blacksburg winter

i stole this picture from one of my friends, mary. she is an incredible photographer/person. mountains in the snow are so so beautiful. i love being at home with my family!

oh empo

i got in to blacksburg last night for the holidays! it is AMAZING to be home. mom has already decorated everything. there is a beautiful tree. its gorgeous outside and so much sunlight comes into the house. i'm sitting on a gorgeous, comfortable couch watching a big screen tv and there is a carpet on the floor. i get to hang out with mom all the time. life is good. wanting to share this goodness with jim/sara/mom's cat i decided to get him geared up to sit outside with me to enjoy the sunlight. he seemed excited to go outside - when i brought the little vest thing and lease over he started making lots of noise and rubbing against my leg! we went outside and he laid down in the dirt right away. we chilled out but i noticed he was breathing fast - maybe just excited? then he sat outside the door so i opened it to see if he wanted to go inside (so lame). he hovered at the door jam smelling everything. i wanted to tell him: be an explorer and stay outside. i know it's scary and different but it's SO GREAT out here. it will be ok. and i thought, how many times in life do i turn away from adventure because it's scary or different or hard without even knowing i am standing in a door jam too? empo chose to go inside after a minute or two. unfortunately i had perched the leash on the outdoor grill, which fell and scared him. but since it's attached to him it "chased" him inside and he started running and freaked out. then it got stuck under the couch so he got stuck near the christmas tree and by the time i got in his eyes were so big looking at me. sorry empo! now he is hiding from me downstairs. and i'm about to watch a movie and wrap christmas presents!

world's smallest snowman greets you

this snowman is 1/5 the width of a human hair! science is the coolest.

thanks to those crazy kids at the national physical laboratory <3

eeeeeeeeeeep

just woke up on a glorious, rainy sunday. mistakenly checked my school/work email. apparently there is a meeting TUESDAY and if you don't come, you are no longer allowed to work on the study. this meeting is necessitated because "certain events have transpired."

if you're me you start wondering .....
did i do something?
did i screw up a research study? (seems doubtful)
why do things have to sound so freaking ominous?i'm not going to let this work email turn me into a little black rain cloud of doom today.

a plate of minerals

today i'm going to the science museum for some stellar christmas gifts. also i have decided to incorporate a plate of pretty rocks into my room. i'll keep you posted.

the end of an era

our planets have graced the hall for almost 2 years. inspired by colin's 29th birthday, the planets were magnificent. we've moved on.


turns out the boys love flowers.

bad decisions

3 weeks ago i caught bronchitis. smarty that i am, when things got bad i went to the NP and was prescribed some cough syrup, antibiotics, and told to take good care of myself. idiot that i am, i didn't really listen and continued living the life of a rockstar/nurse. one night i started laughing so hard it turned into a cough and just wouldn't stop. i ended up separating cartilage from the bone in 2 of my ribs.
this is what bad decisions feel like.

off the map

last week i watched INTO THE WILD. it was a good movie with beautiful shots but ultimately i came away feeling: i could never be that dude.

before i digress, let's send some peace and happiness to his family who miss him.

driving home yesterday to richmond, traffic was heavy and stressing me out. i decided to utilize my GPS machine and take some sweet back roads.

gorgeous, right? before i knew it, i was in the middle of jefferson national forest on a dirt road with no cell phone service. the first 15 minutes were pure beauty and enjoyment. thirty minutes in i had the thought that a weaker woman would be crying. i was off the map and i got nervous: what if something happened to my car? when would i be found if something happened to me? no one knew i was taking this back road (if it could even be called that). i tried to focus on driving safely and how beautiful the forest was. i put on some tunes to try and calm down. finally, i passed another car that clearly possessed an errant GPS as well. i was so happy i took a picture:after 45 endless minutes, i popped out of the forest and was on a paved road! with cars!! i immediately pulled over to a scenic overlook to call my brother.


next time i'm off the map, i need to be better prepared.

mandolin madness

sometimes i think about what i could add to my life that would make it even better. lots of time, i think learning to play the mandolin would fit the bill. really this all started a few years ago and reached a fevered pitched when i heard chris thile's "wayside (back in time)". while i haven't started playing the mandolin yet, i still think it will probably happen in the near future. maybe 5 years.

yippeeeee

a series of pictures

in florida a few years ago...

take 1:
me: hahaha. jim, mom looks like she hates you
jim: unbelievable. take it again

take 2:
jim: now who looks like they don't want to be here?

these plants are siblings

we probably couldn't tell but they can. turns out chemical signaling/love happens in plants too and they will share their space with relatives and not try to out-compete. kinda like these kids:

whoosh

this week was really hard on me emotionally, mostly because i am so new at dealing with traumas and codes in the hospital. so much sadness made my heart hurt a lot for other people and for the world we live in. i think it is part of the growing process - maybe i am stretching my heart out for more love in the future.

i do want to say this to anyone who is reading this and may not see loss as graphically or as frequently as those of us at the hospital:

be gentle with each other
give and show lots of love
believe in hope

in the end, i am not sure anything matters more. in those last moments - between calling loudly for whatever meds and tools we need - that is what is spoken of, what is given, and what i hope is also taken between this world and the next.

monday night dinner

lasagna lover = me

everyone just relax

i believe in biological diversity. so should you. for this reason i signed up for the Center of Biological Diversity's email list. my lastest email came with this subject line:

HELP SAVE WALRUS FROM MASSIVE STAMPEDE DEATH

i'd love to.

happy halloween

hope yours was wickedly wonderful. mine definitely was, mixed with lots of rain.

brief recap

this week has been kinda stressful/unpredictable/totally typical of life. needless to say, as i sit in my class learning about complementary and alternative medicines, i'm taking a mind vacation back to my best weekend ever with my cousin to restore my equilibrium.

twins

animal sightings!!

(but let's forget some)

everyone is on the porch at scout's house. yes please.

we're women. we cook. we use placemats. but only placemats with monkeys.

pumpkins and ice-pops. welcome-to-richmond halloween.

alissa, i'm so glad i have you in my life. i love who you are as a woman and i'm so proud of you. amen amen amen amen

curious combination

where can i get a pair of these shoes?

oh snap

i woke up this morning after an AMAZING weekend with my cousin feeling worn out and not ready to face the week. staggered into work looking like this:

drank so much coffee my stomach hurt for the next 5 hours.

had to come home and study for my test tomorrow.

basically, life sucks without alissa.

so happy

last night i was in a boat on the river, chilling with 5 amazing friends, looking at the city i love illuminated by lights.




i am too too lucky.

ALISSA IS COMING! ALISSA IS COMING!

50% reunion begins FRIDAY. can't hardly wait. here are some activities i have planned:
1. warm naps
2. river when sunny
3. walk-abouts
4. cooking delicious food
5. sewing machine creations
6. socialization with peers
7. numerous video chats with mutual loved ones
8. exploring on bikes
9. late night talks
10. matching tattoos?

so so so so so so so excited.

terrific tuesday

let's get happy

don't give me that look

my patients on monday were full of spirit. i came back to see this elderly couple - she hasn't been controlling her blood sugars well. she's a diabetic. all she's been eating is fruit. only fruit. now in my world, this would cause my preceptor to go "LORD, CHILD! What is this woman doing to herself?!?" in my world, what is happening to her body is a big deal. i try to talk with her about what is going on. she says she is GOING to eat fruit.

keep it up.

a lot of times too i think people just don't know things so i always try to educate. when i am in a bad mood, this may come across as fear tactics. i'm basically like:
listen lady, don't you know you can't play around with your blood sugars. diabetes causes blindness, kidney failure, and amputations.... she just keeps saying, "SO?!? SO?!?!"


why am i in healthcare again?

festival of india

rocking my new silk scarf.

glorious genome

this is the:

"highest-resolution picture ever of the genome’s three-dimensional structure.

The picture is one of mind-blowing fractal glory, and the technique could help scientists investigate how the very shape of the genome, and not just its DNA content, affects human development and disease.

For decades, some cell biologists suspected that the genome’s compression wasn’t just an efficient storage mechanism, but linked to the very function and interaction of its genes.

In mathematical terms, the pieces of the genome are folded into something similar to a Hilbert curve, one of a family of shapes that can fill a two-dimensional space without ever overlapping — and then do the same trick in three dimensions. How evolution arrived at this solution to the challenge of genome storage is unknown. It might be an intrinsic property of chromatin, the DNA-and-protein mix from which chromosomes are made.

“How much variation is there in structure across cell types? What controls it? Exactly how important is it? We don’t know,” said Dekker. “This is a new area of science.”

"Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless." — Paul Bowles

sometimes i forget how finite it all is too. good thing love never ends.

sneak peek

for alissa:

weekend adventures

i just uploaded all my pictures so i want to share them, which is why i keep posting photos, photos, photos. one day i woke up and it was so so pretty - fall is being glorious this 2009. i wanted to play outside with a puppy but i didn't have one so i made a few calls. then, dog and friend in hand we walked to a hidden park near my house. in this picture one silly tree has decided it is already well into fall:

scout is being dora the explorer in the park.


changing leaves: just the tip, just to see how it feels

meet james

i discovered a whole other side to the river thanks to a new purchase by some of my rockstar friends.
thanks guys! oh hey richmond.

hell yeah, i'm 28

the day was a lot of magic.






i am so so lucky.