It's All Good

A miracle happened on Astoria Drive in little Bee Cave, Texas. Well, really the miracle happened at the DMV office up in Northwest Austin. They....ready for it?....allowed Dani to take her road test without turning in her New Jersey permit (which she lost). Yep, I'm telling the truth. With some last minute maneuvers, Grandma was able to take Dani for her test on Friday. She passed (easily, I hear). So yesterday we bought her a car, a new silver Prius which is actually an incredibly cool car. Here's just one neat thing about it: we don't have to use a gate or garage door remote control because the car will "learn" the frequency of such things and assign it to buttons built-in. I think Dani would have slept in it last night if we'd have let her.


Everything else is going swimmingly too. Work is going well for me, I am getting as many days as I can handle and finding interesting patients every single day. I learn from the minute I arrive. I have stopped wearing scrubs to my psych job; about half the nurses there wear them & half don't -- I have switched sides. So (awwwww) I need a new work wardrobe from Anthro. Making weekly visits there to scoop up what's on sale & I'm loving it. The woundcare job is also looking up, I'm there two days this week.





Nile is back to 3x/week karate now that their tournament is over, so his progress should increase towards black belt. I get the first batch of report cards soon & the kids both tell me it will be good news. More on that later. Ken has furnished his little apartment more in Houston; my parents even found him some....interesting....original art to hang.

The Texas fall weather is divine. It's warm, not too humid, with cool evenings and nights. I miss the leaves in Jersey, but this is fair compensation. On my off days, I sit on the patio outside to eat lunch in the beautiful sun.

Joy and Strangulation (not really)

I went to the Cathe Road Trip in Houston this weekend and loved it, loved it, loved it. I got to workout with my idol 4 times. It would have been 5, but my bum shoulder acted up that last morning & I had to skip the class. She is such an inspiration to me (check out www.Cathe.com). I've been doing her workouts for 11 years, and I completely owe my body, my health, and (actually, most importantly) my sanity to her. It's also such a relief to be among like-minded women who are just as obsessed as I am and not get strange looks when I reveal that on workdays I get up at 4:00 am to squeeze in a workout with her first.

Another interesting aspect of the trip was that I stayed in Ken's apartment in the museum district. And it's quite cool; great location, great security, great pool. We walked to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and saw their German Impressionist exhibit - very good (http://www.mfah.org). I ate at an Indian restaurant where I finally (finally!) got a meal that was spicy-hot enough. It did say "for only the brave" and they weren't kidding. Excellent.

The only problem was that when I returned home, I found out that Dani LOST her New Jersey driver's permit. Now, if you've read my previous posts, you know the ungodly rigmarole I've had to go through to get her to the point of almost getting her Texas license. In fact, on Wednesday she is supposed to be taking her road test and turning in that permit (lost, I think forever). What the hell do you suppose we do now? (oops, anger leaking out, just can't help it -- sorry) You think New Jersey will gladly replace this permit for a driver who's no longer a resident? You think we can just tell the Texas DMV "oops, we can't turn it in - it's gone!" No, obviously. I think we're basically screwed and now she really has to start all over to get her Texas permit. And yes, I dearly wanted to strangle her but I did not. I did cry because I was really looking forward to her being able to driver herself and Nile to some activities. Now Mom still has to be the taxi.

So one bright spot: my favorite cable show is getting ready to start its new season. It's In Treatment on HBO, staring the very hot Gabriel Byrne (something about dark, handsome & with an Irish accent that I can't resist). Debra Winger is in this season. Each episode is one of 4 clients' actual therapy sessions and it's really ground-breaking. It's amazing to see what unfolds. You should check it out, it starts October 25th (see http://www.hbo.com/in-treatment.) Some of the best writing and acting I've ever seen. A dream show for a psych nurse!

Ode to Fonda San Miguel

We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Fonda San Miguel for their Sunday brunch. It is to die for. Interior Mexican food, known as some of the best in the country. Here's a link if you'd like to check it out: http://www.fondasanmiguel.com/

My favorite dish is a cactus-based salad but anything with their mole sauce is a close second. It's also located really close to my parents' house, so it makes for a wonderful Sunday afternoon. Eat a little and then visit.

Austin is simply full of great ethnic restaurants, it's not just barbecue and Tex-mex (although there are some phenomenal places that have that). I have eaten good Vietnamese pho (Blue Bamboo in Bee Cave, no less), some excellent Greek food downtown (Athenian Grill). It's a refreshing change from Hunterdon county where the choices were largely Italian and Italian. Of course there were great things in the city, but that was quite a drive. Here it's all 20 to 30 minutes away. Maybe I can put back on that 5 lbs I lost due to all the moving/new job stress. But I probably need to cut back on the workouts too & that's just not going to happen. Oh well, guess I need to go to Anthro and buy some new pants (how terrible! Dani will be crushed!).

NAMI Walk

Today we had the NAMI walk. NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It is a great organization that offers information to the public and also helps friends and family of those with mental illness. I can't say enough good things about it, we always tell families struggling with a loved one to look into help from NAMI.

The Austin Lakers had the best team -- we actually raised more money than anyone, even our rival private psych hospital that has 3x our staff was far behind us. I was proud to walk with my do-workers. What's cool is that I saw a few former patients there too.

It was the perfect day for this - lovely Texas October day, crisp and mildly cool but sunny. Talk about a blue sky. We got to see the rowers on Lady Bird Lake and there was a high school band taking pictures at the capital, in full concert dress. I walked most of the way with three of my co-workers and the conversation was terrific - nothing at all about work. One woman lived in France for seven years, so we talked about the cultural differences between France and the U.S. Another coworker retired from the Austin State Hospital, so we talked about working in state hospitals and how different that is from what we do now.

A lot of walkers brought their dogs. Pets are a wonderful mental health booster.