July Highlights

July flew by so quickly. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I must say that I've been so busy all month that I neglected this poor blogsite. Here's a recap of what made me busy the rest of the month of July.

July 15 and 16

My friend Grace has cooked up a plan for our group to go to Wisconsin Dells. So, with Grace driving, Wendy at the front seat and Cielo, Nidie and I at the back, the three hour ride to the Dells was not so bad. I fell asleep maybe half of the way, and half of it munched junk food with the girls. I didn't realized I needed a break so much until we arrived at the water park. Playing in the waterpark, going in the waterslides and just soaking up the sun were just what I needed to refresh me. Our first night at the resort, we planned to see the Tommy Bartlett show but Grace's car wouldn't start. The battery died because we plugged the cooler for almost three hours. The ever-prepared Grace brought out an emergency charger from her trunk but it didn't work. She had to call for someone to charge the battery back up. After hours of waiting, the battery was charged, but too late for the show. So we just ate dinner at Houlihan's.

The next day, we went on a Duck Tour. It was fun to see the houses by the Wisconsin river, and go through the woods on this duck bus. Our tour guide was sorta funny, too. After the tour, we finally got to see the Tommy Bartlett show. It's a water skii, sort of circus show. After a while it got boring. But there were some entertaining parts.


We went back to Chicago after that. My body hated me the next day when I had to go back to work.

This weekend was also the weekend for Vince's brother Q's graduation party in LA. Vince joined his family in celebrating Q's graduation from residency. I missed the party because I had committed myself in going to Wisconsin with the girls, and I had to work that Sunday. I really regret missing it though, as I heard from Vince that everyone had a great time.

July 20

My last day from work at St. Joe's. G and S, my managers, had breakfast prepared for the starff in honor of me and A, another employee leaving our unit. E, another nurse also made up a tray of sumptuous lemon bars. I was also surprised that some of the docs came up to me and said goodbye. Dr. C even gave me a token to remember him by. I was really touched for what they did.

My two years at this unit have been very challenging. I had a difficult time adjusting to some of my co-workers attitudes. Fortunately, I have forged friendships with a few wonderful women(most of them from the night staff) who made the working place bearable. Because of them, leaving this unit has not become that easy.

July 23

Ate Cynthia, Grace, Cielo and I went to Grant Park to enjoy the free stepping dance lesson that was offered to the public. It rained a little bit and the park was wet but a lot of people still came to learn a few moves. We all had a great time moving to the rhythm or in my case, out of rhythm. Cielo and Ate Cynthia picked the dance steps so quickly. I was fumbling most of the time. After the lesson, we went back to the Korean place where Sooh took us the last time. The place was packed and the waitress didn't seem to happy to see us. Nevertheless, we enjoyed yummy Korean barbecue.

July 27

My quest for "The Dress" started today. Grace, Lea and I drove to the bridal store to try on some dresses. We found mostly strapless gowns. I was drawn to this one strapless dress that had beadings on the chest area and gather or ruche on one side of the waist. It's made up of silk or satin, I guess. Hehehehe, does it sound like I need to brush up on bridal gown terminologies? But Grace brought out this other dress with some embroideries. The gown looked elegant and simple enough for my liking. So now I was torn between two. But the quest hasn't end yet. The girls and I are planning to make more trips to different salons. I plan to buy my dress in Chicago, instead of Indy because I have no one to go dress-shopping with in Indy. Getting the dress from San Diego would be too much of a hassle since I would need to go back and forth to San Diego and Indy for alterations and fittings.

July 28

So the next day would have been my last day in Chicago. I was still at my apartment, all packed up. All I needed to do was clean the apartment. I decided to patch up the holes I made when I hung some racks on the bathroom wall. The bathroom wall was painted cream or off-white, but the patch or plaster used to cover up the holes was white. So I thought I would get some paint from Home Depot to touch it up. I chose a paint color that matched the bathroom wall closely, so I thought. When I got home, I painted over the patch and realized that it was a little light. It was not that obvious, but somehow, I got a little obsessive and decided to paint the whole wall. Yes, the entire wall. After finishing the wall, I went to clean the windows and noticed that the window sill had some stains. So I scrubbed it up with soap and sponge. Ooops, I scrubbed off the paint, too. So guess what. I ended up painting the window sill also. And while doing that, I was praying that the apartment janitor won't be upset at what I've done. When I told the apartment janitor that I would be leaving the next day and that I needed to make a walk-through with him, he told me, "just make sure the kitchen and bathroom are clean" I thought to myself, "you'll be surprised how clean they are."