PT test

After finishing my PT test:
-Sit ups: 48
-Push ups: 25
-1.5 mile run: 13:30

What a night...

Last night was a crazy night...

It figures on the nights that I bring all kinds of fun stuff to do, all the drunks of Korea decide to go out in masses...

As soon as I finished working out, and had showered (thank goodness), we got a 911 call that there was a drunk guy who tried to jump out a second story window. The security forces were able to tackle him to the ground and stop him...otherwise my work would have been much more involved.

Once the medics arrived on scene to get the jumper, there was another patient having a difficulty breathing. They took her back instead. So while I was trying to figure out suffocating girl, jumper showed up...

Once they were all stabilized and I finally sat down to my DVDs of Grey's Anatomy (thanks for the loner Katie), we got another call. The next patient was a female who was out with her husband. Apparently there was a fight, long story short, he punched her in the face. She was hysterical as you can imagine. She had a blood alcohol 3x the legal limit. Once she was sobered up a bit, she admitted to me that he does this regularly. But since she loves him and all that B.S. she won't say a thing...

It is easy to judge a woman like that, but it wasn't that long ago I was in that same situation...okay so it was a long time ago- over 14 years. I thought that he was the one, but really he was just an idiot. After every time things got out of hand, he swore it was the last time- and stupidly I believed it.

So publicly I would like to thank that idiot from High School- you taught me more than anyone else about life. People will lie to your face, take advantage of you, and take what they want. Nobody will stand up for you. You have to do it yourself. That retard showed me that you have to teach people how to treat you. If you allow it to happen, it will.

The other night at work, one of the techs was looking at a picture of my residency class. She told me that I was a success story. My reply was to down play my success. I said I was just "lucky".

Her response floored me... "Well you didn't just trip and fall and wind up a doctor. You had to work at it."

She is right. I did a lot of work. If I had believed idiot from High School, God knows where I would be.

I just hope that girl in the ER realizes she deserves more.

101 in 1001...

Okay, I have been slacking on this... but since Joe and Jordy are gone, I really have nothing else to do...

I am going to start on my 365 project. This is taking a picture of myself every day for the next year! So I am not clear on all the rules, but to make things interesting (and since it is my own goal- I will make them up as I go).

everyday I will take a picture of myself.
I will post it. although I imagine there may be times when I do a bunch at a time....
Other people can be in the photo to keep it interesting...

Here is photo #1

This is a group of people I work with out at a club.

Only two more months...

My life is punctuated in count downs.... I am forever counting down to something.

But this is the most painful countdown ever....

I have two more months until I get to cuddle my little Jordy again. Two more months until I can snuggle with Joe and watch the Simpsons in bed and laugh at the same jokes we have heard a million times.

I used to be a fully self sufficient adult female human, now I am so lost without my family. I actually went into work tonight b/c I had nothing else to do. I voluntarily saw a patient to pass the time.

Then b/c it is the fourth of July, I watched a few fireworks, ate a slice of apple pie...felt incredibly lonely and then went back to my dorm room. Then I watched Sex and the City.

All alone...

Joe and Jordy went back to California to visit family three days ago...I am so bored!

I don't know what on earth I did before I chased Jordy around all the time! My entire adult life I have always lived with Joe! Some surprising things have occurred in the last few days of being alone- turns out I am not as clean as I thought I was. Joe isn't the source of all messiness in my life! It is nice being able to sleep in though without Jordy to wake me up- although I would give anything to wake up to his babblings right now!

Actually I am not really too bored b/c there is too much stuff to do. I moved back onto base. The movers are coming the 2nd of July to pack up the apartment. I have to move all the stuff around- stuff I want to keep with me, stuff to go to Florida. Plus I have to get the car ready to ship back to the states. My PT test is in two weeks- I have to run 1.5miles, do as many push-ups and sit ups in one minute. I wasn't worried about the test until I did something to my back and now am hobbling around. We'll see how it goes...

I am working nights for the rest of June and all of July- right now I am trying to stay awake. My dorm room does have some advantages; air conditioning 24/7, access to a real washer and dryer, close to work (about 100 feet), close to friends. But all that goodness pales in comparison to the biggest negative- no Joe and Jordy.

Korean Folk Village

Yesterday we went with some friends of ours to the Korean Folk Village.

It was one of those places that I kept wanting to go to, but never got around to it. So yesterday when Trent asked if we wanted to join his family- I jumped at the chance.

We got to dress up in traditional Korean clothes and took some pictures. Joe wasn't to thrilled, and you can see from the beginning pictures that Jordy wasn't thrilled either. Thanks to the comedy stylings of Tammy and Trent, Jordy did smile pretty for the camera!

The entire place was really interesting and I had a great time. They had all kinds of traditional Korean homes- a mansion, a farmer, peasant, etc. They had pottery displays, horse show, acrobats- what a fun place!
Some things get lost in translation!

Here is a picture of Trent's Family! Jordy is going to miss the boys so much!

DMZ

Yesterday we went on a tour of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. In the above picture, the land just on the other side of the river is North Korea.

It was a long day! We left at 7 AM and didn't get back until almost 7PM. It was a really interesting trip. We learned about the Korean war, all about life in North Korea, and got to go into the conference room and stand on the North Korean side! So technically Joe and I have now been to North Korea!

We saw a North Korean soldier on their side of the line. He is the guy in the picture with the dark green uniform.
In the above picture, the door immediately behind us goes into North Korea. We have heard stories of the North Korean soldiers pulling people through the door...fortunately they didn't want Joe or me!

The most interesting part of the tour was the story about Operation Paul Bunyan. Apparently several people were killed while trying to cut down a tree that blocked the view from one of the guard towers. It is a story that really emphasizes how retarded the North Koreans are. The UN officials went to go cut down the tree, the N. Koreans rushed out trying to stop them. They killed 2 UN men with an axe. Eventually to cut down the damned tree they had to have the entire Korean peninsula on red alert, tons of military special forces went in to take care of the tree. This is the site of the tree.
Here's a picture of me on the UN side. The blue building to the left in the picture is the conference room. The two soldiers there are South Korean. Between the two buildings is a gravel strip that leads to the line between the two countries. The big building in the back is North Korean. If you enlarge the picture you can see the North Korean soldier on the top of the stairs.

China Pictures

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

China...

Joe, Jordy, and I just got back from Beijing. We were there for four days total. Because we were short on time we decided to do a private tour. The tour because we were nervous about being in China and not speaking Chinese (most Koreans speak English around the base in S. Korea). The private tour because we didn't want to make other people suffer through our wonderful child's temper tantrums- something he has become quite good at these days.

When we got off the plane in Beijing, we were met with our tour guide who took us to a waiting van and we were off...we had hoped to the hotel to freshen up and rest a bit- but instead we launched into a full of touring right off the bat. This was bad news considering we had been up since 4AM and had already endured at least four of Jordy's temper tantrums. I was sweating buckets and couldn't find my deoderant- yummy!

We drove by the Olympic stadium- the bird's nest and the water cube. It was raining and we really didn't feel like touring, much less like stomping around in pouring rain to look at buildings.

Then we got out and went to Tieneman Square. Our tour guide told us all about the history, it was pretty amazing! We also went to the forbidden city on that day. Poor Joe and I were ready to drop dead by the end of day one. Of course when we got back to the room and tried to sleep, Jordan suddenly got a 15th wind and was ready to go! After Joe finally got him settled down, I tried to get on the internet.

Come to find out that none of our American or Korean plugs would work. My good friend Pat will be amazed to learn, that there is another type of outlet! I called down to the front desk to ask for a power converter. In ten minutes a beef burger was delivered to our door. So much for the English speaking staff!

The next day we went to the Great Wall. I expected to have great awe and admiration for this huge feat of human engineering. The wall at one time was a continuous structure. Really it was somewhat disappointing. We went to the Badaling section of the wall, and decided to go to the less crowded side- b/c it was also less steep.

I can't even imagine what the steep side was like, because our side was just awful. The steps were so steep that Jordy couldn't even attempt to climb them! Joe and I had a spat over him trying to climb. After I assured him that Jordan could at least go up with some assistance, Jordan fell and scraped his chin. Luckily I was there to keep Joe from seeing the blood on his chin. Surely if Joe saw the blood, the climb of the wall would be over!

Miraculously we made it up to the first guard tower. I had to carry Jordy the entire way. My legs are still sore 5 days later! Joe was terrified we were going to miss a step and plummet to our deaths. I kept seeing decrepit old women go up and down the steps and thought we could manage.

By the time we made it to the top, I was drenched in sweat. Joe was pissed that I was putting us in such peril. Jordan was mad I wouldn't let him walk on his own, also still bleeding from his chin.

At the guard tower we made it to, the view was incredible.

I am glad we went to the wall, but would recommend making sure you are wearing good shoes (I wore silly little black flats), and leave little ones at home!

The rest of the trip went well. My favorite part was the shopping at the markets. They are like giant swap meets. We got some good stuff for pretty cheap. Also I got a cheap watch, that stopped working 4 minutes after I set it! Oh well!

We're Not dead yet...

With the news of North Korea testing nuclear weapons and denouncing the treaty, we are starting to get a bit nervous...

Somebody from the base called and asked Joe if he knew how to use his gas mask (yes we were all given gas masks when we got here). If the news stories didn't freak us out, that surely did.

We are talking about Joe and Jordy going back to the states, possibly soon.

I am not jumping up and down to be alone here for two and a half months, but would feel awful if we didn't get them to a safe place and something bad did happen.

For the next two months I will be on nights anyways- and I hardly see them when I am work nights. But it will be pretty lonesome...

This saturday we are supposed to go to China. I am hoping my leave doesn't get cancelled.

My plea to North Korea- please play nice until the 15th of June so we can have our vacation.

Lost in Seoul

I had to take an ACLS class (advanced cardiac life support) class in Seoul on Thursday and Friday. Several other people from the med group got approval to stay up at the army base where the class was being held last month so I figured I would do the same. When I turned in my papers, I was denied b/c they had spent too much money on the previous groups. I didn't think much of it and figured I would just take the bus up.

The morning of the class I arrived at the bus station at 645 ready for the 7AM bus. Much to my surprise there was no 7AM bus! So that meant I had to drive up. I stopped at the ER and got directions and I was off...

I got lost on the way to the freeway and circled around for quite a while. Then I had to sit in traffic for an hour. Finally I made it, but I was 30 minutes late. Luckily the main instructor was super nice and didn't mind that I was late.

The real problems started when I had to go home...

One wrong turn and it was over...

I realized I was going the wrong way, and tried to get off the freeway. There was a freeway exit and I figured it would lead to a street where I could turn left and get on the freeway exit on the other side....nope. Didn't happen. The off ramp was actually a link to a bridge that led across the river. Once on the other side of the river I had to choose between all kinds of other freeways that I had never heard of.

I found another bridge and took that back across the river trying to get back to the 1 freeway. Long story short, I circled the river for two hours! Going back and forth, back and forth over the river. Each time I thought it was an off ramp and took it, suddenly I was on a whole new freeway.

Frantically I called the ER to talk with one of our Korean guys. I tried to explain where I was, "I am on a freeway. There are lots of Korean people all around me. I am going under a bridge right now. I am directly under the earth's sun..." Mysteriously no one could tell me where I was, and I couldn't read any of the signs to tell them where I was.

I called Joe and had him try to look at our GPS and asked him to navigate me home. This should bring anyone who knows my husband to tears b/c Joe is the worst person at directions I have ever seen. After a few minutes of talking I realized this was a lost cause.

So it was me against the road.

I am proud to say that 2.5 hours later, running on fumes in my little Kia Avella, I eventually found my way back to the 1 highway.

In Korea they have gas stations on the side of the freeway- you don't even have to exit the freeway, just pull over to it. They are kind of positioned like rest stops. I pulled into one and got gas.

3.5 hours after I left my ACLS class on Thursday, I finally arrived at home.

By then I was fuming mad that my request to stay up at the base where the class is being held was denied. Plus, I forgot to mention, there were other people from my hospital that had their requests approved, and we were in the same class. Murderous Rage building....

P90x continues...

Last night I did the Yoga workout...I hated it. I have tried in the past to like yoga, it seemed so relaxing. When we lived in S. California, I used to get up early on Saturday to make it to a yoga class. There in the 24 hour fitness group exercise room, I would stretch and breath and hold weird body positions for one hour. At the end of it I didn't feel any fitter, stretchier, or more at peace.

Finally I had to accept the fact that I don't like yoga.

I like a workout that leaves my muscles achy, my body drenched in sweat, and when I wake up the next morning I had better feel it.

The P90x yoga workout is 90 minutes! That's right, an entire hour and a half! I only made it through 30 minutes b/c I was ready to shoot myself by then. I did add in the 10 minute ab workout afterwards out of guilt.

We'll see how today goes...legs and back day.

Everland

We went to Everland yesterday. It is the Korean Amusement Park, basically it is a gigantic rip of Disneyland. They even have a version of It's a Small World.

Jordan's favorite part was the petting zoo. Joe couldn't go into the Butterfly Garden. Actually he did go in,but had to run out almost immediately. Too many butterflies fluttering around his head. For my mom's sake, I won't post those photos (she has a crippling fear of butterflies).

Now let's try that again...

Joe and I started doing the P90x workout about two weeks ago. Then I got really sick and worked everyday for a while. I did try to keep going with the workouts, but had to stop when I had a fever and nearly dropped dead when I came home.

So now that I am fully recovered, I am trying again. Tonight I resumed the workouts.

Some of the workouts are really hard. All of them are about an hour. But the results the infomercial showed really were outstanding. Plus one of the nurses I work with had great results. He highly recommended the program.

So off we embark on another fitness goal...I will be really proud of myself if I can do the first 30 days. That is my goal, complete P30x as Joe has nicknamed it...then we will worry about the next 30 days...

The most perfect B-day picture ever!

Some of our good friend's son was having his third birthday. It was kind of a big deal since I got to be at his birth! When Stacey delivered via C-section, I got to be the baby nurse! While she was being sewn back together, I got to make sure that little Elijah was doing okay.

Now that kiddo is already 3 years old! Wow how time flies!

All of the kids were excited to eat the beautiful cake, made by Dr. Sarlay's wife. I felt just awful when Jordan walked right up to it and stuck his hand in the frosting. You had to forgive him though, it was after all his time attending a birthday party

Then when Elijah blew out the candles- he spit all over the cake! You can actually see the stream of saliva pouring out of his mouth in the picture! So hilarious! Kids are wonderful!

Here are all the wives!

And all the kids! Plus two of them are missing...

Beautiful skirt giveaway!

Hey check this out! Maybe I will win it! Milk Weed Skirt

What's in the bag?

Today was a crazy day...to make matters worse this guy came in who had cut off his finger.

Surprisingly he was very calm. He was more patient that some of the coughs and colds we had waiting to be seen.

Then the most amazing thing was when we were discussing reattaching the finger- he didn't want to be a bother! He said if it was too much trouble we didn't need to bother!

The Ortho doc came down and took a look and said just to close up the skin over the bone and to let him go home. So that is what I did.

Good News!

I have nearly recovered for the worst cold I can ever remember having. It all started last Thursday and progressively got worse until just yesterday. We are talking fever, body aches, sinus pressure, coughing all night keeping everyone up, coughing so hard I vomited (all over the bed!), losing my voice...it was wonderful. Oh did I mention that I worked still, no one to cover for me :(

So today is the first day I have felt like a human being in a long time! Hooray!

Some of my faves...

I just love the internet.

I wanted to share some of my favorite sites:

Awful Plastic Surgery is one that has all kinds of celebrities and their bad surgery. Very funny!

Evil Beet Gossip has all kinds of delicious celebrity gossip.

Enjoy!

V

Do you remember that series called "V" that was out in the early 80's?

It was the highlight of my family's week! Every Friday night we would go out to eat at Bob's Big Boy. Then we would shop at Fedco and buy all kinds of yummy snacks and chocolate. Then we would rush home and watch V!

The series was about an alien race that invaded earth. At the time it was the greatest show ever! It had great special effects and the aliens would peel off their skin- it looked so real!

My favorite part of the entire thing was the routine. I liked the dinner, shopping, and then watching a show with my entire family. For evening a week we all ate together, shopped together, and sat through an entire show. There was no fighting, no interruptions. We all got along and enjoyed eachothers company.

Now that I have my own family, I wanted to recreate the experience. After years of searching for V, I found it! I bought it, I watched it...and I must say it was a bit disappointing. What seemed like the best and most realistic special effects in 1980s are just silly by today's standards. The acting is way over the top- almost like a soap opera.

Although the show itself is a disappointment, I do really like snuggling up with Joe (and sometimes Jordy too- but most of the time he runs around playing with his cars) and spending time together. Except instead of raving about what a great show it is, we laugh at how hokey it is!

I do feel very fortunate to re-create one of my favorite childhood memories...next a houseboat trip to Lake Powell!