Leigh's visit and Campout

Last weekend my friend and classmate Leigh came to visit to interview for a job. She is considering relocating and is looking into the Raleigh area. Leigh arrived on Wednesday night. She interviewed on Thursday and Friday. We looked for apartments, ate some Bojangles, and spent some good time together. I enjoyed having a a visitor!

Here is Leigh looking all professional for her interview! She is researching apartments for us to view later. We went to about 10 and visited 8 apartment complexes. There are some nice apartments in the Raleigh area.

 Friday night Campout started for Duke graduate students. This is a pretty crazy tradition. In a nutshell, graduate students campout for 36 hours from Friday night at 7pm to Sunday morning at 7 am for a chance to win basketball tickets. This year is actually lasted until about 8:30 am.

 Here are the tents where students stay (rain or shine!) all weekend. The purpose of campout is to win a chance for a season ticket to the Duke basketball games. If you are present for every "check-in" you have a chance to win a ticket. Last year there were 35 check-ins in 36 hours. Dane did not count the check-ins this year. They are not at scheduled intervals (obviously) and they go through the night.

 

Some students purchase U-Hauls for the weekend. This is actually much cheaper than renting an RV. They stay dry and provide a large area for seating, etc. In the above picture you can also see the bathroom system ;). Nice.

The picture above is from Saturday morning. There is an RV on the right. I brought Dane a bag of food he had left in my car as well as some cough drops and sinus medicine. It basically rained for most of the time the students were camping out. Notice all of the students headed out of their dry areas to check-in.

Here is Leigh acting excited for Dane. After this photo we left and headed to Satisfaction for some pizza and salad! Yum.

Dane and a group of 12 of his Divinity classmates planned to camp together to maximize resources and increase their chance of winning tickets. 6 of the 12 (including Dane) made it to every check-in. On Sunday morning 4 of the 6 found of that they won tickets. Dane did not win. However, because he was in this group he will be able to attend several games this year. It is looking like it will be around 10 games. They will have a draft to separate the games.Of course, the people who actually won the tickets get to pick their games first. Traditionally, the UNC games go in the first round of the draft.

And that, in a nutshell, explains the Duke graduate school Campout. ...It is an extensive process. ;)

Every day is a good day. Some days are just better than others.

Today I found out that I passed the NPTE. The information was not available on the Federal State Board of Physical Therapy (FSBPT - Yes we like acronyms in the PT world.) website. Instead I found my name when I searched the North Carolina website for licensed therapists.

Jill Michelle Womack - Active

I'm a PT. It's official. Time to celebrate.
 

On another note, I recently obtained my Duke spouse card. This card gets me into football games for free and into the Duke Recreation facilities for an annual fee. Yesterday I used it on the machine weights. Today I went with a friend to the Spin class. I had never been to a Spin class before. Basically you ride a bike in a small room with other people for 1 hour. During this hour you climb hills, increase the resistance, stand up, lean forward, etc. I am sure there are much more technical terms. The instructor was excellent. The music was very upbeat and it was in a dark room. I prefer to exercise in the dark. It makes my pink cheeks less...startling. I am a little concerned that I may not be able to climb the stairs in our apartment tomorrow.

Tonight one of my friends from PT school is coming to stay with me through the weekend. She is interviewing for a job in Raleigh. It would be great to have a friend nearby! We are going to have a good time I just know it.

I have so much to be thankful for tonight. Particularly for so many people who helped me reach my goal of becoming a PT.  

Weekend Recap

 Music on the lawn

Dane and I had a great weekend with some new friends. Friday night we went to the American Tobacco Historic District for some live music. It is basically an area where tobacco factories and warehouses were as early as the 1800s and the city was renovated the area while preserving the old buildings. It was packed Friday night. Lots of people bring lawn chairs, kids, pets, etc and sit in the lawn and listen to music. There is a water feature around the lawn and lots of restaurants in the old warehouses. We did not know about the area until Friday night when it was recommended to us. We will be going back!

Saturday was football day! We first went to the Duke football game at 3:30. One of Dane's classmates brought us some Bojangles Famous Chicken and Biscuits for lunch. It was awesome. I love fried chicken and I really think it was the best I have ever had. I actually ended up not going to the game because we did not want to pay for a ticket! Yikes. Dane said it actually turned out to be a better first half then he expected.

After the game we went home and I finished assembling a brownie trifle desert. We then headed to watch the Razorback game with other Razorback fans! We have actually seen several people here wearing Hog hats. We met some new people and it felt very at home to watch the game with fellow Arkansans.

This morning we went to another church. We are looking for a church home here in NC. We enjoyed the service this morning and feel that we want to go back soon. I particularly want to find a place to connect with other Christians. Monday night I am going to a spouses group meeting with other Divinity student spouses. I hope to join a bible study through this group as well.

I think that sums up a pretty full weekend. :)

Dane and I have this beautiful berry bush/shrub in our yard. When we first moved in we noticed the bush, but lately it has gotten crazy beautiful. Very fitting for this nice fall air. Every day it seems to have bigger and better berries.

We also have this Duke flag that I bought for Dane's birthday. I haven't had the heart to take the ribbon off yet either. Dane bought some nice fall flowers for a pots and they are doing well except for one pot that we think got too much rain from the roof.

This stage of life after the NPTE and before starting work is kinda like...freedom. ;)

The test is over.

 

Here is a picture of books I will NOT be reading tonight ;)

The NPTE was today. I took the test in Raleigh. Overall the test was uneventful. Just 4.75 hours of reading and reviewing questions and answers. I will not know if I passed until approximately 3 weeks. Yikes.

There was one terrible event at my testing center. The last person to check in (another therapy student) was not able to test because one of the computers was down. She had all of her information and was registered appropriately. When she was checking in the proctor told her that she would have to wait until a later time slot (when someone else missed their scheduled test time) because she was last person to check in. He did not know if that would be later today or another day. I honestly thought in my head "this is like a bad dream." The girl was very polite and respectful and left calmly. I was impressed with her behavior. I am afraid I would have burst into tears or let out a loud scream. I have a feeling she was pass the test.

I am glad the test is over. If I passed I will be completely finished with 7 years of college/graduate school and testing. I think that makes this a good day.

Labor Day Weekend 2011 and the NPTE

Dane and I have had a great Labor Day weekend. Saturday we went searching for a bedroom dresser. We have never owned bedroom furniture. We borrowed some pieces from Dane's grandmother and then we used some furniture that was in the rent house we lived in at Plumerville. We bought a dresser off of Craigslist last week and we absolutely love it. It is an espresso colored and the wood is nice. However, after we bought the dresser we have really struggled to find a piece of similar value/quality. We are convinced there is one out there! Saturday we went to a furniture resale store in Raleigh as well as the Raleigh Flea Market. The Raleigh Flea Market is INTENSE. The website says that are over 600 vendors. I believe them. There are vendors in a large NC state fairground building as well as rows and rows of vendors outside. Unfortunately we did not find another dresser. However, Dane said that he felt the entire day was proof that he does love me. After all, he did miss a large part of the first day of college football to walk around in an outdoor flea market.

Of course, we made it home in time to watch the Razorbacks. Apparently there is some system where people in Arkansas can watch games that are not televised on pay per view, but if Arkansans choose not to purchase pay per view then they cannot see the games on the internet (I honestly do not understand this..I don't even understand how cell phones get internet through "3G"). I just know that we had never watched a Razorback game online before, until Saturday. Dane connected my laptop to our tv and we watched the game online for free (on our tv...). Craziness. We were pretty happy about our high speed internet access. :) A much much appreciated change. Oh and we had delicious grilled steaks, salad, baked potatoes, and grilled squash for dinner. Talk about a good night. The Razorbacks obviously won. Dane explained that the competition (picked to finish 9th in their conference) was not too competitive. ;)

Sunday we went to to Wrightsville Beach. Dane  had not yet been the beach and we know that our lives are about to get too busy to spend driving 5 hours in the car. We ate a delicious lunch and then attempted to park. The parking situation was tough. Wrightsville Beach was very crowded. We ended up paying a guy $20 to park. I told Dane that I thought he would have paid $50 by the time we found the spot. ha. Surely not. Well, maybe so. The beach was pretty crowded, but the weather was amazing and the water was perfect. Overall it was a great day. A sort of staycation.

In the midst of all of these activities I am preparing to take my National Physical Therapy Exam (NPTE) on Wednesday at 8 am. Yikes. I am taking the test at a testing center in Raleigh. Tomorrow I am going to get up early and drive in rush hour traffic to practice for the test. The testing book recommends it. I am very ready to get the best behind me. In the mean time, my Cooler Ranch Doritos are my BFF.

August 30, 2011

 Well the big August 30th birthdays have now come and gone! Beth and Dane were born on the same day exactly two years apart. I did not take many great pictures so I wanted to post a few that I do have. The above picture is Dane with his BBFs at Bart's wedding in Arkansas. I think it is a great picture and I wanted to post it before I forget. Dane was glad to spend some time with his dear friends before moving (5 days later) to NC.

Beth came to visit me on Saturday the 27th. Hurricane Irene also came to visit that day. We did not have any damage in Durham (although there was some in Raleigh and on the coast of course) and Beth's flight made in from Nashville no problem. Saturday we spent mostly at home because we did not want to be out in the wind and rain. We did eat some pizza at Satisfaction Restaurant. I love that place. The pizza is amazing. We also went to Blockbuster to rent a movie. Unfortunately the power went out while we were in Blockbuster and it turned into quite a hilarious scene. Beth and I couldn't stop laughing at our bad luck.

Sunday we went to church at Duke Chapel. I found this picture of the inside of the chapel on Google Images. It was a very nice service. The choir is amazing. There is a church that meets at Duke Chapel ever Sunday and of course many Duke students and facility also attend. I was very encouraged by the sermon and the people there.  We ate lunch at Elmo's diner, a local favorite.

These pictures are from our adventures on Monday! Beth and I headed to Wrightsville Beach, NC which is near Wilmington, NC. We saw a local television station report that there was no damage at Wrightsville and the businesses were encouraging people to return.

We bought a couple of chairs to lounge in and played in the water for a few hours. The water was not cold, it was actually very comfortable considering it was pretty hot. It felt like the Gulf. We think that might have been the result of the hurricane. After lounging on the beach we headed to lunch (around 3 pm) at a local restaurant. We found The Oceanic online and loved it. It was the perfect beach restaurant. The food was delicious and the lunch menu was priced appropriately. We ate outside. I think Beth enjoyed the pre Birthday celebration.

  

Monday night I cooked dinner and we had a birthday cake and some presents. I had the best time with Beth and I cried like a baby when I dropped her off at the airport on Tuesday (her actual Birthday). Oh well. Some things never change. I was so glad she was able to come visit me before her program gets too intense and my work schedule prevents us from long visits. She was very sweet to spend her birthday with us.

Tuesday night Dane and I went to eat for his birthday at Spartacus a local greek restaurant. We both got pasta and greek salad as well as a delicious appetizer of shrimp gorgonzola.

I am proud of Dane. He has been studying very hard. He chose to take Hebrew. Languages are optional at Duke but he wanted to learn as much as he can while he is here. He has really been working hard. 

Yesterday we saw this deer in our backyard. This is literally Dane standing on our back patio. He was whistling for the deer and the deer continued to walk toward us. It was a little scary. I actually went back into the house. I'm not sure if the picture shows it but the deer was a buck. We live in a very wooded area, obviously.