October: The Month of Miracles & Bliss

I'm really not even sure where to begin! I am both happy and sad to see October go. October is one of my favorite months ever and this year's October was especially wonderful! Pictures, stories, you know, the usual to follow!

First of all I got to see Mark (and fam!) for 5 days, which is always too short a wonderful, awesome, fabulous, fun, hilarious, exciting, jam-packed-exhausting, wicked awesome good time. 

This is my favorite ice cream place in Texas. It's a throw-back ice cream parlor inside and just adorable. Plus the ice cream (!!!!!) is awesome. This time I got roasted campfire marshmallow (yummy!) and Mark went with his usual: classic vanilla. Out of ALL of the yummy, fun, chunky, crazy flavors he always chooses vanilla. I'll never understand it. 

Mark treated me to Six Flags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a blast...until it rained with lightning and we got stuck inside Mr. Freeze for 2 1/2 hours while the rollercoasters were shutdown. 

BUT finally it opened just before we were about to call it quits and we got to ride it twice in about 15 minutes. It. was. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark also makes a mean chocolate milkshake. They are DELISH. They are a close second to In N Out's chocolate shakes and that, my friends, is sayin' somethin' because I LOOOOOOVE In N Out's chocolate shakes. Then we were going through Mark's baby/kid/high school pictures and he showed me his letterman jacket. What a stud right??? Right. I know. *swoon*

I am quite certain I told Mark 6,785,432 times how adorable his baby pictures are. I just wanted to squeeze him!!!!

And the next time I see Mark will be in 35 days December for our wedding. Romantic? Yes, kind of. LONG? YES. But that's ok. It is pretty romantic. Plus, holy catscans have I got a lot to do between now and December!!!!

Next: I got back from Texas, worked for 3 days and headed to *sigh* New England. Oh HAPPINESS. And now for a flying story: Whenever I fly home I usually fly Spirit because it's a direct flight to Boston and it's cheap. But you get what you pay for and about 87% of time I have flown with Spirit, my flight is delayed, which is annoying anyway but when your estimated arrival time is 12:30am, delays are A PAIN. Well, this time everything was a go. Flight was on time, good weather, boarded my flight, hooray! I was deep in my Nancy Drew book when I realized it had been a little longer than usual and finally the captain came on and said something about having to recount the bags. Annoying, but whatever. Then another 15-20 minutes went by and one of the flight attendants announced that due to "an unfavorable comment" by a passenger, we all had to de-board the plane so TSA could inspect the plane. I was NOT HAPPY. We were told we could leave our bags so I left my carry on in the overheard and took my personal bag. As soon as we were back in the terminal, we were instructed we had to go back onto the plane to get all of our bags so we had to RE-BOARD and DE-BOARD the plan again. Thirty minutes later after TSA searched the plane, we had to line up and have our boarding passes scanned. Not happy but at least they were being safe and I really did appreciate that. I felt terribly for my brother and sister-in-law who had to pick me up though...Finally we boarded and then not 15 minutes after we had boarded, another person was thrown off the plane. I was in the back so I didn't hear or see the commotion, I only heard clapping for the first half of the plane and thought I swear if another fool makes me deboard this plane...The rumor at the back of the plane (this is so dramatic) was this woman claimed to be from the Boston Globe and was allegedly snapping photos of people while we were waiting in the terminal. SKETCH. Get her outta here! She was escorted off the plane and then very shortly after that, the captain came on and announced we would be leaving. THANK GOODNESS. I made it home and was in bed around 5am. But it was absolutely delightful to see my sibs and Scotty!!!!

First thing the next morning (aka a few hours later) I headed to the ocean. The North Atlantic. Oh. my. gosh. The smell, the sounds, the sights...I was in heaven. My heart swelled up a bit with such happiness. There was even a few beach roses left in bloom. I inhaled them, literally. 

 

The colors. Oh the colors. I couldn't stop taking pictures and just taking it all in. New England in the fall is one of the most stunning mosaics of color ever to behold. I can't believe such beauty--sights, smells, sounds--exists. It's my absolute favorite scene. I even recorded a video crunching leaves just because I was so happy. I know, I'm silly. Oh well! It made me happy! The only thing missing, which would have made the trip prefect, was Mark. Maybe next year we can be there together! Mark my words, he will see a New England fall, he has to!

 I even got to see my beloved Boston. I drove, literally, through it (sadly only through, didn't have time for a day in Boston this trip!) on my way to meet our wedding photographer. I love this city!!! 

During my trip I had my usual twin lobster plate at Al's with my gramps, it's tradition after all! And then another day I had a very long overdue lunch with a very dear friend, whom I consider a mentor and a mother, Elaine, at Blue Moon Evolution in Exeter. I've never been here before but it is wonderful! They get all of their ingredients from farms within 100 miles and boy is their menu yummy! Then we walked through downtown Exeter to get ice cream and strolled along the river as we ate. I had apple pie ice cream...mmmm mmmm mmmm!!!! The whole afternoon was blissful. Just blissful!

After lunch I decided to just "pop" into one of my favorite stores, Serendipity, where I used to get most of my jewelry and I found the earrings I'm going to wear on my wedding day! Simple and elegant, just what I wanted.  

 SCOTTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you're not familiar, this is the LDS Boston Temple (where Mark and I will be getting married!!!). Beautiful. I got to spend an evening with Heath and Emma here. Afterward, we went to dinner. I LOVE spending time with these two. My stomach hurt from laughing so hard! 

Now, one of my assignments while I was home was to scan baby pictures for wedding stuff. It was a BLAST going through our old family albums. I have a few incriminating pictures of my brothers (muah! ah! ah!) and many more cute ones! 

Dane. Gosh he had the best curls when he was a baby!

Heath-totes presh!

 Baby Gabe

I LOVE this one of Heath!!!! 

One of my favorites of my darling grandmother Barbara, and grandfather Harry

Perhaps my favorite part was stumbling upon albums of my mom and her family when they were younger. My grandfather, Roger Christiance, passed away a few years ago and unfortunately I didn't get to know him very well because we lived so far away from each other and in more recent years, his health wasn't very good, but I have been thinking about him a lot lately and was delighted to find some pictures of him. He is SO handsome. One of the few memories I have from visiting him is eating rice crispie cereal and giggling about how they "snap! crackle! pop!" 

Being home was so wonderful and therapeutic and blissful. It was crazy busy; I was up early and home and in bed late but it was probably one of my favorite visits thus far. Oh New England! I can't wait for December!!!

Then. I got back and was invited to a Halloween party hosted my Dr. W and his wife. It was LEGIT. He told me I would know which house it was and as I was, according to my GPS, approaching I wasn't so sure...until I came around the bend in the road and there was a house with strobe lights flashing from the top floor, "Yeah" by Usher blaring and tons of cars. I couldn't help but laugh. It was really, really fun! My costume wasn't that cool or original, I just wore a masquerade mask, but I was crunched for time and so it worked.

Group shot of the people I work with on one of my floors

The man himself: Dr. W

Now you may be wondering about these miracles. Well, for starters I found out I got the dietitian job I was able to miraculously find in the town Mark and I are moving to after we get married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HUGE miracle. The fact that it was available and that I got it and that they are willing to work around my schedule and let me start after the wedding is a huge miracle and relief.

Secondly. As you may recall, I took a board certification exam a month ago to become a Certified Nutrition Support Clinician (CNSC). This basically means that I now have the knowledge and skill to work with very acute populations (ICU, trauma, NICU). I was ABSOLUTELY certain I had failed. 100% positive. My colleague and friend Amy, who had also taken the test, called me while I was running on Monday to tell me the test results had arrived (they come ONLY via snail mail) and she had passed! I was sick to my stomach nervous as I drove home because I did, but mostly did not, want to know. I told myself it was ok that I didn't pass but deep down, I knew I would be very disappointed. I mean I had studied HARD for that test and had been waiting 2 years (because they recommend 2 years of experience before you take it) to get this credential. I had wanted it since my internship! I texted Mark and he talked to me as I drove home to distract my thoughts and I told him I would prefer to open the envelope on my own and then call him after I had read it because I would need a few minutes to digest the disappointing news. Well...I got to my mailbox and the letter was on top so I sat in my car as Mark continued to talk (he had no idea I had gotten my mail) and decided to open it right there in my car. I carefully tore it open and literally squinting I pulled out the first slip of paper with a numerical breakdown of the questions I got right for certain categories. Ok blah blah blah. Did I pass or fail? I hardly looked at it as I slowly pulled out the folded paper and prepared for the worst. 

And then I screamed, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MARK I PASSED MY TEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He thought I had gotten into an accident, and understandably so because I completely interrupted his sentence and started screaming, and then I repeated (aka screamed again) that I had passed!!!!!! I hung up, rushed to my apartment, awkwardly skipped/ran up my steps and called Mark immediately to read the letter, because all I cared about was the "congratulations" part and hadn't read the rest of it. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have to tell you, it was thrilling writing new orders on Tuesday and signing my name RD, LD, CNSC! YAH BUDDY!!!!

That same day I had another WONDERFUL piece of mail: a drawing from my niece. My heart pretty much melted!

And then, to top of this month, my beloved Red Sox WON THE WORLD SERIES IN BOSTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I stayed up to watch the entire game and could not have been happier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've even successfully converted Mark to a (secondary) Red Sox fan (his loyalty is to the Texas Rangers). Excellent! 

See? October was a superb month. AND! Tomorrow, weather permitting, I may be going for a spin in this...

Picture from here

...and then going horseback riding with some friends. A grand way to begin November. 

And!!!! Now I can now say I am getting married next month! 

3 Day Weekend

I've been anticipating this weekend. I'm in need of a vacation, but that won't be until the beginning of August, though it's for another wedding and I'm actually in this wedding so I'm not sure I would entirely call that a vacation, but it should be fun. I'll take an extended weekend though. My colleague and I have had a rough couple of months being short-staffed. The workload ebbs and flows but lately it's been flowing generously and basically we're getting burnt out. You know the feeling right? Every day around 2pm when we still have 6 patients to see and all of our notes to type up and our blood sugar dips, we just become crazy. Mostly it's amusing, sometimes we have vent sessions, and usually we talk about how much frozen yogurt we want.


Friday Scotty got me up at 5:45am. I can't get too upset with him because it is technically  a weekday and usually I get up at 6am so we can go for a nice leisurely walk in the mornings. I took him and out and then went back to bed and woke up at 9am. Lovely. I had big plans for my Friday. And it involved some...shopping. Dun. Dun. Dun.
First, I went to Old Navy to get some shorts that my mom and friend Jen raved about. I admit I was very skeptical. Old Navy and I had a good thing going a few years ago and then all of the sudden the quality and fit of their clothing took a hard nosedive and I haven't been impressed, or a customer, since. But I am in need of good shorts so I thought why not? I went, I saw, I tried on. They fit. Oh my gosh and they are cute. And comfy! And on sale! Sweet! I bought sunshine yellow and khaki/beige. They did not have orchid (below) or aquamarine in my size so...I ordered them online. I'm pretty excited.

Photo from here

Next, I went to the beach. It was a bit overcast yesterday, which is my favorite beach weather because it's hot but the sun isn't beating down on me. It was wonderful. I read for a couple of hours, I swam and floated and dove and body surfed in the water for an hour or so. I am definitely a fan of warm beach water, but not the idea of lurking sharks. I got burned on my legs. Ouch. I am a walking radiator. I have been studiously applying aloe vera lotion to my legs, which feels great, and then Scotty comes along and licks it off (one of his quirks, he loves to lick lotion). Oddly enough, it feels good. True to "good" sunburns, I'm not feeling so great today so I'm thinking it's going to be a very lazy day. 

Then I met up with my pals Jen, Allie, and Marissa and we went shopping at the Tangor Outlets. It was my first time. Let me just tell you, I love a good bargain. Our first store was the Gap Outlet. I walked it, saw a pair of "watermelon sorbet" shorts, tried them on, loved them, and bought them for a whopping $12. Score #1. Next we went to Banana Republic. Now let me just tell you I love lounge wear because basically it's what I live in in the winter. And I'm all about comfort. There was this darling "lounge wear" top on sale, like 70% off!!!, and I put it on and had a big grin appear on my face dreaming of winter, curling up with a mug of hot chocolate to watch a flick or read a book. Bought it. Saved myself $50. Score #2. Gosh I love a good deal. 

After a couple of hours of walking around, we decided to end our successful shopping day with....frozen yogurt!!! Who's surprised, I mean really? We went to Sweet Frogs and marked off another one of our froyo places on our list. 

This place was good. I got cookies 'n cream, choc/PB swirl, and cupcake (basically what I always get). The cookies 'n cream was the best I've had so far. Their choc/PB was not that great. Bust. Their cupcake was really, really good. Their toppings were excellent: good variety (and they had cookie dough!! Yum!!), chopped up nicely, AND they had Nutella topping. +++++ points for that! However, they rank a close #2. I stand by Orange Leaf as my #1 choice.  

Then we headed back to my apartment and watched "The Artist," which I hadn't seen before. I was very impressed. It definitely deserved the awards it received. 

I went to bed around 1:30am and since I took Scotty out late last night I was hoping he would sleep in. Nope. He started doing his obnoxious fake sneezes, which are his way of telling me he wants to go out and trust me...they are AH-nnoying, around 5:30am. I was not a happy camper. I told him we were not going out at 5am and that I needed to sleep. And the sweet little guy that he is, he let me sleep in until 7:30. Thank you Scotty!!!  I'll take it! I contemplated going back to bed when we got back from his walk but it was already 8 so I tidied up a few things and then crawled back into bed and e-mailed, pinterested, facebooked, ordered a new bathing suit, foodgawked (this website is like Pinterest but better and only for recipes. Go check it out now. I'm serious), and (obviously) decided to do a little blogging. Also, my friends and I are throwing a "S'mores party" next week: s'mores bars, s'mores pops, s'mores rice crispy treats, and maybe s'mores cupcakes. Oh HECK yes. 

Photo from here

Photo from here

I'm supposed to go to a BBQ tonight and then hit up a Pelicans game later and maybe get some pizza at this great place called Mellow Mushroom afterward. It's our new "thing" after we go to a Pelicans game. For now, I'll stay in bed and bask in the laziness (and medicinal relief of aloe vera lotion). 

Lazy Saturdays are the best.

Cinco De Mayo...a little early

Some friends and I decided to celebrate Cinco de Mayo a little early and so we had a little party tonight!

Here are the sombrero cookies I made. My last post may have been misleading. I did actually made a few sombrero cookies but because the frosting was a disaster and was runny at room temperature, I dubbed them staffing-inappropriate and shoved about 15 of them in the freezer for the party. 

They were well received at our party and boy oh boy was I glad. Also the plain sugar cookies were well received at staffing and that was relieving. I was so disheartened when I walked into work. Dr W was funny. When he walked in, he asked where the treats were so I pointed and then very quickly dove into my story about how I was going to bring in festive Cinco de Mayo cookies but the frosting wouldn't set and it was a disaster and he looked at me and asked, "Did I have to bake these cookies?" No. "Are they free?" Yes. "Then they are perfect." I felt a little better after that. 

 Chips, salsa, guacamole (yummmmmmm), pretzel chips, pina coladas. So yummy!

 Some of the gals! (Ali--in the purple shirt--even came with mustache!)

Ashley, our pina colada mastah!

Candid

Now let's talk about an embarrassing story. I went for a run and left around 6pm. I figured I could take my sweet time and the latest I could be back was 7pm because everyone was coming at 7:30pm. Well, as I was running I had the thought that I should get back early but I ignored it because I really wanted to make 4 miles. I walked instead of running. It was too hot and humid and I already had a headache. So I was about to cross the street into my apt complex and I recognized one of my friends in their car pulling in. Begin FREAK OUT. I looked at my watch and it was only 7. So I sprinted to my apartment and found a few more of my friends waiting outside my door frantic because they had tried to call me and I hadn't answered my phone or the door so they were thinking the worst. I was so embarrassed. I must have missed the memo that said the time was moved to 7pm! I was sweaty in my running shorts and tank top with my iPod blasting and here everyone was arriving. Ohmalantus. So I ushered them all in with a stream of apologizes, changed super fast and the partying began. It was fine and they were so forgiving but I was mortified. What a horrible hostess! Thank goodness I cleaned before I went for a run. We ate, chatted, laughed, watched Nacho Libre and laughed so more. Good times. I love Jack Black. 


Fun Fact. I used my dishwasher for the first time tonight. I've never had enough dishes where I felt the need to use my dishwasher.

And, truth be told, I really don't know how to use dishwashers. I know. I know. 
I mean I figured it out (with the help of my friend Gloria), but I didn't grow up with dishwasher in my house (unless you count my brother, but I guess that doesn't really count now does it?). I had one in one of my apartments during college but it was horrible and left a nasty film on our dishes so I have always done my dishes by hand. I inspected the dishes a few minutes ago and this dishwasher appears pretty legit. I'm impressed. No nasty films, no residue. Maybe I'll use it a little more often now! 

Next I will wrap up this post with a patient story from today. I have this patient who is the quite possibly the most spoiled rotten, childish male patient I have met yet. I mean he tried to convince the hospital his yappy, annoying chihuahua was a service dog. Are you kidding me? The dog was yapping at patients, snapping at nurses. That is NOT a service dog. The patient refuses physical therapy, claims he won't eat and can't be on a diabetic diet (uh ok, your blood sugars are ONLY in the 300 and 400s...Clearly you "shouldn't" be on a diabetic diet. FALSE. But don't worry. I told Dr. W wouldn't upgrade his diet so. Muahahahah. Thank you Dr. W!) Well, I went to do my follow-up assessment today and the patient is supposed to get a PB & J sandwich in the evenings. Well, apparently his sandwich didn't have enough jelly and this is how he chose to tell me. Just prepare yourself. He told me the amount of jelly that was on his sandwich was the amount a poor black man would use. I'm NOT exaggerating one tiny bit. 

I was LIVID. 

What an absolutely bigoted, stereotypical, HORRIBLE, completely inappropriate and uncalled for thing to say. He's lucky he wasn't looking at my face because I can assure you I had to mentally think and concentrate to force my face to stop screwing up in anger and shock, physically bite my tongue, and I'm pretty sure flames were flickering in my eyes. I was so appalled. I didn't even know what to say. I chose not to even comment because I was afraid if I opened my mouth, I would say something I might regret. So I took a few breaths, tried to  stop myself from seeing red, and as calmly as I could muster, told him I'd see if we could get some extra jelly on there. 

UNBELIEVABLE.

Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend will be here. HALLELUJAH!!!

St. Patty's Day in Review

Let's review a few things I observed and/or learned and/or thought and/or experienced during my first St. Patrick's Day in Myrtle Beach, shall we? We shall. 

1. I am very glad I do not drink. My drinks of choice: strawberry kiwi carbonated water, diet coke, and water. Not mixed. Livin' on the edge, I know. But I like it there. 

2. I witnessed not 1, but 2 bar fights. I'm not going to lie, it was rather exciting (you may perhaps be able to tell I don't frequent bars often, in which case, that is definitely correct), but drunk guys are stupid. 

3. I do not like bars. At least definitely not on St. Patrick's Day. And not in this freakin' state where people are allowed to SMOKE in them!!! SICK!!! South Carolina needs to get on the health bandwagon and ban this nastiness already! What is this, 1975? COME ON! And while you're at it, ban smoking from every restaurant too. I was shocked when I went out to eat for the first time and there were people smoking in the restaurant. Get out. No really. GET. OUT. I don't want lung cancer. Not even that. I just want to BREATHE. Am-scram bucko.

4. I will never, ever, ever, EVER wear heels out again. NEVER. At least not when I will be walking and standing around for hours. My heels now have time limits on them. I should have gone with my gut, which screamed, "WEAR THE FLATS!!!!!" I love heels but not for 9 hours. My poor feet.

5. I am not a club kind of girl. At least not at a nasty-style, tramp-filled, ghetto-infested, hi-I-want-to-hook-up-with-you kind of a club. We bar hopped last night at Broadway at the Beach and the last place we hit up actually had a legit dance floor and DJ so I was excited because I love to dance. Except, I like to dance with big groups of friends and since most of our party was either at the bar having their 20th shot/drink, or dancing somewhere else, or who really knows, I ended up dancing with a couple of other girls in our party and was having fun until the nasty-style guys came up to try to "dance" with us. When this happens, instantly I'm irritated and my groove is thrown off. If I had a strong guard, like in "The Emperor's New Groove," I would have had these bozos tossed outta there faster than you can C-Walk or 2 step.You have better believe I gave them a subtle yet steely warning glare, and that did the trick: I'm here to have fun with my friends and to dance and you are neither my friend nor someone I care to dance with. I have zero interest in grinding with you, dancing with you, and hooking up with you so let's make this simple: don't approach me, don't touch me, don't smile at me like your Mr. Cool J, get your slimy, drunk, nasty self away from me, and everything will be fine. And by that, I mean you will be fine. You, buster, can stay 10 feet away from the door, which is 30 feet away from me. Got it? Good. 

6. Drunk people, 99% of the time, act like idiots. I don't know what the other 1% constitutes but I guess you can't assume all people who get drunk act like idiots, right? Maybe? Benefit of the doubt? I'm going to have a slightly difficult time taking some of my colleagues and co-workers serious after seeing them drunk as a skunk. They definitely were hilarious but also embarrassing. I suppose this is one of the reasons I don't care to party too hard with co-workers. It's just awkward sometimes, you know? 

Interesting experience. It was fun, kind of, in an it-was-nice-to-get-out kind of way, but I'll pass on the next one. 

Now. Fun stuff.

I was talking to my FUTURE STEP-SISTER (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) today on the phone, which was fabulous as always. One of her kiddos was talking to her and when she said she was on the phone with me, I heard her kiddo say, "AUNT GABE!!" I am an aunt. Well, not officially until June but...I. AM. AN. AUNT! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!! I love these kids, love them. And now I'm their aunt. *giggles* Yay! 

Next!

Should I get these...

  

...or these?

 

I really love Toms. And brightly colored shoes. And thus, brightly-colored Toms.

It's in the 70s here and there's a thunderstorm starting. My windows and balcony door are open and the feature presentation is about to begin so I'm off to indulge in the fun!