It's a Bittersweet Symphony, This Life
It's that time of the year... when I constantly repeat to myself, "April showers bring May flowers". For me, April is such a bittersweet month. There is the excitement for spring, which slowly and unexpectedly makes abrupt appearances, and then there's the melancholy that goes along with the more common dark, gray, rainy weather. In the past, though, I usually didn't mind the rain. This year I do. There are two reasons for my newfound dislike. One of the reasons is that I walk two miles to work and another two home in comparison to the previous four years when the most walking I did on a regular basis was from my dorm room to the AC. Now, whenever it rains I have to decide whether I'd rather get wet (because umbrellas are useless since the rain has a tendency to come from many directions) or take public transportation with all the people that normally walk but are avoiding the rain in addition to the regular riders. Tough call. However, the main reason I dislike this weather is because it makes me miss Dublin. Although this summer the country of Ireland had a record of 63 days of consecutive rain, all of which I was present for, I never seemed to mind. The rainy Dublin weather was not like the dreary, wet New England weather, where it rains all day creating massive puddles that car drivers like to go through at full speed and wet pedestrians. In Dublin, the 63 days of consecutive rain did not mean gray, cloudy skies for 63 days. Some of those days it was just a little sprinkle and the sun would come out, other days I was entirely unaware that it had rained at all. Best of all were the rainbows. Nevertheless, this weather makes me long for the days I ate plenty dairy products and drank great beer.
Still, I look on the bright side. I know that soon the days of sunlight will be longer, flowers will be blooming, and the weather will be warmer. In my excitement for the spring, I decided to join a kickball league. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there is such a thing. In fact, there is the World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) which has leagues across the country in different cities and each league has many teams. I have joined a team on the Boston league called Chicks Like It Tickled. It's acronym is ingenious and the mascot is Elmo. I only recently learned about the existence of a kickball league and so got started a bit late on finding a team to join. Luckily, I found this team on Craigslist because they needed one last girl to make it complete. I don't know anyone on the team but I'm excited to make new friends. I had my first chance on meeting fellow kickball players yesterday. There was a kickball pub crawl for all the leagues in the area - Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and South Boston. I met our team captain and a couple of other rookies but I mostly met people on the Cambridge league who took me up immediately when they learned I knew no one. If the pub crawl is any indicator of what is awaiting me this spring as a kickballer, I am going to have a ton of fun. Practice begins April 27th. Look for more stories on kickball soon after.
On a totally different note, I want to mention a patient that was enrolled in one my studies at BIDMC. I normally don't blog about my job because I work with patients and it's hospital policy to keep patients' information private. However, I'm not going to tell you anything personal about my patient, who we will call DB. First of all, the woman is 94 years old and incredible. When she was in the hospital, her awesomeness was not entirely evident (since she was sick) but her quirkiness was very apparent. She would say the funniest things and I always enjoyed visiting her. As part of the study, I was required to pay her a visit at her house after she'd been discharged from the hospital. When I arrived, I was shocked to see her. It was 10am and DB had just taken a cake out of the oven and had her hair all done up and was wearing make up and nice clothes. This little presentation wasn't even for us since she had entirely forgotten that we were coming. I watched DB bustle about her apartment and all I could think was, "I want to be her when I'm 94 years old." Seriously, I have never seen a more active and well-appearing person in their 90s.
Anyway, Happy April! I hope you had the chance to play a prank on someone and no one played a prank on you on April Fool's Day. And if you didn't get to do so, here is a link that you should send to someone: http://rickrolling.com
:)
Comments
Hahaha that site is hilarious!
Posted by: Chris Reilly | April 7, 2008 9:01 AM