Mud Season

I was waiting for Brian to post about his dad's visit before I wrote about March, but he had been far too busy with work. So, that can be written later! I had a wonderful, short trip home to Minnesota in mid-March. It is not easy to get home now - flying from Burlington and stopping in Chicago makes for a long day! After finding elementary school friends on Facebook this year, I met with two of them. I had not seen them in at least 10 or 12 years! My college girls come to my parents' house and my sister flew home. I had a lot of family time, including going to an old theater to see Dial M for Murder with my mom & dad. Back in New Hampshire, it was the first time Brian had the apartment to himself since we moved here!

I have had more excitement/confusion with jobs. I am almost done with my nanny jobs and gymnastics (I will have to work out again). I interviewed for 2 PNP jobs - one in a small Vermont clinic, one day a week, and another with the Dartmouth system in Manchester (90 min away). I was much more comfortable with the Dartmouth practice and patient population, but it is far away and will not make a decision for at least 2 more weeks. I accepted an offer to work in the Vermont clinic. I will start the RN job in a week, then see if I can cut hours. This is the first job offer as a Nurse Practitioner I have had since becoming certified 2.5 years ago. I have to review! The odd thing about the offer is that the Physician called from Hawaii, where he spends the winter. I have not even met him yet! So, I am trying to complete my annual re-certification and household chores before beginning work 40 or more hours a week. It is a good thing Dartmouth's admission decisions will be complete soon, so Brian and I can redistribute household duties.

The snow is finally melting and mud season is upon us. Melting season was known for flooding in MN, but was not nearly as muddy in the Twin Cities as it is here. There is just less pavement for things like parking lots, so it becomes mud! We took advantage of last Saturday's warm weather and Brian's forced break from work (the computers were down) to do some exploring in Vermont. We stopped at a local brewery, Longtrail, that prides itself on its environmentally friendly practices. We continued driving to the Killington Ski Resort, which was impressive and bustling with late-season skiers from all over the Northeast. We were able to take the gondola ride to the top of Killington peak and had a great view, but we could not imaging skiing our way down! There was a woodsy vacation feel to the town, and we even found live music (though I can't say that we enjoyed it). We even finished the day with a beer pong tournament/party thrown by a friend at Dartmouth. It was an immersion to another aspect of the local culture.