Being in his last year of residency, Tom is in the process of figuring out (in his words) where to get a real job :) We are interested in northwest Ark. due to its proximity to family, good schools, major university, and outdoor opportunities. There are also a ton of restaurants, good shopping and an abundance of nice homes.
Tom had a couple of interviews and dinners set up so we asked my grandparents to come over and stay with us. They live about two hours away and were more than happy to help us with Clara since we didn't want to bring her to dinner with us. Remember how Clara got sick at the end of our Portland trip? Well, Tom and I were hit soon after. We got to Arkansas Monday afternoon. We had a dinner that night and I started to feel kind of uncomfortable there...by 10:00 that night I was seeing my dinner all over again and it wasn't pretty. By 4:00 in the morning, Tom was in pretty bad shape too.
Unfortunately for Tom, he had interviews all day. Somehow he mustered the strength and composure to get showered and dressed up in suit and tie. In between interviews he was hitting the bathroom pretty hard. I really felt so bad for him. By the end of tuesday he was wiped out.
During this time, my grandparents were so, so helpful with Clara. They kept her happy by playing and walking together and also made several trips to restaurants and wal-mart to get her food. To make matters a little worse, hurricane Gustav decided to hang out over the entire state of Arkansas spewing its wrath. We were stuck in overcast skies and heavy rain our whole trip.
By Wednesday evening, my grandma was also sick with the same bug. Tom and I knew exactly how she felt and we hated it for her. Tom had another dinner that night, but this time I stayed home due to everyone's illnesses.
Overall the trip was a success - Tom attended his interviews, they went well and he could potentially work at either place. Things didn't go exactly as planned, but we did get to look around the area a little and we liked a lot of what we saw. Also, my grandfather must have a stellar immune system. He never caught the bug like the rest of us.
Here are a couple pictures of me when I wasn't feeling too hot...
