benevolent postcard society: march

-BPS March-

My March missive arrived from Janet, who resides in San Francisco or thereabouts (or so I surmise from the postmark). It looks like a vintage postcard (perhaps it is?), featuring a lovely black and white photo of Lausanne-Ouchy on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. I photographed it against the backdrop of my closest body of water . . . beloved little Jamaica Pond. It's not exactly an alpine lake, but one must make do with what one has.

The scene on the postcard made me think of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, not because it reminds me of a terrible and piteous monster but because parts of the novel are set near the Alps. As you may know, she dreamed up the story while vacationing on the shores of Lake Geneva. Even years after reading Frankenstein, I remember the sense of majesty evoked by Shelley's descriptions of the landscape:

"Ruined castles hanging on the precipices of piny mountains, the impetuous Arve, and cottages every here and there peeping forth from among the trees formed a singular beauty. But it was augmented and rendered sublime by the mighty Alps, whose white and shining pyramids and domes towered above all, as belonging to another earth, the habitation of another race of beings."

looking for love?

Tonight I noticed the following, affixed to a panel in front of my seat on the bus:

-Sticker on bus-

The sticker looked like a standard address label. I imagine someone going about with a sheet of these, quietly attaching affirmations to buses, trains, light posts . . . .

And what do you suppose the writer of the question was thinking?

celebrating julia, part 1: the invitations

-Scissors, thread, thimble-

To make the invitations for Daisy's baby shower, I decided to embroider on paper again. (Someday I'll return to embroidery on fabric.)

-Invitation, front-

Daisy has named her soon-to-be-adopted daughter Julia, so I backstitched a graceful J onto a paper heart, then glued the heart to to the front of a folded notecard. I found the hearts, notecards, and envelopes at Paper Source; I love that place.

-Blanket stitch-

I taught myself to sew a blanket stitch from a book (perhaps you remember?) and then stitched all around the edge of the heart.

-Invitation, inside-

I printed the message inside on my printer from Sharon, which has become indispensable. (The first omitted word is Daisy's last name.) I decided to leave the back of the embroidery exposed because I felt it had a beauty of its own.

-The complete set-

At Daisy's request, the shower was a cozy gathering of her close friends, so I only needed to make five invitations (including one for Daisy).

-Invitation + envelope-

A few weeks before the shower, I tucked them into coordinating ivory envelopes and sent them off to their new homes.

weekend notes #7

-Thai noodles-

1. A treat for Saturday lunch. At least once a month, I yearn for Thai food--in particular, for pad see ew with shrimp. I decided to satisfy my craving on Saturday after ballet. So yummy.

-Snoozing ducks, pair 1-


-Snoozing ducks, pair 2-

2. Sleepy ducks. I came across two different duck couples on my Sunday run, both resolutely napping despite the surrounding hubbub of people and other water fowl. These were clearly urban birds; aside from keeping one beady eye trained upon me, they were unfazed by my snapping photos. I particularly liked the one-legged stance of the second pair.

-Magnolia-


-Little purple flowers-


-Daffodils-


-Blooming yellow bush-


-Spring flyer-

3. Signs of spring. I can't decide whether spring or fall is my favorite season.

-Time for breakfast in bed?-


-Yoga + bath in sunshine-

4. The girls. How I love spending time with them. We missed each other when I had to work last weekend.

well-stated in march

Quotations featured this month on what maisie knows:

"Confusion is always the most honest response."
- Marty Indik

"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else."
- James M. Barrie


(photo by Jay Waldron, via beauty in everything)

friday felicitations #6

Happy Friday!

I am delighted that the weekend is here. I worked through last weekend, so I'm looking forward to Saturday ballet and puttering around my apartment.

We're also gathering for a baby shower for Daisy, who is adopting a wee girl and impatiently awaits word that she and her husband can fly to pick her up. If the anonymous bureaucrats who are processing the paperwork could just see how much this baby is already loved, I'm sure they'd hurry up. The baby shower will be a fancy afternoon tea at the Four Seasons Hotel. Daisy loves tea and scones as much as I, so it seemed the perfect venue.

(I'll show you the invitations I made for the shower in an upcoming post.)

Hope your weekend features friendship and fun!


(photo by Margot Komine, via beauty in everything)

knackered

I finished my stint on the clinical service on Tuesday, and I feel like I've run a marathon (minus the extreme leg soreness)! I also feel like I've been away from life as usual, and this blog, for two months rather than two weeks. I apologize that "less frequent posts" turned out to be no posts at all. Dear readers, I've missed you!

I'd forgotten just how intense our clinical service tends to be. Even finding time to sleep was a struggle, and I quickly realized that blogging was out of the question. One night I even skipped flossing (don't tell my hygienist); I can't remember the last time I did that. Poor Maisie and Izzy wondered at times if they were orphan kitties.

It was a good two weeks in which we cared for patients with an interesting variety of conditions. I learned a ton. That's always the paradox in medicine (and I imagine many other professions): while you hope for reasonable numbers of patients and familiar issues within your scope of knowledge, you also want challenges and unfamiliar problems in order to have opportunities to learn.

Aside from feeling the physical tiredness that results from long days and running all over the hospital, I find my brain is weary of mulling over my patients' cases and worrying about whether I've thought of everything possible to optimize their care. A professor in medical school told us that what we'd fret about most upon becoming doctors was not our deliberate actions and decisions but rather the details we might be overlooking, the things we didn't even think to think about. He was absolutely right. Given how little else is absolute in medicine, I suppose some uncertainty is inevitable and even wise--as long as you don't let it become paralyzing or ulcer-inducing.

Now I'm excited to return to my regular life. Because my patient care time is so all-consuming, it acts like a giant reset button. I return to my usual work and home activities with new appreciation and motivation (once I catch up on sleep). And while I was camping out in the hospital, spring arrived!

playing doctor again

It's that time again: I started on the hospital infectious diseases service yesterday, so posts will be less frequent over the next couple of weeks. But I may accumulate some funny (and of course, fully HIPAA-compliant) patient stories to share--remember this crowning moment in my medical career?

Thanks for the positive response to the first installment of my little cubicle decor series! Stay tuned for more.


(photo by cerise422--who sewed the cool felt doctor's kit pictured therein--on Flickr)

cubicle decor, part 1: color

As is true for so many workers across America, my home-away-from-home is no window-lined office graced with heirloom furniture, plush rugs, and exquisite artwork. Instead, it looks something like this*:

-Cubicle-

Over the past months since taking up residence in my little cubicle, I've gradually been doing some sprucing to make the space a bit more inviting. I thought I'd tell you about my forays into cubicle decor in a small series of posts.

Before your expectations soar too high, I'll caution that ultimately, my cubicle still looks like a cubicle. One can only do so much, I'm afraid, short of removing the cubicle altogether and replacing it with heirloom furniture. But it at least looks like my cubicle.

One of my first goals was to add some color. The predominant color scheme of our cubicles is nondescript workplace neutral, comprised of shades of taupe and beige. (Could be worse, I realize.) I wanted to liven things up but without creating a feeling of chaos.

-Calendar and paper flowers-

I started with a cheerful bouquet of paper flowers, a gift from my friend, Emi (who served as our fellowship coordinator before moving on to become a NICU nurse). I like to keep a minimum of items tacked to the cubicle wall in order to avoid visual clutter, but one useful thing I always hang is a calendar; I find myself looking up dates several times per day. I picked out this pretty letterpress calendar because it features lovely quotations and colors that echo those of the flowers.

-View from my chair-

The other items on my desk include a ceramic pencil cup, very inexpertly painted by me in shades of blue and yellow; a handy post-it note holder; and a writing mat in spring green.

Of course, the MacBook Pro that my understanding boss generously allowed me to purchase (after I explained my longstanding Mac affinity) adds a beauty all its own . . . .


*This is merely an observation, not a complaint. Given that I emerged from training at the depths of the recession, I feel extremely lucky to have a job that I enjoy and am deeply grateful for my cubicle!

march bliss

Bliss equals . . .

1. sunshine with temperatures in the mid-forties. (March 2)

2. farfalle. They're just so cute, and their shape is pleasing in one's mouth. (March 2)

3. sunshine with temperatures in the mid-fifties! (March 8)

4. sunshine with temperatures in the mid-sixties! (I don't understand this. Am I still in Boston in March? Whatever. I'm loving it.) (March 18)

(photo by photophob on Flickr)

weekend notes #6

-Olive-


-Noah-

1. Olive and Noah, my feline charges for the weekend. Olive is petite and shy. Noah is . . . not petite and not so shy. Both are absolute sweeties.

-Upstairs on the Square-


-Michelle-

2. Michelle's birthday dinner. We dined in the Monday Club Bar at Upstairs on the Square, exuberantly decorated in raspberry, green, and gold with plaid walls and zebra-striped upholstery. I met Michelle's two sisters for the first time, and it was lovely to observe how close the three of them are.

I intended to take pictures of the food, too, but completely forgot in my excitement over eating it. I decided to go with the prix fixe three-course menu. My choices: stracciatella (a type of mozzarella) on bread with a bacon and apricot vinaigrette; rolled pasta filled with sheep's milk ricotta and topped with spinach, artichokes, and sultanas (raisins); and coconut sherbet on toasted macadamia nut cookies.

-Public Garden-


-Parkman Bandstand, Boston Common

3. A stroll in the sunshine. We had remarkable weather all weekend, with highs in the mid-fifties and the sort of brilliant sunshine that makes one happy to be alive.

-Loews Boston Common Theatre-

4. Sunday matinee. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, sadly, turned out to be disappointing. The movie felt unoriginal and contrived at times, and although the original characters--and the book series' intended audience--are 11- to 12-year-olds, the movie was obviously geared toward an older audience and lacked the books' sense of innocent fun. Nonetheless, I enjoyed hanging out with Celeste and munching on nachos, my customary movie snack.

-Izzy burrows-


-Maisie snoozes-

5. Naps. (Note deliberate use of the plural.) A necessary ingredient for any busy weekend.

friday felicitations #5

-Upstairs on the Square-

Happy Friday!

This weekend will be full but fun. I'll be catsitting two charming kitties, Noah and Olive. I'm finally going to see Percy and the Lightning Thief (Celeste and I couldn't work out scheduling last time).

And I'll be attending a friend's birthday dinner at Upstairs on the Square, a jewel box of a restaurant in Harvard Square. I've looked longingly at photos on the restaurant's website but haven't yet made it there, so I'm quite excited.

Hope your weekend includes wishes realized!


(photo by rekha6 on Flickr)

squeak

-Box-

As the birthday party last weekend drew to a close, guests received wee white boxes, tied in pink satin ribbons.

-Box's inhabitants-

Tucked inside, peering upward, were two tiny chocolate mice from Burdick's.

-Squeak-

They were almost too cute to eat.

Almost.

scenes from my neighborhood #2

-Family-


-Boathouse, from across the pond-


-Boathouse with docked boats-


-Flags, snapping-


-History-


-Gate-


-Lantern-


-Gazebo-


-Island-


-Forgot to migrate?-


-Goose tracks-


-Goose tracks-


-Brush-


-The edge-


-Strata-


-Red berries-


-Red berries-

Jamaica Pond in winter.