Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day Weekend

I asked Brett about 3 months ago if he would be interested in heading to the NCAA Divison 1 Lacrosse Championship that was held this weekend in Boston, MA. He said he hadn't really been following Lax this year due to being too busy with school. But since school ended and he has had an hour or two here and there to catch up on the Lax world, he decided that he would really like to go to the tourny. So we headed up to Foxborough, MA to the Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots for the semi-final games on Saturday afternoon. Game 1: Loyola vs. Norte Dame, with Loyola winning. Game 2: Duke vs. Maryland with Maryland winning. Games were fun to watch, atmosphere was fun, but most of all it was enjoyable to spend a weekend actually watching Lax with Brett next to me rather than him on the opposite sideline coaching, which has never happened and probably won't for several more years (if ever) unless of course we go to Championship weekend again next year, which it held in Philly.
Loyola vs Norte Dame
Duke vs. Maryland
Sunday we slept in and then took a short drive up to Boston. We spent the day in the Cambridge area, most at Harvard University. It was so relaxing and very nice to spend some time together not rushing to see sites or visit  anything in particular. Harvard was different than what I expected but the surrounding area was very quaint and typified New England. There were a lot of street performers out and it was nice to listen to their music or watch their act for a little bit.
Center of Harvard
The Concert Hall
A law building
whole church was made from stone - very impressive
Monday was Championship Game - Maryland vs Loyola. Loyola ended up beating Maryland quite soundly but it was a pretty close/tight game until half. It was such an enjoyable weekend. It was so nice to finally have some time to just relax together, sleep in, and especially not have to worry about studying or work left undone.
Keep your fingers crossed that we get to do it again next year. :)
Maryland vs Loyola
Brett's heaven
Face off's were brutal...
A little update on Brett's schooling: he officially completed his first year of in-class work. Yipee!!! He is now in his clinical, working with actual patients and he is loving every minute of it! There is such a difference in his attitude about learning. He absolutely loves what he does and as frustrating as it was to have to wait 4 years for him to figure it out I am sure glad he took his time and didn't let his wife's impatience push him into doing something that he doesn't love. Can't wait to see where his career will take us in life.
Brett also has the privilege of serving as the treasurer on the Student Special Interest Group (SSIG) for Physical Therapy. While at one of the SSIG meetings, he was introduced to Victor Vaughn, who is a big advocate for PT. He does lots of stuff with the government advocating for PT. This was intriguing to Brett and he started asking more questions. Vic invited Brett to go down to Washington DC with him and the other Connecticut advocates. Brett enticed two if his classmates (AJ Cohen and Don Johnson) to go with him. So the 3 boys headed down to Washington DC for a "man-vaction" to do some advocating for PT on April 23 - 24.
It just so happened that while there the 3 of them, along with their professors sat down at a table with the professional advocates from none other than UTAH!!! Brett told them that he was from Utah and they asked him to join them in visiting Utah's senators wince CT would have 2 student advocates. So the following day he did just that. He tagged along with 3 Utah PT advocates, all of which are professors at University of Utah. Of particular note, the woman Kim Cohee, is head of the resident Orthopedic program at the U - Brett is really interested in doing this residency after finishing at Sacred Heart so it was a great opportunity to network with her - and the PRES of the APTA Tom Ward is also from Utah. Mark Anderson was the third representative for Utah, who was very impressed with Brett and seemed genuinely interested in helping Brett further his career. Brett had a blast and although he was with 3 "big-wigs" from Utah, he said they made him completely comfortable and he was very glad he was given the opportunity to join them.   As I said before: can't wait to see where Brett's career takes us in life. 
AJ Cohen, Brett, Don Johnson (Back row)
CT Delegation - Vic on the right
Mark Anderson, Brett, Tom Ward, Kim Cohee
Brett at the Captiol
Brett at the Capitol