And the Grand Total Please...drum roll....

Yesterday I spent 4-5 hours organizing my student loan mayhem. Student loans for dental students can be crazy since we have government loans (subsidized and unsubsidized), perkins loans, and private loans of various types. The have different interest rates, grace periods and payback options. I am unable to consolidate my goverment loans and it would be unwise to consolidate my private loans because (as I found out yesterday) my interest rate will increase. So I am going to put a poll up to see who can guess my student loan total. Basically, I will be paid off in 2033! And I'm going to have one heck of a party on that day! But the bottom line is that depending on my payment choices, I will be paying either $1000 a month or $1250 a month depending on what I decide. Some payments start in Nov, some in Jan and one in March.

So...don't forget to vote on your guess for Sarah's Grande Dental Debt!

After that headache yesterday, I visited the fitness center while it rained (bummer). Then it stopped and it was later in the afternoon so I decided to go to the adult spa/pool for my tired muscles. On the way, I met some friends for Brian. Some guys are here for a couple months who are umpires for the minor leagues- plus they offered to get us tickets. Super cool.

Then I was reading "Nights in Rodanthe" in the hot tub with the jets and the palm trees. It was perfect. I'm going to sneak down there more often for reading. Its the perfect place to read a book like that in which I want to really enjoy it. Maybe I'll pick up a book light so I can go after work (sundown is 6:30 now).

Something I didn't think about until someone brought it up. You guys are all going to have daylight savings soon and then we will only be 4 hours (central) and 5 hours (eastern) apart. Yea!

Work went great on last Monday. I was super nervous, but I made it through and everything came back to me. What a relief! I had an easy schedule. but produced $900 so that was good for a first day(obviously that's not what I take home). I start the other job next week, so this is my last weekend of lounging.

Bad news about the flood, there is some freak clause in Brian's homeowners insurance that prevents us from being covered for the flood. But the main thing is that the water is out, we have our gutters going up today with drainage away from the house. Our friend, Aaron is coming out next weekend to fix our gravity drainage system. And hopefully, the renters are filling in the dirt around the house (like they were going to do a week ago and haven't).

Signing off...

Worst than we thought the worst would be

We got the estimate for the flood in Michigan and its worse than our "worse case senario". Its going to be 6K for water, carpet, pad removal, antimicrobial wash and replacement of drywall (2 ft of dry wall along the basement). We still need new carpet and pad, AND we will need to dig a drainage ditch or something around the house to prevent more flooding in the future.

We are waiting on another estimate, but the water has already been there for 4 days.

Keep you posted.

Ahhh! Not another day in Paradise!

Work yesterday went well. I didn't end up seeing patients because we are waiting on malpractice insurance for me. But the office was very nice and I had a good time. I will write more on that later. Because that's not the real news of yesterday.

The real news is that Brian's basement flooded in Grand Rapids. What a disaster! The renters are upset and think their kids are getting asthma or something (after 36 hours of water). All the water removing companies are booked but one. There is still about 1 1/2 inches of water. We are going to pay an astronomical sum of money due to need to get the water out before the dry wall all needs to be replaced. We have no idea if this will keep occurring or where the water came from exactly. The renters think it came from 3 or 4 places. This is the ABSOLUTE worst time for this to happen to us, since Brian has run out of savings. We were up until 11pm last night trying to work out what to do, calling companies, researching, etc. Then Brian got up at 3am to start more calls and confirm more quotes.

Then in the middle of that, I got rejected for health insurance. So I have NO coverage right now. My job health insurance won't start until about Nov. There are only 2 companies that provide health insurance in Hawaii and the main one rejected me for my bout with dental school depression 3 years ago. So now, here I am, a doctor, after being in school for 20 years, unable to get insurance. I didn't qualify for Cobra either. Its not about the money, I would make it happen, I just can't get coverage. So, I will be providing oral health care, being exposed to God knows what and I have no insurance. Great! I have one more company I am trying, but they won't be able to start me even if I am approved for a few weeks. I spend time exercising, eating lots of healthy food, don't smoke, wear my sunscreen forcefield, I have taken no medications other than antibiotics for 2 years and haven't been in to the doctor in over a year. Still I am not healthy enough for Blue cross, Blue Shield.

After all this news, Brian and I worked out our frustration on the tennis court at 9pm last night. They have great lit courts and we did much better than when we played on Sat.

I will keep you all posted on our great flood and my lack of insurance.

Working 5 days!!!

Great news for those who haven't heard....I have my jobs lined up so that I will be working 5 days a week!!! I work on M, T-Th, and Sat. I'm very excited. I will be going into one job on Monday, and the other job won't start for 30 days, this is bad, but I'm hoping that they can get me in earlier.

This morning, Brian and I went to the Aloha Swap meet again. It was great. We picked up some Hawiian decor. We have our front hall set up with a "beach station" so that we can grab our stuff and go. Now, we will decorate with our beach signs and pictures. I will post pictures when I get our things hung up.

We had real rain yesterday which was exciting!! But actually we are starting to get super spoiled, we were disappointed when it was overcast on the beach on Fri (Makaha beach). The constant sunshine and perfect temps have been very nice.

Real DDS now!

I'm going to be a real DDS now, I may be working on Monday. I interviewed yesterday at an office on the other side of the island. It is a 40 min drive in no traffic, so the commute will be a nightmare. But it is one day a week (mondays only) for now. I loved the office and the owner and I think it will be a good experience for me. I am also still trying to negotiate a 4 day a week job at another office. But they really want me 5 days and so I'm working on it. The problem with the 5 days is that with the schedule they would have me on, Brian and I would only have one day in common off (sunday) and we like to do things together, so we are trying to match schedules.

I am really excited and a bit nervous about starting. I haven't touched a tooth in a long time. Brian and I are going to watch some dental dvds we have so I can start to get back into tooth thinking.

We also signed up for our Ocean club passes today. Its the owners pass for the condo assoc. here. It gives us access to the lit tennis courts, discounts at the restaurants, and access to fitness classes (free or $5). It is actually pretty cool. They have tennis clinics, yoga classes and stuff like that every day of the week.

Keep your fingers crossed for me for the 4 day a week gig, if I can get them to sign me, I will be so relieved!!

Today they are having a charity golf event on the course, $500 per person for a round. It starts in an hour, I'm super excited to watch the rich people play golf. They also set up little tents around on the course with food and drinks for the golfers. Brian and I thought it was too bad we don't have the materials....we could have set up a tooth bleaching tent in front of our unit to raise money for our personal charity....rent and student loans!!

Blue Ribbon Winner!!!

I won the chili contest at our association last night!!!! It was a fun night. We met some nice people and next month they are having an Octoberfest party. My chili was a huge hit and everyone wanted my recipe, only I couldn't give it to them because this is how I made it....

Started at 8am while Brian watches football. Took cheap meat that Brian bought at Costco that was too fatty for us to use for anything. He had totally chopped it apart a couple weeks ago to remove the main pieces of fat and it was in chunks too small for steaks or anything useful. Cut meat into smaller pieces, coat meat with flour, chili powder, salt and pepper. Brown meat in olive oil in batches with onions. Deglaze with a bottle of sam adams beer. Add a big can of diced tomates, a small can of tomatoes with chilis, a big can of chili beans. Add chili powder (have no idea how much), add cumin until you run out and then start having to grind up cumin seeds in magic bullet. Taste chili and realize it tastes horrible. Go out to store to buy tomato paste. Stop at library to pick up book on hold. Get sucked into watching cooking demonstration at the library for an hour, look for books, realize you've been gone for 2 hours. Rush home to find the chili burned on bottom. Scrape up burned bits and convince yourself that it adds flavor. Add tomato paste. Realize that now the meat ratio is wrong and needs more meat. Repeat browning and deglazing process and add to pot. Heat up and realize, now its too pastey with all the flour from the meat. Add tomato paste thinking it will make it taste like tomato again. Heat up and realize that now it is a pastey goo. Carefully skim off the top four cups of pastey goo. Add last can of diced tomatoes in the house. Add a couple tablespoons of sugar, some salt. Taste and realize there is no kick. Have Brian add red pepper flakes when I'm not looking. Throw in some chipotle red pepper seasoning I found in cabinet. Tell Brian that my chili is embarrassing and that I'm not bringing it to the competition. Brian convinces you to bring chili since you've been working on it all day (now its 6pm). Bring chili in my red ceramic dish and get there and everyone else has theirs set up in crock pots all plugged in keeping them hot. After an hour, they yell out, who has the red dish. Think that someone broke your red dish.....accept your first place blue ribbon. Make new friends.

Come home and clean the kitchen that looks like a disaster!

Interviews, decisions

Been busy this week with job interviews. I started calling every dentist registered with the Hawaii Dental Association in the area. I had a couple interviews. I have one offer I am considering, the main concern of mine is the days. I want to try to match Brian's (M, W, Th, Sat) a bit so that we both have two days off that are the same. This position is for Tues-Sat, which means that we would only see each other on Sun. Especially since Brian works 10 hour days. So, we are going to try to negotiate some changes on both sides. I would love to be able to trade the Monday off for a friday or for Brian to negotiate a Mon off. The position is with a company that provides benefits so that's nice.

I have two other interviews so far next week. The other interview I had this week was a horrible offer. I would be working on medicaid patients all day (medicaid is basically 21 and under here), but the fee schedule for medicaid is so low that I would be paid very poorly unless I saw about 20 patients a day which is not possible.

On Thurs afternoon, Brian and I went to Makaha beach to relax (after my interview that day), it was completely overcast and past 1pm so we didn't put on sunscreen right away. We were punished for that. I just have a bit on my arms, Brian is more burned than I.

Then yesterday, we went into Honolulu to see the Bodies exhibit. It was cool. I highly recommend it, especially for grampy since he took gross anatomy too. The quality of the dissections was amazing. But, of course, the MD's made a couple mistakes when referring to oral conditions on the displays. It was funny because they had these people in white coats walking around answering questions about the bodies. We assumed they were physicians, until we heard a girl say she was a massage school student. Maybe they should hire me at the exhibit.

After the exhibit, we went to a Korean restaurant nearby that I had scoped out online. It looked good, and had good reviews. And they had great food at a good price. Since the cost of everything is higher here, you get a lot less quality at restaurants for the same money at home. Expect to pay $20 a plate for food, sometimes bad food. But this place was great. We ordered korean dumplings (like chinese dumplings) and then ordered a combo platter for one. But it had so much food! We had soup, and 5 different types of kim chee (pickled korean veggies), rice and then two types of meat that were seasoned well and very tender. They even finished us off with a sweet ginger drink. The platter was only $21. We will definitely go back there.

We left town right at rush hour and got stuck in traffic for 1 1/2 hours. Its funny because as we are stuck in traffic, there are people with political signs on the side of the street advertising a candidate who is pushing for "no rail". This is a crazy ongoing battle here. For some crazy reason, there is a large group of people here who think that adding a train into the city is a bad idea and that sitting in 2 hours of traffic is a good idea. They are even battling over whether to place it on the ballot.

Today, Brian is enjoying his football today and I am working on a vat of chili. I'm entering a chili making contest tonight at our housing association. We thought it would be a good way to meet people around here. I don't expect to win by any means since some people have been perfecting chili recipes for years, but I think it will be fun.

So, I will let you know if I win. My interviews are on Mon and Weds. But even if they go poorly, my one offer is decent. Its a flat rate per day which is what I want as a beginner, I won't be driving in traffic, there is bonus program, medical insurance, 401K, and of course my favorite....they provide scrubs. No laundry for me, I show up, change into the provided scrubs and at the end of the day change back and out the door. They could start me around the beginning of Oct. I am excited to start getting a pay check!!!