08/14/2009 Two Years Later

We had a great afternoon today at the Metropolitan Club at Sears Tower (I will not refer to it as Willis Tower, no sir), where we watched the Thunderbirds practice in prep for the Chicago Air and Water Show this weekend. Feeling the desk vibrate in a windowless office while the Thunderbirds roar overhead is enough to make anyone batty, so today I did something very unusual and left work at lunchtime to catch the practice. Sitting there absorbing the seemingly peaceful and quiet skyline (that is, after the Thunderbirds finished their run! ), I remembered where I was this same week two years ago. Let me tell you, it was far from sipping wine in the Met Grille on the 67th floor. It was this week in 2007 that I took the Genetic Counseling board exam (the actual anniversary is August 15th and 16th, thanks to my savant skills at remembering dates), for which I had been studying since January. On top of that, my husband and I trained the whole summer to complete the Chicago Distance Classic half marathon the Sunday before the board exam, raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in honor of my sister, who had been undergoing cancer treatments during this time. It was a summer of hyper-discipline and diligence, with hours of training and icing sore muscles and studying late into the night. It was also the summer that my husband and I got engaged, and the time when, cruelly, we were under the happy impression that my sister's treatments had come to an end. But today, two years later, I was sipping wine and staring into the city with my husband, with my sister healthy in Kalamazoo, my running shoes dusty in the closet, and the feeling of contentment.