maryland, but knowing that makes it tough. Even UVA is ranked 23rd - it's up there but also far away. It's tough with Maryland because I feel confident about the possibility of getting in there, particularly since I'm in-state (we get priority), but it's not one of the best schools I applied to. I'll be doing A LOT of praying about all this. I just need to focus on trying to listen to God's voice in all this - Ben and I will be happiest where God wants us to be, not necessarily where Ben or I think that we'll be happiest. I hope that I can convince Ben of that though, no matter what our situation ends up being. It will definitely be our first major challenge as a married couple if we have to move away - just coming to the place where we can both genuinely trust that God has our best interest in mind and that this is where He wants us to be.
I'm getting scared as the reality gets closer... actually traveling to New York City to interview. It's not just an imaginary scenario anymore like it was when I was filling out applications. I just have to remember that it's only by the grace of God that I've gotten this far - nothing that I've accomplished could've happened without His hand pushing me and guiding me and giving me the strength to make it through - and He didn't get me this far just to abandon me. And He didn't drop this engagement in our laps just to watch us fail, either. That's one thing I remember very clearly from that night when we decided we were getting married - the pure clarity I felt about it, and how obvious it felt that it was God's perfect plan come to life, right there in Ben's kitchen. I can't describe it other than describing the sequence of events, but I know how it felt, and I know how certain I am that we're doing God's will in all this. Having that to fall back on keeps me sane.
So, in the midst of all of the engagement excitement, I've been pulled back down into the real world as the medical school dream inches closer to reality. Now it's time to focus on making the two work together. On that note, we're starting our Preparation for Marriage class at my mom's church in Gaithersburg tomorrow :) Perfect timing! Followed by a not-so-short jaunt out past Hancock to Berkeley Springs (somewhere in Western MD or WV) for Ben's family picnic. I hope it's not too hot! In any case, I should get on to bed. Not that I've unpacked anything. Don't you hate unpacking? Ew. Goodnight!
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