Just A Few Things

1) I work on Labor and Delivery. Generally my job is a happy one, but every now and again there are truly sad moments. On Wednesday, I took care of a woman who broke her water way too early and delivered twins prematurely at 22 weeks. Generally 24 weeks gestation is considered viable and this is when the NICU team would be there to whisk the baby away and help it breathe and generally just hang on to life. But at 22 weeks the NICU team doesn’t come and so even if the baby is born alive (i.e., with a heart beat and some respiratory effort) you kind of just have to watch it die. One of the twins from Wednesday was born dead (a stillbirth), but the second one was actually born alive. He weighed just over one pound and lived for almost an hour after he was born. He looked perfect in every way, but he was just too small and his lungs too underdeveloped to sustain life. As the NICU team wasn’t there, I was left to take care of him and comfort his grieving parents. Days like this remind me that no matter how much I may think my life “sucks,” there are other people who are clearly worse off. I wouldn’t wish that kind of grief on my worst enemy.

2) On to a happier note…I went to see a concert at Iota Club and Café in Arlington on Thursday. The main band was Full Minute of Mercury (official webpage, Myspace page) and the two opening bands were Chrysalis (official webpage, Myspace page) and Run Silent Run Deep (official webpage, Myspace page). I went expressly to see Full Minute, as their singer is also the one of the singers in the Legwarmers (whom I saw on New Year’s Eve). I had never seen them perform live before, but had listened to a good deal of their songs on the internet and such. They put on a pretty good show. They know how to perform their songs rather than just sing them. As far as the opening bands were concerned, I enjoyed Chrysalis more than I thought I would. Somehow they were better live than what I had heard of them on the internet. I kind of wish I had had earplugs for the Run Silent Run Deep set though. This was because their music was really just too loud, as opposed to their songs being bad or their singer singing off key. This loudness factor wasn’t an issue I had with either of the other bands that night. All in all it was a good night and I was glad that I finally got to see Full Minute live. Hopefully I will get to see them again soon if they have a show that doesn’t coincide with my hectic work/school/clinical schedule.

3) Friday I had dinner at this place in Arlington called Ruffino’s Spaghetti House. Even though I have lived in Arlington almost my whole life and this restaurant has been around for a while, I have never actually eaten there. My verdict on the place is that it is a quaint unpretentious Italian restaurant that serves good food at decent prices. Check it out if you are ever in the neighborhood (4763 Lee Hwy, Arlington, VA 22207).

4) I got to spend most of Saturday with my cute little triplet friends. As per usual, I took tons of pictures. They never cease to amaze me at how they grow and change. Now they truly laugh at things, instead of just giggling every once in a while. They are also interacting more with each other. The two girls were sitting off in a corner by themselves and all of a sudden your hear them laughing hysterically. One or the other must have done something that they both thought was funny, because there was nothing else around to provoke that kind of laughter. Later on they were playing this kind of peek-a-boo/hide-and-seek game with their mom, where she was sitting on the floor and they were kind of walking around her. She would pretend not to see them and ask aloud if anyone knew where they were. Then all of a sudden she would pretend to “find” them. This got them to laugh hysterically. She did it like ten times in a row and they found it equally funny each time. Kids crack me up!

5) Today I went to see “The Chronicles of Narnia” with my family. I have to say I found it just okay. It was certainly better than the older version that I remember seeing on PBS, but somehow I don’t remember it being quite so “dorky” (this is using dorky in my mother’s sense of it). I’m going to reread the book and see if it is just that the story really is like that or if the movie just didn’t do the original story justice.