vacation?

Vacation is almost over, and work is closer by the minute. Lets see what have I done for almost 3 weeks?..Almost nothing!! Other than the Lake George Trip, I've stayed home either reading, knitting, cooking dinner, googling- my usual routine with spurs of the moment lunch at downtown manhattan, visit to the postoffice, and saks quick shopping for a skii skincare cleanser.
Man I really wanted to go on another vacation- to New Orleans- a location I had in mine. But I guess it's not meant to be with the weather.
Well in the past couple of weeks, I've been bombarded with people's problem that it's just draining me. A friend of mine just emailed me that she will get a divorce and wants me to live with her. Not a good idea. Considering her impulsiveness and the length of divorce procedures, I may be in the middle of it all and be left in the dirt when she decides to work things out. Now how should I tell her this? Sigh- I will support her if she goes though with this..but I don't think I can live with her. I do want to move out on my own someday....but I guess it will take a while.
Anyways, I made dinner for my sister last night- stuffed cabbage wrap and seaweed cucumber soup. I noticed my main ingredients for most of my recipes are sugar, vinegar, and garlic and that most of my meals taste the same. I really need to venture out of those three ingredients. Today, I'll be making spiniach garlic angel pasta. Okay- at least I'm just using one main ingredient.

Sam

I don't know how I found the titled -ugliest dog, but here he is Sam- the purebred chinese crested hairless dog (the one on the top is an average breed i suppose). Sam is apparently real and won a world's ugliest dog contest 3 years in a row. I didn't know this type of dog existed. But I have to say this dog has personality and character. Sam is very lucky to have a loving owner. You can visit Sam's blog.
"I truly hope Sam has been neutered. We do not want another son of Sam."- susie, owner.

Mini Vacation

Lake George
My SK II line I just ordered.
Took a 3 day trip to Lake George and Saratoga Springs NY this week, and came back very dehydrated and tanned. Apparently, when you get sunburnt, you need to rehydrate yourself thoroughly; for the past two days, I've been experiencing fatigue, headache, dizziness, and nausea. Last night I slept 12 hours!
So Lake George was fun. I got to ride a horse for the first time, a scary and stressful experience b/c my horse decided to spring and gallop for no reason and tried to bite both side of my ankles during the horse trail. My fearful moments of horse riding came true.
Saratoga felt like georgetown- A stretch of chained stores, and restaurants. We got to see the horserace and the race horse- which are so different than the ranch horses. Shiny coats, and trimmed bodies- the ranch horse- brittle hair and big bellies.
On our way back to my house, my friend decided to go on the right lane of a company bus- bad mistake! I wasn't suprised that we got into a minor accident. After sitting on the passenger seat during our road trip, I realized she is a bad driver! - tailgates cars, speeds before coming to a stop at the last minute, a risk taker! We literally fell off the curved road b/c she wasn't using the brakes! We kept going faster as we curved.
So anyways, my friend being dramatic started to curse and whine how life is unfair. My gosh- i couldn't take it anymore. I realized if ever she ask to live together- I would have to say no.The day after the very minor accident, I called her up to say hello. Of course, she was still angry and cursing up the storm- how she hates her job, her marriage, her life. I'm thinking I need to be around positive people. My life is not perfect either but I don't go around cursing everything and everyone I see. Honestly, it negatively influences ppl, and I feel my energy being sapped away.
Sigh still getting a headache from the trip. Last night I ordered a skincare line called SK- II. Lets hope it will work.

Tradition

As per my mother's report, it is a cultural tradition to buy "seon- nye-bok"- winter undergarments, and intimate apparels for your parent(s) when you earn money. So today, my mom and I went to a random mall in long island - Simon Mall. Of course , when you shop with my mom, things go crazy. She was acting herself x 100 = exaggerated expressions, pointing, tugging my shirt sleeve, running excited like a child in a candy store, nagging, lecturing about useless things- you get the picture. So anyways , we head off to the intimate apparel/swimwear section at the norstrom rack store. Instead of looking at the intimate apparels, she was gathering bikini bottoms with crazy prints. Unfortunately, my mother thinks bikni bottoms are great underwear. Not only do they last long, they trim her belly to an inch. So at they end of the day, I was on line holding 20 bikni bottoms while shoppers looked on with a funny expression. Well, at least my mom was happy.

washabi and icecream

Yesterday was the last day of school for the kids until the coming september when a new batch and the old ones arrive. So yesterday I got to treat only two early intervention kids, one classroon push in of preschool kids while the other rest of the time, I cleaned toys, mats, bolsters, etc in the gym. Gosh, I would say years of dirts and children's fingerprints were on those. The changing water was literally brownish green.
Afterwards it was a dash to my desk to do last minute of paperwork.

I left work early, met up with a friend 4 hours later for sushi at Washabi Lobby (i like that name). The appetizers were pretty good but so small. When it was placed on the table, all we can do was stare at the pint size portion. The food portion reminded me of Bond St restaurant; big plates with a speck of food in the center.
Afterwards, we went to Coldstone Creamery. I had mint with white chocolate, crushed oreo cookies and toasted almond, while my friend had coffee with sweet ice cream and fresh strawberries. YUMMY! I wish I had coldstone in queens. We then headed off to a park nearby called Carl S. Park that overlooked the hudson river. Have been hear in NYC for so long, and still discovered beautfiful sites of NY. The view was breathtaking. All I wished was to have an apartment nearby to go home to. But unfortunately, I had to hop back into the scorching subway to queens.

rehabilitation

So after talking to acquaintances, and watching movies (Million dollar baby and a few other korean dramas) that don't show the full potential of what a someone can do when he is a quadriplegic gave me an insight of how the public has a stereotype on the disabled. This then fueled a reminder and a sense of duty that healthcare clinicans must perform- educate/show others on how to function independently with a disability.
A few of my acquaintances who aren't in the medical/healthcare field thought pediatric homecare services is babysitting, and a family memebr thought working with kids (mental retardation, cerebral palsy and just developmental delayed kids) should just be locked away.
I need to watch murderball. There is life after an accident. You are the same person who wants independence,and the best in quality of life. Isn't that what any living human being have the right to?
I admit there are days when I'm not feeling the best with my patients. There are days when I lost my patience with a few of my caseload. Dealing with his impulsiveness and poor attention span while having to direct the child with my poor spanish speakng skills drove me up the wall. I lost my patience- and redirected him with a very strong firm voice. the next day he was afraid to say hello to me. I felt sooo bad, and so today I spoke with him in a clear but firm voice gently reinforcing that he needs to listen for my directions instead of haphazardly shifting one task to another. I guess I have a lot to learn from the child.

gossiping

There are so many gossip and backstabbing at my workplace that it brings paranoia and mistrust to everyone. I was unfortunately provided with information that somone I trusted would not tell me about something I did wrong or was unaware of and tell the supervisor.
Which brings me into thought about her random talks on two colleauge- one fired and one resigned. Immediately after we heard the news she started to talk negatively about them. It was amazing that she can be so polite and friendly to them and the next she is telling me how she hates /annoyed by that person or he/she is not a good clinican. Real scary. I was so sad to see this and hear confirmation from a staff member. Well, that is reality. I just didn't think it could happen so fast, and so close. I really did trust her and even thought of her closer than a staff member. It's too bad. After many thoughts, I needed to talk to someone who said act like you can't trust anyone.
For sure, gossip can dampen your spirits. I couldn't even treat the rest of my patients because of the this.
To overcome unsettling emotions, I searched a website on dealing with gossip. Here is what I found.

another day

What can I say about work. There are lots of thoughts running in my head, negative and positive (hopeful thoughts), and dealing in trusting my instinct and judgement in order to be at my best.
Hopefully I'll pass my evaluation.
So here are my coping mechanism (adaptive and mostly maladaptive) to get through another day after work:
1st) Eat a good meal! I need to gorge myself to a good meal. I often dream about it on the bus to home.
2nd) followed by sleep. yes, that is how I gained all this weight.
3rd) check my daily email and read blogs, watch internet video for an hour. so some reason just reading random websites and movie trailers get me to relax.
4rd) when I feel a bit better (unwind from the day) I start to think about the kids at work and do some short research on internet or read.
5rd) start to make plans for the next day after work whether it's watching a video, clean my turtle's tank to have me look forward to something during work.
I then plan to sleep at 10pm..but never do. I try to get 8 hours of sleep for work and build patience with my kids. Without sleep, i get cranky and become real mean.