Simon

We have volunteers at UCLA who bring their dogs in to visit patients for a little pet therapy. They rarely visit our unit because patients typically aren't in the ICU long enough to warrant a visit and if they are they are usually too sick (open chest) or immunocompromised to have the dogs in the room. I knew the program existed but I had never seen any of the volunteers up until last week when I got to meet Jennifer and Simon! Look at Simon's name-tag, tell me it is not the cutest thing you have ever seen:

Circle of Caring

One of the best parts about working for such a giant institution is the perks that come along with them trying to retain and "inspire" such a huge number of staff members. They have programs in place to encourage us to go to the gym, to get involved as a volunteer, to further our education... basically anything you can think of to help keep us happy and healthy (and working at maximum productivity!) This past weekend I headed off to UCLA's Lake Arrowhead Conference Center for something called the Circle of Caring retreat. It was a workshop for nurses to help us relax and learn some stress management/burnout prevention tools and while it strayed into dangerously cheesy territory at times I overall enjoyed myself. My two favorite parts of the weekend were that fact that my cottage had a wood burning fire and that to get more wood, all I had to do was pick up the phone and it would be at my door in under five minutes - just incase you forgot, things are a little different at Put.

Kegs and Easter Eggs

I'm pretty sure the title of the post is self explanatory.

Frame the Cookie

15 of us got together in Charleston during the last weekend of March to celebrate Kacy's bachelorette! She made it very clear that there were no strippers allowed - to circumvent this rule, we rented out a bar one afternoon and had an instructor come in to teach us a 'Strip for Your Lover' class ("frame the cookie" was our instructor's favorite phrase, I'll let your imagination run with that). Apparently I was concentrating so hard on the moves that I failed to take any pictures but no worries, I have an email request out to the other girls for their pictures and I will add them to my album as soon as I get them...