I know it’s hard to tell from this photo and I know that it’s an extrememly low bar, but this Sunday was the day that Vince is officially taller than I am.
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Vince’s newest toy, it’s a gaming keyboard and mouse? Those red and blue lines? They glow. So strange what the heart desires.
After three weeks of fighting the flu, my mother is back to her old self which means that she is cooking dinner for us again. Hooray for Friday night yummy-ness.
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Vince found a pair of mirrored glasses for Edda. Edda says don’t mess with me or I’ll kick your ass. Or at least I’ll bite you and never let go and have you screaming begging for mercy (true story. it has happened.).
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Vince is learning how to say how much something costs for Chinese class. We had to go hunting across town to find things and document how much they cost. This is made extra difficult because Vince really knows only about 10 Chinese nouns in of things you can find in a store. One of the nouns he knows is dictionary, so he insisted on going to the bookstory to find out how much a dictionary costs. I wondered, do they even sell dictionaries anymore? Why yes! They do! For $27.95
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Last night, the MD/DC/VA Rett moms had dinner in Bethesda. I’m so happy I found these women and their families. So much sadness has been eased by knowing that I do not go down this path alone. We always say that we are club that no one wants to join, but here we are having sangria together, laughing a lot, crying not so much (maybe not at all!) this time.
I woke up around 3:30 AM local time and watered the plants, write a couple of letter and went to McDonald’s around 6:00 AM.
After checking the yard, I will go to the airport and ready to get back to the east coast.
For that, I got two vouchers. One $7.00 for lunch and other $500.00 for future air. Not too bad. After a good night sleep without shower (not available) and to do some yard work in the morning, I am ready to fly back to Oak Ridge, tomorrow noon.
Last time, at Portland, I got a $400.00 voucher without lunch. I guess at small towns, people are nicer :). For example, at local McDonald’s, I have been treated very well every time without exception and all I need is a senior $0.76 coffee.
I should just give up on ever having a “regular” week. This whole blog is dedicated to regular-ness. I like being regular in all the ways it is possible to be regular. But whatever, it was an unusual week this week as it is every week.
I made it to the Metro early this am and joined the in on the regular DC commuting scene. It’s fun to commute every once in a while when you never really have to ever commute. I got snacks at Au Bon Pain (so many delicious things to pick from) and I read the free paper they give out on the Metro.
I commuted to NIH today. It’s the site of my clinical this term and today was the first day. We meet one day a week instead of two like last term which is less insanity for me. This lighter schedule makes everyone around me happier! Everyone in the house appreciates this lighter schedule. NIH is interesting because they only run research protocols there. The nurse to patient ratio is luxuriously high (almost 1:1) and there are no late night emergency admissions. It’s a great place to work. I’m doing a psych rotation specializing in addiction and alcoholism.
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Jeremy is home which means that we are back to full household staffing. Between Nat’s vacation and Jeremy’s traveling, my schedule has been thrown for a week. But now everyone is back and it’s great.
Now there are cooked dinners (Jeremy) and beautiful hair (Nat). Hooray!
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Happy groundhog day! Look at these cute groundhog cookies:
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On Superbowl Sunday, Edda was snuggled between me and Christine on the couch just waiting for Katy Perry to show up. Edda tucked her icy barefoot feet into Christine’s lap. Christine was shocked that her little toesies were icicles. Edda’s toes are always icicles. We kept Edda barefoot in the house because 1. wearing just socks would sometimes make her slip and fall or do the splits and unable to recover, 2. street shoes seemed uncomfortable (and also just for outside (Chinese habit and all)) and 3. all slippers that we tried would never stay on and the leathery soles always became too slippery anyways.
Christine suggested the obvious: get her a pair of Uggs. To which I was like – Oh! Of course! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself as I have a pair of Uggs that I sometimes wear around the house because they are so warm and slipper-like that I sometimes forget they are street shoes. So I went out and bought (full price, which for me is a big deal) Edda her own pair of Uggs and now her feet are toasty and she is very stylish. OK, maybe stylish circa three years ago because we are just always behind the times. Thank you Christine for your suggestion. Edda’s feet are toasty!
I’m on a business trip. It’s cold here. I was expecting it to be in the 60’s or 70’s and it’s more like in the 40’s. Here’s a tropical looking photo outside my hotel room. The Gulf of Mexico is over the sand hill towards the left. I have yet to go over said sand hill. I’ll try to do it tonight – perhaps in the rain.
I taught my first recitation today. I was nervous. It was fun. I was tired (really: exhausted) afterwards. I taught cardic – the first lecture of adult health which really makes much more sense than diabetes which is what we learned first last semester. They totally revamped the course and the slides weren’t posted online until 9pm last night. Do you know how much brain power I have at 9pm? I have just enough brain power to watch an episode of Friends. So I scrambled to prep this am: hypertension, hypotension and dysrhythmias. You know when you are a student and totally bored in class? Your teacher can tell that you are totally bored. And when you are surfing Facebook on your laptop? Yeah, your teacher can tell that too. But my partner and I got some positive feedback, so that was nice. But more interestingly to me, I think about five people came up to me and told me I look, speak and act exactly like Cristina Yang – like down to how I hold my dry erase marker. The first person who told me this actually just came up to me and held my hand and just said – “Cristina Yang!” and I’m like who is Cristina? This is Cristina:
Can I be flattered that I remind people of some badass fictional surgeon? Ha ha, if only I was so sassy. I guess I should start watching Grey’s Anatomy.
Here are some articles on Cristina Yang:
A Eulogy for Cristina Yang, the Baddest Bitch Around
Why Cristina Yang Leaving Grey’s Anatomy Is So Devastating
27 Reasons Why Cristina Yang is Everything you Aspire to in Life
Jeremy is traveling to California this week and Nat is on vacation until tomorrow. So today was the day I had to cover everything. Covering everything meant that I had to cut work short and sneak out of class early to meet the bus. This was the first time I’ve ever asked Vince to be my back-up child care. I asked him to come home right away after school and told him that I’d probably be home in time to meet the bus, but if for whatever reason, the bus came early (as it does sometimes when kids are out sick and there are fewer kids to drive home) then he’d be responsible for bringing Edda inside.
He was up to the task, but I got home in time and Edda’s bus was home at the regular time. Max and Ruby waited for the bus with me too. I sat at the foot of the stairs with some plants and knitting and a glass of warm water. Is it terrible that these past few days that Nat’s been on vacation have been the first days of the school year that I’ve chatted with Edda’s bus drivers? I brought Edda inside and took her to the bathroom and close-maneuvered her around the little room, I could smell the perfume of her aide that helps her out at school.
I cooked dinner at 5 pm. I like having dinner at 5 pm. Vince made fun of my cooking (that was expected and it was deserved) and we listened to Bach’s cello suites while cooking which is different than the usual Uptown Funk we’ve been listening to for the past few days.
With Vince gone at the slopes, Jeremy, Edda and I headed to Whole Foods for a buffet dinner and to do some grocery shopping. The eating area was full of families with toddlers. I guess if you have toddlers and you are hungry on Saturday night, the first place you think of hanging out is the buffet line at Whole Foods. So many toddlers. So many people looking tired at 7 pm on on Saturday night. I think I’ve forgotten how quickly toddlers can suck the life force out of you. And then I thought OMG, I’m older than all these tired looking people. I’m like at least 5, if not 10 years older than all these people who surround me. And then I thought, I really want a cookie. Am I going to go get up and get myself a cookie? Mmmmm. Yummy. Then I spent ten minutes trying to expunge the thought of a cookie when Jeremy showed up with an oatmeal raisin cookie sandwich with creme filling. As if he read my mind! How did he know?