Shipping up to Seattle

Big news! The Marin County Mayers have sold the house and are currently looking at places in the greater Seattle area. This means the Boston Mayers will have all their immediate family in their favorite part of the country. Needless to say, Whitney was extremely excited at this development, and I am also very excited to have everyone in Seattle; however, I am a little saddened that it will now be much more difficult to visit the Bay Area and see childhood friends. But when we eventually move back to the Northwest, it will be great having so much immediate family and good college friends around.

Bigger news! Grandpa Solano, my mom's dad, had a triple-bypass after pulling a triple infarction while on a bike ride around the Yosemite area. He thought it was indigestion, which worries me when it's my turn to have them. Will I notice? Anyways, he made one of the fastest recoveries the hospital had ever seen in an 85+ y.o. and is back at home convalescing for the next couple of months while family stays with him to make sure he comes out alright. However, it looks like he will do well in the long run after a couple months of therapy and diet change, so our prayers were answered.

From our international bureau, this just in! While the Brits have stolen Paige in retaliation for too many funny accents and bad jokes during their stay with us, the Italians will be returning Soliz two months early, so she will be home in October, to move up to Seattle sometime soon after that. She has had a harder time than expected in Italy, mainly due to the remoteness of the farms she has been WWOOFing on, and the disparities between what a family writes in their promo paragraph and what conditions are actually like on a farm. However, I think overall she has had a very unique and eye-opening experience and will come back better for it.

As for us, life after Seattle has gone back to a welcome if busy rhythm. I am finishing up a module on infectious diseases for school, and Whitney is back at work. The weather has definitely dipped with September, the high temperature for this week being a cool 72, instead of the 94 we came back to only a fortnight ago. We're excited for our second Boston fall and for Jeremy and Ronnie to come out and see the Northeast with us before winter sets in. School is definitely harder this year, with an increase both in classes and in clinical practices. For the first time I am avoiding movies and distractions for hours on end, even making tables to organize the massive amount of information I'm supposed to know in three weeks. However, MD/PhD events are starting up, and I'm excited to do applicant dinners and Monday-night get-togethers with my school friends in the program, and we have also really enjoyed being back with our small groups after a month break. With all of that and the holidays fast approaching, Whitney and I are doing very well.

Finally, I wanted to relate about our Labor Day weekend. Whitney and I drove down to Groton, CT, to visit the Dziaduls, which is always so much fun because I've known Sam for ages (actually she's known me before I even knew me) and Craig is a really great guy who is always so positive. We showed up in the midafternoon and immediately caught up and played some board games, before heading over to Sam's parents' house in Ledyard for some seafood paella, which is now one of my favorite dishes, and had a great time hanging out with my East Coast set of parents. The next day we played more games before heading to the beach to sun ourselves and relax as summer drew to a close. However, we hope to visit again this winter, as Sam is having a baby boy in January! Pretty crazy to have friends that are moving on to children already!

We hope you all are doing well, and look forward to seeing you this holiday season!


-Chad and Whitney