A look back...2003

In contrast to 2002, 2003 was pretty smooth sailing. It started with Rich and I getting more serious and dating exclusively. We finished up our first year of pharmacy school and when my apartment lease was up I moved into a really neat old house in downtown Little Rock with Darcy and Lynette, two girls I met in school that are still my BFFs today. It was such a fun time living with those girls and being with our group of school friends. There was a group of about 10 of us that sat together in class for 4-8 hours a day, then hung out or went out at least 4 nights a week...plus most of us lived with someone else or two or three from the group. So it was intense immersion therapy but somehow we managed to all grow closer instead of getting sick of one another. In fact, Lynette and I both ended up marrying boys from our group of friends. I really enjoyed the fact that Rich and I shared the same friends. We were always together, but very rarely one-on-one. We threw huge house parties at our house and I'm pretty sure I did a keg stand in the hallway once...maybe, I can't confirm for sure because I'd hate to tarnish my reputation:) I started working at Arkansas Childrens' Hospital as a pharmacy intern, where I worked 20 hours a week throughout pharmacy school. It was great because my shifts were 2:00-10:30pm but you could clock out at 10:23pm because of the clocking-out fairy and her grace period. Our house was just about 2 minutes from the hospital so I loved that on party nights I could clock out and be home by the time my shift technically ended. So on the social life front, I had an exciting new romantic relationship and tons of great new friends that occupied just about every waking second. School was going great as well and I really enjoyed most of my classes.

2003 is also the year that Rich and I got Tanner. We were walking in his neighborhood one day when we say this lady and her daughter out walking a 6 month old chocolate lab. We ooed and aahed over him and she asked us if we wanted him. He belonged to her neighbors, but they had moved to California and left him behind. How could we say no to that?? So that's how Tanner came to join the not-yet-Morris-family. His roommate wasn't a dog person so whenever the boys, Dickson and Tanner, were at his house they would have to stay outside. None of us liked that arrangement so it wasn't long before they were both at my house that I shared with Darcy and Lynette. I'll never forget the day we first brought Tanner in and Darcy looked at me and said "So like he is going to live here too now. We have 2 dogs now?" Darcy was not a big dog lover at the time, and was actually kind of scared of dogs but she was a trooper and let Tanner move in. These girls were really awesome to put up with me and my zoo!

I was still running, well more like jogging becuase I never ran a race and didn't care about time or distance, pretty regularly as well as working out at the gym. I turned 23 and started my second year of pharmacy school.