Sister Weekend

            This weekend my sister made her first appearance in Nashville!  Despite her skepticism towards all things Southern, Katie decided she would humor me and come check out my new city!  And I was thrilled.  For once I was getting the chance to show her around MY town instead of the other way around.  When we were little girls, Katie and I were pretty much inseparable.  I wanted to do everything that she did and I think she secretly liked that.  She was my teacher and my protector, dressing me up as a character in a pretend game (or music video as we got into the teen years) and constantly reminding me to “be careful little lady!”  And though we certainly got along as children, I think that as we get older we find that we like each other more and more.

            And this weekend proved just that.  If you are like me and are lucky enough to have a sister, you know what it’s like.  You know that when your sister comes to visit you don’t have to clean your apartment top to bottom, there is no worrying about whether or not she’s having a good time (cause she’ll tell you if she isn’t!), and you don’t have to feel guilty when she lets you nap on the couch for a few hours in an effort to recover from a wild night out in the honky tonk before setting off to explore the city!  When you’re with your sister it is natural and easy.  You get each other.  You just fit.

            So all that being said, you can imagine that we had quite the weekend.  Check out the pictures below for the highlights. J

The legendary Paradise Park

Home to some of the best bands in the honky-tonk

Oh hey!  It's Elvis.  NBD.

Standard tourist pic

Everyone was glad that Katie was here!

Downtown Nashvegas

Mah gurl.

Don't you step on my blue suede shoes!

Webb Pierce's Silver Dollar Convertible

Taylor Swift's famous gown!

The RC Cola and the Moon Pie...a Ball Family Favorite

Franklin, Tennessee!

Tim and Faith live here.  Yes, we are stalkers.  And yes, this is as close as we could get.

Sunday night bluegrass jam at the Station Inn

And of course you can't come to Nashville and not go to the Pancake Pantry

Come back!  I miss you already!

Not So Brave After All

            When I began my stint in the Children’s Hospital last semester, I bragged to y’all about how tough I was when it came to all things gross and gory.  Well apparently it’s a whole other story when it comes to full grown humans because I came very close to losing my lunch and passing out cold upon sight of my first patient in the adult hospital.  This particular patient was in the trauma unit, which is the first stop after the helicopter, and everyone in this section of the hospital is in pretty bad shape.  

            Add to that a very messy trach tube, a trash bag-like gown (talk about hot), and a not so strong stomach and you have me, sweating profusely and reeling from dizziness.  Way to play it cool on your first day, Julie.  But after a short break in the hallway, some deep breaths, and a serious internal pep talk I was good to go.  Day two starts in about an hour so here’s hoping I can hold it together a little better this time!

Wait!

            Don’t run away!  It’s me, I swear!  Just got a little blog makeover.  A few weeks ago I was telling you all how excited I am to redecorate my room when I move into the new house so I thought, might as well redecorate my cyberspace home too.  So, welcome to the newer, cleaner, more fashionable version of my blog.  Still the same old stories of my thrilling everyday life but with a fresh face!  I haven’t quite worked out all of the kinks so things might be changing a little bit more but bear with me!  What do you think?  Do you like?

LYS Has Got Soul

This weekend is special.  It marks the 40^th anniversary of the Louisiana Youth Seminar.  LYS is a leadership seminar for rising high school juniors and seniors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  I have been lucky enough to be a part of this incredible program for the last 8 years of my life and can confidently say that I would not be the person I am today if I had not gotten the chance to spend a week with other high schoolers taking risks, learning about myself and others, and making friendships that will stay with me for the rest of my life.  Louisiana Youth Seminar is a place where the delegates, as we refer to them, are encouraged to do things that scare them.  We remind them daily that it is a safe place to face something they are afraid of and a home where they are accepted for who they are.  These messages seem to be just what self-conscious and uncertain high schoolers need to hear and it is pretty cool to see what can happen when these kids are given a safety net and are assured that they cannot fail.

The motto of LYS is “No Man is an Island.”  Though a seemingly simple statement, those five words are pretty powerful.  What if we all lived our lives in a way in which we made certain that no one around us was an “island?"  I imagine we would have no shortage of friends and we would come to find that things are a lot easier if we just let ourselves lean on one another a little.

So with that in mind, I am heading down to the dirty South to celebrate 

“all the days that were LYS.”

P.S. If you know of a high school junior or senior who you think would be interested just let me know and I can get them all the information they need to sign up and experience LYS for themselves next summer!

In Search of McDreamy...Round 2

            That’s right…I’m back in my scrubs.  And this time I have a fancy white lab coat that makes me look even more official.  But don’t let the outfit fool you…I have absolutely no idea what to expect this afternoon as I venture into the adult hospital for the first time.  Because I was getting very few hours in my adult outpatient rehab placement, my supervisor has set me up in the acute care setting for two days each week.  I loved working in the pediatric acute care setting at Vanderbilt Children’s so I am excited to be back in the hospital, however, it will be interesting to see how my stomach holds up when I come in contact with mucous-filled trach tubes (sorry I know that’s sick) and severe TBIs.  Yeah, I’m a little bit nervous.  Wish me luck!

Hi! 

Happy Monday!

Found this little beauty outside of my house...made me smile :-)

Hope your week is off to a fabulous start!

Summer Bucket List

            During my senior year of college, my roommates and I created a “Bucket List” of all of the things we wanted to do before graduating and making our dreaded entrance into the real world.  The list contained restaurants we wanted to try, fun events we wanted to plan, recipes we wanted to make, etc.  It was a great way to make sure that we tried new things and left good old Winston-Salem feeling as though we had done everything we wanted to do.  So I’m thinking it’s about time I made a Nashville Bucket List.  But in order to keep myself from getting overwhelmed, I’m going to take it one step at a time and start with a Summer Bucket List.  Check out a few highlights!

Thirsty Thursdays at the Nashville Sounds…love me some minor league baseball!

Burger Up…the newest edition to the 12 South neighborhood, this place boasts the best all-organic burgers in town.

Pfunky Griddle…think hibachi with a big open griddle but for pancakes instead of Japanese!

Sips n’ Strokes…BYOB studio where they teach you how to make really amazing paintings…basically paint by number for adults.

Jack’s BBQ…in the heart of the honky-tonk.

Drive in Movie at the Belcourt Theater…take a trip back in time and pull your lawn chair up to the parking lot of the Belcourt where you can watch a movie projected on the outside wall of the theater.

 What's on your summer bucket list?

Flood Update Part II

            Recently, I have been getting a lot of questions about how the city of Nashville is recovering from the floods that happened in early May, so I thought I would give you all an update.  For those of you who don't know, on the weekend of May 1st and 2nd the city of Nashville experienced an epic flood.  This was not just your average heavy rainstorm.  This was a house collapsing, historic site ruining, ark needing kind of flood that took the lives of over 30 residents and caused tens of millions of dollars worth of damage.  Just to give you an idea, clean up of LP field, home to the Tennessee Titans, cost upwards of 2.4 million, the Country Music Hall of Fame a measly $300,000, and Opryland repairs are estimated at a whopping 225 million.  That's a lot of cashmonayyy.

            But the recovery efforts are truly a testament to the selfless community that calls the capital of the Volunteer State its home.  People have rallied together, benefit concerts have been virtually non-stop, and despite a lack of any real national attention and assistance, Nashville is making quite the comeback.  Though many are still without homes and still reeling from the loss of everything they owned, downtown is up and running, the Hall of Fame has been restored, and to an outsider it would appear that the flood never actually happened.  Quite the turnaround in just 2 months!  So now that we’re back on our feet…it’s time for everyone to come visit!

Back in Action

Okay, the impromptu blog-cation is over.  I’m sorry for being MIA.  Hope all you stalkers haven’t given up on me and that you all had fabulous 4^th of July celebrations!  I spent my weekend in, you guessed it, DC.  What can I say?  I love the place.  And there is nowhere more patriotic to celebrate our nation’s birth than the capitol, right?  The weekend was wonderful and seeing my best girlfriends was good for my soul, though it did feel a little strange not being at Fox Point with the rest of the fam.

Things have been a little busy around these parts but honestly I haven’t really had anything all that fun to blog about.  Classes are bearable and the only reason I am not completely bitter about spending my days locked inside the frigid, window-less Bill Will is because Nashville is crazy hot right now.  And by hot I don’t mean that Nashville is the “place to be.”  Oh no.  It is a hot, sweaty mess.  In June we had the hottest day that the city has seen in three years and each morning the temperatures are hovering around a balmy 95 degrees by the time I am walking to school at 8am.  So unless you are completely submerged 100% of the time, being by the pool isn’t even all that appealing. 

As for clinic, I am really enjoying my placement at Pi Beta Phi Rehab Institute and finding it very refreshing to work with patients who don’t suck their thumbs and throw temper tantrums when your articulation exercises aren’t fun enough.  In fact, I am finding this placement almost downright easy.  My supervisor has a very light schedule which makes for a pretty easy semester for me.  Knock on wood! 

In other news, my classmates and I have put in our requests for our externships next summer so stay tuned to find out whether I will be in Atlanta, Philly, or DC!  

Each of my potential placements will be at pediatric rehabilitation hospitals where I will hopefully be getting my foot in the door for future job opportunities.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…still have to get the externship placement not to mention finish the next 2.5 semesters.  Yikes!  Where do you think I should go?