running circles

Have you ever been to a track meet and watch the 3000m race?  I would watch that thinking those people are crazy just running circle after circle.  Well that is how I feel the past month.  I feel like I have been running endless circles that consist of eat, study, sleep, repeat. 

I guess as endless as the past month seemed my circles of running studying has paid off.  I'm officially a licensed physical therapist in the state of Iowa (now to get my license in Wisconsin)!  I took boards September 7 and wow I don't want to do that again.  Three long, trying, hard years has finally coming to an end.  THANK GOODNESS!!! 

During the past month I literally woke up, rode my bike to the library, studied, came home for dinner, studied, then went to bed.  FREE AT LAST....so I thought.  During that time I resumed my master's classes and found ways to squeak by each week doing the bear minimum work, which now means catch up!  So in what I thought could be a rest really turned into hard core reading and catching up.  :(  Luckily I was able to squeeze in a test this AM before the Hawkeye Win!

In other news, I found a place to live when I move.  One thing that has been a struggle and something I guess I have to learn to deal with is making decisions completely on my own and learning that I have to do everything on my own.  First,  trying to find a place to live was a huge WEIGHT on me.  There were so many decisions that it was just difficult.  This is the first time in my life where I can make decisions without taking into account someone else's opinion or doing something that is best for the future of the family.  UGH!  I hate making decisions on my own.  There for some reason is assurance having a partner to help you make big choices you find comfort in knowing there is someone to fall back on.  That comfort isn't there anymore and that could be one of the scariest things about this move.  Second, in the past month life just seemed to be one big stressor.  Between worrying about my board exam, finding a job, finding a place to live, planning a move, taking master's classes, packing, saying good-bye my plate just felt overloaded and there was no one there to take just a little piece of that load off.  One thing Brian was good at was recognizing (well listening to me break down) when I was stressed and finding way's to make life a little simpler for me.  He would unload the dishwasher, pick up the house, do laundry, run my errands, make dinner, scrap my car off in winter.  To me it was a lighter load (I'm sure to him it was a way to keep my nagging down so he could watch football in peace), but it made a difference.  I could tell this past month how much Brian did for me to take things off my plate.  Little things that seem easy are like mountains when I'm stressed.  Who knew having someone unload a dishwasher or put clothes in the washer made life easy when I have a hundred balls in the air trying to juggle them all.

I spent one weekend looking at housing and left with no clue what to do.  I decided I just needed a break and needed to focus on school and worry about it later...I told myself it would work out somehow.  Everyday I would crunch numbers, make pro/con lists, look up crime statistics  but could not decide.  What is funny, I woke up the morning of Iowa's first game with this feeling in my stomach.  All weekend I couldn't escape it and the only thing that came to my head was to call this one complex I had looked at.  So Ion Sunday morning I called them and asked about the place I had viewed, which had now been rented out.  However, I asked if they had anything at all open and the lady told me about a unit that just opened up.  I looked at it on-line, thought about it, called the police about it (don't worry it is safe), and decided it had everything I needed.  I had no clue what to do for housing and I know Brian lead me to this place.  It s a big relief to know I'm going somewhere that he has picked out for me. 

Now onto the big challenge, packing!  This week between catch up for school I get to pack, pack, and pack.  I think Friday is my official move date YAY!  I'm very excited to have a new place on my own in a new city on a new adventure.  I'm kind of scared going somewhere by myself but I think it is what I need to do to move on with life. 

This will be a  hard week saying good-bye to everyone who has been there the past year in Des Moines.  SIGH. 

Hopefully, nothing to extreme has gone on, on your end. 

By the way, I think we can chalk up that 4th quarter W to someone up above!