Monday, July 9, 2007

i need voice recognition software...

...so i don't have to type this stuff. i think that's why i suck at updating. it takes me way too freaking long to type.





where were we?




back to thursday, june 14 ...

i had to go to work at the butt crack of dawn to attend a medical board meeting. the doctors that work here are as a rule, pretty much brilliant. the problem is that some of them are super nice and down to earth, and others have egos the size of china. i spent most of the day shadowing with a dietician in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) and CVICU (cardiovascular intensive care unit). it was a pretty heavy day seeing the sickest kids in the hospital. i had the "opportunity" to go on rounds in the unit. i say opportunity in quotation marks because it was pretty much just a painful experience. rounds were so incredibly boring. booooooring. maybe if i was an attending or a resident, it would be more exciting, but i was pretty much bored. one kid must have been a giant wrestling fan because he had about five zillion john cena posters in his room. i learned more about this kid in radiology, but i'll get to that later.



anyhoo, i left work early that day because my aunt from san diego and her family were coming into town for my great uncle's funeral. it was also my cousin julia's 11th birthday. her FABULOUS birthday present cake was a huge hit, if i do say so myself. after the mini-celebration, we went to my great uncle's viewing. i hadn't seen a lot of my relatives in four to eight years, so it was pretty crazy. my family is HUGE, and EVERYONE knows me. i may or may not know them. i had at least ten people come up to me and give me a hug and say "do you remember me?" i replied with a smile while lying through my teeth saying "of course! it's been forever! how are you?!?" it was good though. all of my (used to be little) cousins are super tall and grown up, and all of my aunts and uncles are getting old...or at least they look a lot older than i remember. despite the fact that it was a sad occassion, it was good to see everyone.



friday, june 15



i took the day off for the funeral. i woke up in the morning to everyone getting ready to head to the funeral. i was a little slow to move though because i was driving separately and would arrive late. i had to pick up my mom at the airport. the two girls (julia and katherine) were trying to find shoes to wear. turns out that the two of them (who are both 11), my mom, my aunt, my grandmother, and myself all wear the same size shoe. they quickly became obsessed with my extensive show collection but were somewhat afraid of all my pumps. they tried to walk in them and it was quite hilarious. anyways, after they left, i finally had the chance to get ready and went to pick up my mom at the airport. we drove straight to the cemetery. the cemetery that my great uncle was being buried at includes a list of a lot of members of my family--my grandmother, my first cousin, my mom's first cousin, a great uncle (my grandma's brother), my grandmother's sister, and now my grandmother's sister's husband. while my mom and i didn't catch any of the ceremonial stuff, everyone was still there when we got there. my mom got to say hello to all the family, then my mom's immediate family went to my grandmother's gravesite. everyone was there, with the exception of my brother. this includes my mom and i, my grandfather, and my mom's two sisters and brother and their spouses and children.



a little background info before i tell this story--my grandmother passed away when i was nine. shortly after, my grandfather got remarried to my grandma bing. well, my grandma (my mom's real mom) was buried in a double gravesite with half the plaque empty for what was expected to be my grandfather.



ok, back to the story--we all gathered around my grandma's grave (note: my grandma bing wasn't present at the time, she had to babysit her other grandchildren) to say a prayer. as we were standing there, my mom's sister asked if my grandpa wanted to be buried next to my grandma julie, since there was a spot for him there or if he wanted to be buried with bing and what to do. i was shocked. i mean, it is a valid question and something i hadn't really thought about it before, but that is a seriously touchy subject. i thought it was pretty strange.



after that, we went to my first cousin's gravesite on the other side of the cemetery. i have another girl cousin (andrea) who died when she was 22 days old in the same year that my grandmother passed away. andrea's lungs weren't fully attached and she had to undergo numerous surgeries right after she was born, and she didn't make it.



after visiting andrea, we went over to a restaurant called world gourmet where the reception for the funeral was being held. holy coolest place ever. this restaurant was probably the biggest asian food buffet i've ever been to and it had a huge variety and TONS of great food. it was amazing. after all, what is any kind of filipino gathering without lots of good food?



that afternoon i took my two other girl cousins (katherine and julia) to get manis and pedis for their 11th birthdays (which are exactly two weeks apart). we drove around forever trying to find a place that had the good massage chairs (cause you just can't get a pedi without the good massage chairs) and a short wait. eventually we found a place that did an okay job. i'm not going back there, but it served it's purpose for the occassion.



when we got back, my mom and her sisters and i went over to my mom's cousin's house for a smaller get together. all the kids (by kids, i mean everyone in my generation and their kids) went to boomer's. i had a good time--it was fun hanging out and catching up with my cousins that i haven't seen in a while. we grew up together and haven't been close lately, so it was nice to reconnect. by the time we got back to my uncle's house, my mom and her sisters went home, so i had to hitch a ride with another aunt, one of my mom's cousins. she drove, and a great uncle sat in the front. i was stuffed in the back seat with three great aunts. we had a BLAST. they're all old filipinos that are super funny. they were cracking jokes in tagalog. i was proud of myself for how much i understood. my auntie remy was the funniest--she was all like "oh, nina and i are so sexy we fit in one seat" in her thick tagalog accent. i pretty much died laughing the whole way home, which was about 45 minutes.

well, i got two more days in at least. i'll work on updating more later! paz.

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