Browse Category: work

McWineFest

Last night the PediRehab girls and I had an evening of Chicken McNuggets and wine on the roof of my building.  It was a calm evening in the break of two rainstorms so it was perfect for our plans.

Ordering food for the 5 of us and Jesse was ridiculous.  We ordered 30 McNuggets, 2 McWraps, 3 large fries, a McChicken sandwich.  On top of that, Jes warmed up Patty’s tofu nuggets in our oven since she had given up meat for Lent.

To make things more interesting, we ate by the light of a mini MagLight.  Everyone brought a bottle of wine, Patty brought the cups, and rooftop Happy Hour was complete!  Jes actually joined us for the first time and then a husband and a boyfriend showed up a little later.

To top off the night, we played McNugget Buddies Bingo – yep, you read it…McNugget Buddies Bingo does exist.  I happened to open the cabinet in one of our smaller treatment rooms at the hospital the other day and found this awesome awesome game.

It was a gorgeous night in the city and we had a lot of good laughs and a happy happy time.

I filled my brain, heart, and tummy.

I traveled down to LA by myself this past weekend to 1) take a weekend course, 2) spend time with the family, and 3) eat some tasty food. I did all three and it was a very satisfying 4 days.

On Friday morning, I boarded the plane and had some reading to do.  Unfortunately my highlighter wasn’t cooperating and exploded.  *sigh*  This is the view from my window as we were descending.  Look at all the tiny containers waiting at the train station!  And the air was clear enough to see Downtown LA in the distance.

Once Mommy picked me up, we stopped for spicy bowl of Thai Boat Noodle Soup. Aaah…  After an afternoon of errands with Mommy, we drove up to Beverly Hills with Brother and Joy for our favorite meal:

Lawry’s Prime Rib with all the fixins. Woohoo!

On Saturday I spent all day at a Rehab facility in Brea that just blew me away. It’s amazing how much space, equipment, and resources they had there!!! On Saturday night, the sibs met up with me and Mommy in Cerritos for some Sun Du Bu at BDC. We also had made a stop at Yogurtland for my $1.34 treat.

On Sunday, I finished Day Two of my course and got a lot of hands-on practice and treatment ideas to take home with me. That evening, Brother and Joy picked me up and we had some sushi, drinks, and popcorn. The night was finished off with a glass of Minute Maid Fruit Punch (a Chimmy Family favorite) and passing out in the livingroom with the TV on. It’s funny how some things never change.

On Monday morning, I had an Eggo waffle (another Chimmy Family fave) and Brother dropped me off at LAX on his way to work and I had a Pinkberry original with fresh strawberries and shredded coconut. Only in LA can you get such a treat. It was only my third time having Pinkberry and it’s finally grown on me. I actually liked it this time. I arrived in SF by 10:30 am and made it home on public transit by 11:45 am leaving me with the rest of the day to unpack, wait for the appraiser to come and make measurements, and go for a run.

What an awesome weekend.

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.

Zen in 2010

Last month at work, we were all feeling burnt out and needed a big attitude change for the sake of our patients. So, we decided to kick off the new year last Saturday with a slumber party at Steph’s house in Livermore. We cheesed it up even more by calling it our “Zen in 2010 Party”.

The grown-ups joined us in the evening for a buffet of appetizers and drinks and a very entertaining board game. Sue, my manager, even brought a handy-dandy s’mores maker and whipped up some cocktails for us.

After the grown-ups went home, we finished up the wine, played MASH, made some friendly crank calls to our friends, and fell asleep to “The Little Mermaid”. There were definitely a lot of laughs and hijinks that night.  We all slept in the livingroom in sleeping bags and woke up to a scrumptious breakfast that Stephanie prepared for all of us.

I hadn’t been to a sleep-over in a VERY long time and I think it was more fun than any teeny-bopper party that I had ever been to.  Here are the photos.

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)

Happy Friday

Alicia's Last Day

On Friday, it was my intern’s last day and the past 12 weeks with her have been fun.  We had some tough kids and she did a great job with them.  She’s moving back to New Jersey on Monday so she wasn’t available to go out that evening.

MoMo's

But of course, the Rehab girls and I went out anyway.  We took the super duper carpool lane on the bridge that afternoon and had a well-deserved Happy Hour in the city.  What fun!