i can't help it...

yes, i am really bad at updating. why do you think i've never tried this blog thing before? i get lazy.

work has been pretty crazy. you haven't heard anything since my first day of work, so this is my attempt to fill you in on everything that's happened over the past two weeks and give you an empty promise that i will update more frequently.

where to begin...

tuesday may 22 (two weeks ago today) was my second day of work. it seems like ages ago. i picked up my ID badge, which I wish I could keep once I leave here, since my picture turned out pretty well. good ID pictures are a once in a blue moon kind of thing for me. if you've seen my military ID or my school ID, you'd know what I mean. they're awful. the big event for that day was a planning meeting for the hospital expansion that is scheduled to be completed in 2015. i actually really enjoyed this meeting--seeing the architectural drawings and learning about all the fights for space and figuring out where things should be located in relationship to others.

wednesday, the 23rd, was pretty uneventful, other than the state of the hospital address that was presented by the CEO. i was very impressed by how well he handled employee questions--not showing any irritation from the really stupid questions (and i strongly believe there is such a thing as a stupid question) and expressing a genuine attitude and willingness to respond to employee concerns.

thursday (24th) i went to a presentation in the evening at a place that i did not know was a senior center (yes, i was probably the youngest person in the entire place) until i got there. the presentation was given by some very prominent national health policy professors and moderated by the medical center's two CEOs. it was about the future of healthcare in the community. it started out really well--very interesting and thought provoking, but then it came time for question and answer. this reminds me of a facebook group that i'm in (one of seemingly hundreds) that's called "put your f*ing hand down in lecture and shut up. no one cares." the place became a bully pulpit because they were just passing around a microphone and not screening questions. an hour into people continually just preaching about their cause and not asking any legitimate questions, i decided to head home. people were making me angry.

nothing too exciting happened on friday, so this would be a good day to update you on my traffic situation. I F*ING HATE TRAFFIC. and i know hate is a strong word, so in this situation it is incredibly appropriate. I HATE TRAFFIC. too bad there is no good method of public transportation from where i'm staying to where i'm working, or i would take it. trust me. traffic stresses me out, and i'm naturally stressed out as it is. i guess i got used to the lack of traffic altogether in CS. by now though i've gotten a little better at knowing which lanes are more effective and learning the little ways to save more time. the best way for me to avoid traffic in the morning is to leave before 6:45 am. If I leave at 6:46 am or later, it will add an extra 20-40 minutes to my trip. WORST EVER.

memorial day weekend was great and i actually got monday off, which was really nice. saturday i saw pirates 3. i thought it was too long. if they had cut out about half an hour of all the useless stuff, it would have been a lot better. also on saturday, two long time family friends had their confirmation. i noticed a familiar name in the program, and realized that one of the girls who was sponsoring her little sister for her confirmation was my classmate from middle school. she looks exactly the same. craziness. i bet she wouldn't recognize me at all. i was a total dork in middle school, and now i'm not. HAHA...just kidding. i'll probably always be a huge dork. so, moving on, sunday i went with my aunt and uncle and some little cousins to great america (like six flags). we got season passes, so i plan on going back relatively frequently on the weekends since it is only about 15 minutes away. it was a fun trip--especially since it wasn't too crowded and we got to jump to the front of the lines by going through the exits. my cousin brian is in a leg cast (he ran through a plate glass window and ended up having to get surgery--he went to the ER at the hospital i'm working at when it happened!) so we pushed him around in a wheelchair all day. monday we all went up to an aunt and uncle's in berkeley for a bbq and i got to see my new baby cousin (who is SOOO cute by the way).

the four-day week that followed was killer. by killer, i mean it just about killed me. it was jam-packed with meetings and everything, and i pretty much collapsed in bed everyday when i got home. i think i'm still recovering from it, which is why it's taken me so long to update this.

i spent the majority of my time last week involved in things related to the outpatient heart center and neurodiagnostics. tuesday was mostly meetings, but i did spend a little time shadowing an EKG tech, which was fun--the first patient interaction i'd had since starting at the hospital.

wednesday was more or less the day from hell. i had an early meeting at the ass crack of dawn. didn't hit much traffic on the way up. it took me a lot less time than i had expected, so i popped by starbucks to grab some coffee beforehand. i should have know it was going to be a bad day when they made my drink with regular milk instead of soy. as soon as i got to the meeting, which was at one of our satellite offices, i realized that i left my ID badge at home. FREAKING LAME. luckily, i didn't have anywhere to be for another two hours, so i drove home and back to pick up my ID badge. yes, it is that important. no, i couldn't have just gone without it for a day. simply put, i did not want to look like a jackass in the meeting i was going to have later that day with the COO and my preceptor. security would make me have a visitor badge, and i would inevitably get questioned as to why i don't have my badge on. so, naturally, i hit traffic going back to the house and on the way back to the hospital from picking up my badge. i barely made it in time for my next meeting and had to practically run from my car to get there on time. i was sweating and out of breath and irritated. after that i shadowed different ECHO techs. I got to watch an ECHO on a little two year old girl, as well as a fetal ECHO, which was really cool. technology is crazy! imagine seeing a baby's heart while it is still developing in it's mother's tummy. crazy stuff! after that, i sat in a long evening meeting for the steering committee of the implementation of the second phase of the hospital's EMR roll-out.

most of thursday was spend at the hospital's biannual leadership forum, which was held at the university's alumni center. there was a yummy breakfast and lunch provided, and i got to meet a lot of people. there was a guest speaker who gave a presentation on managing the dynamics of change, and i was very captivated by what he had to say--something that i cannot say for most lectures i've attended.

friday morning probably had the most touching of all the experiences i've had over the past two weeks. the first thing i did was sit in on an EEG with the EEG tech. she performed an EEG on a young autistic child who was non-stop throwing a tantrum. this tech is amazing in the amount of patience she has and her ability to do her job without having to sedate even the most difficult patients. i cannot imagine not only the patience that she has to be able to do this on a daily basis, but the amount of strength the boy's parents had in their struggle to raise a child with autism.

this past weekend, my aunt and cousin katherine and i went to see gracie, the movie about the girl who played soccer. the movie was all right--definitely good for adolescent girls, especially those who are into soccer. saturday we went to the san jose tamale festival, and i felt like i had just stepped into mexico. it was crazy. the sad part is that i didn't even get a tamale because the lines were too long. saturday night, we went to go see the US men's national soccer team beat China 4 to 1, which was really awesome. sunday, katherine and i did a bunch of art projects--we designed and painted two little end tables that we picked up from micheal's and painted a bucket that my uncle hung up to grow an upside-down tomato plant.

yesterday was back to work, and i only had one meeting, so i finally got to spend some time catching up a little at my desk. thank goodness, because i was starting to get behind. it was actually a really productive day. today i went on round with the quality director, an outside consultant, and my preceptor to check on any environment of care issues throughout the hospital. some of the joint commission's rules and regulations are so crazy! after rounds, i spent most of the afternoon catching up some more and was able to get a lot more done, thanks to a little drug that i'd like to call crack...chocolate covered espresso beans.

when i leave work to face MORE F*ING TRAFFIC, at least i'll have a yummy dinner waiting for me, courtesy of my mom's brother who is an AMAZING cook. yay for filipino food!

on that note, hasta la vista, bebe...