Post-Washington DC preparation.
I picked up my brother at the Ontario International Airport from Oakland. We then drove to DJ Bibingkahan for early dinner. I noticed that the Max Chicken restaurant has moved to a new location at a mall. This mini mall is just packed with Filipino restaurant. I didn't particularly care for expensive Filipino cuisine. Give me affordable good tasting food and I'll eat there often.

After the meal we walked around the mini mall of various Filipino owned businesses. Some were open and some were closed. I saw some hopia and other snacks we can eat on our trip to Washington DC. upon payment the bakery accepts only cash. Oh well, I was low on cash. It's really amazing how stores like this survive with cash only businesses. They will probably make more with credit card/ATM access.

We then proceeded to go home with a brief stop at the local WAMU bank.

Accomplishments.

When there is no work available from the nursing registry I work with, I need to accomplish something worthwhile. In the past, I have done gardening, cleaning the pool, washing the car, grooming the dog, and other home maintenance duties.

Tonight it's my bedroom curtains. The old curtains just about had it. They've been up since I moved in. They have holes and just filthy. I tore them out of the rails and straight to the garbage can. They are not salvageable, they deserve a good burial.

I went to my favorite store, WalMart. This one is open 24 hrs. Target should have a store open as long. They are missing out on my shopping money. Anyway, I looked around for something I can block the light from my window. I have a large window 94 inches wide X 40 inches high. They have a variety of products that can do the job but the most stylish are curtains. One brand is called the Eclipse (TM). It blocks 99.9% of light. Hey, that is almost 100%. It's made of soft, multi weave fabric. I chose the dark blue one as the other colors and fabric designs are not my liking. It's plain fabric without the flowery designs. I also chose to use a simple curtain rod with a spherical end design. There are a lot of choices and fortunately they are priced the same.

Hanging the hardware was simple. Cleaning the windows and the window sill inside was yucky but necessary evil. I'm not hanging a brand new curtain around a dirty window. The curtain was just enough to cover the window's width. The widest size they sell is 52 inches wide. I'm wondering if I need another panel. I'll try this two for now. I hope this solves the light problem that wakes me up at 2:30 in the afternoon when the sun sets at my window. I also hope it keeps my room cool.

Photo shoot, Fall 2008. (and pre-party preparation)

I'm back in the bay area for the 3rd annual Twins Birthday extravaganza. This time it will be on a Sunday as the Day in the Park event will make parking a hellish event and my sister doesn't want to hear the possible complaints by party goers if they have to walk half a mile for parking. Moving the party the day after Day in the Park event will make it more pleasant for the party goers.

I got up early about 7 am this Sat morning. Had breakfast prepared by my brother in law. Coffee and bagels. It was nice. Hit the spot as they say. Sister went to volunteer at the Day in the Park event to take people's blood pressure as a free service for hypertension monitoring. I on the other hand went to see my brother to pick up my white and blue paper background for the photo shoot. He lives on the main land of the bay area so I have to drive across the Bay bridge. The drive was not bad but he return route looks packed like a parking lot.

I was back by 1:00 pm and started setting up my portable studio. All was well when I found out that I left my flash mounts at home. Oh well, deal with it. I have to substitute a larger flash unit. The background lighting will not be even but it's better than none.

I took about 300 photos. Not all were good, that is why the word "edit" was invented. Editing was the most tedious task for me. I hate picking the best shot when there can be several.

I worked 3 hours of shooting and was dead tired by the end of the afternoon. Dinner was stuffed chicken with gravy. Yummy stuff, well worth the hard work I did.

After dinner, we made a sign-up board for the twins' party. A white hard board, an 8x10 photo, two 4x6 photos, fancy scissors, colored construction board and a set of glitter lettering are all needed for this project. After that we spent a few moments to separate 14 balloons all tangled up in a bunch. My sister has a set of warming trays that we set up and covered a couple of tables with colored table cloths.

After all this we started watching Harold and Kumar, Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Funny movie but lots of nudity.

Off to the Bay Area.

It's Friday and I drove to the Bay Area for the twins' 3rd birthday party next Sunday. I almost didn't make it if I have to work this weekend. I managed to squeeze in 2 days of work this week which is enough for me to survive. I'll work more in the coming week. I packed my camera and studio gear to do a photo shoot of my sister's kids.

I dropped Sarge off to the vet/kennel so I don't have to deal with him during my trip. This is no vacation as a photo shoot with the nieces can always be challenging and frustrating but fun to do.
San Dimas animal hospital was the answer to my dilemma. Most kennels require current shots within 30 days of boarding. San Dimas animal hospital will give the shots then will allow the dog to be boarded that same day. For $15/day, the dog will be walked twice a day and this includes the weekend.

After dropping off Sarge, I went to pick up my prescription. I should have done this yesterday but I was lazy so I'm paying the price. Oh well, deal with it.

I left San Dimas at 1:30 pm. The traffic on the 210 heading west was not too bad. I hit slow traffic on the 5 North before the Grapevine. There was an accident on the South bound 5 freeway and the lookiloos were slowing down the flow of traffic. I sat there for half an hour. People are idiots, slowing down to look is just stupid.

The drive was insignificant. 400 miles of driving is easy if your ride is nice. I used to drive a Civic and it was less than nice. The car's short wheelbase makes it a bumpy ride. I was worst when I changed to alloy rims and sport suspensions. I also got used to the Camry and E320. Both have long wheelbase and better cars overall. The seats are softer and more for long rides.

I missed Sarge during the drive. I'm used to checking on him. This time, no Sarge to check. He probably prefers being boarded as he gets anxious when riding in a car.

I stopped by Casa de Fruta to get some dried fruits for my sister. A gift for letting me stay over their place. Pasalubong kinda thing. I ate dinner at the diner there and ordered some chicken breast over spaghetti. I forgot the name of it. Some Italian dish. It was really good and it comes with a loaf of bread. Whoohoo, where is the insulin pump, hehehe.

The rest of the drive was easy enough. The sun has set and it's cooler. It's a little tough to read the navigation system as my eyes sight are now poor. I need those bifocals. I was switching from reading glasses to sunglasses during the drive.

I got to my destination around 8:30 pm. I unloaded some of my cargo and pretty much kicked back the rest of the night. The nieces were cute as usual. Making the 400 mile drive all worth it.

Cant's sleep so here goes...

It's Wednesday morning, 3:35 a.m. I have a scheduled interview at 9:00 a.m. See the problem? I am not really interested with this job as it will require me to drive 30 miles one way to work. To make it worst, the commute is on the 210 freeway. It's the busiest time of the day heading to Los Angeles. No thanks. The only reason I'm going is to practice and not to piss off my head hunter that helped me get this interview.

I took as short nap between commercials while the women's gymnastics were competing in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. They won silver by the way, not bad. It gave me a second wind sort off. I'll just take naps before the interview. I hope I don't oversleep.

Saturday was productive for me. I wasn't counting on work so I started mowing the lawn and trimming the small trees in the front yard. I fired the gardener a month ago and the lawn is looking a bit needing of attention. I also think it needs some fertilizer.

Sunday I made myself available for work but again not counting on it. I shaved my dog Sarge. He's been having a tough time with the warm summer. He doesnt need his thick coat. As I finish Sarge's haircut, work called and I'm going to Santa Ana. It's a 30 mile drive but it's better than nothing. The night wasn't too bad. I had three patients and an admit at around 2 in the morning. The admit ended up in ICU as her heart is not working very well. I finished the paperwork the the ICU nurse's delight. I survived the night and one of the staff nurse' told me I did good. I stayed over for 30 mins and the day charge nurse was nice enough to approve the overtime.

I keep asking my brother if he and his wife are coming over anytime soon to visit. He wasn't too sure as I'm worried that I don't have enough time to clean up before they get here. He gave me something about the last weeks of August to early Sept. I guess that means yes. I hate uncertainty but that is part of life.

I clean up clatter as I go about my life. Nothing official interms of clean up. Clutter is entropy, a law of nature. Cleaning up nature is unnatural. It's like trying to stop the expansion of the universe. Hahaha insane.

Talking with my bro.

I call my brother a lot. He is a smart guy and his opinion matters to me. I have this imaginary book and in that book is a list of people whose opinion matters to me. It was actually part of a comeback if a person was trying to force their opinion on me, I pull out this imaginary book and I tell that person while I open the imaginary book that I'm looking at the list of people whose opinion matters to me and he is not on that list.

A nurse taught me that when I was in Rockingham, North Carolina. She was a strong person and was a mentor. She was one of the few persons I've met in life who taught me so much about nursing.

The talk was made over cell phone. My brother was in the end of a mile walk from the Kite festival and there I was bugging him about my financial concerns and work related worries. He had experience about short term unemployment. I was unemployed after a layoff but I qualified for unemployment benefits. This time, no such thing as I am a nurse and nurses can always find work. I did have work but it's registry so its a bit irregular.

We talked about spending and how to go about my plans to move to the Bay area. I decided to stay here in the LA area for now until I get the experience I needed for travel nursing. The traveling industry has different standards than hospitals. Traveling agencies wanted 6 mons experience in the specialty you want to work in. I worked 2 years in rehabilitation nursing so I can only work in rehab and nursing home. That was a bit degrading considering I had 9 years of critical care experience. What ever, that is the industry of travel nursing.

I have a few leads for permanent work and was working on them. I had to be patient for the good jobs comes to those who wait.

Brother also reminded me to stay positive with my attitude. Thinking of good events so that they will manifest themselves to me. I believe in this as it has happened to me. I think of owning a home and being patient about it. The home manifest it self and it will be ten years now since I bought my home.

As we talk about work, my registry called and told me they found a hospital closer to me than the one in Orange County. There it is again, manifesting itself while I was being patient with getting an assignment closer to home. Amazing isn't it.

He told me that leaving the former employer means the universe is telling me to change. This change can be challenging. The cahnge I am thinking now will be changing my situation for the better. Trying to reach my goal for that past three years of moving to the Bay area. There will be a lot of letting go of material things, the few friends that I have in the LA area, the familiar places that I enjoy visiting. I am now open for new places, better things, healthier air, better social connections and closer to family. Changes that will bring a better life. Okay universe, I am ready. Let's do it.

Cleaning house Part 2.

The next morning I headed back to Granada Hills to finish up the cleanup. I started with checking on the touch up paints and found out that the colors are different for two of the rooms. We need to make a trip to the paint store later today.

First up is steam cleaning the carpet in the bedrooms. There are three rooms so this will basically be a simple job. I tried to keep the time tight scheduled but as the heat get s to me, I slowed down a bit. The rooms were not the same sizes so time spent on each room varied. The carpet cleanliness was apparent. The buckets of dirty used solution was proof that the carpet were dirty. I can now see the pattern on the dark brown colored carpet. Even V and C commented later that I did a good job. I used my own professional cleaner and my own machine. V owns a steamer too but I know my machine better. I don't feel like having a class on carpet steaming at this time.

Next up was touching up the trim and painting the front door white. There are a lot of shoe scuffs along the front door and down the hallway to the bedroom. The front door didn't take much work but it took some time as there are designs engraved on the door. It's not like my front door at home which is plane design from the sixties. V took out the hardware so that it has a clean coat of paint without brush patterns. It was a good decision as it came out good.

Prior to the door painting, I also cleaned the fireplace area and painted the shelf with semigloss paint. It was real nice after the painting, looks new.

Lunch was spent at a Chinese chain restaurant. It was nice as I was hungry. After lunch we hit OSH, and bought paint, caulk, and other supplies.

V started his day painting the over hang in the front door. The paint was peeling off and he and C cleaned the area up yesterday. Today is paint day with thick primer. It came out real nice. The front house' shrubbery were also cut by C. We can actually see the house now. We repainted the trim around the windows after washing the windows with soap. This took a while but made the house look great. Stucko were also applied to broken wall around the house. This spots will be painted tomorrow Monday before V leaves for San Francisco.

After dinner of pizza, we cleared off the cut brushes. I was a lot of green debris. We used tarp and tied the bushes down with twine. We wrapped about 6 of this bunches and left it in the front sidewalk. We discussed that fact that there are a lot of debris to be picked up and the collectors might not pick them up. It was mentioned that it only happened once in the last three years os they better not complain.

I was totally wiped out. After picking up the bushes and wrapping them up six time, I was really exhausted. I had to stop and rest. It was a long day and it's already 9 p.m. I left that night at 11 p.m. I left V there and wished him good luck and safe trip back to SF.

The next day I talked to V over the phone. He just left the house and he started early that morning to finish off the house painting touch ups outside the house. We talked about the hard work we did and the other work that needs to be done. The good thing was that all the major clean up was already done.

The following day, V called me and told me that C talked to the garbage collector and apologized profusely on the amount of trash. The guy was understanding and C paid him $8 tip. All the garbage was collected.