Since starting my study month, I've had a hard time coming up with things to write about.  Drinking coffee, studying, cooking dinner, and running don't have the same wow factor as the life and death situations I faced in the PICU.  Not that I haven't enjoyed the break from stress, not having to set an alarm, getting to make my own schedule.  But after a year of relatively high paced non-stop patient-seeing action, it seems a little... anticlimactic.  I know I will regret saying that in a couple months when I'm back in the swing of things and wishing I didn't have to get up on someone elses schedule :)

With that being said, I did manage to have a pretty fantastic weekend.  When I moved to NC for medical school three years ago, I left behind a group of people who had become, over the eight or so years I've known them, like family.  I've participated in a program called LeadershipNOW at Lancaster Theological Seminary since the summer after I graduated high school.  Through this program, which is funded by the Eli Lily Foundation to promote theological education for youth, I've spent many summers traveling throughout this country and other as a student, but mostly as a leader of groups of high school students.  We've spent countless hours with some of the most incredible young people I've ever met, exploring issues of faith and social justice and what it means to be a Christian in this world.  And when you've spent summer after summer traveling (frequently disasterously) around the world, you get to know a person very very well.  For that reason, the folks from LeadershipNOW know me better than almost anyone.  They know what has made me who I am without having to be told.  They have seen the same things I have.  They've seen my struggles, and successes.  And when I am with them, I feel like I am home.  No matter where I am.

So back to this weekend,  three of the LeadershipNOW folks made the trip from PA to NC to meet with the families of some of the kids who are traveling with them to India this summer.  They stayed with my NC adopted family, so I met them there for breakfast.  Then we went to the Mrs. Hanes Moravian Cookie Factory, which second to Disney World might be the happiest place on earth.  They still hand roll and cut every one of their delicious cookies.  Then we went to meet some more LeadershipNOW folks in Greensboro for breakfast.  After that, we went to the Childress Vineyard to pick up a couple bottles of wine, and then back to the homestead for a cookout and the meeting.  If you'll notice, basically everything we do has to do with food.  It's a running theme through most LeadershipNOW reunions. 

I learned a couple important things that day...
1)  Jacquie can't sit in the front seat when I drive.  I was only mildly offended.  Apparently, it stems from one day of lots of driving on windy roads in the mountains.  Still, it hurt.

2)  No matter how long we've been away, or how many years apart I am from other people that have participated in LeadershipNOW, we are instantly family.  I hope everyone can have friends like that.

3)  One Courtney Harvey needs to find her way home from London to rejoin the family.  She is missed.

4)  I'm absolutely positive that, while I miss people and adventure and fun of my previous life, I am doing what I want to be doing for the rest of my life.  I'll continue my worldly galavanting when I graduate.  Sometimes, you've gotta make sacrifices for a bit to end up where you want.  Sad, but true.

5)  I really like wine.  And cookies.

So, that is the excitement that is currently my life.  Only THREE days left until test time, and then it's off to Michigan for vacation!  Speaking of which...

If could only take ONE album with you on a 10 hour road trip, what would it be (and why?)  I'm taking suggestions.

Cheers!
Kari