Detroit, Chapel Hill, stuck in Chicago and an elevator

On Monday I flew to Detroit to interview with Trinity Health. I was interviewing for 3 different locations within their system (Livionia, Pontiac MI and Columbus, OH). On Wed I had an offer for the Livonia location, unfortunately this fellowship system is like "Deal or No Deal" and you have to make a decision within a few days. They wanted an answer by the following Monday. On Thursday I flew to Chapel Hill to interview with UNC Hospitals. I had to beat out 100 other applicants just for the opportunity. I interviewed with 9 people on Friday. They aren't finished interviewing until next week. I had a layover in Chicago...they cancelled my flight. United put me up in a hotel for the night but wouldn't give us our checked bags. I made it back to Denver by Saturday. To top it all off, I briefly got stuck in an elevator in the Denver airport.
FYI: Trying to pry the doors open doesn't work.

30

Oh yes, today I turned 30. Not much of a celebration. I flew from Houston to Atlanta to spend my fall break at home. I'm completely overwhelmed with interviewing, school and work, so no time to worry about 30.

Tara's Wedding

My cousin Tara was married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony in Houston.

Houston Space Center

Prior to Tara's wedding, we took a trip to the Houston Space Center. The tour included checking out mission control and the building where astronauts train (see pic).

Where will I be in July 08?

I'm applying to Health Administration Fellowships this month. They are 1 to 2 yr positions. You usually report to a senior level executive and get to rotate to different areas of a health system or hospital. They are highly competitive. Usually 50-100 or more applicants for 1 job per hospital. I don't have a good feel for how competitive I am compared to other applicants. Originally I was thinking I'd apply to 10 places but got scared by classmates to apply to more. They have phone interviews in Nov, then on-site in Nov/Dec, so I'll keep the blog updated on my progress. Hopefully there is some progress. Here's the final list in no particular order.
If none of these work out, the answer to "where will I be in July 08" is TBD.

Current List:
Trinity Health: MI/OH
UNC Hospitals: Chapel Hill, NC
The Children's Hospital: Denver, CO

Emory Healthcare: Atlanta, GA
Pitt County Memorial Hospital: Greenville, NC

Pennsylvania Hospital: Philadelphia, PA

First Snow

Like I said...always once before Halloween. Yesterday the high was in the low 70s.

Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies are going to the World Series. This is very hard to believe. I went to a few games in 2005 and 2006, none this year. The games I went to I felt bad for them because the stadium was so empty. They did win the games though, so they weren't that terrible. I can't get into the craziness of the city because I've seen it all before. It all too reminiscent of Atlanta in the early 90's when half of my middle-school skipped class to go to a parade downtown when the Braves didn't win the World Series. And now my graduate school classmates are making jokes about requesting to get out of classes to see the games.

In each of the past 2 years, it has snowed here once before Halloween. It's snows, then several days later gets back to 70 or 80. We are getting close to that time. I'm wondering if they are going to have to call off a game due to snow. I do like the Rockies' color though - purple. That's a team I can root for. As you can tell - not that big of baseball fan but still hoping the Rockies win.

Children's Hospital Foundation Gala

I went to my first Gala with my aunt Joan. It was to raise money for the Children's Hospital in Denver. It was a very fancy affair where most women were in ball gowns and men in tuxes. It was held at the Hyatt Regency hotel downtown. They had a silent auction, dinner, then a live-auction and finally "Earth, Wind and Fire". For those of you that are my age...it was before our time. At least 3 members of the original band were performing. I've posted the one song that I recognized (actually a very good song). It's not too often that I have a chance to dress up, so it was fun for a change.

Celebrity Sighting

Twice now I've got out to dinner with Suzanne in NYC and had a celebrity sighting. This one was at a restaurant we walked to from her place, Ottomanelli's NY Grill. We got there early and it's a really tiny restaurant that only seats around 30 people. It was us, a family and the celebrity in there when we first arrived. I recognized her immediately, but couldn't figure out what movie or TV show I knew her from. Suzanne remembered it was "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". I should have known since I own the movie and can even quote some of her lines. It was Celia Weston. She plays Matthew McConaughey's mother in the movie. She was eating alone and reading a script through dinner. She must live in the area since Suzanne mentioned she's seen her before.
We then walked to Central Park and watched the sunset over the reservoir.

Brooklyn Heights

Suzanne and I went to visit Ryan and Jess in their new apartment in Brooklyn Heights.

The Pick-Up Artist

There is this ridiculous new show on VH1 called "The Pick-Up Artist". I saw a few clips of the first episode. It's a reality show where this guy who calls himself "Mystery" is looking to find his next sidekick to help with his workshops across the country. The workshops are for men to learn the "pick-up artist" skills. This is also related to that book called "The Game" published a few years ago. Now that there's a TV show and a book, pretty soon the majority of women are going to catch on to when men are following their steps to pick-up women. It's really all based on psychology and that the majority of people respond a certain way in a situation. Once you know the right thing to say, you can lead someone down a certain path of conversation and interaction. I find the psychology part of it fascinating. I was in NYC for Labor Day weekend and Suzanne and I went out to 230 Fifth, a rooftop bar/club. I told Suzanne I was hoping someone would come up to us and try the pickup method. We met a friend of Suzanne's and her brother at the bar. After about half an hour or so a group approached us with the method. It was all I could do to not make any smart remarks back. I actually was curious to see how many phases of the method this guy attempted.
First step: The initial approach was some ridiculous story that this guy "wanted our opinion on". He didn't do the best job...Mystery would have told him his story was way too long. I wanted to hear him attempt the next steps though unfortunately I could not hear it. There were 2 other guys that came up with the story teller who had only met him briefly before the 3 approached us. Suzanne and I were soon part of a different conversation with these other 2. Then after a few minutes we figured out they had graduated from GT. Well, then it was all talk of the school days. Finally we all headed home. I actually think the first part of the "mystery method" worked because it did split our group up which is one of the goals. Since I rarely go to bars/clubs, I found the whole thing very entertaining, like a social experiment in psychology.

Secret Purse Closet

Suzanne and I spent the day shopping in NYC. One of last stops was a purse store that I believe sold what were supposed to resemble designer purses. Suzanne had been there before when other visitors were in town. It's a really small store about 8 ft x 10 ft. The stuff in the store is pretty terrible and cheap looking. You have to ask to see the good stuff. Suzanne discretely asked the clerk, then before you know it, she leads us to the back wall of the store which is covered in hanging purses. She pushes a small door open revealing a closet size room with purses covering all the walls. We stepped in, then she closed the door behind us. It was all very secretive like a speakeasy. This secret underground black market for purses...who knew.

Back to School

It's time for a rough semester. I'm taking 5 classes and reducing my work schedule to closer to 20 hours so that I can graduate in the spring.
This fall I'm taking:
Marketing Management
Financial Management
Healthcare Financial Management
International Health
Quality and Productivity

I'll also be applying for a Health Administrative Residency/Fellowship. It I get one of these positions, I'll start it in June 2008. It is usually a one year program where you are precepted by a CEO or executive level person.

Red Rocks Movie Night

I love seeing movies at Red Rocks. My goal was to make it to at least one this summer. I went to see Wedding Crashers. I had already seen the movie, but it is just more fun at Red Rocks. Before the movie started, they performed an actual wedding. This way the audience was all "wedding crashers". Yes, very cheesy. I know lots of cities have places to view movies outdoors in the summer. I think Red Rocks is probably one of the best.

Central City Opera

Ellen, Joan and I went to the Central City Opera to see Cinderella. It was the 75th anniversary of the CC opera. The performances occur in the opera house built in 1878 during the gold mining era. Before the opera starts the ushers group up outside and start singing a song as they march into the opera house. It was very amusing.

We then ate at the Face Bar in the Teller House. It's a cute mountain town less than an hour from Denver.

CSO Concert in the Park

Once again it was that time of year to see the Colorado Symphony Orchestra summer concert in the park. Megan packed an excellent picnic as usual for me, herself and Stephen to enjoy.

The menu included:
Champagne, White wine
tomato and mozzarella caprese salad
blueberries
bread and boursin cheese
chicken salad
shrimp cocktail
gourmet chocolates, Pepperidge Farm cookies

The CSO performed:
Rossini's "Overture to Semiramide"
Bizet "Symphony in C"

Unfortunately it was rained out after these two pieces. The good news is that we had finished the picnic!

Harry Potter

Don't worry, no spoilers, but I felt like I should do a blog entry on the final book. I thought it was great. I love that the characters visited many of the locations from previous books. It will make for a good, but perhaps long movie. I actually went Friday night at midnight to get a copy. I haven't done this in the past but thought for the last book I should. I ended up in line at the grocery store at 11:55pm. The line was the entire length of the cereal aisle. I was about halfway down the line. When I got to the front of the line, I checked back again and it was still the entire length of the cereal aisle. I guess that's not surprising since over 8 million copies sold in the US in the first 24 hours. When I think about how many words J.K Rowling made up when she wrote the series - it's very creative yet the story is somewhat simple. I wish I could have thought of it, and then I'd be a billion dollars richer. And yes...I was finished with it by 8:45 am on Saturday. It reminded me of when I was a kid and would stay up all night reading. It's fun to do every once in awhile.

Fur Elise Slightly Different

I found this on YouTube awhile back. How awesome are these guys?

It's so pretty.

The piano has arrvied, and I love it.

Flowers Update

My last post about planting flowers was on May 27th. It's been about a month and a half now - time to check in on that survival of the fittest theory. The boxes of flowers are doing really well. You can compare this picture to the one I took on May 27th. It's the same flower box just turned around.

Not all of the plants have been so lucky. You can see in the pot on the left here that one of them got a little too toasty in the sun. I tried Miracle Grow, but I couldn't revive it.