Self Contented Murmurings

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, and it's hard to know what to talk about.

Nothingparticularily exciting is occuring, but I'vedefinitely been having lots of fun.

Let's see.

There was the chocolate festival in Bel Air where Iate lots of yummy chocolate including some from a company called Cacao. My favorite piece was the dark chocolate infused with green tea and fresh mint, with tanzania 75% chocolate ganache a close second. A fellow wanderer named Emily joined me in the quest for the perfect chocolate to a sleepy little town still celebrating from one of their own going to the olympics. I have pictures, but am not in the mood to post them tonight! We chased the chocolate eating with going junkin' (yes, Barbara, you instilled in me a love for junkin'- but I did not buy the hay hook despite it's obvious usefulness as a deterent for panhandlers). Then we took the scenic route back to Baltimore down route 1. We stopped at Gunpowder park and hiked a short trail to look at a river-- my suede loafers will never be the same. Then mapquest,or yahoo maps, or whatever Emily was using, drove us right into a one way street facing the wrong way. We were forced onto North Ave which I've been told to avoid, and then spent 15 minutes in one of the areas of the city where two little white girls are not supposed to be driving around. Actually, the architecture of some of the houses were quite old and lovely (it will not, however, make the "Kelly Baltimore Tour" due to the location of the houses). We followed both the maps (we had about 10 between us) and glimpses of the taller Baltimore buildings until we found a familiar street. During the drive, I kept reminding myself I'd laugh as soon as I felt a bit safer. I was right.

I went to the kickoff party for the kickball league at Mother's bar with about 150 other young people. The bar tender was trying to get me to order a $2 captain morgan tatoo(new dark rum). Now, I like the captain more than any other spiced rum, but I wasn't going to do a shot of mystery drink. Anyways, the bar tender was pushing it just a bit too joyfully. My instict ran true- he gave me a free sample: robitussin-infused with strong alcohol is the best description I can give you. He made me sign a piece of paper addressed to the manager that says, "it sucks"; I was glad to sign the "it sucks" petition.

Last Wednesday night I participated in my first kickball game since 5th grade. I kicked the ball twice, made it to first once, and performed a face-plant into the ground while trying to throw the ball to home plate to out a runner. We drank before the game, during, and after. All in all, I had only 3 beers in 5 hours but I'm a pretty masterful beer nurser. It was darned cold out on the field with wind like knives, but it was such a good time. Noone on the team cares if we win, and we were all cheering each other. I met some new people, including a few guys, and then the winning team invited us to come party with them. As if! Just kidding. Apparently, we share our team name with a popular strip joint-- Chaos. We may just have to do a pole dancing class to keep up appearances.

Last weekend I went to go visit big brother and family. Collin insisted I play on the gym sets with him, and so through the tunnels and over the shaky bridges I went. We helped his mommy and daddy interview a new school (terrorized the teachers), potty trained (do you need to go pooh-pooh?), and went to a picnic (No, I want the ball!). I spent 2 hours online finding out that plane tickets to a wedding I wanted to go to on April 8th were going to be ridiculous. Sorry Uppwords, unless there's a last minute deal, I will be absent. But I'll be able to afford a better gift by saving all that money! I'm perusing your registries right now looking for the gift that says, "the plane ticket was too expensive, here's a gift that will alleviate my guilt".

Oohhh, almost forgot a really cool thing. RinglingBros and Barnum and Baily circus was in town complete with Arabian horses, the 10 ton Diva elephant, and some really great clowns. I went and saw the threering circus last Tuesday and laughed at just aboutevery lame joke and silly trick. I even gasped a bit. Rachel, Nicole, Emily and I bought cotton candy, coloring books for nephews/nieces, and pretty much acted a forth of our ages the entire night. We even tried to memorize the song to teach our patients. I work with a great group of gals.

Saint Patrick's day was spent at Mick O'shea's bar on St. Charles street. Lisa, Rachel, Emily and myself drank and rocked to the tunes of the donegal x-press--I bought 3 CDs (it was 1 for $15 or 3 for $25 and I honestly enjoyed them greatly). I'm listening to one now and I'm not disapppointed at all. I may have a new favorite band-- rock and Irish mix with sometraditional, some newer music, and some typical American music reworked with an Irish flair. "The roof is on fire" was particularly funny with the thick Irish brogue. We stayed out past midnight and I was D-driver. Too bad we all don't live anywhere close to each other- we could have gotten a cab. Characters met: some black guy that started the night wiping ash from the back of my coat where he had dropped it, then tried to pick me up, then tried to romance Lisa. He-he. And then there was the guy who claimed to be from Ireland but had a bit of an Italian accent. When I pointed this out, he claimed to have greek parents, but was raised in Ireland. Okay, maybe, but I don't think so! He was bragging a "lass" was buying him a beer-- true Irish lad wouldn't let the lass pay, and if he did he wouldn't brag! All in all, it was the best St. Paddy's day I've had in a long time.

So the adventure continues. I am extending until mid-May (was supposed to end mid-April but am enjoying things). Work is work. I have two patients who I'm bound and determined to fix. One has a swallowing problem and the other is a young lady with locked-in syndrome. Look that syndrome up at your own peril--it's a nasty one. I spent last thursday off exploring assistive technology at a nearby facility trying to brainstorm alerting and communication options for my under-funded patients. The rest of the patients I'm trying to help, but only within the 40 hour week. We do what we can do-- and that's gotta be enough. I'll always have a few that make me sit up in the middle of the night trying to puzzle better ways to help, and that's probably what makes me a decent therapist. Bad sleeper, but decent therapist. So if you have $8 grand laying around and would like to help unlock someone,write me. She's a worthy cause.