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| The fun never ends with the Jochim/Pope clan. |
How many times have I posted this in the past few years: In lieu of packing, I'll write a blogpost!
Yep. It is that time again when I load up all of my junk and think, Why do I have so much stuff?? before schlepping it across the country. Except that in previous instances when I have stated that I am moving across the country, I really meant that I was crossing only about five states. This time, it's a literal statement as I go from the East Coast to the West Coast. But, before I start to panic about that, let's recap our last few weeks.
Stephanie and my pitch to the VP of Medical Affairs in Klamath Falls went so well that nerve-wracking Tuesday. A few changes need to be made, but we have an excited crew waiting for us in Klamath Falls. They will bring us out sometime in June to pitch to the senior administrative team, the entire board of trustees of the hospital, and to the group that dispenses Medicaid money. So, we will pitch once more and then the real work starts. Or the preparation starts until the real work starts. Either way, I don't think that I'll see a paycheck for a bit, but everything is looking very positive.
That whole week went well in fact. I presented my findings and internship at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which was a success. I did nearly the same presentation to defend my capstone (masters thesis) and that also went very well. And we spoke to the Vice President of Financial Affairs about divestment from fossil fuels at Johns Hopkins. He stated that the school was forming a committee to address the issue and hopes to have an answer next year. This is not quite the answer that we were looking for, but it is a start. Our local NPR station aired a story about our campaign two weeks ago, which you can listen to here. I am featured in the article if you want to hear my quote.
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| The graduate and undergraduate crew that presented our divestment presentation to the VPFA. |
So, everything came together quite successfully. Thus, I was able to celebrate nearly guilt-free! And those are the moments that are captured below!
My bachelorette party was so much fun. The girls were such great sports and I was quite happy. My gifts were priceless and I felt loved and feted. It was wonderful!
The school hosted us (for a fee) at the M&T Bank Stadium where the Ravens play for an end of the year party. We all got dressed up and ran around like children, so happy to be finished with school.
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| Fun at the Ravens Stadium. This is a group of dear friends this year. |
But the fun did not stop there. The next night, the boys took Randal out for his own bachelor party. They arrived at our house decked out in their finest and delivered a cape, mask and fantastic t-shirt for Randal, aka Bach Man. Everyone wanted to take their picture with the crowd, so a friend wrote #bachman on his shirt to see how their party was trending on Twitter. Later, when looking it up, he was disappointed to find only posts about Michelle Bachmann. Either way, Randal had a great time.
In the meantime, the ladies enjoyed a last night on the town before we started leaving Baltimore.
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| (L to R) Heather, Jessica (from Refuel Our Future), Stephanie (the infamous one), Michelle, and Emily. |
The following day, I planned a baby shower for my friends, Maggie and Zach. Maggie hates baby showers, so it had to be appropriately classy with as few "baby" games as possible. Instead, all of the party attendees (who are childless) wrote public-health oriented parenting tips for them to keep and learn from including: Vaccinate. Don't drop the baby. Play in the dirt.
But, the fun didn't end there! Last Tuesday I graduated from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with a Masters in Public Health. The graduation was long and tedious and it was quite hot in the robe, but it was worth it.
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| Randal has been such an amazing and supportive partner this year. Even getting up early for a ceremony that started at 8:30am! |
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| Good friends at graduation. Anticipate all of their smiling faces at the wedding! |
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| The Kepharts (Josiah and Emily) and the Jochim/Popes have successfully had adult sleepovers once a week for a month. We will miss this couple that loves Sunday morning brunch as much as we do. |
And now we're done! Of course, there is still plenty of wedding planning, moving planning, and let's not forget, I am supposed to start a clinic in the fall, which also takes some planning... But, for the moment, I am going to try to finish a good fiction read and decompress from the whirlwind of this year. So, we started packing...
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| We get Maizie and Bogey ready to move to Oregon. |
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