Sitting here in the terminal at Nashville’s Airport, I realize I haven’t written to this here blog in quite a while. I can assure you things have been massively hectic in the last few weeks. Before I give you the brief, brief recap I need to mention something about flying on Southwest Airlines.
Southwest is one of a select few airlines which actually make money. Even after September 11th, the company still made money. I learned from the CEO’s article in the in-flight magazine this is because of two factors: SWA’s employees and SWA’s customers. I certainly agree with the latter, but the former group makes flying Southwest fun. We had a lovely middle-aged southern belle running the show this morning. She was the usual pleasant SWA flight attendant. Just after landing, she announced that Chris, the 1st officer had just made his very first landing as a Southwest pilot. He had flown previously with Delta, so our flight attendant welcomed him to SWA. The passengers gave him a nice round of applause with cheers. I can imagine he’ll be telling his wife and kids about the warm welcome when he gets home. I’ve also noticed something interesting about Southwest pilots in the last few months—they land the aircraft at BLAZING speeds! I didn’t notice this when I was on the interview trail several months ago. There is something new going on here where pilots land the aircraft much faster and much harder than normal. I’ll look into this new phenomenon and get back with you. Maybe it’s safer or something.
Since I touched foot on American soil way back on May 11th, I’ve had exactly zero free-time. Who would have thought my first steps in Detroit, Michigan would be the beginning of the busiest period in my life.
Shortly after returning to the states after my fantastic trip to China, I took the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills exam. It was similar to the school exam I took at the end of the third year at UT. I plan on passing, but one never knows in these situations. Then a few days later I took off for Springfield, Massachusetts in search of my first home. During the stay, I had the opportunity to see much of the area including South Hadley and Northampton. The latter is a quaint college town with live shows, art galleries, and other stuff like that. We ate at a fantastic pub called Fitzwillie’s. In South Hadley, we toured around and ended up having a fantastic lunch at a place whose name I forgot. (Was that last sentence really necessary?) Everything here seems like a scene straight out of the John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace. The houses are very old; there are nice coffee shops, museums, and art galleries; the traffic is manageable; and the people seem very nice. Even the mall on the highway has everything one needs to survive away from the big city. The views are incredible. I can already tell driving the highway in autumn will be breathtaking. Springfield has turned out to be everything I wanted in a community and much more. I’m thrilled to be here.
My agent, Jewett, is incredible. She’s sort of become the sweet aunt every family has. (I already have several of them, just in case you’re wondering.) We toured Springfield for a few days, and finally Kayla and I decided on a very clean, modern but traditional colonial design on a quiet tree-lined street in Springfield. It has an in-ground pool (which will only get 12 weeks of use per year), hard-wood floors throughout, central heat and air, a basement, three bedrooms, and a lovely kitchen. It will require very little work before the move-in, but Kayla and I will undoubtedly upgrade the kitchen, repaint some of the upstairs, and a few other things. I think it’s going to be great living there…especially since it’s close to the hospital, and the neighborhood seems very nice. Plus the price is right, which is always a big plus. I think with a few improvements, I should have no problem re-selling the house when I'm all done. Let’s hope the real estate market keeps steady for the next five or so years.
After returning to Houston from my five-day jaunt in New England, it was time to pack up the house to get ready to move. Mom came to Houston and packed me while I drove around town taking care of graduation errands, shoring up my student loan consolidation, finding a mover, finding storage, finding a mover to take the stuff to storage, taking care of class business, disconnecting all the utilities, phones, and cable, rerouting the mail, and working with my realtor and mortgage company to make sure the “purchase your first home” thing was going smoothly. Buying a home is an incredible amount of work! There is so much to be done like getting your financing (getting all the supporting documents is a monster), finding an inspector, finding a pest guy, finding a pool guy, finding a real estate lawyer, and making sure the language in the purchase and sale agreement is correct. I’m getting tired just thinking about it. Anyway, the week progressed and things got done. I had two fantastic dinners designed to introduce mom to Kayla’s family. The first was with Buddy and Mary Kaye at a cool Latin place on Kirby. I had the Chilean Sea Bass salad, which was REALLY GOOD. We had a quite enjoyable evening. Then on Thursday we ate at Landry’s in Kemah overlooking the water. We were joined by Bubba, Michelle, and Krista. The food never stopped coming! It was also a very enjoyable affair from the first margarita to the last Kahlua and coffee. Oh, and the 50 pounds of seafood in between were awesome. Both of Kayla’s parents and their remarried spouses are wonderful, loving people. My integration into their families has been such a breeze. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s so very true and worth crediting them for being such great people. They all have been extremely kind and supportive to me (and Kayla of course), which is quite uplifting. They even gave me graduation presents which rock (which is quite surprising considering the short time we’ve known each other). All of this has meant the world to me.
Finally, Friday came and I was joined by the rest of my family along with Kayla, Omar, and David for dinner at the famed Lexington Grille a few houses down from mine. I’ve driven past this particular establishment for two years on the way to my house, but I never stopped in for a sampling. The restaurant is a converted house, which gives it a very warm atmosphere. There are always very expensive cars sitting in the small parking lot, so somebody must be enjoying the place. They seem to have quite a following of repeat customers. We all congregated there, took pictures, and had a delightful meal.
The next day was graduation. I’ll talk more later. This was a long one.
Southwest is one of a select few airlines which actually make money. Even after September 11th, the company still made money. I learned from the CEO’s article in the in-flight magazine this is because of two factors: SWA’s employees and SWA’s customers. I certainly agree with the latter, but the former group makes flying Southwest fun. We had a lovely middle-aged southern belle running the show this morning. She was the usual pleasant SWA flight attendant. Just after landing, she announced that Chris, the 1st officer had just made his very first landing as a Southwest pilot. He had flown previously with Delta, so our flight attendant welcomed him to SWA. The passengers gave him a nice round of applause with cheers. I can imagine he’ll be telling his wife and kids about the warm welcome when he gets home. I’ve also noticed something interesting about Southwest pilots in the last few months—they land the aircraft at BLAZING speeds! I didn’t notice this when I was on the interview trail several months ago. There is something new going on here where pilots land the aircraft much faster and much harder than normal. I’ll look into this new phenomenon and get back with you. Maybe it’s safer or something.
Since I touched foot on American soil way back on May 11th, I’ve had exactly zero free-time. Who would have thought my first steps in Detroit, Michigan would be the beginning of the busiest period in my life.
Shortly after returning to the states after my fantastic trip to China, I took the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills exam. It was similar to the school exam I took at the end of the third year at UT. I plan on passing, but one never knows in these situations. Then a few days later I took off for Springfield, Massachusetts in search of my first home. During the stay, I had the opportunity to see much of the area including South Hadley and Northampton. The latter is a quaint college town with live shows, art galleries, and other stuff like that. We ate at a fantastic pub called Fitzwillie’s. In South Hadley, we toured around and ended up having a fantastic lunch at a place whose name I forgot. (Was that last sentence really necessary?) Everything here seems like a scene straight out of the John Knowles’ novel A Separate Peace. The houses are very old; there are nice coffee shops, museums, and art galleries; the traffic is manageable; and the people seem very nice. Even the mall on the highway has everything one needs to survive away from the big city. The views are incredible. I can already tell driving the highway in autumn will be breathtaking. Springfield has turned out to be everything I wanted in a community and much more. I’m thrilled to be here.
My agent, Jewett, is incredible. She’s sort of become the sweet aunt every family has. (I already have several of them, just in case you’re wondering.) We toured Springfield for a few days, and finally Kayla and I decided on a very clean, modern but traditional colonial design on a quiet tree-lined street in Springfield. It has an in-ground pool (which will only get 12 weeks of use per year), hard-wood floors throughout, central heat and air, a basement, three bedrooms, and a lovely kitchen. It will require very little work before the move-in, but Kayla and I will undoubtedly upgrade the kitchen, repaint some of the upstairs, and a few other things. I think it’s going to be great living there…especially since it’s close to the hospital, and the neighborhood seems very nice. Plus the price is right, which is always a big plus. I think with a few improvements, I should have no problem re-selling the house when I'm all done. Let’s hope the real estate market keeps steady for the next five or so years.
After returning to Houston from my five-day jaunt in New England, it was time to pack up the house to get ready to move. Mom came to Houston and packed me while I drove around town taking care of graduation errands, shoring up my student loan consolidation, finding a mover, finding storage, finding a mover to take the stuff to storage, taking care of class business, disconnecting all the utilities, phones, and cable, rerouting the mail, and working with my realtor and mortgage company to make sure the “purchase your first home” thing was going smoothly. Buying a home is an incredible amount of work! There is so much to be done like getting your financing (getting all the supporting documents is a monster), finding an inspector, finding a pest guy, finding a pool guy, finding a real estate lawyer, and making sure the language in the purchase and sale agreement is correct. I’m getting tired just thinking about it. Anyway, the week progressed and things got done. I had two fantastic dinners designed to introduce mom to Kayla’s family. The first was with Buddy and Mary Kaye at a cool Latin place on Kirby. I had the Chilean Sea Bass salad, which was REALLY GOOD. We had a quite enjoyable evening. Then on Thursday we ate at Landry’s in Kemah overlooking the water. We were joined by Bubba, Michelle, and Krista. The food never stopped coming! It was also a very enjoyable affair from the first margarita to the last Kahlua and coffee. Oh, and the 50 pounds of seafood in between were awesome. Both of Kayla’s parents and their remarried spouses are wonderful, loving people. My integration into their families has been such a breeze. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s so very true and worth crediting them for being such great people. They all have been extremely kind and supportive to me (and Kayla of course), which is quite uplifting. They even gave me graduation presents which rock (which is quite surprising considering the short time we’ve known each other). All of this has meant the world to me.
Finally, Friday came and I was joined by the rest of my family along with Kayla, Omar, and David for dinner at the famed Lexington Grille a few houses down from mine. I’ve driven past this particular establishment for two years on the way to my house, but I never stopped in for a sampling. The restaurant is a converted house, which gives it a very warm atmosphere. There are always very expensive cars sitting in the small parking lot, so somebody must be enjoying the place. They seem to have quite a following of repeat customers. We all congregated there, took pictures, and had a delightful meal.
The next day was graduation. I’ll talk more later. This was a long one.
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