In the last two weeks, there have been some huge changes. In fact, “huge” doesn’t quite encapsulate the scope of events going on. “Gargantuan” might be better. Or even “All Encompassing” or possibly “Earth Moving” might be more appropriate. But we’ll settle for “huge.”

Rewind to St. Patty’s day. In the med school world, this year St. Patty’s day was also Match Day. The one day of the year where all the 4th year medical students finally discover where they are going for their residencies to start their careers as doctors. It’s an exhaustively intense process consisting of travel, countless interviews, making lists, long discussions about all the possibilities inherent with each choice, and then finally prioritizing the options.  Oddly enough, the hospitals go through a similar ranking process, and then a computer magically performs the match.

Long story short, my wife matched to her #1 pick. UW Health in Madison. It was phenomenal and the kickoff to some epic celebrations for the rest of the day and night.

The next day, after some time and ginger movement we started looking for apartments in Madison. Well, I say “we” but I really mean she started looking. I had to go to work for a while, then came home and laid on the floor. We discovered there are an awful lot of apartments in Madison, and plenty that should make my commute to Milwaukee not terrible and let her be close enough to the hospital.

6 a.m. the next day we’re up and rolling to the Southern WI Open in Verona. It was exciting for several reasons:  1) I was officially not hung over anymore, 2) It was a chance to test run all of the katas I’d been working on since early February, and 3) There was the knowledge we would be moving here soon (I had never been so excited to drive to Madison).

The tournament went exceedingly well and was a wonderful warm up for AmeriKick, which was the following weekend. There were a lot of congratulations and tons of excitement for my wife and I as well as questions, offers of help, work, and everything else in between. Afterward, we had to bow out early and start exploring the options of living in Madison. Starting with lunch and appropriation of Madison Swag.

It was great.

Then we started a long day of driving, exploring, and discussing. The novelty of looking at new buildings soon wore off and, four hours later, we were sitting in the Nitty Gritty feeling a little bummed out and cranky. Shockingly enough, it wasn’t quite as easy and we had hoped.

But, we persevered. In the following week, we were in Madison every day by 9 a.m. We also sprinted home just in time for me to go to work. On top of this, I was training for AmeriKick and managed to make one trip down to see Sensei Sharkey.

We also saw Logan. Which was awesome!

Finally, on Thursday, well past the point where we really cared about apartments at all and were seriously considering living in our cars, we found the perfect apartment complex.

The entire thing is called “The Dude Abodes.” Which meant the very first thing I asked the manager was if there was a White Russian Tap somewhere. She laughed and said no. But that the BREWERY ON THE FIRST FLOOR HAS A DEAL and they do a White Russian with a twist.

My wife and I were tempted to sign the lease right there. In the concrete stairwell. However, we held off. After all, we’ve been wandering around all the suburbs of this area and comparing all sorts of apartments. I had actually found myself saying, “Wow, management keeps this basement really clean, I’m impressed!” at another location. So, we maintained a face of friendly skepticism until we walked into the apartment we would be renting.

It was beautiful. Brand new, never lived in and full of ridiculous extras that didn’t actually make that much sense, but were cool. All of this, plus the location that worked for the both of us and the interesting area around it, cemented The Dude Abodes as the place we were going to live in for the next few years. Starting in June.

Bring on the adventure (and good chaos!)