The Big Move

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

I know what you're thinking -- no posts in over a month and now this is the third today. Well it's Sunday, so I'm not studying, cleaning, unpacking, organizing, or hanging things on the walls. I thought it was an appropriate time to catch up.



After we got back from our trip to NYC and Cooperstown it was time to load up the truck and head west... well a little bit further west as least. We left Rochester on Friday, June 6 and arrived in Indy very late Friday night (it's normally a 9 hour drive, but will frequent gas stops for our gas guzzling moving truck and the slower speed required by our large load it took us a little over 11 hours). We stayed in a hotel that night so that we would have a comfortable bed to sleep in that night. It started raining as we got in at 1 am and it didn't stop raining until after noon on Saturday. There was flooding EVERYWHERE! We were drenched just walking to and from our car. WELCOME TO INDIANA!



For those of you who don't know Kenta and I decided to rent a townhouse instead of buying a house. If you want all the nitty, gritty details of our hours of discussion on the topic, just let me know. As most of you who know us might guess I wanted to buy a house. Kenta wanted to rent. He won... this time :)



Here are a few pictures from our move. I'll add more pics of our house in the next post.

While we still live in New York State... Part 2

On our way back from NYC (see previous post) we stopped for the afternoon in Cooperstown, NY to see the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I'll spare you the 20+ pictures that Kenta took while we were there. Here are a few representative pictures.

K&V in front of the Baseball Hall of Fame

A life-size sculpture of Babe Ruth. I thought this was especially amazing because it was all done in ash (the type of wood used for bats), but the folds of his uniform and the leather of his shoes seemed so real! I was super impressed.

This is part of the actual HALL of fame.

We had a great time. Kenta was like a kid in a candy shop looking at all the pictures and memorabilia. I have a tendency to try to read EVERYTHING when I go to museums. Kenta is usually pretty patient with this trait of mine, but he was so excited to see the rest of the museum that he ended up going through each room twice while I was going through it once. This gave him plenty of time to take those 20-30 pictures I previously alluded to. What fun.

While we still live in New York State... Part 1

While we were still official New York residents, we thought we would enjoy some of the state's famous sites. So we left for "The City" (which, for your non-NY residents, means New York City) to grab a few more NY memories. We started at the Empire State Building and Time Square on our first evening.

K&V on the observation deck of the Empire State Building

(Please forgive my flying hair -- it was windy)

It's amazing how small the Statue of Liberty is from up so high!

She's on Ellis Island which is the island to the left in the picture

Time Square

The NASDAQ on Time Square

On day 2 we walked around the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) for a few hours, then went to Little Italy for famous Lombardi's Pizza. After walking around Little Italy for a while we went to Chinatown. Then we had to go back to Time Square for Kenta to glare through the NASDAQ windows to watch the taping of his favorite show 'Fast Money' (it's on CNBC for you non-stock obsessed folk). Then we went uptown a bit for our first and last baseball game in the House That Ruth Built. In a little twist of irony we drove 6 hours to see the Yankees play the Blue Jays, a team that is only a 3 hour drive from our house. It was a packed day, but we had a blast!

Virginia in front of the Met

K&V in front of the Egyptian temple shown in more detail below

Can you tell I had spent the previous 2 weeks packing and organizing my house? I'm looking just a little drowsy.

Previously mentioned Egyptian temple

A beautiful Japanese garden in the Asian section

Lombardi's Pizza

This was the very first pizza restaurant in the US.

I'm excited!

Kenta's ready to eat too.
A picture taken through the window while the show was being aired live. Kenta was as giddy at this point in time as I was in the pizza picture above. So cute.
The new Yankee Stadium (still under construction)

Don't worry; you're not seeing things -- they have fashioned this stadium after the Roman Coliseum. I feel that's a more than little bit pompous, but I guess that's just a statement of Yankee pride.

Joba Chamberlain warming up. He's a Yankee pitching phenom who started his first game that day.

(He allowed several runs in three innings and lost the game... everyone has to start somewhere, right?)
Because of the way tickets sell so quickly at Yankee Stadium, we were out in the nose bleed outfield despite buying our tickets weeks in advance. Unfortunately that area seems to draw a pretty rough crowd. Luckily, because of problems in the past, there is no alcohol allowed in that section. We heard a lot of heckling, swearing, yelling at just about anyone, throwing things at fans of the opposing team, etc., etc. I can't image what it would have been like with a higher blood alcohol level! I was glad we didn't have any kids with us. However, we did have a great view of the American flag which flew very nicely on that windy day.

Famous Yankee players, including Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, etc.

Please call me DOCTOR Takagi

TRUST ME, I'M A DOCTOR...

As of May 16th, 2008 at approximately 5 pm I am a doctor. It hasn't really sunk in yet. I haven't had to see any patients. I don't have my new long white coat with my name embroidered on it(med students where short white coats that extend to the upper thigh, but once you have the MD you where a long white coat that extends to the calf). I haven't been in any situations where someone asks with panic in their voice, "Is there a doctor in the house?" I haven't really introduced myself to anyone new necessitating the use of my new title. I let you know when I feel more doctor like.

Just the same, graduation was very nice. It was a relatively short ceremony -- lasting only 90 minutes or so. The talks were relevant and short. There were only 91 in my graduating class, so we walked across the stage pretty swiftly.

My parents and Kenta's mom got into town the night before. Kenta went to work like normal in the morning, and I went to work with my parents in returning my much loved vegetable garden back into sod - truly a tragedy. The afternoon came quickly. We showered and had some Thai food for lunch. Then we jumped on the shuttle bus and hit the road. Before I knew it, graduation was over, I was a doctor, I turned in my enormous graduation robes (I could have weighed an extra 200 lbs and not looked any different in my robes except for some extra chub around my face), puffy hat, and forest green hood, and took the shuttle bus home. It's strange to me that when it's your own life moment things move relatively quickly, but when you're attending someone else's life moment (graduation, baptism, wedding, performance, etc.) it drags on forever. Such is life.

Here's my name being called. The dean calling our names obviously didn't do much practicing of mine because instead of ta-ka-gi it came out ka-tan-ji. Very disappointing.

Receiving my diploma

Hooding

I felt like my puffy hat was falling off all day, so I bent my knees a bit in hope of avoiding the hood knocking the hat off. The ceiling at Eastman Theater -- gorgeous

Byron and Marilyn Dangerfield (my parents) with K&V

Dr. Alan Sears and family with Dr. Virginia Takagi and family (just Kenta)

Mr and Dr Takagi

As a side note, it has been my dream since I was 12 years old not only to be a doctor but to be the "Dr" of Mr and Dr , as opposed to seeing my parents get things in the mail addressed to Dr and Mrs. I always wanted to be the doctor of the couple. I suppose I could deal with Dr and Dr, but Mr and Mrs was not and is not for me. I have never liked the title of Mrs, and I have avoided it whenever possible. Now, I can comfortably avoid it for the rest of my life. Just that makes the $175,000 of student loans worth it -- almost. :)

Our Cruise to Baja

From May 3- May 8 Kenta and I joined my younger sister Rachel and her new husband Vince on a cruise from San Diego to Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas. We had a fantastic time. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

I'm sorry for the discontinuity of the pictures. For some reason blogspot won't let me change the order of them at all.

A whale of a tale...

Rachel and Virginia

Shopping in Ensenada

Snorkeling off of Cabo

(Kenta opted to be the photographer instead of swim)

A colony of sea lions

Another whale pic

Lathering up with sunscreen

As a side note, Rachel and I still got some pretty bad burns that made the next day a bit uncomfortable.

Leaving the San Diego port

Lounging on the upper deck

Coincidentally, Rachel was frequently found examining herself and Vince with a strange look on his face whenever Kenta took a picture. Go figure.

Rachel & Vince in front the Arch of Cabo

Rach and Vince in front of a giant Mexican flag in Ensenada

Arch of Cabo San Lucas

Our ship Carnival Elation

K&V in front of the Arch of Cabo

Proof that we've been to Mexico

K&V leaving San Diego


Please enjoy the short clip of our accidental whale encounter