I really shouldn't complain

Do you ever feel like something is passing you by? I feel very blessed and fortunate for everything I have. For my husband, my family, my friends, my home, my entire life situation, I cannot (or shouldn't) complain.

I am even blessed to live in Sunny California where I never have to worry about weather ruining my plans for the day. But sometimes, I just want it to rain. I want my plans to be ruined because of rain. All day today it teased me making wish and pray that it would rain. I'm not asking for much. I just want a steady rain. Maybe even some sprinkles. I was excited to wake up and see a cloudy sky and learn that it had rained lightly through the night. Some parts of the sky were darker than others, but then I realized that the sky right above us was always the least likely to rain. It seems that the 2 mile radius around our house is the last place to get any rain. All around were dark, rain looking clouds, but right above us was pretty blue or light overcast grey. The rain clouds never came and just passed us by. Grrr!

Now watch, it will be raining on my way to work tomorrow and I won't be able to enjoy the rain. There is something about the hospital that feels like a vacuum. The world could be ending outside and the only way I would know is if they were sending the overflow of wounded to my floor and I wouldn't be able to get any of my patients to CT or MRI. So I don't count it as a successful rain if it rains on the days I work or at night when I can't hear it.

Initiative 957

Have you heard about initiative 957 in Washington? This article explains it pretty well:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003558717_nokids06m.html

At first I thought, "Whose crazy idea is it to make it a law that you must have children after 3 years of marriage or your marriage would no longer be valid?" Then I looked into it and realized that they aren't as serious about the initiative being passed as they are serious about proving a point. They are trying to prove that a court ruling saying homosexual couples could not be married because they are unable to procreate. Therefore they are saying that procreation is the only reason for a marriage and therefore anyone not having children within 3 years of marriage, would no longer be married. Who decided on three years? I guess its because, as if the initiative isn't crazy enough, 3 years is even more of a crazy statement. Based on this initiative, our almost 5 year marriage would be invalid. Crazy!

Happy Valentine's Day

Unfortunately I have to work tomorrow (Valentine's Day). The nice thing is we've been celebrating Valentine's Day for a few weeks now thanks to me. Let me explain...

Nathan told me at the end of January that he was excited about the gift he had gotten me for Valentine's and said it would be coming in the mail in the next week. About a week later, a package arrived from thinkgeek.com. I was curious to see what Nathan had gotten off of this geeky website. So I opened it. Inside was the shirt shown above. As soon as I saw the pink chocolate molecule, I knew it was for me. I thought, "How cute, Nathan randomly bought me a gift." So, I decided to wash it and put it on so I would be wearing it when he came home. He walks in the door, chuckles and says "I see you found your Valentine's Day gift" Oops.

An Inconvenient Truth

We finally saw "The Inconvenient Truth." If you are confused about global warming and the effects it can have and has already had, I highly recommend it. I have never seen anything that puts it into a more simple, yet intellectual explanation.

Instead of plugging in my laptop to make this a most perfect post, I will keep this post short and save energy by letting the battery die.

You Get What You Pay For

We have been wanting to purchase a new toaster oven for awhile. We finally decided this week to get one. This way Nathan could take our old one to work and have more options for lunch. We searched around and found one at Target that was on clearance. The price was extremely good, it was larger, had two racks inside, was deeper, and had a timer. It seemed too good to be true, but because it was what we wanted and half of what we wanted to pay, we went for it.

We got it home, plugged it in, and gave it a whirl. Then we figured out why it was on clearance. There is a power light that obviously tells you when it is on and working. Above that power light are the letters "poewr." Love it!

The Small Stuff

Working as a pediatric oncology nurse, I have big things to get excited about; Someone goes into remission. Another one completes their treatment. Someone finds a bone marrow transplant donor. These are the obviously big, exciting things. Then there are the little things that are just as exciting in the moment. For example, when a patient the other day was having abdominal pain. I knew he hadn't stooled in 2 days, so I convinced him to sit on the toilet and try. He had a HUGE success (if you know what I mean). I was excited because it was a basic thing that made the discomfort go away.

Then yesterday, I admitted a little baby for anemia, fevers and vomiting. They ordered a nasopharyngeal wash (flushing your nasal passage with saline and aspirating it back out to send it for a culture) They also ordered a urine culture by placing a urinary catheter to collect a sterile specimen since a little baby can't do a "clean catch" in a cup. These are two of my least favorite things to do, so I was neither excited nor eager to get them done. However, I wanted to get them done before night shift arrived because I would not want this passed on to me. So, I had two nurses help hold. The nasopharyngeal wash went smoothly. Then came the catheter. I set up my sterile field, the other two were holding her in position. I cleaned the area, and as I'm reaching for the catheter, she starts to urinate in a perfect, beautiful arch. So, we placed the specimen cup under the stream and we got our "clean catch" sample without needing to put the catheter in!! This seriously made my day. And even though she isn't aware, she made her own day being that she didn't have to go through the trauma of having a catheter! I love getting excited over the small stuff.

Flannel

It has been cold here (for California, anyway.) Our house has tile and wood floor throughout, so it is always just a little chillier than you would expect. So, Nathan convinced me to try flannel sheets. I laughed at him saying flannel sheets are completely unnecessary where we live. However, I found some that were on sale and put them on our bed last night.

Now I will admit to everyone. I was wrong. Flannel sheets are necessary. I pulled back the covers to get in last night and the sheets were warm. I didn't have to stay in one spot to warm them up. When I turned in the middle of the night, I didn't have to warm my new spot. Then, this morning, I didn't want to get out of bed. I can't wait to go to bed tonight!

Life is a Highway

I took care of a 3 year old the last couple days. I asked her this afternoon if she wanted to go to the playroom because they would be closing in an hour and I knew she liked being in there. She started to get off her bed, when she said "wait, let me hear my song first" She was watching the movie Cars and started to sing along to "Life is a Highway" Except, she did that cute little kid thing, (I occassionally do this as well) where they mumble the entire sentence and then the last couple words of the phrase are all you understand. ie. " Li isa iway, aw wanari ial night long" I don't need to tell you that it was absolutely adorable.

A good drive thru story

Some things I just can't keep to myself. Things like this make me chuckle and I have to share. It's these kinds of stories that I love and will probably always remember.

I freely admit that I am a dork. Sometimes more than others, but I am a dork. Nathan and I both wanted different things for dinner. I wanted Rubios fish tacoes and Nathan was happy with something from Del Taco. They are both in the same shopping center. Nathan stayed home and I went to get the food. I went into Rubios and was feeling lucky that there was a parking spot nearby. I went in and went straight to the register and ordered, my food was ready by the time I gathered my salsas. This was going quickly and I was excited because I just wanted to get back home and spend some time with Nathan. I went back to the car and got in the Drive thru for Del Taco. I ordered as I was the only one in line once again. Paid the lady at the window. Said "thank you" and drove off. As I turned right onto the street, I put my hand over for the bag of food as I always do to make sure it doesn't tip over and it wasn't there! Crazy me, I drove off without Nathan's food!! So, in all the traffic, I drove around the block and went back.

Cold food is a small price to pay for a good story.

Weather or not?

I have been in California now for seven years. I wonder when there won't be a trace of "Minnesota girl" left. There must be plenty left in me because in the last week, I have had a lot of reminders.

One of our Drs. received a page, looked at the number, and said where is 507? Everyone else is looking at each other confused as to what he is asking. I said the first thing that came to my mind: "That's the area code for Rochester, MN" He still looked puzzled. I said "the Mayo Clinic is there." Then it clicked for him.

At work most everyone knows I am not originally from California. The only people that remember exactly what state I'm from are from another state themselves. (i.e. Illinois, South Dakota) Everyone else (that would be all the native Californians) always say, "where are you from again? Somewhere back east, right?"

So it came as no surprise to me at lunch the other day when the conversation turned to how cold it's been. Someone talked about an ice storm "back east" They couldn't imagine how in the world it could rain ice. Of course, I had to tell the "Angi story" of a rain storm we had one year where the bus actually slid right past our house and couldn't stop. We didn't go to school that day. I also tried to explain what its like to have your car sitting outside in an ice storm causing the locks, doors and windows to be iced shut, having to litterally break into your car.

Then, I could not have been more excited this morning. I almost slipped on a sheet of ice! (I almost wish I had, it would have made a better story) The rest of the sidewalk was clear (as always) except for a large part of a driveway where water had frozen and still hadn't melted. I had forgotten what it was like to really watch your step.

I cannot believe I created a post talking about weather. I guess there will always a part of me that is Minnesota.

We should have gone to LA

Clear your calendars for the next hour, this is going to be a long one.

We have had a great week of relaxng around the house. We have not been very productive at all, but that is not what I want to write about. Today we felt like we should get out of the house, but didn't want to spend a lot of money. We were going to drive to LA and see the movie "Children of Men." For various reasons, we decided not to.

One of the things we've been doing this week is watching the first season of the tv show "Arrested Development." We wanted to watch the second season and instead of buying it, we decided to rent just the first disk. We went to Blockbuster, discovered that our account hasn't been used in so long that it doesn't exist. So, the worker led us over to the counter where you can apply for a Blockbuster card, we fill out the form, go back over to the cash register to turn in the form. He takes us back over to the "application registration" counter, enters our information in to the computer, then he says we can go over to the register to rent the movie. We go over there and 10 seconds later, the same guy appears behind the counter and helps us. Nathan and I gave eachother a look and tried to hide our smiles because it reminded us of something you would see in an episode of Seinfeld.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go see the moive "Blood Diamond" We parked our car and are walk through the parking lot. A man riding his bike turns toward us and no joke, spits right at us!! (He apologized on his way by) But still...nasty!!

Maybe we should have gone to LA afterall.

Look what the wind blew in

You are not going to believe this. We have had some extremely gusty winds all day. Here's proof. The pictures speak for themselves. One of them is of our neighbor's wooden fence that blew down. That wasn't too unbelievable. The other one is the wall on the side of our yard that the construction down below put up. Supposedly there wasn't any cement in the wall.

Christmas Dinner

I heard a joke from one of my patients the other day. "Why did the teddy bear not eat any Christmas dinner?" .... ready? "Because he was already stuffed!"

That is me today. We went over to someone's for Christmas dinner. It was just 4 of us, but judging by the food you would have thought it was one of my famly reunions. (actually, not even those have this much food!) When we first got there, she gave us sweet potato pie (to tie us over 'til dinner) Then, when we were done with that, we had a pecan/walnut pie. Then, she gave us a piece of peach cobbler. Then a huge glass of sparkling apple cider filled up mutliple times.

Then came dinner. We started with a shirmp cocktail. The dinner consisted of ham, turkey, twice baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberries, rolls and a lemon soup with rice.

I am afraid I will still be stuffed for our Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow.

U.S. Geography lesson

How well do you know the states? I think I scored 84% Although in my defense, I was always pretty close, usually only 1 or two states away. Good luck! Just click on the title, it's a link.

New Blogger

I finally updated to the new blogger which makes it a ton easier to change various settings. Bear with me as I figure out what I like and don't like. I kept changing it and I now need to leave it and come back to it with a fresh look. Suggestions are welcome:)

We had a great weekend. We had a Christmas party last night with various friends. I ate way too much. People brought some aweseome food. Papa Murphey's pizza, tomales, and many sweet things. Nathan baked 3D gingerbread cookes that were pretty good. I was excited because I love cheeseball and it is a tradition in my family to have it for Christmas. I made a cheeseball look like a snowman with three balls and then using black peppercorns for his eyes and buttons. Then I cut the very tip of a baby carrot for his nose. It was seriously adorable. I also added some cayenne pepper to the recipe which I have never done before and I liked it.

Then, today...
Our unit sponsors a patient's family every Christmas. Everone signs up to buy various gifts for the family. I went with a few other people from our unit to deliver the presents to the family this morning. It was fun to see our little patient in his house, in his environment instead of ours. For about a year he was in all the time. Now he is 3 years old and he barely recognized us. (I think this is a good thing) He even has a head of hair!! I hardly recognized him when I walked into the house.

Then Nathan and I went over to his new office and cleaned like crazy. There are 4 offices in one area that are all his. They are full of tons of junk that has accumulated over years. We only finished one office and I will hopefully be able to help him clean up the rest of them over Christmas break.

Teary eye problem solved

I am super excited! My SCUBA goggles got some use today for the first time since our certification. I had a ton of onions that needed to get used. So...I decided to make french onion soup. I was not looking forward to cutting 6-7 onions and I didn't feel like pulling out the food processor because I had to use the knife to cut the skins anyway. So...I went into the closet, pulled out the goggles and wore them the entire time I cut the onions. It worked beautifully! Not a single tear.

The Holiday

We just saw the movie The Holiday. I liked it and it was entertaining. I even got a little teary-eyed. I just read something saying that it was this year's Love Actually, but I don't agree. I loved Love Actually. The flow of the movie was perfect, the multiple characters all intertwined was fantastic, the music made the movie drive forward and gain enthusiasm.

The Holiday was a nice story and the acting was good. However, I felt like the movie was unbalanced. There were basically 2 story lines and the movie focused on one more than the other. There wasn't really a climax and the only "twist" was kind of a minor one.

It sounds like I'm tearing it apart, but I'm not. I enjoyed it, but it was no Love Actually.

High School Never Ends

When I first heard this song, I loved it! I was reminded of it today as I was waiting at the pharmacy for a pain patch for Dolores. On the table were three magazines. All of them were the entertainment gossip magazines, not a Readers' Digest, Good Housekeeping or Time, so this song popped into my head and I have been humming it all evening.

This song has a strange way of putting my priorities in order.

by Bowling for Soup

Four years you think for sure
ThatÂ’s all you've got to endure
All the total dicks
All the stuck up chicks
So superficial, so immature
Then when you graduate
You take a look around and you say HEY WAIT
This is the same as where I just came from
I thought it was over
Aw thatÂ’s just great

The whole d*** world is just as obsessed
With who‘s the best dressed and who‘s having s**,
Who‘s got the money, who gets the hunnie's,
Who‘s kinda cute and who‘s just a mess
And you still donÂ’t have the right look
And you donÂ’t have the right friends
Nothing changes but the faces, the names, and the trends
High school never ends

Check out the popular kids
YouÂ’ll never guess what Jessica did
How did Mary Kate lose all that weight
And Katie had a baby so I guess TomÂ’s straight
And the only thing that matters
Is climbing up that social ladder
Still care about your hair and the car you drive
DoesnÂ’t matter if youÂ’re sixteen or thirty-five

Reese Witherspoon,
SheÂ’s the prom queen
Bill Gates,
Captain of the chess team
Jack Black, the clown
Brad Pitt, the quarterback
Seen it all before
I want my money back

The whole d*** world is just as obsessed
With whoÂ’s the best dressed and whoÂ’s having s**,
WhoÂ’s in the clubs and whoÂ’s on the drugs,
WhoÂ’s throwing up before they digest
And you still donÂ’t have the right look
And you donÂ’t have the right friends
And you still listen to the same s*** you did back then
High school never ends

High school never ends

The whole d*** world is just as obsessed
With who‘s the best dressed and who‘s having s**,
Who‘s got the money, who gets the hotties,
Who‘s kinda cute and who‘s just a mess
And I still donÂ’t have the right look
And I still have the same three friends
And IÂ’m pretty much the same as I was back then
High school never ends

High school never ends

High school never ends

Here we go again

ELLEN

I love watching Ellen. Nathan surprised me by getting 2 tickets to a taping. That taping was today. I had invited my friend, Rachel, to go with me. We've been excited about it ever since. Today was the day. We left about 6:15am and drove to Burbank. Of course with morning traffic we didn't get there until 8:30am, which we thought would be fine since the gate where the line begins wasn't supposed to open until 8:30. Well, I should have known better, but there was already a line by the time we got there. We were hopeful and continued to wait until 11:00 when they started handing out the tickets. (its first come first served and they overbook) We were told all the tickets for the audience were gone and we were still hopeful for the Riff Raff room. We were about 20-30 people away when they announced that even the Riff Raff room was full. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

We still had a great day hanging out. We went to lunch, did a little shopping and I got a lot done around the house after being gone for 2 weeks.

Small world

I have been on many planes in the last two weeks. One trip to MD was planned to visit my sister. The other trip was unplanned to attend my grandma's funeral in MN. JetBlue to MD was a positive experience. (as always) They told me I was their favorite customer and that I look good in leather. They even gave us a little kit since we were on the Redeye flight with lip balm, lotion, earplugs and an eye mask (that eye mask came in extremely handy later in my trip) My trip to MN was uneventful. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in MN. My flight from MN to Denver again uneventful. However, snow in Denver caused my flight to be delayed. I used the restroom (Denver's restrooms are nice and clean and actually smell good, by the way) I passed someone I recognized by sink. As I was walking away, I figured out it was one of the neurosurgeons from my hospital. I walk to my gate, discover my flight is delayed, and notice that one of the few chairs available was next to this neurosurgeon. So, I go over and introduce myself and we had a nice conversation while waiting for our plane. It's a small, small world.