Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between


Author:  Theresa Brown

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. It surprised me, pleasantly, in many ways. It let me down only in that it ended too soon.

When I first picked up this book, I expected the author to merely parade grisly experiences before me, making me thankful for my civilian life and giving me a new-found awe for those who can handle this most difficult profession. I wasn't really expecting much in the way of wording or decorum. When I read that brown is a former professor who taught at prestigious Tufts University, I assumed she left because she couldn't hack it. Instead, I saw how a natural, easy talent for words created an aura around the narrative, giving the book a shimmer of sophisticated prose. The words rarely got in the way of the story-telling, except in instances of her penchant for overusing certain words (savvy is a major offender). In a way, I think her teaching didn't serve as much a a previous life before she chose nursing as much as a primer to share her story and transcending messages. She knits stories together through time into a storyline more than merely a timeline. She shares her lessons but does not preach. These are the earmarks of genuinely good storytelling. The details she chooses are meaningful, interesting.

Just as important as what she tells and how is what she has omitted. I admired her strength while reading about her accident and return to duty, afraid the accident would cost her the dream. I would have been disappointed to see the book turn selfishly to cover the minutiae of her recovery, the physical therapy sessions, the grim expressions on her doctors' faces when they tell her of the severity of her accident like a cheap TV movie. I was also glad to see her home life stayed in the background, giving patients and work their rightful amount of spotlight.

In my personal life, I seek experiences to write about to relay to others. This book showed me how to do that the proper way to approach this. For that reason, this was a valuable read. 


Overall Rating:  4 of 5 Stars

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkins at a Starlight, IN, orchard.


As the holidays draw nearer, I develop a strange urge to bake... and bake... and bake some more.  The rest of the year, I could take it or leave it, but I do have pipe dreams of learning to make macaroons and meringue.  Indeed, when the weather turns crisp, this is when the magic happens.  Adding to the magic, in my mind, is the detail that I dislike making what everyone else is and often endeavor for something different.  My favorite cookie recipe is pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

This recipe originally came from Nestle's Very Best Baking website, which can be found at  http://www.verybestbaking.com/ .  I tweaked the recipe for Old-Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies a bit to make it suit my tastes and abilities.  Since I can't remember to set butter out in advance to soften, I cut it in pieces and melt it in the microwave when it is time to add it in.  I also add chocolate chips to jazz the recipe up a bit.  Because I am a huge fan of pumpkin, and because it is very healthy, I add an extra half cup of pumpkin.  The only difference I see is the cookies are a bit more tacky, but they taste just as good.

Here is the original recipe:  Old-Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies  Have fun with it, either by adding chocolate chips as I have done, preparing it as offered, or by making it your own in some other way.  I would think some Craisins dried cranberries would be a nice addition as well.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

My Miserable Lonely Lesbian Pregnancy


Author:  Andrea Askowitz

I really enjoyed this book because I felt such a connection that can only come from a shared journey. While I am not a lesbian, I am the mother of two girls, so the bumpy road of pregnancy and all of the resulting negativity, pregnancy brain, and insecurity felt like transcriptions from the journal I wish I'd kept.  I also liked the incorporation of her Jewish heritage, which is another of my interests, although i am not Jewish. That said, I highly recommend this book and reading more of Askowitz's work.

Overall Rating:  5 of 5 Stars

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Sellersburg Guinea Pig Rescue



My younger daughter Farrah and Twilight.

After semi-successful experiments with owning fish and hermit crabs, we were a bit disheartened about the whole pet ownership thing.  We had an indoor-outdoor stray cat named Jasmine that adopted us, but the girls wanted something they could cuddle and love whenever they wanted that wouldn't demand to go outside until she decided to come back in for an hour or so, during which time she may or may not let them pet and fret over her.

In time my daughters and I decided a guinea pig might just be an ideal pet.  We researched them on the Internet and bought the Animal Planet ownership guide from a local pet store.  Eventually we found a pair of females on Craigslist for free with all of the necessities, including large ferret cage.  The mother was tired of doing all the work her children had once promised to take care of.  Eventually these two, named Benny and Jenny would pass away, leaving an empty cage and saddened hearts.  We replaced them with a pair of males from the pet shop, hoping my sexing skills were in order, since the small animals expert was out of the store that day.  One of the pair was older with bristly fur and probably the largest guinea pig I'd ever seen.  A perpetual lover of things others may well cast aside, I had to have him and soon named him Twilight because of his dark fur and mysterious demeanor.  When the younger of this pair, S'mores, died from a mysterious illness, my older daughter--his primary owner--told me she wanted to get a piggy from a rescue so she could help an animal that truly needed a home instead of one that may have been bred to support supply and demand.  Since Twilight was depressed and would only eat when I help him, we were in a hurry.

Doing research on http://www.petfinder.com/ to see if there were any guinea pigs in the area that my daughter was interested, we came across the Sellersburg Guinea Pig Rescue's current residents.  We found a little guy on the site taht made my daughter happy and happened to have a strong resemblance to S'mores.  We contacted the woman who runs the rescue, a woman named Crystal Humphrey I had met the previous year at the county fair and had discussed the rescue and the realities of guinea pig ownership with, and set up an appointment.  We brought Twilight in a box to make sure he would be happy with this new prospective cage mate, and they got along extremely well.  Crystal instructed me on how to finish introducing them at home.  My daughter and I held the little guy and knew he belonged with us.  I signed an adoption agreement and paid $15, and we took him home with us, knowing if we had any problems, we could ask Crystal for advice.  My daughter named him Pumpkin, as Clyde (his sister's name was Bonnie) was not acceptable to my daughter.  He had a rough previous life, so I held him every day to tame him down so he wouldn't bite as much, which we had discussed previous to signing the paperwork.  Apart from that, he has been a great pet.

As time passed, Crystal checked in with us about our guinea pigs.  Eventually, she asked if I would be interested in fostering.  Since she had asked me many questions before allowing me to take Pumpkin into our home, she knew he would be well cared for, and she also knew the foster would get plenty of attention.  I looked at the Petfinder pages once again and chose Gil, a larger guinea pig who also looked like Pumpkin and S'mores.  She said he had nipped her sister, but he settled in comfortably with me and the girls.  She gave me a bag of feed and the litter of my choice as well as a water bottle, food bowl, chew toys (cardboard rolls), and a roomy cage for him to use while he was with me.  If I chose to adopt him after 30 days, the fee would be waived, and the cage set-up would only be $30, which is very fair.  If anyone is interested in adopting him, I will be notified 24 hours in advance so I have time to get him to her.  She checks on him regularly and makes sure everything is going okay.  While we are not going to adopt him (I think not, anyway...), we are enjoying him as he waits for his Forever Home.  This is a wonderful cause that not many people have heard of, and I hope more people support it in the future.

Bohemian Motherhood Individualized

This is me holding Pockets the rooster when 
I was pregnant with my younger daughter.

I've decided to dedicate this blog to my own odd, Bohemian motherhood style. There are plenty of resources for soccer moms, crafters, new parents, and the like. These are all well and good, but not quite me, and I don't think I'm alone. My older daughter plays softball, and my husband's stuck with a minivan as our household's secondary vehicle, but I don't have the mentality or the upward mobility. I like to make things, but my funds are sporadic.  I don't have the newest and greatest gadgets for cutting things I could easily use scissors for. This is my second time around as a parent, so I'm not completely clueless, although there is much to learn. That said, I will focus on a number of things, but with a laid-back, personal viewpoint.

On the other hand, I am not the biggest Bohemian you'll ever meet. My daughters are free to have Barbie dolls and watch the Disney Channel on cable TV. We have animals of varying sorts, but the chickens and rabbits stay with my parents. Enjoy this blog or dismiss it as the ramblings of a slacker parent who doesn't have it quite right all the time.  Either way, I'd love to hear what you have to say about my Bohemian Motherhood.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Vampires and Our Romanian Honeymoon


The interior courtyard of the breathtaking summer palace Peles Castle near Sinaia, Romania.



My husband and I are into vampires and love Halloween  Kind of a lot. We got married the week before Halloween so we could have a close anniversary, but the dates would be separate and special. For our honeymoon we went to Romania on a tour put on by the Transylvanian Society of Dracula, of which he was a member of the Canadian chapter. We traveled the country by van with our guide (He was also the Society's president) and his assistant, who was a transplant from New York and owned the awesomely kitschy Alchemy bar in the town where Vlad the Impaler was born in which we drank test tubes of absinthe mixed with Jager. We saw places of importance to both the novel Dracula and of the real Vlad the Impaler's life. It was the trip of a lifetime, and we truly wish to return some day with our daughters. All this, and you could not usually tell by looking at us that much is out of the ordinary.