I'm in the process of making babies like me. I'm pretty sure at this point, all babies hate me. I don't know what it is, but everytime I'm around, they scream and cry and then they poop. This does not bode well for my orientation to the newborn nursery at work which begins this Monday. Luckily, I have four days off to investigate how to make babies realize that I am amazing. Today I got to practice with my nephew, David. He started to fuss and cry not five minutes after I arrived but it turns out that he was legitimately hungry, so that was ok. Once he was good and full he started to buy into the "Aunt Lindsey is cool" theory. And then he started crying again. Ugh. What does it take? Babies don't appreciate all the things I can do yet. They can't eat cake. They don't understand English so I can't tell them jokes. And they don't seem to understand that I helped bring them into this world! Here's hoping that the next month in the nursery makes me a superstar in baby world.

Here's some pictures of cutie pie baby David!

I have a niece and a nephew not related to me by blood, but that's what they will forever be called! Both November babies and children of my closest mentors, supporters and friends from work. Mercedes (Cede Rice) belongs to Jim and Mandy and David belongs to Amy and Alex.

Amy brought David to work last week for me to finally lay hands on him for the first time since the day after he was born. He is the topic of the rap video posted a few weeks ago. By the way, that rap group has been named "OB Scene," a suggestion from a patient I delivered last week. Here is a picture of the most handsome nugget nephew in the world!



I still can't wait to meet Cede Rice:-)

I've started to play with fondant. It's a new adventure and continues to be so therapeutic!

I LOVE my coworkers. I loved them at E&Y too. It makes spending all day with people so much more enjoyable. I'm also really excited about this new nursing job in particular and have unofficially taken on many employee satisfaction projects to keep the people I love happy at work. Today's project: rap videos. I found myself free styling at the desk a few days ago (inspired by one nurse who can turn any phrase or group of 3 or more words into a song) about Amy's new baby. It sounded pretty good so I wrote it down and then recruited an ensemble of the hottest hip hop stars in the hospital. Hold on tight, this is painfully funny. Amy said she popped a few stitches from her c-section watching it. Oh - PS - the rap is about Amy (my capstone preceptor, mentor, coach and friend), her husband Alex and their 6 day old baby boy, David. We are in the process of coming up with an official group name and taking our show on tour throughout the hospital.

My first fondant cake has made its debut! But, the remnants of powdered sugar make it look dusty. I'm still mastering the technique!

The Baskettes gathered for Natalie's wedding. We are tons of fun. If your family would like to hire us to inject some of this fun into your family events, call 757.619.9216.

Upcoming Election

Normally, I am a pretty apathetic voter. I tend to follow party lines and don't really get all that fired up because once I vote, someone else is left to do the fighting in whatever office they are elected to. I also try to vote absentee whenever I can so that I don't have to stand in line anywhere. Some people say that my vote doesn't count unless the election is close, and I say, that's exactly the point. If my guy is going to lose by so much that my vote wouldn't make a difference, then he or she was not the right person, or didn't run a decent campaign.

Anyway, all of this is to say that this year, amidst all the hot topics on everyone's political radar, the only thing that really matters to me this November is the person who will build proper sidewalks in Charlottesville. That's right. I just want sidewalks. Is that too much to ask?

Why sidewalks? Well, this morning as I was out for my daily run, I was headed down a path against traffic, the direction that runners are supposed to go. Because less than 30% of Charlottesville has sidewalks and there is constant construction, this particular road was barely wide enough for me and vehicular traffic. About 40 yards away, I happened to notice a biker headed in my direction. I planned to step into the road to pass her but I had to wait for a car to pass in the mean time. This created a game of "chicken," if you will, but we were still about 20 yards apart. The girl on the bike moved over as close as she could to a fence bordering the road. As we approached one another I stepped into the road but she got too close to the fence, plowing into it and bouncing off into the road. It was hilarious (Jim, you know how I can't help myself when people fall). I stopped to make sure she was okay, which she was, but when I resumed my run, I couldn't help but laugh. I wonder how many other fences she took out on the way to class. This is a college town. There are lots of pedestrians and lots of cars so if you want to ride your bike to class, you better know what you're doing. Clearly this girl did not. She and her huffy bit it hard.

Perhaps if there was a sidewalk and a bike lane around town, this kind of thing could be avoided. It is very difficult as a runner to find a path that is not congested with slow walkers, bikes and buses around this town. And how are the poor novice bikers supposed to get enough experience to improve their ride if they don't have a safe place to practice. She's lucky there was a fence on her side and not just an open ditch because that is another thing UVA likes to build around town. Ditches.

Thus, this year, the issue at stake is sidewalks. Let's take a stand and build something people can actually use in this town. In the mean time, if you see me running, get out of the way or you're likely to hurt yourself.