06/03/2008 In less than a week I will start my drive across the country to New Mexico where I will work as a Teaching Assistant for the Summer Science Program.  This is my third summer doing this and it never fails to get me excited.  This summer, however, is a little different because it also represents huge transitions in other areas of my life.  A few weeks ago I graduated from nursing school and in the fall I will be starting the next step of my journey to becoming a midwife, beginning graduate school in San Diego.  That means that not only will I drive across the country, but I will do so with all of my possessions crammed into my little car, ready to find a new place to live.  While I can't say that it devastates me to flee Ithaca winters, it is always sad to close one chapter of life when moving on to the next.  Knowing I am leaving also allows me to focus much more on the positive experiences I have had here.  Also, despite far more boredom and many more wasted hours than I could ever imagine, I have been mingling these past few weeks with lots of fun things too, which on the one hand make me dread leaving and on the other make me feel like I am going out with a memorable bang.  Party this Thursday!

09/22/2007 Today is the fall equinox, and that means the descent into winter begins tomorrow.  I hate waking up before the sun rises and not coming home until the sun has set.  I need to buy a house in the southern hemisphere so that I can enjoy lots of sunny daylight hours all year round.  Anyway, I'm back in Ithaca for the second half of nursing school and I am eagerly looking forward to graduation in May.  This summer I ended up seeing 11 births at my externship so I was very pleased with that experience and can't wait to take the next step towards midwifery school and actually start catching babies.  A healthy dose of fear sits in the back of my head and makes me wonder if I can really handle a life of being on call all the time and the responsibility of helping new life into the world, but I think I'll feel more brave once I get the experience.  Next summer is the 50th anniversary of the Summer Science Program and that happily coincides with my 10 year reunion from SSP, so I am busily at work hunting down all of my classmates.  I feel a little bit like a stalker, using tips from the alumni database to sift through Google searches.  But it is all for a good cause right?   

07/13/2007 The summer is getting better by the minute.  Students and staff alike are going completely insane, getting lost in the oblivion of sleep deprivation and absolute goofiness.  But we are certainly having fun.  The students from this year are definitely a different crowd than last summer's bunch, but a new group means new opportunities. 

06/20/2007  The semester ended without too much excitement or stress.  Right after taking my finals, I started an externship in Maternity at Cortland Regional Hospital, about half an hour from Ithaca.   I managed to put in about 120 hours in just over four weeks and have learned a lot.  Most of my time was spent helping new mothers, but I also saw several births and attended a few Cesarean births.  Midwifery is my goal more than ever.  I am now in Socorro, New Mexico for another excellent summer of SSP.  The students arrived on Sunday and things are already in full swing.  It will definitely be a busy summer, but the students are excited and I've already recruited a crew to join me swing dancing every Thursday evening.   

03/27/2007 Happy Birthday to my Dad!  School is progressing fairly well, though it never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to fall behind.  During Spring Break two weeks ago I stayed home and worked pretty continuously on two projects.  The first was writing my nursing paper on Cesarean Birth Rates and my independent study paper on the History of Midwifery in America (still in progress) and the second was trying to be somewhat socially minded and get back in touch with many friends who have been neglected for too long.  For anyone reading this who wishes they got more mail from me, make sure I have your address and I will do what I can.  I still have several envelopes with half-finished letters that will hopefully be done by the end of the week.

02/15/2007  Happy Belated Valentine's Day!  The Spring Semester has begun (about a month ago, hence my lack of postings for quite some time) and I am now attending TC3 (Tompkins Cortland Community College).  I am very excited to be an aunt, as of November 25 at 7:13 am.  I was able to be in Walnut Creek, CA for the delivery of Bennett Charles Hudes and was lucky enough to be in the delivery room for the pushing stage (which lasted a long 4 hours!!!).  The new family is getting along quite well and Bennett was the center of attention at Christmas.

It was great to be a part of such a special event and completely reinforced my excitement about becoming a midwife.  I am doing everything I can to get academically prepared for midwifery and would highly recommend the book Born in the USA, by Marsden Wagner MD.  I am also working on an Independent Study about the history of midwifery in the US and will post my research when I am done.  School ends up taking up a lot of time, either being on campus for class or to tutor, at the hospital for clinical, or at home doing work, but I still find time to watch Grey's Anatomy, Lost and Ugly Betty via ABC's streaming video.  Today and yesterday have given me a nice break though.  Winter weather managed to dump enough snow in a short enough period of time that school was cancelled! 

10/29/2006 Hurray!  My webpage finally shows up if you do a Google Search!  Until now I was stuck with no one being able to access this page unless I had specifically given them the address.  Now I am really out there in the Internet world.  The weather has begun its downward spiral into winter here, with lots of blustery wind and near freezing temperatures.  The first sprinkles of snow have fallen, but nothing has stuck so far.  All of the overcast has been rather depressing and I just want to go into hibernation and sleep all day instead of continuing this life with no sunlight.  I guess this will make me appreciate spring that much more.     

10/23/2006 This will be our last week at the nursing home and next week we get to transfer in to the hospital.  Although I have learned a lot in terms of patient interaction and medications, I am looking forward to the new experience.  I have also been considering transferring to TC3 (college in Dryden, NY) because they offer a comparable nursing program and the commute would only be 20 minutes, instead of the hour I have to drive now.  I've also been working on becoming more "handy" around the house.  Tonight I went to a workshop at Home Depot to try to learn some new skills.  It was kind of a waste of time, but it got me more comfortable asking questions.  I've also been continuing to develop ideas for my dream house and starting to use Google SketchUp to actually visualize some of the plans.  It's a great program, given that it is free, but it takes some getting used to.  Next weekend I have a trip planned to Minnesota to see Annie and go down to St. Olaf to visit Chico people and eat delicious Indian food at Chapati.  Yum!

10/12/2006 I have finally connected with some of the birth resources in Ithaca and am feeling like I am well on my way to becoming more active in the community.  On Sunday I met with several of the other doulas in Ithaca and for the past few weeks I have been attending childbirth education classes with the Ithaca Birth Group led by Gail Birnbaum.  In my non-academic life, I have been staying in shape by going Contra dancing each week... extremely exhausting but a lot of fun.  Still cooking away each week, with lots of delicious meals. 

9/27/2006  Much has happened since the last posting.  I have resettled in Ithaca, NY and am going to nursing school at Broome Community College in Binghamton, NY.  I am planning on eventually becoming a Nurse Midwife, though I am keeping my options open for now.  I recently went to Philadelphia for a workshop on becoming a doula (basically a support person for a woman in labor).  Cookbooks have started filling the bookshelf and I am trying out lots of new recipes.  Tim and I are also taking classes on Lindy Hop, but we haven't actually gone out dancing yet.  School definitely keeps me busy, and now I should be off to tutoring... gotta make a little spending money some how!

8/5/2006  SSP ended a week ago... lots of crying, but also many happy memories.  Francesca, Que Anh and I went to Roswell to visit the aliens and then to Carlsbad Caverns before leaving New Mexico.  Then I met up with mom and we drove back to California, stopping in Sedona, AZ and the Grand Canyon.  Now, with a brief stop in Chico, I am trying to organize all of my possessions into manageable portions so that I can start the drive to New York early next week.  So much to do, so little time...

7/21/2006 It seems like so much has happened and that time is seriously warped around here.  There is only a week left to the program before everyone heads home, but there is still a lot to be done.  In the past week, we went inside Waldo Mine, had a pool tournament, enjoyed a TA camping trip, visited the Very Large Array, and took an extremely long bus ride that included stops at Trinity Site (where they tested the atomic bomb before sending it to Japan), Apache Point Observatory, the National Solar Observatory, and White Sands (a bunch of sand dunes between the desert and the mountains made of... white sand!).  Tomorrow we are going to Elephant Butte for a kayaking adventure followed by S'mores before we have to be back observing.  Time flies!

7/10/2006  Things have certainly been busy lately.  Last Thursday we went swing dancing and everyone had a great time, learning the basics and then adding some flair.  The following night we headed to Magdalena (a nearby town) for their annual festival.  A band was playing so we got to make use of our dance moves.  On Saturday was the SSP Reunion and SOTS Field Day.  The sun came out for several hours and we had a great time with three-legged races and some soccer and volleyball.  Sunday was finally a chance to sleep in, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean at the one-screen theater in town.  Today (in just a couple hours... assuming I wake up on time) we are heading to Santa Fe to hear Roy Kerr, the authority on black holes.  It will also give us a chance to have some real food... I'm hoping for sushi. (Below is a picture of Brad and me in Magdalena, with Razvan in the background)

 6/21/2006 We had a pool party today at SSP.  It was a much needed break after morning lecture, even though the students have only been here for four days.

 6/19/2006  I am spending the summer in Socorro, New Mexico at the Summer Science Program.  I am one of four Teaching Assistants for 36 high school students who are trying to learn enough astronomy, calculus, and physics to determine the orbit of an asteroid.   

6/10/2006 Diana and I went to Gaskell's Ball in Oakland, CA and got all decked out for the occasion.  It was a wonderful evening of Victorian dancing... polkas, waltzes, schottisches and various set dances.  We had a great time, but we were both exhausted by the end of the evening.