Vacation at last...in Paradise!

Our lives have been very full of late, and we've felt like we just kept going and going and going... but not so much like energizer bunnies. Tim worked late at the office on Thursday night, and I didn't get home from the hospital until about 8pm (sigh). It had been a really tough week - a busy service in the hospital, with many very sick patients, some dying (or trying to, at least), family meetings to transition patients to palliative care (comfort measures only), consultants with varying opinions and things to say about my management of patients (I guess they have to say SOMEthing - that's their job as consultants), not getting home until very late every night, many admissions during the day, and very few discharges. I usually like inpatient medicine and making rounds in the hospital, but this week I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere, that I wasn't doing a good job, and just couldn't get on top of things. Fortunately it's over, and I made my final phone call to one of my partners from the Chicago airport to ask him to do a few things I had forgotten to do... cuz we're on vacation!

Tim and I hadn't prepared for this trip at all, so we spent the evening into the wee hours of the morning Thursday into Friday doing laundry, packing, and getting ready to be away for 8 days - that's right 8 days! We went to bed around 1:30 AM, only to have the alarm go off at 3:45 AM to get up and get ready to catch our flight. We picked my parents up, and headed to the airport. It was a long day, but ended gloriously, when we arrived at the vacation home we've rented in Santa Barbara, California.

SB is truly a paradise, in and of its own, but our little oasis is very special. I found this house on Craig's List several months ago, and we decided to share the accomodations with my parents. Our house sits on acres and acres of gardens and fruit trees on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The gardens are AMAZING! We had fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast today. We have patios and decks all around, with indoor and outdoor firepits and a hot tub to top it off (we have yet to try this out). We both have king sized beds and our own bathrooms, and there are turtle doves inside a museum sized bird cage to sing the good morning song each day.

Last night we ran to Trader Joes, my favorite unique grocery store, and picked up all sorts of goodies for breakfast and snacks, not to mention our favorite beverage - Reeds Ginger Brew, which is a super strong ginger ale, Jamaican style. We had a breakfast of champions this morning with omelettes, home fries, toast, fruit smoothies, OJ and coffee. Delicious! We had breakfast on the deck overlooking the garden and ocean.

We had dinner at La Super Rica Taqueria last night, which is claimed to be Julia Child's favorite place to get tacos. It was super rico!

We've rested well, and now we're about to head out to explore the sites of Santa Barbara and participate in some of the wedding festivities that are forthcoming. My cousin Duane is about to get hitched - he's the 10th and final cousin in the Johnsen family to take the leap. We're so excited for him and for Audrey. They make a great pair, and we're looking forward to celebrating with them.

Enjoy some pictures from our little paradise!

Buy Fair Trade! A plug for World Fair Trade Day...

Saturday, May 10th is World Fair Trade Day, an annual event designed to increase the visibility of fair trade. If you are interested in supporting some fair trade and socially-conscious companies, check out Fair Indigo's list.

Also check out the FairTrade Foundation and Fair Trade Certified - organizations that promote Fair Trade around the world.

Note, the images above are from FairTrade Foundation and Fair Trade Certified. Please support them!

ArtWalk in Lancaster City... through the eyes of Java-JO!

This past weekend was ArtWalk, and we took advantage of the gorgeous weather to get out and about. Our friend, Java-JO, is visiting us and shared some photos with us... Here is a glimpse of the weekend, through his eyes!

Java-JO made friends with a jazz street musician near Central Market.

Outside of Annex 24 Gallery, we all posed for a Peanuts picture!
Some musicians playing outside of Gallery 141, where I have my jewelry on display this month and next.

Java-JO with the owner of a gallery that rescues architectural treasures from older homes for re-use. Java-JO spent some time relating with him, and his warm personality and tenderness left the gallery owner with goose bumps.

Gallery 2... where Tim asked me to marry him!

This is Roger, the owner of Rafiki's Deli, one of our favorite places to get some yummy African food at Central Market.

Living on Obama Avenue

On the eve of a very important day in history, we share just a few reflections about living on "Obama Avenue." I think our street is pretty exceptional. We live on a street of 12 houses, and every house on the street but 2 has Obama signage. We're a little slow to get our groove on, but ours went up tonight. Yesterday, when a young man (Brian) who was canvasing for Obama came to our house, he confirmed that we lived on Obama Avenue. It's kind of impressive to see! If you stand at one corner, all you see til your eyes meet the next corner are Obama signs.
We walked over to Obama Headquarters tonight to get our sign and pick up some paraphernalia for our friend Java-JO, who's visiting us, and has become the number one, non US citizen Obama fan! He comes to us from Germany, but is Indonesian. He dreams of one day meeting Obama, when he is President of the USA. I'm pretty sure that he's Obama's biggest fan. We managed to get him a pin (reserved for volunteers), because he's been so supportive!
I don't usually get into politics a whole lot, but I've grown to realize that we are in need of change, and I've found a candidate that I believe can guide us in that direction.
Here's a sampling of interesting (and not-so-interesting) things we got in the mail today:

1. A post card from FCNL that says: "43% of your federal tax dollars go for war. How much of your federal tax rebate will support PEACE?" Yowsers! How profound?!?! When will we start investing in more things like health care for all, education, energy efficiency, poverty, etc.? Oh, wait! Maybe when Obama's president!
2. A flyer from Barack Obama for President: "It's time for Washington to start working for you." When someone's offering an end to war, healthcare for all, reform for our country, energy independence, fair trade, improved environmental protection efforts, and more affordable college education, how could you not want to support him? It is, in fact, time for change!
3. A card from a recruiter offering me a job in North Carolina. Ha! Even though they offer the #1 ranked beach in 2007, I'm not convinced. I do, think, however, that I'm in the right place at this time - serving the poorest of the poor in Lancaster City. It's an incredibly challenging job, when 30-40% of my patients have no health insurance. What a glorious day it might be, when all will have access to the healthcare they deserve!
4. A magazine from the American Osteopathic Association Health Watch that's title article is "DOs against Diabetes." It says something about black tea treating Type 2 diabetes. Good thing I like chai! This could be revolutionary - I must read more.
5. A plethora of credit card offers (not so interesting) - thank goodness they should be disappearing soon, because we signed up to not receive credit card offers by calling a toll free number. Do it yourself: 1-888-567-8688.

Let's hope for change! We, the people of Obama Avenue, are ready for reform. Viva Obama!

ZiZi Designs as Featured Artists at Gallery 141!

We had a great opening night of ZiZi Designs Jewelry at Gallery 141, which occurred on First Friday. It was a great night! Check out Gallery 141 to see some photos of the night. Now we're ready to roll for ArtWalk, which is this weekend! We got these great post cards, which we've be passing out to all our friends, family, co-workers, and friendly faces we meet on the street! Be sure to join us for ArtWalk at Gallery 141. We'll be in the Gallery for two months -- April & May. Come support a great cause and get some beautiful jewelry! Mother's Day is coming soon!

Our engagement story made the "news" on the Liz Hess webpage!

I was just browsing around the web site of the wonderful artist Liz Hess, and happened across a little piece about our engagement, which took place in her gallery on First Friday, January 2007. My, what a year it has been since then!

Check out the piece: A Couple is Engaged.

Thanks, Liz, for sharing our joy on your website!

Life is Precious

This week has been a tough week - not just because I've had a more demanding schedule, but also because I'm reminded that life is precious. Working as a physician can sometimes lend itself to becoming callous, because we experience so much sickness, death, trauma, etc., and it's often a way to subconsciously protect ourselves from becoming overwhelmed. This week, there was too much sorrow in my path, and I think I was too tired to shrug it off.

• On Monday, I told a very sweet 70 year old man that he had cancer - it doesn't look good - and he could only ask me, in his broken English - "Is it bad?"
• On Tuesday, I told a young woman, who very much desired to be pregnant, that she was having a miscarriage.
• On Wednesday, I sent one of my prenatal patients who's 33 weeks pregnant to the ER Crisis Center because she struggles from severe depression and told me she had thoughts about hurting herself.
• My grandmother went back into hospice care, and she's experiencing a lot of pain and is fearful and anxious. We're hoping hospice will get her back to a point where she's comfortable.
• My friend's mother "coded" after she had surgery for colon cancer. Fortunately she's much better now, but I can't imagine watching my mom go through that. My friend was sitting by her mother's side when it happened.

In the midst of all these very sad things, I also experienced the precious gift of life in the miracle of birth, as I delivered a beautiful baby boy to a mom who was amazing, valiant, and made childbirth look like something easy. It's not always that easy! She had no medications, and labored like a champ with grace and beauty.

It's an honor to be a physician, but sometimes it's a big responsibility and certainly not all that glorious.

It's the little reminders of how precious life is that helps to keep me humble.

Hunting for Easter Eggs

I haven't blogged for awhile, and quite honestly, I'm exhausted right now, but I wanted to include a few pictures of our nieces and nephews hunting for Easter eggs. We gathered as the "Martin Family" to celebrate Easter on Palm Sunday - some of us were going to be away and some of us were going to be on call (yours truly... sigh) on Easter Sunday, so it worked best to get together a week earlier. It's a family tradition to hunt for eggs in the yard at Grandma & Grandpa's house, after Jill hides them all over the place. The kids were super excited to find their eggs and score the treats and surprises inside! Even the adults were out searching for eggs. I didn't get the right egg - the women were all looking for a yellow egg with a smiley face on it that had a winning ticket inside for a complete facial by Jill. Lori was the winner! Maybe next time for me...

Easter weekend call was one of my most exhausting calls yet as an attending. I'm in need of some respite to recover, so I shouldn't be typing on the computer right now, but rather be in bed... Perhaps I'll blog about my weekend later.

Despite fatigue and some emotionally draining stuff going on this past weekend, I was reminded of new life and the joy of salvation every time I walked out into my front yard (to get into the car to go to the hospital again) and saw the daffodils and crocuses popping through the ground and blooming. What a wonderful gift we have been given! Celebrate the risen King!

The things we did in Colorado...

Here is a list of things we did in Colorado while we were on vacation:
1. Played with Manning (4 1/2 yrs old) & Ruby (2 1/2 yrs old) a lot, taking lots of pictures of their precious little faces.
2. Checked out Ann's new Angora bunnies
3. Down hill skied - I actually took a lesson, and while Tim & Ann skied the 'real' hills, I stayed on Panda Peak. My instructor, Jim, was very thorough and patient, and re-taught me skiing through the principles of physics (my least favorite subject EVER!). No broken bones to report! It was a lot of fun after I got over my anxiety of having not skied in 15 years!
4. Watched Manning graduate from Powder Pandas Ski School - down the mountain he zipped!
5. Visited some hot springs alongside the road in Carbondale - delightful! Underneath the brilliant stars with bubbly hot water that must have been near 110 degrees.
6. Sunday Mass at the Monastery at Snow Mass and some time chatting with Father Joseph, the Abbot at the Monastery. Beautiful service, til I started to get sick. :(
7. Altitude sickness - ICK! After skiing in Aspen all day Saturday, I developed a headache, which didn't go away, and only worsened, after a full night's rest. I still had a headache on Sunday morning, and while at the Monastery started to feel very hot and lightheaded. The nausea then struck me with a vengeance. I was able to make it home to Ann's house before my modest breakfast of earlier in the morning was no longer with me. A little bit of naprosyn, LOTS of water and a 3 hour nap cured me of my illness, which I hope to never have again!
8. Dinner at a Nepalese restaurant to celebrate Ann's birthday
9. Several walks into the town of Basalt, a quaint mountain-side town in the Rockies
10. More hot springs! This time at Glenwood Springs, which was also relaxing and lovely. I especially liked the water jet chairs in the therapy pool at 104 degrees.
11. Cross Country skiing - this was a first for both Tim and me, and we loved it! It was great. Ann's friend was very kind to lend us her family's skis and we all had a wonderful time, the kids included. We were feeling some muscles that we hadn't been acquainted with recently on the flight on the way home.
12. A ride up the mountain past Neil Diamond's house to a fresh spring, where we filled up on wonderful, mountainside, ice-cold water.
13. Dinner and a movie with Ann - our last night in Colorado. We had delicious food at Phat Thai in Carbondale with green papaya salad, curry, drunken noodle - YUM! Then we went to the Crystal Theater (an old fashioned single theater establishment) to see The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman - a good flick and a tear jerker - who knew Jack Nicholson would make us cry?

14. Saw lots and lots of wildlife - elk, mule deer, big horn sheep, cows, horses, rabbits, and little girls with elk-style face painting!

15. Got in some rest, relaxation, reading time and exercise.

16. I cut back to one cup of coffee a day! This is a huge feat, and I'm happy to say that I'm not sick, although the craving lingers on.

17. Did some second-hand shopping, and we each came home with an article or two of clothing.

Vacation in Colorado

Here's a first glimpse of our trip out west to visit friends (Ann, John, Manning & Ruby) in Colorado. We just got home late last night, so we're trying to recover from vacation and get back into the swing of things. Check out the slide show, with more details to come. :)