Did I Just Have an Epiphany?

I might have had a break-through.  In school we learned about these men who would starve themselves so their brains would use ketone bodies for energy instead of the usual glucose.  Supposedly these men experienced enlightenment and heightened clarity.  Maybe they just went crazy from lack of food.  I might have experienced something similar, extreme work conditions in the ER are kind of like starvation...right?  Anyways, I realized that work cannot/should not/most likely will not be the love of my life, and I need to accept that.  For the first time it really sunk in that I have to support myself one way or another, and that being able to support myself and feed myself and have a roof over my head is actually more important than being happy or loving my job.  I need to accept the fact that my job does not define me and it is simply a means to an end.  In order to have the things that I deem necessary (unfortunately they include AC, my own place and a nearby beach at this time in my life), certain sacrifices have to be made in other areas.  I don't know why but this has been a very difficult lesson for me to learn.  I feel that in today's American society, there is so much pressure on young people to pursue their dreams and find something they love to do ("If you love your job, you'll never have to work a day in your life!"), we lose sight of the plain fact that in the end, we all just need a paycheck. I don't know why, but I have always felt guilty, like I am cheating myself out of something, if I don't love my job, and I really need to get over that.  We define people so often by their occupation, when we really shouldn't, and that includes  defining ourselves.  This is one of the few experiences I have had that make me feel (and then realize) I am getting older.  I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing....but it is definitely something new and different.

Surf Hobbit Bake

I decided what my own Eat Pray Love story would be if I had the means to do it: Surf Hobbit Bake.  I would start out in Central America, maybe Costa Rica, and would just live the simple life...no tv, movies, etc, lots of quiet time, reading, writing and most importantly, learning how to surf and working on my Spanish.  After that, I would travel to New Zealand and get a job working on the set of The Hobbit, which I think might be the coolest thing ever.  I loooooove the Lord of the Rings movies and just being around the action would be fantastic.  I would get a menial job and submerge myself in the world of Peter Jackson's take on Middle Earth and J.R.R. Tolkien.  Who knows, maybe I would even get a part as an extra hobbit or goblin!  Or I could clean the toilets.  Whatever.  After that, I would fly to France and get a job in a little bakery outside Paris somewhere, doing dishes, cleaning, whatever, until hopefully the baker/owner would decide to let me help in the baking part of it and I would learn all about pastries, cream puffs, breads, cup cakes, petit fours, etc. etc and I would finish out my year surrounded by beautiful food.  I planned it all yesterday morning when I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep, listening to the rain after a chaotic night. When I finally fell asleep, I had weird dreams about self-propelled surf boards.  Maybe today I will dream of hobbits....

Unexpected Kindness

Last night I was the lucky recipient of some unexpected kindness, and it kind of made my night.  It was something little to say the least, but just the idea that someone out there would be kind to a stranger was so crazy to me and that I would be the recipient was even crazier.  I went down to the cafeteria to get something to eat because I was staaaaaaarrrrrrrrvvvvvvviiiiinnnnnng, and nothing looked good so I decided on a salad.  The salads in the cafeteria are pathetic and over-priced, a plastic box with lettuce and powdered parmesan cheese makes up their Caesar salad...but I was so hungry anything sounded good.  I went up to pay at the register and the cashier said "How much is that salad?".  "$5.00" I replied. "Bull shit, I ain't charging you but $2.50 for that, that salad is just sad!"  The cashier yelled.  "We jus' gonna keep this between you an me" she said as she finished ringing me up.  After thanking her and paying, I just felt so good that someone was nice to me that didn't even know me!  It wasn't a big deal, and I am sure she probably doesn't even remember me with all the meals she rung up last night, but it totally put a smile on my face. So, thank you, cafeteria lady, for the little random act of kindness, it was so good to see some goodness in someone! 

Good

I watched 2 really good movies last night...Management with Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn, which I have seen before, and a new one called Monsters, a film from the UK that I think rivals District 9.  It was excellent.  When you have Netflix you take a gamble deciding which movie to watch sometime, but last night it was the perfect movie for my mood and the time and it was a home run.  I love it when you can find movies to match your moods! 

A Good Day for Sleeping

Today is rainy, gray and cloudy...overall a good day for sleeping.  Last night, one of the hospital employee's boyfriend, who owns a local bakery, brought us roughly 40 pounds carbs, (ie muffins, donuts, eclairs,  bagels and bread)  Awesome.  I was so glad I went off of my Brazilian-Bottom-Bikini diet in exchange for the Life-is-too-short-so-just-eat-whatever-in-moderation diet a few months ago.  

That reminds me...here is a game I created last summer and sent to my friends.  See if you can guess which one is false...sadly the rest are 100% true...those were some crazy 3-nights.  Here is my email:

"Let's play a game called "Which patient did La NOT have in the last 36 hours". I will give you some choices and you have to choose which patient scenario is false, and there will be only one. The other patient scenarios are 100% true! Here we go:

A) The belligerent bounty hunter who was so threatening to the staff that the police were called to keep him under control. His girlfriend, who had a shirt on that said "I eat pussy", was the unsuccessful mediator who attempted to keep him quiet even though he spent most of his stay screaming racial slurs and profanities.
B) The 3-year old whose mother tied him to the front porch with some string to "keep him in the yard" who ended up getting bitten by a possum that had been living under the porch
C) The black woman who stated that she had been sunburnt a week ago...and wanted to be treated for it this morning
D) The psychotic 18-year-old black dwarf who was found walking naked on the beach in Georgia with a 4-year old in tow...no one knows where the 4-year old came from...who sang me Whitney Houston and Kelly Clarkson songs
E) The 20-something, ambulatory, otherwise healthy female patient who requested to urinate in her non-private room, seperated from the main ER only by a curtain, in, specifically, a "small, styrofoam cup"
F) The 23-year old black woman who came in at 6am because she got in the shower this morning and realized that sometime previously in the night she had been stabbed 3 times in the back, breast and arm
G) The healthy, ambulatory 40-year old woman who came in via EMS for chest pain who pooped in her bed and then threw it in the hallway

So...ONE and ONLY ONE of the above patient scenarios are false...can you guess which one I made up and which 6 I dealt with?"

Amazing.

Nada...zip...zilch

I have nothing.  I keep trying to tell myself that work tonight will be better, but then the more logical side of my brain (which now outweighs the optimistic part) says "why would it be any better?".  Then I can't think of a reason it would be better and it continues my bad mood.  I am going to make a list of fantastic things, then fall asleep really fast, thinking of those good things.  Yesterday I woke up around 2pm by an idiot with a hedge-trimmer right outside my window.  Sometimes first floor apartments are a pain.  The noise just went on and on and after I checked to make sure he wasn't carving an elephant in a circus-themed topiary, I just laid in bed with my ear plugs willing him to trim faster/cursing him.  Since the shrubs were trimmed yesterday, they can't be trimmed again today, right?  That is a good thing.  Ok, so on to that list...

1) healthy babies that smell good
2) the beach
3) family and friends
4) my dream house in Greece...look at pics here: La's Greek Dream Villa

Ok, that is good.  Pretty much all I need to picture is my dream house in Greece with the blue tiles and white-washed walls and I feel better.  Maybe I will get a gyro tonight before work and imagine I am sitting on the porch at sunset, overlooking the Aegean in that little egg-shaped wicker chair enjoying it....

Routinely Bizarre

Last night was my first night back to work in awhile.  I got right back in the swing of things with some weird patients and situations.  My patients and their circumstances included a shady and nearly deadly fireworks explosion/accident (in March...really?), an unsuccessful neigborhood exorcism, dog poop, crack heads, handcuffs and projectile vomiting.  And that was all after midnight. Yep...things are back to normal.

Current Favs

(In no particular order)

Publix Diet Green Iced Tea
The Lincoln Lawyer Soundtrack  (listen here)
Napping on the couch with a down comforter on lazy afternoons after playing in the sun
Face-Off on Syfy
Dove Nectarine and White Ginger body spray
Whales...or any sea mammals
http://www.intheircloset.com/  (but not loving the espadrilles)
Cooking documentaries
Panera Bread Co.
Wide leg denim
Citizen Cope
Metallic handbags
Goobers candy
Floppy sun hats
Aviator sun glasses
Ray LaMontagne radio on Pandora
The Honey Badger video...(thanks Jes)...Crazy Nasty-Ass Honey Badger

Yin and Yang...not so much

Today I officially turned on my air conditioning.  The high was 86.  I sat out by the pool and napped and went to the movies with a friend.  I am getting all my relaxation in because it is back to the grindstone tomorrow night.  Time off really is underrated.  To have a certain lifestyle you have to sacrifice and work hard, and I am still working on finding a balance between working and feeling like I am selling my soul and that life is passing me by as I try to get ahead vs. wanting to sell everything and just do yoga and surf and travel.  Ug.  Why isn't this easy?  Why is it so hard to find balance?  I feel like as I get older things are going to get more complicated, not less, and it is slightly terrifying....

Light and Love and Beef Jerky

This morning, after getting up at 5:45 (yes, a.m.) and hauling two bags and one hamper of laundry to my car, driving to the laundry center, unloading the bags an taking them inside the laundry center, separating the colors, putting in 4 loads of laundry ($6), driving back to my apartment, eating oatmeal, driving back to the laundry center, dragging 40 lbs of wet laundry to 4 drying machines (another $6), driving back to my apartment, waiting, driving back to the laundry center and folding, smoothing and tossing anything that didn't needed to be folded back into the garbage bags and hamper, (some still wet, I didn't care at that point) loading it in 3 trips to my car, driving back to my apartment, unloading it in 3 trips to my living room, where it is now sitting in garbage bags, I met my quota of productivity.  Too bad it was only 9am. 

I went back to sleep and since then have been lazing in bed, watching movies. No food has sounded good recently and when I went to the store yesterday, I made the mistake of only buying what sounded good to me at the time: two Economy sized bags of beef jerky and a 12-pack of  diet ginger ale.  Awesome.  Needless to say today I have had ginger ale...and no jerky.  I was all jerky-ed out by yesterday afternoon.  I am an idiot.  

I watched Eat Pray Love.  I think it is good I waited so long to see it after reading the book, otherwise it would have put me in a bad mood.  Book to movie transitions usually do.  I do remember some differences between the two however.  There was no rogue elephant in the book (that I remember), and I liked in the movie how her Brazilian love at the end seemed vulnerable too.  In the book he kind of seemed like a larger-than-life version of Dos Equis' World's Most Interesting Man.  You've seen the commercials. I feel like I could give all kinds of cliche advice to people right now, like: 'Find balance.  Find inner peace.  Love people.  Miss people.  Send them light and love and drop it.  First you must forgive yourself.  Look for signs.  When you lose everything, look for enlightenment.'  Maybe I will try some of these out in the ER.  Somehow I don't think the mentally handicapped prostitute that takes payment in cocaine that is always in for assault would appreciate/understand me advising her to send people light and love...hmmmmm, maybe I will just have to send out my own lightness and love to my patients and hope these people might recognize some goodness and kindness when it is in front of them.  It would be asking way too much for them to appreciate or reciprocate the effort, but that is ok.  I have loads to give.

Existential questions

So glad I have my mom just a phone call away when I need her.  I had a moment of pause today when I took the white bedspread off of my bed to launder and it said "No Bleach".  I was so confused.  I am obsessed with bleaching anything and everything white...especially scrub tops for work.  Mom explained it to me.  Later today I had another existential question: On a scale of zero to Hilary Clinton, how bitchy is it to turn down a potential date based on facebook stalking of him?  I have yet to get a definitive answer on that one.  Emily Post would probably not be impressed.  Whether it was cosmic interference trying to point me in the direction of a clear answer or not, I googled women's etiquette this evening, and came upon her site.  When one lives by one's self and at work is used to eating easily prepared food as fast as humanly possible, I thought it would be a good idea to get a refresher course on table etiquette.  Not that I attend a lot of formal dinners, but some life skillz I think are important to have.  I never really knew what to do with my napkin after a meal.  Now I do.  Blam!  Also, flowers, wine and candy are not considered acceptable gifts to give a hostess because he or she might feel obligated to use them or put them out right away.  Blam again!  Thanks E.P.

Sunday Funday

Today is blustery and chilly.  It's an excellent day to slip into Narnia or Hogwarts.  I wish I had the Inkspell trilogy here.  I decided to stay in bed for as long as possible and eat gummy bears.  That didn't last long before I fell back asleep.  It is so quiet without Banana here.  I am kind of annoyed because before she visited, it had been so long since I had had company that I was used to being by myself all the time.  Now it just seems really really quiet.  I need to get back in the mode of quiet = relaxing, not quiet = lonely.  I can't wait until I am home enough to get a dog.  Mom always said that she thought Sundays were kind of sad, lonely days for some people.  I have always been so busy with school and work that it seems like I never noticed before.  In college I used to go on long walks on Sundays.  Now I get a random Sunday off occasionally and being back on a daytime schedule, I see what she means.  Last night I would have given two of the toes off of my left foot to have been home to have family dinner.

"Love Means Nothing"

This afternoon I wore a sundress and a sun hat and watched a tennis game at a local country club/plantation.  There were even men there with little lobsters embroidered on their khaki shorts, and people walking thoroughbred horses covered in blankets, even though it was 80 degrees out.  Holy cliches. I felt so Southern it was not even funny.  I had a good time though, I don't know if I have ever watched an entire tennis match before.  A friend beside me said that he thought I was just spewing out random deep thoughts when I tried explaining the scoring to him and said "Love means nothing".  He replied "Oh man, I know" and I said "No, like love means zero".  Some people.  Ha ha ha.

Sol y hermanas

Poor Banana.  I am eeking all the Banana-ness out of her I can.  She said she was getting sleepy at the beach today and I threatened to sprinkle cheetos on her if she fell asleep and let the seagulls go at it.  That kept her awake.  I don't want to miss her for a second before I have to.  Not that it has all been rainbows and butterflies...I am pretty sure she wanted to kill me a few times, like when I made her clean the hotel room with me before checkout (I've been a maid...it sucks), or when I forgot our theme park passes (not once, but twice) or my insistence that she not use her salad fork for her steak, but overall it has been grand and she has been a trooper.  Today on the beach we hunted for sand dollars, looked in the tide pools, poked beached jellyfish, petted the dogs being walked and watched the kite boarder and paddle boarder.  It was fantastic.  Sometimes it's the little things...no multi-million dollar lights and special effects, just a day at the beach with some bagels and lots of sunshine, that make life worthwhile. 

Ketchup

So sorry for the delay with these blogs…I wasn’t going to pay $10 a day for internet access while in Orlando.  I wrote every day anyways, but am just posting them now.

Thursday March 17, 2011

We drove back this am.  I am sure going to miss all the little kids in cloaks practicing their swish and flicks though.  Banana looked all week for The Elder Wand…we found Ginny Weasley’s, Dumbledore’s, Ron’s, Harry’s, Voldemort’s (sorry, He Who Must Not Be Named’s) Professor McGonagall’s, etc. etc. but did not see The Elder Wand.  She finally went up and asked at the desk in one of the shops and a little 10-year old standing there all decked out in Harry potter garb looked at Banana and said “Dumbledore’s wand is the Elder Wand!” like Banana was some sort of idiot.  “Oh yeah” Banana replied sheepishly.  I loved being around people even more expert on Harry Potter than we are already.  After naps and showers Banana wants to go out for St. Patrick’s day.  I am going to need a vacation from this vacation.

Wednesday March 16, 2011

We made it to Olivander’s Wand Shop today.  And rode the ride at Hogwarts again…twice.  We figured out that only two questions are needed where we are staying/at Universal Studios…if you were foreign they would be all you needed to learn before venturing there.  They are: How much does it cost? And How long is the line?  The amount of people here is unbelievable.  As phenomenal as Harry Potter World is, we will not miss the crowds.  Tonight we saw The Adjustment Bureau…very good.

7:45 before Hogsmeade Opened

Tuesday March 15, 2011

The ride in Hogwarts blew my mind.  I can’t even describe it.  We learned that a breakfast of Butterbeer and lemon drops followed by roller-coasters is probably not the best idea in the world.  We have been getting up early and going into the park in a big rush when it opens and riding the rides and then getting out of there by noon and napping.  Today we went back in the afternoon to ride the water rides…Jurassic Park and Ripsaw Falls.  So fun.  We had a delicious dinner of coconut shrimp, margaritas, and Cuban sandwiches, then went to see Red Riding Hood (not very good) and enjoyed a leisurely walk back to the hotel.

Monday March 14, 2011

Today was epic.  Hogsmead/Diagon Alley were so cool…the Butterbeer was cold and frothy, the Three Broomsticks was old-looking and drafty, the Flight of the Hippogriff was the favorite roller coaster of the day.  This morning at the Three Broomsticks a waitress asked if we would like our pictures taken.  “Say ‘Butter beer’ on the count of three!” she said, but my hearing isn’t the greatest and I could have sworn she said “Say ‘Predator’”.  Needless to say my face was a little confused and my response a little delayed.  Zonko’s, Honeyduke’s and Dervish and Bang’s were phenomenal.  The pumpkin juice was also very good, like a cinnamon-y cider.  After that we did the Dragon Challenge…Banana chose to ride the Chinese Fireball, and it was epic.  Afterwards, you get off and go through a long cavernous dark passage and there is creepy carnival music playing.  Your center of gravity isn’t quite back to normal yet and it is quite a strange feeling…king of like you are in a parallel universe.  After that we traversed to Jurassic Park Land, Cartoon Land, Superhero Land, and Dr. Seuss landing.  “How could you not have a good time here?” Banana said at one point.  We got caricature drawings of ourselves…not flattering at all, but hilarious, and a photograph with me as Shrek and Banana as Princess  Fiona.  Again, not flattering but I have not laughed that hard in a very long time.  Tomorrow we are getting up early again and going to head straight to Hogwarts…by 9am there was a 4-hour estimated wait-time to get in…so we are heading there first.  Yesssssssssss.

 

Sunday March 13, 2011

The drive down here was uneventful and I am very glad.  Right now we are waiting for room service dinner and are going to go to bed early…Diagon Alley opens up at 8am sharp…and we have breakfast reservations at The Three Broomsticks at 8:30.  I can almost taste the Butter beer.  We listened to The Sorcerer’s Stone in preparation on the drive down.

Still too excited to sleep

It's 3:03am.  I hate being nocturnal sometimes.  The urge for me to poke Banana sleeping next to me and wake her up so we could talk wedding stuff and watch movies and do nails was getting so strong, I had to get up and leave the room.

Yesterday everything with her flights went swimmingly...she might have even arrived a little early!  I am so thankful.  It's not a good way to start out a vacation, late, grumpy, hungry and tired.  After I picked her up we drove through Savannah, jamming out to Free Energy  (I love them...listen to Bang Pop here), looking at the beautiful old houses.  She was leaning out the window like an excited puppy yelling things like:  "Painted brick!", "Antebellum columns!", "Ivy-covered walls!", "Fire-places in every room!".  She gets excited about architecture and design, in case you couldn't tell.  "I bought some magazines at the airport." She told me nonchalantly as we were driving along. "Oh good!" I said, thinking I would catch up on my celebrity babies and who wore what.  "Which ones?" I asked. "I bought Veranda and Southern Homes!" she exclaimed. "Oh...cool?" Ha ha ha. Then we went out to dinner, (she drank all of my sweet tea, of course, and ordered water for herself) and then came home and after briefly looking a pictures on facebook of friend's weddings and babies, we were out.  It was approximately 7pm.

I can't wait for her to wake up.

Thuper Exthited

I have been up since 5 this am.  I am so excited I can't sleep.  Want to know why??  My sister gets here this afternoon!!!  I am so happy because her getting here means I get to be with family and my own vacation starts as well.  I will keep my fingers and toes crossed all her flights go on schedule and there are no ridiculous delays.  I need a vacation.  I need to be reunited with my Banana.  She needs a break from classes.  Harry Potter World needs visiting.  It all works out beautifully.  If all goes according to plan, I will be picking her up in approximately 6 hours. 

Time is all relative

I think I experienced the longest 15 minutes in the history of La-kind last night (not humankind, just in my own personal experience: La-kind).  Here was the scenario: Elderly man on a hospital stretcher, unconscious, making irregular gasping breaths with longer and longer pauses in-between, while his wife of 47 years is leaning next to him, holding his hand and smoothing his hair back, speaking softly to him in German, crying, as I, the other nurses and doctor watch his heart rate slowly, slowly fade to nothing; not a sound in the cold room except the slowing beeps of his heart rate  Having to watch a patient slowly die is agonizing, but it is even worse when you have to witness someone alive and well that loves that person dearly witnessing it.  Of course there is sadness when a John Doe dies, but when John Doe has a family it is a billion times worse.  Overall, after all our attempts, after three hours of life-saving interventions, when his wife asked us to stop, it couldn't have taken 15 minutes for his heart to quit beating. Only fifteen minutes, but while watching that monitor with his heart activity on it slowly fade to a straight line with a heart rate of zero with his wife crying over him, I feel like I aged 30 years. 

Vent

I am going to vent.  About one thing.  That's all.  Ok, here goes: The other night I had a patient.  When I asked for her medical history, in the privacy of her hospital room, no one else around, she said "I have a [sic] infection".  "Okaaaaay" I replied, "where is this infection?".  "My whole body" she said.  "I'm sorry ma'am, but could you be a little more specific?  Is this like a cold?  A yeast infection?  How long have you had it?  Who diagnosed it?" I asked, obviously trying to dig a little deeper.  At that point she got huffy and mad and just kept repeating "It's in my whole body!".  "Does this infection have a name?" I asked. "No, it's just a [sic] infection" she said.  So in my nursing notes under the medical history I ended up putting in quotations "PT STATES SHE HAS AN INFECTION IN WHOLE BODY".  'Whatever' I thought.  Later, a source informed me that she was HIV+.  At that point I got really irritated.  Why would you intentionally withhold that information from people who #1 are trying to help you and #2 will come in contact with your bodily fluids that carry the disease??  She was obviously aware of the disease.  I just don't get it.  This is not the first time I have had patients that refuse to tell or admit to the doctors and/or nurses that they have HIV or AIDs, and if they are not telling us, then they are definitely not telling other people in their daily lives who should be concerned.  I don't know how many HIV+ patients with STD's I have treated.  I understand there is a stigma, and I understand not making it publicly known, but when health care professionals are trying to help you and will be exposed to the virus, wouldn't it seem like common courtesy to just say when asked about your medical history "I am HIV+"??  Or, heaven help them, the people these people are being intimate with while not using protection??  Stupidity is what is killing off people, not diseases.  People can be soooo frustrating.  Ok.  I am finished.  Thank you.

King Cake, tropical islands and mutant monkeys

So I experienced King Cake last night at work for the first time in my life.  I had to ask what it was.  Apparently Mardi Gras is a big deal here. "It's a sweet dough with cream cheese and cinnamon filling with a baby hidden in it" I was told.  Sold.  You had me at cream cheese and baby.  It was most excellent and I think I am going to carry on the tradition of the King Cake every year, no matter where I am.  The company that made the particular King Cake that I tasted had a trillion different flavors and sends them all over the country for any occasion.  See here for their website.  Yum.  If you find the baby that is cooked into it you are insured good luck and well-being for the remainder of the year, and are also responsible for supplying the cake next year.  I didn't find the baby.

Right now I am obsessed with the Bonin Islands.  I think I would like to be stranded on the Bonin Islands with a good looking guy who knows his way around a rainforest and we could drink water out of coconuts and get tan and discover hidden inlets and grill fish on a spit and live in a bamboo hut.  Apparently they are very remote and mosty untouched by humans.  Cool.  I imagine we would look something like a Michael Kors ad, or like dirty mutant monkeys.

PS - Speaking of mutant monkeys, a friend promised me that we could take her boat out this summer so I could lay eyes on the mysterious Monkey Island...an island off the coast here that is owned by the US government where monkeys run wild and are routinely captured and taken for medical/pharmaceutical testing.  Right now I am imagining those monkeys from The Wizard of Oz with bigger fangs and genetic mutations.  I am assured that that is not the case however.  It is deliciously horrifying though, to imagine those mutant monkeys swimming across to the main land and wreaking havoc on the citizens of the islands....Apparently if anyone goes near the island by boat, the monkeys freak out and head for the heart of the island.  I can just imagine them sitting around the campfire at night explaining to the little ones, "Avoid the boats and the men with nets, because if they catch you, you leave the island and never come back."  I don't know why I am getting such a kick out of this, it is actually kind of disturbing.  Oh well, I will think about more King Cake before I fall asleep to insure sweet dreams ; ).  See below for a candid shot of me on one of the Bonin Islands with my guide aka the Michael Kors ad.  Pretty accurate, right?  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha aha ha ha ha .

A million miles a minute

Sometimes my brain moves really fast and I fixate on something and get really into it and then a week later I will be over it and on to something new.  I think it is a sign of higher intelligence.  Whatever my fixations are they are dramatic.  Kind of like the time I went down to register for college pre-freshman year and came home and told my parents I had declared a pre-veterinary science major.  What?  The man I marry will have to be able to humor me and keep up when I am ready for an adventure.  Last week it was surfing in Central America.  This week it is French pastry school.  Next week who knows....I did find a job opening at The Atlantis in the Bahamas for marine life manager....Today I watched a documentary called Pastry Kings about the Meilleur Ouvrier de France competition in Lyon held every four years to determine the best French pastry craftsmen.  It was incredible!!  If I happen upon $22,000, I am going to use it to go to the French Pastry School in Chicago, where the curriculum includes chocolate, sorbet, petit fours, breads, and sugar sculpture, and some of the staff are MOF winners.  I decided also that I am going to have a cream puff wedding cake.  Google-image that, it is a tower of cream puffs and looks muy delicioso.  I think my ideal job would be me traveling around the world meeting people and trying new things, how fabulous would that be?  I could get my bucket list done in one year!

My Current Favorites

- Parks and Recreation tv show
- Strawberry Kiwi Lemonade Sobe
- Diprotodons
- Benefit Luminescent High Beam complexion enhancer - it's magical
- Documentaries
- Rimmel Marine Blue nail polish for toes
- Being honest
- Days when my upstairs neighbor does NOT do her dance cardio workout that shakes my light fixtures so I can sleep
- Knowing my sister will be here THIS week
- Breakfast for dinner!

nothing new

We get new badges at work tonight.  Here is to hoping my picture turns out ok...

When I grow up...

I would like at some point in my life have/do the following:

1) Have my own vegetable garden
2) Have a horse to ride whenever I want
3) Climb Kilimanjaro
4) Fall in love
5) Hold a koala


That is all I can think of right now.  Good night.

PS - Mom and dad, I am feeling dramatic. I will try not to act irrationally.  My dramatic thoughts are centering around selling everything and moving to a foreign country.  We will discuss this when I wake up.  The feeling may or may not be passed at that point.  Be ready.  I am forewarning you.

Ramblin' thoughts

Spring is here...I can't believe it!  The trees are blooming, the grass is turning green, my heat has been off for at least 2 weeks...this is so different from Springtime in Wyoming.  They are still having sub-zero weather and blizzards.  Trees might start blooming by the end of May there.  I love having a long Fall and Spring.  Beautimous. 

I watched Shutter Island yesterday (yesternight).  I really liked it.  The end turned everything on its head and I am still thinking about it, I think I need to watch it again. 

I discovered my favorite/easiest meal for work.  I heat up a bag of jasmine rice, cut up an avocado, cherry tomatoes and sometimes black beans and mix it all together with a little Sri Racha sauce...it is soooo gooood.  I need to figure out something for dinner tonight...I didn't make it to the grocery store before work this week, but I did finally do my laundry.  Too often dinner ends up being graham crackers and ginger ale and a bagel from the doctor's lounge if I am extremely lucky.  I hate planning meals ahead of time.

A few nights ago a co-worker and I went to the Savannah area to have dinner with a friend.  On the way back it was dark and we were talking and there was a lot of traffic.  After a little bit I thought "this trip home is taking forever!", and that is about the time my co-worker pointed out that I had missed our exit from the interstate by approximately 23 exits.  Awesome.  I have driven that road over 30 times...maybe my "spirit free" daiquiri at dinner wasn't so "spirit free".

I am keeping my fingers crossed that I do not wake up with pink eye.  A toddler pooted RIGHT in my face while I was trying to get her hospital ID band on her last night.  Good thing she was cute and didn't know any better, it really isn't as cute when adults do it to you.

Sweet dreams.

The College Years: First date...La style

I was just laying in bed trying to sleep.  I can't remember what made me think of it, but I was reminiscing about the first time the boy I liked in college and I hung out off-campus, a pseudo first-date if you will, and I had to get up and write it down...so funny and un-fabulous and 100% La.  I think I was thinking about broken noses, and that is what reminded me of it.

     I was 18, and had met this super-cute guy through some friends.  He was tall and funny, and on the football team, and I was smitten. A bunch of us planned to go sledding with inner-tubes in the mountains one weekend, and I was really looking forward to it.  When the day came, I packed up all my winter stuff and headed to his dorm room to meet him and his roommate and some other friends to drive up the mountain.  Something came up, and his roommate couldn't go, so just he and I and some other kid from his floor drove up in the mountains to a good sledding hill.  I really wanted to impress this boy and look dazzling, so I had worn eyeliner and mascara...(who wears that sledding?  I learned my lesson).  We had one huge inner-tube that all three of us decided to sit in/on for the first run of the day.  One person in the middle, and one on each side.  I was on the side to avoid getting squished.  He and the other kid that went with us were probably 500 lbs combined, really big guys, and the weight dispersion wasn't exactly equal.  So we get situated and take off and of course within the first half a second I bounce off.  The inner-tube spins around and the next thing I know someone has gotten a hold of my head and is dragging me face-down, down the mountain alongside the inner-tube.  I can't get loose, I can't breathe, I am in pain and I am being dragged and dragged and dragged.  Finally we lose momentum and come to a stop...and I am in tears.  I have massive amounts of mascara and tears running down my face, snow chunks in my hair, and a bloody nose that has run all down the front of me and wont stop.  "Why did you drag me!?" I screamed at the boy.  "I was helping you! I was holding you clear so we didn't run you over!" he replied. "You just held my head down and drug me down the entire mountain face-down!" I cried. I was angry and humiliated and in pain and had nothing to stem the flow of my bloody nose, we were in the middle of the wilderness during Winter.  After sticking snow chunks up my nose and him graciously offering me his pocket-liners to wipe the blood and running mascara off of my face (I was dazzling, I am sure of it), I declined any more sledding that day. The boy must have really felt sorry for me because he dated me for four years after that.
     At the time it was a nightmare, but now I think it was hilarious.  I wish someone had been filming so I could see my 18-year old self being drug down the mountain face-down alongside two giants in a spinning inner-tube.  None of this romantic first kiss after dinner while looking at the stars on a first date...my style is a little more dramatic.  Blood, tears, mascara, screaming and crying...hey, to each their own.  I am smiling remembering it, and that is all that matters, right?

Summer Bucket List

This summer is going to be the best ever.  I am making a bucket list.  Read it and just try to tell me it wont be amazing.
La's Summer 2011 Bucket List  (In no particular order)

1) Deep sea fishing
2) Beach Beach Beach
3) Lay eyes on the infamous Monkey Island
4) Night kayaking to see glow-in-the-dark algae
5) Beach house rental with girlfriends on Folly Beach
6) Beach house rental with family
7) Learn how to make the best grits ever
8) Beach camping (with hammocks)
9) Concerts in Charleston
10) Sand Gnats/Riverdogs Minor League Baseball games
11) Watch a sunrise on the beach
12) Celebrate my 25th birthday!!
13) Charleston Battery Professional soccer games

I am sure I will be adding more to this list...