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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

my girl.



Before flying home on Monday, I spent the day in Tampa with Kate and Rhonda. I couldn't believe how much she had grown up in just 6 months! We went to the aquarium and got lost in conversation all afternoon. It was so fabulous spending the day with them! =)

my platonic bestie.

It was ultra fabulous getting to see lots of old friends when I was home, you know the type that you know you will have fun with regardless of what you're doing just because you are together!? In particular, it was super exciting to spend time with Jordan. Last Christmas, we celebrated his new job and when he left Gainesville, I was incredibly sad about the 3 hour drive between us. This Christmas, we celebrated an engagement and I left Florida even more sad about the 4 hour direct flight between us now that I moved out to LA. Of all the changes that have happened in the past year, one thing that hasn't changed is the pictures we take when we drink wine together.... i heart my platonic bestie.


Saturday, December 27, 2008

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

dirty santa.

Every Christmas Eve, the Hallams host a fabulous gathering called "dirty santa". I have been so very lucky to be included in the tradition the past two years. This year, I went home with a book entitled "How to Traumatize Your Children", Taylor received a Richard Nixon plate and Tammy got post cards with adorable animals adorned with awesome messages like "I'm sleeping with your best friend". Some families bake cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve; I'm glad I've been adopted into the family that spends it laughing over absurdity.









Monday, December 15, 2008

wishful thinking.

There's no place like home!
There's no place like home!
There's no place like home!

Monday, December 08, 2008

cardinals.




tailgating with the girlfriends at the cardinals game in phoenix over the weekend...

Friday, December 05, 2008

i can do anything for two years.

It's a rarity to find your traditional "feeder/growers" in my neonatal unit. I was super excited the other night to get my hands on a baby stable enough to be held. Most nights I am titrating drips to maintain adequate blood pressures, increasing oxygenation to normalize blood gases or starting IVs to gain additional access to our tiny babies (I've successfully started three in the past 2 weeks!). I don't think a NICU exists quite like Children's Hospital's anywhere else. I've seen the rarest disease processes (babies without brains), cared for the sickest/smallest micropreemies (weighing less than a pound), and even made my first trip to the morgue the other night... At times, my job is incredibly challenging but the knowledge I'm gaining will be so valuable to the rest of my career. I can do anything for two years, right Megalina?

Monday, December 01, 2008

orphaned feast.


The day after Thanksgiving, one of my friends from Gainesville who works at UCLA as a nurse invited me over for an orphaned feast. Her mom was here visiting and cooked an incredible meal for all of us "orphans". She even DVR'ed the Macy's Parade and played it while we indulged in in dinner. =)

Saturday, November 29, 2008

he's just not that into you.

Book Review:  In his #1 NY Times Bestseller, Greg Behrendt appears to be some kind of  love guru summing up the answers to all the questions I have had recently about the opposite sex. Showing a general understanding for how girls tend to interpret male behavior, his straight-forward yet encouraging connotation (giving you the advice to move on while simultaneously making you almost feel sorry the pathetic creatures) leaves no gray areas for excusing typical male behavior or allowing hopeless romantics to give guys the benefit of the doubt. Its like h.j.n.t.i.y. should be some type of modern day manual that every guy can reference to and say "i will break your heart like page 42 and this is how you can get over it". I read h.j.n.t.i.y. in one afternoon by the pool and now whenever anyone comes to me looking for advice about guys, I tell them that I wish I knew why your boyf of 2 years woke up one day and decided he didn't love you and never has or why the guy you met on match.com won't return your texts and then politely refer them to this book... I laughed when I recently received this email from a girl I met at a neonatal didactic: 
Hey Jocelyn! How are you? How's work? I just wanted to let you know that I've read that book "He's Just Not That Into You." It definitely made me laugh and sympathize with many of the girls' stories. Thank you so much for the suggestion to read it! I've already passed it on to a friend of mine! =) You remember that guy I was telling you about ... it didn't work out in the end after all! I suppose you were right all along! I guess I just wanted it to work out too much. Thanks for all of your advice!  
Can you imagine me... a real relationship expert... giving applicable advice about love? If she only knew the emotional entanglements I got myself into with the opposite sex!! Maybe I'll abandon my original thoughts of writing an empowering memoir and write a No-Excuse Truth to Understanding Girls instead...

happiness.

He puts the happy in her ness.

Friday, November 28, 2008

gobble til ya wobble!

This Thanksgiving we gave our thanks and spent our giving with twelve of our friends orphaned in LA this holiday! Colleagues of mine, cousins, actors, a friend from college, the three girls Carly lived with before I got out here and even Carly's sister, Taylor, came to our place for a fabulous feast! We ate lots of good food. We played games. We drank boxed wine. We had lovely weather so we took advantage of being one of only places celebrating Thanksgiving that you could eat outside and brought our home-cooked meal to our community courtyard; it was the perfect day! 

turkey day in tinsel town.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

megan, the intern.



On our way down through California, Grams and I stopped in San Francisco to visit Megan, who was finishing her final segment of her Event Management Major - an internship with Rita Bareles Production. She chose to intern in SanFran after vacationing there a couple of summers ago and completely falling in love with the city! She works in a sweet warehouse and was even given this awesome desk to organize her events at. She became quite the local, navigating the Barte with no apprehensions and joining a cheerleading team that introduced her to a network of people, ones I like to call "No on Prop8-ers". She planned several fabulous events including a 3/4 of a million dollar budget wedding in a vineyard in Napa Valley and a 60th birthday party in which all the attendants received a bobble head of the birthday boy! She finished up her last week and is now back in Florida where she graduates in December. Congratulations!! I'm so proud of you, Megan! 

Monday, November 24, 2008

bulletin.

Bulletin: It pays to be a NURSE in Dauphin, Manitoba
 Receive Up to 20,000 (which with the exchange rate is about half that with this economy)
If you are a BN and would like to relocate to a country setting with a city lifestyle (city lifestyle? really?! last time i checked, no movie theatre, no high speed, not a single franchised clothing store and roughly 9,000 people did not constitute a city lifestyle... but they got the country setting bit right!), think of Dauphin, MB.
Dauphins offers affordable living and was named One of Canada's Top 10 Adventure Towns by Explore Magazine (yes! it sure is an adventure trying to drive icy roads in the winter, winter being 10 months out of the year. It is an adventure making it out of the grocery store in less than an hour without stopping in every isle to talk to someone you know. And my, the adrenaline rush I get from going for coffee trying to think of something to talk about other than people...)

I died laughing when I received this clipping in the mail from Grams today! I adore Dauphin and all it has to offer in small increments throughout the years but relocate there? ... your sense of humor is killing me, Grams. =)

countryfest.


The one adventure in Dauphin I am definitely looking forward to is the 20 year anniversary of Country Fest next summer!! Counting down the days to be double fisting paralyzers with my favorite Canadians again .... the line up is looking pretty spectacular!

lily elle place

lily elle place
Born: November 21, 2008 
7 lb. 1 oz.
21 inches

Welcome to this world, little One, it is even now, that much better because you are Here. 

i heart men on skates with sticks.

Carly and I ventured north Saturday night to catch (almost) an entire hockey game when Mitchell and David played each other... we stuck out like sore thumbs in Bakersfield, CA: "Better than Before" ... but it was entertaining none-the-less. I laughed (at the absurdity of the sport), I cried (when a certain someone got into a fight), I got all warm and fuzzy inside (because I can't help it) and I even froze to death (for wearing shorts)... =) Underneath my red coat is this fabulous shirt my ultra cool Auntie Paulette designed all by herself and turned into a little tshirt company ... I stole this picture of Kara and her roommate at a hockey game in Knoxville to show how cute they are!! They are available at menonskateswithsticks.com... AND would make fabulous stocking stuffers so buy one for everyone you know for Christmas this year! That's my suggestion for an economic stimulus plan. =)

Sunday, November 23, 2008

love from kate.

Dear Jocelyn,

I love you Jocelyn. I love to play with you. I miss you Jocelyn. I miss you so much. I miss playing with you.

I like to watch Barbie and the Diamond Castle. I play with Julia at Kidworks. I learned about "T"  [the letter 'T'].

Thank you for the sniff and smell book and another things. [the other things]

I love you.

How are doing, Miss Jocelyn?

One more thing: I'm going to meet you around the holidays.

One more thing: I miss you.

[transcribed by mom, exactly as spoken by Kate (as she wrote with pencil on a piece of paper)] 

Bye,

kkate [Kate typed her own name, finding all the letters on the keyboard by herself!]

Thursday, November 20, 2008

josh & katherine

Aren't they happiest?! Carly and I went to hotel cafe (our favorite venue in LA) to see Josh Kelly play last night! He is possibly the most talented musician ever. Hotel cafe is a really intimate venue with velvet curtains and cool lighting that keep it dark and personal. It was the perfect show when his wife (Katherine Hiegl) rocked out with all their friends to his songs because they're all about how amazing he thinks she is... so friggin cute!! =) 

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

breaking.

Do you memorize theatrical lines
that seem to lead them in?
Play the role with the good guy heart
oh the tangled web within
Who was it that lead you on
that made you want to hurt me so
Who are you out to forget
that forgot you long ago?

You make breaking hearts look so easy
seems like you done this before.
You've got breaking hearts all down
and you've done this, you've done this before.
You make stealing hearts look so easy.
Where is the guy I adore?
You've got breaking up all but down
I can't love a thief anymore

Do you collect the souls you lost
in the top of your dresser drawer?
count the number of tears displaced
on lonely bedroom floors...

-Anberlin

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

cold. dead. sparkly.

This summer I was completely captivated by the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer. Possibly one of the greatest love stories of all time, the hopeless romantic I have accepted I am was dying to be bitten by a vampire and experience that forbidden love that tempted Bella throughout the series. I am currently searching for a man as dreamy as Edward: cold, dead and sparkly. Where do you find a guy willing to give his life to protect the one he loves? Begs to spend the rest of your life with you? Carly and I set out to find him on the red carpet of the Twilight premiere Monday night where we saw all the cast of the movie which comes out this Friday. 
"Edward"
Jacob

Alice

Jocelyn and Carly
Carlisle and his wife, Jenny Garth

If you could live for forever, what would you live for?