on the interview trail

Because I know you all wanted to see a bunch of selfies of me and my husband, right? ;) What seems like forever ago now, I got to leave Uriah with my mom and meet Stephen in San Francisco for his residency interview with Stanford in Palo Alto. It was the third time I'd been away from Uriah and the first time I'd done so with Stephen - about time, too! Stephen was flying up from Los Angeles and we met in the airport on Tuesday night. We had a whole day on Wednesday to explore San Francisco (neither of us had ever been). We started at Union Square and walked our way to Fisherman's Wharf and back, walking through China town, little Italy, up the "Crookedest Street", out on the Hyde St. Pier, so on and so forth until my feet were covered in blisters - literally. We called it a semi early night and watched a move in our hotel room after a bowl of cereal and it was pretty perfect.

We spent Thursday wondering Stanford's campus - the college, the medical school and the hospital all share one space, along with a shopping mall...!? All you could ever want, right? The weather wasn't ideal but the campus was gorgeous. I walked most of it barefoot because the eight bandaids on my feet weren't doing any good to protect my blisters from my shoes, but hey! We made the best of it.

That night was the pre-interview dinner with the program residents and I'm so happy I got to tag along. Hosted at a restaurant on one of the main streets off the university, appetizers, dinner and dessert were all delicious. We got to meet quite a few residents and had one all to ourselves at the dinner table to annoy with questions. I think Stephen got to ask all the questions he wanted to know about the program and then some and since she was born and raised in the area, she was able to answer all my questions about livability.

I was the only interviewee's spouse there and I felt all sorts of inadequate when someone asked me if I was in the field of medicine as well or what I did for a living. Though I answered with a very proud, "I'm a mom. We have an almost two year old boy at home and we've got a girl on the way", I couldn't help but feel judged and a little less than, despite everyone's genuine and enthusiastic responses. I sorta hated that I felt that way, but I sorta loved the smile on Stephen's face when I told them. I know he is truly grateful that I wanted to be a stay at home mom and I love knowing that he values what I do and is proud of me for it. He's pretty great, that one.

Anyway, the night was a success! I headed up to San Francisco in the morning as Stephen set out for his interview (which went well, of course - it's Stephen!) I was back in Boise by four and had just enough time to unpack, do laundry, sleep, repack and get on another plane with Uriah headed for Seattle where we met Stephen on our way to Fairbanks (which will be my next post!)

A thousand 'thank you's to my mom who came to Boise to spend a few days with Uriah (who was slowly getting over a stomach bug - yuck!) I am ever so grateful for the time alone and away with my husband! A 'thank you' to him, too, for letting me tag along on his interview and, more importantly, for wanting me to.