Top 10 reasons why I love Reno, NV

OM [one moment] meet up - week #26




Yep, that's right! The contract has been signed, the ink is dry. We are moving to Reno, Nevada.  When?  Sometime around the 1st of July.  I've been waiting for this moment for 13 1/2 years.  It is surreal, exciting, scary, and bittersweet.  C will finally be finished with residency and we anticipate that this will be our final move.  It will be the first time in all these years, that he/we may have a "normal" family routine with weekends free and evenings together. We might be able to attend a BBQ as a family or a school meeting together.  No more 90+ hours a week of work for him.  No more indentured servitude.

Much like landing in Rhode Island almost 7 years ago, Reno was not on my radar.  I've been to Las Vegas once and now Reno twice (both times relative to the interview).  But great things happen when we least expect it.  I'm sure I'll be sharing much about our move in the coming months: how will this affect my business, how will the kids transition, house selling/buying, saying goodbye to good friends, etc.  But today, in this moment, I want to tell you the top 10 reasons I love Reno:

10.  It's sunny 300+ days a year.  Having spent most of my life in and around Chicago, and the last 7 years here in Rhode Island, I'm tired of the dreary gray winter months of January through March.

9.  There's no humidity.  See the above comment about having lived in the Midwest and East Coast, both very humid in summer months.

8.  There are no bugs!  Yep, no no seeums, no mosquitos, no ticks, no fleas...NO BUGS!  Maybe the occasional lizard, bear, and coyote but I can live with those.





7.  Lake Tahoe (30 minutes from Reno) and year round outdoor living for the boys:  skiing (snow and water), boating, hiking, mountain climbing, biking, etc.

6.  It's 3.5 hours from San Francisco (my favorite US city) by car and less than one hour by plane.

5.  Lake Tahoe

4.  My tweeter friend Angie (@modernpaper and Jumping Jack Designs) lives there.

3.  C found a wonderful practice there with great people who are family oriented.

2.  The boys really like it and are excited about the move.

1.  It's the end of a long journey and the beginning of a new adventure for our family.

There you have it...a really big moment for us!  It feels great to be able to share this news with all of you.

How was your week?  Did you have a moment jump out at you?  Did you celebrate something or quietly do something for yourself?  Please Share!

OM is a weekly meet up that promotes living in the moment.  Whether funny, sad, ridiculous, or banal, looking for these moments can promote balance in our lives.

Share in the blog comments here, on your own blog (and link back below)  or on my Facebook fan  page. If you are on Twitter,  I've started a hash tag - #omMeetup so  that we can converse if we'd like. We'd love to hear your moment this week!

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Reno, Lake Tahoe, airplanes, In and Out Burger, and online friends

Hello!  I'm back from our trip to Reno in body but not soul.  I'm finding it difficult to focus enough to get my act together and back to work.  I also have a cold and feel pretty cruddy.  So, I'm giving myself a bit of a break.

While I have lots to share, today I'm only going to show you just a few pictures from our trip.  We had a very full 5 days in Reno and Lake Tahoe.  We met some wonderful people, ate lots of great food, went to the air races, boating on the lake and I met my online friend, Angie (a.k.a.  Jumping Jack Designs and @modernpaper), in person. 

We had pit passes, so the boys (C included) enjoyed the planes up close and personal.  As you can see, some of the military planes were massive.

The Air Races were fun although E and I spent most of our time walking the midway looking at souvenirs.

Reno has one In and Out Burger, so we had to introduce the boys.  This is Max's Animal Style burger.  Rhode Islander's, he thinks 5 Guys Burger and Fries rivals In and Out Burger. 

[257/365 O is for Online - Angie's flickr]

Here's a picture that Angie's husband took.  It was so great to meet her in person as I feel like we've been online buddies for a long time.  I got to introduce my family to most of hers and see Angie's work in person. That was truly one of the highlights of this trip for me.

I'll share more soon, but for now I have to clear my head...literally...because it is so congested it may explode.

OM [one moment] meet up - week #8 - reality sinks in

C and I were in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area Tuesday - Thursday this week.  C had an interview at a practice there and I joined him to check out the area. 

[photo by moi]

For those of you who are not familiar, C is a medical resident embarking on his 7th and final year of residency.  He started this long journey over 13 years ago when our oldest son was born.  Having been a banker for a number of years, he decided to go to med school.  The last 13 years of training looked something like this:

1 2 years of pre med classes [update 6.9.10 - was correct by hubs.  When it's all over it will be 14 yrs]
1 year of research and applying to medical schools
4 years of medical school
7 years of residency

[I remember discussing with C, early on in his medical shcool training, what he might consider specializing in.  The conversation ended with me asking what specialty had the longest residency program.  When he told me neurosurgery, 7 years, I told him that was what he was going to choose.  I was right.]

peppered with 2 major periods of uncertainty:

1) medical school acceptance  - Northwestern, which luckily did not require us to move as we were living in Chicago at the time.

2) residency match - an arcane process where the students rank their choices for residency whilst the schools rank their choices of students.  Students literally find out where they are going just months from when they need to begin.  As you can imagine, this is hard on families.  After learning we were going to Brown, I remember sitting for a quiet moment outside the Dean's office.  Rhode Island...where the heck is Rhode Island?  Chris had to pull up a map and show me exactily where we'd be spending the next 7 years.

and

90 + hour work weeks, overnight calls, tight budgets, and  knowing we'd likely be moving the family again!!

[photo by moi]

So, here we are.  The light at the end of the tunnel, which used to be a pinhole, is now the size of a quarter.  The gamble is about to payoff.

Our lives have been mostly dictated by this whole process.  Not much choice, other than the initial choice of going down this path.  It's all the boys have ever known.  It's about all that I can bare.  We both agreed that it is surreal to think that we are finally nearing the end of this long journey.  My "one moment" this week was trying to let reality sink in and breath a sigh of relief for the future.

What was your 'one moment' this week? What took you out of your present moment and made you pause, pinch yourself, smile?

Share in the blog comments here, on your own blog (and link back below) or on my Facebook fan page. If you are on Twitter, I've started a hash tag - #OMmeetup so that we can converse if we'd like. We'd love to hear your moment this week!

To learn more about this weekly post, OM [one moment] meetup, please see the original post here.