August 2006 Archives

There's been a lot of talk about how doctors should be required to take classes in bedside manner. I think the curriculum for this class should include the following:

1) Yes, the patient often has to wait a bit for their appointment. Patients understand this and have come to expect it. However, a patient should never be called back to the exam room and then be expected to wait 20 minutes. Those rooms never have magazines as good as the ones in the waiting room, where she was almost finished with that People Magazine article about the breakup of Jessica and Nick.

2) Do not ever, under any circumstances, open a textbook in front of the patient. Patients expect you, as a doctor, to be omniscient. They don't ever want to know that you don't know anything about what ails them. Excuse yourself politely and then go into the hallway to look up whatever information you need. Most people think doctors know everything. Let's keep up that ruse.

3) After keeping the patient waiting in the exam room for 20 minutes, do not enter the room and then proceed to ask her questions about what you prescribed at her last visit, or how much she weighs, or how old she is, or why she has come to visit today. These things are all listed on the chart that was hanging outside the door. The nurse has done all of this for you. Your job is to walk in and get down to business. Refer to guideline #2 about being omniscient.

Any tips that you want to add? Let me know before I submit my suggestions to the AMA.

I woke up at 6am this morning with my heart racing and more anxiety than could fit in the state of Indiana. Last night I dreamed that I went back to visit my old workplace and they wouldn't let me in the door. They kept saying, "You're not welcome here." I kept asking why and they said, "Oh, you know what you did." Everyone that came and went kept giving me bad looks.

I lay awake all morning in a tizzy wondering just what I could have possibly done. I know it's just a dream, but I still feel sick to my stomach. Plus, I used to work at a charity-type organization so it makes me even more sick to think (or dream) that I might have done something bad.

I think the whole thing is brought on by the fact that I'm getting together with some old co-workers tonight. Don't you just love how the combination of reality and your imagination mess with your mind?

It's depressing that I can't even draw anything nearly as good on paper, much less a car window.

Diego Goldberg has tracked photos of his family on the same day each year since 1976. The results of his ritual can be seen here.

Artist Ahree Lee did something similar. She took a photo of herself daily over the course of three years and put it together into a movie.

I want to do something like this with our family. I'm not sure if I could do the daily photograph thing, but once a year would be great. I mean, wouldn't it be awesome to have one really good head-on shot of yourself to see how you've changed over the years? Especially your hairstyles?

I realized just how many blog challenges I've been doing lately. I'm sure I seem incredibly lame, but I'm really not a writer (as most of you can tell, ha!) I leave that to my husband, Bill, who actually does it for a living. In comparison to that alone, I usually avoid writing about anything.

These blog challenges, though, well, challenge me to write about something, anything. They help me to keep writing this blog and share some things about myself. After 3 straight years of pregnancy and breastfeeding and new babies, I had pretty much lost myself. This blog has allowed me to discover again who I am, outside of being a mother. Pretty narcissistic at times, and I still linger on the motherhood thing, but I'm forced to think about my own dreams and interests again. It has been cathartic.

...in the embrace of a goose.

We attended the Renaissance Festival this year and got the chance to meet Mother Goose. She raises geese in her home as her pets. Apparently, they're very gentle creatures who love to have their necks rubbed. They love to "hug" you by wrapping their necks around you. We stood in line, watching, while lots of little children went up and hugged the goose. After much nudging from Bill, I stepped up to give it a try. Here's the sequence of events when this photo was taken:

Mother Goose: "Here, just let her wrap her neck around yours."

Alecia: "Um, ok."

Bill takes picture.

Mother Goose: "See? They're such gentle creatures. They just love..."

Goose snaps violently at Alecia's face, just missing the tip of her nose. Alecia screams and runs for the hills.

Yeah, it turns out that this goose had a particularly sore feather on its back that I accidentally touched, causing him much pain. Yes, I ruffled the poor goose's feather.

Via Michelle at Random Thoughts:

1. I WANT a beautiful garden
2. I HAVE much more than I could have ever wanted.
3. I WISH I had the guts to do things that I dream of doing
4. I HATE lack of compassion
5. I MISS any prior moment in my girls' lives
6. I HEAR what I want to hear (according to my husband)
7. I WONDER what the future holds for me
8. I REGRET nothing. Everything for a reason (even if I don't understand that reason yet).
9. I AM open to new opportunities
10. I DANCE with the girls every afternoon before dinner (Dance Party with Dan Zanes!)
11. I SING really really bad karaoke
12. I CRY out of frustration more than sadness
13. I AM NOT ALWAYS nice enough to the people who love and support me
14. I MAKE WITH MY HANDS wonderful shadow puppets
15. I WRITE letters to the girls each year on their birthdays
16. I CONFUSE a DUI with an IUD
17. I NEED caffeine
18. I SHOULD be doing the dishes right now
19. I START remodeling projects by myself
20. I FINISH rarely any of the remodeling projects I start

I've missed so many of the last few Fridays, so I've got much to share.

- Our new dining table. It's just big enough for the four of us, but not too big to crowd our little breakfast area in the kitchen.
- My new bike and our kiddie carriers. We've taken bike rides almost nightly since we got them. The girls hang out on the back and we ride the Silver Comet Trail or to the village to get ice cream after dinner. I'm even more excited to ride once the weather cools off.
- A fabulous weekend with Bill. And only Bill.
- My new, very stylish glasses.
- Finding the smallest shinguards you could possibly imagine, so that my 2-year-old can play in a soccer league this fall.
- Finding out that Josie, who barely talks at all (and has us beginning to get worried), can count to 6. I walked in on her counting her toys out loud.
- Finally discovering a plant that will live in the containers on our front porch, which gets a mix of complete shade all day and bright, blaring sun in the evening.
- The birth of our new nephew, Ethan. Bill's brother and sister-in-law live in Chicago, though, so we won't be able to see (ie. hold) him until we go home for Thanksgiving. I'm excited to introduce the girls to their new baby cousin. Being the babies themselves of the extended family, I wonder how they'll take it.
- Sweet kisses from two toddlers.

I've been featured as one of the favorite pics of the week again for Self-Portrait Challenge. Check it out here.

I was driving the girls out to my mom's house this past weekend when I came upon the slowest car I've ever seen on a highway. The person was in the left lane, riding about 40 mph on a highway with a 75 mph speed limit. I was stuck, surrounded by other passing cars. Eventually, I was able to get in the other lane and pass the car. I turned to my left, ready to give the driver my best "you suck!" face.

That's when I realized it was . . . my boss!

Of all the places -- an hour outside the city and in another state! I quickly faced forward and passed before she could recognize me or my car. Luckily she had been talking on her cell phone and hadn't noticed me at all.

...the arms of a dinosaur.

Self Portrait Challenge

"Aha!" and "Yikes!" at the same time.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Hence, my lack of posts. So much has happened and I'll catch up soon enough. I write some amazing posts in my head, but I can't seem to get the time or inclination to actually sit down and write them.

Bill and I had a wonderful weekend together. My mom took the girls on Friday and I just picked them up again yesterday. We haven't had time alone in so long, so this was especially nice. Babysitters in this area are just too damn expensive ($10+ an hour. What happened to the going rate of $2 an hour when I was 12? Even then I thought I was overcharging) that we end up only having enough money left over to go and get a Happy Meal to share. Anyway, we had full days of sleeping in, seeing John Prine and Patty Griffin in concert, shopping, Superman Returns at the IMAX theatre (great movie! and I'm not a comic buff), long bike rides to the local diner for breakfast, and other things I won't go into. So relaxing and so wonderful to actually hold hands with my husband. Our hands are usually full of the girls and diaper bags and grabbing dropped sippy cups.

Don't get me wrong... I definitely missed the girls. By Sunday morning, I kept waking up at 7am expecting to hear one of the girls getting up. I'd rationalize that they weren't home, and then wake up 15 minutes later thinking I'd heard them again. (It was the cat, whose meows actually do sound like the girls crying).

The only bad part about this whole weekend were the effects it had on Josie. She has severe eczema and food allergies that make life miserable for the poor baby when they're not in control. Despite my 3 pages of explicit instructions on the foods she can and can't eat, what to use to bathe her, and the like, she came back to us yesterday looking like she'd been on the losing end of a fight. She was miserable all last night. I knew that she'd have some trouble: My mom has a dog who is anti-social, but sheds everywhere. I didn't expect my mom to actually be the culprit. I called her Monday morning to let her know I was on my way to get the girls and she told me that they were watching TV and eating popcorn...with butter. (Josie is allergic to all dairy, even in small amounts. I'd written that she shouldn't have butter.) She mentioned that Josie's skin was broken out, but that she'd put some of her own lotion on her to try and help. (Josie can't use lotion with perfume or dyes, so I'd packed her particular lotion. Again, this was all written down.)

I mentioned the butter thing to my mom, who replied "Oh, it's just a little butter, so I think she'll be okay."

Later, when I picked up the girls, my mom was amazed at how purple Josie's cheeks and eyelids were. "What causes that?"

We're working on getting the poor baby back to normal. I hate to sound ungrateful, because I am thankful for the weekend with my husband, but I also hate to see my baby in pain.

Maddie: Mommy, I want to go with Daddy

Alecia: Daddy's at work, sweetie. We'll see him when he gets home. He'll stay home and play with you while Mommy goes to work.

M: I love Daddy. He stay home with me while Mommy go to work. I don't love Mommy.

A: That's not very nice, Maddie. You don't love Mommy? That makes me sad.

M: I sorry. I don't love you, Mommy.

I knew this was coming, but I didn't expect it so soon. Especially not from my 2-year old still in diapers. I went in the other room and cried.

I am a thrift store queen. Set me loose in any thrift store and I'll find you a treasure. I have a preference for Goodwill stores and my knowledge of their layout expedites my search. I can spend hours there. I have an eye that can scan a rack of clothes in a millisecond and zone in on the great jacket or pair of pants. It doesn't hurt that the local Goodwill store is on the edge of a very affluent part of Atlanta. It's where all the debutantes go to throw out their old clothes.

Bill laughs because I love to go at least every weekend to check and see what's new. I can't even begin to tell you how many things around our house are from Goodwill, or the fact that my entire outfit today came from there.

This week's thrill is the $14 lavender David's Bridal bridesmaids dress I wore for my sister's wedding in June. Her dress had purple embroidery on it, and she let each bridesmaid pick her own dress -- as long as it was in that particular shade of lavender. I found this one, an exact match to the color, at Goodwill. Perfect fit. No alterations except for shortening the hem that was too long. My sister's best friend paid $98 for her dress. Mine was $26 total.

(Above pic is of me and my comedian brother)

Does anyone else feel like there's a mid-life crisis thing that happens to women around age 30? It's coincidental, but all of my friends my age are experiencing major life changes. Change of career, change of address, change of haircolor, change of spouse.

I know 30 is just a number, but, well...

I don't care about the aging thing. I don't search my face for wrinkles and I'm not one of those people who is deathly afraid of getting older. To quote Marguerite Duras: Instead of being dismayed I watched [the aging] process with the same sort of interest I might have taken in the reading of a book. I'm actually interested in seeing what happens as I get older. What life events will leave their marks on my face.

I guess I just didn't expect it to happen so suddenly. Everything is changing at once.

The proportions of my body have changed (though it may be from having two kids, who knows?)

My face, which barely had a blemish when I was a teen and not at all during pregnancy, now shows evidence of adult acne. And not just a few spots, but serious adult acne. I wasn't prepared for this. I don't know how to handle it. I asked some aestheticians at work what to do about it and why it was happening. They said the usual about drinking water and eating right, and then one asked me, "How old are you?" 29. "Ohhhhh!" They looked at one another and nodded their heads in unison. "Yeah, that's what happens when you turn 30." They both agreed that the same thing happened to them.

My hair has curls. I have always had the straightest hair. I remember being in middle school, trying to curl my hair every morning with the curling iron and then spray it into some fan-like form on top of my head. By 10am, my hair would be stuck to my head and absolutely straight. Perms never lasted more than about 2-3 weeks. But now! Now I have little curls growing in at my temples and at the ends of my hair.

There's more. The usual, Shit, I'm going to be in my 30s and I didn't even do anything worth mentioning in my 20s. I better get on the ball. And other things.

Does anyone else out there empathize with me? Did you go through these same things? Or are you going through them now?

- The Fuddruckers burgers that Bill and I ate, breaking our diets. We felt like throwing up after only half a burger each, but it was good nonetheless. We realized that we really should only share meals to stay within that feeling of "I'm full" and "I want to stretch the limits of my digestive system."
- Enjoying an early Friday evening dinner with Bill and the girls, even though I had to work this evening. I usually don't work on Fridays and it's the most exciting night of the week for us. Bill gets home from work and we get to spend a nice night out as a family to start off the weekend.
- Not being on the Atkins diet anymore. I switched to Weight Watchers (ahem, through use of some very helpful websites and not at all legitimately) and I'm much happier. I really just need to lose about 8-10 pounds to be back down the weight listed on my driver's license, so I feel this is the better way to go. Bill, on the other hand, has lost 21 pounds in about 3 weeks on Atkins. Thanks to Fuddruckers, though, our weight loss may have a plateau this weekend.
- The way I sometimes can't help but laugh when I'm disciplining Maddie. Her funniest moments are when she's in trouble. Today, she was spending some quiet time in her room when I kept hearing her call my name. Mommy! There's no doorbell in my room! Huh? Or Mommy, I need to give the doggies a hug!
- Josie's ringlets in the humidity.
- The upcoming weekend that includes an outdoor concert and my mother and sister visiting.
- Air conditioning.

in a bathroom mirror.

This month's challenge had a couple of rules:

First - Use an enclosed environment‚ a space that has the confines and restrictions of the photo-booth.

Also - The element of chance is also important, not looking through the viewfinder, but rather viewing yourself as others might see you in that circumstance. Holding the camera out in front of you or placing it on a surface and pressing the shutter.

I didn't follow the challenge exactly, but my bathroom is about the size of a photo-booth and how much more accurate can you get at seeing how others view you than a mirror? I'm enclosed in the mirror. Not only does it represent how others see me, but it's the way I see myself each morning. Deep, huh?

There's nothing like stopping by a someone's garage sale to see her selling the birthday present you gave her daughter two weeks ago.

Gotta love it.

I could kick myself in the ass, though, for not saying something about it. Something witty, but not cutting, that says hey, I see that and you should be ashamed. But I didn't.