Girls' Night at the Ballpark

The Nats lost, but it was more the company than the game that made it a great night.

My Life as a Medical Drama

The past 12 months have been filled with one medical situation after another. My life has felt like a really boring episode of Grey's Anatomy. You know, all of the hospitals with none of the cute doctors, dramatic deaths or 30-second recoveries. In the preceding 29 years, I'd been in the hospital once (when I was born) and had stitches twice (before I went into kindergarten). In the past 12 months? Yeah, I've officially blown those numbers out of the water. Just chalk this up as another reason I've been a really bad blogger recently. At least I'm getting all this out of the way before I start grad school.

I'm also working on a big project at work about preventative childhood medical care. How cool is it that I get to spend time researching vaccinations, food allergies and asthma so I can develop materials that will help parents help their kids live longer, healthier lives. It's a subject I feel very strongly about and that is very close to my heart.

In honor of what has been consuming my life recently, here's a list of kids' books about real-life medical disasters:

When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS by James Cross Giblin and David Frampton
An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy
Winnie's War by Jenny Moss (I know this is fiction, but I don't know of a good nonfiction about the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918)
Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret

Friday Five: TGIF

For today's list, the five things I'm most excited for this weekend. It's a simple list, but then again, everything seems a little simpler on the weekends.

1. Writing: It's been a rough week at work, which makes it difficult to come home and write, but the weekends mean I can leave work at work and focus on writing. Here's to getting one more chapter finished.
2. Chaos: I'm planning on finishing the Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness. These books have kept me on an emotional precipice since I picked the first one up two weeks ago. Seriously, I think this roller coaster might be even worse than it was with The Hunger Games.
3. DC Adventure: Some good friends are moving next week, so as a farewell, we're having a clue-based race around town to visit all their favorite places. I haven't done one of these since I was a teenager, and I can't wait to see where the clues lead.
4. The Avengers: I watched Captain America this week and I'll watch Thor Saturday afternoon, all so I won't be behind on Joss Whedon's newest film. I might not actually have time to see The Avengers until next week, but this superhero kick is kind of fun.
   
5. My Mom: Being so far away from family is never easy, but on Sunday I have an excuse to be a little homesick. I'll get to call my mom and tell her I love her, and I'll get to hear her say it back to me. What better thing to do on Mothers' Day?

Putting in the Work

My dad used to say that if you want something bad enough, you have to put in the work to make it happen. And with grad school starting in two months (two months!), I have a lot of work to do. I want to start a new writing project for school, which means I need to finish up the old one.

So if you don't see me around for the next two months—and possibly the two years after that while I'm immersed in school work—there's no need to send the National Guard after me. I'll just be putting in the work.