Hotlanta Hotties!

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to attend the wedding of two of my close friends from college, Nancy and Caleb. It was my first time to Hotlanta, and I guess that I enjoyed what I saw. Better than the city was just the time I got to spend with old college friends. It was weird to see that everyone had grown up so much. Seven years ago, we all met in the hallways of dorms in Evanston. The big discussions back then were our hometowns, our majors, and where the next party was located. But this past weekend, those discussions were all different. We had all grown up so much. Almost all of my friends from college are either married or engaged. What once was a conversation about which dorm or what end of campus we lived on had now become a talk about buying homes and planning weddings. Once upon a time, a discussion about buying a home or getting married would have freaked me out. I would have immediately run away from that talk. But I realized after this weekend that I had also grown up. For the first time, the idea of marriage and settling down didn't seem so scary anymore. That's not to say that I'm going to get married tomorrow, but I can imagine myself doing it at some point down the road.

I must admit that the best part of the weekend was hanging out with my old Kemper roommates, or Kemper whores as we often were referred to. (Note to all: We're not actually whores. There's a long story behind the name, but it has to do with the first floor of Elder Hall.) It's not everyday that I get to hang out with these girls since we live in different cities and have numerous things going on in our lives. I had somewhat forgotten why it was that I enjoyed being friends with them. Whether it was stuffing our faces with meals and desserts, shopping in Decatur, or trying to accomplish the impossible of getting ready for a wedding, I loved every moment that I spent with these girls over the weekend. It's these moments that I will cherish forever.

To the Brennemans, congratulations and I wish you the best of luck in your life together. Caleb, you're now a "real" member of the Kemper whores. :)

I've been somewhat MIA for the past couple of weeks. Mainly, I've been trying to balance my personal life and my professional life. At work, there's always a fire that needs to be put out in the dialysis world and that keeps me very busy on the weekdays. On the weeknights, I've been trying to brush up on sentence correction and critical reasoning skills. It's amazing how much of the English language I seem to have forgotten; despite the fact that I speak it every day. On the weekends, I try to catch up with friends and spend as much time with Law McGraw as he can handle. Kidding, kidding. The boy actually humors me very well and puts up with my crazy ideas all the time.

Below, you'll see a picture of my personal and professional lives crashing somewhere in Europe. Newton, a very prominent figure in the dialysis world, was sent off to spend almost two weeks in Prague, Berlin, and Copenhagen with Law McGraw. Now, imagine a young innocent owl who normally pops up in the dialysis world at conferences to promote hemodialysis. Some may call him a night owl, but he rarely parties and never inhales. His poor little lungs just don't work as well as human ones. (That's according to a soon-to-be MD.) Two weeks in Europe and Newton is a changed man owl (or is that mowl?). He's become a Marlboro man and a beer-guzzling wench all in one fell swoop. Pretty soon, he'll be hanging out at the neighborhood Hooters.