Acronyms in the Treehouse


Suzie and her BF Mark are staying in FF Treehouse this weekend. They met in an online dating site. Mark, a SWM, had made several failed attempts at finding a connection, and just as he was about to give up, he caught a glimpse of this SJF who works as an ICU nurse at MGH. Since he’s an engineer at MIT, he liked that she was in a science field and close by. When they came to FF, they’d been dating for 6.5 months.
Both components of this attractive couple are just past the 30 checkpoint, and both live active lifestyles. A few weeks ago, wanting a thrilling adventure for Suzie, Mark took her to an indoor climbing wall. She tumbled and tore her ACL.
 “You weren’t wearing a harness?” I ask.
 “You’re supposed to fall,” she says. “They have soft mats on the floor. But I fell wrong.”
 She doesn’t blame Mark, but she’ll be away from the ICU for a couple months after her surgery to repair the injury.
 Suzie has a good sense of humor about her work. “Nurses in the ED [the ER] have ADD, and nurses in the ICU have OCD,” she says. She explained that in the emergency room, nurses have to handle several patients at once, think fast and multi-task. ICU nurses, on the other hand, work with one critically ill patient for three 12-hour shifts, tuning in to monitors and vitals and attending to every detail.
  It takes a lot to rattle this gal. She was on duty when the Boston marathon bombing victims came in and shook President Obama's hand when he toured the ICU to greet the injured.  
 At MIT Mark is involved in designing a flying car. He’s nearing the production stage with a vehicle he says is similar to a Cadillac Esplanade with wings that unfold for flight. Imagine flying into an airport, taxiing to a stop, folding the wings, driving home and pulling your Terrafugia into the garage without ever leaving the cockpit. By 2015, you can have one of your own for a mere $279,000. Check it out: http://www.terrafugia.com/.


      After the Terrafugia “takes off” (ha ha), Mark plans to work on the TF-X, a VTOL vehicle. FLW had that idea in 1940 when he designed Crystal City for Washington, DC. Take a look at his drawing with small helicopter-type vehicles that hover-fly from one skyscraper platform to another. FLW’s concept was massive and included restaurants, stores, 24 apartment towers, park space and a thousand-room hotel, all on 10 acres near DuPont Circle. The DC zoning board scuttled the plan by refusing to waive the 1910 building height restriction of 130 feet.
   But maybe FLW wasn’t so far afield.
   As far as predictions for the future for this bright and genial couple. Suzie says she likes things neat but being a little OCD, she says Mark is a bit messy. 
    “I’m OCD in my head,” he says. 
    In that case, I’m sure things will turn out well.

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