the end of the beginning

final exam? done.
final lecture? 15 more minutes.
final day of class? tomorrow am, jeopardy tourney

and then

the superhero sendoff bbq party.
and that's basically the only thing on my radar right now beyond spending next week solidifying housing and packing up unnecessary items.

i'm fried people. finito. i gots nothing else until i can take some moments to recharge. then i'll be back with something more interesting.

in the meantime, am racking my depleted brains in hopes of coming up with a somewhat decent costume for tomorrow's fete. i told ben to go as "super benzo" but he doesn't see the humor in it.
oh well. i think he's just jealous that liam has used up almost a whole roll of duct tape on his costume and there's no more left...

and so it began...

this is nearly it. a year's worth of didactic info somewhere shoved into the deep recesses of my brain....and now it's time to go put it to good use.

no more sitting on my ass in a classroom every day for 8 hours. no more standing in front of the proverbial firehouse with my mouth open. if it's the PA-C i'm after, then this is the only road to go down. and at this point, i have no choice. the bank told me so.

instead, i'm gonna switch more into sheepherder mode...trying to keep my flock in order while traveling around this big wonderful country, learning the practical clinical side of medicine from anyone who makes eye contact with me. i'm pscyched. cynical, sure. ecstatic, you betcha. but overall, i have a sense of freedom and lightness that i had almost forgotten about.

after a few theoretical action plans which all seemed to crash and burn at some point, my flock has opted for a new, more exciting, more anxiety ridden but surely adventure packed version of the upcoming year...

the nomadic family life.

as i traipse through the medical establishments, the fam will come along for the ride and see what they see as they see fit. portland will still be our (semi) home base, and our plan is to get back here towards the end of the year for reals. i'm still waiting to see what the remainder of my schedule will be, so this is all fly by the seat of our pants stuff. anything could change at any time. hopefully we can adapt.

so the plan at the moment is to begin the begin in 2 weeks at madigan army medical center at ft. lewis in tacoma, WA...fam will stay put and i'll be home on weekends to help pack up and throw stuff in storage. then, towards the end of june, we'll head out to nampa, ID. at some point the boys plan on making an extended trip back to NH to hang out with more family while i finish up in ID and come back to portland for a week (PPS week) and then head out to san diego, CA. and then mayhaps they'll catch up with me somewhere down there.

and that's all i know at the moment. later in the year, i believe i'll be up in north bend, WA and at sheridan, OR....but other than that, still lots of room for exciting twists, possible gut wrenching turns.

stay tuned for the expected, unexpected, good, bad, ugly, and hysterical.

here's hoping. cross everything you've got. i sure am.