Whirlwind week

I am proud to say that I have successfully worked 76hrs in one week without dying.  YES! No car crash or anything, and I have a little bit of cash to come home with.  This is kinda random but McKay sent me this video and said it resembled my attitude at work.  I totally agree. haha! 

Also, one of my friends Jacki has been singing with Shane Gamble and his band, and were preforming together at the Iota Club and Cafe in Arlington, VA.  Cheryl, Andrea, and I went and it was the best.  I was debating about going because I had worked a long shift that day and I had work the next morning too, but I'm glad I went to support a friend and I had a lot of fun. Jacki will definitely be famous one day, she is seriously THAT good. Unfortunately she doesn't have the total spotlight here, but she could totally handle it.  Here is my bad recording of their awesome performance. (The song comes out on itunes on June 15)

I even had one day off and I finished those shutters.  Mom did some gardening, and grandma hung out with us outside.  Grandma even played softball with me. haha! 

 The weather was so nice so I spent the whole day outside.

 All the summer flowers are working their way out...

 I love these violets too.  Unfortunately they are considered a weed and quickly get killed by my stepdad with the first batch of weedkiller

 Jumping on the trampoline, I'm just glad to see the sun instead of sitting in a nurses station with no windows.

The woods are filling up pretty well already, it took only two days for all these leaves to come out. I am glad I am escaping the pollen.

When I left fat the end of this week the temp was a sweaty but enjoyable 85.  I did a lot in one week I think and I'm glad I'm back in Boston with my husband.  

The clock is ticking

I got accepted to ISU's online PPO program for a masters in Speech and Language Pathology. This is good but I don't know if I will qualify for financial aid now that I already have a bachelors degree.  ISU's tuition is much better, a mere $2000 in comparison to Boston schools that want at least $15,000.  I have one week to decide what I am going to do... No pressure or anything.

Patriot's Day

April 18th (Patriot's Day/Marathon Monday) is a state holiday up here in Boston.  Kinda like Pioneer day in Utah.  The traditional thing to do is to go see the reenactment battle of Lexington and Concord and then hit the Boston Marathon.  McKay and I didn't go to the reenactment, instead we watched the marathon on TV, and then when the runners were 30 mins away from the finish line we got on the T and met them at the finish line. So here we are!

 Just in case you don't recognize this place, this is where the public library is. It was pretty packed and very slow moving.  The people on the opposite sidewalk as us were sitting in bleachers, but I am pretty sure they had to pay big bucks for those seats!

 Yeah, and those flags are pretty cool, until the wind blows and blocks your view of all the runners. Poor planning.

 These people definitely had the best spot in the lot!

 So this guy crossing the finish line was definitely not the first person to cross, but look at his time! Amazing!

Next year we will try a different spot, like Heartbreak Hill. 

 It was pretty fun and enjoyable.  I wished I could have stayed longer.  But alas, I had to cut it off early to head to the airport and go to work.

Art Night

My friend Emily has given us rides to church, and we have had each other over for Sunday dinner. After a while we both discovered that we loved printmaking, and art in general.  So for the past couple days we have gotten together to make stuff and have had SO MUCH FUN!

 I worked on linoleum blocks while Emily worked on a collage.  It has been way too long since I have done something like this.  I grabbed a leftover block I had from college and started carving.

Since I don't own printing ink I used acrylic paint. It doesn't really work that great, but it was the only thing I had.  It was more like a mix between mono printing and linoleum.  The main problem I had was the paint drying too quickly and ripping the paper.

 Here are Emily's projects

 My practice prints

More experimenting

 So here are two prints I liked in my $2 flea market frames

 And I hung them up in the kitchen.  Did you notice my $3 ikea shelves too?  It looks nicer than a blank wall. I love them. 

Soaking my painting tray.  

It looked cooler before I accidentally sloshed the water and messed it up but i think it still looks cool.

I recommend if you haven't done something that your really enjoy (playing an instrument, taking pictures, swimming, hiking, or whatever floats your boat) that you make time for it and do it. Stop procrastinating! You'll thank yourself for it later.

Haymarket

Almost everything in this city is a rip-off but I found one thing that isn't.  Haymarket, the open-air market that has been held every Fri and Sat (even in the winter) since the 1830's.  It is held in the North End which is in the Italian district (Sue is very proud of this and religiously goes every weekend.) They sell all the produce you could ever want at half the prices of the grocery store.  McKay and I try to go every week to get our veggie on.

 Asparagus for $1

Fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads! These heads remind me of when I was a teenager visiting my dad's house, and I opened up the freezer and found a whole bag of these.  It scared the pants off of me and my sister! (It belonged to one of his tenants.)

 This man saw me with my camera and he really wanted me to take pictures of his fish.  So he brought out these two beauties

 He told me to stay because he was bringing out a swordfish head! COOL! I should have asked him how much it would have cost.  I think McKay would have a heart attack if I brought this home! haha!

There are some butcher shops too, ones that will even kill your goat and give you it's head! Hoo HOO!

 Bargaining...

 Checking out the seafood...

 Some of these vendors are exactly like characters from a book, they have huge personalities and italian accents.  This little old man was handing out shopping bags so you could buy his food.

 So here's the treasures I came home with,

INCLUDING:
2lbs green beans   $1
         asparagus     $1
   3lbs broccoli      $1
      blackberries    $1
           cabbage     $1
            celery      $1

               Total = $6
               !!!YES!!!

Working, calling, killing, painting, and sleeping

Life just flies by sometimes doesn't it? I went back Maryland and worked a million 12 hr shifts at the hospital and made a little bit of cash to come home with.  And now I have a couple weeks before I have to go back down and do it again. It's a really nice job I just wish I could do it in Boston. 

I got a call from a Boston temp service about a job while I was at work and I asked the temp lady if I could quickly research the company and call her back.  You know, just basic stuff like what the company does, where it is located, ect.  Turns out it would be perfect and I called her back five mins later and she said she gave it to someone else. AHHHHHRRRRGGGG! *ripping out hair*  Maybe that was their cruel April Fool's day joke. Not very funny.

Here is my typical work day in Maryland:

4:30-Wake up and get ready

5:30-Drive to work 

6:00-Park in offsite parking and get picked up by shuttle bus

6:30-Arrive at hospital

7:00-Start work

12:00-Lunch (text McKay)

12:30-Go back to work

7:00-Off work (call shuttle)

7:30-Arrive at parking lot and drive home (call McKay)

8:00-Arrive home, take shower, get ready for bed

9:00-Misc. (laundry, call McKay again, talk to family, ect) and go to bed

I know a lot of you are like "oh, that's not that bad", and it isn't but it is really hard to wake up the third and fourth 12 hr shift in a row.  

So here is my desk at the hospital.  Pretty nice aint it? I like it.
(sorry about all the low quality pictures, they are from my phone)

And here is the break room and some of the hallway. (We have 30 patients on our unit)

If I had a moment to spare after work I would play this game.  It is so fun!!! I love it! Zelda had always been my favorite game to play but this one might just replace it.  Sorry I love dorky things! It is just so AWESOME!! 

I had a day off once and I went to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store down in historical Frederick and bought these interior shutters for $10 a pair!!!! AMAZING!  I always loved old homes that had these in them and I told myself I would have them one day!  YESS!

This is pretty random but here is a pretty nice slideshow of around town.  Whoever took these photo's I like.  Hopefully it will round up a little inspiration for me to go outside and take pictures.  It looks so warm and toasty that's what I could really use right now! It is kinda sad that the day before I left Maryland it was 80°

Well that day has come and I buffed, cleaned, repaired, and primed them. All I have left is to paint them!!

Now the comes the most difficult part: Choosing the paint color.  UGGHHH! I have no idea!  I have two ideas- Keep them white (I won't look back at white and be like "Eww why did I paint it THAT color.") or I could paint them light blue (to go with my curtains in the kitchen, but it may or may not look awesome).  But I just have NO idea. Please help me! What do you think?

Here is another option.  Crackle. I wouldn't do it all over, maybe just on the edges. As you can see I only got it to work once, my other three attempts didn't work. Is it just me or is crackle paint pretty fickle? 

(I also layered the crackle serum on really thick on one side and really thin on the other to see what kind of difference it would make.  Well, applying the serum on thin will give you thin cracks and applying it thick will give you the thick cracks.)  Pretty neato!