Tag Archive

…on Friday the Thirteenth, mwahaha:

• “Educational Comics” from Image and Narrative
• Cartoons about cooking from The Cartoonist Group
• Cooking with Matt Wagner from Comic Book Resources
• Matzo brei remix in another language
• Cheap Thrills, a culinary comic
• Tako, a cartoon octopus: “the only cooking show hosted by an appetizer”
• Cook’s Illustrated:  the New Best Recipe
• America’s Test Kitchen:  Family Cookbook
• Cuisine at Home
• Ma Gastronomie - best French cooking
• Autobiogiographix - includes the Comic Book Chef
• Logos
• Business
• Manga Cookbook

Okay, so I’m getting off track.  Happy 23rd birthday, Siwei.

Friday.  Christina Tam and I met at Borders so we could carpool to watch Slant.  Craig Wen and Brian Thao-Huane were there, too.  I skipped out on FBCC’s monthly social: Iron Chef!  The secret ingredient was mango, and I heard the results were better than expected.  Jacky called at around 9pm to ask if I could watch their belongings while they did a run the next morning.  Uh..sure….

Saturday.  Christina and I again met at Borders to carpool to Jacky’s apartment, where Ted drove us four to be at Minute Maid Park at 7am.  They prepared, clipping on their running numbers, drinking water in the small cups being passed out, and stretching amongst the air “people” that would occasionally hit us (the way the air was blown and all).  We saw a man on stilts pretend he was a super-tall person, making balloon animals.  The girl and guy bunny suits wearing Astros attire came around to take pictures with the kids and whoever else wanted.  I’ve never participated in this sort of thing, so Jacky explained how it worked.  He paid $25 to participate, but they would get two free Astros tickets with an option of choosing from four games in the future (June 10, 11, 24, and/or 25).  They give you a timer that will start as soon as you step onto their carpet they have at the starting line and would stop when you step on the carpet at the finish line.  Some runs ask you to return the trakcer/timer, but this time they said the runners/walkers could keep it.  This is Ted’s first time, and afterwards he looked pretty winded (was it his knee, since he had a brace on? didn’t ask).  Jacky ran ahead.  Denver stayed with Ted. 

Christina needed coffee, so we walked around downtown.  We saw the “oasis” in front of Christ Church Cathedral–Christina couldn’t believe such a nice place in the middle of downtown.  She said she’d still feel unsafe walking around by herself, if I wasn’t with her.  I also saw some people waiting outside the Urban League.  We finally found this free-standing building all by itself on one side of the street to be Starbucks (good thing we used the map that the city provides atop the sidewalk, thank you Houston!).  At 8am, I bought her a drink (a grande mmchip frapp for $4.50), then we rested for a few minutes (she was carrying her papers to be graded in a backpack, then she volunteered to also carry Jacky’s, Ted’s, and my belongings–heavy!).  We headed back, realizing the run had pretty much ended (that was fast).  We had to walk all the way around since the doors were locked.  When we entered, a wave of stench (sweat and gym) hit my nose (never liked that smell).  Denver saw us, and Jacky encouraged us to get some food (he had his shirt off–not that it was attractive because I barely glanced, but that always makes me feel uncomfortable for some reason).  I stood in line for some lettuce wrap with meat on top (reminds me of that Chinese dish).  Jacky said there were also kolaches, so I stood in line for that.  They lady said, “Ham and cheese?”  Sure.  “Two?”  Sure….  JT said hi, and I think his girlfriend is Heidi.  She looks really familiar but I don’t know why.  Khon-Whey Tay was there with his two friends (they’re a couple of..Asian Indian descent?).  I wanted some fruit and found a pear within the tubs of water/ice/water bottles.  Was it supposed to be there?  I put it back, unsure of it’s cleanliness.  Later, after seeing many runners carrying fruit,  I realized I could use the water from the bottled water to clean it, but the pear was not there anymore.  Ah well.

I was so incredibly tired, even though I didn’t even participate, but since I wanted to have a somewhat normal sleeping pattern, I was determined to stay awake and not take a nap.  Christina and I went to Lowe’s to check out movies and their times.  Nothing particularly interested both of us, so we went to Fuddruckers at 11am.  By the time we arrived at her apartment, we would’ve completely missed the beginning of the movies we were debating on (sure bad at estimating time huh?).  We watched Stardust on her computer while eating lunch (I ate the big dog with chili and cheese while got the burger/fries/shake combo).  Phoebe called to watch the new Narnia movie.  So Christina quickly reviewed through the first Narnia movie on her computer, supplementing with verbal summarizations.  Then I browsed her books (she’s an English teacher at Kempner).  I asked about Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.  She has no idea why the play references that; she was famous in the literary world and the title is a play on “who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?”  She took a nap while I looked Woolf up: “Dreadnought Hoax was a practical joke pulled in 1910 by Horace de Vere Cole and five friends, including Virginia Stephen (later Virginia Woolf)…Modern diagnostic techniques have led to a posthumous diagnosis of bipolar disorder…The ethos of Bloomsbury discouraged sexual exclusivity, and in 1922, Woolf met Vita Sackville-West.”  She committed suicide.

Christina suddenly got up and realized that it was time to go.  Good going, Christina.  She, Phoebe, Linton, Hannah, Tina, James, Jonathan, and I watched Prince Caspian at 4:30pm at Lowe’s (barely missed the matinee price for movies before 4pm on Saturdays).  Christina left because she was pretty wiped out.  Chris was at work.  I joined them (and Ariel came, too) at Avalon Diner for dinner at 9pm.  I got the turkey/avocado omelette for $10.  They ran out of the recommended-by-the-waitress dish of steak and eggs.  Hannah’s order was right, but James and Jonathan’s dishes were a bit mismatched–Jonathan wasn’t bothered much, just got the pork version.  The main question discussed for the evening was, “If you didn’t believe in Jesus, what religious would you follow?”  Here’s the breakdown: Phoebe said Unitarian Universalism (or Ba’hai or whichever incorporates getting along with all religions, obviously none of us know much), Linton said Mormonism (he arrived back today from Utah for business), and I think the rest of them said atheism (or James said burning incense to ancestors).  I said atheism/agnosticism.

We walked to Borders and sat for a bit (Hannah checked to see if there were any sales).  Then Tina jumped on another’s suggestion to walk to the water, “Yes, Tina needs to walk.”  The girls chatted about clothing (I think Ariel’s going to a wedding), then Tina suggested we get ice cream since Hannah regretted not ordering a shake.  Cold Stone Creamery was near Lowe’s, so we spanned the entire complex I guess.  James is always asking if something is junk food or not, or making explanations that it isn’t junk food.  Yeah….  “Not today” says Jonathan, since he got some.  Hannah got coffee with heath (yum).  Hannah mentioned a quarterlife crisis, which James somewhat related.  Linton says he hasn’t reached there yet, that he is still on the way up/forward to something.  LOL, it was funny how James said that he loved it when he resigned.  I got home at midnight and crashed.

Sunday.  Charles and I drove to Elliot’s house, where the three of us met up to carpool.  (Elliot couldn’t convince Ed to come, and so Pepsi didn’t come either.)  Charles drove us to pick up Henry from his apartment then headed to Jack In the Box at 1212 for lunch.  I ordered four grilled chicken strips for $4.64 (felt like a ripoff).  Then we got to MFAH at 1pm.  We browsed around until 1:30, when they started seating us to watch Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.  The guys talked about having dirt on each other (and Ed Ly) and using it against each other, revealing it, etc.  We looked at the pamphlet they gave out for this Target Free Sunday (comparing the pictures of plants to their names).  Christina suddenly appeared and sat to my right right when the lights dimmed at 2pm.  I liked the movie because she was really going for understanding.  And she was amazing in all her abilities, as Lord Yupa already professed at the beginning of the movie.  Indeed, “What are you so afraid of?”  A lot of violence is borne out of fear of “the other.”  Henry says she should’ve died (there were Christian undertones), but Elliot said, “No, she has to live, so I can marry her” LOL!  Hey, she’s like Rocky and Gandhi put together, as Dave would say it, haha!  Who wouldn’t find her attractive?

Afterwards we went around to the exhibits (Pompeii wasn’t free).  Elliot teased Henry when he tried to explain one of the drawings on the wall, that the explanation didn’t exactly match what was written on the author plaque.  One artist painted Egypt abstractly (I don’t ever get it, so they make me annoyed).  We spent quite some time in the Korean exhibits.  Henry said he really liked the small wall-mounted plaque statue of the elephant in the other Asian exhibit.  Lastly, we observed the poles that important people carry/use.  Each had something on the top, so there were explanations.  Elliot really liked the one that went like, “Holding a kingdom is like holding an egg; hold it too hard and it’s crushed, hold it too loose and it will fall and break.”  Henry said he liked the quote that went something like, “A crab doesn’t give birth to a bird.”  The one that got me thinking was, “The hen knows it is dawn but lets the rooster crow.”  Christina found it to be anti-feminist.  Jacky called, so I called Wilson about football.  We sat around discussing the next step (board game?  buy Ziggity?  eat?).  Christina suggested we eat, Elliot of course suggested Fuddruckers (to which Christina got all excited about), Henry suggested Niko-Niko’s, and Charles jumped on that and made the decisive push to leave (5:30 pm).  I got the Hercules Plate.  Then we all left for home.  Charles stayed with Elliot to help him with his Microsoft Word.  I end up napping from 7:30 until 9 pm (sigh, so much for trying to stay up until nighttime).  Lil goo-goo took the trash out and left for her workplace.  I watched Dead Like Me because it was the only thing on and then went back to bed.

Jonathan wanted to have a prayer meeting so first we went to Yantze to eat.  Since my haircut Tuesday evening, I hadn’t really done anything to my hair because I didn’t want to bother with it.  I didn’t leave the house.  But I showered and worked on my hair with my Dad’s hairgel for a longer while than usual.  I got to the restaurant a bit early, planning to read a bit of the book Rebecca lent me.  However, I saw Steve Mar go inside so I went in as well to chat.  He told me about his credit cars, complimented me on my new haircut, told me about his haircuts, talked about enjoying blobbing (like a seesaw and jumping on so the other person flips up almost as high as the platform and then back into the water), etc.  Linton and Phoebe showed up and complimented me on the haircut.  I told Phoebe about the book Rebecca had lent me (that I hadn’t really started reading). 

Then Chris, Jing, James, Jonathan, Peter Lee, and Perry came.  The guys ordered family style (the 12-person combo wasn’t a deal).  Phoebe ordered hollow-heart vegetable (go, Phoebe! hehe).  Linton felt compelled to clean all the dishes, as always.  Jonathan introduced Perry, who they had met on Meta retreat.  Perry grew up in Portland, Oregon, and went to OSU for EE but then moved down here for his job (and doesn’t really know anyone).  We went around saying where we graduated from, where/when our job, and what our favorite food is.  Steve said Mexican, I said Chinese, Phoebe said curry, Linton said BBQ and anything cheap, James said ?, Chris said Chinese, Jing said steak, Peter said ?, Jonathan said spaghetti, and Perry said ?.  Michael and Eveline came later.  Jonathan’s really stepping up!

Outside, we took a group picture with Linton’s camera.  He said he would upload it (which I interpreted as onto facebook because the others were talking about facebook), so I asked him to email it to me (but the way he nodded I think he was thinking, I just said I would, so I guess he meant he would upload it onto his computer and subsequently email it to us).  Then, we dispersed to go to our cars to go to James’s apartment (I was hearing some guys asking who was driving and who was riding/carpooling).  Linton or James asked me if I knew how to get there, to which I answered not at the top of my head but as always will use the dependable GPS to direct me as in the past that I have gone to James’s place.  James responded with his usual, “Oh no!”  I did not think twice about it until I was going to put my GPS in place and James knocked lightly on the passenger side of my car.  I unlocked the door and he came in, so he could direct me.  I was annoyed because I don’t need anyone to direct me since I’ve already made multiple trips to his place by myself–the only reason anyone would do that is to talk to me (like if Phoebe had sat with me).  And usually that reason is fine–except in this case, because of our past conversations and incidents.  I was too upset (I’d admit it was disproportionate, which bothered made it all the more worse) to really think of how to address it appropriately and delicately (also because I was driving) so I listened as he told me he was starting a three-month-Bible-study-group boot camp.  In essence, with Simon Lee, they’d wake up like at 5 am to exercise before work.  It also involves no junk food for the three months (easy for me), memorizing verses, and….  I don’t know who else is doing it with him.  He can only miss two times or he’s kicked out (to prove his commitment).

We went around talking about our worst/best moment of the week.  We were all pretty vague and lackluster in our answers, until Peter remembered an incident that happened this past Tuesday.  I don’t think Chris would have mentioned it except that Peter brought it up.  Peter had ordered a drink for him, who was enjoying it when around 10 pm the security people started checking IDs around the bar.  Turns out Chris never renewed his driver’s license since January when our licenses expired.  So they literally snatched the glass from his hand and asked him to leave.  Then, he was told Friday mornings are the best times to go to the DPS so that’s what he did, except the line was so long he couldn’t wait without missing work, so he had to leave. 

Then prayer requests were next.  Linton shared that David Kalloor was driving from Austin to Houston right now–with two nails in his truck tire, with Rean in the passenger seat, and with eyes needing glasses (which he has not been prescribed yet).  Phoebe said, “When I think of something, I’ll let you know.”  I asked them to pray for my NBCOTE, although I had a lot of deeper issues that need prayer, but I wasn’t willing to tell this group about it.  But Michael and Peter were, if only but vaguely.  Michael in summary said he needed spiritual renewal.  Peter was even more vague, saying that whatever he had vaguely mentioned at the beginning of the year the situation is still the same.  It’s a “waiting game” that will “need some luck”, and he doesn’t know where he will be six months to a year from now.  Perry said he thought he was meeting up with his girlfriend but something about that didn’t work out, and that he needed time for himself in order to do things.  Chris said he didn’t have anything.  Jing said he’s leaving for Dallas tomorrow to talk with some people about a family and school issue (he went into details).  Jonathan shared about time management.  Steve and then James copied Chris and said they didn’t have anything.  Jonathan also prayed for Eveline (studying for her UH exams), Vickie (finding an apartment), and Braden (regarding his job situation).  I stayed some minutes to watch the Rockets (turns out last) game then left at 10 pm to drop off Phoebe.  Linton and James walked us out to my car.

The WHCC guys were at Meta retreat, and Linton apparently was taking a nap, so Elliot didn’t really come.  I met Chris at T. H. Rogers.  It was just the two of us, shooting around.  We played a game of HORSE, which he won (I was leading in the beginning, but he said what probably happened was that I kept trying to make three-pointers so my arms got tired).  At the end he sat down and rested.  I practiced some lay-ups, from both sides.  But playing by myself is even worse than just the two of us.  So I sat down in front of him, drinking my water.  I asked him if he missed Plano, to which he answered, “A little.”  He says he has lost touch with most of the people he knew from back there.  While we were walking away, Chris said that Linton was taking swing-dancing lessons.  I exclaimed that he invited me as well, except that I didn’t want to pay $40 at this time (which isn’t expensive for 4 weekly lessons, but I figure when I start I’d take more than that plus I don’t want to spend that kind of money right now without a job).  Chris said the money issue ($50 for guys I guess) was his same idea.

We went to Old Place Cafe (his choice) in Chinatown for dinner.  Jacky was napping when Chris called him for basketball, so he called back and joined us.  I got eight lamb dumplings (which were okay, not that fond of the lamb taste) and Chris always orders Dan-Dan Noodles.  He says that his friends never seem to particularly desire to come here to eat when he suggests it.  Jacky said he could understand.  He said that his Beef Noodle Soup tasted so bad that he wanted to buy a drink to wash out the flavor.  Yet he still finished it all (cleaner than Chris’s bowl, who said, “And I liked my food”); he admitted that the noodles were good because they were home-made.  Then we went over to the Dun Huang Supermarket area.  Chris got a strawberry drink from Juicebox and met Jacky at Star Snow Ice & Teriyaki.  When I went in, I saw Vivian and Christine from BASIC were sitting in the front corner eating dinner, so I went over to say hi and chat briefly.  We all forgot each other’s names, but it’s okay, we repeated them.  Then I joined Jacky and Chris.  Jason So? and Jen Chi Chen? came in.  They recognized my face (and Jacky’s) so we waved at each other.  Chris, who’s back was towards them, turned around to see who we were waving to, and they recognized him and stopped to talk with him.  Apparently, Andrea (who recently got married to Justin?) had recently moved into the same apartment that Chris had moved into.  They asked him how long he’s been in Houston, and that’s all I heard (wasn’t exactly straining to eavesdrop).

Did you know that Chris is sleeping on the ground in his apartment?  His guy friends have offered to help him move in, but you know him, naw that’s alright.  So his bed and other furniture is still in Nathan Kim’s room.  Chris is leaving his couch there.  But come on, his nice (it is a nice) bed?  Doesn’t that backfire on the purpose he got a new place so quickly?  Chris says his bedroom doesn’t have a window, so it’s really hard to tell when it’s time to wake up (circadian rhythms).  At that time when told us (in the car as we went to the Beacon last week), we were joking that he should draw a sun or something.  Anyway, he moved the smaller objects, like his television, his guitar, and his laptop (he somehow has free internet from somewhere).  I guess he doesn’t have a table either, which reminds me of what Sarah Su had said when she moved to Virginia: ”sleeping on an air mattress and having nowhere to sit other than a chair and a table makes you surprisingly stressed”–so I would imagine it would be even more unsettling to just use a box as a seat….

psi, why are we like this?  Maybe we need to check out something on http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/index.php?id=15933.  I keep wondering if we are so desperately not going in the right direction:  http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=19fd9c84c942a08316e0 (Paul David Washer).

Monday, April 21, 2008.  Rick’s recovering from attending the wedding (of Dr. Barber, psychiatrist, and Dr. Romero, psychologist) so he didn’t come in today.  Since Dr. Barber’s going to be gone for a month on his honeymoon, Dr. Coverdale covered rounds with us this morning.  Before I knew it, the morning was pretty much gone (around 10 or 10:30).  I don’t even know how it happened, because I had imagined that it felt dragged out, but it didn’t.  *Shrug*  I performed another KELS (she all-of-a-sudden put her head down and didn’t respond), had lunch, then administered the other KELS (to the one with GAD), as requested by Dr. Camp.  In the evening, Jeff picked me up to watch the Rockets game.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008.  Rick came back so Sally showed us the photographs she took :-D.  At home, Vickie told me about Jennifer Chung.  Her first original song, “Very Last Time,” if it were by one of the major pop artists I probably wouldn’t look twice, but this is an unsigned, rejected-from-American-Idol, Korean-American living in California who wrote and sang it!  I also baked Angel Food Cake (the bigger batch with pineapple as directed by Tiffany Lin and the smaller experimental batch with cocoa).  “Vicky is my UT friend I told you about that is at UTSA grad school for kinesiology.  She very nicely said that you can ask her questions about UTSA and becoming a PT” LOL!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008.  I attended rounds then finished writing up my last KELS.  Jennifer had a doctor’s appointment around noon so she again couldn’t join us (long awaited doctor’s appointment) as we went out to Black Walnut Cafe for my last week here.  Tiffani drove Elderine and me, while Sally drove Theo, Rick, and Janet.  Rick paid for my lunch and then offered to buy me dessert, so I picked the German chocolate cake ($6?) since the woman in front of us chose that.  I told them I brought angel food cake (which Jennifer had tasted in the morning for breakfast and loved the chocolate flavor).  When we came back from lunch, I had missed giving one of my patients her creatively painted pig (with specks of brown for mud/dirt).  Oh well.  I showed an informational video on bipolar disorder, which was ended early due to disinterest from the patients, haha.  I honestly couldn’t say much for one guy because really right now he looks normal, and Rick agrees, although he reminded me about the presenting incident, which I had forgotten to ask him about.  This is what the patient explained to me, since had told the doctor he felt he was getting better, but told me that really he’s saying that so he can get out (he’s here involuntarily).  The patient said that if someone kept saying I was a lesbian (and he reassured me that he wasn’t labeling me that), and that unless I accepted and said that I indeed believed I was a lesbian then I could go outside, then I would comply as well.  In the end, it would either be me still believing I was a heterosexual and just on the surface acknowledging I was a lesbian, or I would be brainwashed and be convinced out of repetition that I was in fact attracted to girls and not guys.  Anyway, later Rick sat in as I evaluated a new guy, probably to see if I had improved in that arena, since it was my weak point.  Linton had sent out an evite about going to see the iFest, Lucy, Hermann Park, and Star Pizza on Saturday - wow.  I went to bed at 9 pm.

Thursday, April 24, 2008.  Janet was early because she had to prepare for the psych booth of the health fair (which Rick helped to set up and Elderine/Tiffani/Jennifer also helped).  I called the PT about one of our patients who had problems walking recently (new decompensation) for some reason.  I did my last rounds, and my last cooking group (which accumulated 68 RVUs for Rick since Janet was busy with the health fair).  During lunch we had free lunch from the fair, and I also went around grabbing some free items.

Friday, April 25, 2008.  Rick again negotiated the groups so I could finish early.  I could leave at lunch, but I joined them and actually tried the angel food cake I had brought.  Rick showed me his FWPE scores to him and announced that I had passed the rotation, YAY!  Then I could leave, but not until after I filled out the evaluation of the rotation form and turned it in.  Rick and Tiffani said that all the other students were out the door the second the signal was given.  I also had to say goodbye to my patients (even the new one I evaluated today haha), the nurses (Loida said to call them once in awhile), the psych techs (Victor keeps saying that I’m always one of the first to work with the difficult patients), even the new med students (Bo, Lan Lan, and Charlotte).  My patients were so nice, came up to me and said that were very grateful for the help I gave them (I thought they didn’t feel I helped them that much, especially one who kept making comments that we were keeping her here longer than she wanted).  And Jennifer was super sweet, even giving me a card and apologizing for not giving me a gift card to Starbucks or something!  Since Rick let me leave early, I decided to see the CSI exhibit.  My parents took me to Old Place Cafe to celebrate LOL.  But w00t! the Rockets won their first win (finally!) on the Jazz court, 94-92, last night.  Just reading it while waiting for the food to come got me nervous, it was such a close game!

Sally and Dr. Kienman are gone this week.  Sally took the week off for herself for her birthday, and Dr. Kienman is on vacation.  In the beginning, I didn’t understand how the short-term goal of “Patient will attend OT groups 50%x” was a good goal and tied into the long-term goal, but somehow this week it clicked for me.  Otherwise, how could we justify having all those occupational therapy groups (self-care, task, and therapeutic activity) during the day??

Monday, April 7, 2008.  I again reported the results of the KELS for one of the patients.  In rounds, Rick helped in evaluating a new Spanish-speaking patient.  I also asked him to do the questionaire since none of the COTAs are fluent in the language either.  I spent the rest of the afternoon writing up the KELS for another patient (not the one I reported on this morning).  I was just trying to finish writing it, so when Elderine said she was ready to go, I kept writing.  I don’t know if she stayed because I wasn’t moving, or she ended up also finishing up something else herself.  Thanks, Elderine. 

Tuesday, April 8, 2008.  Rick did task group for me so I could meet up with the family and talk about the KELS with Dr. Fotouh and Sonja.  The patient brought up a good point about using the cell phone as an alarm to remember to take his medication, and Sonja made a good point of volunteering as a transition to working since he really wanted to work and help his family out.  In fact, after lunch and presenting my brochure to Theo during the staff meeting (Rick gave me his $5 gift card to use at McDonald’s that he received for Employee of the Month from productivity) and bingo, I met with the patient one-on-one (he actually asked me).  However, he was so slow and distracted, trying to look up ways to remember.  I feel so horrible.  Can you imagine feeling you’ve lost a huge chunk of yourself, and you know you’re not the same, so you try to fix it, and it seems no one around you is as concerned as you.  Or at least they have no idea how to help you out any more than you do?  Sonja asked me about this past patient we had who was a bit suspicious of us, thinking we’d move him to another place, where in fact it turned out he already had a living situation with a day program worked out.  Sonja asked if I rememebered where he had stayed, as an option for this patient, but I sure don’t LOL. 

I was using the computer where Janet usually sits, so Janet was sitting where I usually sit.  Elderine was at her usual spot in the OT office.  Rick came in asking if we remembered [name of patient] (she was the one asking about physics on Thursday).  I said yeah, but everyone else was a bit fuzzy.  Janet asked if the patient was back (like those two other patients who were discharged and then returned).  That was what I was seeing in my head, her being back on the unit doing her thing.  Rick said, “Oh no, she won’t be back.  She committed suicide.”  Immediately my reaction was a loud sucking in of breath and turning around (I can’t seem to reenact the sound, like a “huh!”).  Rick was surprised at my reaction, “like you just heard a family member died or something.”  He commented that she wasn’t even my patient (i.e. she was on Team C), so it wasn’t like I had a close relationship with her.  She never seemed to be the suicidal type, and in my head, I just saw her manic self all of a sudden turn motionless on the ground.  Janet said to no one in particular, “And it just had to be one of Coverdale’s patients.”  Apparently when he was still green, one of his patients committed suicide soon after discharge, thus he keeps his patients longer than Dr. Barber.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008.  Today I came in 15 minutes earlier to finish a lot of paperwork, including the KELS writeup for the patient we met with on Tuesday with Dr. Fotouh because he left today.  After lunch I presented my actvity analysis on decoupage.  Rick had informed me that the OT staff was going to act like patients, but somehow that didn’t click with me that I had to bring supplies.  Fortunately my project utilizes supplies they already have.  Also, Rick gave me tips (e.g. keep an eye on the scissors, tell them that they could also use it on previous projects, etc.).  I could tell they didn’t make it hard on me, and I definitely appreciated it.  Sally was gone, Janet couldn’t make it, and neither could Theo, so it was just Rick, Elderine, Jennifer (who really had to cough outside - it wasn’t an act!), and Tiffani (who imitated one of our manic patients to a D).  The only comments I had were that I needed to talk louder, that the font needed to be bigger, and that I probably don’t want to give as much information about myself as I did, to instead redirect the patient back to his/her project.  Interestingly, that patient actually came in later and continued coloring her poster which I had thought she had forgotten about, oops.  But she didn’t give me a hard time, she just was asking questions as always, like does my family own the Chinese restaurants like Jimmy Chan’s LOL.  Yay, I got to leave at 4:15 today, how fortunate, so I walked to MFAH to buy 5 tickets with a student discount.

Thursday, April 10, 2008.  I figured I’d might as well go in early again since I’ll have to go in early on Friday.  I evaluated someone with GAD and another who…is very confident.  He apparently recently came out of jail, and didn’t seem embarrassed about what he was doing (not related to the jail incident) so that his family brought him involuntarily into the hospital.  He was..fun to talk with; if we kind of spread out his confidence between the two of us, it would be great haha.  Everyone was gone for lunch (EPIC training), so I ate by myself.  But, they were testing the fire alarms or something so they went off at least three times.  They said don’t worry about it, but the doors would still unlock so I still stood there to make sure no one left.  One patient is so consumed with his internal thoughts that he walked right past without noticing, so I had nothing worry about (he previously was with another patient trying to figure out the keyhole and ID card swipe).  Victor was nice and told me to enjoy my lunch, so he sat near the door.  Afterwards I prepped for cooking group.  At home I actually watched The Office - it was actually the first new episode after the writer’s strike and pretty (usually it’s not funny to me) with the Dinner Party theme going.  That woman is crazy!

Friday, April 11, 2008.  This morning we had the HCHD quarterly meeting at Ben Taub.  We celebrated OT month by having breakfast provided for us (which was a bit disappointing with bagels and cream cheese, fruit, and frozen juice that I had to keep punching with a coffee stirrer to consume).  As we headed toward the auditorium, I saw Alvin and made chitchat.  He just finished his second week at Ben Taub internal medicine, and he loves it (there were already pictures of him on the slideshow as a “wanted” individual).  He says his manager (Denise Cortes) doesn’t hover around or anything and is quite flexible.  The meeting started with the slideshow and giving out certificates and a drawing for prizes (turns out Michelle Funtanilla and her brother won - rigged? ;-P LOL).  I went over to say hello to Ruth Lauzon and Erin (Caroline Ellender left before I could say goodbye - she’s leaving for Louisiana to join her husband coach - and according to Denise Liau it’s more because she doesn’t feel she’s growing here, and probably because Monica herself is quite new).  I administered another safety assessment today, and then all the Spanish-speaking patients on Team B left.  Rick left at 2:30 to buy self-care items, hehe.

This week is a bit different from most.  On Monday and Tuesday, Tiffani wasn’t here (she’s usually not here on Tuesdays for her classes).  Sally wasn’t here on Monday, either, since she was coming back from New Orleans (her home town).  She was also unavailable on Friday due to a meeting, I think.  On Wednesday, I wasn’t here (see this entry).  Then on Thursday and Friday, Tiffani had to help on second floor so she wasn’t really available upstairs, although she still had to do some of the duties on fourth floor.

Monday, March 24, 2008.  We had a fire alarm.  We played ring toss.  One patient at first didn’t want to come, then she figured she’d be the cheerleader, and then she ended up playing and winning!  She reminds me of me, saying no at first but then ending up with yes by the end (Matthew 21:28-32).  Rick left at 2:45 to go buy self-care supplies.  Jennifer had offered a ride, but I wasn’t sure/was vague, so she left like a few minutes before I was ready, hehe. 

Thursday, March 27, 2008.  I miss one day for Magnificat House and I feel like I miss a lot.  Rick reported in rounds for me since he was there yesterday and I wasn’t.  I realize how hard it must be for Saturday therapists who aren’t the regular therapists during the week, because the don’t know their admission state and then cannot report progress that well.  Someone left yesterday that I hadn’t anticipated so I had to finish his evaluation (I had worked on the evaluations on Tuesday of two guys who I thought would leave earlier, but I guess wrong).  We had a family meeting and then it was appreciation day for a department so we grabbed some food and good thing because I didn’t have time to warm up the lunch I brought.  Instead, I had to go and pick up the chili dog foodstuffs (Tiffani had gone before to get it but they weren’t ready - miscommunications).  After the Cooking Group (whew!), I tried to convince a patient (he speaks English and Spanish) he had a mental illness, but he was withdrawn and just said, “Oh really, that’s what it is?”  I finally left around 5:20 but I stopped when I saw two psych techs bringing one patient back because she had tried to elope.  She was still squabbling and was the most animated I had seen her.  I barely missed the bus (oh well).  I was sure glad I drove home safely, because my eye was irritated and I really needed to use the restroom.  Support Tina Huang as she’s trying to win the chance to sing with Rascal Flattson stage.  She’s entered “Bless the Broken Road” into the “Be A Milk Rock Star with Rascal Flatts” contest:

1. Click:  http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/VideosSeries/VideoView.aspx?vid=5047_48865241&=PBB_RascalFlatts_240_PPIMEMAIL&isep=1&pbapi=524970&pbvi=13323410 
2. At the top right hand corner, click “log in” and log in as a guest to vote and review.
3. Click “vote for this entry.”
4. Scroll down to the review section, highlight the 5 stars, and submit a review.
5. Please remember to vote every day.

Friday, March 28, 2008.  There’s this guy who, after the first time I met him, hasn’t spoken a word since.  Well, it’s been two weeks, and today he was finally talking again!  We had a new patient but they were planning to discharge him today so I didn’t even bother going up to meet him.  The guy I talked with yesterday about having a mental illness–he left today, too.  I made some little final corrections on the patient education brochure, got some feedback from the OT staff, then emailed it out to the committee.  I evaluated this guy who had gout, and at first I thought he was malingering/had delusions.  Oops, me being jaded again (because he’d walk, and then not walk, so I was confused).  At home I worked on a Sudoku for two hours.  I was also early with my weekly feedback to Professor Capshaw (but the sacrifice was less organization).  Then I added money to my Q card, prepared for tomorrow (perhaps I need to use my laptop, papers, and books) and went to bed at 9:45 (not too late, for a Friday night).

“Easter” in Chinese literally means “Day of Resurrection.”  I forgot where I got it, but here’s an interesting story:

Last April on a Sunday, we took one of our “nowhere” drives. My husband was quietly driving a back road and I was occupied in the front passenger seat watching the scenery.  I noticed out of the corner of my eye that my husband was straining to look out my window. This startled me, since his eyes should be on the road in front of him. I asked him what he was looking at, and he quietly replied, “Nothing.” His eyes returned to the road in front of him.

After a few minutes, I looked over at my husband and noticed a tear running down his cheek. I asked what was wrong. This time he opened up, “I was just thinking about Pop and a story he once told me.” Of course I wanted to know the story so I asked him to share it with me.

He said, “When I was about 8 years old, Pop and I were out fishing, and that’s when he told me the pine trees know when it’s Easter.”

I had no idea what he meant by that, so I pressed him for more information.

He continued, “The Pine trees start their new growth in the weeks before Easter. If you look at the tops of the pine trees two weeks before, you will see the yellow shoots. As the days get closer to Easter Sunday, the tallest shoot will branch off and form a cross. By the time Easter Sunday comes around, you’ll see most of the pine trees have small yellow crosses on all of the tallest shoots.”

I turned to look out the window and couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a week before Easter, and you could see all the trees with tall yellow shoots stretching towards Heaven.

The tallest ones shone in the sunlight like rows of tiny golden crosses.

Other amazingness of God’s natural sciences related to Easter:

• Martha Stewart Living has a recipe on how to dye Easter eggs naturally. Cold-dipping eggs typically makes for subtle and translucent, albeit uneven, shades. Boiling eggs in homemade dye usually leads to more intense, uniform colors.  Add 1 quart of water and 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the pot. If you need more to cover the ingredients, increase the water and vinegar proportionally as needed.  The boiled method works for blue (2 cups chopped red cabbage), yellow (3 tablespoons turmeric), or sienna (4 cups yellow onion skins from about 12 onions).  To achieve blue, yellow, sienna, pink (4 cups chopped beets) and brown (1 quart strong black coffee instead of the 1 quart water), use the cold-dipping method. 
• “10 best edible flowers for Houston” by Kathy Huber.  We can grow a garden of easy-to-grow edible blooms to add color and flavor to a number of our foods.  Daylilies (hemerocallis) have been included in Chinese cuisine for centuries, Mexicans use the buds, and they taste like lettuce.  Nasturtiums (tropaeolum majus) have edible flowers and vitamin C-rich, peppery leaves that are good in salads.  Johnny-jump-ups (violas, viola tricolor) have a mild, wintergreen flavor in their little flowers.  Calendulas (calendula officinalis), named the 2008 Herb of the Year by the International Herb Association, may have a spicy or peppermint flavor.  Rose (rosa spp.) petals can sweeten desserts and salads.  Pineapple sage (salvia elegans), when using their cherry-red tubular blooms, add a sweet, fruity flavor to cookies and tea.  Lavender (lavendula dentata) blooms can be used in cookies and ice cream, or to perk up a salad.  Rosemary’s (rosmarinus officinalis) small blue blooms have a sweet, pinelike flavor.  Fennel’s (foeniculum vulgare) yellow flowers taste like licorice.  Dianthus (dianthus spp.) petals taste like clove or nutmeg.

As Hannah said, I’m a sixth of the way there.  W00t!

Monday, February 18, 2008.  Rick is a generous person: he bought breakfast tacos for the OT staff.  He asked all of us our preferred filling, so he brought me a chorizo to try.  I had two evaluations this morning.  I didn’t do one because the patient had thrown milk and threatened a medical student.  The other was easy to talk with (she has depression) but she denies her previous bipolar diagnosis.  She’s taking Spanish classes from her parole officer?  I had two OT groups back-to-back (I dislike these because I don’t have time to write the notes and get what the patients do in each group mixed up sometimes).  Each facility has a different way of correcting mistakes, and in the past they would write “void” or “error” after crossing out the mistake.  Today, however, they came to the conclusion that now it’s only cross out, initial, and date.  Thus after lunch I finished writing up all the notes.  I like to have all my items with me (e.g. lotion, chapstick, pen, paper) so I had asked if I could carry them in a bag/purse.  Rick said sure.  However, I picked a bad purse because it hangs across my chest and he said that patients could grab it and pull me down.  I didn’t think of that; I am not very good at forseeing possible threats.  We did our weekly feedback forms and then went home.  I finally did laundry, showered, and worked on my evaluation checklist to help myself.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008.  I observed Victor Holman lead his psych tech group in the morning.  Basically he asks everyone who they are, remind them who is helping them get better, and then encourage them to stay up during the day in the day area.  Rick complimented me on my initiative this morning in getting the precautions list (since Tiffani doesn’t come in on Tuesdays) and setting up for our self-care group.  Rick let the MSW know about one of our patient’s desire to return to class, but didn’t he tell me that I should encourage the patient to do that for herself?  Miscommunication really is the main culprit of a lot of problems.  That’s why if anything is up, clarification is needed with the other party involved.  However, you have to pick your battles.  After task group, I realized that Michelle had finished writing our self-care notes for us.  Wow!  Gracias!  So I only had to write the task group notes and finish writing up the evaluation from yesterday.  I spent the extra down time brainstorming for my rotation’s projects: the brochure and the task analysis.  It seems a lot of patients like the Bible.  One came up to me talking about God, so I referred her to Philippians but later I realized I was thinkng of I Thessalonians 5:16-18.  The bus has been off lately: it was late and drove past us anyway!  There’s a Vietnamese lady who I think works at Ben Taub.  Last week she saw me without crutches and asked about it, so we chatted briefly before the bus came.  Today she was waiting, too, and we said hello to each other.  When the bus finally came at 5 p.m., I got home and worked on the brochure.  James Wei called to let me know he, Linton, and Jonathan Eng were at Dimassi’s across from Wel-Farm but I had already eaten dinner.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008.  Every third Wednesday of the month Rick has his Patient Education Committee meeting at the building on Holly Hall.  Thus in the morning Michelle went over my two evaluations with me instead.  It was the medical students’ last day here (Dongni Yang and Brian Kelley) so they brought coffee and cookies for breakfast while presenting their powerpoints during rounds.  The rest of the morning I helped with task group, gave home instructions, and then got to know the new COTA Jennifer Garcia during lunch (she’s Filipino, lives in Richmond, and went to Elsik HS).  Rick had EPIC (new charging system) training so he wasn’t on the floor in the afternoon either.  He did call, however, to let me know that another patient is leaving today, so I did his home instructions as well.  He told me that he’ll probably come back in a year!  He is still delusional but keeps it to himself now and is even paying attention to other people, letting someone know that it was his turn.  We played horseshoes this afternoon and the winner wanted a pair of gloves.  One female wanted to braid another’s hair, so we gave them mini hair ties for that African-American row look.  One guy is homeless at the moment so he wanted some clothes from the back closet but I was told to ask first because the tech who keeps up with the closet is particular in its order.  

The event of the day occurred near the end of the day.  I was in the restroom when I heard a loud commotion right outside the door.  There must’ve been a few times when I thought it was safe to come out but then more commotion would ensue.  It turns out there was someone who had rushed into the elevator past the security, and then rushed into the unit wanting a shot for his HIV, just as Margie (a nurse) walked in.  Malcolm (a psych tech) had to perform a takedown.  It was a “reverse elopement” - the first that has occurred in the memories of the current staff (including Dr. Barber).  But I’m glad I got to leave at 4:10 p.m.!  Again, the busses have been funny, and it was so crowded that I had to stand on the bus home.  There were two African-American women who applauded when an Asian-American male stood up to give up his seat for an older female.  That was amusing.

Tonight was the first gathering of the ladies group of FBCC that is discussing Lies Women Believe (I didn’t buy it since I heard there were some major disputes).   Carolyn Kee, Jamie Fong, Charlene, Jessie Tan, Elizabeth Wong, and I met at Stephanie Chi’s parents’ house.  We START with prayer and then ended on time at 9 p.m. (thus we actually were only able to discuss briefly about the introduction).  I went home, talked with my brother on the phone, then emails to Judy Feng, Hannah, and Jennifer Lin.

Thursday, February 21, 2008.  We had self-care group, rounds (so many new patients), helped a patient leave for Peachford House, and had task group.  In the afternoon I had to practice delegating during Cooking Group.  It was nerve-wracking for me, but Rick said it went pretty well.  Sally showed empathy, saying “I was born a doormat” and had to learn how to delegate as well.  She also showed empathy for the new COTA, who’s working under a temporary license–I guess you always have that thought in the back of your head that you might not make it.  Today’s the last day for Michelle for a long while since her brother is going back to the Philippines to visit their dying uncle/father/grandfather (one of them), and then when he returns after three weeks she’ll be flying over to see him.

Friday, February 22, 2008.  I had the learning opportunity to evaluate a Spanish-speaker (where I would have to call for a translator in other cases), but I was recommended to hold off.  It’s interesting that Paul (a psych tech) makes sure that I have leisure.  I said that I like to read, and he told me that it’s really important to have a stress reliever such as running and in general having  a life outside of work.  One patient in self-care (I didn’t have the group) had to be escorted out due to shaving vigorously with his razor and causing opposition when Elderine tried to redirect him.  In the afternoon another guy came in and I tried to interview him but his thoughts were too disorganized for me to really understand where he was coming from (plus he was paranoid).  I tried to reassure him that we in the hospital were trying to help him, not sabotage him.  interview paranoid foi guy who doesn’t believe in hospital.  The good news for the end of the week is that this week is apparently my strongest week so far :-D.  I had dinner at Subway with Christina Tam and then we went to BASIC, where Pastor William Hsueh and his wife Cynthia presented on the topic of counseling (e.g. Biblical counseling, Christian counseling, etc.).  I went to bed at 11 p.m. (so tired).