kim & rafik.

swan lake.

insert meaning here.

I have a new vice... weekend escapes from Los Angeles! I have often said that living in LA is like an extended vacation (I have yet to establish a routine, still don't frequent the same bank or grocery store, and spend my days off being a tourist!) but I have now reverted to getting away just to relax... like a reverse vacation. I should of realized the beginning of this trend when I paid $850 to fly back to Florida for 5 days at Christmas (that cost me ~ $170/day to laze around and eat homecooked meals by the fabulou Barb and see Kara and it was forth every penny) but I didn't actually notice the habit forming until I went to D.C. in April and found myself completely content doing absolutely nothing but beating Danny in cribbage and sitting in the kitchen talking to Barb and Patti while they made dinner. I had not been to D.C. since sophomore year of high school and did not feel an ounce of sadness when the only time I saw a national monument was from the window of the super shuttle that I took when I accidently flew into the wrong airport (which I also didn't worry about... it wasn't waiting in traffic in LA, therefore I didn't care how long I waited). It is entirely unlike me to not plan something for every minute of every day so I can see the most of the destination city, eat at all the best restaurants, etc. when I travel but my weekend in Washington wasn't just the result of mere exhaustion... because it's happen every weekend off since then. The pattern goes as follows: work all my required days in a row, pick up an extra shift to buy ridiculously cheap plane ticket, fly away for 5 days, do nothing but relax, return to LA, repeat. From D.C. it was off to Vegas for the B. Spears concert where Adam and I avoided the strip and spent all day Sunday just laying by the pool sipping pina coladas (something I could of done at my apartment but would not have enjoyed quite as much being surrounded by hipsters gossiping about their latest casting call with the sound of rush hour humming in the distance). We were staying at the MGM Signature and the hotel had a private pool that didn't have a DJ blaring music and if I closed my eyes long enough, it felt like I was on some Caribbean holiday... and not just a four hour drive through the desert away from Hollywood. Next weekend away: Vancouver! I spent the entire weekend talking to my Auntie, laughing over fabulous dinners with my cousin, Kim and learning how to sew. It was here that I established a routine that I would like to carry in LA... wake up everyday feeling rested, go for a run along the sea wall, watch the news, eat organically, read a book, etc. I returned to LA, worked three long nights and then roadtripped to San Diego with Sydney to spend the weekend relaxing in the San Diego Bay with Kara and her friend, Erinn! Minus seeing the zoo, we spent the majority of our weekend taking in the view from our balcony on the 21st floor. As Carly and I both returned to LA this week (she was in Florida the past week for her little sister's high school graduation) I realized the root of all the anxiety I feel as the LA skyline comes into view every time I return to this city, the place I have tried to call home for the past ten months ... As much fun as it can be to live on some kind of permanent vacation, it means nothing leaving places that hold so much meaning to return to a place where none of it means anything.... a surreal life where I find I am having to remind myself just to breathe. As today marks the one month mark until I get to return to the place that has always felt the most like home to me, I'm already counting the ways that I can do nothing while I am away. Grams, I hope you have been reading the dictionary and are ready for a two week Scrabble tourny intermixed with a little bit of golfing and some walks around the lake!

happy birthday, sadie!

I can hardly believe that Sadie turned two yesterday, Happy Birthday little one! Wish I could have been at your fabulous birthday party! I took this picture last summer (she was just barely a year old here!) I can't wait for more backyard parties and girls' nights in the city this summer! There has been a new addition to our girls' nights and she is getting so big too... six months old and eating solid foods! 

stanley park.

While in Vancouver, Auntie Paulette had to fly to Calgary when a close friend had a baby so I took the city bus from her house in West Van across the bridge all by myself (I only missed it three times before I actually got on!). Once downtown, I hired a bike and spent the afternoon cruising around the harbour and Stanley Park. It was a beautiful Victoria Day and the park was filled with families on picnics celebrating the Queens birthday! =)

sewing machine.

Working night shift has given me a lot of time to brainstorm ways to be creative and struggling to clothe my babies with all their lines and tubings, I have decided to learn how to make clothing that would make it easier to get them dressed by adding extra snaps and buttons to rid the risk of losing the access that is giving the preemies their essentials including nutrition, pain medication and blood pressure meds. Grams mentioned to me how great Auntie Paulette is at sewing so while in Vancouver last week, I was determined to learn how to sew. First I had to learn the basics: sewing on buttons! 

Thank goodness my new rain coat always tries to lose it buttons!

Then Auntie P. and I headed to Fabric Land to pick out a pattern and some fabric. 

It was not long before I became a sewing machine!

happy birthday, carly.

Happy 21st Birthday, Carly!! Wish I could be in Miami to celebrate with you!! =)

lions gate bridge.

tongue & cheek.

granville island.

picture mail from (new) mexico.

because i received this photo on my phone i couldn't quite get the lighting right to see your face...anyhow, looks quite lovely where you are. think of you often. hope you're healing. 

an update from Miss Kate

Miss Kate is now four years old. I can hardly believe how grown up she is... she's not the cutest little girl anymore. As you can see, she's the most stunningly gorgeous big girl now. She was student of the week last week and currently aspires to be an opera singer because she "has a really big voice!" There's nothing I miss more than my days with Kate... helping me find the little girl in me.. reminding me that it's okay to color outside the lines.

wonderful world.

What wonderful world I live in - Grams

May 15, 2009

Grams - I know a place that you should seriously consider spending your retirement next winter. It is their summer when it is your winter so it is guaranteed escape from the below freezing temperatures and has no snow, ever.. The people here eat vegemite, the men are gorgeous and this country that is also a continent rhymes with rahstralia. Think about it.

rubberband, man.

Megan, Danny, their friends and I went out to sushi for Megan's birthday. We hadn't even begun to eat our seaweed salad when the nice waitress came up to me and wrapped a roll and a rubber band around the ends of my chopsticks. Apparently she was not impressed with the way I was using them. Thank you, sushi waitress, for not just publicly humiliating me but allowing me to eat my dinner at ease. =)

the bonnie hunt show.

It's nurses week and Bonnie Hunt invited nurses from hospitals in the area to make up the entire audience in today's taping! A few girls from my unit and I carpooled to Culver City to be a part of the show! Bonnie Hunt used to be a nurse and to show her appreciation for our amazing career (if I can be so bold to say!) she gave us a $50 gift card to Walgreens, an IPOD shuffle (that's right, an IPOD) and to go with the liquid diet I have been jokingly saying I seem to be on ever since working night shifts and never really having an appetite for anything more than caffeinated beverages lately... we won a juicer that blends entire fruits! =) Since people always tell me they see it on my blog after the show airs that I was in the audience, the guests were Emily Deschanel and Diahann Carroll and it airs tomorrow (and she also taped a part of next week's show with the host from The Bachelorette) and my hair is bleach blonde at the moment and I am sitting in the front row near the band in a plaid shirt!  Speaking of nurses week, how fabulous is this endearing e-card my super sentimental flatmate sent me:

ninety-nine balloons.

People often ask me what is special about my unit... why it has a national reputation, why it is a Level 4 NICCU, why it has two "c"s. The Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit is different than your typical NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) because while we do get preemies (when they are extra small.... weighing less than a kg... the smallest I've seen is less than one pound) we are not a birthing hospital so we really only get babies when they get too sick or their situation is too complicated for the hospital they were born at to handle. We do ECMO which is a heart/lung bypass machine (much like dialysis is for your kidneys) and get super sick babies from all over (as far as Las Vegas) to treat meconium aspirations and pulmonary hypertension. We have some of the top pediatric surgeons in the world so we get a lot of babies born with congenital defects especially of the heart (hypoplastic left heart, double outlet right ventricle, TAPVR) and stomach (necrotizing enterocolitis, gastroschisis, omphalocele). One of the hardest diagnoses for me to handle is that of the rare genetic disorders that are incompatible with life. This a video about a baby boy prenatally diagnosed with Trisomy 18 much like the little baby I admitted recently who was sent to us for a genetic work-up to make the terminal diagnosis of Edward's Syndrome. This is just one of the many challenges I face daily at my job but I absolutely learn something new everyday (usually more like ten new things) and am enjoying the challenge that comes with no twelve hours being the same! 

face the sunshine.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannnot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do. -Helen Keller

meticulously charted course.

Life is not a path of coincidence, happenstance, and luck, but rather an unexplainable, meticulously charted course for one to touch the lives of others and make a difference in the world. 

fisher cats.

Christopher singing the national anthem at a baseball game with the Fisher Cats Chorus.

i miss being.

It's hard to believe it's already been a year since we were tossing our caps and saying our good-byes to our quintessential college life. I find I miss it more than I ever thought I would. I miss being a student. I miss being a Gator. I miss being Amy Aerobics. I miss being Miss Jocelyn. I miss being a roommate. I miss being one of a inseparable friendship quartet. I miss being.   

australia.

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. -Charles M. Schulz

Australia is so cool that it's hard to even know where to start describing it. The beaches are beautiful; so is the weather. Not too crowded. Great food, great music, really nice people. It must be a lot like Los Angeles was many years ago. Mary-Kate Olsen