The Outside Kitty

Race Day With the Hubby...and CELEBRITIES!!!

So last Saturday was a rare 'day off' for me.  Ryan had driven off to work that morning, leaving me sleeping after a long Friday night spent at the hospital.  Once awake, I was puttering around the house, looking for something to keep me occupied until Ryan got home.  It was about noon when I got the phone call that set off our weekend...

"I have tickets for the race."

A fantastic perk about being married to my husband, other than the obvious reasons, is that when he gets tickets for anything sports-related from people who work for him, they are GOOD TICKETS.  Good as in $1,000 per seat, per event good.  Good as in catered food and open bar good.  Super good.

As a direct result, I don't think we've bought tickets for anything in quite awhile.  Sometimes, if we're really into it, we'll spring for them, but they're never as good as when we get them from Ryan's myriad contacts.  This was no exception.

He came home with tickets for the Nascar race on Sunday.  We were invited guests to a suite of 40 people, located above the pit area and with full access to pit road and the infield. 

When we've gone to these races in the past, with the exception of our first race, we always have pit passes and access to the infield.  That wasn't the big deal.

The big deal with these tickets was that they actually allowed us grazing rights to the celebrity areas of the event.  We had no idea that there would be so many present, especially with this race happening in the LA area on the same night as the Oscars.  But there they all were...parking next to us in the small infield lot for race team owners and drivers and 'VIP's', wandering the lightly populated walkway which linked our suites, walking next to us when we felt it necessary to leave the luxury of the suite itself. 

Of course, we didn't see anyone that totally blew our minds, but we did see and rub elbows with the following random group of people:

Hugh Laurie (House)

Gavin Rossdale and KINGSTON! (Gwen's hubby, lead singer of Bush and their son)

Mike Delfino from Desperate Housewives (don't know his real name)

Carey Hart (moto-x star)

Bob Guiney (the curly-haired, somewhat chubby, former 'Bachelor')

Ricky Rachtman (from Charm School and before that, Headbangers' Ball)

Like I said, it was a random group.  It was hilarious, fun, loud, wonderful!  I'm loving my hubby for loving things like this, and knowing that it all makes for good tales at the end of our long days!

Pictures of The Ex

It took a long time to get over this one.  Just when I think I am finally over it, I run across pictures from the past.  I do know that it ended well, and I'm happy with things.  But I also know that both Ryan and I will always miss our Austin home.  Here are a couple of pics from Christmas 2007.  Ryan's wearing the burnt orange Texas Longhorns cap and his father and brother in law are in the driveway.  Damn do I miss this place.  :(

Red Wine and The OR

Here comes the insecurity followed by the redemption followed by the celebration of a work week completed.  For me, Monday equals Friday.  I've already explained my weird hours, and I'll reiterate my even stranger days.  Of work, that is.  

Yes, late nights, yes, usually Thursday through Monday.  Monday, however, is the day that I actually work from 9am to 5:30pm.  Regardless of how late I stay on Sunday night, I am scheduled to work at 9am on Monday morning.  Sometimes this means that I only get about 6 hours of sleep at best before heading back to the hospital.

Anyhow, I went in this morning and we were SLAMMED all day.  I had a ten minute lunch, only to inhale sustenance enough to propel me through my shift.  I think I did no less than 25 exams today.  That's 25 different patients, having either x-rays, fluoroscopic procedures, or CT scans.  Oh yeah, and also surgical requests.

Today I made the mistake of answering the department phone when I had a patient on the table.  This isn't rude or disrespectful, as I had already completed the diagnostic requisition for this patient and was waiting for the images to process and appear on my computer screen.  The phone is next to my workstation, and the patient is in the same room.  

I fielded the STAT request from the OR to take another x-ray in surgery.  I sent my patient on his/her way and headed down to the OR.  

Well, I went down and let me tell you that just entering the OR takes a good 5 minute pre-session of changing into surgical scrubs and hat, mask and booties all the while hoping you're not going to enter the suite and see the awful Yeti Surgeon (as I call him) whom my whole department fears and hates working with.  Thankfully, the Yeti wasn't present.

Anything done in the surgical suite is always high stress; not to take away from the heinous traumas that occasionally pop up a couple of times a week in the ER.  Surgery is different, though.  In the actual Operating Room, there are no less than 8 people present by the time I arrive, including the patient.  There are usually two surgeons, one anesthesiologist, several surgical and scrub nurses and always there are product reps.  The rooms are usually pretty small, and about 35% of the room is covered in sterile draping.  Sterile draping is blue, and it is a color we learn to avoid as though it were a flaming poker.  That boardgame 'Operation' best depicts how I feel when I'm in the OR.  I have to enter that room with a big portable x-ray machine and myself...which makes 9 people and one more huge piece of equipment in the room.  I was quick to arrive to this call, and was told by the scrub nurse that I should just sit to the side (of where?!?) and wait for my cue to shoot the x-ray.  I told them that we were really busy upstairs with ER patients, and the surgeon DEMANDED that I wait there to get his x-ray.  So I waited...I saw the patient as he was cleaned and draped for the procedure.  I saw everyone take their places as the procedure began.  I smelled the familiar scent of burning flesh as the operation began, and I was hopeful that I would be able to shoot my x-ray SOON.  After all of that, I waited an extra 39 minutes.  During that time, I was seated on a stool, trying to keep 'invisible', and waiting for my cue.   

Surgeons are usually a-holes, and I am using that watered-down term NICELY.  Some of them are actually pretty cool, but a whole hell of a lot of them are dictators.  And they should be:  I wouldn't want a mealy-mousy surgeon guessing whether or not he should cut here or there.  I respect surgeons.  I mostly wish they would return that sentiment.  Which brings me to the next part of my day.

The surgeon finally called out “X-ray!!!”  and I motored into position.  With this big x-ray machine, in this tiny, sterile environment, I maneuvered it and myself into place.  The surgeon actually placed my cassette for me, and he angled it in a strange way that I knew wasn’t going to work.  I told him that I couldn’t have an drastic angle on the cassette if I was using a grid (technical speak), and he said that he wanted the image right there.  I angled my tube and cleared the room to shoot the x-ray.

I ran out to process it and it came out completely UNUSABLE.  Partially because of his request for a weird angle, and mostly because of my incorrect calculation of radiation needed to provide a good shot.  So I went back into the OR and pulled up on the giant flat screen monitor the x-ray I just took.  The whole group in the room was visibly (even with MASKS ON) disappointed in the x-ray.  The surgeon and his assistant said “We have to re-shoot” and off I went.  We did everything the same way, except for when the surgeon and I came to terms on exactly how the x-ray should be shot.  He stopped angling the cassette, I centered everything as it should be, and I punched in a different calculation of radiation to penetrate the patient.

It came out perfectly.  I was so relieved!   I ran back into the OR and popped the image up for the whole group.  The anesthesiologist looked at me (remember, we’re all wearing masks and we can only read each other’s eyes) after he saw my excellent x-ray and he was smiling behind his mask.  I made a “whew’” motion of wiping my forehead and he laughed.  The next thing I knew, the surgical scrub nurse said, ”Doctor, here’s your image”.   I stood next to the surgeon and waited for his eyes to catch mine behind our masks.  He looked at me and said, ”You redeemed yourself.”

I got my ass out of there ASAP and spent the rest of the day in CT.  And when I got home, I opened a bottle of red wine for the first time in quite a long time.  Usually I drink white.  I think red suits a day of redemption.

Getting Engaged is Just As Fun As Getting Married

    I have two weddings I'm attending this year.  The first one, in March, is for my college friend Erin and her fiance Tommy.  Erin and Tommy had been a couple for about 6 years.  She and I went to a sporting event together last February, while we were both in our internships in the radiology program.  We spent the day talking about the future.  At that time, I was still in the middle of planning our move to Austin (we didn't know that would be halted until about April).  Erin was fretting about her relationship with Tommy, mostly wondering if it would lead anywhere other than its' existing state.  As much as she loved him, she didn't want to be the 'forever girlfriend'.  She was very concerned about her options once we graduated, because she didn't want to start the next big part of her life (career) without figuring out how her relationship measured in on it.

About two months after graduating, I got an email from Erin.  A GREAT email.  She and Tommy had gone to an Angels game one evening.  During the game, Tommy gave her the cue to look at the JumboTron and sure enough, there it was:  Erin, Will You Marry Me?  Tommy was sweet enough to tell about 40 of their family and friends, and he was sly enough to somehow get this large group of people in seats that were directly above/behind them, with only a few rows separating the group from Erin and Tommy, but enough space to allow for their successful hiding when Tommy and Erin entered the stadium.  After accepting the proposal, Tommy turned Erin around where she saw this large group standing with signs reading "Congratulations!"  Erin is the world's biggest Angels fan, so this proposal in this place with all their family and friends was perfect.

The other proposal, which happened on Christmas Eve, was that of my best friend Ashly and her boyfriend Tom.  They were having dinner with friends and family, and Tom was acting nervous all night.  Ashly thought it was just because everyone was all in one place at the same time until Tom dropped the bomb.  During the dinner, he asked Ashly what she wanted for Christmas.  Ashly, not at all thinking that this was going to be a big deal, answered her wish.  It wasn't a ring, not that she didn't want one, but that she wasn't expecting Tom to propose this night.  She told the group what object she'd been coveting, and she left it at that.  Tom asked her if she wanted to know what he wanted, and she didn't because she thought that she already knew...  About two seconds later, he stood up in front of everyone and told Ashly that all he wanted for Christmas was to have Ashly with him for life.  He knelt down, proposed, offered the ring, and Ashly accepted.

This brings me back to Ryan's proposal.  All I knew at that point was that we would be getting engaged sometime during the coming year.  The reason I knew that is because when we went to Austin to sign the papers which would kick off the construction of our home, I told Ryan that I would not move out of state with a boyfriend.  I didn't think it would be right for me to leave my existing family in California to live with him in HIS home.  Plus, we were both already beyond the point of silliness.  We were ready.  Even in that state of readiness, my proposal was still a gigantic surprise.  The second best night of my life. 

About two weeks prior to our engagement, Ryan started telling me he wanted to go and see a monster truck show at Angels' Stadium in Anaheim.  This wasn't a big surprise.  Ryan's a fan of anything that includes demolition.  It totally bucks his trend of being a big old engineering nerdy kind of guy.  If he wasn't as cute as he is, and if he didn't have the education and compassion that he does, he'd be your average Manly Man.  Anyhow, each day leading up to this event, he kept telling me how excited he was to go and how much fun we would have.  It was January, it was freezing, and I was thinking that it would be fun for like a half hour and then it would suck.

On the day of the event, he told me to pack my carry-on bag.  I was a little surprised.  He told me that we weren't going to the monster truck show, we were actually going to Long Beach to spend the next two nights on the yacht where he took me for my birthday a few months prior.  I was so excited!  The picture of the yacht is below:

 

At this point, I still thought it was just a weekend getaway, and great surprise at that.  We drove to the Albertson's, where we used to shop when we lived in Belmont a few years ago, a bought some wine and cheese and other nibbly foods.  We went to the yacht, unloaded everything, and just sat on the back deck for a few hours enjoying the surroundings. Then we ordered food from Gladstone's and brought it back on the boat to eat on the back deck, overlooking the lighthouse and the Queen Mary.  After finishing dinner, I went into the cabin to sit next to the amazing little fireplace and watch the NFL playoff game on the plasma screen TV.  This yacht is so pretty, inside and out.  Here's the cabin area:

 

So while I was watching the game, Ryan was absent.  He does that alot while I'm watching football, so that wasn't a big deal.  Just after the game ended, he poked his handsome head inside the cabin and asked me to come up and see something on the back deck.  I climbed up the steps and there in front of me was the deck table with a few things sitting on it that weren't there about an hour before.  First, there was a very large bottle of Veuve Cliquot Rose. On either side, were sitting two champagne flutes.  Directly in front of the champagne bottle was a very large, plastic, diamond ring.  This thing could've fit around my wrist, and the 'diamond' was the size of an apple.  I was shell-shocked.

Ryan had a big smile on his face, and all I could muster was,"Is this a joke, because if it is, it's not funny!"  It was no joke, and I was still shocked.  Ryan got down on one knee and said a lot of things to me that I'd only believed were possible in my wildest dreams.  He was talking and talking, and I think I started to cry, and of course I said YES!  The next best thing was about the ring.  He told me that I always said I wanted a big rock, and he didn't know exactly what kind of big rock I wanted, so he had to find a ring to suit that request until we found exactly what I wanted.  God, how much do I love this man?!

We found my 'big rock' at a reknowned place in Las Vegas:  The Jewelers of Las Vegas.  We dealt directly with the owner, Mordechai Yerushalmi.  Mordechai has been in business for 35 years and has sold jewelry to people like Elvis, Mike Tyson, Sharon Stone, and thousands of other athletes, actors, entertainers, dignitaries and politicians worldwide.  Little did we know that when we bought our ring in February in Vegas, we'd be back there 3 months later to have our wedding at the Bellagio.  ahhhhh.....memories!!!

Man am I lucky.  I love my husband!!!