thoughts...

people that shovel snow into the perfectly clean street in an attempt to finally dig their cars out 4 days later are douches. I saw that twice today.

Speaking of twice, I also saw 2 transvestites in the hospital today. I'm convinced that kind of thing is like seeing a shooting star so I naturally took it as a sign of good luck. I knew that we had one transvestite--a guy I actually met in a lesbian bar a couple of years before I even worked at the hospital. He tries his best to pass but he's so obviously a man that its sort of sad, really. On the contrary, the "new" transvestite wasn't really trying that hard. He had long nails & a ponytail but with gender neutral clothing & minimal makeup, he wasn't passing AT ALL.

The 2010 Bonnaroo lineup was announced last night--Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Zac Brown Band, Steve Martin, Miranda Lambert, Diane Birch, Jay Z, Stevie Wonder, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The National, Tenacious D...there is definitely some potential. The Pros: There are lots of bands that I'd love to see, Bonnaroo 2007 was an absolute blast. The cons: $500 for tix, Tennesse heat in June, steamy port-a-potties, did I mention 4 days in the Tennessee heat without a shower, bathroom, & camping?? I still wanna go though but with our vacation to Alaska & my trip to Africa for work in July, I'm not sure if we're gonna be able to swing it.

CHOP (children's hospital of philly) finally got their stuff together and released the information about the Sickle Cell Conference. We've only been asking them for info since January 2009. Seriously. They sent out the email on 2/2 with the call for abstracts due on 3/1. Seriously. Luckily we have been working on our Evidence Based Project for awhile now so we were mostly prepared. Writing our abstract tomorrow & submitting it next week. Still waiting to hear back from the travel agency about the arrangements--we have a hotel list but know nothing about flight details or the tour that they are putting together.

Buying our plane tickets this weekend for our Alaska trip. Can't wait to get back to Seattle! So looking forward to a blackberry latte from Seattle's best, Pike Place Market, the lovely folks at the Inn at the Market, and this place...

Namaste

Nah-muh-stay. So this is what we say to each other at the end of our yoga class. It basically means "I bow to you" in Sanskrit. The image shown above is actually framed & displayed in the yoga studio.

I have always been interested in yoga & have played around with it a bit through books & the Wii but have never actually taken a class. Thank goodness my hip pain finally pushed me into action. I had been having right hip pain for atleast 6 months--I specifically remember having a lot of pain & stiffness during our trip to Washington DC for the 4th of July. After much research & asking people at work, I figured out that I my problem was all in my muscles. Basically, I was so tight in my hip flexor, my hamstring had tightened up & my leg would be stiff like a wooden plank until I had "walked it out". Basically, I looked like Frankenstein. Not to mention, the many sleepless nights I had because of pain. I always felt better when I would stretch at home but it would very quickly return to the stiffness & pain.

On the first night of class, we sat on the floor in the butterfly position. I could lay my left knee on the ground but my right knee was almost pressed into my chest--I absolutely could not move my knee down to the ground. We are now in week 5 & I've gained back almost all of my flexibility. Most importantly, I am almost now pain free & I'm not walking like this anymore:


Anyway, I've really enjoyed the fact that April has been in the class with me & I'm getting to spend time with my best friend EVERY week! This is super awesome to me. I absolutely love the fact that she is so in love with our class & how passionate she has become about what we are doing. She's just having so much fun at it & she's really good--so this has really inspired me. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't go to our 3rd class. Apparently, that's the week when she converted to Hinduism & became a yogi because when I came back to the 4th class, she was crazy good. She had somehow found her core along with her balance & strength. Mine is still hiding under a rock somewhere. Last week, our 6 ft tall spaghetti limbed instructor Kristy demonstrated a position called the Crow. She said it took her 2 years to be able to get into the position & so we shouldn't feel pressured to do it. I look to my left & April is in the crow!

Try this folks--squat down with your legs apart and put your hands on the ground in front of you (sort of like a frog). Press your knees to the back of your triceps and slowly lean forward until your feet come up OFF OF THE GROUND! You will look like this:


April was one of only 2 people in the class who could do this--and she's just had a baby 3 months ago. Holy jeebus. I still contend that this position is impossible when you are built like a toy top, like I am. I've got too much junk in the truck pulling me back down to be able to get in that crazy position. I keep trying though--so if you see me with broken forearms or wrists and I've said that I've had a bad fall-you'll know the real reason why.

Last night, when I thought I was going to fall over on my face during the bending tree pose, I look over at April who is in perfect position & in deep concentration. She sees me out of the corner of her eye, doesn't lose her pose & says "hater."

and she's right. Its enough to keep a girl motivated .

a few things..

It appears that we have won the battle of the mice...When I told Dad of our triumph, he said, "just wait until the next rainy day". Hmph. Bertie & Shelby have proven themselves to be good soliders in the Scientist's army & while Lola likes to simply supervise, she provides much needed stress relief to me while I'm holed up in the bedroom waiting for the hunt to end. I'm crossing my fingers that this was just a one time event but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I might be started to get the hang of the school thing again..or atleast I feel like I'm doing a better job of managing things. I don't feel quite so out of control. I did manage to pull an 87 out of my pathophys exam last week & though I only got a 78 on my differential diagnosis exam, I feel like I only have room to improve since it was just the first test.

I painted the thrift store dresser that I bought..one more tiny coat of poly & installing the new hardware & it will be good to go. Super excited to see how it will look in the office.

We have some plans for the basement, which really excites me. We've chosen a paint color & picked some furniture out. Mom & I spent Saturday reorganizing the storage room & cleaning up the basement..it hadn't been touched basically since the day we moved in so it was getting nasty down there. Having the space cleaned up really gets the juices flowing & makes me excited to get started on the renovations. Hopefully we will get the paint on in the month of February. I love to paint!

Had a lovely brunch at the Comet on Sunday, complete with delicious bloody marys. The Scientist has a friend who is a chef & he's doing the brunch thing..hopefully they will keep this up because my dish was sooo delicious. Anytime I can hang out in the Comet is also extra good by me!

Future posts to come--yoga, Cali & family.

Is it weird that I would very much like the opportunity to sit with an ENT specialist & talk about why humans have SO many boogers?

where does the time go?

I was just going to get on the case of Jason for not blogging recently when I realized that I hadn't put anything up in over a week. I did go to California & had a spectacular time with my good friend Tammy & plan on posting a blog with some restaurant reviews, tales of wine & entertaining the veterans of Napa Valley, all with pics of course. Unfortunately, I couldn't find our camera before the trip (and after the trip as it turns out!) and had to rely on the just ok quality of my Iphone & Tammy's camera. When Tammy uploads the pics, I will pull them & post some.

Between the holiday last week & my vacation, I've only worked 3 full days of work in 2 weeks. Of course, I took 40 hours of PTO, which will put a nice little dent in my vacation time and I never like that.

Working 3 days out of 8 sounds good in theory but has totally wrecked my schedule. I just can't seem to get back into the flow of things..and just when I did, Friday rolls around and the weekend is here to throw me off again. I know, I know--there are worse problems in the world to have...Haiti & Jon Edwards as a husband come to mind. Nevertheless, I plan on rebounding this weekend & starting fresh next week.

This includes my schoolwork, which is lagging at best. I'm glad to see that procrastination is something that apparently sticks with you for a lifetime & doesn't fade as you get older. I had an exam yesterday, my first for the Differential Diagnosis class. I didn't fail & it wasn't exactly dismal at a 78, but that's never where my Type A, overachiever personality wants to be. I looked at my score, saw the 78 & was actually pleased with myself because it gives me some room to improve without having to worry about being totally in the gutter with my grades. The crazy thing is that I knew that EKGs were my weakness (because I've been out of critical care nursing for 5 years & because I didn't study it enough) so I was flying through the test & was actually thinking it was all pretty damn easy up until question 35 when the EKG stuff started. I'm sure that I missed a good portion of those questions, which is what dropped my score.

Despite what my horoscope says, I think I'm in a winter funk. A bright spot for me has been my weekly yoga class with April & Denise. I will most definitely post about our adventures, mostly because I want to put up a picture of the crazy position that April was able to put herself in on Wednesday. Denise & I are convinced that during the class we missed last week, April converted to Hinduism & became a yogi.

I'm moving to Mauritania

Just kidding. I'm actually mildly disturbed by what I just saw on TV. Watching Taboo on Nat Geo & tonight its about "fat". Apparently there are still countries in Northern Africa which prize females with some junk in their trunk. Maybe this is why my African patient's fathers are always way too friendly with me & why I was stalked for months by 2 Africans in Kroger.

Anway,In Mauritania it is believed that a woman's size was directly related to her wealth..the bigger she is, the more money she has. A woman was interviewed & said that the bigger the woman, the more space she takes up in her husband's heart (or his wallet, I guess it depends on who you ask!) The disturbing piece comes in the fact that they practice "gavage" (just google it already!)to basically forcefeed their little girls. They showed a little girl crying & trying to fight as she was being forced to drink a bowl of fresh cow's milk mixed with millet & butter. To divert her attention from the food that she doesn't want, her toes were being crushed by 2 pieces of wood. The mother said that the pain takes her attention away from the food & its easier to feed her that way.

Little girls as foie gras. So sad.

eat your heart out Martha..

I have a love/hate relationship with Martha Stewart. I want to be her & I also want to stab her. I have been semi obsessed with crafts since I was a teenager. Unfortunately, I don't come from a family of women who sew, knit, crochet, etc. so I had to teach myself to cross stitch when I was young. I worked at Michaels arts & crafts store in high school where I taught a few classes on beading and beginner's cross stitch. Lately, I've been working on things for our new house & have been completely obsessed with refurbishing old furniture. Last summer I purchased a 1930's era table & 1 chair from a 90something lady's estate sale. Her 70 year old son had grown up eating dinner at the table & was kind of sad to see it go. I wanted to work on the chair & the Scientist decided to try out the table.

Before:


So its not exactly a true before because it had about 9 layers of paint on it and it took MANY hour with a lot of elbow grease to get it back to its au natural state. I don't have a true After pic but I do have a work in progress photo but you'll get the idea.


Silly me, I didn't take a before picture of my chair..here's the after...


Stay tuned for more crafty posts, including more furniture redos, wreaths & home decorating ideas.

the pitter patter of little feet

I'm not talking about babies--I'm talking about mice. We had 2 good nights without any sightings & I was just starting to get comfortable again. This morning I was awoken by the sound of the Scientist beating the hell out of something. Since he wasn't screaming, I assumed it wasn't a burglar. The sinking feeling crept back in, there was no doubt as to what he was doing--he was killing a mouse. Secretly, I was hoping it was a burglar...atleast I wouldn't be so scared to get out of bed. Once again, Bertie was playing with a little grey mouse but this time, the Scientist was able to take things into his own hands--or boots. He then found half of a mouse (the tail end I think) laying on the guest bed. After these blogs, no one is going to want to spend the night at my house.

It was time to take action...read lots of information on the net today about mice & ways to get rid of them. I read lots of things, including carbonated beverages & instant mashed potatoes. What we know is that we definitely couldn't do the poisons because a pet who eats a poisoned mouse can die. The cats die & the dogs get severe bleeding disorders. Yuck! I went to Wal Mart & bought glue traps, the ones that snap their necks instantly, and live traps that catch them. I also bought steel wool because I heard that was the best way to plug holes & potential places that they are getting in. Did you know that if you can stick a pencil in a hole or crack, a mouse can get in there?? Total insanity.

I went to the dentist & everything went really well. No more bleeding gums, no cavities, etc. The best thing about the appointment was that my dentist told me I looked thinner! Yeah! I told him that I'd been doing yoga..failed to mention that Id only gone 2x. I'll talk about that in another post.

I have my first test friday night & I'm totally not prepared. The class is really difficult & Im worried that the testing is going to be ultra hard. This crazy prof is even doing a comprehensive final! I haven't even bought the book yet or finished listening to the lectures. Nothing like a little procrastination to get the blood pumping.

Btw, for any 30 Rock fans--when did Liz Lemon become hyper-sexual? 2 episodes in a row & she's hooking up with hot celebrities..and its not a joke. Really?