2009 in Review

With 2009 coming to a close, I thought it might be nice to look back at some of the happenings of 2009. Some good, some less so, it's been quite a year in these parts...

January:

• Group trip to Chicago to visit Simmer, where Jess and Angie more or less met
• Jess and Angie start dating
• Finished submitting grad school aps (7 in all)

February:

• Grad school admissions decisions received, accepted to 6/7 programs I applied to
• Picked U of M SPH to attend in the fall

March:

• Jess, Matt and I moved into a great rental house

April:

• Submitted my honors senior thesis entitled Freedom to Live, Freedom to Die: Health Disparities in El Salvador
• Graduated Cum Laude from EMU with a major in Health Administration and minor in Human Biology, with Departmental and University Honors

May:

• Matt proposes on the 16th

June:

• Jess starts his photoblog, thedirtstreet.com, featuring a new photo every day, and really starts immersing himself in photography

July:

• Matt started working as a Meter Reader for Consumers Energy

August:

• Matt bought a Ford Ranger for work, saying goodbye to his Jeep.
  

September:

• Started my first semester at U of M

October:

• Filled the house with awesome people for a Halloween party

November:

• My first meatless Thanksgiving, followed by a hilarious night of billiards and UNO at my mom's house with our friends

December:

• Jess laid off from Great Lakes Cycling and Fitness, where he's worked since I met him
• Finished my first semester of Grad School
  

As you can see, I really I had stretch to fill every month. But, here's to 2010!

1/4 complete and Holiday time!

Cocoa getting into the Christmas spirit

Well, it's official. I am 1/4 done with my Master's degree. For the most part everything went well during my first semester. It was definitely a learning experience, and as much as I may complain about the long hours spent studying and writing, and the headache that is group projects, I am very happy to be studying what I love and learning something new all the time.

It is time to start looking for a summer internship, a requirement of my program. When I did an internship at EMU I completed 350 hours, unpaid - and I had to pay for 9 credit hours of course work to get the credit for graduation. Luckily in my UM SPH program most students find paid internships, and we don't have to take any classes to coincide with the requirement. In fact, we can reduce our credit hour requirement for graduation by 1-3 hours depending on the number of internship hours completed.


Dinner I made at my Mom's on Christmas

I am spending today recovering from 3 days of Christmas. On Christmas Eve we drove up to Caro for the Tinsey Christmas. Mimosas were sipped, ping-pong was played, and a good time was had by all. Christmas morning Matt and I had breakfast with his family and opened gifts. The we went to my Mom's where I made lasagna from scratch for dinner, and many crossword puzzles were solved. We then went back to Matt's house to watch a movie and hang out with Melissa, Josh, Jess and Angie. The day after Christmas I pried my way in to my frozen car at 7:30am to make it to work at 9am in Ann Arbor, worked til 3, then at 4 the VanCamp Christmas started back in Ortonville. After an evening of alcohol, apples to apples and a white elephant style DVD exchange, it was time to pronounce the Christmas of 2009 complete.

Jon being a lush.