So...Chicago
So…yeah, we live in Chicago now.
Many people keep asking how we ended up in Chicago, and 100% of the answer is MY JOB. When we left Abu Dhabi, the plan had us ultimately going back to Hawaii, to my previous job at Tripler, and we were excited. We planned this epic road trip around the country to enjoy it, recoup our souls, and the paperwork with that job was taking a bit of time (which we didn’t mind). Well, it didn’t take much time of being back, spending so much time reconnecting with our family and friends, to start making us question going back to Hawaii and being so far away yet again. Then came the realization that the team that I was aching to go back to in Hawaii was also moving onward and upward, and I wouldn’t be returning to what I had left (and had being missing since the very moment we left).
So, after much discussion, soul searching, and contemplation, we made the decision that we should stay within the continental US… So, where did that leave us? Well, Adam had already decided that he wanted to start his own company and base from home, so for the first time in our relationship, we did need to follow his job. So this left it up to my job. As I had always “made do” with jobs to follow Adam’s career (and let’s be honest, salary) opportunities, we always went and I figured out something. That being said, I have had INCREDIBLE jobs and opportunities because of this. It was the move to Hawaii that landed me in the specialty that I was born for (Pediatric Oncology), and now I had the opportunity to find “my perfect job”. So, I made a list of what the job “had to have”, and set out looking for institutions that met that criteria. Well, there were not all that many, and ALL of them were in cities (the consequence of such a specialized niche). So, our road trip ultimately became a part of the interview process. Exploring this country and figure out where we wanted to settle in. It was time to find our home.
When I walked out of Day 1 (of 3) of interviews at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago in…I knew. I just KNEW. I interviewed for 4 different positions there, and just KNEW that the Nurse Practitioner position on the Solid Tumor team was MEANT for me. Trust me, no one is more surprised that we ended up and live here than me. And the city offered everything else that we had on our list of “things we must have in our life”. So…here we are.
Of course, we knew nothing about this city beside a short tourist trip that we did here in 2014, and a visit with Allison earlier on in the year, so we didn’t know where we wanted to live. For this reason, we opted to sublease an apartment for 6 months to give ourselves some time to get settled into work, explore the various areas, and figure out our living priorities in this new city.
So…onto 6 months of getting settled in, established, playing tourist, and hosting visitors!!!!
Having a blast at the Festival of Barrel-Aged Beer!
Having a blast at the Festival of Barrel-Aged Beer!
Having a blast at the Festival of Barrel-Aged Beer!
Having a blast at the Festival of Barrel-Aged Beer!
Having a blast at the Festival of Barrel-Aged Beer!
Having a blast at the Festival of Barrel-Aged Beer!
And we were also excited to host visitors! Sarah and Quentin stopped by en route from Michigan to Maryland, but I was too excited and wrapped up in absorbing them to have captured any pictures. The Marie was able to layover en route from a conference in Miami back to Abu Dhabi (to be repeated this year!!!). Adam was at camp for Marie’s visit, so we had a nice girls-only weekend!
Don’t worry, the condo pictures (with the before and after shots) are the next post!
