L.A.

It’s sad that I have a fear of fire because just looking at a fireplace really has a calming effect on me. There was this cute little fireplace in our room as well as a cozy sitting area near a fireplace to dry off from the pool — both of which were really relaxing to sit in front of. Mmm, I’m already missing my resort time!

Currently I’m sitting in Mike’s new apartment in Duarte, California [the city is about 15 minutes from Pasadena]. Sadly, this is my last full day here [CA weather has not disappointed and neither has spending endless hours with Mike] so we’ve planned an adventure out to see the blocky Hollywood letters [I’m a tourist… what can I say?!] then to relax and walk around in Beverly Hills. I’ll be back to visit Mike during the Labor Day weekend, so hopefully I’ll get to slowly chip away at seeing various sites in L.A. during my future visits [and maybe even spotting my favorite reality TV star, Lauren Conrad].

In the meantime, I feel like there’s a huge dark cloud of tasks that I need to complete before starting orientation on Monday [I seriously cannot believe that I’m only 5 days away from being a real medical student!]. Unfortunately, my vaccination forms are taking longer than they should to complete and I’ve been neglecting the various tasks that I had planned to do during trip downtime [finishing my lab data analysis, making a lab presentation, looking into the Anatomy primer, doing the online orientation, filling out various other forms… the list goes on!]. Hopefully when I return tomorrow, I’ll be ridiculously efficient with my time and get a ton of things done.

Anyway, time to get moving — Mike’s making us a tasty breakfast of french toast and eggs… mmm I’m excited.