Concerts and goodbyes (nothing really to do with pathology)

 

I'm comfortable with being strange, everyone is in their own way. Sometimes--if we're lucky in life--we find people to whom our personal brand of strange feels normal. I've been fortunate to have found three people whose weirdness resonates with my own, where I talk and feel understood instead of having to try to explain things in a different way that makes sense. I married one of them, one has been my best friend since 1996 (when our residential high school paired us as roommates against our will...we'd met at a biotech summer camp the year before and did not get along then), and the third is a friend I met in Durham outside of school (who know knows more about biology and medicine than he was ever expecting just by hanging out with me for a couple years). July has been a month of upheaval. I said goodbye to my classmates who scattered around the country and moved myself back to SC, albeit to a new house that I'm still working to make feel like home. I said goodbye to my Durham friend last week, with promises to visit as often as I can (with more made to the classmates remaining there). And this week my best friend is moving to New York where her girlfriend will be starting her clinical rotations. I'm excited for them but it is hard to have to say goodbye to someone else I love!

Meanwhile, I took a quick trip back to Hillsborough on Friday to clear out my apartment (with the help of my Durham friend, who adopted some of the things I originally inherited from my best friend's girlfriend two years ago, which is nice in a way...) and to see an amazing acoustic duo my best friend introduced me and a classmate to last year when they played a Durham cafe. That cafe closed abruptly a few weeks ago so they relocated to Mystery Brewing Company in Hillsborough (they have an interesting collection of seasonal microbrews, if you're into that. I can't say if they are good from personal experience since I'm not a beer drinker, but they are locally popular). I felt like it was a sign that I should go see them. It was a great show and the pub folks seemed to appreciate them which made it extra nice...that everyone in the bar got into watching the music (Hillsborough folks are the best). I enjoyed the performance so much that I drove across the state to see them again the next night in Asheville... where my best friend happens to live. So we had an impromptu concert/going away party. It was so awesome and so fun to see them with other people who love their music too! A touch bittersweet but great all the same.

I don't tend to wax poetic about my personal life (although, tomorrow is my oldest son's birthday! He's 9, which is a terrifying realization... I have a 9 year old.), but I like documenting change, and there has been a lot of it lately.

A week from tomorrow I start orientation. I'll have more medically related things to mention then.