"ruff," just the way your mother likes it, trebek.

oh celebrity jeopardy. makes me laugh every time. speaking of making me laugh, I heard a new blonde joke recently that I though was pretty entertaining.

how do blonde brain cells die?

alone.

haha! so anyhoo, the whole celebrity jeopardy thing was just me being sidetracked from trying to tell you that things have been pretty rough around here lately. basically, my life has been totally nutso since i last updated this thing. i do believe it’s been about 18 days. that probably means that this may very well be the longest blog in the history of mankind, so i apologize in advance. i'll try to keep it mildly interesting. where do i begin?

saturday, june 9 (man, that seems like a gazillion years ago)

i decided i was going to go to work for a few hours. on a saturday. wtf? i mean really. who just decides to go to work on a saturday voluntarily? i think i was on crack. i think i've mentioned previously that there is an amazing shopping center right across the street from the hospital. i decided to stop in a find a cute new shirt to a party i was going to in the afternoon. i did find a cute new shirt, and the best part of it all is that i found the SICKEST new pair of shoes. some cute, cute, cute coach flats. they're normally really expensive, but they happen to only have one pair left and so they were on super clearance -- 75% off. the only pair left. super cute shoes. good brand. MY SIZE! i do believe it was my lucky day. after my short little shopping excursion, i had a renewed sense of spirit. it's amazing what bargain shopping can do for the soul. i headed back to the car and couldn't find the keys anywhere. i freaked, thinking that maybe i left them in the car. when i got to the car (which was still there, thank god) it was unlocked. well, shit. i searched everywhere for the keys and at that point i was starting to panic. how the hell was i going to explain to my aunt and uncle that they keys to their very nice, very expensive convertible jag were lost? i quickly decided that i had to backtrace and visit all the stores i went to to see if anyone turned in my keys. first, i called mall security. no keys turned in. great. i started from the beginning and went to the first place i visited. i must have had a really panicked look on my face, because as soon as i went in, the girl who helped me asked immediately if i left my keys there earlier. i hadn't been more relieved in a long, long time. she saved the day. the whole situation kind of reminded me of when i lost my car keys in high school (electronic keys and keyless entries are ridiculously expensive, just FYI). the funny thing about that was that i only had one keychain on it. the keychain said "keys i haven't lost yet." somebody in my hometown has these keys hanging on their bulletin board somewhere thinking that it's the funniest effing thing they've ever seen. anyways, moving on with the day...i went in to the office and it was deader than a doorknob. (btw, where the hell did that phrase come from? it really doesn't make much sense.) it was so quiet it was almost surreal. i worked for a few hours, then met up with my aunt and uncle and cousins to head to a graduation party. this graduation party was for a family friend from back in the day. when i was in elementary school or middle school (can't remember which), i went to a family camp with my aunt and uncle. my best friend at camp's little sister is the person who was graduating from high school and had this party. it's so crazy how fast kids grow up these days (you know, since i'm so old and all). while i was there, one of the graduate's friends (who also graduated) started playing ping-pong against my uncle. as i was talking to him, i found out that he was planning on going to USD! it's weird that it got me excited. i told him he should look into rowing. haha...recruiting even though i'm an old fart now. the school should be sending me checks for this stuff.

sunday, june 10 (one day down, seventeen to go)

apparently my aunt and uncle have group tennis lessons for their family every sunday morning at the city tennis courts. i got to tag along. i was pretty excited about it since i brought my tennis racket with me and hadn't used it yet. i still had most of the basics down, but my fitness level and quickness level pretty much sucked big time. it was fun though, and it was nice to have some good coaching and good drills. that evening, i went to church with the aunt and uncle and fam. we stayed after because they serve dinner and that week it was baked salmon, roast beef, salad, potato salad, and fruit salad. the dinner was sooo yummy. we ended up sitting at a table with an older couple. the guy and i started talking and it was the usual conversation--what do you do, where do you go to school, yada yada yada. as soon as i said texas a&m, his wife said "uh oh." the guy (thinking that he was sooooo freaking clever) rolled his eyes and said "that's funny. you seem like such an intelligent person." immediately i knew that he must have gone to ut. i was right. figures.

monday, june 11

i woke up in the morning and was feeling rather stiff. i tried to get out of bed and could barely move. walking down the stairs was painful, and my body was pretty much saying "screw you." turns out i am in no condition to run tennis drills anymore. what was worse is that day at work i shadowed a registered dietician all day. she was big on taking the stairs (which i pretty much always do in the hospital because it is so much faster). that's when i slowed down big time. despite the silent screaming from my muscles, i enjoyed the day. the dietican i shawdowed primary takes care of the patients in hematology and oncology. i got to visit a lot of patients and their families, which was a nice change of pace for me.

tuesday, june 12

i was still suffering from the tennis workout, but actually felt better than i was expecting. i guess all the stairs and walking around on monday helped me loosen up a little. a good chunk of my morning was spent watching a webcast, which i felt was mostly a waste of time. the information they provided was an introduction to a new benchmarking tool from an organization that we are one of the owner hospitals of. they could have easily just sent out a short memo, but i guess that would have been too easy. most of the afternoon was spent with another registered dietician who was the service provider for cystic fibrosis patients. can you say depressing? i learned a lot about CF that i never really knew before. if you ever get the chance, you should educate yourself a little bit on the disease. it was eye-opening for me.

wednesday, june 13

after one depressing day came another. i spent wednesday shadowing a dietician in the NICU and almost started crying multiple times throughout the day. one set of preemie twins was being baptized because one of them wasn't going to make it and the other wasn't doing so well. there was also a really cute baby whose story really updet me. he was from another state and his mother had no prenatal care and was a long time druggie. the baby had tons of heart and neuro problems and was a ward of the state. the worst part is that the kid will never be normal and the state won't take him back. the poor thing had nowhere to go. what is wrong with people? i mean really. it's so tragic. i left the hospital that day feeling pretty sad. it sort of reinforced the fact that i'd never really be good at direct patient care. i get too emotional. those few sad stories really hold a place in your heart and often times the happy endings come to be typical and expected, so you almost forget about them. as i was walking to the parking lot, i passed these two big, thug-looking mexican dudes who were trying to look gangsta. there was a cute little girl wearing pink with her hair in pigtails closely following them. as i was walking by, the little girl giggled "teee heee...i faaaaated!" i started laughing and immediately the two tough guys softened up and couldn't help but laugh too. that brightened my day a little. after i left the hospital, i went to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients for my cousin's birthday cake. i made the cutest homemade cake ever, i must say. i used a 9x13 cake pan and frosted the cake with white icing. i then took fruit roll-ups and crossed them over the cake and made a bow so that it looked like a wrapped present. i cut off the bottom of some dots candy and made a polka-dot design for the "wrapping paper." i carved out a "to: julia" in the back of a hershey's bar to use as the gift tag. it was awesome!

okay, i'm tired of typing for today. i'll try to add some more days tomorrow.