Real World Strength

Explored Branson, ate some amazing food, and had a fantastic time celebrating two wonderful people finding each other with Peter and Mary's wedding. Absolutely couldn't be happier for these two, and such an honor to stand there next to you. (Also got to hang out with my own incredible wifey WITHOUT OUR BABY for once 😁)
Cutest damn couple ever. 🥰
Just glad my speech went better than that one open mic back in '05... 😅

...So we up and moved to NC. Charlotte, to be precise.
We drove through 12 states (CA plus the 11 shown) and 4 time zones over 7 days before arriving here. It would ordinarily be a 3-4 day trip, or a relaxed and scenic weeklong excursion, but you try telling that to a 4-month-old. Between frantically packing up all our stuff and then schlepping across the country with a baby who would much rather not be strapped into a carseat, it's been a rough few weeks. And for the record, did as well as we could possibly have asked despite picking up a cold somewhere around Omaha and feeling like crap in Nashville (she's fine now). We really lucked out with her. And was a fu***ng rockstar keeping her from melting down so that I could drive us 2600+ miles without driving us off a mountain. We also got to visit some good friends (, , and ) along the way, which made everything WAY better despite failing to get photo evidence.
The reason for all this, at least immediately, was I got a job with a good company (that has an in-house residency program) in an outpatient ortho clinic nestled inside a large gym - in other words the literal thing I was trying to achieve with RWS, except now I'm on the other side of the PT equation. Plus we have friends in the area and have heard nothing but great things about the Carolinas, so given how prohibitively expensive So-Cal is becoming it seemed like a sound choice for raising a family. My daughter gets her own room now...no more sleeping in the kitchen. Besides, I love biscuits, barbecue, and naturally-grown trees, all of which are far more abundant here; I'll get used to the bugs and the weather.
Long Beach was fun and I'm thankful I got to grow up in Cali, but this already feels more like home.