Browse Category: life

PukeFest 2010

This has been a wacky week and there was a lot of vomit involved.  I was already dealing with a cold that started last Friday but went to work on Monday feeling much better.  Tuesday came along and 3 out of my 3 patients puked at least twice each that day.  One of them was so huge that I was elbow deep in vomit in the cleaning process while Teresa had to borrow my scrubs since some of it landed on her lap.  Gross.  One of our kids was looking worse in the afternoon but we tried to do therapy with him anyway.  All of a sudden he puked on himself, picked up a chunky piece of it, and put it back in his mouth.  Then he puked it back up!  THAT is grosser than gross.  Seriously!?  What is going on here?!

So, on Wednesday morning, I woke up to my alarm at 6 am and ran to the bathroom to puke.  Oh crap.  I laid on the bathroom floor for 10 minutes and then threw up again.  As I sat there on the floor, I texted my boss to tell her I wasn’t going to work that day.  Thank goodness for the day off because I was a hot mess.

On Thursday, I went back to work and apparently there were no more puke episodes while I was away.  Unfortunately, one of our kids threw up one more time for good measure.  Aw man!

To round out the week, I went over to the Sokol-Juns’ to babysit Little J who was also sick.  He had puked in the morning and was running a fever that evening.  Poor guy was so slow and bummed out.  He hardly ate dinner and we just sat on the couch watching tv until it was time for bed.

It was so cute to see him clutching Pony the whole time in complete silence with the occasional outburst of “Mr. Noodle” or “F!”  Can you tell we were watching Sesame Street and Elmo’s World?  Well, that was an easy babysitting gig and I ended up taking a quick snooze before the parents returned.

What a week.

Christmas Vacation: Part 5

The day after Christmas was super busy for me.  I got up bright and early to have breakfast with my old roomies from UCLA.  We went to Mimi’s Cafe in Cerritos and Linda brought her newest son, Christian, along.  It was so much fun to catch up with Linda, Mich, and Mary over coffee and pancakes.

For lunch, I went to Patty’s parents’ house in Cerritos to meet up with Hols, Patty, and Patti.  Johnny, Howard, and the little girls Katelyn, Lauren, Zoe, and little Kylie were also there.  Johnny picked up food from BJ’s Pizzeria and we had a fun time playing with the girls and hanging out.

In the afternoon, we dropped Jason off at the airport and then headed over to Gardena for Brother and Joy’s housewarming party. We brought them a Bouchon cookbook, Reidel glasses, and the limoncello that we bought for them in Italy to warm up their house.

They have a cute 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom condo that is VERY similar to their old apartment in Santa Monica.  The two of them worked really hard in preparing a variety of appetizers and desserts while everyone came with a dish to fill up the table. The party was definitely a success and the food was so yummy!

The whole family and their friends attended and it was so nice to see everyone together to celebrate such an important milestone. It was also a great way to end our Christmas vacation.

Happy 010110!!

Another year has passed and we finished up 2009 with a 6-course dinner at Jardiniere.  I was supposed to work today but at the last minute I was granted the day off.  Phew!  So we checked around for available reservations and we got a 9pm at Jardiniere, a restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try ever since we moved to SF.  The meal was delicious but I was SO stuffed by the end.  They also handed out party favors since dinner didn’t end until midnight so we rang in the new year at the restaurant with the live band playing.  We missed the fireworks at the Ferry Plaza but judging upon our ride home on Muni, it looked really crowded and crazy.

In review of 2009, the year was filled with many memorable moments and events.  We both still had our jobs despite the “Great Recession”, I got to travel to Europe for the first time, and Brother got married!  I also started working in Rehab (a move from outpatient) and have the best team a girl could ask for.

Here are the Best, Worst, Faves, and Not-So-Favorites of 2009:

Best Event: I got a new sister AND got to hang out in Hawaii with the family.

Worst Event(s): Saying “see ya later” to a good friend and co-worker.

Best Trip: Eurotrip to ITALY!!!

Worst Trip: Almost getting to Tahoe but getting stuck in Auburn.  It wasn’t that bad but it was the worst of the year.

Best Meal: Birthday dinner at Fleur de Lys and meeting Chef Keller

Worst Meal: one of our meals in Florence…Rick Steves is good with sightseeing but not food recommendations

Favorite Moment: Giving a speech at Brother’s wedding reception for the family

Worst Moment(s): Losing my keys for 2 days

Coolest Moment: Sharing McDonald’s fries with Jack while watching Elmopalooza

Favorite New Toy: my iPhone

Funniest New Toy/Gift: an eraser that says “holy crap” from my Secret Santa (apparently I say it a lot)

7 and 14 years later

barrels

Today marks our 7th Wedding Anniversary.  I also figured out that we’ve been “together” for 14!  Whut?!  Crazy.  It’s been a blast so far and we went to Napa for the weekend to celebrate.  Koa came along and he was surprisingly well-behaved.  We took him to Fleury, a very small winery that accepts dogs inside their tasting/barrel room.

Westin

We also stayed at the brand-new Westin that also allows dogs to stay without an additional fee! For dinner we went to La Toque and had a fantastic one-Michelin-star meal complete with wine pairings.

Bouchon

On Sunday morning we also had brunch at Bouchon.  I finally got to have their famous salmon rillette and it was just as tasty as I had hoped.  On our way back to SF, we stopped at the outlets and did a little shopping to round out the trip.

Tonight we had a quiet Monday evening with some homemade lasagna that I prepared while Jes was finishing up his last meeting at work.  Happy Anniversary to my bestest friend in the whole wide world!!

Oink Oink!

masks

I went to work this morning with a happy hop in my step.  I had just found my keys last night and it was Friday.  I got to work and our first patient of the morning was doing great.  I stopped by another patient’s room to say “hello” and was stopped at the door.  Apparently he had a fever and vomited all night.  There was a sign on the door and the nurse said that he tested positive for Influenza A.  Blerg.  That’s likely to be H1N1!! Oh great.  I paged Teresa (my PT partner) and the managers were informed.  Since Teresa and I (and my intern) work in such close contact with this guy, we were told to wear a yellow mask for the rest of the day and had to call Employee Health.  *sigh*  I suppose this was a good year for my first flu shot.  My manager was very happy to hear that I actually got it last month.  According to the screening, we’re healthy enough to not be at risk of having complications but the nurse recommended that we take Tamiflu as a prophylactic measure.  If we didn’t take the meds, we’d have to wear a mask at work until next Friday.  Just the thought of that made me nauseous.  With 10 days of pill poppin’, we would be able to return to work on Monday without a mask.

pills

So, I got my free prescription from the pharmacist and I took pill #1.  I read some of the side effects and there’s a small chance for me to have the runs, puke my brains out, and pass out.  Yes!  In solidarity, Teresa and I agreed to give daily updates to each other this weekend.  We were initially hesitant to agree to the pills but it’s done.  I’ll be sure to provide updates here as well.  I feel just fine so far and I’m hoping to have dodged the swine bullet.  It’s going to be a rough winter/flu season and I hope that this is the worst of it for Team Tiger.

Forgetful, not irresponsible.

Elephant Keychain

For the past 2 days I’ve been scouring my brain, my house, my car, and everything else I’ve touched over the last 64 hours. On Tuesday morning as I was heading out for work, I couldn’t find my house keys. I swore that I had them the night before but didn’t have the time to really search as I was hurrying to catch the train.

Yesterday I still didn’t have my keys and had to sit outside of Jes’ office building for an hour as he finished one of his meetings.   I sent him a text message saying “I’m downstairs” but didn’t really know if he had received it.   He finally came down to hand me the keys and that hour of waiting certainly felt like an eternity.   I would suck at being homeless.

I gave myself one more crazy search tonight and went through the trash, the dirty laundry, all the bags I had used within the past two days, and the coats and jackets that I had worn. Nothing. Finally, I had an epiphany. As I was going through the coat closet for the 3rd time, I remembered that I put on my snowboarding jacket on Tuesday morning to walk the dog in the rain. As I was heading out, Jes offered to walk the dog and I gladly hung up my jacket and went to work instead. THAT was the moment when I couldn’t find my keys!!!! I had put the keys in the pocket of the jacket (that I haven’t worn in months) and forgot to take them back out in all the excitement of not having to fight the wind and rain at 6:30 in the morning!!! So when I reached into one of the many jacket pockets and felt the squishy elephant keychain, I thought my heart was going to leap out of my throat and I yelled, “I FOUND IT!!!!!”  Aaaaah…I had the biggest sigh of relief of my life.  I was also confused as to why I didn’t find them the first time or second time I went through the closet.  Oh dear.  Perhaps my brain was trying to make me suffer a little so that I wouldn’t do this again.  I was SO close to calling it quits and Jes was dreading the pain of forking over a bunch of money to get our locks changed.

I really hate myself sometimes.