Spotlight Photo of the Week

The view from Rachel’s balcony on a recent December day. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

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Quote of the Week

“Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.”

– Wayne W. Dyer

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Mira’s Photo of the Week

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A Few Good Facts

This section is a fun add-on from Britannica.com. Each day there is a new fun fact in their All Good Facts section. Below are a few recent facts that Rachel found interesting.

To create the sounds of their velociraptors, Jurassic Park sound designers recorded horses breathing, annoyed geese, and tortoises mating.

The first moving image was recorded to prove that at some point during a horse’s gallop no hooves touch the ground.

The word nice comes from the Latinword nescius, which means “ignorant.”

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Word of the Day

Will you find it?

As a fun challenge each week, Rachel visits Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day when she sits down to write the weekly story. Whatever the word of the day happens to be that day, she must find a way to fit it into her story. Will you find it?

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Story of the Week

Viva Las Vegas

In late November, through early December, Rachel took a trip to Las Vegas. No, not a fun vacation, but a working trip. The last time her boss flew her to work in the office was September of 2019. The 2019 trip was rough. Not only was it too warm still for her liking, she woke around 1:00 AM each day. She would work from her hotel room until around 6:00 AM, jumping on a treadmill for an hour and then heading into the office to work 8-5 with providers and staff. She would leave the office, pick up food and head back to the hotel, eat, sleep, and repeat. By the end of the week-long trip, she was spent. She recalls sitting in the airport awaiting her flight home crying. It may have just been the buildup of stress she had been under for so many days in a row and a release of sorts. She vowed never to go back. The pandemic gave her a bit of a respite from having to worry about another work trip for a while.

After several discussions with her boss, Dr. Yu, a 2022 date was set. He wanted her to be present for the first ever team holiday outing. There have been several changes in Rachel’s office in the past few months. Two providers left and started their own individual practices, staff changes have taken place, and a new team dynamic has been established. Rachel’s boss wanted her to come out to meet everyone in person and lend a hand. A December trip would be tolerable, weather wise, and she was anxious to meet the new team in person.

Rather than a hotel and rental car this time around Rachel saved her boss a bit of money and stayed with a co-worker, Jenny. Jenny is the longest-term employee in the clinic and someone Rachel speaks to on a regular basis. Rachel met Jenny during her 2019 visit. This time around Rachel planned ahead, in regard to her workload, to allow for her sanity to stay in check. She was waking up around 3:30-4:00 AM (normal) and working for only two hours before she and Jenny would head into the office by 6:30 AM. The day would end around 3:30 PM. Not too bad. Due to the amount of time Rachel spent in the office meeting with providers and staff and discussing ideas and teaching them processes, she was still required to work and hour or so after leaving the office to wrap up a few items each day. The unfortunate thing was that she was unable to do her regular physical therapy and unable to keep up on her regular walking. She did spend her time during the meetings with the physical therapist in the office on his stationary bike getting in a bit of work and would roll on his foam roller throughout the day when the muscle cramps became unbearable. She would also do floor exercises before bed. The muscle cramps during this week were severe due to the change in schedule and environment.

The trip was a success and Rachel found the staff to be a great group of people; with the exception of one that she found had a lachrymose nature. It was nice for her to place faces with names of people that she emails and talks with from her Washington office. The holiday outing was a treat for the whole team. Dr. Yu treated the team to dinner at Xiao Long Dumplings. The food order was placed ahead to allow for a more expedited experience. Dr. Yu ordered his four favorite menu items, steamed pork dumplings, scallion pancakes, veggie egg rolls, and pork soup dumplings. It was an adventure, as these are items Rachel never would have fathomed trying. She jumped into a meat cheat day and thoroughly enjoyed the new food. Dinner was followed up by a dessert called chocolate Xiao Long Bao. This was a tasty chocolate cake in a wrapping that looked like a dumpling.

After dinner, the team headed to the New York New York hotel and casino for a Cirque Du Soleil show, Mad Apple. Their website says it is an “astonishing experience.” Rachel would concur. Mad Apple included music, dance, comedy, acrobatics, and more. Dr. Yu had sprung for seats about five rows from the stage, which provided a great view. Photos and videos were not allowed during the show but were welcomed for the last performance. Enjoy the included videos show that night.

While in Las Vegas, Rachel got to have dinner with her Nevada bestie, Nancy, but failed to capture a photo during their visit. That’s okay though, Nancy will be in Washington to visit Rachel in January. During her visit, she also got to talk with Craig, Blake and Alec’s dad, who was kind enough to remote into the office network to assist on a system problem. Thank goodness for a kind heart and willing hand. All in all, it was a great trip. Some of the staff told Dr. Yu they want Rachel to come back monthly to which Rachel gave an emphatic no. She did agree that an annual visit during cooler weather would be doable. Only time will tell. Until next time, be well.