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22nd November 2020

On Beings Friends

“A bosom friend–an intimate friend–a really kindred spirit to whom I can confide my inmost soul.” ~Anne of Green Gables

I know, I know, yet another banner proclaiming that “herein lie tantalizing secrets that you don’t know about.” I’ve been hesitant to “friend only” this journal, because I love wandering around the journals and reading about people’s interests and lives. It astonishes me how honest we can be in this forum – and with people that we have never met in real life. I love that, it’s probably why I am so addicted to lj.

However, I am also aware of how … perilous the internet can be; how that same honesty could have serious repercussions if I reveal too much about my personal life. And from the beginning, I’ve screened certain entries that I didn’t want the random stranger to see, or even the real life person who might take it in the wrong context. In the next (several weeks, probably), I’ll be going through and making more entries friends only.

So, please comment here, if we have shared interests and just tell me a little about yourself. I’m sure we are kindred spirits just waiting to discover each other!

posted in Uncategorized | 56 Comments

19th June 2009

since the thunder and lightening are doing such a great job of keeping me awake

The good news: the leak in my basement when it rains extremely hard does not seem to be coming from the toilet. Horray!

The bad news: I have no idea where it is coming from. Well, I fear that it is dripping down the inside of the bathroom walls, but I can’t seem to locate a source. It just seems to appear, like zombies rising from the ground. Or something like that.

For now, it’s trickling down the basement drain. I only flooded a year ago because the downpour was too much volume and speed for the drainage system to accommodate. I am sure tired of dealing with this issue.

I should have spent tonight finishing up clinic notes. Instead I spent it looking at neurological equipment that I’m not sure I’ll ever use and updating my WP blog to 2.8, importing LJ entries with their new import system. Somehow it messed it up, transferring everything in triplicate and when I attempted to delete it, it deleted the entry on the LJ side. Of course, Livejournal, in their infinite wisdom has decided that you can’t import blog entries to their database, so I had to repost, losing the comments (on LJ. It’s still there on the WP side). It’s going to take me forever to delete (correctly!) and merge everything.

The rain is really coming down now. Come on, little drains, keep up. I’m going to try to sleep.

ETA: Scratch that. It’s coming down the majority of my windows now. The drain that my church installed for me is not keeping up and I’ve got a large puddle puddle at my back door. My rug has already been taken up. It’s supposed to last for the next two hours before letting up. CRAP.

ETA #2: And the drains stopped working and I flooded my basement again. This time I had the sump pump, which I pumped into a sink and managed to keep from flooding every where. Sure am glad that I kept it all up on cinder blocks too. I’m going to be utterly useless at work tomorrow. What I really need to do is take the day off, get everything bleached and call a plumber to come look at my drains. And figure out how to waterproof windows

    again

.

Of course, it’s starting to rain again.

posted in Adventures in Home Ownership, Domestic Goddess and Rugged Handy-man Me, Handy-man Me | 1 Comment

22nd May 2009

best comic ever

best comic ever

http://xkcd.com/587/
crime_scene

My favorite episode:

posted in Randomness | 0 Comments

12th December 2008

thousand words

From flowers

To my anonymous friend, a thousand thanks! The box labeled the bouquet as “Winter Cheer” and it certainly did that. I don’t think this smile has left my face all evening. What a wonderful surprise! I think I was even more touched to realize that the gift was because somebody had read my entry from a couple of weeks ago and decided to help make a wish come true. You all are amazing and I am so grateful to have such loving, wonderful people in my life.

posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

10th December 2008

exhausted

I’m so tired, physically, emotionally, that as soon as I finish typing this, I’m going to bed.

I’m hoping that the extra sleep will make tomorrow go by a little easier. I got extremely emotional about a patient and the unreasonable stubbornness and stupid surgical pride of his attending today and just about lost it. I’m just frustrated because the family members have expressed their wishes and the patient’s wishes, but because the attending differs, well, then. The attending’s ego will be bruised for a days, but it’s the family who will have to live with the consequences and it infuriates me.

I’m not sure if critical care is for me. And for entirely different reasons than when I first started this month.

***

My christmas cards are going out this weekend, so if you want one, send me your address at jcd1013@gmail.com or reply to this post.

***

Also, I think I left my half-eaten burrito on the back of my car. Poor little burrito…

posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

5th December 2008


room


(Mom couldn’t remember what blanket she had sent me to keep me warm. Hence, the inaugural photo of my beautiful new camera. Love it already.)

posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

2nd December 2008

100 Things

Felt like wasting time. I have to go to bed now, because I’m on call yet again tomorrow, and am still feeling sleep deprived and we’re rounding early. (As an aside, it is supposed to snow all day tomorrow, meaning I have to dig myself out again post-call before I can sleep. And more head traumas as people slide on slick roads which translates to more 4 am consults from neurosurgery when they decide that they don’t want to operate after all with means less sleep. Am somewhat bitter at Mother Nature who is not doing a great job of nurturing right now.)

1. Started your own blog (I have several right now. Most are just mirrors of my original livejournal, but I do have my own that will be revealed officially to the public as soon as WP 2.7 is released and working properly).
2. Slept under the stars (Several times)
3. Played in a band (I jammed with my 8th grade guitar class but I don’t think we ever made a band)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
Read more

posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

1st November 2008

Alter Ego

For 10 years now, I’ve been a fan of the X-Files. I even accidently called one of my friends “Mulder” in the middle of a conversation once, that’s how deeply the infatuation of the show ran. As a redhead doctor-to-be and later on an actual doctor, well, I related a lot to the character of Dana Scully.

But until now, I had never dressed up as Scully for Halloween. What a waste of naturally red hair!

To complete the costume, I had my hair cut ( a little shorter than what I wanted but oh well, at least it grows) and toted a cell phone (unfortunately not old-school), a flashlight and the badge, which I made myself with the super-helpful assistance of a Office Max copy-center employee. I could not find a plastic gun, unfortunately, and as I thought up the idea late Oct 30, I did not have a Mulder either. If I had realized the number of guys who showed up at the party minus a costume, including way-too-good-looking-for-his-and-my-good-and-thank-heavens-he’s-moving Trouble Boy, I’d have recruited harder. 🙂

posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

7th October 2008

Don’t know if you read this, but…

Happy Birthday, Karin!

Hope your day was devoid of annoying customers and homework and instead filled with chocolate. 🙂

Love, your sis

posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

22nd September 2008

I probably won’t wear it to church, but…

My friend from medical school, a life long Republican, is making them. He’s become a hard core supporter, it amuses me.

I told him I’d advertise. Any takers?

posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

25th August 2008

It’s been a long time since I posted one of these!

Do you remember that year when a dark haired boy got off the bus in Stars Hollow and our lives weren’t quite the same after that? Because of that boy, because of his aloofness and intensity and, face it, smoking hot looks, we were drawn first to the television every week, and then to the internet, where we found each other. It was then, when I tentatively placed my pen to paper and first wrote for an audience. I lived to write, snatching moments in pharm lectures to plan out the next scene, to find just the right combination of words. I loved the reviews that encouraged me on.

It’s been a long time since I was enchanted with Gilmore Girls. Long before the series finale aired, I had stopped watching, disgusted by the changes in Rory’s character, the lack of warmth in the relationship between Lorelai and Rory, the cardboard caricatures that the townies had become. I’ve stopped reading GG fanfiction, my own story gathering figurative dust, two chapters short of finished.

And then I clicked on this story and was instantly transported back to the magical days of Season 2. “Truths Universally Acknowledged” is an absolute delight to read. Her characterization of Jess and Paris are spot on perfect, and Rory, while somewhat wooden in her dialogue is still the charming, bookish 16-year-old that we once loved. Did I mention that it’s all about Jane Austen and takes place after “There’s the Rub” and there’s delightful townies storylines that seem positively lifted from the show? It makes me want to dig out my DVDs, watch all of the old fan videos that Ali and Becka used to make, reread some of my favorite stories, and yes, even tackle my little neglected story again. It’s that good.

You can find links to all 8 chapters of the story here: Truths Universally Acknowledged by 12cubed. Go on, now. Go read and then come back and we can gush together. 🙂

posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

16th July 2008

that was a first

Within a half hour, I was asked to dinner and threatened with a lawsuit ….by the same patient.

I talked him out of both.

*****
I haven’t received any of my mail since I got back from vacation and was getting really, really perturbed at the Post Office for stealing my mail.

Until I checked the hold notice, and noted the delivery date is July 21st. It’s not as fun getting pissed off at yourself. *sigh*

*****
I have the morning off tomorrow (this clinic life is so sweet. Well, except yesterday when I was there until aft 7:30 doing notes. Then it was not so sweet). I’m planning on celebrating by sleeping in and making myself breakfast.

*****
And, finally, PSA:

Do yourself a favor, click on the picture and enjoy the awesomeness that is Dr. Horrible, Joss Whedon’s mad scientist creation. I finally got to see it (the site has been overloaded for days) and it’s amazing and the most entertaining half hour that I’ve had in a long time. The last episode will be posted on Saturday, and then it’ll come down on Sunday, so you’d better act quickly!

posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

2nd July 2008

well, strike that one off the list.

You know what’s more disheartening than find out the guy you crushed on throughout medical school is now married? Finding out, now, that he’s a democrat and a supporter of Barack Obama. DRAT. Single democrat Mormon guys are so exceedingly rare, that if I had realized, I really would have tried to pursue much more than I did. 🙂 (Okay, that might have been an impossibility, save me throwing myself on the hearth and refusing to leave until he dated me)

Actually, I am ecstatic for him and not upset about his nuptials. I had gotten over the crush a long time ago and she seems very nice and just right for him.

But, oh, the lost opportunity.

****

I fly out to Utah tomorrow for a week of vacation. My parents were supposed to come out here, so we could work on my house, but my sister had surgery and is less mobile than anticipated. So instead I’m going home, where I hear that it’s hotter than blazes. Meanwhile, the weather here has been gorgeous for the past 2 weeks–an occasional downpour and then 60-70s with blue skies.

I’m excited to go home. I’m hoping to work on some projects such as transferring my blog (more to come), scanning family pictures, making DVDs out of some beloved VHS tapes that are wearing thin, BBQs, etc.

In the meantime, my ward had planned on coming over and helping me with my place as well. As there was something like 23 volunteers, they’ve decided to go ahead with it, so I’m leaving instructions on what needs to be done. Hopefully, I’ll come back to a smashed up sidewalk, a ditch that runs to front yard, bleached walls and patched window sills. I’m overwhelmed at the thought of all of the help–I know I couldn’t have done it on my own.

In any case, I need to get to bed. Have a lovely 4th, all of you!

posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

6th March 2008

fruits of my loins, er, labors

I love having a little more free time. I’ve been done at work most days by 2 pm. That’s like, 4 hours of daylight that I get to experience, people! The sun! Comes out during the day! Amazing. I’ve been to the gym this week, took care of some clinic stuff (*ignores the something like 25 clinic visits that still need completion*), and managed to waste a whole bunch more of it.

Wanna see what else I’ve done? jcd1013. Go on, click. I’ll wait for you to ooh and aww.



I know, I know, it’s super, super girly (I promise that it’s more green than pink). But I love it. I had to learn all of the code (it’s been way too long since I did anything resembling webdesign, and I never really learned it properly then either), and I made more mistakes and flubs than you can imagine. At one time, the journal repeated itself 3 times; that was a fun one to figure out. But, if you’ll notice, I now have a drop down link list, a random Anne quote generator (keep refreshing the page, it’s fun), a entry separator, a quick reply text box, a pretty header, 2 sidebars, etc, etc.

The Anne series (books and movies) have always been my series. Since a young girl, I’ve aspired to be Anne, and there’s something about the stories that is a haven of comfort, even now. So, Anne it’ll be.

I’ve still got some tweaks that I want to do, namely rearranging my links and custom filters and uploading more user pics (I’ve had some of them for almost 5 years now. It’s really hard to part!). And I foresee that it’ll take some time getting used to the links that are now on the side of the journal.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on it! Even if it is that I have to get rid of the pink.

posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

16th January 2008

As this has been going around…

Most of these were written solely for Windows. I’m glad to finally get to participate!

Who comments the most on this journal?

posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

3rd December 2007

Protected:

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

posted in Uncategorized | Enter your password to view comments.

7th July 2007

Picture collage meme redux

My parents and sister will be arriving either early this morning or sometime tomorrow. I have my entire house to clean and arrange and basically unpack (it takes some of us a while… like a year).

Am I?

Nope. Instead, I’m doing fun memes like this. I did this one two years ago, but my friendslist has changed enough that nobody is recognizable anymore. And I must say, even though I went on a friending spree and added a whole bunch of lovely Dr. Who enthusiasts *waves*, they didn’t overwhelm it quite as much as I thought they were going to.

Pictures of my LiveJournal Friends

posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

20th June 2007

a love story for the ages

It was my four year LJ anniversary last week. Wow, time goes by fast. Just yesterday, I was primping for my first “date“, choosing my words ever so carefully, wondering if LJ and I would forge a lasting relationship. We drifted apart those first few months, time creating a wedge, but slowly, I was drawn back to LJ’s charisma and listening ear and we’ve been steady every since. *smooches LJ*

Linen, btw, is the traditional gift for the 4 year anniversary. Or flowers. I would accept both from my adoring readers.

On a related note, permanent accounts go on sale tomorrow. Each time, I’m tempted and then talk myself out of it. I calculated it out. Between my paid account and my user pics, I’ve easily spent more than $150 dollars in my 4 years here. I could, you know, go back to the basic account, with a basic layout and 3 user pics, but uh, I’m kinda addicted. It’s my place. My friends are here. My life is preserved here. But then there’s that “forever commitment” that putting down the money entails. And what if one day, LJ and I part our separate ways, that we no longer have anything in common and all we do is bicker? And what if I decide that 138 userpics isn’t nearly enough to express myself and I go looking for greener pasture.

Or maybe I’m just a commitment phobe. 🙂 Maybe LJ and I should just run off together into the sunset, and I should just stop worrying what the next day or year or lifetime will bring?

Decisions. So many decisions. My mind would be eased with flowers….

posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

14th March 2007

sundry

I spent my day off… updating my journal design.

Well not entirely. I did apply for my temporary license where I had to vow with my soul and with blood (okay, with just a notary public) that I was telling the truth and the whole truth that I spent 5 weeks after graduation last year lazing around and moving, instead of doing medical stuff (because heaven forbid I should ever take some personal time and not let TPTB know).

I’ve been wanting to revamp the journal for a long, long time. My beloved Anne layout had been used for over a year, and I just kept looking at it, longing for something better. It’s nowhere near what I want (I gotta figure out how to customize Flexible Squares), but it’s a new pretty background that makes me happy. I had really thought about doing a non-fandom layout, but I couldn’t resist. It was so bright and cheery.

Tell me how it looks for y’all. Not too fuzzy? Doesn’t take too long to load? No white areas? Color okay?

In other news, my patient survived and is doing better. So I’m sleeping better and not being haunted by dreams.

I’ve lately discovered that iTunes is now carrying Pod casts of several of my favorite NPR radio shows, namely “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” and “News from Lake Wobegon” (wish it was the entire show of A Prairie Home Companion) and StarDate that have been satisfying my inner nerd. Today, I discovered that they are also carrying another Garrison Keillor program, “The Writer’s Almanac.” I remember listening to this every morning as my parents got ready for school. Plus, I discovered that they have the transcripts online, so I’m very excited at the prospect of introducing some poetry into my daily life again. I’ve missed that.

And lastly, for at least my amusement: Conversation at work yesterday….

MED STUDENT: Yeah, so {patient} thought that Julia and I were twin sisters. I guess we could be fraternal twins.

ME: That would have been one long gestation period!

MS: I’m 24, how old are you?

ME: *pause* *pause some more* Um. I don’t know. Either 27 or 28. I think I’m 27. Wait. No, I’m 27. I think. I had my birthday in November and I’m pretty sure I turned 27. Or maybe it was 28.

MS: You don’t know how old you are??

Yes, it’s true folks, until yesterday, I didn’t know how old I am. Let it be known, that I am officially (according to the computer because I had to look it up on google before I would believe it) 28 years old. In just over a year and a half, I will be 30. Hmmm. I wonder when I’ll ever start acting my age.

posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

28th August 2006

these elusive posts

I haven’t posted much this last month, have I?

It’s been a hard month in ways that have been difficult to put down on paper (er, virtual paper). Work has been overwhelming, in many ways. New hospital, new system, new attendings, new colleagues, and new service, as I’ve been working as a neurology resident this month, rather than medicine. Calls have been hard. Every fourth night, up all night, getting paged on three different pagers all at the same time over and over and over. Having an extremely busy service, which means less time to study and learn, so that I felt even more stupid than usual. Being 2 years since my last neurology rotation, so even though once upon a time, I actually knew this stuff inside and out, it’s gone now.

My first call night, I seriously reconsidered my decision to do neurology and internal medicine. Hated neuro, loathed the call, but I survived it.

I’ve had that thought a half dozen times now, and it hasn’t necessarily been a light hearted “I wonder if” kinda of thought. It’s been the “I wonder if I go and talk to the director, I can get out of this” kind of thought. It’s probably due to exhaustion. But I’m facing a 5 year stent of exhaustion and if I can’t handle the first months…

I’ve persevered and have decided that I definitely need more exposure (and rotations with a different resident, because I think my senior resident tainted my perspective) before really making the decision. But it’s never a good thing to find yourself in the middle of a life crisis–in the middle of responsibilities with no place to run.

And I don’t mean to suggest that all is bad. Far from it, I’ve had some excellent days. I have great patients right now and I’ve discovered that I still love wokring in the ICU and the ICU especially seems like the perfect place to combine neuro and medicine in the ways that I want… It’s more the thought of surviving the neuro residency which is much more overwhelming than I thought it was going to be. I was on call last night… we admitted 4 patients, had 3 consults (other services wanting our opinion on their patients), saw another patient and transferred them to another service, and admitted another to the NICU (neuro ICU). On top of this, I was taking calls from patients of the neuro attendings (who don’t have a freaking answering service, so it’s the extremely ignorant interns like myself who are fending calls on very complex patients), and managing the 30 or so patients on the floor and ICU. I’m getting more used to it, and I had an excellent resident to work with, who really made my workload easier. But I still filled up 2 of the 3 pagers, one of them I had to clean off twice.

Next month will be better. I’ll be solely in the NICU (part of the problem with this month is that the first part of the month I spent in the ICU and the second part I’ve been on the general neuro team. And they both require some adjustment!), and I won’t be taking call. AND, I have most weekends off. AND I have a week of vacation (9 days straight). Maybe that’s why I keep thinking it’s September, because, I really, really, really want it to be.

****
On a completely different subject…

I’m really in the mood for a layout change to my LJ. After seeing juno_magic‘s incredible lovely layout, mine has looked blah and uninteresting. But I don’t have time to (re)learn the CSS code and play with it, or design the background (still wanting Anne, just don’t know which one. Collage of Anne and Diana? Pretty PEI pictures? Mushy Anne/Gilbert? Autumn themed to get me in the mood?), which leaves me in this state of perpetual longing and frustration that I can’t figure it out. *sigh* Maybe that will be one of my vacation goals.

****
My raspberry bush is getting a second batch of fruit! Yay! I had fresh raspberries every day for the month of July, I hope that this batch last as long. Have I mentioned that it was the raspberry bush that convinced me that this place was supposed to be mine? It is such a delight to go out and pick the berries and plop them in my mouth–and then smile condescending to the poor saps in the grocery store who are paying $4 a carton for not as good berries (of course, when you think of it, I paid a LOT more for the privilege of mine, but I think there are other perks with my purchase. 🙂 ) Next year, I’ll be planting strawberries, I do hope they do as well.

****
Anybody out there who has a webcam? And uses a PC? I’m trying to see if iChat will allow me to webcam with someone who isn’t using iChat, but still is on AIM. If you do and would be willing to experiment, let me know. Chris is talking about getting one and I gotta make sure that if he did, I could actually talk with him.

****
I’m needing a new computer. My dear Flower Power iMAc has been a faithful companion for five years now, but I’ve filled up just about all of the memory and she is starting to creak–I can’t burn CDs any more, except at a snail’s pace, web browsing is slow, etc. It’s also becoming an issue of incompatibility–the Internal Medicine dept. gave me a Pocket PC that is virtually useless, because I can’t get it to synch with my computer and unfortunately, the hospital is all PC based, and so I haven’t been able to access some programs that I had hoped to. I’ve been strongly tempted to get a MacBookPro, which would solve all of those issues with the duel boot capabilities, but it’s so expensive and I’d be saving my pennies for a long time before I could afford it. A little iBook I could get now and would for the most part do just great. Decisions, decisions.

And I think that’s the end of the update with my boring little life. Hope all is going well with you. I’ve missed my interactions with you, the little chats and mingling of our lives. You are all in my thoughts.

*hugs*

Online Friendship

The true friends who we meet online
are a very special kind
They pierce your shields and see within
the corners of your mind
They’re always there when you’re in need
with their power to discern
They feel your pain………..they offer hope
and genuine concern
We bare our souls, expose our hearts
and show our inner fears
and then before you know it
the keyboard’s stained with tears
And if we could see them through that screen
then no one could deny
that to be a TRUE online friend
they too must surely cry.

~Author Unknown~

(A wee bit sappy, but I had to share. And the sentiments apply to my RL friends, which I hope they know.)

posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

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      My goal was to read 120 books this year. I just finished number 129. (Some of these I reviewed as part of my WWW posts). October: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I had high expectations for this book, as it had been so praised, and I felt let down by it. Still enjoyable, […]
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