Now I could live in Nashville

When people ask me where Ryan and I want to live someday (post residency/fellowship, ya know, when real life begins :) I always say, "Somewhere that has a Nordstrom." So I have always had to rule out Nashville, but I just learned today Nordstrom is coming to Green Hills in 2010. I can't believe it! Just when we are moving to Cincinnati for Ryan's Sports Medicine fellowship (summer 2009), there is going to be a Nodstrom added to my mall. Just my luck. But I guess we can add Nashville on the list of "Places We Could Live."

A New Favorite Song

So I just bought my first American Idol song - Always Be My Baby by David Cook. (Listening to it right now!). I gotta say, this song rocks!!! When they annouced what he was singing, I was like,"oh dear, this can't be good" but holy cow, it was AWESOME! Now, David Cook is not my favorite artist. I LOVE LOVE LOVE David Archuleta and want him to win, BUT I think David Cook is going to sell more records. He has the making of a great recording artist.

Geez, I have become an American Idol junkie this season. I watch it every week, always vote, and now download their songs...

I like to travel because...

I buy new shoes :) Here are my Costa Rica Keens.

And here is my "travel backpack"...

A Cup Of Tea

I had to post about this book I am reading called Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It is an incredible true story about one man's mission of building schools for children in Pakistan. He went over there to climb K2 and wandered into this villiage on his deathbed. They cared for him, and he formed a strong bond with these people; realizing their children had no means of education, he committed himself to building them a school. In a world of extreme poverty, he saw education as the best way to help them (and especially educating the girls).

In one village, Greg arranged for a young woman to get healthcare training from a clinic 150 km away and bought medical supplies for her. Prior to taking over her village's healthcare, people often died from diarrhea and other sicknesses. She states: "After five years, with good water from new pipes (which Greg funded), and teaching the people how to clean their children, and use clean food, not a single person has died from these problems. It's my great interest to continue to develop myself in this field, and pass on my training to other women. Now that we have made such progress, not a single person in this area believes women should not be educated."

If you get a chance to read this book, I would highly recommend it!