Why can't dead presidents speak to me?

The eternal question. The never ending mumbojumbo. Sometimes I wish I could look at my one dollar bill and it would tell me exactly what I needed to know.

After spending several hours of my life today with four different companies trying to get someone to tell me what happens to my retirement savings when I become unemployed and what is my best option, a genius of a man named Joe finally told me "it can stay right where it is." Never was there a sweeter sentence. I tried to take economics in high school but clearly did not grasp any insight into the world of stocks, bonds, buysell, roths, money market... it's like a secret language, piglatin to my ainbray. I understand that the world of medicine is the same way for most people, but that's why I delicately dumb it down. "Why is my blood pressure high" turns into - because your pipes are clogged. "What is CDIFF" turns into - diarrhea, don't touch. Now those answers are not medically acceptable definitions but my patients feel better when they can put their healthcare in terms they understand. With the seven different people I talked to today, none of them could put my investment strategy into terms I could actually grasp. Granted, it's not their job to tell me how to manage my own money, but couldn't someone give a little hint? After hours of turmoil it turns out that my savings stay where they are and I can determine what/where they will go when I get another job. A sigh of relief for all my hard earned ones.

 In other news, I had my monthly book club meeting. A group of women from work, or (RAKA! -Rachel Angela Kirsten Audrey) decided that we would all read the same book once a month. This past book did not disappoint. Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Gilman follows Susie and her friend Claire through communist China. It deals with mental breakdown and severe illness but when you need a laugh, it was readily supplied. Up next, The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker and although Audrey announced it today at RAKA! I'm already on chapter 3.

It's official, I'll be leaving USA for AUS on August 7th and returning March 4th. My list of things to do before I leave for AUS is growing smaller and smaller. Now that I've booked my ticket and have my Visa, do I really need anything else?

XXOO
Kiki.

M+K = greatness

This past weekend was spent lounging in the sun, serenading a certain preggo belly, eating delicious food, and oh yeah! a little thing I like to call Fitz Fiesta! On a glorious Saturday Mimi and Kevin got hitched and I got to watch. Cara asked me "How did she get this adorable?!" and all I could think of was how happy I was that I got to be there. From the bowl-cut airwalk wearing kid to a beautiful woman in white, she'll always claim an alphabet ornament on our Christmas tree :) Although I am not currently fully recovered from the all night dancefest that occurred at said wedding, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

I have been researching my little heiny off and here is my updated short order life plan: AUS from August to March, hopefully with a nursing gig for 6 months of that time. You may be asking yourselves at this moment "say whattt?!" I know, but one look at the growing belly of my sister and I was hooked until Christmas, who would want to miss a first Christmas? And then it's not too much longer until our birthday, and I haven't spent a February 11th with Cara in a while. So, there it is folks. Down in writing. The hardest part is saying I'll see people later, some I know I won't be seeing, others it's considered too long of a later. But when will be a good time to go? When will I be this unattached and mobile, because I am mobile and soon her little family won't be rolling as fast as I can.


Love to all,
Kiki

Change

does it make you deranged? No. But the worrying will.

I've been thinking about change a lot recently, and with good cause. The word is out, Cara and Toff are going to have a babybeaner. In Australia. In September. Her life is moving/growing/changing wonderfully and like all scared parents they have gracefully asked me to come and stay with them.

To sum up my life at this point I can tell you two things: 1.) I am quitting my job on July 27th and 2.) I am going to Australia.

I know, crazy right? I can go there for 3 months, have enough funds to pay all of my bills back home, and then once back in the states search for a new job and move all over again. Or I can go and stay for a year and try and find a job to cover all my bills back home and then when I'm back try and search for a new job and move all over again. The beginning is solidified, the end result is the same, it's the middle part that's got my head in a merry-go-round. There are a lot of pros and cons floating around in my head right now, lots of lists and columns I've jotted down, lots of people telling me how upset they are that I'm leaving, lots of bills and money that I don't have. In my true form I worry about all of it, constantly. And I worry about it constantly not just in my head, but to my friends as well. So when Audrey asked me, "Well, what is it that you want to do, forget everyone else and think about you," I remained silent. I have no answer, no response at all, because the truth is I have no flippin' clue. The challenges I'll face when I return to Virginia are not the issue, it's how long I leave those challenges unattended that is. So, either I'll be stateside by November or I'll see you guys next August.

One thing is for certain, that baby better be ready for a whole lotta love.

So many weddings

So little time.



I can remember a few months back thinking the Virginia heat would suffocate me. Now that it's beginning to get cooler outside (at least in the morning) I think back to these last few months and feel extremely tired :) So, to get you all up to speed here's what I've been doing:

- visited Mimi and bought the same shoes in different colors
- flight to Oz
- Cara and Toff got hitched on a winter beach
- formed a "pinkies up" club (dad membership included)
- flight home from Oz
- Floudfest (four days of music and booze and heat stroke)
- Brooke came for a visit and we realized we are old
- flight to Cape Cod
- Uncle Eric and Mark got hitched on a hurricane beach
- played lots of Taboo
- flight home from Cape Cod
- packing packing packing

Whew, two weddings down and one more to go. Three weddings in only three months. Now, it's not a big secret that I wasn't the biggest fan of weddings but I am happy to say I am now a convert. So all other family and friends please feel free to get married and invite me :) Here's a preview of the next month: Newcomb fun at the lake, Coro and Taylor get hitched, Cara comes to visit, and I move into a house!

I'll try not to neglect you.
Smoochies, Kiki

Miss adventures of overtime.

Please IRS, save me some dimes.

Carilion has banished it's hotel benefit for commuting nurses, which means a.) the hospital saves money and b.) the nurses stop comming. This is how I am currently on my fourth week of working overtime and how tomorrow I will hopefully see a paycheck that mimics my hard work.

Consequently I no longer am able to take long weekends to anywhere besides the backs of my eyelids. Though I am tired, several things keep me going:
We have begun bi-weekly ibternational dinner dates with some other sleepless nurses recounting the hysterics and hilarity that accompanies the ACE unit. Our first conquest was Ben Gui for sushi. Not everyone enjoys the freshest of fish so up next is Issac's for hummus and pitas.
This weekend is the annual Strawberry festival, which means on my one day off I will be enjoying strawberries, live music, and a chilli cooking contest inside a beer garden in downtown Roanoke (which I can literally see from my window) between the hours of 10 and 5.
Hour long phone calls from my sister and mother have made several of my nights and breaks.
I have finished the latest book in Diaba Gabaldons series and am finally free to start Eat Pray Love, which I did start reading today and am already hooked!

So, life is busy but there is a light on at the end of the tunnel and it's abbreviated AUS.

Love and miss and sleep,
Kiki

Oz countdown: 61 days

Food is good, beer is better

But Roanoke seems to be wetter.

So, it is spring and not too long ago I discovered my two favorite things to do in RoVa: The Tavern happy hour and Metro happy hour sushi. Leah, Rachel, and I went to The Tavern for a burger lunch and ended up staying through beer happy hour until Metro's sushi happy hour deal started (which means half off all sushi). I spent five straight hours in downtown drinking and enjoying the people watching (which are two of my favorite things to do). So, today is Monday and I surprisingly just spent four hours sitting outside enjoying the spring sunshine at The Tavern with my good friend Rachel who will be moving to RoVa in 9 days. It was a marvelous spring day and my optimism is at it's finest.

Oz count down: 94 days

An Ode de Cara

Recently I have found myself thinking about my traveling sister tons. Maybe it's because of the passing of the anniversary of our birth and maybe it's because I bought my ticket to Sydney (I still have to make it to Adelaide but at least I will be on the same continent) and maybe it's because all anyone can talk about these days is weddings. Seriously, Mimi's wedding, Coro's wedding, I work with a girl who is getting married in a couple of weeks, I'm going wedding-bonkers. Not that I don't adore all these love fests it just makes me realize that I don't live with a best friend. And I suppose when I think of best friends I think of Bean and our shared history so here is a small list of the things I have been thinking about:

• How did we get split? I mean she is always a better writer and in general was better in social studies classes than I was, and I got stuck with the science/math genes? Doesn't that seem a little odd to anyone? If we have similar genetic make-ups shouldn't we at least be good at the same things? Believe it. Or not. Where's Ripley when we need him?
• Why is it that when we were younger and Cara couldn't fold laundry (seriously, she really can't, the clothes turn out like lumpy packages) so I would fold the laundry, why didn't I do a swap of some kind. A chore for a chore. That seems logical, but alas I did fold the laundry only because her half would be refolded anyway. So listen up Cara, I am hereby invoking years of chore for a chore and no longer will do your chores. And I say that with love of course.
• Does anyone else remember Cara in gym class? All I ever think about when I'm on the treadmill and my pony tail is swaying, is the funny little way Cara's tiny pony tail would boink boink boink up and down as she ran like a kangaroo. Hahah, it always makes me smile. And funnier yet, maybe that's why she's in Oz. Hey Bean: do you run down there, and if so, do you feel at home with the 'roos? Teehehe.
• Or how about her tingers? Really. Tingers
• "Mrs.BAHnfield sayid I didn' haf to eat my rAIsins" When we were in kindergarten in Maine, where did she get a southern accent from?

Now this list may seem like I'm picking on her, but really it is a list of all the little things that I miss. Things that Skype can't pick up on and we could write a book on our childhood and all the little things that happen that still make us laugh. Well I suppose I wanted to write this list to share that I remember all those little things and more. Anyone else got a good Cara story?

As much love as ever forever,

Kiki.