We are winding down now and the marble jars have almost made a full transition from one side to the other. In less than three weeks, Will is coming home and I'm going to Italy to meet him. I. Can't. Wait.

Full Circle

September 11, 2001. It's hard to believe that was nine years ago. I clearly remember getting ready for my 9:30 chemistry class watching Good Morning America when the second plane hit. Luckily I didn't know anyone in the tower and it didn't directly affect my family at the time. I thought I had escaped the heartache that was caused to so many people that day. I never imagined that nine years later, the love of my life would be so far away from me because of what happened that day. It makes me realize that we never really know how things come full circle and can have an impact later in our lives.

No Empuje

My Spanish speaking skills are poor, that's just a fact. I learned most of my Spanish from the kitchen crew the summer that I worked at the Crab House and from the door at 7-Eleven. The kitchen guys were from Guatamala and taught me the basics of communication which were "caliente," "gusta / no gusta" and "no bueno." I missed out on understanding how essential knowing the Spanish language was while I was telling important business executives how to avoid compliance violations at Ernst & Young. It just didn't seem all that important at the time. But now that I am catching more hispanic babies than ever, I kind of wish I knew more. I can get by, that's for sure. And I do try to learn at least one Spanish word or phrase every time I take care of a hispanic patient, but at this rate, it will take me years to put together a cohesive and grammatically correct paragraph. We have these fancy translator phones to communicate with patients but they are more trouble to use when I just have a few simple questions or things to tell patients. So I use my head to beat the system.

Enter Google Translate. Since there are computers in each of our labor rooms, I just log into Google Translate, type what I want to say, and then read the translation to the patient. It works like a charm. This is why I will never learn Spanish. I just read what the screen says and as long as I phrase things so that I receive yes or no responses, I am golden.

Yesterday I exceeded even my own expectations when I found the "listen" button under the translation. This little gem provides a female voice translation with all the correct pronunciations. Follow me - the computer speaks Spanish to the patient. It's brilliant. I used it to explain to the patient what the plan of care would be, including a cervical exam followed by the doctors breaking her water. She nodded and stated "si" when I said "comprende?" (see, I still use my basic communication skills) I was so excited that I came out of the room and said to the nurses, "guess what I just learned?" I proceeded to tell them about the verbal translator when one of the eavesdropping doctors said "You still have to learn Spanish. You should really know the language." And then the little medical student pipped up and said "Yeah, and you have to be careful with google translate because sometimes it is incorrect."

My response: "Well, you're right. I could have just told her she was about to birth a unicorn. But she was okay with that."

And that is blog post number two about how I outsmart the ridiculous medical community of which I am a part.

The guys had professional pictures taken this week. Will finally shaved his mustache off so he is the only one without one these days. Just a few weeks left and then we'll be posting pictures from Europe!

100 Days of Summer

Will has officially been deployed for 100 days. I only know this because he tells me what number card he reads each night. It feels like 500 days. But we are nearing the end, the tide is shifting and our European vacation is just over a month away! We are planning to visit a few cities in Italy and then make a group trip to Munich where our sober summer will officially come to a long awaited end! Stay tuned for pictures of Will in lederhosen and me in a dirndl. He's worn the same outfit for four months straight and I've been in scrubs so we are ready for costumes and beer.

Here is the most recent marble jar photo. My side is filling up which means there is an incredible homecoming in the near future.

Celebrations

We are now thirteen weeks into Will's deployment. It's another week down and one less that we have to spend apart. But we hit an even bigger milestone this week. One year ago on August 15th, I opened my email to find a message from Billy, a high school crush from ten years ago. Intrigued, I responded wondering what in the world he was up to. It went something like this:

Will Andreotta August 15, 2009 at 4:50am
Hey:

Long time no talk. Congrats on the nursing school!!! How is everything else going? I am just done with some leave in the States. As bad as it sounds, I am dreading going back to Italy....The more I spend away from the States the more I want to go back...

 Hope things are going well. Keep in touch.
- Billy

Lindsey Baskette August 15, 2009 at 11:10am

Hey! So good to hear from you. Things are good here. I'm living in Charlottesville and will start a job as a labor and delivery nurse at UVA in October. I'm also the house mom for one of the sororities here so that keeps me young and busy.

I can imagine being away from beer and baseball is hard. I got in a fight with Italy when I discovered they don't serve ice in drinks. All I wanted was something cold to drink;-) so are you flying planes all over europe or what? Fill me in on what you are doing over there. Take care.
Lindsey

They say that prince charming won't come knocking on your door, that you have to go out and live your life to find him. But he sure came knocking at mine, or at my inbox anyway. He claims that his intentions were more than just friendly chit chat and I felt the sparks immediately. Emails bounced back and forth before I ran into one of his pilot buddies at a wedding in Colorado. We knew that my running into a mutual friend who flew halfway around the world to be at this wedding was anything but coincidence. The next thing I knew, he asked if it would be too forward to call me. How polite is that? I couldn't wait to hear his voice. Then there were flights booked to Paris, stargazing at the eiffel tower and bottles of wine in quaint French brasseries. The rest is history, but it all started with one little email. He took a chance, I gave it back and we ran away with love. My prince charming found me, half way around the world, at the perfect time in our lives. I can't wait to have him home again!

One year "re-connection" anniversary flowers

I got to babysit my baby nephew David last week and captured his genius on video. Listen and watch as he responds to his name and follows commands. What a smart kiddo! I love him to pieces. Now I just have to start monitoring what I say and do since apparently he is listening.