Mommy Time

I've been off from work since last Wednesday, which has been incredibly nice. I've been able to spend time with Michael and our families and get back into what's been happening in each other's lives. Although it's been a busy week so far, I've enjoyed spending time with everyone.

Today I spent the day with my mom. My dad's on vacation in Oceanside visiting my aunts and uncles, as two of them have been in the hospital recently. Whenever my dad's away, my sister and I try to spend time with our mom since she doesn't like being alone. I spent time with her, Bee, and Keith on Saturday, but today was just mom and me. We met at the Tacoma Mall and resisted the temptation to buy things, then I drove the two of us to Sumner since I knew it's a place mom wanted to see and doesn't often get a chance to go to. (She doesn't like to drive very far from Gig Harbor.) Afterwards we went back to the apartment and she cooked me my favorite Filipino dish, sinigang. It's a tamarind-based soup with meat and vegetables in it. We went with pork, okra, and spinach -- the veggies were overcooked and the soup was super-sour, just as I like it. Mmm...sarap.

I had a good time hanging out with mom today. It made me realize how much I miss having her around to talk to (and eat her yummy Filipino cooking). I really hope we can move closer to our parents next year, especially if we plan on starting a family. I think my mom and dad will be really cute Lolo and Lola someday. They'll teach their apo the Filipino values of family, faith, food, and karaoke that I grew up with. :)

:/

Since I've become a "real nurse", I often find myself wondering why I chose this profession in the first place. I thought my days would be filled with adrenaline-pumping, life-saving action, but instead I'm examining boils on people's buttcheeks, sifting through poop for ingested batteries (and a screw), checking armpit abscesses or scooping out stool from commodes with plastic spoons to send for culture. I've lost my appetite, am unable to sleep for more than four hours at a time, feel like a zombie, and don't get to spend time with my loved ones anymore.

When does this get fun again?

Mr. Babers and TV

Michael's television preferences leave me scratching my head at times. Like my dad, he'll find the oddest things entertaining, like paraplegic basketball or something. Or, like my mom, he'll find some sci-fi B-movie marathon from the 80's to not only watch and rave about, but chatter to me every five minutes about the spandex-clad excitement unfolding before him.

Case in point: Earlier today, he purposefully chose to watch a program On-Demand about how to put fake facial hair on a little Asian boy to turn him into a werewolf. Oooh, exciting. Right now he is watching "American Ninja" which, from my 10-second observations every now and then, appears to be excruciatingly bad. During commercial breaks he told me a story and quoted lines from "Mad Max", but I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying because inside my head I was thinking, "OMG, he can quote 'Mad Max'." I have never seen "Mad Max", nor had any real inclination to, but it was one of those movies (along with "Labyrinth" and "Dark Crystal") that my mom would try to get us to watch, which usually ended up scaring me.

Harry Balogh

According to an application on Facebook (it's like MySpace for adults), this is what our first child will look like. Since he's a boy, we've given him the name Michael wants for his future son -- Harry Balogh. I don't know where the green mohawk or smirky facial expression comes from. He kind of looks like a punk, actually. I imagine him running around the house with no pants on and pulling pranks on his parents. Hmm.

planning for the foo-cher

The past couple mornings I've experienced the lovely pains of a UTI. I don't know if it was because of that, or whatever other reason, that I started humming church hymns and downloaded some of my favorites to play around the house. I even told Michael that, whenever I die, I'd like the following songs played at my funeral mass:

On Eagle's Wings

God Be With You Till We Meet Again

Be Not Afraid

Ave Maria

I guess UTIs do funny things to your head. They're good songs nonetheless.

weekend re-cap

My 28th birthday weekend is over. I spent my birthday working at the hospital. The staff was nice and chipped in to buy pizza. They enlisted one of the CNAs to collect money from everyone but I don't think she knew who I was because she almost asked me to donate money too. On Saturday we went to Poulsbo, where Michael and Matt helped to build a retaining wall in the Balogh's backyard. I went upstairs and slept. On Sunday my family took us out to an asian super-buffet in DuPont. Also in attendance were my Uncle Teng's family and Kuya Mario and Ate Ellen, who looks like she's about to burst any day now. All in all, good times with the families.

I also got a new cellphone to replace my old one since I could only hear out of it if it was on speakerphone. I say "new cellphone", but really it's more of a downgrade. It's very basic -- no camera, no fancy pictures, no fancy ringtones. I decided I'd like an iPhone eventually, but will wait until the price goes down, the second generation ones come out, and/or I amass large amounts of money to pay for it. This little guy can hold me over until then.

(not so) extreme makeover

Ever since we've been married, Michael has been telling me that I need to adopt a new wardrobe. From clothes to shoes, everything needs to be re-vamped. Inside, I know this. I hate all my clothes. I only resist getting rid of everything because it's so hard to find things that fit short, squatty people with bricks for feet.

During the past couple weeks I've bought several items of new things, mostly shoes. Michael has been my own personal Clinton Kelly from What Not to Wear, a show he's threatened to submit me for many times in the past. I think I've bought five pairs of shoes, some long sleeved shirts, and yesterday, a new peacoat. Slowly, but surely, I will rid my closet of things I've had since college, socks with missing mates, Christmas sweaters, bras that don't fit, and shoes that kill my feet.

Zappos

Oh, Zappos, how I love thee.

I bought a pair of Chaco sandals for Japan last night and just got an e-mail saying I will get them tomorrow. Zappos offers free overnight shipping and no sales tax. How awesome is that? Answer: All kinds of awesome. After cruising around the website after I bought my shoes, I noticed they sell more than just shoes -- they have clothes (and watches and bags!) from Patagonia, the North Face, Harajuku Lovers, Marmot, and much, much more. Michael was all kinds of excited when I showed him.

I'm hungry for some bacon. Why is it that I end all my posts about food cravings?

blog, blog, blog!

Ah, Blogger. I've kept an online journal since 1999 on LiveJournal (see joylugod.livejournal.com) but thought I'd open one of these up after seeing how nice my sister-in-law's blog looks and the option of having the entire thing private. Sometimes I like to talk about my days at work and I don't want to get found out and fired for it. :) I suppose I could use this to post about our wildly entertaining life as a married couple, such as our fun trips to the grocery store and our adventures in training Tiko, our ribbon-crazy parakeet. Thrilling, I know.

And now, I'm off to tend to some chicken nuggets. Mmm.