PORTLAND, OREGON!

At the beginning of June, Ryan and I will be packing up our house and our kitties and driving allllll the way across the country from Atlanta to Portland. I can hardly believe it! We found out on Friday afternoon that Ryan matched at OHSU for his residency-- and we're thrilled! IN a bit of shock, but really thrilled. I'm so proud of my husband. This whole medical school thing has been such a long road, and it's amazing to be coming to the end of it, knowing that a job as a doctor is waiting in Oregon for him. It's really amazing.

This is where we were when we found out about the match:

Haha. We drove down to the Florida panhandle on Friday to go to the beach, and we were in southern Alabama when 1pm rolled around (match time!!) So we pulled off the highway and parked ourselves next to a gas station and this shut-down BBQ joint. It was the funniest place ever to find out the big news.

Once we'd recovered a bit, we continued on our way, and we finally got to to gulf coast! It was beautiful. We walked on the beach on Saturday morning in the fog:

And then it got bright and sunny! We spent the day lounging on the beach, and I even bought a new bikini! It was a fantastic way to celebrate.

We saw this fantastic bird on a walk on Sunday morning:

It was about 3 1/2 feet tall! It was standing on the shore amongst a bunch of people walking around, and then it heaved up on those spindly legs and flew away. So cool. We saw a bunch of dolphins, too. Wildlife adventure!!

We even found a cat:

It lived at the hotel. I wanted to bring it home, but Ryan said no. Boo hoo.

We had lovely dinners on the beached and asked a southern Spring Break-er to take our picture (it was full-on Spring Break down there on Saturday, man oh man! Complete with a college dude in a bright red speedo and a cowboy hat strutting around and a keg buried in the sand. Awesome.):

And we saw this, too:

Gotta love the South.

And I spied this lovely joint from the car on the drive home (still in Alabama):

Too bad I won't get to take any more photos of places like this once we live in Oregon. Oh well. :)

All in all it was a fabulous and celebratory weekend, and I'm excited that we know where the next phase will take us now!!

Ryan and I are off to the beach tomorrow! We're driving down to Florida to get some sun and to celebrate.

Tomorrow is a VERY big day at Casa Swift-- it's Match Day! That means that tomorrow is the day that Ryan finds out where he matches for his residency. Which means tomorrow is the day we find out where Ryan's first job as a real doctor will be and where we will be moving in June. It's a big deal. We're kind-of freaking out over here.

The Match Day process is completely torturous-- we found out on Monday that Ryan did indeed match somewhere, which is awesome! Some people don't match, though, and then they have to do what's called The Scramble-- they have 3 days to figure out what the heck they're going to do, to find programs with open spots, and get themselves into a residency program in a (likely undesirable) location. Scrambling would suck. Scrambling is the reason that we found out on Monday that Ryan did match but didn't find out where. They have to wait to tell people where they matched until The Scramble is over -- then on Friday all the students can log in to the system at 1pm sharp to find out where they matched. Ryan told me he hasn't been so excited for a day to come since he was a little kid waiting for Christmas. (How cute is that?)

We are also counting down-- Ryan just announced to me that we only have 28 more hours to wait.

So we are headed down to the beach tomorrow to celebrate this HUGE MILESTONE in Ryan's life and career and in our relationship-- and we'll be celebrating finally knowing where the universe is sending us in June! I will definitely be posting the outcome on facebook and twitter, so keep your eyes peeled around 1pm EST if you follow me in those places. Otherwise, I'll let you know on Monday where the winds will be taking us come June-- I'm excited for this next phase. Georgia has been so good to us, and hopefully our new city will be even better.

See you on Monday (when I'm all tan and stuff!)

{creative commons image via Seriously Photographic (Jim) on flickr}

Khristian, Niki, and I took a little jaunt to the High Museum here in Atlanta yesterday to see the Picasso to Warhol exhibit that's up right now. I realized just how long it's been since I've been to an art museum!

Some of my favorite pieces that we saw:

A blue and white sculpture by Louise Bourgeouis,

Brass wire sculptures by Alexander Calder,

Sculptures by Constantin Brancusi:

Iconic Campbell's Soup can paintings by Andy Warhol:

And this sculpture and its shadows by Alexander Calder:

We also saw an AMAZZZZZING exhibit by an artist named Grainger McKoy, who makes these incredible carved birds from wood, metal, and oil paint, and they look REAL. We weren't allowed to take photos, unfortunately, but check out this photo of his studio that I found on his website:

Whoa. I would LOVE to go into that room and look around at all the treasures. Amazing.

Have a good weekend! Do you have any fun plans?

{via Charles Hall on pinterest}

India is at the top of my list of places to visit one of these days. I'm so inspired by everything Indian!

My friend Shannon and I had our second Indian cooking lesson last night (and I dragged Ryan along, too!), so now I've got India on my mind again.

{via Janey Pugh on pinterest via desert dreamer}

{via Poornima on pinterest}

{via Micaela Bautista on pinterest via pretty stuff}

{via Micaela Bautista on pinterest via lark & linen}

{via Micaela Bautista via Jellyace Gay on pinterest}

Just a little Indian eye candy for you this morning! Aren't those elephants amaaaaaazing??!

My booth is at the lower right-hand corner of this map.

Have a great weekend! My rain boot samples will hopefully be here when I get home on Monday, too-- fingers crossed!