Catching up :)

We'll go back to November 9 (Tuesday) to start - the day I subbed for 4th grade. Now that the event is more distantly in the past, it is hard to recall the exact experience, but here are my observations: 4th graders are not people (they're just little kids); they liked to hit, spit water on, insult, tattle on one another; they're breakable or wimpy - way too many requests to go to the nurse's office; you have to walk them everywhere (to lunch, to art, to fill up their water bottles...); portables should have water fountains. I don't really want to sub for 4th grade again.

On Thursday I left in the morning for College Station. I parked my car at Amanda's apartment and rode the bus to campus. I went to the organic chemistry labs to say hi to my friends, but sadly none of the adults (Dr. Hildreth, Carrie, Curtis) were there except Audrey. And Dr. Hildreth was all the way in Russia doing short-term missionary work. But at least I got to see some of my fellow student workers. Then Brad Cannon (fellow chem major, we've had classes together including the Horizons in Chemistry class where our group blew up the car) met me and we went to Subway for lunch. We must've talked for 2 hours, but we needed to catch up. I can really relate to Brad because he also defected from the BS degree to a BA track like me (his in environmental chemistry - he wants to work for the EPA). Then I went to the duplex to hang out with Em and kill time until Amanda got home from school. When she got home, I joined Amanda at her apartment and got to open my birthday presents! :) That night Amanda, Charity, and I went to dinner at On the Border and had a nice long talk. Charity is moving to Minnesota in February so that her husband Dan can work on a post-doc there. All three of us have exciting things going on in our lives right now. After dinner, Emily came over to Amanda's and we played Mario Kart (yeah, I took my Gamecube down to College Station) and talked until about 2 in the morning. Amanda was a wonderful hostess and made up a bed on the futon for me, and we both hit the sack.

Friday morning (barely) Amanda and I got up and decided we'd go to IHOP. It was a great way for me to wrap up my time with her. So we had Belgian waffles and talked some more before she had to go to class. After I dropped her off at the chemistry building, I went to the duplex for round 2 of my CS visit. We played some Mario Kart (Emily is getting really good) and were generally lumps on the couch - we were both tired from our late night and Emily was recovering from tests. That night we watched TV (Judge Judy, RW-RR Battle of the Sexes, Dr. 90210) and the movie Playing by Heart. Then we felt like getting out, and since I'd wanted to see it while I was in town anyway, we bundled up and drove to campus and walked over to the Bonfire Memorial. It was awesome. I hadn't liked the design when I saw it on paper, but it worked in real life. I thought it was great. On our way back to the car, we stopped by Underwood and said hi to Ashley (Em's roommate last year) and got some hot chocolate.

I left CS around 10 on Saturday and drove to the miniranch. Matt had gotten there before me, and we sat on the couch and watched A&M beat the hell outta Texas Tech! That night Mom fixed me a special birthday dinner (a mixed grill and macaroni and cheese were the highlights), with Carolyn's version of "Better Than Sex" cake for dessert. Matt, Mom, Dad, and I were joined by Carolyn, Beth, Jerry, Robert, and Cindy, which was fun. Then I opened presents, which were great - lots of things from my Amazon wishlist - and we had a bonfire. It started drizzling, so Matt and I went inside and watched Brain Donors on DVD (one of his presents to me). On Sunday, we headed back to Dallas after brunch so that I could get ready for work. Work was relative uneventful (the best parts were the delivery of Dachshund puppies and Matt visiting and bringing Sonic), and everyone thought I was crazy for being there on my birthday. Raye-Jean said I did a good job, which made me happy.

Monday and Tuesday were rest days to recover from an eventful birthday weekend and work and to prepare for three straight days of substitute teaching. I played a lot of Paper Mario (for the N64) in preparation for playing the sequel (for GCN) that I got myself for my birthday.

Wednesday through Friday I subbed for Ms. Janik's 8th grade language arts class while she was at the national meeting of the American Coaster Enthusiasts organization (she's on the executive council). Being there for three days, as well as already having subbed for the class before, really gave me a chance to get to know the kids and what they were like. On Wednesday, they did a lot of writing on their fictional short stories, Thursday was a vocab test, and Friday we analyzed a short story from their literature textbook. I had a great time doing it and the kids seemed to receive me pretty well too. They were particularly impressed that I went to a Metallica concert. I'll see most of those kids again December 2 when I sub for their math teacher, and tomorrow and Tuesday I'm subbing for my middle school social studies teacher for all three years, Julie Garrison (Churchill) (she got married November 13...she's on her honeymoon right now).

Yesterday Matt and I began a very early and preliminary apartment search. Some of the places we went laughed at us for starting so soon, since we won't be needing it until June. But we want to get an idea of the different locations, what you get for what price, amenities, etc. Plus we just like getting things done early. Yesterday we looked at higher priced, conveniently located places (another time we'll look at the cheaper, more North Dallas-type complexes). We were definitely able to come away from the day with a ranking of the complexes we'd seen, and one we liked a lot (AMLI at Bryan Place). Then we picked up Luke and had dinner and saw The Incredibles. We all liked the movie a lot. Then Matt took me home, because I was still tired from a hard week.

Today Matt and I went to the Unitarian Church (we're thinking it might be a wedding officiant source). Then I met Jon and Midhat at Cafe Istanbul for lunch. It was great catching up with them. They survived med school hell week in October and were onto complaining about their upcoming ethics test. Both of them will be going home for Thanksgiving, which will be their first times home since August. I'm glad they will be getting to see their families. And now I'm writing this and getting ready to go to work. Hopefully I won't get home too late since I have to sub tomorrow!

Oooo Yeah-heah!

Never fear loyal readers, you'll get my whole week+ update sometime this weekend, but as for now...

I substituted for Ms. Janik's 8th grade Language Arts class today (the same I subbed for a couple weeks ago). I was supposed to go to bed early tonight since I will sub again tomorrow and Friday. But instead I ended up at the Metallica concert with Matt because he won tickets at work. Not just at the concert, but in an amazing suite with only 7 other people and with free drinks and snacks and an awesome view. And the show itself was greatness (although I lament the loss of my hearing). So yeah, it was cool. Now I need sleep. :)

The people have spoken!

Okay, here's the new font color. Do you still like it now that you see lots of it all down the page? If only I could figure out how to make the links in my posts (only) be a different color. Oh well...

Oh, and whoever said 4th grade was one of the easiest grades to sub was totally wrong. More on that later.

Color

I've always thought the black text was a little hard to read with the dark background in my posts. What do my readers think? Is something like this color easier or harder to read than the black?

What about this color?

Okay, now what about this one?

Please let me know.

Work and whatnot

That kind of feels like the story of my life right now. Work produces more memories and stories in one day of the week than the other six days. Oh well, that's not a bad thing. But we'll start from the beginning. Friday night was BBQ with the Band and football vs Forney. It was also the time they do the drawing for the band raffle. There were three prizes and I bought three tickets, trying for the sweep. Well, I didn't win anything, which was a major bummer since the prizes were a 60" HDTV, a monster gaming computer built by Luke, and a nice Trek bike. Boo. We watched the first half of the football game, but we were killing Forney, so Matt and I left after halftime (M&D left after the first quarter to go to the miniranch). Matt and I came back here and drank hot chocolate and started a fire while watched the A&M-OU game from two years ago (when we beat #1-ranked OU) on ESPN Classic.

Saturday morning was my time to catch up on things like laundry and cleaning the floors. I also played some DDR and watched the movie Mona Lisa Smile, which I enjoyed. Then I headed over to the Roberts' to watch the A&M-OU game. It was such a good game, very fun to watch. The two trick plays we pulled off were amazing, and the only thing that could have improved it would have been us winning. But we came a lot closer than I would have predicted after last week's performance. After the game, Matt and I ate dinner at Pei Wei (we'd never been - it was good) and just relaxed. We played with Hammy. He's looking pretty grey and the hairless spot on his left side is now sporting a tumor. He isn't quite as quick as he used to be... I think Hammy may been nearing the end of his fuzzy rotund little life. But he still stuffs his seed pouches full with enthusiasm, so who's to say how much time he has left.

On Sunday morning, Matt, Mom, Dad, and I went to meet with the wedding caterer at the Arboretum. We decided on a tentative menu (all I remember is that macaroni and cheese has made it on the list). It was a beautiful day. Then I got ready for work and took it easy while Mom and Dad watched the [horrible] Cowboys game at Jerry's. Around 3:30 I headed for work.

Work last night was a little crazy. We had more patients than I'd ever seen, and it hovered in a state of controlled chaos until after 10pm. I was working with Raye-Jean again (she was hobbling around in her foot boot, which was the reason she wasn't with me last week), which was sort of a step back in my independence; despite having had my own case last week, she told someone last night that I "wasn't allowed to have my own cases yet." She's a really good teacher and I'm sure she wasn't just making that up completely, so I didn't say anything. Besides, the patient that was sort of mine was a handful -a two-year-old pug. So there was plenty of excitement last night. My pug pulled her line out (disconnected her leg catheter from the fluid line), allowing blood to go the wrong way out of the catheter, splattering on the cage and on me. It wasn't too bad, and I thought to myself that I could put getting bled on my list of work experiences. However, that wasn't the end of that. Later that night Dr. Smith helped me get a big Greater Swiss Mountain dog situated in a run and then told me to bring his owner back to visit him. Well, in the time it took me to get the owner, the dog had pulled her line (remember, this is a big dog) and there was blood everywhere. And the owner is standing there, thinking who knows what, but seeing his dog and what looks like lots of blood. But I couldn't make him go away, because then he'd think that something was seriously wrong with his dog. I told him what had happened as I reattached the line (getting my hands completely covered in blood), and then another tech named Francisco came by and helped out. The owner handled it really well, and Francisco got everything cleaned up before the owner had even left. It wasn't embarrassing per se, because it was just one of those things that happens, and it wasn't funny, but it was fairly comical in the timing. Easier to see it as funny since it didn't hurt the dog at all. Two pretty sad things happened at the clinic last night. First off was Stephanie's cat (Stephanie is the tech manager of sorts, the one who gave me my orientation before I started work). It had a possible foreign body, but since it wasn't one of her two "designated pets," anything done at the clinic was going to cost full price, which would be well over $1,000. It was a really rotten situation to be in...she was hoping the cat would be okay until tomorrow, when it could go to the clinic at which her mom is a tech and receive a substantial discount, but there were no guarantees it would make it that long. I felt really bad for her, and I really hope I'll hear a positive update when I see her next Sunday. The other really crappy thing last night was a cat that came in with a broken back. Just the broken back is awful enough, but then its owners refused to let us put it down, insisting that they wanted it to die of "natural causes" at home (i.e. slowly and in horrible pain). We were all really upset about that one. There's no way to completely blunt the pain the cat was feeling, especially at home where it may have lingered for hours. People can suck. Luckily, there was a much happier event last night - a C-section and puppies! A breeder brought in her Scottish Terrier for a cesarean, and I got to take one of the puppies as it came out. I did the whole harsh rubbing thing to bring it out of anesthesia and suctioned its nose and mouth. The one thing I was bad at was the shaking thing - you're supposed to hold their heads tightly and then sling them underneath you really fast to bring all the crud out of their lungs. Well, I felt like I was going to break the puppy's neck, so I did it way too tentatively. But it was so much fun to hold the tiny little Scottie puppy; their little paws are just as amazing as new babies' little hands with little fingernails. All six puppies made it just fine, and were bawling and nosing around a heated cage in minutes. When I left the clinic, the mother (who was very experienced) was nursing them. Awwwww!

So I'm heading down to College Station on Thursday for a couple days, for sort of a pre-birthday celebration. I'm going to spend one night with Amanda and one night with Emily and then head back on Saturday. I'm really excited - we're going to maybe talk wedding stuff and will definitely be playing some Mario Kart. I really want to go to campus and say hello to the organic chemistry lab folks as well as Dr. Hogg. Originally I was going to stay in College Station for the Tech game, but I've decided my presence is bad luck for the Aggies, so I'm going to probably head for the miniranch instead. But that'll be another fun way to celebrate my birthday, since on the actual day I will be at work. That makes me a little sad because no one at work will even know it is my birthday. *sigh* Oh well, I'll just make up for that by having a blast in CS and at the miniranch. Besides, the only thing special about turning 22 is that it is the first birthday that isn't particularly special.

What she said (Nov. 3)

Bryan too.

I exercised my right to vote.

I'm a voter! I voted this afternoon for the second time ever (first was the primaries in College Station) and in my first presidential election. Mom and Murphy walked down to the UP Fire Station with me and waited while I voted. I got a round of applause when the wonderful people working the polls found out I was (essentially) a first-time voter.

Going back a bit...Friday night Matt and I went to see Team America: World Police. Some parts were really funny (like puppets doing martial arts and the way they walked) but overall it was a bit slow. I'm going to completely skip over the trip Matt, Emily, and I took to Waco on Saturday for the A&M game, except to say that I love the Czech Stop on I-35. On Sunday, I watched the last hour of the Cowboy game at Matt's (yay 'Boys!) and then headed to work. I was without a babysitter (i.e. mentor, person to shadow) and had my first solo case - a Sheltie named Boots who had a broken leg and was awaiting a Monday surgery. He was a good dog. And I got to watch a lot of a bloat (GDV: Gastric Dilatation and Volvulus) surgery on a Burmese Mountain dog. It was cool to watch, but not so good for the dog - his owners had waited way too long to bring him in and half his stomach was dead. Yesterday I took it easy and recovered from a late night (the time change didn't help much). Today I subbed for Ms. Janik's 8th grade Language Arts classes at the middle school. It went really well - the kids were nice and reasonably well-mannered. I gave a vocabulary test and (with a strict warning) they didn't talk at all during it. And she doesn't have a class 8th period, so I got to leave a bit early! Yay! Then I voted, and now I'm sitting here.

Those who have been following my Barnes & Noble rage: I talked with Bill again on Friday. After a LONG time arguing (he wasn't really arguing; he just didn't get it), he thought he could do as I asked and that $11.02 should find its way into my bank account by Monday. It didn't make it by Monday, but it WAS there today when I checked. Thank goodness. My B&N saga seems to have come to an end. I couldn't have handled much more of that.

Oh, devoted readers of Brittany's blog (I know there are a few lurking out there): she posted an update yesterday. Check it out.