Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are spending a wonderful weekend with family in warm houses with great food. XOXOXO

And now a few thoughts on Santa:

It is a little different sitting on Santa's lap as an adult. I felt a little embarassed this time. I didn't cry like I probably did as a child though.

Here is my most vivid Santa memory:

My twin sister and I were sitting on Santa's lap. He started asking us if we had been good girls. We said yes. Here is the rest of the conversation:

Santa: "How come you haven't kept your room clean?"
(Mom in the background waving, "no, no, no"--we were pretty good at keeping our room clean at this point in time)
Us: "Umm, we thought we did."
Santa: "Well than how come you were fighting with your sister?"
(Mom again, but more waving, NO, NO, NO)
Us: "We were just pretending, we weren't really fighting."

We left pretty distraught that Santa thought we had been fighting each other. You have to understand that my twin sister and I NEVER fought. And I mean NEVER. This Santa had it all wrong. We knew his all knowing self must have seen the only thing we could think to call fighting, us sparring with pretend swords. We were devastated that he couldn't tell we were playing and not really fighting.

I think we still got some good presents even though Santa pegged us for a lot worse than we were!

Arches

I used to have fabulous eyebrows. I know because people used to tell me so. It seems a funny thing to compliment someone on unless they really are fabulous. I can brag because, like I said, I used to have them. I no longer do.

I'm not sure quite when it happened. Sometime during college. Maybe it was when I let a friend wax them for me. I remember being unhappy although I'm not sure she was the one who rid them of their fabulousness or not.



In reminiscence of days long gone, I have been putting up with quite a bit of shag above my eyes to remedy what I feel is slightly thin and uneven brows. Conveniently, this has corresponded with my busy schedule which after a long day, I can rarely bring myself to endure the torture session of plucking I have to endure on an almost daily basis since the ripe old age of, like 8.



Anyway, I finally saved up enough stray follicles I felt this would be a good time to go in for an eye brow tune up, or the professional brow wax. I wanted a friend of mine who also happens to be a professional to do it but I just couldn't wait anymore. I didn't want horrible Christmas pictures, you know, to remember my unibrow for years to come.



It seems all women I know go in for regular waxing sessions and think this is the only way. The esthetician has asked me before, "How often do you have to come in?" I always think, "Are you kidding me?" If I paid every time I needed my eyebrows done I would be in the poor house. --At least I would have nice eyebrows?



Despite my highest hopes, almost every time I go to the "professional" who I assume is someone who goes to school all for the purpose of learning the wonders of perfect brow waxing, I come away mildly unhappy. Today I was displeased.



All my saving up...and without really asking, she assumed I wanted the "natural look" which to her must mean, "take out any of her feminine arch and give her a straight line (mind you, she took away the connector so it wasn't quite the Bert from Sesame Street, but pretty darn close). She assured me this would help me maintain it more "since I am so busy and don't have time to come in much." (Since I was planning on that anyway?)

So here they are in all of their Sesame Street glory! I thought about not putting up this horrid picture, but I thought it may make my point more, like those weight loss pictures where they wear a ratty T-shirt, stick out their gut, and don't wear any makeup. Now I just need a beautiful picture of Angelina Jolie's brows to show you what a huge mess she made of me. But I don't have any of those and I'm ready for bed.

(PS do I really have uneven, lazy eyes? hilarious..please tell me I just haven't sleptwhile on call.)

Anyway, if you are still with me, I even had to ask if she purposefully left some of my unibrow (you can still seem some remnants on my right eye) or if she was going to get rid of those.

Here is where I think I went wrong. I got home early from work today. Early means, before 5-ish, which didn't feel too early since I spent the night at the hospital twice already this week, slept about 12 hours in 3 days, and woke up at 5 am this morning to see patients. Anyway, I am turning this into a novel so back to the story.

My mistake: I called the salon by my house, "I know the weather is horrible and wondered if you had any cancellations for this evening." I was told to come right away. Ok. I had just crawled out of the shower and was in my warm sweats. I am not afraid to go out in public looking like a complete scrub so I got in my car and raced down there.

Once I arrived I felt I had made a mistake. I felt out of place in this pretty uppity salon. And as you all know, first impressions are the most important. Immediately, she pegged me as the all natural girl, who never does her eyebrows and never had any semblence of fabulousness to boot. And off she went.

I know I am being a bit of a drama queen (isn't that what blogs are for, though, really?) but I was so bothered. Bothered I paid money to someone who didn't care at all for what I wanted (to return to my beautiful, not too thin, nicely curved arches) and made assumptions about what kind of brow I should have based on my post-call, tired, sweat panted self. It will take months or even years of shaggy brows to get back where I was (I know, because I still can't get back there).

New Year's Resolution: arches here I come

Life's little ironies...

Today a patient told me, "You are the prettiest dentist I have ever met."




....then we ended up calling the rapid response team who sent him to the ER for a racing heart rate.



Remember my last post? Maybe I look a lot better than I thought!


(HA HA HA HA!)

Vanity

You know how growing up, you always thought people were watching you? When I was in high school I was mortified when a man from another table came up to me in a restaurant in Park City to tell me that I was holding my chopsticks wrong. I already felt like people were scrutinizing my every move and this seemed to be proof that in fact, people were.

It took me years to try again because I was too worried about "doing it wrong." This was after I was trying to imitate a Japanese family who seemed to really have it.

As I have gotten older, I don't think much about this any more. But sometimes, I can't help but wonder, what do other people notice about me, or others in general. When I think of others I realize I probably don't notice much. For example, sometimes I read blogs where people say things like, "Here is a picture of us, it is HORRID, but you get the idea." Usually I wonder, "are they fishing for compliments or do they really think they look bad?"

This makes me wonder things like:

• Do people notice my bushy eyebrows that I am trying to grow out a bit and don't have adequate time (or probably patience) to pluck perfectly each day?--what about my patients who are probably staring into my eyes (at least the ones who are awake)?
• I feel like I look different from day to day. Some days are horrible and others pretty good. Do I look much different to others?
• Does make-up make that much of a difference?
• Do people notice I really am a scrub most days? (I do wear scrubs most days, granted)
• Am I skinny or fat? When I say fat, I mean, fatter than I like. I can't seem to decide and my Wii fit seems to tell me differently each time.
• Can people tell how bootylicious I am in my scrubs (ha ha, just kidding)
• Do people notice how devastatingly handsome my husband is and do I look out of place next to him? (Merry Christmas, Abe)

My guess is, no, people probably don't. Because honestly, I don't think I notice these things on YOU.

Sew you see

People are often surprised to hear that I like to sew. As a little girl it seemed my mom was always making something. I always wanted her to teach me. We started with little things like Barbie clothes, usually with little success. I didn't start to really make anything cool until I started taking sewing classes in jr and sr high school.

As I have grown up I have noticed how much I still love to sew and my skills sometimes come in handy. Here are a few of the things I have made for those who are curious.

This is my most tragic project. It has been probably 6 years in the making. I am not a quilter and don't want to tie this. Anyone want to share their expertise? It is supposed to be a blue/green pattern but unfortunately the lime green looks yellow next to the blues. Oops.

I love making baby things (why did this pic come out sideways, btw?). They are often simple and fast which I need with my schedule. I made these baby booties for a good friend. I love the lime green with the traditional pink. The green button has a cute flower pattern.

More baby gifts. It seems every woman I know is expecting. I wish I could keep up!

This is one of my few contributions to Abe's condo when I moved in. I found this great fabric WAY on sale and bought the entire bolt. It is a sheer green with goldish/green velvety stripes (can't tell from the picture). Unfortunately, it was an out-of-business sale so I couldn't get more. Wish I could to make them a little more full. I think they turned out pretty good considering I had to make-do with what I had.

Trying to go green, I made this re-usable lunch sac for my sister. I thought the fabric was SO cute! It is essentially a brown paper bag style bag, made of canvas. Again, hard to tell from the picture. I hope you use this sometimes, Amber!

Here is the one I made for myself. I liked the earthy pattern. Seemed very "GREEN," appropriate.

A few things on my baby/household sewing wish list:

1- quiet book. I am always trying to steal a peak from people at church for ideas.

2- a lunch box for Abe

3- placemats/table runners

4- stockings and a tree skirt

5- advent calendar. My mom had this Christmas calendar with pockets for each day with a little Christmas pin. On your day you would choose the pin out of the pocket and get to wear it that day. That night, it would go on the Christmas tree image on the top and anyone could wear it after that. I LOVED that and would like to start that tradition with my own kids. Good thing I have awhile. :)

6- Finish my quilt. Right now it is a queen-sized mess.

Next time I will post some pictures of things I have made for myself to wear.

PS I get most of my baby shower ideas from my friend Jill. Check out her blog on my sidebar, Homemade by Jill, for ideas or patterns.

Holiday Cheer

Can it really be December? I am having a hard time believing it. We've had our tree lit and decorated for almost a week, lights in our windows, stockings hanging from our curtain rod (yes, I said curtain rod, thank you very much. We don't have a fireplace so at least they are HANGING), a nativity scene out, and I've even allowed some Christmas music to play around me (I get really annoyed by pre-Thanksgiving day holiday cheer through song). But, somehow, it just doesn't feel like Christmas...until today, maybe. It got really cold. Windy. Chilling. Cold. but no snow which is a relief (because in Iowa snow does not mean beautiful white flakes and white capped mountains--it means ice covered streets and sidewalks threatening to break your wrist before you have disability insurance--I really hope I didn't just jinx myself!). Also, maybe I need to take down my fall wreath but I love coming home to it on the door so I am hesitant to replace it already!

As for this month, I feel tired. I have survived 5 months of intern year. In a lot of ways it feels like "SURVIVED." I am excited for the idea of Christmas time. I am not excited for my still to come 9 days on-call this month (I definitely live on a how-many-days -left-of-call-this-month basis). I also have the joy of working on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, as well as almost every other day the week before Christmas. So much for the Holiday spirit. I have almost this whole week off call, so maybe I should open my presents now. If you have them feel free to send them on early. :)

With that said, I am looking forward maybe more so to the new year. I wonder what the year 2010 will bring. Here are a few of my hopes:
1) Successful match into Oral Surgery (and if not, at least a decision one way or the other will be good)
2) Abe will finish his PhD and return to the clinics to finish Med School
3) Complete intern year with flying colors!
4) New house (with storage?)
5) 2 weeks of vacation time (what should I do with it?)

I wish you the best of what the season can bring!