HAPPY 76th BIRTHDAY BABCIA!!!

Today is Babcia's 76th Birthday! (She kept singing "76 Trombones" this morning...)

If you want to buy her anything, she'll be up for a round of Scotch.

They sang some crazy song in Polish about living 100 years. We're not sure what we would sing for Justine's Great-Grandma who is 102 years old, but none the less... STO LAT BABCIA!

An adorable picture of Justine and her family with Babcia!

Antioxidants and Botox,
Wenisa

Tech Savvy Grandma

I'll give my grandmother the benefit of the doubt. She's more WITH technology than most, yet still lacks in some departments.

Let's assess skills compared to a majority of senior citizens I've conversed with (and yes, I've conversed with many):

1. She can turn ON the computer (and OFF for that fact) which I'd say puts her at the 50th percentile right off the bat.

2. She can make Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. She is a landlord, and therefore does use the computer to keep track of her bills and finances. So I mean, if we're pretending she's applying for an entry level position about 10 years ago, when Word and Excel were all you needed as a secretary, I'd say she'd have a semi-decent chance of getting the job. Her only downfalls are that it takes her 10 minutes to type things, and heaven help us if she needs to find an old document or format her current one. That's why I'd take over.

3. She can send an e-mail. She does have an e-mail account which she uses to send messages to her friends and to the members of the local Garden Club, however her downfall with this, according to Wenisa is that it took both of them to type 8 e-mail addresses in because the other day when she wanted to send the link to this blog out to some friends, her "address book mysteriously was empty". Who the HECK knows what happened there... she most likely deleted it.

4. She has a Bluetooth Headset for her Cell Phone. I'm all for going handsfree. No cell phones while driving. (You know what Oprah says, "No Phone Zone") However, Babcia goes ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty, because not only does she wear her blue tooth during her car ride, but she has been known to wear it in CVS Pharmacy whilst shopping, in the mall, while at the football field, etc. IT IS NOT A FASHION ACCESSORY. Now yes, this may be easier to communicate, however you have to understand the level of CRAZY that one might assume if they were to see you talking to yourself because your Bluetooth is of course on the opposite ear. And of course when you call her on her cell phone , it takes a solid minute for her to get "Bluetooth-situated" and I just hear "WAIT A MINUTE...WAIT A MINUTE" until finally 1 minute later when she is all set I finally get a "HELLO? HE..Hee Hello?!?"

This is just not ok. But... Babcia has been known to pull off this look.

Unfortunately...
5. She thinks that you're signed off the internet when you log out of Internet Explorer. When I broke that news to her, she was not only devastated, but SCARED! (she used to have dial-up internet... for YEARS, so it's understandable that she assumes that I guess...) She immediately said "So are you saying that people can steal my information ALL of the time?" I don't know where she gets this from... I think she watches too much Dateline. What does she think they're going to do? Crawl into her computer while she's "logged out of Internet Explorer" and raid her computer of all of her information?

6. She hates texting. She told Wenisa and I to put our fingers away at the dinner table once. She doesn't really understand how we communicate via texting either. I wish she WOULD text though because maybe that would eliminate the 1,000,000 phone calls that come to this house daily. I don't really mind, I just find it funny seeing as less and less people are using house lines and she just seems to use it more and more! More power to her. Saves her a texting plan and her thumbs from wearing out.

Her Opinion
After Wenisa and I installed WiFi in the house, she exclaimed, "I have to tell all my friends how TECH-SAVVY I am!"

Glyburide Giggles,
Justine

Draw a Clock!

please don't try this without supervision of a medical professional

Similarly to the fact that when Babcia would pick me up from school, she would ask, "How was your day?" or "Did the teacher have a dress on?" (to get the conversation started) now that I'm on my rotations she tends to ask Wenisa and I if anything interesting happened at the hospital. Here and there we have some crazy stories to tell her about the hospital, but with my VA rotation I became slightly obsessed with cognitive function tests and testing for dementia.

There's one simple test that we used during my geriatrics rotation in July at the VA, that just blows my mind. It's called a Clock Drawing test. It's typically used for assessing dementia and Alzheimer's. So one day, Babcia was in the kitchen, and she said "Hmm..why did I come in here? I can't remember why I came in here!" So I said:

"Draw a clock"

Babcia deep in thought, attempting the Clock Drawing Test

She had no idea what was going on, yet she followed my simple directions without asking many questions and her clock was unremarkable. Nothing to be concerned about. So my clinical test showed no dementia via the Clock Test. PHEW! Usually you ask for the clock to say ten after 11, however, I just picked a random time. Thankfully her clock didn't look like one of these:

These are .... concerning...

 Unfortunately however, she doesn't realize this is a diagnostic tool. She uses it as a game or a brain exercise with her friends when she talks to them on the phone:

"Oh no, I forgot what I was going to say...  I really had a funny story to tell you. I just completely lost it!" -Friend #1,000,000 that calls daily

"Oh it's OK... it'll come to you. Draw a clock!" -Babcia

 Even when Wenisa and I forget something, she'll tell us to "Draw a Clock!" Heaven help her doctor if he ever asks her to draw a clock! Not only will she know what he's doing to her, but she'll have it down pat and probably say "OH NO PROBLEM! I do this all the time..."

Namenda and Aricept Appreciation,
Justine

How allergic to bees are you?

I was going to a concert the other weekend. (John Mayer, if anyone was reallllly that curious) and I was out and about town grabbing a few last minute things before meeting my friends at Babcia's house so we could carpool to the concert. I get home and my brother, Cameron, is already there waiting for me, and he points to the kitchen counter, where I see this:

"HELP!! Could someone please put up the umbrella outside - Thank you, Ella-Ella-Ella"

She has watched a little too much of...

THIS with a little too much of HER....

But what really happened was that there was a whole heck of a lot of bees that had taken up residence in her porch umbrella. My brother went out, being the big manly 17yr old that he is, but he doesn't know his allergic status. I wasn't going to DARE go out and potentially get stung by thousands of swarming bees just to put up an umbrella. But of course, when each one of my friends came in, her first words to them weren't "Hi, how are you?" like a normal person...they were "How allergic to bees are you?" She finally found Andrew who was crazy enough to go outside and put it up carefully, so that she could eat dinner out there after we left... 

amongst the bees?

(not my ideal dinner date, but who's to judge?)

Epipens and Diphenhydramine,

Justine

How to Prepare Stir-Fry

One of the best perks about living with Babcia is that we don't have to worry about cooking many meals. And for those who know me, this is FABULOUS since I don't know how to cook. All I have to take care of is breakfast (which is Kashi Cereal every morning) and lunch (which is either a turkey or roast beef sandwich). She makes dinner for us every night, and the three of us sit down at the dinner table to enjoy delicious meals, mostly Polish foods. But once in a while, she wants to make me feel at home, so she'll make Chinese meals aka stir fry. She likes to ask me questions regarding what ingredients to include, but as mentioned above I have no experience whatsoever with cooking.

Once she even asked me how to eat stir-fry and watched me as I prepared my plate.

So let's go over the steps I used, so that you can prepare Stir-Fry the PROPER way!

1. Scoop rice into plate/bowl.

2. Scoop stir-fry on top of rice.

3. Add desired amount of crunchy noodley things on top.

4. Add soy souce. No matter how salty it already is. Skip the green topped one, there's no such thing as "low sodium" soy sauce

5. Enjoy with fork or chopsticks (which Babcia wants me to teach her how to use by April, however my skills are limited.)

I mean, it's stir fry...Nothing crazy.

Maybe my explanation wasn't good enough for Babcia, because for tonight's stir fry dinner, she whipped out the Betty Crocker Easy Chinese/Oriental Cooking Recipe Books (which I didn't even know existed, nor did I know Chinese was so easy)

Oriental Cooking? Easy Chinese? Thanks Betty Crocker...for simplifying my culture.

Lasix Love,

Wenisa

Ice Cream Coma?

There is a specific time, almost every night, where the three of us indulge in the world's most delectable delicacy: Ice Cream.

Ice Cream Time: 8:58pm. M-Th.

You may wonder why we chose 8:58pm to engorge ourselves with sinful calories. Well, 9pm is when "Degrassi: The Boiling Point" is on, and Wenisa and I don't like to miss a second, unless Babcia tries to start talking to us, where we have to nicely tell her that she has to wait until 9:30pm. The other time we might miss any of the show would be when she's talking loudly on the phone or has HER show competing with ours from her bedroom loud enough to make someone go deaf. 

So anywho. After another ENTHRALLING episode of "Degrassi" (don't judge) the other night, Wenisa and I shut off all the lights and pass by Babcia's room on our way upstairs, and this is what we see:

"It's all gone!"

 This was a near pathetic sight. An empty half gallon (she didn't eat it all, just finished off the container) with spoon in hand, sleeping. So I snuck in, grabbed both out of her hand without her even flinching and snuck back out of her room.

She had no recollection in the morning of even eating the ice cream.

More adventures to come...
Ketoconazole Kisses,
Wenisa and Justine

Introducing our Landlady AKA Babcia

We moved in to my Babcia's house (Babcia is Grandmother in Polish) in May all prepped and ready for our final year of Pharmacy School rotations. Little did we know what hilarious adventures would come from living with my friend, Wenisa, and my grandmother.

What you need to know about Babcia:

From Left to Right: Justine (Me), Jodi (my mom and Babcia's eldest), Babcia, and Marcia (Babcia's youngest)

 We didn't exactly know where to start, so we asked Babcia some questions so you can get to know her a bit better...

"I swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God!" - Babcia

1. Where is your favorite place to nap? My chair
2. What was your best college experience?  Being away from home. Justine- anything scandelous? Babcia- Oh yea, we would always go down to the Elliot Lounge in Boston for 35cent drinks
3. Have you ever been skinny dipping? NO! I don't know where you keep hearing this from...
4. If you were a flower, what kind would you be and why? A Hydrangea, because they're big and beautiful and last a long time
5. What is your favorite type of beer? Bud Light **and she takes a sip**
6. What did you want to be when you were 12? I dunno, I never really thought about it... do I have to give you an answer? Justine- Yes. Babcia- I guess a nurse
7. If you could have any superpower what would it be? Define superpower... **Justine and Wenisa list of super power possibilities** Babcia-I would want a good brain
8. What's your most embarrassing moment? I guess I don't take life too seriously, because I don't get embarrassed a lot. I'll have to think on that a day or two. Justine- What about when you fell through the porch? Babcia- That wasn't embarrassing...
9. What do you think of the internet? I think it's exciting because of all the information, and it's a mind challenge. It scares me as a senior citizen because maybe I don't know enough and that could land me in trouble.
10. What do you think of Lady Gaga? I don't even know who she is! I've seen pictures of her, and I know she's the second highest paid woman.
11. What does LOL mean? What about ROFL? Laugh out Loud... I dunno, ROFL... Remembrances, Organization, Friends, Living
12.  What's your favorite color of umbrella? HAHA.. ELLA ELLA.. I guess blue.
13. Do you have swagger? Yea **shakes from side to side**
14. Can you do the stankyleg? I don't know what that is.
15.  What's your favorite TV show? The Closer.
16. Boxers or Briefs? Briefs... wait. For me? or for men? Wenisa- on a man. Babcia-OH! on a man? Boxers.
17. What's your favorite type of ice cream? Welllll coffee, but I like them all.
18. Do you have a ba-donk-a-donk? What the hell is that?
19. Big Spoon or Little Spoon? Little Spoon because it will last longer...
20. What's your favorite sports team? UConn Huskies!

What else there is to know...
Babcia has lived in this town for all of her 76 years of life. She is a retired medical technologist with two daughters and 4 grandchildren. She is president of the town's Garden Club and her favorite pastimes include gardening, cheering on her grandsons at their football games, playing and teaching bridge, going to the casino, cooking/baking, being active in her church, children/babies, and taking care of her 102 year old mother.

What to look forward to...
-hilarious photos
-quotable quotes
-ridiculous stories
-anything else that helps us to describe the wild life we lead as 22/23 year olds living with a 76 year old retired woman
-medical oddities/pharmacy situations

Hugs and Hydrochlorothiazide,
Justine and Wenisa