Erinn Kelley's Bed and Breakfast

I've had visitors for the last two weekends, but I LOVE visitors. I've had plenty to entertain myself, let alone keeping up with school. While my dad was here 2 weekends ago, we went to the Knoxville Ice Bears hockey game with some of my classmates on Friday night then celebrated Kara's grandma's birthday on Saturday night. We went to dinner and then to the UT v. Florida basketball game. My dad had never been to an SEC sporting event and there's only one team he hates more than the University of Tennessee, The University of Florida. Regardless, I'm pretty sure he enjoyed himself. Kara's grandma is from a small town in Canada (It was so refreshing to hear THAT accent again!) and Kara surprised her with the tickets to the game, we had to keep it a secret until we were walking into the arena. She was pretty surprised so, between the two of them, I think the night was quite the success.

Ryan and Andrea came down for an impromptu visit this past weekend. Ryan called me Thursday night while I was in class and when I called him back about 10:30 that night, he informed me they would be there about 5pm on Friday. Perfect ending to a really long week, I was really excited. When they got here, he spent about 42 seconds in my apartment and wanted to go for a run because "it's too nice outside not to." So, I took him to my favorite place to run, Cherokee Hills for a nice little 3 miler. We went line dancing at Cottoneyed Joes and downtown to the UT bars that night. On Saturday night I introduced them to the Old City, my favorite, and on Sunday we went down to the Brewery for dinner after sitting on the balcony and taking turns in the hammock all day because it was 70 and sunny out. We had a really great time and I even managed to get some school work done while STAYING IN THE MOMENT (sometimes Kara has to remind me). I've known Ryan since 8th grade but only in the past 5 or 6 years have we become really good friends. I've never seen my best friend as happy as he is with Andrea. I'm so thankful that he's got someone in his life that not only makes him happy but that I can also be good friends with (regardless of how much that bothers him sometimes, ha.).

Here's to the start of this quarters hump week!! (I feel like I just started...it's FLYING by!)

SNOW DAY!!

School was closed today. Our dean walked into the middle of our lecture and we were all sent home (along with every single other student in Knoxville, ALL the schools were closed by noon). I ran outside yesterday in shorts and a tshirt, the weather here changes as rapidly as in the mitten!

Living in the moment

My dad is here visiting this weekend between doing some consulting in North Carolina for a couple weeks. Yesterday he gave my friend Kara and me a little pep talk about "living in the moment". (Of course it originated from a baseball analogy but we quickly related it to PA school and powerpoint presentation after powerpoint presentation.) But basically, we can't be worrying about our next test or our next slide while we're studying the slide we're on. We can't be thinking about our board exam if we can't get thru next weeks 3 quizzes, pharmacology exam and OSCE (practial exam). While in his batting stance, Carlos Pena, can't be thinking about how he's going to strike out when he's only got one strike. So, Kara has a blog that she updates to keep up with her friends and family to highlight her "moments" so, I thought I'd do the same since it's really hard sometimes to keep up with everyone. So, here's a look into my life as a grad student in Knox.