Saturday, May 28, 2011

Last Boston Week

This week was Joey's graduation, and I'm so proud of him. More details about that to come.  This week we posted furniture on Craigslist, packed, arranged movers, went to graduation events and graduation (YAY!) and spent time with our family who came from far and wide to celebrate with us. We topped it off with a graduation party last night. It was great to see everyone, and get to say good-bye... and more on that in a bit. Right now I feel a bit like this here dog:



Happy Saturday!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

How to be vain and superficial at work

Well, lots of people have been asking me about my make-up routine, so I thought I'd just write a blog post about it. Or not really at all. No one has ever asked me about my makeup routine, but I do constantly give unsolicited information about new makeup I've purchased, or most recently, entire books on the subject. What can I say? I love being a girl.
The truth of the matter is, it all goes back to Kate Middleton. Once I found out she did her own makeup for the royal wedding, I was inspired/jealous but mostly inspired. I bought two books from Amazon about make-up, and they helped a lot. Then on our most recent trip to NYC I said "what's this?" and held up an eye corrector to a girl at the Benefit counter at Bloomingdale's. She did my makeup and voila! $100 later in Benefit products and a need to justify it and we have this blog post.
So this is my post-work/at work make-up routine. I do this when I want to freshen my makeup after work, like if I'm meeting people (Joey) for drinks and I want to look fresh and pretty and not like the week's work dragged me back and forth through a puddle.
(Dragged is grammatically correct, I googled it. It sounded wrong to me too.)

So at the end of the week I often look like this:
Oh wait, I'm supposed to look sad.

The cruel fluorescent lighting doesn't help. Anyway, my biggest problem is darkness around my eyes, and my skin looks a little flat.

I got this illuminating primer from Benefit and I love it.


And I apply it with the make-up sponge that comes in the foundation I'm about to show you.


Then I use this Benefit foundation that also works pretty well to illuminate my skin and cover anything that needs covering.



and it comes with the little sponge you saw earlier in its own compartment, which makes it nice and portable.


Looking better already!

I like to use this stila coverup stick (in color no. 03) to address my afterwork-undereye darkness.


It comes in this nice little tube and again its easy and portable.

I sort of draw it on... and yeah, that's my "putting on eye make-up" face.

And pat it in. Don't mind my unpainted fingernails - see previous blog post.
So then my eyes look a bit less tired.

But to brighten my eyes a little more I use the appropriately named "eye bright" by Benefit.


And again I just draw it on. In this case just the inside of the eye, all the way up to the inner corner of the eyelid, and the outside corner.


 Then I blend with my fingers.

Wait, there's more!
I use the Ooh la lift by Benefit to brighten even more.


The applicator is similar to a lip gloss, which I just dab on and blend with my fingers.

Ask any Texas gal what the secret is to looking glam and she'll tell you: "too much blush!" or maybe that's just my motto. I didn't put too much on in this case, but I love a lot of blush.  I use this Nars multiple for cheek color. Its the one with the name that I don't want to put on the internet because its salacious.

It rolls out like a large lipstick and I just dab it on. I like it because I can use it as lipgloss and eyecolor if I want, and because its easy to carry with me and I don't need a brush...even though I have a mini one anyway... I don't NEED it. I just blend it with my fingers, again.


I use the MAC powerpoint eyeliner in periplum for eyes.


And I line the top and bottom.

Bobbi Brown says not to line all the way to the inside so that your eyes don't look too close together. I line the outer 2/3's.  And I line the inside of my lower lid. This is totally fine for me as long as I make sure to remove it before I go to sleep.

The open mouth is necessary if to keep from blinking. Did you know that?
And I top it off with Maybelline Great Lash mascara. I think its the absolute best. This is the Big Lash in black/brown.

No picture, I figured you've seen enough of the eye makeup face.

Alrighty, moving on. I use this volumizing hairspray to freshen my hair and reduce the flatness. I just picked it up at the beauty supply store, and it works pretty well. It was more getting it in travel size than getting a particular brand.

And I just rustle it through my hair with my hands and then brush it out with my portable, foldable hairbrush from Sephora.
Whew! Talk about salacious!

Then I finish up with my lipgloss of the hour, Clinique superbalm moisturizing gloss in Raspberry. I can wear this without drying out my lips, (which is an annoying problem I have, but I'll still wear just about any lipgloss,) and I love the color.


and this Benefit highbeam highlighter works really well to add the last bit of polish.


I really love both of these things because they take about 20 seconds to apply for both, and they add a really nice bright finish.


The highbeam is in a tube similar to the Ooh la lift, and I just dab it on above both cheekbones, and just under the eyebrow.


And then I blend everything together with a little travel powder brush.


And that's it!



The lighting really is terrible here, but trust me, it makes a big difference. At least I think so. I also feel really comfortable and confident that I look great when we go out, and that in it of itself makes me feel less tired at the end of the week.

These are all the products I used:


And they all fit inside this make-up bag I bought at Forever 21:

... which fits easily inside my work bag.

The whole routine takes me about 5 minutes.

And there you have it, my 5 o'clock beauty secrets!


Sunday, May 15, 2011

Packing it in

This morning I got up and started packing. I literally packed all day in my bedroom and living room. I wanted to pack my dresser and all of our books, since we're selling that furniture and I want to be ready for it to go. I set the bar low so that I could be satisfied with myself and celebrate by painting my nails.
Well, its 11 pm and I'm not done, but I'm done enough for today.


I mean, at least with all of these boxes I made huge progress with the move in general. I mean, you can tell:


The Red Vines on the coffee table might as well be called Red Flags for Stress in my life.



I mean, aside from the presence in the boxes of this picture, there's no sign of my hard work. Its like I didn't even make a dent. How is that possible? It was a rainy day and a good day to pack, so I guess I'll just try to be OK with it. It didn't help that I was packing books and had to repack a bunch of the boxes because they got heavy so quickly.
Well, poor Joey couldn't help because he's working on his case reports which he has to turn in to graduate. I can tell he's really working hard on it because he said "holy s&#*!" and then called out "Did you know Otis Redding died when he was twenty-six?!"
Keep that focus babe!

Friday, May 13, 2011

The days are long and the years are short...

or something like that. I'm not entirely sure what I mean, I stole that line out of Tina Fey's new book*. Becky lent it to me and its hilarious.  Plus I love reading again, it makes me feel smart.


Becky also showed me this video. How am I going to live without Becky?

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is... this move has really crept up on me. How are all of our weekends taken until we move to Texas? How do I only have one full week of work left?**

This blog was supposed to be about our lives in Boston, restaurants and whatever else it is we think we do.. it ended up being largely about my cat and complaining about work. I don't really know where I'm going with this... my thought or this blog. I might change the name and continue it in Texas... I don't know. Would you (20ish people that include myself and my mom) still read?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm going to miss our life here. I love that Joey and I moved here on our own after we graduated from dental school and got married. It was a great adventure together, just us two. I've been able to work with wonderful people who I'm proud to call my friends, and I've had the best mentors.  I'm so excited for the next step, I can't WAIT to start my residency, its just that moving on is a little sad. Part of me feels like we just moved here, and the other part doesn't want to part with any taxable income in 2011.***

Tomorrow I'm going to start packing up... I don't know if I can be the one to put our furniture on Craigslist - it makes it too real.

*I also stole the idea for these starred remarks.
**Which might not be necessarily accurate because of this denture from hell that should have been completed 1 month ago but I might have to come back into work to finish after my last day.
*** Its TRUE, the real world does slowly turn you into a Republican.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

How the crazies be drivin' me to the drink

Whelp, I've just about lost my damn mind.

That's right, I said damn, and I'M NOT SORRY.

Today I told myself I would not get upset when:

1. We got started late because my assistant is in the hallway talking instead of getting our patient for 8 minutes.
2. An assistant tells me she's won't be here for the entire afternoon for some nebulous family health problem/doctor's appointment/not for her.
3. Patients get their tough street "oh no you did'n!" attitude when I tell them they're here for an exam, not a cleaning.
4. Our compressor only works at 50% making fillings take for.ever.
5. I can't put our x-rays onto a CD for a specialist, and can only give him non-diagnostic quality copies on regular paper.

I said I would not get upset because I clung to the idea that during my lunch break, I would go to Target and get a new hair dryer. And I would be so happy with my new hair dryer and the promise of shiny hair so it would be OK. And I hung onto that like my patients' babies cling to their bottles full of Hawaiian Punch.

I went to Target, and the hair dryer purchase was not to be. They didn't have the ones that were online that I cross-referenced with Amazon reviews, and well, I can't just be blindly buying hair dryers. Oh well, I thought, at least I had the hope of it when I needed it.

I returned to work and saw a 14 year old patient who is known to our clinic for coming in only for emergency exams with her mother, and never receiving treatment. This happens because she comes in with a swelling and prescribe antibiotics (because anesthetic does not work well in the presence of that type of infection,) and appoint her the next day for treatment. The mother never brings her back.

Too bad for that mother I didn't get my hair dryer.

Her daughter has an infected tooth in her lower jaw, the left side of her face was very swollen. She had an acute abscess associated with her molar. According to her mother, she was recommended to have a root canal over a year ago, but she knows "she can't take that kind of pain. I would rather her have it extracted."  Oh yes, I reckon with that kind of reasoning you also thought she was a dentist, but no, she isn't. Shocktastic.

I know she saw my coworker  in March with the exact same presentation. I asked her why she did not pursue treatment, which at this point, is limited to extraction because the tooth is now non-restorable. She claimed to be in Florida for a month because her grandmother passed away.

Isn't that always the case? I mean, dad-gum, if I had a nickel for every patient who needs percoset/vicodin/you name it because someone has just died in Florida and they can't/don't/won't be able to get treatment and you HAVE to help them... then I could fill up my bedroom and swim in them DuckTales style.

I told her she last saw the dentist two months ago, and that her daughter needs regular dental treatment to prevent this types of emergency. I looked inside the patient's mouth, and she had/has multiple carious and non-restorable teeth. A total disaster. The mom claimed that she does have regular dental care. I asked her who and where, and land sakes if she couldn't remember the name!

What a pity.

So then I took the high road and yelled at her. Not my finest moment. I told her that this was neglect, and that it was the worst infection I've seen in a child, (which is true.) I told her I was worried about letting her leave with her daughter because this type of infection could become life-threatening. Her response to that? "Why would you even SAY that to me?" For my health, lady.

After we both calmed down, I explained the treatment that needed to be done. I wanted to at least I&D the infection on the spot. She refused, (because then the infection would be in her MOUTH.)  I gave her antibiotics and told her to go to the emergency room if she would not let me treat her here.  She then took it upon herself to call her sister (not a dentist either, would you believe it?) on her cell phone from my operatory. She even held her finger up to me while I was talking so she could hear her on the line. I was not able to accomodate this request.

Allegedly they have an appointment for another dentist on a day that I'm not here. If she doesn't bring her in it will be my pleasure to call the department of social services.

That same sister came into our clinic not one hour later and demanded narcotic pain medication from my coworker. Oh my god.

Then our computer software shut-down after our last patients so we called it a day.
Well, at least I have the big money from toiling away at this place. That makes it totally worth it.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Long overdue

Its been forever, I'm sorry!

We've had a lot going on - and then I got so far behind in blogging that I didn't even know where to begin. We took Leon to Texas a few weeks ago, and now he's a Texan again, living large with my parents and his new BFF, Maggie the cat. It's a one-sided friendship really, but fortunately he doesn't know that. We miss him a LOT. My mom sends me text pictures of him so that helps.

The big move is just weeks away, and I'm sort of scrambling these days to do a lot of prepartory things that I didn't even realize I'd need to do: paperwork for my residency, planning Joey's graduation party (I've done practically nothing for that, poor man,) and well, I don't know what else I've been doing... but somehow I feel like I'm always scurrying. Why is that?

I had a rough week at work this week, so I've been a little down. If you've seen my facebook posts, I'm sorry for all of the ranting. Its just been one of those weeks where if it had been over on Tuesday at 10am I would have called it a long one. I shouldn't complain because I only work there 2 days a week, and my coworker has the brunt of it and its WAY worse for her because they depend on her for everything... its just the IT nightmare, generalized non-compliance, and neglected kids have worn me out.

Anyway, Joe Joe and I are thinking of jetting out of Boston this week to NYC for a mini getaway before we move far away, so I think that'll do us both good. More on that to come...

Also, I've been working on my fitness. I'll leave you with this inspirational workout clip. Have a great Thursday.