holiday cheer

Hello. I'm back for my "once-every-three-months" post just in time for the holidays. Lately at work, I've been doing a lot of nightfloat. Nightfloat entails going in to work at 6:15 pm and staying until 7:30 am or 8:30. I'm in the minority because I really enjoy it. I get all the good parts of inpatient pediatrics without any of the rounding. I get to supervise interns, admit patients, and do all the cool medical stuff without the grownup supervision of an attending. This means that I can kind of do whatever I want since its a children hospital (immaturity in the name of relating to patients).

First, I must preface this with the fact that this all really happened. So last night, it was kind of slow. I'd already wandered the hospital trying to help out where I could since my own service was stable.Out of nowhere , all of the sudden, from left field, an overwhelming urge came over me. It was the urge to make chains of connected paper dolls. I don't know where this urge came from. I don't think I've ever made chains of paper dolls before and I hadn't been talking or thinking about it. Like much in my life, it was pure inspiration.

After a quick google-search (my go to search engine for all medical and non-medical queries), I figured out the folding pattern and was on my way. After only one misfire when rather than a long chain, I ended up with four sets of paired dolls, I had completed a chain of eight dolls. Looking at it and wondering what to do next, I realized that there was only thing that I could do -- make a paper-doll show choir.

So there I was at the nurses station, drawing tuxedos on paper dolls. Perhaps more surprising was the outshowing of support I experienced from nurses and other nocturnal doctors. Pretty soon everyone was pitching in. I, of course, made the dolls and drew on them. One nurse created the keyboard player for the choir. Another came up with an outfit for the female members of the choir (though I accessorized them). The intern/doctor I was working with got started on a set complete with risers. It was truly a nighttime hospital miracle. Before we knew it, we had created the greatest paper-doll show choir that I have ever been involved with. Here are a few shots of them in their inaugural performance.

That was a shot of the entire choir, its a pretty big group (8 guys, 8 girls, and Keith, the kind-of-creepy middle-aged piano player). This was from their Christmas program where they did a medley of contemporary and classic Holiday classics, including a 20-minute medley of Michael Buble and Josh Grobin Christmas tunes. Admittedly, that part dragged a little.

This is a good shot of almost the entire choir. A couple girls and a boy got cut off from the shot but lets be honest, they were on the outside of the group which is where the weakest performers get put.
There's a picture of Margoret and Keith. As you can tell, Margoret really doesn't have much star-appeal, thus her place on the end. And Keith, well, Keith isn't actually singing so I'm not sure why his mouth is open and why he looks so happy/creepy. He is a great piano player, especially as he only has about 1.5 octaves to work with.

If you look closely, you can really get a feel for each of the paper doll choir members as an individual person. There hair is what really sets them apart from each other. Their identical and sometimes mirror-image bodies with the exact same skin tone is what doesn't set them apart from each other, in case you were wondering.

That's Kay'te in the front. She's spunky and also the lead singer in a punk rock band. One time her band, "The Crystal Lizards", were playing a concert the same night as a choir performance. Can you believe that? Lets just say there were many zany misunderstandings and half-baked schemes that ensued as she tried to make both performances. Pure Kay'te.

More band pictures. The guy in the back, 3rd from the left, thinks he is Zac Effron. His name is Clint. He is the star wide reciever, pitcher, point guard, left-wing, place kicker, mile-relay anchor, and curler in the school. But he still makes time to write poetry and sing in the show choir. What a guy.

I like this picture for two reasons. One, it really shows off the holiday decorations with the red curtains, green background (patient charts), and reindeer heads. Second, it prominently features Curtis a.k.a. Chops. He thinks he's British but isn't and doesn't realize that most all girls aren't into him or his mutton chops. Margoret has the hots for him, though, but as we established, she lacks star-appeal.

(this is where I was going to put a video of their performance but I couldn't figure out how to with my computer and I lost interest and might come back to later but will probably forget)

So that is an introductory look at the paper-doll show choir. It was really a magical performance. Their voices blended together beautifully (some even said angelically). Their choreography, though, left a little lacking as it seemed pretty stiff. All-in-all, though, they brought their fair share of holiday cheer to the children and staff of St. Louis Childrens. Granted, the kids were asleep since it was 4 am, but I could tell they enjoyed it too.