Language Learning

My last three days have involved midterms, illness, canceling plans with Love Bug due to illness, and being sent home early from work two days in a row due to illness. So basically, I've been having a craptastic time. Instead of focusing on that, I'm going to talk about language learning!

Meme of person yelling with a broom and text that says "Learn all the languages!"

It’s no secret that I wish I could speak more languages. While my pipe dream is to learn every language ever, I realize that is not going to happen. I needed a way to narrow myself down so I decided to look up the most common languages in MA and Quebec, since those are the two areas where I’m most likely to wind up living. Turns out the lists are almost identical. The only difference is the order of languages and the fact that MA has Portuguese on its top seven list while Quebec has Arabic instead. Here are the lists:

Top 7 languages in MA:
English
Spanish
Portuguese*
Chinese
French
Creole
Italian

Top 7 languages in Quebec:
French
English
Arabic*
Spanish
Italian
Chinese
Creole

It turns out I’m well on my way to mastering the top seven in both places. I already speak English, French, and some Italian and Creole (and ASL but sadly that doesn’t make the MA list – and I don’t know LSQ which is Quebec’s sign language). If I get good at all of the languages I currently sort-of know, I’ll just need Spanish, Chinese, and either Portuguese or Arabic depending on where I settle down. This actually feels like a doable (though slightly intense) goal. Neat, right?

It's My Birthday

And honestly I'm not excited about it. On the plus side, I saw Love Bug yesterday and today my weird plant babies are blooming and I got to see my brother for Boston Cream Pie.

Blooming plant.

Closeup of the yellow flowers on my plant.

My brother in his studio.

Tomorrow Is My Birthday!

Meme that says "Turning 35 on Monday? Ain't nobody got time for dat."

On this my last day as a 34 year old, I'm going to see Love Bug and then I'm working 3-11.

Jesus' Parking Space

Today was the day of Love Bug's 24-hour Ambulatory EEG. I was impressed by how chill he was about the whole thing, since I'm guessing it's very annoying to have to sit still while someone attaches electrodes to your head and then wraps everything up like a giant turban. Once everything was in place I only had to remind him a few times not to touch his head before he got the picture. The drive back was uneventful and we spent the rest of the morning/afternoon reading books, playing catch, eating lunch, and listening to music. Also, the hospital has a parking spot reserved for Jesus Christ:

Photo of a parking sign that says "Reserved for J.C. Violators will be towed at owner's expense."

After all of that, I drove to Boston for a nursing simulation. I was nervous about it, but the simulation went well and the drive home wasn't too bad despite being close to rush hour.

Meme that says "Just passed my nursing simulation exam without breaking sterile field!

Dead Phone

Well, my phone was dead so I disappeared for a week until I could get a new one. What did you miss?

On Friday, aka the day after Valentine's day, I had lab. Then I went to Greenfield MA for a study date with Alice. While in Greenfield, I wound up checking out The People's Pint and also Federal Street Books which is covered in weird art by the owner Tom Swetland:

Sign for The People's Pint pub.

Bar at The People's Pint pub.

Door to Federal Street Books.

Interior of Federal Street Books.

Weird art with Hilary Clinton in Federal Street Books.

Mask on the shelves of Federal Street Books.

After that I went with Pacman to Airspray at Electric Haze in Worcester. It was a fun night and I was introduced to Patrick aka Joslyn Fox from RuPaul's Drag Race. He seems like a very nice guy.

On Saturday I had my clinical. It went well except that the hospital was surrounded by turkeys! I think they're plotting something...

Me in a white sweater pointing at three turkeys and looking concerned.

A cluster of three more turkeys.

I also went out that night (Two nights in a row! Go me!) to Armsby Abbey. This is mostly noteworthy because the company was splendid, the food was delicious, and my drink (Starry Night) had tiny stars in it.

My drink.

Unfortunately, that night my phone died. Fortunately this meant I had plenty of time to study for my test on Tuesday. It also meant an impromptu visit to Tinkerbell, because we share a phone plan.

On Wednesday, new phone in hand, I went to my clinical, went to electrolysis, hemmed four pairs of pants, and ventured to the mall in search of a button down for Love Bug because he's got a 24-our ambulatory EEG tomorrow and it just occurred to me that we won't be able to get him out of a regular shirt and into pajamas with all the wires attached to his head. At the mall, I also bought this glittery shirt from girls’ clearance section of Target for myself, because why not?

Me in a white crop top with silver sequined sleeves. The words "Glitter Queen" are written in black across the front of the shirt. I'm wearing a necklace with a charm of a pair of lips on it and I'm making a thumbs up sign and grinning.

Happy Valentine's Day

Me wearing pink and blowing a kiss for Valentine's day.

I got to spend today day with Love Bug, which made me happy. I also got my first art commission from a coworker who saw all the Valentine’s cards I made for the kids at work. She wants me to draw her granddaughter as a princess so she can use a transfer printer to put it on a quilt. Does this mean I'm an artist now?

Cartoon of very emotional white man in a black shirt with black hair and a tiny goatee. He is labeled "ART."

Luganda and Candy Men

Oli otya?
Gyendi.

This means: "How are you?" "Fine."

It's also the only thing I can say in Luganda, the most widely spoken language in Uganda. The official languages are English, Swahili, and Ugandan Sign Language. After independence in 1962, when they were trying to choose a second official language besides English, people outside Buganda were opposed to having Luganda as the national language and people in the Buganda kingdom thought other tribes' mispronunciation and grammar errors would ruin their language. So Swahili won out despite being less widely spoken than Luganda. And now that I'm going to the LGBT Asylum Task Force where there are lots of immigrants from Uganda, I've decided I should start learning a few phrases.

In other news, I've found the perfect man for me, just in time for Valentine's Day tomorrow:

Me with chocolate in the shape of a man wearing heart boxers.

The only other news I have is that today I had an elderly Italian patient with dementia who legit went to battle with the phlebotomist because they thought the phlebotomist had given them the evil eye. I hope I have that much vigor in my 90s. I was very happy that I knew enough Italian to diffuse the situation.

Funny Video

Well, this video seems appropriate given my week:

(Turns out I actually like working with addicts. One of the patients in the dual diagnosis ward of my psych clinical today gave me an origami flower which basically made my day.)

Overly Eventful Day

Today was an overly eventful day. It started with clinical, where I had a patient on TONS of medications. Then I went to visit Love Bug, because he had a half day at school. We spent most of our time playing with his new laser twilight star projector. Here's a very overly dramatic video and too-long video made by someone else showing it in action so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about:

Anyway, this thing is expensive but TOTALLY worth it. I put it on the ceiling first and Love Bug didn't even look at it, but when I set him up on a beanbag and put it on the wall in front of him he LOVED it. He started making happy noises and rocking and clapping, then he grabbed my hands to make me clap too, and then he spent the entire next hour trying to grab all the stars off the wall. It was possibly the cutest thing ever.

Of course, after that the weather got crappy so I headed home. I stopped to eat at Whole Foods and take some photos of the pretty ice storm.

Icy trees.

More icy trees.

Even more icy trees.

It really was gorgeous. A little harrowing for driving, but worth it for the prettiness.

Unfortunately, when I got home I began feeling ill and then had a bout of projectile vomiting. I guess it was food poisoning? I plan to avoid Whole Foods for a while now. Yikes!

Update

Well, over the past few days I had cat cuddle time, threw a Superbowl party for the patients at my work, and went to an ASL meetup.

Esh lying on my stomach.

Mayim sitting on the table and staring at me.

Me in my borrowed Patriots shirt (I'm not very into sports - I'm sure this shocks you).

I was really proud of myself for going to the ASL meetup since I've only just finished ASL 1 and that meant after basic introductions and how are you doings I had to resort to fingerspelling and passing notes back and forth. But I did it! And hopefully one day I'll finally be fluent.

ASL meetup - can you find me?