Sunday, April 27, 2008
I Been Bzy!
In honor of my Dad, who loves to send me truncated emails from his blackberry.....Helo! me ben vry bzy. u no have missd any blgs. me go2 vactn in 7 dz...vry exctng! go to isle dwn soth 4 relx on prety bech... hut on bech with blu h2o! no lot o $!! vry chp! yoga + meditn + masg evry day....ahhh...so exctd!! Lots o newz 4 u but will writ it nxt wk when sitng in sand...= stemcell newz; temples in bngkok + bot rid in canals; DrHibbs from Bastyr visit 4 3 dayz...yeah fun!; cowrker had mntal brkdwn so off 4 1 wk + othr wrk newz; me have invites 4 trvl all over wrld from my clents; me doing vry gud wrk here: lots o + fdbck; me luv wrting now & want 2 publish book....i alrdy no title but i keep secret...me drm of 2month on bech 2 finis bk aftr 1 yr here. sunday here but me no have wknd until tues...mayb i writ mor then....but defintly mor nxt wk when on DA BECH!! xxoo Dr.J :-)
Sunday, April 6, 2008
The Condo Shaped Like a Cruise Ship
If you just read my previous entry, I actually just finished it a minute ago and decided to write another one....so yep, still sitting on my bed. Walking around in circles for a bit helped my butt feel better though (for those of you wondering.)
Here is the update on my living situation...If you read my early entries, you'll remember that I was initially living in a room with barely a window. (Can you say: not a happy girl!...moving to the tropics to be in the sunshine, yet living in a practically windowless room! Not this woman!) So at the time, I was on a mission to find my own place on the beach....and there are tons of them!! The beach is miles long and covered in condo buildings and vacation homes...that mostly sit empty! And that kills me! All these fabulous beach front condo rooms, owned by the rich whom are too busy making money to take a vacation in their vacation home. And then there is me...dying to find the right person who wants to rent their place to me. Seems like it should be easy enough, right?
So I've been snooping around a bunch of these places and all of them have security guards at the entrance who don't speak a word of english. They just smile. I smile. I stop for a moment and wonder if I should just walk away or pass right by them...I've done both. I try to find the front lobby but there usually isn't one. So then I go back to the security guard and somehow try to communicate the word, 'rent?' There is this one building I have particularly had my eye on for weeks. As I sit up on the roof of my present building, I always look over at it longly, with drool running down my chin. The rooftop is decorated with palm trees and what seems like a huge open terrace, perfect for lets say, a fantastic party that I could organize (assuming I have friends here, that is. I don't exactly have the social calendar that I had in Seattle!).
Anyway, this is one of the places that after I smiled at the security guard, I just walked right past, with that hello-sir,-just-going-to-go-visit-my-friends-that-live-here attitude...and it worked. Now that I was on the property, I've realized the building is incredibly narrow and yet reaches incredibly far back from the beach. The name of it is The Royal Princess Carribean. I found the elevator, and pressed the button for the rooftop, of course. Holy cow batman! There isnt just palm trees and an open terrace up there...but a swimming pool that runs the entire length of the building! And no one is up there!! So what did I do? Jumped in, of course!
I swear, it was longer than even an olympic sized swimming pool. As I was doing laps, I almost felt like I needed to take a snack break before reaching the other side. After about 3.5 laps, I was pooped and decided to hang out up there a little longer. The terrace gardner suddenly appeared but didn't seem to mind my presence at all. So I just found a lounge chair and lounged for a while. As I looked around, I realized that this building was shaped like a cruise ship. The entire building, hallways, etc were stark white. The 'bow' end which faced the beach narrowed into a sharp V and towards the 'stern' was a chimney/exhaust thingy painted blue, just like you'd see on a big ship. I headed up to the 'captain's deck' and it looked like a deserted party room from the 70's...a dusty pool table, some very dilapidated gym equipment leaning against the wall, a few badly sun bleached photos barely hanging by one last nail...it actually felt pretty erie and so I decided it was time to go.
Headed back to the beach. Walked by another condo complex and noticed some folks speaking english! Yes, English! This is very exciting! "Hello!" They kind of give me that look like, 'Are you talking to me?' "Hello! I'm Jody and ....." So I give them my email and just say, "so if you hear of anyone who is interested in renting their condo out to a very responsible and clean 35 year old single woman, please pass my email along. Thank you!" And I actually got an email the very next day!...and just went and saw the place this past week. Besides the fact that it costs as much as I make in a month, (but its two bedroom) it was very nice....but out of my price range.
Anyway, as I've mentioned in a previous entry, I luckily heard a while back of another staff room that actually had sliding glass doors and its own tiny little balcony....and so I jumped on that right away and have been here ever since. I still dont have the coziness of a home per se, and living on work property is not the greatest but the convenience of this place cant be beat... 30 second walk to the cafeteria. 8 second walk to the gym. 3 minute walk to work. Furthermore, not spending a dollar on rent is quite heavenly as well. So for now, I'm here to stay!
Here is the update on my living situation...If you read my early entries, you'll remember that I was initially living in a room with barely a window. (Can you say: not a happy girl!...moving to the tropics to be in the sunshine, yet living in a practically windowless room! Not this woman!) So at the time, I was on a mission to find my own place on the beach....and there are tons of them!! The beach is miles long and covered in condo buildings and vacation homes...that mostly sit empty! And that kills me! All these fabulous beach front condo rooms, owned by the rich whom are too busy making money to take a vacation in their vacation home. And then there is me...dying to find the right person who wants to rent their place to me. Seems like it should be easy enough, right?
So I've been snooping around a bunch of these places and all of them have security guards at the entrance who don't speak a word of english. They just smile. I smile. I stop for a moment and wonder if I should just walk away or pass right by them...I've done both. I try to find the front lobby but there usually isn't one. So then I go back to the security guard and somehow try to communicate the word, 'rent?' There is this one building I have particularly had my eye on for weeks. As I sit up on the roof of my present building, I always look over at it longly, with drool running down my chin. The rooftop is decorated with palm trees and what seems like a huge open terrace, perfect for lets say, a fantastic party that I could organize (assuming I have friends here, that is. I don't exactly have the social calendar that I had in Seattle!).
Anyway, this is one of the places that after I smiled at the security guard, I just walked right past, with that hello-sir,-just-going-to-go-visit-my-friends-that-live-here attitude...and it worked. Now that I was on the property, I've realized the building is incredibly narrow and yet reaches incredibly far back from the beach. The name of it is The Royal Princess Carribean. I found the elevator, and pressed the button for the rooftop, of course. Holy cow batman! There isnt just palm trees and an open terrace up there...but a swimming pool that runs the entire length of the building! And no one is up there!! So what did I do? Jumped in, of course!
I swear, it was longer than even an olympic sized swimming pool. As I was doing laps, I almost felt like I needed to take a snack break before reaching the other side. After about 3.5 laps, I was pooped and decided to hang out up there a little longer. The terrace gardner suddenly appeared but didn't seem to mind my presence at all. So I just found a lounge chair and lounged for a while. As I looked around, I realized that this building was shaped like a cruise ship. The entire building, hallways, etc were stark white. The 'bow' end which faced the beach narrowed into a sharp V and towards the 'stern' was a chimney/exhaust thingy painted blue, just like you'd see on a big ship. I headed up to the 'captain's deck' and it looked like a deserted party room from the 70's...a dusty pool table, some very dilapidated gym equipment leaning against the wall, a few badly sun bleached photos barely hanging by one last nail...it actually felt pretty erie and so I decided it was time to go.
Headed back to the beach. Walked by another condo complex and noticed some folks speaking english! Yes, English! This is very exciting! "Hello!" They kind of give me that look like, 'Are you talking to me?' "Hello! I'm Jody and ....." So I give them my email and just say, "so if you hear of anyone who is interested in renting their condo out to a very responsible and clean 35 year old single woman, please pass my email along. Thank you!" And I actually got an email the very next day!...and just went and saw the place this past week. Besides the fact that it costs as much as I make in a month, (but its two bedroom) it was very nice....but out of my price range.
Anyway, as I've mentioned in a previous entry, I luckily heard a while back of another staff room that actually had sliding glass doors and its own tiny little balcony....and so I jumped on that right away and have been here ever since. I still dont have the coziness of a home per se, and living on work property is not the greatest but the convenience of this place cant be beat... 30 second walk to the cafeteria. 8 second walk to the gym. 3 minute walk to work. Furthermore, not spending a dollar on rent is quite heavenly as well. So for now, I'm here to stay!
A Fabulous Day of Nothingness...ahhh
It's Sunday...my day off, ahhhh...Woke up after a nice long night's sleep and talked to my fabulous Aunt Mary for an hour on Skype. You've absolutely got to get skype if you know anyone who lives out of the country! (obvious point... if you're reading this, you obviously do!!) It is sooo fun to talk for free to someone on the other side of the globe...with a video camera!! Mom and I talk more than we ever did when I lived in Seattle. I must say, its a weird feeling to have to go put a shirt on after my shower before I call anyone. :-) Those space age movies just a few decades ago with people talking on video phones...the space age has arrived!
Today has been a fabulous do-nothing day off. After I hung up with Mary, I headed to the gym (a one minute walk from my room up a flight of stairs...okay, maybe one minute is exaggerating. Let's say 30 seconds.) Had a great workout jamming away on the cardio machines, covered head to toe in sweat after just 10 minutes because I always open the window and turn the AC off...it makes me feel like I'm back home in my hot yoga class (that I greatly miss!). Then an 8 second walk to the cafeteria for lunch...chit-chatted with some of my colleagues as they were on their lunch break. Headed back to my room to shower and get ready to head to the beach for my first ever kite-boarding lesson (!!!!) but then noticed Seattle had arrived... The sky was black, the trees were dancing in the wind...and then came the thundering rain! Wow, I really felt like I was home. I didn't really know what to do with myself. If I cant go to the beach, I really have no where else to go. (I've already mentioned that I'm not a fan of town...just full of tourist crap and a mind boggling number of restaurants.) So I just showered and lounged about! Why did that sentence deserve an exclamation point? Well because the change of pace in my life now compared to the past 5 years continues to boggle my mind.
So here I am in my room....where I have been all day, sitting on my bed, and now writing to all of you. My room is basically like a hotel room... I have a dresser with a TV on it, a bed, a closet, and a bathroom... no table or chair. My bed faces the sliding glass doors which allow me a view of the tennis courts that belong to the adjacent condo complex. So in the past few hours, I have spent quite a lot of time...staring at the tennis courts. After getting bored (cannot believe I just said that! I cant remember the last time I had the luxury of being bored!), I decided to head out in the now only sprinkling rain and walk on the beach...and get a massage under an umbrella of course. As for tomorrow...its a big day! I'm headed to Bangkok to talk to the stem-cell-transplant-oh-my-god-you-are-incredible doctors to see exactly how real and real-time this next generation of medical miracles really is. Of course, you will all be the first to know! Stay tuned!
Oh by the way, fun story to tell...as I was talking to one of my patients this week (well, at the resort we are supposed to call them 'guests' but I dont feel like I'm a doctor unless I say 'patients') and out of the blue, without any typical Jody-coaxing on my part, she says, "Oh I have this single, 30-something friend of mine who lives in Bangkok who you've just got to meet. You guys would get along great. What is your email address and I'll send you both an email so you can meet." So I give it to her. 'Okay, that's nice,' I think to myself. 'A bit forward but hey, I can relate. Wonder if she'll really do it?' I happen to check my email an hour or so later, and sure enough, there is her email....and then a few hours later, there he is, emailing me! Wow. He is Canadian and runs his own adventure travel business which takes groups touring around Thailand. I ask if he'll be around on Tuesday when I'll be in Bangkok but unfortunately he is away on business this week. So we'll see!
Anyway, my butt is actually sore from sitting on my bed all day so I'm going to get up now and walk around in circles for a bit. Hope you're all having a lovely day! Bye for now. ;-)
Today has been a fabulous do-nothing day off. After I hung up with Mary, I headed to the gym (a one minute walk from my room up a flight of stairs...okay, maybe one minute is exaggerating. Let's say 30 seconds.) Had a great workout jamming away on the cardio machines, covered head to toe in sweat after just 10 minutes because I always open the window and turn the AC off...it makes me feel like I'm back home in my hot yoga class (that I greatly miss!). Then an 8 second walk to the cafeteria for lunch...chit-chatted with some of my colleagues as they were on their lunch break. Headed back to my room to shower and get ready to head to the beach for my first ever kite-boarding lesson (!!!!) but then noticed Seattle had arrived... The sky was black, the trees were dancing in the wind...and then came the thundering rain! Wow, I really felt like I was home. I didn't really know what to do with myself. If I cant go to the beach, I really have no where else to go. (I've already mentioned that I'm not a fan of town...just full of tourist crap and a mind boggling number of restaurants.) So I just showered and lounged about! Why did that sentence deserve an exclamation point? Well because the change of pace in my life now compared to the past 5 years continues to boggle my mind.
So here I am in my room....where I have been all day, sitting on my bed, and now writing to all of you. My room is basically like a hotel room... I have a dresser with a TV on it, a bed, a closet, and a bathroom... no table or chair. My bed faces the sliding glass doors which allow me a view of the tennis courts that belong to the adjacent condo complex. So in the past few hours, I have spent quite a lot of time...staring at the tennis courts. After getting bored (cannot believe I just said that! I cant remember the last time I had the luxury of being bored!), I decided to head out in the now only sprinkling rain and walk on the beach...and get a massage under an umbrella of course. As for tomorrow...its a big day! I'm headed to Bangkok to talk to the stem-cell-transplant-oh-my-god-you-are-incredible doctors to see exactly how real and real-time this next generation of medical miracles really is. Of course, you will all be the first to know! Stay tuned!
Oh by the way, fun story to tell...as I was talking to one of my patients this week (well, at the resort we are supposed to call them 'guests' but I dont feel like I'm a doctor unless I say 'patients') and out of the blue, without any typical Jody-coaxing on my part, she says, "Oh I have this single, 30-something friend of mine who lives in Bangkok who you've just got to meet. You guys would get along great. What is your email address and I'll send you both an email so you can meet." So I give it to her. 'Okay, that's nice,' I think to myself. 'A bit forward but hey, I can relate. Wonder if she'll really do it?' I happen to check my email an hour or so later, and sure enough, there is her email....and then a few hours later, there he is, emailing me! Wow. He is Canadian and runs his own adventure travel business which takes groups touring around Thailand. I ask if he'll be around on Tuesday when I'll be in Bangkok but unfortunately he is away on business this week. So we'll see!
Anyway, my butt is actually sore from sitting on my bed all day so I'm going to get up now and walk around in circles for a bit. Hope you're all having a lovely day! Bye for now. ;-)
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
No sass, just a quick update...with some big news at the end
No blog for a while…just been busy. So here’s my update:
My day off overlaps with one of the other naturopaths here (Katrina from Australia) and we are becoming good friends so we’ve been hanging out on the beach on our day off with her kite- boarding instructor boyfriend and all of his cute kite boarding friends. I’m going to take a lesson next week!! Something I have wanted to do for years.
Have been doing some terrific counseling work with patients and feel extremely fulfilled with my job by how helpful I have been in people's lives. I had this 59 year old very proper English man today crying in my office about some unresolved issue he is still carrying around about his mother, who passed away years ago. I helped him realize how important it is to bring this kind of pain up and out of his body, and explained by just ignoring it does not mean it goes away. Tears just started running down his face as I talked to him…very healing for him, then worked on ideas for how he continue this process once he returns home. Then had a cocaine addict in my office who was convinced that now that he feels so good after living healthfully for one week that he’ll never touch the stuff again….explained to him what ‘pink cloud’ means, and then helped him understand the importance of getting continued help when he gets home. It feels fantastic to be interacting with people on such a deep and healing level. I love it.
But I’m already ready for my vacation time! My body is not functioning so well in multiple areas. I found a low key vegetarian, yoga, detox place on the beach about 5 hours south of here on a little island…I’m headed there for a week next month!
Now here is the biggest news yet…I’m in town on my day off last week and just happened to mention that I had diabetes to this group I was talking to. This guy says he is the CEO of a stem cell research company and that they have cured diabetics. Within seconds of listening to his explanation, I just lost it and started crying. He gave me his card and I am headed up to Bangkok next tuesday to meet with the head doctor. I have such a thick wall around myself in regards to getting excited about this kind of stuff, so yes its exciting, but I’ll know more next week. I prefer to be skeptical because i’ve become excited and disappointed too many damn times in my life. So we’ll see… and I’ll let you all know.
Got off work today, took a dip in the ocean, had dinner in the staff cafeteria, now writing to you and off to bed! And that’s my quick and to the point update. Love to you all! Jody :-)
My day off overlaps with one of the other naturopaths here (Katrina from Australia) and we are becoming good friends so we’ve been hanging out on the beach on our day off with her kite- boarding instructor boyfriend and all of his cute kite boarding friends. I’m going to take a lesson next week!! Something I have wanted to do for years.
Have been doing some terrific counseling work with patients and feel extremely fulfilled with my job by how helpful I have been in people's lives. I had this 59 year old very proper English man today crying in my office about some unresolved issue he is still carrying around about his mother, who passed away years ago. I helped him realize how important it is to bring this kind of pain up and out of his body, and explained by just ignoring it does not mean it goes away. Tears just started running down his face as I talked to him…very healing for him, then worked on ideas for how he continue this process once he returns home. Then had a cocaine addict in my office who was convinced that now that he feels so good after living healthfully for one week that he’ll never touch the stuff again….explained to him what ‘pink cloud’ means, and then helped him understand the importance of getting continued help when he gets home. It feels fantastic to be interacting with people on such a deep and healing level. I love it.
But I’m already ready for my vacation time! My body is not functioning so well in multiple areas. I found a low key vegetarian, yoga, detox place on the beach about 5 hours south of here on a little island…I’m headed there for a week next month!
Now here is the biggest news yet…I’m in town on my day off last week and just happened to mention that I had diabetes to this group I was talking to. This guy says he is the CEO of a stem cell research company and that they have cured diabetics. Within seconds of listening to his explanation, I just lost it and started crying. He gave me his card and I am headed up to Bangkok next tuesday to meet with the head doctor. I have such a thick wall around myself in regards to getting excited about this kind of stuff, so yes its exciting, but I’ll know more next week. I prefer to be skeptical because i’ve become excited and disappointed too many damn times in my life. So we’ll see… and I’ll let you all know.
Got off work today, took a dip in the ocean, had dinner in the staff cafeteria, now writing to you and off to bed! And that’s my quick and to the point update. Love to you all! Jody :-)
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