Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

This post can go lots of different directions. I feel that to be politically correct, I need to acknowledge all of the directions. First, I could talk about the economic efficiency of dropping the penny from our currency. I, however, don't really want that to happen, since I once bought a pair of jeans at Nordstrom Rack for a penny (yes, totally not kidding. I saved the receipt) and a pair of dog boots for a penny at PetSmart. I think we should just make the penny with something that costs less (beats me what. trash?) Or continue to allow 1 cent increments in this electronic-money world. Then I could bring in the "Take a penny, Leave a penny" philosophy that lots of stores have. It's a great little encouragement for human kindness. Once, a guy at an airport gave me a penny and I wasn't even purchasing anything. I think it works because (as mentioned above), a penny is pretty much useless, but the gesture of giving money voluntarily is still nice [with the ca

is epic. I picked up The Little Prince when I was in elementary or middle school, because it looked like something age-appropriate for me: a story with pictures scattered throughout. Right? Clearly a children's book. Um, no. I mean, I read it. I understood all of the words and the pictures. A guy, who can't draw very well, meets a little prince of an asteroid. The little prince left the asteroid because his Rose--which he had watered and protected--told him he needed to be wiser, He meets several strange characters in his journeys, learns how to tame a fox, and is willingly bitten by a snake at the end of the story because the snake told him that he sends all individuals back to where they came from. But I thought it was a really lame story because the Rose that the Little Prince loves is NOT the most unique flower as she claims, the fox does NOT stay with the Prince, and in the end, the Little Prince dies. Why so much sadness?????? So when Melissa invited me to see

Once upon a time about two years ago, my friend Melissa gave me a coupon for a chiropractor on the off-chance it would help me with my migraines. So I show up at his office, and sit there waiting for a bit staring at the plaques on the walls.  When he comes in, the first thing out of my mouth was “How come your name on the certificates doesn’t match your name on your business card?” He was a bit taken aback, but answered my question [the answer involves nicknames], and then talked to me about spinal adjustment stuff, and although I don’t know what I said, I am pretty certain that I gave off a sort of “I’m-in-the-medical-field-don’t-hoodwink-me” vibe. That, combined with a “I-say-what-I-think” attitude, can put people off, but he was surprisingly flexible—even for a chiropractor—and so I agreed to get adjusted. Unfortunately, not for my attitude. He seemed to think it the highlight of his week (or month or whatever) to have me visit and observe that his decor was from the 80s, or

Way back 2 weeks ago (hey, I did say these posts would be sporadic) I flew up to Seattle for the third time in my life to visit someone I'd never met before. Namely this guy. You can tell he likes my hair. And that he's pretty wiggly. And downright adorable. It had to be a super-short visit, because school has put more of a restriction on the flexibility of my schedule. Erggh I forgot about that stuff. [I suppose I would never have applied to grad school if I remembered how much work college is.] So in 3 quick days, I went mini-golfing (pictured above is my celebratory stance after a hole-in-one) I played games with baby boy's parents I went to Pike's Place for the FIRST time I did yoga I painted my toenails I made sushi. Actually, mostly I ate sushi. And I pretended I fit in with the hipster vibe in the city (haha, isn't that ironic). I even had time to take a nap and go on a run. Somehow, I did all that and still caught mom

this is me at the conference with my poster It is a very sad truth that the first time I have ever been to New Orleans was limited to 24 hours. Nine of which were in a nursing conference (hence why I was in New Orleans anyway), and eight of which I devoted to sleep [hint: it was NOT during the nursing conference]. Not a lot of time to enjoy a prime music and food city. a guy playing a something A guy playing the bagpipes (see below for a side view)   A guy playing the lightpole Me in Jackson Square Just some random car I may not ever wear this, but it made me laugh. And I have no idea why it's in a souvenir shop I love music! and I usually love food! I shall have to visit again!

I've heard that perfect competence is achieved when you don't have to think about how you are doing a task. For example, a perfect saint does not think about choosing between his/her own needs and that of a person in need; the saint just does  his/her saintly thing naturally. You might get the impression that I'm setting up this post to claim I'm a saint. Wrong. I am claiming that I am a comedian. This is actually quite a shock to me, because I have only ever made my dad--a pretty good critic on humor, although strongly biased towards himself--laugh ONCE in my whole life at one of my jokes/witticisms.  And unfortunately, I don't even remember what I said. My true setting for this hidden talent must be the hospital; a lot of people (or at least a few people have said multiple times...) claim I'm hilarious. When my patients say this, I don't believe them. It's like the judge in the courtroom--you HAVE to laugh at his (or her) jokes.I'm the one

I have had so many confused patients in the last few weeks that I think I should either audit a psychiatry course, or see a psychiatrist. I love explaining things to patients to help them understand what is going on, but this skill kind-of peters out in usefulness if their reality is distorted in some way. I had a patient claim he was in a Nazi death camp, and asked when he was going to die. I had a patient tell me she was in prison and her daughter had been arrested, and then further complicated things by believing me to be her granddaughter. I had a patient who claimed, when I couldn't understand the context of his comments, that I must have hit my head coming into his room. I had a patient who had been talking for 30 hours straight on promoting a work safety environment, and couldn't be dissuaded from either changing topic or pausing just long enough for me to listen to his lungs. I had a patient that called me into his room to ask me which button on the TV remote/nurs

I heard a song on the radio with the phrase 'even the sun sets in Paradise', and I decided that's how I'll finish the blog posts on Hawai'i. Typically, the phrase means that things go wrong; and it's true. I broke my sunglasses. I think that brings the tally up to 7 or 8. And I had several migraines.         Not from falling coconuts, though             And of course there's the sunburn. But that seems a small price to pay to get to see  the sun in Paradise setting. Last night out with my friend Heather And this is outside our window and it's really pretty

Little-appreciated fact: if you look up synonyms for alien, the word exotic  pops up. And isn't that an excellent description of Hawai'i, the tropical paradise that is so paradisaical because it is so wholly different from normal [Mainland] life. Really, there were times I thought it should be a foreign country. I thought that 10 years ago when I was embarking on my first visit to Hawai'i, and was disappointed I didn't need a passport. This trip, while I wandered about the 727 square mile isle, I remained convinced of the distinctness of the culture and economy and geology. Middle of the day, and two locals are playing chess on the seawall Most people are pretty chill. Maybe it's part of living close to the beach, but stores don't seem to care if you browse in your swimsuit and your face is covered in sand (at least, no one at Barnes & Noble stopped me). And it must be really weird to have a good portion of your population be permanently temporary, s

There's a scene in the movie The Truman Show  where Truman declares to his elementary school teacher that he wants to be an explorer, and she pulls out a map and proclaims that all has been discovered. Maybe that's so, but there's still something to discovering for yourself. I claim this for Texas. Just Kidding. Not all of my outings in Hawai'i were to a beach. I discovered banyan trees bamboo forests volcano tubes rainbow trees eucalyptus? waterfalls fierce colors on the 'desert' side of the island  and lost horizons. So by no means cross "explorer" off your career path.

Some images that immediately run through my brain when I think of Hawai'i. Shirts. Surfing. Macadamia nuts. Pineapple. Still true. But I get to add to the list. Things I didn't know. Like Spam and nose flutes. Did you know that Spam, although produced in Minnesota, has a greater fan base in the state of poi and poke? 3 cookbooks for one 'meat' Well, let's just say we find different things appetizing. And isn't it fascinating that quite unlike other nations, Hawaiians have championed the nose as a source of music? I'm assuming no one gets colds in the land of everlasting summer. Behold, the nose flute! And then there are staples that I never would have put together. Like a girl with a hula skirt and coconut outfit, except the coconut is her head. I think she also directs traffic Paradise is never quite what you expected.

Hawai'i has a lot of cool plant and animal life. Coral, dolphins, whales, turtles, Banyan trees, etc, thank you volcanic soil. It wasn't whaling or dolphin-ing season, but I did get to see and swim with turtles. Two, to be specific. At different beaches. Unfortunately, I had a much greater knack at locating crabs. I found so many that my friend's family (who I was staying with) nick-named me the crab whisperer. I named it Betty Don't remember this guy's name see below for enlarged image Herman. I later found a hermit crab, and named him Herman II  I also saw several sand crabs, but they were super fast and hard to capture on camera, since they blended pretty well with the sand. Movement was the only giveaway. This was a big guy. I didn't touch him See below for zoomed image He's so cute. Whoever he is Then there was the large pink-and-blue-spotted crab we found when snorkeling. I didn't invest in an underwater camera (