Yea, weekend!

I am so thankful that it's Friday! This week has seemed to go on forever. There's an action-movie-type book of Ian's I read several years ago that talks about fast time and slow time. The idea is that time doesn't really move at a continuous, regular pace. Rather, there are periods where everything speeds up and time flies by (fast time) and other periods where things slow down and you're surprised by how little time has passed from one moment to the next (slow time). I've discovered that I most recently experience fast time when I'm getting ready for work in the morning and trying not to be late and slow time seems to come up most at the end of the work day when I'd really like to be home already. :) This week seems like it's been nothing but slow time. It feels like a month since I took that exam. I am ready for a weekend!

Fortunately or unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's going to be a terribly restful weekend, but it should be fun. Ian and I are driving down to Augusta, GA, tomorrow morning to visit with a friend from med school who just had a baby in January and to attend the wedding of one of my cousins. We've never been all that close with our extended family, especially on my mom's side of the family. At least on my dad's side, everyone lives in St. Louis, so we've had opportunities to see each other more frequently and, as we've gotten older, more of an opportunity to act on desires to be closer with our extended family. My mom's family mostly lives on the East Coast (Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia...), so it's always been a little more difficult to get together with them. My cousin recently reached out to our part of the family and said that she'd really like for us to get to know each other better. I'm really excited that it's worked out that I might be able to do something about that. Apparently, Augusta is just about 3 hours from Charlotte and it's a lovely coincidence that we just had this friend move there, so we have an extra reason to visit and free place to stay. The one big downside of the weekend is that the wedding is on Sunday night and Ian and I both have to work Monday. I'm sure it'll be worth it, though!

We got some new pictures of our niece, Sophia. I can't believe she's so big already! I've only gotten to see her once - for her Baptism in November. Ian and I should be in Chicago a couple times in May, so I'm very much looking forward to more quality time with "the Sophster," as I've heard she's called (and with Mark & Naomi, of course!).

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!