Saturday, August 18, 2007

I'm Back!

Not just to the blog but back to Maine. Due to popular demand, I've decided to return to blogging. Oops, pardon me! (Shout out to Krisanne- "I blogged") And by "popular demand", I mean Elisa wanted me to, BUT maybe someone else will read it too. Now I considered blogging while I was in Minnesota but one avid reader told me I shouldn't worry about it as the blog is titled "CraigInMaine" and so to write while in Minnesota would make the title, well- untruthful. However after my month and a half hiatus back in Minnesota I have returned to Maine with a degree and license to practice physical therapy. The story since last time goes something like this...

After spending the last week or so of my internship in Maine saying good-bye to friends, hurting my foot, and deciding if I wanted to take the job at the clinic I had been working at, I accepted the job Friday afternoon (despite having a much better paying offer in Minneapolis- God works in mysterious ways) and jumped in my car and headed home. The first night I stopped in to visit and stay with the Halgesens near Boston for the night. Then left early the next morning for Detroit where I would stay with my classmate Megan and her husband Kevin. On the way, I stopped at Niagara Falls and was stopped at the US/Canadian border (I knew that Marijuana scented air freshener was a bad idea). The only time I've ever been randomly picked for anything and it wasn't even a prize. Wait! I guess I did win a PlayStation through random chance once. From Detroit, I headed back to the GREAT state of Minnesota. There I stayed at Bryan's apartment for the week while taking a Licensing Exam review class, going to out graduation party, and finally GRADUATING!

Yep, I finally graduated for the 3rd and hopefully, final, time. See there's a picture to prove it. After 7 years of secondary education I finally got my DPT degree. Yep, that's right- Doctor! It was a little bit of a bittersweet event. It was a great culmination of years of hard work which was exciting, but it was sad to part from a great group of people. I could never say enough good things about the UofMN DPT Class of 2007. I have been known to be one of the greatest advocates for officially titling us the greatest class ever which has to do with the fact that I truly believe it. We went through a lot together and had some really great times. I wouldn't trade even a second of it for anything. Even the months of taunting I received after getting prone and supine mixed up in front of the class, or when Jaynie showed most of my not-so-attractive buttocks to the class during a palpation demonstration, or my ever infamous quote "I've been saving them for special guests". For any of you reading this: You guys rock and made the past three years probably the greatest years of my life. I miss you all and hope you are all enjoying your careers.

Enough of the mushy stuff! After graduation, my family and some of my closest friends gathered for a cook-out and some yard games to celebrate my entrance into adulthood- finally! Well almost. Before that happened, I went on a BWCA canoe trip with the Boys (Geisler, Dewey, Petey, and little Dewey) which is anything but adultlike despite most of them being married and fathers at this point. After a brief visit to Millerville, MN to celebrate my grandpa's birthday, I headed down to Minneapolis (perhaps the greatest city in the US of A) and stayed with my extremely good and giving friends, the Engessers. Where Joshy and Mari helped keep me young despite the stresses of trying to study for an exam, prepare to move to a new state, and get quality time in with friends all in a short amount of time. The process to take the exam was a messy one. I ran into several hurdles and delays and waded through a lot of stress and frustration. Elisa was beyond patient hearing me vent about it everyday. Finally I found out one Monday night that I could sign up for the exam. So I called Tuesday morning to schedule it and took it Wednesday morning.

Wednesday afternoon my parents showed up and we loaded their trunk and my car. We left Engessers home at 4:30 and after some mild traffic were on our way in Wisconsin when I heard on the radio that the 35W bridge had collapsed. I hope that no one knew anyone involved. I almost felt like I was abandoning my city. My parents and I made decent time heading out to Maine. We ran into some road construction which slowed us down but we made it here on Friday, August 3rd around 4:30. We got a tour of my new place, which is small but comfortable thanks to the help of my parents. We took a lot of trips to Target, Wal-Mart, and the Home Depot the next several days, but took some time to do some site-seeing as well. We all ate our first whole lobster and on Tuesday morning went deep sea fishing where we caught some blue fish (that is the actual name, I'm not just describing them). We caught 5 between the 3 of us. It was a great time. I can't even express how much I appreciated having my parents out here. That made the move so much easier, gut even better, we got to spend some needed quality time together which hadn't happened for a long time. They even got to meet most of my Maine friends. It was hard to come home from work on Thursday to an empty house.

I've stayed busy here adjusting to work, getting reacquainted with friends, and trying to finish the settling down process. Work has been great but a little slow as they are easing me into it. The schedule is picking up and getting better every day. There is another new PT at the clinic, Lee, which is great because not only is he new to the career as well but he is also a male which this clinic didn't have many of. Before Lee and I showed up, there was only one male OT and no male PTs. We are trying to persuade the supervisors into giving us our own office, the Man Cave, complete with a flat screen TV, mini-fridge, and maybe some cigars. Otherwise, I have spent a lot of time with friends. I've been playing tennis with Rob, which has been nice as it makes me feel right at home- he kicks my butt just like Greta did back in Minneapolis. A bunch of us went to see The Bourne Ultimatum- Awesome! And I read the last Harry Potter book in two days. Yep, I know I'm a nerd, but I'm ok with that. I had my first Friday off after working 4 ten hour days. It was great. You can get so much done on a weekday. Mostly I enjoyed going to the Farmer's Market. If fact, I enjoyed it so much I went to another one today. Mmmmmm... corn-on-the-cob. I think that should be one word- cornonthecob.
Well, that's all for now. It's long enough I think. Feel free to give me a call or write, but remember I'm in Eastern Time now. Come and visit!