My short-weekend coming home

According to my work schedule this November, I am "working" in Thanksgiving. Supposedly, if they don't cancel or "call me off" the last minute. I hope that they wouldn't do such a thing, because I'd really rather work and earn extra money than staying home alone by myself on a holiday...on a Thanksgiving. That'll be really sad.

And because I can't go home for Thanksgiving, I'm also gonna miss Mikey's birthday on the 27th. He's already 3 years old in human years! (I don't even want to count it in dog years, ha!)



So I just decided to come home a little earlier. Spend more time with the family and friends, of course.

And here's what my mini-trip consisted of...

- Saw 2012.



It was really really good!!! Very nice special effects. Actually I know a lot of people having mixed reviews about this movie. Well for me, it's entertaining enough. Like I said in my tweets, it's scary and creepy at the same time if it will happen in real life. Hopefully not in a million years and never in mine, or in my children's lifetime. LOL.

Think about it though, if it will be the end of the world, why bother go to work? Go to school, save money, build a family, reach your goals and dreams, etc etc...If you know that you will have no more future, what are you going to do??? Sheez, if I know that will happen for sure, I will just stay home and eat all I want like there's no tomorrow (literally), go shopping and max out all my credit cards (LOL), sing (that's a given), watch movies, tell people I love them, and the list is endless but it's something I'd do that won't involve "stress". LOL.

- Then met up with my friends for Carrie's Licensed Vocational Nursing Graduation Celebration dinner @ The Elephant Bar at Campbell.












Congrats, Carrie!!!


hala!







- The next day, was the day for more food. Sheez, all I did was eat lots when I'm home.





Mike and I went to "Kuya's" Asian Cuisine for lunch at San Bruno, CA. Was very tasty there!


lumpiang shanghai


kare-kare


garlic rice


bistek

Yum!

- Then for dinner, Mike and I had our pre-Thanksgiving dinner at "The Melting Pot" in San Mateo. I love Melting Pot!


cheese fondue


California salad with walnuts and Raspberry Vinagrette dressing




the main course that have to be cooked first in the broth


That's how we do it! Yumm!


with the sauce to dip to


Ready to eat!


Then, the last course is the dessert! We got the dark and white chocolate combination, the Yin Yang. Love that design!


The chocolates fondue


Delicious!


:)

- Now I'm just waiting for the time to leave back to Santa Maria. Maybe around later in the afternoon...

Chances are, I will be home for Christmas, since work made me pick my most important holiday. It's so unfortunate, we can only pick one holiday to be off. That means, I have to work in New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. And that sucks major a**. That means, no partying on New year's eve. :(

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I'm loving this song by David Cook. I don't really know if this is his current single but Mike introduced me to this song's video in youtube and I loved it!

Come back to me

You say you gotta go and find yourself
You say that you're becoming someone else
Don't recognize the face i the mirror
Looking back at you

You say you're leaving as you look away
I know there's really nothing left to say
Just know I'm here whenever you need me
I'll wait for you

So I'll let you go I'll set you free
And when you see what you need to see
When you find come back to me

Take your time I won't go anywhere
Picture you with the wind in your hair
I'll keep your things right where you left them
I'll be here for you

So I'll let you go I'll set you free
And when you see what you need to see
When you find you come back to me
And I hope you find everything that you need
I'll be right here waiting to see
You find you come back to me

I can't get close if your not there
I can't get inside if there's no soul to bear
I can't fix you I can't save you
It's something you have to do

So I'll let you go I'll set you free
And when you see what you need to see
When you find you come back to me
And I hope you find everything that you need
I'll be right here waiting to see
You find you come back to me

When you find you come back to me
When you find you come back to me
When you find you come back to me

Come Back to Me - David Cook

Have a good day/night everyone!

Is there something?

Look what I bought today...

"This is it" cd booklet! I loved the movie and I would love to have this as a keepsake.

It could've been an amazing concert that never was. Still makes me sad whenever I remember that MJ is gone. :(









Long live, the King of Pop!

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Here's another request from Ate Vayie. "Is there something" original by Christopher Cross. (Once again, my musician friend helped me with this that is why it is special to me.) I experimented with my iMovie again.

Here's my cover/video, taken from my music room....

This song is a downer, but it's such a nice song.

Is there something (Cover) mp3


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Latest cover requests...

- Here's also another request from JC. A Spanish song by Shakira, "Si tu no vuelves". It's a challenge learning this song. I had to research the English translation of it first to be able to sing it correctly. It's a beautiful song.

- And this one is a request from Joe, my female version of "It might be you" original by Stephen Bishop. This song is still one of the most beautiful and pamatay na love songs ever!

- This one's a request from Romel. My version of Christian Bautista's original, "Colour everywhere". The music isn't too good of a quality though. I wish it didn't have the melody-midi playing in the background.

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Hmmm...

- Had dinner with my coworkers earlier and the topic of conversation shifted about my cover songs I post in facebook. It was all good, they said they are amazed and surprised that I can sing.. Then my coworker asked me, "Then why are you a nurse?" You know what, I ask myself the same darn question! I would love to have music as my career, but I'd still rather have a degree on something. But damn. If I have to pick one, you know what I would choose in a heartbeat. :/

I wouldn't be here if I didn't love you

Work...

Do you know it's been my 1st year of working as an RN? Wow time flies! Ever since, work has never failed to make me realize that:

- Santa Maria, CA is such a "baby-town"

- Some people over here just want to have babies, babies, babies...Nothing to do but make babies, babies, babies...Jeez!!!

- One day we will be "low census" but after that, our unit of "Moms & Babies" will be full again!

- Nursing is a very challenging job. Challenging is actually an understatement there. It is very stressful! More than words can ever say.

- Nursing is never boring.

- You learn as you go along. Some experiences you can never learn through books.

- Some nurses are nice, helpful, friendly, cheerful, compassionate, and very caring...

- But there are also some nurses that are intimidating...some are just plain mean, and some just have no compassion at all (which is ironic since Nursing is supposed to be a "compassionate" profession..)

- Some nurses just like to complain, complain, complain and talk about each other's backs...

- 99% of the time, stress comes, not from the patients, but from the amount of workload we have to do. Too much work in so little time. So much pressure. And to add to that, from the coworkers whom I stated above.

- After one year, I still don't like calling doctors. Will never like it, but it's something I have to do and is part of my job. Dog gone it!

- It's not about the money...if you choose this profession. If it is about money for you, you're not gonna last.

- And money is not always worth it. I will choose "sanity" over "money" in no time! They can call-me-off or cancel my shift, it's okay. (as long as not too often, lol)

- Graduation from the nursing school &/or passing the NCLEX board exam was only the beginning...Oh boy.

- Not everyone can be a nurse. It takes tons and thousands of patience and devotion. You have to be dedicated to be in this profession.

- Once you "clock-in", you're on the roll baby!

- One year and I still feel like I am "new".

- Every shift is unpredictable. You can never predict what's gonna happen next.

- That ironically, staffing will call-you-off or put you on-call when you want to work or not, or vice versa.

- Sometimes I ask myself why I ever chose nursing...

- I wonder and I think if I ever want to do this career "forever".

- My love and hate relationship with nursing is on-going but I love my cute little baby patients and I will never want to work in any department but OB or Nursery, around with babies. I super love babies with all my heart!

Happy First Year Anniversary to my Nursing career!

I guess I am happy I survived the first year.

And they said it takes 5 years for a novice nurse to be an expert.

I guess, I can say "Congratulations" to me!

And yup, Happy Anniversary to my blogspot blog also! Wow, it's been a year since I moved from Xanga to Blogspot blogging. But, no regrets. :)

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And now, talking about my life outside of Nursing........

I wouldn't be here if I didn't love you

A while ago, Ate Vayie requested this song for me to sing, but I couldn't find the music anywhere. Then I consulted my musician friend to help me with the music. (He's the same person I'm collaborating with to create the music to my own song compositions. I am in the process of making my own independent CD. Well anyway...)

Sure enough, he helped me with it. Now I decided to make my own cover and actually decided to take a video of myself singing it. Just thought to myself, why not?! It is an experiment and I am glad it turned out nice! There's more to love with my MacBook Pro as I discover more features of it! I didn't think I can record via video and sing at the same time without my computer crashing (lol)! I am loving it hella more!

So here's my cover of Belinda Carlisle's "I wouldn't be here if I didn't love you" recorded using ProTools and videotaped using iMovie in my music room. Hope you like it!!

I wouldn't be here if I didn't love you (mp3)

PS: I am blown-away with all the love/comments/likes/feedbacks I received from my friends when I posted this video (as well as my "art of letting go" video) in facebook and youtube. And for friends posting and sharing it as well in their own facebook pages and blogs, thank you! You guys have no idea how much it makes me happy and uplifts my spirits. Even my coworkers are approaching me at work and saying that they liked my video. hehe..(kinda awkward that is) Thank you all for appreciating!!! :)

Have a good day/night everyone!

A funny yet embarrassing story...

The rocking chair story

I can't help to blog about this right away so I won't forget. It happened earlier today while I was ironing my scrubs...The doorbell rang and I peeped through the hole of the door to check who it was. It was my old man neighbor probably in his 70's (If you'd remember in my older entry, a neighbor of mine knocked on my door to help him apply his eyedrops I thought he was the same man but this time is a different one...). I wasn't gonna open the door but I looked at him and he looked harmless so I did.

He introduced himself and said that he is giving away some furnitures in his garage, actually a rocking chair, because he doesn't have a place for it in his house. I misheard what he said at first. I thought he was having a garage sale and selling it so I asked him how much he's selling it. Then he said, it's free and he's giving it away. And he said that if I want to, I can take a look at it in his garage. I said okay...

So I followed him to his house then to the garage that is located across my condo. May appear pretty awkard but I just didn't want to think of any risk of it whatsoever. I'm just doing it in good faith that he's a harmless old man. So...okay...he showed me the rocking chair in his garage and he put it down from the table and said, "Okay Diane, here.. Go sit on it and try it.."

(It looked like this.)

Then I sat on the rocking chair and BAM.... it BROKE!!! The freaking leg broke the moment I sat on it!!!!! hahahahaha...I can't forget the look on his flushed face! He kept on saying how embarrassed he was and he didn't know it was gonna happen. I told him too how embarrassed I am for accidentally breaking his chair and I was sorry. hehehehe...Then I just told him thank you anyway for the thought and nice to have met him. He was a nice man.

Nakakaloka di ba?! OMG..hahaha... Doesn't this sound like a scene for a comedy movie? hehe :D

My poor old man neighbor...

And my butt kinda hurt from that fall. hehe...

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YouTube channel

I'm going to share my first video I posted in YouTube. One day this song went to shuffle in my iTunes and I just had to sing it. No luck in finding an instrumental version of it so I just sang it acapella. Here's my cover of "Art of letting go" original by Mikaila.

So from now on, because I love the lyrics to the songs I decide to make video lyrics to my cover songs using my iMovie. That is my project . :)

If you're bored and if you have a youtube account, please visit my channel k! http://www.youtube.com/msdianeg

:)

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I was watching the Filipino movie "A love story" on dvd the other night. Given that it's one of the favorite Star Cinema movies on my list, the best part of this film for me is the song. I believe it is one of the best opm (sad) songs ever made. I loved how they didn't let any other singers remake the song but let Joey Albert sing it herself. It's a classic.

So after the movie naman, I couldn't help to sing this. You know how I am..I make covers of my favorite songs or songs that get stuck in my head like a LSS. So here's my cover of Tell me. And here's my youtube video of the lyrics. It is different reading the lyrics and listening to the song at the same time.

Tell me (Cover) mp3

Have a good day/night everyone!

You belong with me

Random

- So about work....There was supposed to be an RN strike last week. However, the management decided to postpone it. I hope that they will make up their mind to strike against the Union or negotiate for a better wage increase. Seriously!

- I had a very challenging shift or patient issue the other day. My patient was sexually abused or raped when she was pregnant, and take note, "rectally"! Di ko kinaya yun! Good thing, after all, the baby was fine. My goodness!

- Once in a while, I would also have some patients that are drug, heroine addicts and smokers during pregnancy! I can't believe how some people can actually be so irresponsible. Don't they know it is bad for their baby? They don't have to right to have custody to their children! Nakakainis kaya ang mga taong ganyan! Sarili lang ang iniisip! Tsk tsk..

- Ano naman itong mga email na lagi kong nakukuha sa inbox ko! It just annoys the heck out of me for spam mails like these, especially if it's obviously a freaking scam! I just don't know how else to block them. I have used the "filter" function but still...

Look at the message and tell me how dumb and idiotic it is for people to believe this kind of crap:





- Anyway, you know how I post songs I've recorded in Facebook and how I have my nursing coworkers in there...Every now and then, some of my coworkers approach me and say "I didn't know you CAN sing like that! Just looking at you, can't tell that cuz you have a different speaking voice.." and they say "What else are you hiding from me?" But what should I say, I'm not gonna say "Oh by the way, do you know I can sing." or better yet say, "you know I'm a good singer". Right?

Nursing is totally way different environment and I'm not gonna sing at work, cuz it's just weird unless I'm alone with my baby patient.

Their comments just throw me off. Should I take as insult of compliment?!

- I'm really loving this song "Look at me" from Carrie Underwood's new cd, "Play on". I don't know. I just love the lyrics so much. It's something that would make me smile and want to daydream, hehe..I don't know what's gotten into me. At least this is better than feeling the opposite, or feeling like a downer. :P

Look At Me - Carrie Underwood

And also this song, for some reason I've been listening to it the other night and liked it a lot more. You know how it is when you shuffle your iPod or iTunes and sometimes it introduces a (new) song to you and appreciate it a lot more. This time, it's Hale's "The day you said good night" a while back. I like the background music a lot and i feel like I can just listen to it, and it soothes me. Really nice song.

The Day You Said Goodnight - Hale

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Pinoy Bistek (beef steak)

And here's something I cooked before. My version of bistek Diane-style!


Marinade thinly sliced beef in garlic, soy sauce, lemon (or lime will do), and pepper


Cut potatoes on wedges and fry until golden brown.





and when golden brown, set aside


Then fry the beef...






Then when cooked, pour the marinade into it.




Then put the onion rings..


and the potato wedges


and add more lemon/lime to taste




here's the bistek finished product, of course with rice. Yum! :)
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And here's my cover of "You belong with me" (Acoustic version) by Taylor Swift. Very teenage-themed song but I know a lot of us can relate to it, some point in time. :)

You belong with me (Acoustic cover)

You're on the phone with your girlfriend
She's upset, she's going off about something that you said
Cause she doesn't get your humor like I do
I'm in the room it's a typical Tuesday night
I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't likeYou belong with me

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers
She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers
Dreaming about the day when you wake up and find
That what you're looking for has been here the whole time

Walk in the streets with you in your worn out jeans
I can't help thinking this is how it ought to be
Laughing on a park bench thinking to myself,
Hey isn't this easy
And you've got a smile that could light up this whole town
I haven't seen it in a while since she brought you down
You say you're fine I know you better than that
Hey what you doing with a girl like that

If you could see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along so why can't you see
You belong with me
Standing by waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know baby
You belong with me
You belong with me

Oh
I remember you driving to my house in the middle of the night
I'm the one who makes you laugh when you know you're about to cry
I know your favorite songs and you tell me about your dreams
I think I know where you belong, I think I know it's with ME

Can't you see that I'm the one who understands you
Been here all along so why can't you see
You belong with me
Standing by waiting at your back door
All this time how could you not know baby
You belong with me
You belong with me
You belong with me
Have you ever thought just maybe
You belong with me

You belong with me (Acoustic) - Diane de Mesa

Have a good day/night everyone!