14 February 2010

celebrations

happy chinese new year! xin nian kuai le!

it's been a big weekend for events: opening ceremonies of the olympics, chinese new year and valentine's today. other events going on in the city/region: mercedes marathon, mardi gras parades, and a "snow-storm".

ah, the olympics. i've had the opening ceremonies for the olympics on my calendar for a few weeks; i get pretty excited about the olympics. my obsession probably started when i was in the 3rd grade when i was asked to do a project for class. that was the winter olympics of 1994 in lillehammer. shortly after, my family moved to birmingham and the olympics were in atlanta in 1996. i saved clippings from the newspaper and made an olympics "scrapbook". some of the soccer games were actually in birmingham, so it was incredibly close to home. in summer 2004, i pretty much watched every event that was televised, as i was bound to the couch after having sinus surgery. i've never really been a kid with any hopes of competing in the olympics; i'm not an athlete and don't dream of being one. there's just something thrilling about the games, all the nations, the drama of it all that has kept me excited through different ages and stages in life. this weekend i've found myself once again transfixed by the competition. here's to two more weeks of hypnotizing entertainment!

we had a very low-key new year's celebration with henry's parents last night, and his mom brought us sushi today. mmmmmm. always good food.

valentine's day was also a pretty low-key celebration for us. henry got sick at the end of the week with some sort of yucky upper respiratory infection, so he's been taking it easy. we were pretty lazy all day, and it was wonderful. the idea of valentine's day sort of conflicts me; when you have a valentine who treats you special every day it seems silly to ask him to go above and beyond that already high level of awesomeness on some made-up holiday. still, henry surprised me with flowers and a cookie cake. i'm a lucky lady to be married to such a consistently loving, caring partner in life.

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last weekend, henry and i made the trip up to louisville, ky to visit my sister beth and her husband drew. they recently bought an adorable house with oodles of charm. we spent time with them eating, playing, watching movies, and generally having the time of our lives. on sunday morning, we drove to lexington, ky where my dear friend amanda and her husband ben live. we planned to have lunch with them there. another dear friend and college roommate, laura, came down from cincinnati with her boyfriend to meet us. what a reunion! the whole weekend made me long to live closer to both my sister and my close friends.
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back to reality. this week i'll be in the well-baby nursery at uab. it's where all the freshly born, healthy babies go when they are not with their moms. it should be a fun week! i mean, there will still be lots of screaming babies, but at least they won't be sick. next week i'll be on inpatient hem-onc... those kids will be sick. i'm interested to see how that will go. then pediatrics will be over. i won't lie - i'm not sad for it to end. glad for the experience, glad it will be over. such is the story of third year.

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