An update - what?

I thought this blog was dead!
But I happened to be browsing around and saw that my last post said that I wished I was singing again.

Well, I sort of am now. Voice lessons ftw!

Music is so cool

And I'm jealous that Ben is majoring in it (or is he?). I want to sing again.

A little catch up

Electrotherapy

I’ve decided after a brief experience in this field, that I shall no longer experience on myself.  Yeah, I was messing with my external soundcard (<a href=www.creative.com>Creative’s</a> Audigy 2 NX ) power adapter, finished playing with it, put the front casing back on and set it down…  I forgot to put on the back, and later picked it up to find a nice jolt flowing through my arm.

Whitworths health care center sent me over to St. Mary’s ER, where they monitored my HR and BP for a while, and almost did an EKG.  They also laughed at me…  I don’t blame them.  I laugh at myself.

Anyway, there has been so much since I last updated, I don’t even care to summarize it all.

Here’s a little bit…

My parents moved me into my house here in Spokane, and they bought me frying pans (Teflon baby yeah), a blender, carpet for my room and a ton of other stuff that I can’t remember because I’m putting ½ of my thought processes into my class (yes, I’m in class right now).

Jenn and I are going strong – it will be 2 years on the 13th!  YAY for us.

The Millers sent me a sweet care package with all the necessities, and I still have a few of those =)

My family sent me tollhouse cupcakes, a pair of new shoes for my interview (my old dress shoes were TOAST) and some other stuff that dulls in comparison to the shoes and tollhouses (and I’m taking notes in class…)

Ummm…  Its cold here in Spokane, below 20 each night and morning.  I don’t like it.  And I have to buy winter clothes before January for snowmobiling.  I’m thinking some new long johns, another pair of super-socks, some gloves (I lost one of my nice REI ones last year…  gah!) and probably a pair of Whites Boots so my feet don’t eat too much snow.

That’s all for now, I have 20 minutes of class left and I need to pay attention :D

Vette

I went to Holly's house tonight to see a bunch of my friends: Holly (...), Andrew and Alex Blore specifically. A pleasant surprise (or rather 2) awaited me - Mike Curry and Alex O'Farrell (sp?). I hadn't seen Alex O in a while - it was great to see everyone. Anyway - Andrew and I head out to Alex B's car so I can see his new cell phone, and I ask him "Have you seen the vette?" Just then Dr. Tomlin comes down the driveway in it - and asks what we're doing. I say that we were just talking about his car - and he says "Oh, my toy? You guys can take it out for a drive."

WOW.

That was such a generous offer - and of course we accepted. Let me tell you - vettes are HOTT. It purred like a choir of lions and tigers. And big engines =)

Thank you Dr. T! It was SO MUCH FUN TO DRIVE.

btw it is an '89. It was automatic - but that was just fine with me =), because hey - I got to drive a CORVETTE


When we left her house later on, we wrote a note to him telling him that we did 120mph in 14 seconds flat. I hope he realizes we were joking :D

Why Dorms Suck...

Dear Former McMillan Resident:

I am sad to report that each Spring 2006 semester resident of McMillan Hall is being charged $53.71 to cover the replacement of the couch, loveseat, and overstuffed chair that were damaged in a night of vandalism in April.

When the RAs and RD, Kelli Helsel, asked for information, they received mostly shrugged shoulders and little to go on. Unfortunately, the college will not “eat” the $3,983.66 to needlessly replace good furniture. The Housing Contract states, “Resident students may be held corporately responsible for damages and losses, which occur in the lounges, hallways, and other common areas of their residence facility.” While none of are pleased with this outcome, we (Kelli Helsel, Dr. Mandeville, and I) believe that we have no other option in this matter.

The charges have been added to your student account instead of being deducted from your Dorm Damage Deposit. Your Dorm Damage Deposit of $70.00 was created from the $200 confirmation fee that you paid when you enrolled with Whitworth. Usually, charges for damage are applied to this account; however, since the $53.71 charge would have brought most Dorm Damage Deposits below the allowed $20.00 minimum, we elected to add this to your Student Account instead.

If you have any questions or more information, please don’t hesitate to stop by my office or contact me by email (ajacob@whitworth.edu) or phone (509-777-3250).

Thank you for your understanding,

Alan B. Jacob
Assistant Director of Housing
Whitworth College
(509) 777-xxxx

I shrugged my shoulder and didn't give them much to go on because I didn't know what happened to them. Meh... At least I'm done with dorms. Good riddance =/

Topics Continued...

4. First fall from work:
Now I don’t remember exactly the date this happened, but I think it was about 2 weeks ago. I was walking through the hall looking into resident’s rooms to see if anyone needed assistance, and as I am walking past one man’s room, I see him trying to get up by himself, using his end-table as a support. Well, the end-tables have wheels, so this thing flies away under his weight – and he tumbles into the corner faster than I can blink, but somehow pulls off a much more graceful landing than I thought was possible.

I ran over and found that he was not hurt (probably a bit sore, but nothing “serious”) and called the nurse. A fall is a BIG deal at work, I was glad I wasn’t in the room when it happened – the responsibility would weigh heavily and if there wasn’t a gait belt on him and I had been trying to help move him, I could have lost my job.

Anyway – it was exciting and scary. I’m very glad he turned out to be alright. He actually left the facility yesterday to go home. I’m very happy for him =)

5. Fishing Weekend:
2 weeks ago Jenn drove down and met Alex Blore and I at Alex’s house in Bellevue. We packed for a 3 day trip up to Tonasket to go fishing in Bonaparte park at Lost Lake with Alex’s boyfriend (and my very good friend and “house-mate” for next year). I ended up driving Jenn’s car for the whole trip, so I got a really good feel for it. For those who don’t know, it’s a burgundy 1996 Toyota Camry. Good car – tons of space for driver, passenger and backseat, with a huge trunk as well. We averaged 32mpg on the way over.

We got up to Andrew’s house around 11(?) and promptly went to bed. Early the next morning we got up, went to his parents grocery store and loaded up on goods for the next 3 days. We drove up to the cabin and… hmmm. I think we pretty much unloaded and then went fishing. Jenn got a bite or two and brought in a trout, the rest of us got nothing. But it is incredibly peaceful out on the lake.

Meals were as follows:
Breakfast – cereal and juice
Lunch – turkey sandwiches or butter and jam on english muffins and juice or milk
Dinner
· Petite steaks and ribs 1st night, Andrew and I ate the fish (girls don’t like this kind I guess…)
· Campfire dinners second night – hamburger, potatoes, carrots, cabbage and seasoning all wrapped up in foil and placed in the embers of the campfire for 15 minutes.

We went back out on the lake on Sunday and Monday as well, but Jenn was again the only one to get bites, and she brought 2 more fish up to the boat, but lost both of them. All in all she brought 4 fish up to the boat, got one in it, and lost three. Of the 3, I blame Andrew for losing the first, myself for the second, and the size/strength of the 3rd. Too bad…

All in all it was a great/relaxing/peaceful/memorable trip. I’d love to do it again. Maybe late in August? I got my freshwater license for the whole season… =)

6. Awesomeness from Garage Sales
Yeah, so one day there was this huge garage-sale-event in my neighborhood, where about 50 houses or so had garage sales. I ended up buying* from 2, and was tempted at 4 or so. The first one I stopped at, I picked up a huge George Foreman grill – the biggest sized one. I spent $25 on that, $10 on an 8-set pack of nice silverware and got a free soup mug and drawer-organizer for the silverware. That was pretty sweet. At another house I got a bread maker for $5. Still waiting to try that one out. Probably’ll get around to that sometime this upcoming week. At another house, I got a gas/briquette grill for free. It had plenty of use and needs plenty of cleaning, and a new igniter deal. Probably will cost me about $10 at Walmart to replace. It also came with a huge propane tank, which is nice because refilling is wayyyy cheaper than buying new. W00t!

7. Woot.com and Midnightbox.com and purchases made from both.
Actually, since making this list, I have to add a few sites to this list. Slickdeals.net is amazing as well, and goingtoday.com. From midnightbox.com, I purchased a monster cable 5.1 home theatre cable set for $20 including shipping and handling – it normally retails for $80 (not including shipping and handling). SWEET. From woot.com, I purchased a RCA 5.1 surround sound speaker set/5-Dvd player/receiver for $80 including S&H. Normally retails for closer to $200 including S&H. Pretty nice deal. I wouldn’t recommend RCA to anyone really, but the price was right for college =)
From slickdeals.net I found a deal for House M.D. Season 2 on DvD for $19 including S&H, normally retailing for $50. I also got a $100 lexmark photo printer for $8.00 after mail-in-rebates. And finally, from goingtoday.com I got a guitar strap for $4 including S&H. YAY!

I think this pretty much wraps up what I started a week ago or so… Anyway, more to come I’m sure. As for me, I need to eat my lunch in the remaining 8 minutes I have of my break =)

Topics to cover:

1. Sack Lunches and other learned appreciation for my mom
2. Work so far...
3. Weekend at Jenns (27-29 of May)
4. First fall at work
5. Fishing weekend
6. Awesomeness from Garage Sales
7. Woot.com and Midnightbox.com and purchases made from both.

Wow. Ok, lets see if we can make it through all of this, shall we? Get ready for a monster post...

1. Sack Lunches and other learned appreciation for my mom

My mother has been making me sack lunches (or rather "cooler-lunches" - as they have been placed inside a smallish cooler) every day that I go to work. Its like High School all over again, except this time - after a couple years at college - I appreciate it a good deal more. Let me tell you, she's not tossing together some crap sandwhich and throwing in a little bottle of water. No way. I'm getting snapple iced tea every day (lemon or peach), big sandwhiches, a fruit item (usually bananas or grapes or strawberries) and some other snack, be it chocolates or peanuts. Mmmmmmm... Thanks mom!

Now on to the "other learned appreciation for my mom" section. Working as a NAC covers some (I don't know if I dare say "many") of the tasks a parent must go through daily. Basically, NACs assist resident/patients in ADLs (activities of daily living) such as getting up in the morning, dressing, brushing teeth, feeding, transportation (help walking or getting around in a wheel chair) help in the bathroom, transfers, and much much more. While I was putting residents clothes away, a thought entered my mind that has stuck - I really, really appreciate my mom and all the work she has done like that for me. All the laundry, folding / putting away of clothes, feeding when I was young, diaper changing (we call them "attends" in the nursing home) etc. Mom - you're the best. Seriously.

2. Work so far...

Wow. Well there has been quite a bit now. I basically feel comfortable doing any task required of my position - which is very nice. The only thing I feel slow at is getting people up. I've found that I am not the best at matching clothes for some of the residents. Most of them don't care - and I am grateful for each and every one of them :D

I have worked 2 days in the A-wing (long term care), and enjoyed my work there, but didn't have as much fun as I did in the 2 weeks I spend in D-wing (medicare). Thats where people go after surgeries and hospital visits... I had a blast in that wing and made many friends with coworkers and residents. I was also offered a private job by one of the residents for when he gets out of the facility - and he's willing to pay me more than double what I'm earning currently. We'll see if anything comes of that. Currently I am in C-wing, which is 1/2 long-term care and 1/2 medicare. Its a good balance. And moving around keeps things interesting and provides more learning opportunities. Hurray!

3. Weekend at Jenns (27-29 of May)

Uh oh. I forget exactly how this went. But it was awesome... Hmmmmmmmm. Basically, before this weekend I was working on a day-to-day basis, not having a set schedule (they had yet to work me into the system). When I found out I had the 3-day weekend off, I decided to go and visit Jenn. YAY! I went over Friday night around 8 and arrived around 10:30. I think we just hung out and went to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour. It was afterall way past my usual bedtime =)

Saturday... We went and saw X-Men 3. Which was awesome. Somewhat of a bittersweet movie, but well worth seeing. Then Jenn had to go to (or got to... meh) a wedding shower for one of her close friends. Yay... I stayed at her house with her mom, and I had a lot of fun. I played with Gracie (her 1/2 retriever 1/2 german short haired pointer?) for an hour, and then spent the rest of the time talking with her mom. I think we both enjoyed each others company. Jenn came home and... Then I think we went over to her friends house and hung out before retiring to bed.

Sunday we went to church, and then Mr. Johnson got called out to help a semi up in Blaine, so I went with him. I got to wear some overalls that had the name "Randy" on them, and I must say I looked very official. The drive up was fun, and Mr. Johson and I had good talks about a bunch of different stuff, and he taught me some of the mechanical aspects of semis =) After we finished in Blaine he took me out to lunch at a burger place, and we had some there - especially with my overly-messy burger. That night Jenn and I went out and rented a couple of movies, and we watched them with her parents.

Monday we went out clam-digging. It was my first time, and I enjoyed it greatly. I'd love to go out and do it again. It was really cool because a ton of her extended family came out with us, and we were all digging up tons of clams. We went over to her grandmas house afterward and cooked them all up and visited for a few hours before I had to go home. It was a great weekend =)

Well... I think I have tired slightly of typing. Perhaps I will cover the remaining topics tomorrow?