I'm baaaack!

Where we last left off with our fearless heroine, she was reveling in the realizations of the new year. The next day she was off to save a few lives at the world-reknown hospital, the Brigham...

OK maybe not. But I did work 6 out of the next 7 days, roughly totaling around 75 hours in one week. And in the midst of all that, I unpacked and repacked for our annual family ski trip to Vail, CO. We left for Vail the afternoon of the 10th (after I had just gotten off work that morning), and we returned to Boston on the 16th. Since then, my ass has been plastered to the couch, catching up on emails, blogs, and TV shows. Anyway, here are a few stories of interest/ random thoughts from the last couple of weeks:

• I took care of the same patient for 5 out of the 6 days that I worked. Although he was very sick at the beginning of the week, he seemed to be improving by the 4th day, but then went downhill again by the 5th day. That kind of sucked. At least he had a super nice, really hot grandson who came to visit him every evening. It didn't hurt that he was wearing his police uniform either. (A note to all the guy readers: as long as you have a decent body, all uniforms are hot all the time.)
• And now, in order to redeem myself, I would just like to say that my man has looked exceptionally attractive in all of the new clothes that I bought him for Christmas. (exceptionally attractive= H-O-T!)
• It's amazing what 10,000 feet of altitude can do to your body. Ever heard of altitude sickness? All last week when I was in the Rocky Mountains I pretty much felt like crap in one way or another. "Feeling like crap" equals one or more of the following symptoms at any given time: headache, dizziness, lightheadedness, feeling "out of it," nausea, or just plain exhaustion. It didn't help that I was already tired from working, probably dehydrated, and that we went from sea level straight up to 10,000 feet in one day. Plus when you ski for 5 hours a day, using muscles that you haven't used since the last time you skiied a year ago, that probably doesn't help much either.
• Somehow between this year and last year, Dave's skiing has improved about 150%. Last year he was much more timid and much more likely to take the easy way. This year I was pleasantly surprised by his "F**k it! Let's try it!" attitude. He denies that he's been practicing while I've been at work, but I'm pretty sure he's lying. Either way, I'm proud of his newfound confidence on the slopes.
• The big event of the week occurred Saturday evening when our parents finally met for the first time. It was funny how it worked out because it just so happened that Dave's family randomly planned a trip to Breckenridge the same weekend my family was in Vail. They are only a 45 minute drive apart, so it worked out for us all to meet for dinner. I knew it was all going to be OK, when my dad said "At least we know they like to drink," when he found out that it was going to be at a brewery. Incidentally, that's probably about the only thing our two sets of parents have in common. Between that and a common love for socializing, everyone got along just fine, and it ended up being a really great night.
• While we were there, I experienced the coldest weather I have ever been in. I think the coldest it got was around -10. Even in the middle of the day while we were skiing, the high on Monday was like 5. It wasn't bad though. In fact, I think it prepared me for the 15 degree weather we came home to on Tuesday. Lucky for me, I got 2 pairs of silk long underwear for Christmas, which slides under jeans quite nicely and makes a huge difference in my warmth.

In case you didn't feel like reading all that, I'll recap the past two weeks for you in the next five words: work, altitude, ski, family, fun. Now I shall continue my couch surfing for the next three days, until I have to work again. I heart weekends.