Update

For the past couple of weeks I have been working at a hospital as a secretary.  I am back home now and it is SO nice to be back.  Working at the hospital has really turned me into a germaphobe. seriously.  On my unit we have 30 patients and 6 of them have TB, 5 of them are on other airborne precautions, and 5 more contact precautions (stuff like MERSA).  So even though I am sitting at a desk at the nurses station I still feel disgusting after I am done handling all of the charts, communal pens, touching doorknobs, walking down the hall and other activities. I find it super gross that my preceptor eats at her desk.  So I am always washing my hands like crazy. Isn't it crazy that hand sanitizer has no effect against MERSA? 

So one problem with our big hospitals is the ER folks.  I don't know who works down there but sometimes they send patients up to our unit and park them in the hall without telling anyone that they are here. And then they leave. Or they bring them up when we don't even have any open rooms.  We had a huge fiasco the other day when they brought up 5 patients at once without any warning.  Once we got them in their rooms a woman approached me and told me that their family member's new roomate was coughing/gushing up blood from their nose and mouth. An hour later we got a call telling us that several of our new admissions have TB.  Great. We played some pretty fast musical beds to isolate them and get them away from the other patients, family members, and unprotected staff. I'm sure this conversation would go easily "Hey guess what you and your family members might have TB now."

I could never be a nurse. Ever. Don't ever want to be either.

On a lighter note,
I am definitely glad I am back with my husband and in my clean apartment.  So in celebration of my return I decided it was about time I took pictures of my favorite detail of our apt.  Which happens to be the doorknobs! They are so cool and old, and I LOVE the keyholes!! I don't know much about antiques but I heard that some people go into old houses and try to steal old doorknobs like these.  Pretty cool huh?!

This light switch plate is pretty interesting too.   love it!

Maren sent me this cool video in an email and I thought I would share it.

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Have a good Day!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! I LOVE (AND MISS) YOU!

This is an early post, but I won't have time tomorrow. Unfortunately Jessica and I won't be spending Valentine's Day together. Sad, I know. Lately I have been thinking about how lucky I am to have such a wonderful woman in my life. SHE'S THE BEST THING IN MY LIFE! Okay, here it goes– my feeble attempt to express my love to my love. The only problem with that is– I suck, oh, and Shakespeare and Wordsworth said it already. As I was forced to take a poetry class because I somehow failed organic chemistry, I grew to love these poems. Perfectly succinct, just the way a man would write. I hope you like them.

A Red Red Rose

O my luve's like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June;

O my luve's like a melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,

So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun:

O I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only luve!

And fare thee weel a while!

And I will come again, my luve,

Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

–William Wordsworth–

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

Oh, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

–William Shakespeare–

Sorry if you puked after reading that, but I love these two poems and I love Jess. Valentine's Day is the only day where it's acceptable, and quite frankly, encouraged to be mushy, sappy, love stricken and/or dorky, as long as it's in the name of love. 

Next topic: little moments. I found myself laughing (and not just to myself) on my way to school on Friday, because I was thinking about all the weird, funny, wonderful things Jessica does. It's the aggregation of the little things that has made me love Jessica even more over the years. This is funny, so check it out:

News

Since our six months of cheap internet is now over that means two things. 1. We have to start paying regular money for internet 2. We have been living here for six months?! What?!

So we renewed and now have TV!  Usually we wouldn't get it but it was cheaper to get internet and TV than just plain old internet.  We have about 12 channels with ABC, FOX, a couple of spanish and shopping channels, and PBS!  I have never had this many channels in my life.  Growing up we only had one channel (which was PBS) so this is quite the change for me.  Now if I am bored or need someone to eat lunch with I just push a button and BAM, instant entertainment.  cool.

McKay is excited that he will be able to watch the super bowl and I am kinda getting excited too.  I'm sure Maren, Steve, and Skyler are excited that Green Bay is in it, and I hate to admit it but I am routing for the Steelers. Right Sharon?!  So yeah.  Let the best team win I guess... heh heh heeehhhh.

Time for a date

It happened! We went out for fun! This is a cause for a celebration! We decided to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art for their free admission day and go out to eat.  We got off the T at the aquarium stop and walked down Seaboard Drive to our destination.

 I love the ice chunks! 

 Walking over the drawbridge

 Some of the paths were nicely shoveled and some were definitely not and we were just walking in the street.  We ate at the No Name Restaurant by recommendation by our friends Rachel and Job. It was our first time eating seafood by ourselves since we have been together, so that was kinda exciting.  

The No Name Restaurant is a cute little seafood place on the fish peir.  We had a seat by the windows and we just watched the fishermen drawing up their nets for the night (see picture above(sorry about the glare))  Since we went at night I couldn't get a good picture of the view so I stole the picture below from Rachel to show you the loveliness.

Afterwards we headed to the museum and had fun making fun of people shooting groceries with bows and arrows and calling it art. We couldn't get any pictures of the art because the security guards wouldn't let us. The exhibit was mainly this guy called Mark Bradford.  He glues paper together  into huge map collages.  

Here are our illegally snapped pictures

Below is our refection at the museum and the city over the harbor.  

 Here is a cool optical illusion for you.  A room that is not in perspective.  It was my favorite part of the museum.

 I love the great glass elevator.  We didn't see Willy Wonka. :(

fun fun fun

Valances

Since we moved here I have wanted to have valances put up in the kitchen. I looked around for some I liked but I could not find anything.  It seems all the stores have these days are panels, or if I was lucky enough to find a valance it was made out of ugly fabric.  So I waited until JoAnns had a sale on their patterns and got one I liked.  Then I waited until fabric was on sale and I got that too.  I found it very difficult to settle on one fabric. So here is the before picture.

I sewed it with my new sewing machine and was so fun! I am probably going to go crazy with the sewing for the next little while.  Sewing with a pattern was new to me and I had to sit and think about the directions for several hours before I actually knew what they were talking about.

Here is the finished product and I love it.  Eventually I will get some cool napkin rings to put each tab through for extra bling but I haven't found them yet.  

Now I wish I could lower the picture frame to break up that brown line but the huge hole from the porch light (that was there previously) makes that impossible.  Oh well. But I love my VALANCES!! whoo hooo!

Birthday for my love

I made McKay a birthday cake since I will be gone (bringing home the bacon) on his real birthday.  Yeah it sucks, but you have to do what you have to do, right? This was my first time using the family secret recipe for making the perfect cake.  Behold...

 Apparently McKay's favorite cake is Black Forest Cake, a recipe from his mom and the Four Ingredient Cookbook.  It has cherry filling, pudding/cool whip frosting, and lots of chocolate cake.

Yumm!

Snow Day

Even as a grown up there is nothing more cool than a snow day.  McKay's school was canceled and we just spent the day hanging out without any responsibilities.  I'm sure we should have gone sledding or something, but I have no idea where an undeveloped hill is. The snow was coming down pretty dang hard.  It's a good thing McKay got snow boots for Christmas.

Snow slowing down to flurries.  

        

 That evening McKay and I shoveled out the walk and hoped that school was canceled tomorrow as well.  It wasn't. So we declared it an unofficial snow day and stayed in again.