B&E

B&E (Breaking and Entering) is the official complaint listed on the police report now in my possession. On February 2, 2012 while I was at work someone (or more likely multiple someones) broke into my house in Baltimore. I found out when I got home from work at 1am that day. It was not a fun night.

The first thing I thought when I got home and saw tons of stuff strewn about the floor was, "Damn dog!" I figure he must have gotten into the garbage (it wouldn't be the first time). However quickly after that thought, I realized that the items on the floor were from my purses and entryway table. It only took about one more second for me to look a little further into the room and realize that there was no longer a TV on my entertainment stand. Lightbulb.

Immediately, I dialed 911. Then, I continued to stand about 2 inches from the front door until the police arrived about 10 minutes later. Once they came inside, they took my information and we proceeded to go through the house one room at a time. We discovered that they entered by breaking the locks on my back window and also discovered most of my electronics missing (TVs, cameras, a MacbookPro, a blackberry). Thankfully I don't keep money around the house, because I'm pretty sure that's what they were looking for when they tore apart the rest of the house. The last little miracle was that none of my jewelry was missing; I would have been far more upset about that than electronics. They also did not take my back-up drive, so I still have all the contents, mostly photos, from my stolen computer.

After the police report was filed, I had the pleasure of waiting about another hour for the crime scene investigator to come and dust for fingerprints. That hour gave me plenty of time to cancel the credit cards that were taken - mainly store cards like Limited, Loft, Macy's, etc. Pretty much right as I finished that, a very nice crime scene lady arrived. Again, we went through the house room by room with me showing her everything that had been touched or moved. When we were in the last room she made the lovely comment of, "Don't worry, the dust comes off with any household cleaner." It hadn't even occurred to me that I was going to have to clean this all up. And for the record, fingerprint dust does NOT come off easily. I spent the next 2 hours cleaning each surface about 3 times to get it all off. Finally around 6am, I was so completely exhausted that I passed out.

The meanest part about this whole situation is who in Baltimore takes all of someone's TVs the day before the Ravens were to play in (and win!) the superbowl!

On a strange note, they also left behind all my Christmas gift certificates - Visa, Amazon - that were sitting out.  I found that odd, but I'm not going to argue about still being able to use them!

New Years Resolution

25 Random Acts of Kindness. The End.

Oh, you would like more of an explanation than this? Ok.

The inspiration for my New Years reslution this year has really been two fold. First, one of my favorite Christmas music groups is the Trans Siberian Orchestra. One of their songs has a few lines that have always resonated with me. The song is "Old City Bar" and the lyrics are:

If you want to arrange it

This world you can change it

If we could somehow make this

Christmas thing last.

By helping a neighbor

Or even a stranger

And to know who needs help

You need only just ask.

These words affect me because in my opinion they hit the nail right on the head. For December, I've always found people (in general) to be more cheerful and social and kind. However for much of the other 11 months of the year, we tend to be more callous and spiteful and isolated from one another.

The final inspiration for this resolution came after the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy.  On of the ways people were honoring and remembering the victims were by paying it forward.  There were many suggestions for small, but meaningful, random acts of kindness to remind people of the good in our society and not just the bad.

Since my idea orginally stemmed from the Christmas spirit, I decided to follow the 25 days of Christmas tradition and pledge to do 25 acts of kindness throughout 2013. I also determined, since I work in a profession where it is my job to help others, that I should state some parameters so I can't cheat and use "I made a kid feel better today". The main guidelines I've created to follow are it doesn't count if it's part of my job description and it can be small but should involve going (at least slightly) out of my way.

What I'm hoping to gain from my resolution this year is a more positive attitude. Helping someone else always reminds me that my day (or week or month) could be worse. It's also very gratifying to see someone's day brightened. Plus, there is always the possibly that I will inspire them to pay my kindness forward to someone else.  Hopefully in a small way this year, I will be working to change my corner of the world.

Holiday Decor

I think one of the hardest things about moving is finding how all your old stuff fits into a new place. That being said, I have some really nice areas in my new home for some good holiday cheer.

My christmas tree directly in front of a large window on the 1st floor, so it can be enjoyed from the inside and outside.

A couple shelves right by the entrance are perfect for seasonal decorating.

There's a bit more christmas decorations scattered around the house, but those are definitely my most fun areas.

Top Ten Recap

It's that wonderful time of year with turkey, then peppermint, and shortly after that champagne. Since 2013 is rapidly approaching (given the world doesn't end on the 21st), I figured I'd reviewed my New Year's resolutions from January to see how I did this year. I know it's not quite the end of 2012, but it is December and the busy holiday season so if I haven't accomplished it yet, I'm probably not going to in the next few days.

1. Irish/Euro Trip 2012 - Done and done. I had an amazing week with my family traveling around southern Ireland followed by another awesome week with just my brother and sister in Paris, Berlin, and Prague. We even had an added bonus of getting to visit the Burke/Sandeman household.
2. Niezgoda Family Reunion - Another check off the list. Sadly, we were down 2 members of the group that initially thought they could make it, but I even managed to catch up with one of them a couple weeks later in NYC.
3. No Smoking - Okay, not an entire win. However, I did manage to only have about 1 pack (maybe 20 cigarettes) throughout the whole year which is a huge step in the right direction. Maybe I will renew this one for next year.
4. New Job - Huge win. I now have an awesome job working in the pediatrics department at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. It definitely continues to challenge me medically and came with an outstanding benefits package compared to my previous employment.  As an added bonus, I also really like everyone I work with now.
5. Wakeboarding - This is also definitely an accomplishment. It is also tons of fun. The only down side is I now don't know what I like to do more at the lake, wakeboard or waterski.
6. Baseball - Tradition continued.  The RedSox had a terrible season this year, however I did manage to get to a Yankees/Sox game and the Sox even won! 
7. Boston Reunion - Jane and Chris threw a beautiful wedding event. I was especially impressed that our people came from all over the country (and world) to celebrate. The 2-day hangover I had was a nice momento of the magnitude of fun we had.
8. More NYC Fun - Mission accomplished. I had a wonderful birthday weekend that included a 7-course tasting menu at a restaurant, plus I made it to restaurant week in both the winter and the summer.
9. Donate Blood - Epic fail. However, this was not due to my lack of effort. I tried to donate blood 3 times, but twice my count wasn't high enough to donate and once they cancelled my appointment. I did join the bone marrow registry though, so I think I'll take that as an even trade.
10. Blog - This post will be number 20 for the year. It's not quite the twice a month (24) that I was aiming for, but it is pretty close. Who knows, maybe I'll even add another to that number before the year is over.

A Karmic Thanksgiving

The last few years as the holiday season approaches, I try to spread the love. What I mean is, I try to take a moment to appreciate what I have and then find a way to share that happiness. I am truly blessed to have wonderfully supportive family and friends as well as a career I enjoy and good health that will hopefully allow me to continue enjoying life for a long time. If you really want more details about what an awesome life I have, you can check out last year's Be Thankful Challenge blogposts. That month of reflection was definitely a way to help me appreciate what I had during the holidays. I also adopted an angel last year through the Salvation Army. I had so much fun shopping for a little girl knowing (hoping) that her Christmas would be special with presents under her tree.

This year, in the last month my family (and family of friends) has experienced a trying time with illness. It's very frustrating to try to make sense of young, beautiful (and sometimes annoying) people suddenly falling ill with leukemia. Medicine, sick children in particular, is something that I deal with everyday, but when you're not the doctor it's a very different perspective. There's no time to process this diagnosis or label that has been given before the fight must begin. It's confusing. Most of all, there's a lot of questions (usually starting with why) that don't have answers. Being the support group is difficult as well, trying to find the right words to say. One of the first conclusive thoughts I could come to though was that if a bone marrow transplant was needed, I would offer to be matched. It was a pretty easy decision as my life would be forever different without this person. However my medical knowledge told me that without being directly related, the odds that I would be match were low. 

For a while now, I have taken a more karmic than religious approach to life. I try to base my actions and decision on the philosophy - put good into the world and you'll get good back. So I've decided the most I can do is apply this philosophy to this trying time.  This year to share my happiness around the holidays, I've joined the bone marrow registry. I realized that everyone needing a life-saving bone marrow transplant is somebody's person. Maybe if I help somebody else's person then if/when the time comes, somebody will do the same for my person. Truthfully, I'm totally scared by the idea of donating bone marrow (I don't really know why - it just seems daunting), but sometimes hope has to outweigh fear. So I sent out for my matching kit yesterday.

(PS - Please know that my immediately family is well and that for now "my person" is focused on processing and fighting this diagnosis, and is not quite ready to share it yet.)