five things i concluded to

though i find that i often do not follow my instinct and i am not exceedingly great and wise decision making procedures, i do intentionally ponder of the possibility of being more responsible, and if i dare input this common adjective here; mature. here is the result of some of my ideas as to how i can improve myself in general:

1. wear a helmet when i go out, everywhere
2. be careful of falling cousins
3. if i decide to take a walk, or perhaps a nap on someone's porch, i need to set a time limit and inform whoever i am hanging out with approximately how long my walk/nap will be so that they can find me
4. walking barefoot in PA is ok, not in the streets of Chelsea
5. telling people at club that you work there really isn't a bad thing, but if it is going to result in complications related to numbers 1-4, then perhaps a few drinks less may have a better outcome

thats about all the thinking left for my day. its time to recharge my brain.

Its Friday night and I pull up on the corner of an Avenue in Brooklyn with my bud (name edited out cause some people are anal and don't want their names mentioned on sites like these). We were the first two to venture in to the Greenich Village meets techno version of one of my fav clubs. Everybody else was still somewhere in Queens. Our first impression was a positive one of the new place for the ever-so-friendly bouncers offered to give us a tour of the place. Soon the posse filed in. The beat was the steady and the lights flashing so eventually we turned to the dance floor. Suddenly I found myself in an interesting predicament. I was face to face with two similar figures, different in every way. Two characters, lets say, an Angel and Devil. One became predictable, the stable one with the halo and wings; secure in step, turning identically the same way each time. Not soon later I heard an “ohhhh myyyy” and upon turning around I was face to face with the Devil, his Armani belt shining in the disco light and the red Exchange letters scrawled over the black shirt. Ah, aint nothing better than the site of a familiar friend tempting you with bad words and promises of fun. So I boogied with the bad ass and our 1-2 steps complimented each other too well. The old Nelly Furtado lyrics came to my head with i try and i try and i try...an angel on my left side and a devil on my right..and they fight and they fight and they fight..they're fighting, they're fighting…ah I stepped out and tried to regain my conscience but I already left my conscience somewhere with my rhythm. the angel took a backseat and Armani and I took this dance contest up two blocks to Europa. Pretty soon I was getting compliments from the devil’s best friend that we were a match made in…New Jersey? No way could I go back tonight I had other places to be early the next day. Plans with The Cuz. So we parted ways, damn it was hard to part with someone just like you who can’t ever leave a club earlier before the bouncers want to kick you out. I must have found my other half cause he said “oh five more minutes” and I declared that line as my own years ago.
Anyway, driving home still a bit torn with my sober realization that maybe I shot down more appropriate opportunities especially when I was given specific instructions to at least TRY something stable. Well 545 AM my phone rings wakin me out of my peaceful slumber and who is it other than the Devil himself. Ah well, if you can’t fight the attaction so be it…he may be the gatekeeper to hell but he smells like…HEAVEN.

my week, in brief

Right before I rest my head on my pillow to sleep, or perhaps collapse complete from brain overload, dozens of facts float through my head, maybe even thousands. There is some relevant information, like the positive purposes of good fiber, and the connection of adequate potassium to build a strong functioning heart. And other bits of information that might not prove so handy for my own personal life, for instance an infant’s posterior fontanel closes at 2 months while the anterior by 18 months, a toddler loves to say no and thus should have finger foods so he can feed himself and think its all completely his idea, contractions in labor should be about 2 to 3 minutes long and with a duration longer than 60 seconds but if there are any late decelerations you need to cut that IV Pitocin stat, and a psych patient has a right to make phone calls, vote by absentee ballot, and send letters out, even if they are to the President suggesting he check his backyard for aliens…the green kind that is. Then we get very numerical. 500 mcg of Rhogam should be administered to a unsensitized mother at 20 weeks gestation, serum sodium levels normally range 136-145 mEq/L, the therapeutic level of Digoxin needs to be .2 to 9 mg/ml. Then the random names come in, for instance, low chloride levels signifies Addison’s disease and SIADH, while high levels is significant of Cushing’s disease. Nerves II, III IV and V are named Optic, Oulometer, Trochlear, and Abducent respectively and are nerves that direct eyes. Sydenham’s Chorea is also called the St. Vitus dance, and since I was just in Prague at St. Vitus Cathedral I desperately needed to find out the connection. It turns out that the folks during the middle ages, in addition to the Black Plague, were also coming down with a variety of nerve spasms that resulted in their upper and lower extremities from moving all over the place as if it were a dance. So the folks, just like dancing the Tarentella, created a European Dance Mania as a cure to the nervous spasms. Folks would dance for hours, sort of like our modern day raves, and eventually St. Vitus was said to be linked to cures while praying over these dance manics.
Hmm, to digress a little as I walked around the park with my dad this afternoon, I suddenly found myself describing all the safety techniques used if a person goes into a seizure. I also went in to a general description of the growth and development stages of Erikson as I watched kids play in the park I found myself sending my cousin a text message telling him I found the initials PVD in my nursing book. Not the DJ, paul van dyk, however it stood for peripheral vascular disease.

So, these are some of the things listed above that were on my mind lately :)

one fish, two fice? three feces?

So I just witnessed my pet fish do something scary. He pooped. Or at least I think so I’m not really sure. At first I thought he was giving birth to his intestines, or perhaps a mini anaconda. Could Scrantie really be a she and gave birth to an eel? Not sure if goldfish can give birth to eels. So maybe the fish is lonely and tried to make another fish. And somehow what he made was this really really long string-bean like thing that is currently twice his size and still stuck to his bottom. Are you lonely fishie? I dunno. I guess my confusion is a fine example of why I didn’t stick to being a biology major.

So lately I’ve been making new observations in the realm of dating and relationships. I’ve had a hiatus on my own social life this past weekend (well, its been about a week on house rest sticking to my books to study up on my license exam but it’s the weekend when the sacrifice hurts the most) but I’ve still had some chance to ponder over some new enlightened thoughts. By the way, the fact that I still have any enlightened thoughts is a miracle, because I’ve done enough multiple choice test practice questions to drive a person mad. So if anything sounds a bit off the rocker (which isn’t too unusual for nat), well, blame the nursing board.

I worked at our Holy Cross Polish Picnic for a couple of hours this Saturday and what better place to observe the socializing of the European-American culture. First of all, I must say that falling prey to assumptions exists everywhere. In between selling tickets, I was being interrogated by an older gentlemen who was convinced that the kid standing next to me was my boyfriend. Now I just met this guy, My supposed “boyfriend” but because he looked my age, and was standing in close proximity, and well we had actually exchanged a few words well, that just had to add up to this. Several minutes later another lady asked me if I was married. (to the kid I was just talking to?). What is going on? It was like those days we had dinners in the caf with So-and-So and the next day I’d find out people thought we were dating. Can’t young people just talk these days? And when I told them it wasn’t they said I was lying.

So I went off on my single-in-the-city speech, but the Europeans, who believe in family values and male dominance, were not impressed. You see yourself as your own support system? No way! Yes way. I told everyone about my college degree and future job, and they wanted to know if I had any kids yet or at least a boyfriend. I had a solid negative on both of those ends. And I like it!

I’m still not at the point in my life where I would feel comfortable having to check in with someone. Consistantly. I still need to check in with my Mom to tell her I’m still alive. And it’s a nifty feeling being able to decide for yourself, plotting out your future for yourself and not have to worry how its going to hurt or benefit a counterpart.

Last week I met this interseting fellow who plays pro golf in Australia. He text messaged me to see if I wanted to meet up. Still thinking text messages are the lesser of personal means to get in touch with someone, I let him know after my test I’d have free time. Yeah, free time in my world is about three hours max in between finishing my test and then going out in the city with my guys and gals for the night and then trecking up to PA early morning for our white water rafting excursion and then only to spend the rest of the week in the Poconos. So my time with my Australian friend is limited since he is going back soon, and I don’t really give a hoot about golf. However, I would like to go to Australia someday though, and pen pals are nice to have. Maybe I’ll find some more time somehow and see what the kangaroos have to say.

As for now, for all you children that have paired up, and actually that goes for only one of you, one of the fearsome four has changed her status!!…..a Robin to her Batman-ness! A Bonnie to go with Clyde. A Bert for Ernie! Though I myself rarely progress with long-termed dualships, I am fascinated as to how these things come about.

I guess it means something different for everyone. Mr. And Mrs. Smith, in the movie Mr. And Mrs. Smith, were awfully alike, and found that as much as they wanted to kill each other, they had too much in common to fight the Big Fight alone. There really isn’t a right or wrong, just a preference and an arrangement of comfort and convenience. Sometimes its convenient to have someone. And some seem to have found something really great out of it. Things fluctuate and change all the time, even the course of tradition whether it be American or European. We’ll see what changes next or what we‘ll adjust ourselves.

And I’ll check up on Scrantie, the goldfish, again tomorrow, and perhaps change the tank, and see if Whatever is still floating around.

dancing houses 

Wenceslas Square 

stars aligning again

and who'd a thought they'd align with Flanneries? of all places. it must be the irish. Actually New York City is listed as number 13 in the top ten most expensive cities on the global count list, and Dublin, Ireland tied in at number 13 as well. So does that explain our numerous Irish encounters last Sunday? No what am I talking about, that is still a part of our Scranton connection. Two Sri Lankans and a Polak felt at home at an Irish pub. WHy? Its an overstated question that is underanswered always. But we wont push for answers tonight.

Tomorrow is the Polish picnic and well, I recall what happened after the festival just a few weeks ago so we'll see how tomorrow goes. I think I zapped out most of the party mode in me and put it in a little box and locked it with a key only to re-open it next Friday once I take my stateboard exam. Really not looking forward to it though. If you think this blog contains a flight of ideas, you should see the inner workings of my brain right now. The Cuz would make the assessment that smoke is coming out of my ears my brain has never worked to this level before. So yes, what I mean to say is that the focus this week is reviewing my entire nursing career over the next few days.

and ohhh to reminisce....


praha by night 


danube canal north 


budapest 

It seems like a dream but a really good dream and I can still taste the Zachertorte, knedly and goulash. Each city seems to have something distinctly its own flavor. What does nyc have? the hot dog? the pretzel? i suppose we have a little bit of everything and that in itself is a flavor. but i'm not sure if it can compare :)

i left my heart in...

many places!

after last week, i realized i ought to be in europe much more. but upon traveling through the moravian fields to get to hungary i realized I was hitting up my 10th country. So when I got to the Czech Republic border I was at 11. Not bad to have visited 11 countires through my 22 years. Perhaps I'm meant to be long for distant lands, after all the first time I was on a plane and in a foreign country was in my mother's stomach as we were heading to Poland. And for the past two weeks I was reminded of how there are so many beautiful places to see, and different ways of life to explore.

Ah the the graceful, elegant alleys of Vienna to the wild Bohemian pubs of Prague...how I miss thee! I'm dreaming of going back, and the occassional letters from the new friends I made bring the distance just a tad bit closer.

more details to come, I'm about to head out on this 4th of July eve to celebrate the birthdays of Sosh and Sudhar :)