Another One Bites the Dust

Trust me, I know that this blog entry is LONG overdue. I had good intentions to fill you in on what's been going on in my life at the end of summer break, during fall break, again over winter break, and even at the end of our first week back to school this semester; unfortunately things didn't quite work out the way I'd intended. Things like meeting my Matron of Honor and her husband in New Orleans for a weekend getaway, going to California to see Kevin's cousin get married, celebrating my five year anniversary with Kevin, delivering my first official gold crown and full set of dentures, spending Christmas and New Year's Eve in Southern California, and turning a quarter of a century old all required me to be present in their respective moments, so blogging just fell to the wayside. Is it too cliché to say that I was too busy living life to write about it?

Nonetheless, my sincerest apologies to you all. But, fear not, because I. AM. BACK. And, I'm here to fill you in on all those little moments that have been occurring in my life over the last six months. Are you ready? I promise I'll try to keep it short...

JULY
New Orleans, LA

After mentioning to Kevin about how ridiculous it was that I'd grown up in Texas, but somehow never managed to visit Louisiana, we decided that at the end of summer clinic we would take a weekend to go to New Orleans. Kevin and I made plans to drive the 7 hours from Dallas to NOLA and meet my life-long friend and Matron of Honor, Ashley, and her husband, Josh, for a couples' vacation. We felt very adult! We left a little after lunch on Thursday, but due to some unforeseen traffic at the Texas-Louisiana border, we didn't make it to our hotel until almost midnight (we barely beat Ashley and Josh, despite the fact that their drive from San Antonio was longer than ours and they left after work).

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square. Crossing the TX-LA border. The St.Charles Street Car.

It took a lot of research and asking around, but thanks to Frommer's Guide to New Orleans and one of my lovely classmates, Vivi, Ashley and I created a very manageable itinerary for our 2 days of sight seeing.

FRIDAY:
Jazz Brunch at Court of Two Sisters
Walking Tour of the French Quarter
Lunch at Central Grocery
Ride the Canal St./Algiers Ferry
Dinner at the Acme Oyster House

SATURDAY:
Breakfast at Cafe du Monde
Walking Tour of Garden District
Lunch at Tracy's
WWII Museum
Dinner at Vincent's Italian Restaurant
Dessert at Creole Creamery

Architecture of the French Quarter and the Garden District.

Despite all of our planning, things didn't really go according to plan (which we should have expected after the fiasco Kevin and I went through trying to get to Seattle last Spring Break). Friday morning, the Court of Two Sisters was closed for a private event during brunch. Friday afternoon the St. Charles Street Car seemed to stop running, leaving us at the stop we were at, and Friday at dinner time, the wait for the Acme Oyster house produced a line that went down the block. But, we made the best of it. We skipped brunch and jumped right into our walking tour of the French Quarter (but, we did it in reverse so that we could get lunch before the humidity and hunger made us all crabby and mean). We soaked up the eclectic NOLA culture by browsing the street art surrounding Jackson Square and listening to Jazz bands playing on the street corners, we tried the original muffuletta at Central Grocery, we drank Hurricanes and Mint Julips on the patio of Pat O'Briens after strolling down Bourbon Street, we escaped from the sun and heat and rode the ferry across the Mississippi River (doesn't it remind you of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?), and at the end of our long first day of vacation, we let our exhaustion take over and grabbed a deck of cards, drinks, snacks, and aloe vera from the Walgreens across the street and had a relaxing night in Ashley and Josh's hotel room.


Since we'd missed out the day before, Saturday morning we woke up early to guarantee a table at the Court of Two Sisters, and we gorged ourselves on their amazing buffet (Ashley was the only one brave enough to try their turtle soup. Although now that I think about it, she might have succeeded in convincing a very reluctant Josh to taste it as well...). With our bellies full, we hopped on a street car and rode to the Garden District where we did another walking tour. This time we wandered around the graves and mausoleums of Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, grabbed a Po' Boy at Tracy's for lunch, and stopped for coffee and a snack to escape the occasional rain at The Rink. We completed our lazy Saturday afternoon at the World War II Museum before heading back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Our last night in New Orleans, we treated ourselves to a nice dinner at Vincent's Italian Restaurant and sampled exotic ice cream flavors at the Creole Creamery. Sunday morning arrived way to soon for all four of us, but before we headed out on the long drive back to Texas, we made our way to the French Quarter one last time for coffee and beignets at the ever popular Cafe du Monde.

AUGUST
San Luis Obispo, CA

As the fall semester crept closer and closer, Kevin and I found ourselves traveling one more time before school started again. This time, to see his cousin get married. We flew from Dallas to the cursed San Francisco airport where we changed planes to fly into San Luis Obispo. Lucky for us, there were no major complications with our travels. My only complaint was that the plane we took to SLO was so small that it had PROPELLERS. Now, many of you may not know, but I am a bit of a nervous flyer- the fact that I am putting my life in someone else's hands and that I have no idea what the pilots are doing up in the cockpit stresses me out. I might have some control issues.

How do planes with propellers still exist? That can't be safe.

This trip to CA was really short, but I don't think we could really complain since it was our second trip to CA during summer break, and the third weekend getaway of the season. The brevity of our stay didn't stop us from enjoying our time with Kevin's family, though. As usual, everyone was amazing and weddings are always such a fun and happy time (at least for the guests who are ignorant of the hard work going on behind the scenes- which we' have come to appreciate as we are in the midst of planning our own wedding). Of course, leave it to me to be more interested in befriending the cats that roam the wedding venue than socializing with the other guests!


SEPTEMBER
Anniversary Celebration

A little over a month into the semester, Kevin and I made quite the milestone in our relationship. Although already engaged, as September 27th rolled around we were still very happy to celebrate the five year anniversary of our first date. It was almost bitter sweet knowing that come May 30th, our "anniversary clock" will restart itself back at zero. Since it was our last first date anniversary, we treated ourselves to some delicious Mexican food at Pepe & Mito's in Deep Ellum, and then headed downtown for drinks and dessert at the top of Reunion Tower at 560 by Wolfgang Puck; we finished the night off watching Imagine Dragons perform at the South Side Ballroom. It really was an unforgettable night.

OCTOBER
School, School, School

October is notoriously bad as far as school is concerned. It's the month of midterms and its right in the middle of the semester when you desperately want a break. It also happened to be the busiest month for me in regards to treating patients. I officially delivered my first set of dentures and cemented my first gold crown!

Any dental student will tell you it's no surprise I almost threw these things across the room while making them.

NOVEMBER
Engagement Photos

The highlight of November was getting our engagement photos and sending out our "Save-the-Dates." It felt like we were finally making some progress on wedding planning. After all, with November, came the 6 month mark until the big day! Words cannot express how grateful Kevin and I were that my classmate Spencer was willing to not only take our photos for us, but drive all the way to downtown to do it on a Saturday morning. He is so talented- and humble. And of course, one of the best parts of taking our engagement photos was getting to bring Rosalind along to one of the locations. The photo of our little family at Klyde Warren Park was my absolute favorite; you can see how cute it is down below! And, just in case you haven't had the chance to browse our wedding website, you can take a look at it here: Stephanie & Kevin's Wedding Website

One thing I was certainly thankful for this Thanksgiving season was an ENTIRE week off from school. It was so glorious, and much needed! Of course, since we spent Thanksgiving in Texas with my family, it meant we'd be in California for Christmas, which my dad was not totally thrilled about since we spent Christmas with Kevin's family last year. But, it just made sense. There was no way we'd be able to take care of all of the wedding necessities in 1 week, especially when things are closed for the holiday! I guess we already know where we'll be spending Christmas the next two years...

Kevin and I with our baby dog, Rosalind.

DECEMBER
Finals & Wedding Planning

I had been warned long ago that the fall semester of D3 year was the worst semester in all of dental school; I have to disagree. Nothing comes close to the hell of first year (although the D1 curriculum got changed this year and it seems like it's much better now; those D1s don't even know how lucky they are). I'd also been told that the finals week of D3 fall semester was an absolute killer, and that was absolutely true. We had ELEVEN finals in 5 days. Eleven. Now, when I told people who weren't in dental school that we had that many finals, they were really confused. I guess it's hard to believe that we're taking eleven different classes in a single semester (we actually took 12 classes, but 1 of them didn't have a final because it continues into the Spring semester, but that's just semantics at this point). And really, eleven classes is nothing compared to what our schedules looked like the last 2 years. I mean, we only spend 9 hours in class a week as D3's, but we spent nearly 40 hours in class a week first and second year. Needless to say, anyone who complains on Facebook about their meager 3-5 undergrad finals gets no sympathy and an angry glare from me. Luckily though, the rest of dental school is supposed to be smooth sailing. We recently got our exam schedule for the Spring semester, and we only have eleven exams the entire semester!

The weekend after finals, Kevin and I were on our way to California. Again. We spent the entire 3 week winter break in sunny SoCal, and I was so happy that my mom got to join us for a week to help with wedding details. Even though it was her first trip to California, she was not in the mood to do much sight-seeing. Mama bear was on a wedding planning rampage, and it was a good thing, because we got a ton done. We finalized our contract with the venue, planned the dinner menu, met with the florist, found an officiant, picked out paper for the invitations, picked out the suits and ties for the groomsmen, went cake tasting, and did a bunch of wedding crafting. It was a very productive three weeks, and we even managed to go wine tasting, squeeze in a trip to San Luis Obispo, and visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library before my mom left.

JANUARY
Quarter Life Crisis

As the clock struck midnight and the calender rolled over to January first, another year bit the dust. It was hard to imagine how 2014 could possibly top 2013... in the last year, I got engaged to the love of my life, received my white coat, went to Seattle for the first time, adopted a beautiful dog, started treating patients in the dental clinic, went to New Orleans for the first time, and rang in the new year in Los Angeles! Of course, 2014 isn't off to a bad start; the first month of the new year included my "golden birthday," and I turned 25 on the 25th. I guess you could say that my reckless and impulsive quarter life crisis behavior is to get married this year; only 115 more days until we say "I do!"

Other than the wedding and honeymoon trip to Grand Cayman Island, I can hardly wait to see what the rest of the year will bring... And despite the fact that we have done a fair amount of traveling together over the last 5 and a half years, hopefully I can convince Kevin to squeeze in a few more places before 2015! 

Vacation Destinations:

Seattle, WA
Los Angeles, CA
San Luis Obispo, CA
San Jose, CA
San Francisco, CA
Phoenix, AZ
Flagstaff, AZ
Albuquerque, NM
Carlsbad, NM
Oklahoma City, OK
Abilene, TX
Dallas, TX
Houston, TX
Galveston, TX
Austin, TX
San Antonio, TX
New Orleans, LA
Atlanta, GA
Jacksonville, FL
Charleston, SC
Portland, OR
New York City, NY
Boston, MA
The Keys, FL