My family puts the "func" in dysfunctional!!!

Not the fun (although sometimes we are that too). Or as my ex-Aunt's twin sister (yes, you read that right) said, "Well sometimes family is the 'f' word." I've decided that every family is a little bit dysfunctional. I'm not always talking immediate families, but if you include extended families then we all have some element of dysfunction in our families. My family (extended) are pros at dysfunction. I love them to death, but at times they drive me crazy. This story is in no way meant to be demeaning or derogatory towards my family or my family name because I'm still a part of this family at the end of the day and I still claim them as my own dysfunctional as they (and I) may be. Yes, I am part of the dysfunction too. :) I love them to death and of course I'd do anything for them which is why I can say we're a bit dysfunctional. Anyways, on with the story...

My beloved Grandmother after 99 wonderful years of life passed away at the end of last year (2007). So less than two months after I visited New Hampshire on vacation this fall, I flew to New Hampshire again, the weekend before finals. But family comes first, so you do what you have to do. My Uncle is a pretty opinionated person (must run in the family), love him to death, but it's always his way or the highway. I'm one of the few people who dare to talk back to him. Anyways, he wanted one of my brothers and I to be pal-bearers at the funeral. I'd never heard of a female being a pal-bearer before but it was ok with me as long as I wasn't the only female doing it. My Grandmother's cousin was one as well (actually I don't really know what she is, I just know she's related, oops). Anyways, I was picking my battles with my Uncle at this point so I accepted his request. However, his next request is NOT one that I was willing to do. He was making the funeral into a freaking huge production. Kind of ridiculous. As much as I love my Grandmother and Uncle it was a little bit out of control. He decided that he wanted all of the pal-bearers to wear matching purple neck ties that match the sweater that my Grandmother was wearing. Uh, pause one minute there please....matching neck ties?! This isn't a wedding and I'm sorry but that's a little morbid. Yes I do know how to tie a tie, I have 3 older brothers. However, I am still a girl I will NOT wear a tie in public (unless it's for a good reason, this did not qualify). When my Uncle told my mother this she was like "Uh, Jennie will NOT wear a tie for you." My Uncle's response, "she won't? Really? Huh....Are you SURE she won't wear a tie." Mom: "Yes, I'm sure. She's a girl. She doesn't wear ties" (those may not be direct quotes, but they're pretty darn close). When my Mom told me this I was like, "uh Mom, I'm not wearing a tie. I may be a tomboy at times, but I'm still a girl." So my Uncle's next proposition was "well, will she wear a purple scarf then?" "Yes, she'll probably wear a scarf." If it'll make my Uncle happy I'll wear the darn scarf. Good grief. A tie. Honestly. The funeral went well and we (me and the other lady pal-bearer) did not end up wearing purple scarves, but the guys all wore the purple ties. I won't go into the rest of the details of the weekend, but it was definitely an experience. Needless to say I did not get a lot of studying done and my finals didn't go so well, but I passed all my classes and I didn't even get any C's so I'm ok with that considering everything that happened this semester. Yes, my family is still very dysfunctional. With everything that happened that weekend, it definitely reaffirmed that, but I still love them unconditionally. It was still worth it to go. A tie. *SNORT* Wow.

A review of 2007

I stole this survey from someone else :)
[X] Became single
[X] got kissed
[X] kissed someone new
[ ] kissed in the snow
[ ] kissed in the rain
[ ] kissed on the beach
[ ] 'fell in love'
[ ] 'fell in love' with a fool
[X] had my heart broken
[X] broke someone else's heart
[X] had a stalker
[X] lost a friend
[X] had a good relationship with someone
[ ] came out of my closet
[ ] got married
[ ] had a divorce
[X] kissed someone of the same sex (on the cheek)
[X] dated someone that you will never forget
[X] did something I regret
[X] lost faith in love
[ ] kissed under mistletoe
[ ] got a promotion
[ ] got a pay raise
[ ] changed jobs
[ ] quit my job
[ ] dated a co-worker
[ ] dated my boss
[ ] dated my boss's son/ daughter
[ ] got fired from my job
[ ] got straight A's
[X] met a teacher who I became friends with
[X] met a teacher who I really hate
[X] found the subject I love
[X] failed a class (since a 78% is now failing for me. Booo)
[X] cut class
[X] skipped school
[ ] got in a fight with a classmate
[X] did something I was proud of
[X] discovered a new talent
[X] proved myself that I'm an idiot
[X] embarrassed myself in front of the class
[ ] fell in love with a teacher
[ ] got the lead/minor lead role in the school play
[ ] made a team
[X] was involved in something that I will never forget
[ ] painted a picture
[ ] wrote a poem
[ ] ran a mile
[X] listened to music I couldn't stand
[X] double dipped
[X] went to a sleepover
[ ] went to camp
[ ] threw a surprise party
[X] laughed till I cried
[X] flirted shamelessly
[ ] visited a foreign country
[X]visited a state
[ ] cooked a disastrous meal
[X] lost something important to me
[X] got a gift I love
[X] realized something new about myself
[ ] went on a diet
[ ] tried to gain weight
[ ] dyed my hair
[ ] came close to losing my life
[X] someone/thing close to me died
[ ] got arrested
[X] read a great book
[X] saw a great movie
[ ] saw a movie so scary that it made me cry
[ ] saw a favorite band live
[X] did something that I wanted to tell everyone
[X] experienced something new
[X] made new friends
[X] found out who your real friends are
[X] lied to your parents
[ ] snuck out
[ ] got in trouble with the po-po
[ ] kissed in a pool
[X] kissed under the stars
[X] had the time of your life
[X] danced
[ ] fell out of love
[X] had a crush on someone
[X] swam in a pool
[ ] made a snowman
[ ] went snowboarding
[ ] went sledding
[X] slept in past 2pm
[X] held someone’s hand that you care about
[ ] got wasted in a public place
[X] told someone you like them as more than a friend
[X] gone on vacation
[X] gone on vacation with a friend
[X] driven a car
[ ] danced in the rain
[X] got in a car accident
[X] seen someone get in a car accident
[ ] got in a fist fight
[X] laughed until you couldn't breathe
[X] missed someone
[ ] sent someone to the hospital
[ ] got a new pet

A YEAR-END SURVEY1.) Who was your best friend at the beginning of this year? The end?
At the beginning- friends from home and Utah, End- Still friends from home and lots of new friends from Va and DC.
2.) What was your status by Valentine's Day? Single.
3.) Were you in school (anytime this year)? Yes, the whole year.
4.) How did you earn your keep? Ha. Doing homework and more homework and more homework and going to clinicals. Did I mention doing homework?!
5.) Did you ever have to go to the hospital? hahahahaha all the time....for clinicals.
6.) Have you encountered the police this year? :)
7.) Where did you go on vacation? Utah, Colorado, NYC, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts
8.) What did you purchase that was over $500? Tuition, books
9.) Did you know anybody who got married? Of course
10.) Did you know anybody who passed away? My Grandma died :(
11.)How many times did you go on facebook/myspace? many many times
12.) Did you move anywhere? To Virginia
13.) What sporting events did you go to? Caps, Nationals (is that it?! Ugh. That sucks)
14.) What concerts did you go to? Harry and the Potters is the only one I can remember. Lamesauce.
15) Are you registered to vote? In Colorado
16.) If so, did you do your patriotic duty on Nov. 6? I didn't get my absentee ballot. I suck.
17.) Where do you live now? Arlington, VA
18.) Describe your birthday. I sent all of my friends and family an email describing what they could and couldn't talk to me about (see in one of my previous blogs) and CRD brought me DP (he is awesome!!). Then my roommies took me to dinner at P.F. Chang's (the only Chinese food I like- not really Chinese, but very good). It was fabulous!!
19.) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2007? make it through my first year of nursing school (I knew I'd do it, it's just amazing it's done)
20.) What is one thing you regretted this year? Don't really want to rehash bad memories, thank you
21.) What's something you learned about yourself? That I'm a different person on the East Coast than I am at home
22.) Any new additions to your family? Not yet...unless you count the nephew in my sister-in-law's belly
23.) What was your best month? Do people have "best months?"
24.) How would you rate this year with a scale from 1 (crappy) to 10 (amazing)? I dunno. 7 maybe

I am like a "Stah" from "Bah Hahbah"

(So I started this, but never finished it and now I’m going to try before I fall asleep). Like I said before, I flew to New Hampshire 2 weeks ago. My mom was born in Massachusetts (which is a really hard state to spell, by the way) and lived in New Hampshire for most of her life until her 20’s. So her family still lives in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. If you’ve ever seen “What about Bob?” the movie, Lake Winnipesaukee in that movie is where she grew up and where I go to visit. I’ve been going there basically almost every year or every 2 (sometimes 3) years since I was a baby. If you don’t already know, Boston is absolutely my FAVORITE city. I’m so in love with that city. I love everything about it. That’s a long story though and not something that I necessarily want to explain in this blog because it would require real writing (which, believe it or not, I can actually do…but you have to be pretty special to actually get to read something that I’ve written without sarcasm or anger and with actual sincere feeling). That’s pretty heavy writing and a little too deep for a blog though and that’s not what this is about, so moving on…Anyways, I’ve spent my fair share of time in the lake’s region of New Hampshire and in Massachusetts and Maine too, but I never get tired of going there and New England in the Fall is AMAZING!!

One of the reasons I particularly love going to New England is because I absolutely LOVE their accents. I think they’re hilarious! I do everything within my power to get my Uncle to say Porsche just so I can hear him say “Porscha” like we’re in Europe or something. Well he drives like we’re in Europe so we might as well be. He drives like an absolute maniac!! VERY fast and tails someone, whips around them, and then pulls right in front of them. People in New England are NOT nice drivers. They yell, honk, make rather rude gestures, etc. while driving. We told my Uncle that he drives way too fast because he was doing 90 mph driving to Massachusetts one day and he’s like “No I wasn’t.” Well on the way back, he of course was doing it again, so we pointed it out and he was like, “wow, well I thought I was going 60. Well it is 60, just upside down.” LOL, right. That’s SO comforting while we’re flying down the road doing 90 in the pouring rain with a psycho in the driver’s seat. It’s even better because they have these road signs everywhere that say “Drive courteously It’s the New Hampshire Way!” Yeah right. I burst out laughing when I first saw one. I really wanted a picture of one. I could never tour Europe with my Uncle either because it would be like “oh and that was Switzerland that we just passed. If you blinked, you missed it and we’re not going back.” My Uncle knows how to get to and from places, but the concept of being a tourist and wanting to take pictures and get out of the car is completely foreign to him. It’s like, what you wanted a picture of that thing, oh that one, that we just passed. Oops, sorry. Good grief. My smart ass comments from the back seat were pretty bad this trip, I do have to say. But there’s just something about my Uncle and his “My way or the highway” mentality that I just can’t keep my mouth shut. I guess I’m the highway. He’s never had anyone stand up to him before, I don’t think, so having his 25 year old niece (he’s in his early 70’s although he doesn’t really look it and he’s in better shape than most people I know) tell him off probably doesn’t go over very well, but he just asks for it. I am not a soft-spoken girl and I’m NOT a push-over, unlike my Mother and he’s used to that, being able to get his way all the time and push people around. It doesn’t work with me, though. I dish it right back and I think it ticks him off but it’s a challenge at the same time. I actually at one point during the week when he was arguing with my Mom started screaming at him and totally told him off. I called him a 5 year old and basically told him to shut it. It was awesome. He deserved it, though. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and they definitely love me. I’m probably the favorite since I’m the only niece and the youngest grandchild/ niece and I still come to visit unlike my brothers. They spoil me and I know it, but they also irritate me. But what would a family be like if they weren’t dysfunctional on some level. Mine is just extra specially dysfunctional all the time. :D Not all of them, of course, just some of them, lol.

Anyways, I loved going down to Massachusetts to see more cousins too. One of my (I think we decided he’s a second cousin?, eh, they’re all just cousins to me) cousin’s wedding receptions was a couple of weeks ago while I was there, so we went down for it. I wish I knew those cousins better; I really want to spend more time around them. Especially the second cousins who are around my age. Maybe someday I’ll get to live in Boston. *Sigh* I would LOVE that. The accents when I’m around my family from Massachusetts are even better, too.

We also went to Maine. Maine has a very distinct smell. It’s like a mix of seaweed and saltwater. I love that smell though and I’ve discovered it’s very unique to Maine. I would live there too except that it’s stinkin’ cold, except when it’s really hot in the summer. New England is a summertime kind of place to be, but once it turns cold it’s REALLY cold and I HATE cold weather. I know, I know, the Colorado girl hates cold weather. Blah.

Oh, what I was saying about their cool accents...in Maine, Mass., and New Hampshire the accents are all slightly different. They all add and subtract “r’s,” and they just have slightly unique accents. Like in Maine they say… “A ‘Yuh Been to Maine.” Which comes out sounding like “a-ya ben tah Maine” or “ben they-yah” that’s about the best way I can describe it without saying it. They also add a "h" to the end of words when they take out the "r." Like I saw a t-shirt that said "Green Monstah," so typical to Maine. At the moment though, you’re probably saying here’s a quarter (pronounced kinda like Cor-ta with the Cor like you’re gonna hock a loogie, no I’m not kidding. I’ll even say it for you sometime) call someone in the “nahth” who cares. :P

It's a bird, it's a plane, oh wait...it really is a plane

I flew from Baltimore to Manchester, New Hampshire last Thursday and the following are some of the safety instructions that the flight attendant gave at the beginning of our flight. “It’s a $2000 fine for smoking in the lavatory and if you had that kind of money, let’s be honest, you would’t be flying Southwest. If the pressure in the cabin changes during the flight, first of all stop screaming and strangling the guy in the seat next to you, unless of course he is incredibly attractive :D…If there happens to be an emergency, well if we already knew about it we would have called in sick today of course…blah blah blah.” She said more, but I missed it. Apparently no one else was listening and thought the flight attendant was funny, but I was cracking up and I wasn’t even really listening.

Instead of listening, I was reading a textbook smashed between two full-sized men. What is it about being in the middle seat that you just HAVE to be between 2 huge guys? Good thing my flight was only about an hour and 15 minutes. Luckily I was just reading the Pediatric part of my textbook. People don’t tend to appreciate when I read the OB part of it in public. The pictures (refer to my “Do I have what?! Shhhh….” Blog for the Doctor Porn story) don’t tend to go over very well with non-medical personnel. Still it was pretty uncomfortable to try to read/ highlight a humongous textbook smashed between two guys who were taking up more than their fair share of room. It’s one thing to read a flat piece of paper or book, but when you have to open the cover to read a textbook, its pretty inconvenient b/c then you’re taking up twice as much room on your lap space with it. So you have to hold up one cover and try to read sideways which is really hard, by the way, while trying to highlight too. At least I finished reading the rest of the chapter and could move on to the novel, much more convenient for plane reading.

Just like medical TV shows, I love medical novels. They’re fascinating and educational. Oh...I am SUCH a dork. Oh well, I really do learn things by reading them. That’s how I justify taking time to do reading for pleasure, not from my textbooks, every once in a while.

P.S. On the way home the flight attendant during the safety instructions again added funny stuff such as, "the attendant will be by to shut all the overhead compartments and to make sure your belt matches your shoes." He also said something about your kids "or if you're like the guy up here who's just acting like a kid." Again, no one laughed. Why am I the only one who hears these things? I wasn't even paying attention. Good grief, I guess if there is ever a crash we'll all be screwed or we can hope we've heard the instructions enough times that we'll remember them. Hmmm...