love/hate cherry

I have a love-hate relationship with cherries. I love them because they are delicious when they are good. I also hate them because they are hit and miss more than I'd like them to. When I used to live in Traverse City, I was able to enjoy more good cherries more often than anywhere I have been. It is indeed the cherry capital. Tonight, I had some cherries I bought some the grocery store, and it was another disappointment. I'm heart broken looking at a big bowl of good looking cherries and not being able to truly enjoy them.

elevator etiquette

I just read an article on professional etiquette on msn, here's the part about elevator.

"Waiting for the elevator...

Don't push the Up button when elevator doors are about to close just so you can make everyone wait while you squeeze in.

Do hold the elevator doors open if someone's only a few seconds behind you.

In the elevator ...

Don't stand uncomfortably close to someone, especially if there is plenty of space. Forcing yourself onto a packed elevator, thereby smooshing yourself up against someone, is just as bad.

Do cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. (Not just in elevators, but anywhere, really.) You might think this one is obvious, but no ... it's not."

Okay, this is one of my biggest pet peeves ever, bad elevator etiquette. I have encountered so many at the hospital, and I'd like to add a few of my own.

Do hold the door open when you are the last person leaving the elevator and there are other people trying to get on after you.

Do hold the door open if you are the first to get in and there are other people coming in after you. I don't enjoy being squooshed by the elevator door. In other words, don't just go to the back of the elevator and ignore the safety of others you selfish person.

Don't yell out "wait" or "hold the door" no matter how far or close you are, especially if you are unable to run.

Don't try to make small talk. It's already uncomfortable enough to be in a small space full of strangers.

Don't talk to other people's small children. I don't care, it's just weird.

I think that's all I have for now.

grogery shopping

I have finally realized why it's such a bad idea to grogery shopping with Eli. Number one, he doesn't like shopping carts. He used to cry through the whole shopping trip. He's getting better at it though. Our last trip to Costco and Hy-vee was not as sad as before. He started to realize that it's okay to be sitting backward in a shopping cart. Second, it's a bad idea to be around food when Eli can't have any, at least not until we pay for them. Everything we put in the cart, he wanted to eat it right away. He was really upset at the guy that was bagging our grogeries when he put the bananas and apples in the bag. Yeah, I know, life is difficult for this little guy right?

vietnamese patient

I had this patient yesterday who only speaks vietnamese. His family speak adequate english, unfortunately, they didn't stay with him. He had a hip replacement. To make sure his pain was controlled, we asked him to rate his pain. Since he doesn't speak any english, that's hard to do. He would only say "hurt". I finally found this scale chart with different language translation on it. I showed him the scale and asked him to show me which number represented his pain level. He seemed to understand what I meant at first, but then he started counting on the scale, "1,2,3...". He thought I asked him to count. So then it got worse for this poor man. I had to straight cath him. He wasn't able to urinate on his own, and it's been a long time since he last urinated. He had over 900ml of urine inside. I called his family many times trying to get someone to explain to him what I was able to do. When no one answered their freaking phones, I called the translator, and she explained to him over the phone; at least I hope she did. This guy was so tense, I couldn't even get the catheter in at first. When I was pushing the catheter through, his thing was squeezing the catheter because its so tensed up. I ended up only draining half of the amount out. After it's all done, he asked "When home?". That's the most english I heard him say all day. I told him he would go home in three days. Then his family came right after, of course.

grandma and grandpa

My other grandma, dad's mom, passed away few days ago. Now I don't have any grandparents. The grandma that I was closest to passed away few months ago. We went back to Hong Kong for a couple weeks to ger funeral and to visit the grandma's that's in mainland China. We knew that would be our last time seeing her. She hadn't been well since last year. There were couple times when my dad and her doctor thought she couldn't make it, but she pulled through. I'm so glad we got to see her one more time recently. She was almost completely blind. She had to put her hands on my face in order to "see" me. That was the closest we had ever been. She had always lived in mainland, and we hardly ever went back. Because she spoke mandarin, which I was not fluent in, there weren't many conversations between us. I'm sure if we had more chances to chat, I would find out many interesting and amazing things about her. Her husband died really early. I was told he passed away before my dad was even born. My dad has as little memory as I have. My grandma had to raise both of her sons on her own, and they both turned out to be wonderful men.

The only picture I have of my grandma.

My dad sent me this today. I had never seen any picture of my grandpa before. I didn't know he was so charming looking. 爺爺好有型.