The Time has Come

It's hard to believe it's March 1st today. Where does the time go? For months Ben and I have been preparing for March 1st. It's always been so far in the future that it never actually seemed real. And now it's here. And it's real. And it kind of stinks!
Ben left for Philadelphia a couple of hours ago to embark on his 4 month away rotation journey! Sounds more exotic than it actually is. He's in Philadelphia in March working with an ocular pathologist, Kansas in April doing a rotation through their ophthalmology department, back to Philadelphia in May to do eye cancer research (that's the technical term for it!) and then finally he's off to Tucson in June to do another rotation through the ophthalmology department there. We're hopeful the rotations will be beneficial...though there's no guarantee. Who knows with this whole medical school/residency system they have in place. Sometimes it feels totally random and unpredictable! In the end you just have to believe that whatever happens, happens for a reason and that it's going to be alright. Vermont seemed pretty random when we found out about that, and now I can't imagine not being here and having the experiences we're having.

The plan is for Ben to drive home the weekends he's in Philadelphia. We'll see...it will be easier to tell whether that is really an option once he's made the full drive. Our GPS said it should take about 7 hours, but I have no doubt Ben will make it less time than that...especially without his human speedometer sidekick sitting in the passenger seat!

I'm hopeful I can be semi-productive while Ben is gone. He did a month rotation in Bennington last year, and looking back, I completely wasted the month! (Way too many min-eggs and Top Chef reruns, and I don't even like that show) Between working two jobs, church service and spending time with Ben, I've kind of realized I don't have many hobbies. Sad huh. I run, and that's about it. So I'm on the look out for a productive hobby...we'll see what I come up with.

I had this past week off from teaching which was great! In Vermont the kids get a week off in February and a week off in April...my guess is to avoid seasonal depression! Everyone leaves town and heads south to one of two places...Mexico or Florida. We did neither this year (though I did relive our Mexico trip from last February over in my mind several times this week!). Did I mention it was 9 degrees here yesterday?
I went in to the studio on Friday to clean things up a little and to prep for my lessons this week and to my surprise, found I had been visited by a furry little rodent sometime that week. I'm pretty sure it was one of the grossest things I've seen in quite some time. This furry little friend had left me some special "surprises" we'll call them all over my piano! And to make matters worse, he had eaten through a granola bar box and through all of my granola bars! I was so grossed out I couldn't even deal with the mess, so that's what I have to look forward to tomorrow.

Ben and I found a new little breakfast place on Saturday that we'll for sure go back to. From the looks of it you wouldn't expect much (it looks like a total dive from the outside) but it was really pretty good. Finding new unknown restaurants is one of my favorite things to do. I love the little hole in the wall places that you would only go to because someone recommended it to you; the kind of place where they have their usual customers they know by name. Check it out if you live in Vermont....not a bad little spot!


We also stayed at the coolest Bed and Breakfasts a couple of weeks ago called the Inn at Grace Farm. It was the neatest place. I'm not a huge fan of B&B places usually because they're old, cold, and you have to share a bathroom, but this place was brand new. It was this big log cabin with totally modern decor, amazing vaulted ceilings, a beautiful view and the most comfortable king size bed! Breakfast was made by the owners and very gourmet. One of Ben's classmates boyfriend actually helped build the place and that's how we found out about it, otherwise I'm not sure we would have ever found it.
We spent the weekend in Stowe browsing through every little art gallery in town and eating a lot of really great food!



That's the no-so-short version of the last few weeks. If anyone is dying to come visit the North Pole in the next few months, let me know...I'll have plenty of time on my hands to play tour guide!