Date Night!

Last night my husband and I had a date night. I can't really begin to tell you the last time we did something like that. We are really home bodies, especially me... Here in Baltimore we have a concert venue down at the harbor called Pier six Concert Pavilion. It is open air and next to the water. I bought tickets months ago to go see Dave Koz and friends. We love smooth jazz and so this promised to be perfect for us. Now I have to tell you that I have been a little concerned what with the 100+ temps here in Baltimore and the surrounding areas lately, that I would be a suffer'n fool...but as luck would have it or the Gods or maybe even Dave and friends, the weather was gorgeous! low 80's and by evening 70's and a gentle breeze. Just picture it...a lovely summer evening. Anyway, the "friends" turned out to be Jonathan Butler and Sheila E! Wow, not a bad line up...We had great seats (the front row of the center section) so no one directly in front of us and lots of space...The artists looked like they had a blast up there and it was a lovely evening all around...The space in front of us was a walkway so I was able to do a lot of people watching and I saw some wonderful summer evening outfits and some "what were you thinking" outfits too. We even held hands on the way back to the car.

There were the usual boats out in the harbor and the peeps out and around that were taking advantage of the excellent sound system to hear the concert also...Dave and co. included them also...nice...

I remember when I posted on face book that I had purchased the tickets that I mentioned that we had not been to a concert there since our dating days and that I hoped that the seats were bigger! Well, not so, but the clientèle seemed to be our age and the seats a lot closer to the stage and under the pavilion...hmmm...

My honey got up to go to the boys room(he didn't used to do that either) and came back with a JB CD...today I will upload it, but before that I will open it with...wait for it...my CD opener...yes you did read that...it is a little gadget that I found in my Christmas stocking that makes opening those impossible to open new CDs a pleasure to open! Hey another simple pleasure for another blog...

Well I must say that date meant that a crappy eye-opening week ended on a lovely note...

Stay Pink!

Two-Faced

Hi there,

I have to tell you I am sad today. I find myself surrounded by a few people that have proven themselves to be two faced on several occasions. It troubles me and it usually involves me. It seems that while I am away I am the topic of conversation and not in a good way, and then there are consequences...I am spoken to about whatever the few have decided are my supposed transgressions and then later those same people are all very friendly and trying to strike up conversations with me. Usually I allow it, because after all, to do otherwise would make for a pretty nasty atmosphere you know?? I have to say however, that I am weary of this. It is not of, course that I might not be able to improve myself. It is rather that I really don't think that the "golden girls" as I have dubbed, them really are all that and a bag of chips, and I really don't know if I have it in me to be all that mature about it any more...I mean if they can be all middle school about it, than why can't I?

I'll tell you why...the thought of behaving in that manner turns my skin cold. I am so much better than that, So much more. I have been through much in my life. If all it takes is to use a computer within sight of the golden girls so that they may see that I am indeed working and not goofing off than so be it. However, I do not have to pretend to be friends with them or to be involved on a personal level. I will be my usual pleasant and funny self, but only on the surface...Will they even notice, I wonder? Somehow I think not!

Stay Pink

Toxic? or just plain silly?

Hi there,

Here I sit trying to decide on a topic this morning...It is difficult as there are many to chose from. I decided that I may as well just start typing and see what appears on the page, or in the box, as the case may be...Today is a day off, so I am upbeat and as such, thought that my pink blog should be something uplifting! I seem to have a toxic topic on my mind though, or at least one that can be...I have been wanting to blog about it since last Thursday so I may as well get it off of the proverbial chest so that I may move on. Although I must say that there is nothing in the least proverbial about my chest, but that is a topic for another day...

I work with a group of women 6 women ranging in age from early 40s to early 50s. We are a lovely group of caring women who can be very close and very caring and then at other times we can drive each other crazy. Sound familiar? At times it can be downright difficult to maintain a good mood in the face of others...I am sure you know how these things are...they feed off of each other. We are all very good at what we do and we have all been on the job for a good number of years. About 3 years ago the hospital sold our little corner of the universe to a private fertility company in the area but we are still in the same location and little has changed. Things have changed recently, however, and that can be tough...

Attitudes go in cycles and it seems as if you are out of sync with the group than you are in for it! For instance, last Thursday is a case in point. we man two labs on two different floors with very limited staffing. We were very busy in the O.R. lab and not in the other one...little resentment there...late in the day, one of us felt the need for help, I did not...I stayed down to finish the other went up. When I went up to have lunch and enjoy the other's company, I found the doors locked and the lights out. All had gone home! Early! Sheesh, I said I didn't need help...I really think someone could have said "we're leaving, see you tomorrow"...oh well... TOXIC!! I forced myself not to take it personally, even thought it was probably done in a snit..ie; OK she doesn't want help, we're done, let's go...

Anyway, the next day the same group decided, hey lets do lunch and we went out and our super treated...I have to say OY!

And now, I wonder...what if one of them decides to read this...Yikes!!! which brings me to a flaw in my personality that I really wish I could fix, or correct, or stamp out...I do these absolutely awesome, brave things, and then I worry about them...and stew... I mean look, I tell myself, either do them and forget about it or don't do them at all...I have always been this way...sigh..

So anyway that is my Truly Simply Pink for today any comments and or helpful hints would be dearly appreciated.

Thanks, and Stay Pink....unless of course, you don't like pink...in which case I won't hold it against you...lol

Simply Pink Simple Pleasures

Ah, a day off...A morning to sleep in, to be able to awaken when one does, and not when one has to...is anything sweeter? I have no real plans, at least not until 3:00pm when I suspect that my daughter will talk me into accompanying her to a Dr. appointment. So I begin by starting the coffee maker. All I had to do was hit the button because my DH prepared the pot before he left for work and let me know prior to leaving. "just push the button when you get up" he whispered..."OK...I mumbled back...then..".oh! can you bring me my yellow pill?"...A while later he did...I wondered what took so long...he had spilled the case labeled with the days of the week and had to try to gather them all up again and put them back in...oy..."hope you got 'em all", I mumbled, "Lily doesn't need to be eating my meds"...That's Lily over there on the right. Isn't she cute?

Anyway...back to those simple pleasures...a day away from work is a biggie right now, largely because although I do enjoy my work, the atmosphere there right now is quite toxic in a big way. Not due to the work, oh no, never that, but...I do not want to take away from my simple pleasure here, so...that will remain for another day...I will just say that this day being on my mind yesterday, kept me in a good frame of mind throughout a very busy day yesterday and said frame of mind may have caused a little resentment and contention...enough said!

When I have a day off coming it begins for me the evening before...I feel the freedom to be able to stay up late to finish a good book if I wish, which I did, or finish watching a baseball game, which I did also...

Reading is a big simple pleasure for me. I just love to read! Suggestions always welcome...

I have to say that I consider this lovely pink laptop to be a simple pleasure. I have my routine with it...I check my personal email, then any links from there, such as VN or Simply Pink, or Face Book...Then I check in on my work email...and on it goes. It can take quite a while...but I enjoy it.

My music, Craig Chaquico again, is a pleasure...He is playing in the background...as I type.

The simple act of being able to drink a cup of coffee at my leisure, you remember the above mentioned button, I did finally push it...and do the other things I mentioned at the same time...

I have a feeling that this is a topic that I will be revisiting quite a bit because as I get older I have come to realize that these moments in time that offer these pleasures are the ones that make up the whole of a mostly happy and satisfying life...

I would love to hear from some of you about your simple pleasures!

Thanks for reading and Stay Pink!

Simply, Pinkim

16? Really??

Hello again!

Just a quick little note today...I wasn't going to check in at all because I am caught up in a good book, but, well, this happened, and I was quite amused, and my daughter was not and so...here we go...

You see we are getting ready to send my 18 year old daughter south to college for the first time in a few short weeks...we still have a lot of shopping to do and a lot of prep work to do and there has been a lot of eye rolling whenever I try to prompt her to get to work on anything.

So anyway, she has been waiting anxiously for her room assignment... it was promised for yesterday and did not materialize...so when I ran by the house after work today to change clothes from scrubs to something decent enough to wear to my manicure appointment, it was with great amusement that I listened to her proclaim, " Mom, look I think they are having a problem, look at my room assignment! (this was said with great disgust and whining) I looked and shrugged, "what is the problem?" I asked..." I seem to have 16 roommates" she wailed... ""Oh, I said, I guess you got a quad room then". I am telling you the girl has totally lost her sense of humor over this thing. She was not amused...

Later the mascot, through face book, assured the incoming freshmen that it was' indeed, a mistake had been made and that no one had 15 or even 50 roommates! Whew, that was close!

My daughter is still not laughing...when do you think she will regain her sense of humor? I thought it was funny, I'm still laughing...lol

Stay Pink...pinkim

Manic Monday!

Hi again,
Somebody asked me if I could maybe post about my job...Yes, people really read my blog!!

Well, this may not be the best day for that, but here goes...I posted a picture below of a human blastocyst. (scroll down to the bottom of the page) It has no zona (outer edge) because it is hatched out. This is a good thing. This is what happens to an embryo just prior to the time of implantation.

Today it seemed as though we had a million of these little microscopic things to look at and a very limited time frame to do it in. We also had to thaw a few and then we had to freeze a bunch...On top of that a few women were ready to pop so we had to retrieve their follicular fluid, find the oocytes within said fluid, and then use their husband's sperm to do a procedure called ICSI to inseminate the oocytes that we retrieved from them. We did make sure we got the right sperm with the right eggs...ICSI is a specialized procedure where we pick up one sperm and inject it into one egg. This is repeated until they are all done, This happens when the sperm is of poor quality and or the couple has had previous poor fertilization.

At some point in there we had a few women that had embryos at that beautiful blast stage shown below and so we transferred their embryos back into their uterus and now they will come back in about 10 days to see if they are with child. I hope so...If not they will begin the process again. It is stressful. It is rewarding. It can make for days like today where we are lucky to get a chance to eat and if a co worker had not jumped in we might still be there...Hence...Manic Monday...

Then I met my lovely daughter at the doctors office because she is afraid of needles and she had to have a two second ppd test...I am telling you it took longer to walk over to the office than it did to stick her...the man in the office waiting for his appointment was laughing...

Once home, I took part in a conference call for my other job...Komen Advocates in Science...somehow during that call I became the co chair of the Opportunities Matching Working Group! Yikes (actually I volunteered)...LOL ...What a Monday!

So that was my day, how was yours?

Stay Pink!

The promise picture of said shoes!

My first post!

Well hi there!

I'm new here, and it is my hope that I will find something interesting enough to say (and spell it correctly) so that at least a few people will read it... I find myself reading and enjoying quite a number of blogs lately and so decided to try one of my own...so. as they say, here goes!! You may have guessed that I am obsessed with pink. I must not be the only one, as the first few names that I chose for my new blog were already taken (the nerve)...so I came up with this one. Hope you like it.

Now, hmmm, what to say. My sister has a blog, she home schools and talks about that...I don't, nor do I desire to, and besides my one and only is off to college in the fall so I am facing an empty nest soon, so maybe that will be a future topic...we'll see...I am soon to, or maybe I am going through menopause, OK no maybe, so there is that...my VN friends talk about that and other things...hmmm...

I am very involved in breast cancer advocacy and with Susan G Komen for the Cure so I may mention that a time or two. I am a 15 year breast cancer survivor and involved on the local and national front, so expect that. I guess I can talk about anything I want, this is mine right? How cool is that?

I read a lot, much to my husband's chagrin...I only say that because I find it very easy to click on those books and have them magically appear on my kindle list! Voila! "it adds up" he says..."Blah!"I say...You will find that I like the dots...so I may post about that.

I am so pink that I just bought the best pair of Danskos for work and they are very pink patent leather with the ribbon. I will post a picture!! My FB friends got a kick out of that.

I am an embryologist by trade. I work in a busy embryology lab associated with a fertility center here in Maryland. It can be interesting but stressful, you might say I make babies for a living.

My favorite music is smooth jazz and as I write I am listening to Crag Chaquico, lovely!

OK, so that's the run down on me...I'll try to find something a little more interesting for my next post or maybe something more philosophical or whatever...Has anyone out there read The Alchemist? I just did, and I loved it!!

So that's it for now, thanks for reading, I hope someone reads this...