A SMORGASBORD OF RANDOM

Ok, yes, this is seriously how my brain works...so you're gonna have to bear with me!

1. Earth Day Tree: So I was super excited about getting my free tree from Lowe's for Earth Day! I came home and planted it in a cute little pot and sat it on my desk to watch it grow over the next months...so exciting! Until I googled the kind of tree it was and discovered that it would eventually grow into what appears to be more of a bush. It was a pine "tree," so I was really hoping to have this cute little Christmas-tree looking thing, but apparently I'm out of luck. I got a bush. It's not so exciting anymore. But even worse (and this vouches for my lack of a green thumb), I realized that now I have 3 trees in my apartment...NONE of which are actually trees. I have my Earth Day tree/bush thing if it survives longer than a month; I have my bamboo "tree," but bamboo is technically a grass; and I have my beachy Christmas tree from Melanie and her momma (which I absolutely LOVE)...does it count if it's a fake tree decorated with seashells?

2. Easter: I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! It was really a nice opportunity to reflect on how blessed I truly am-I can't even begin to put that into words. However...I kinda caught myself getting a little homesick. Ryan had to work, so I was left to my own devices and started thinking about how I missed dying Easter eggs with my little sister and having dinner with my family, I missed brunch with Ryan's family, and I really missed our church, pastor, and great friends that we haven't seen in so long. Made me a little teary eyed! But it only reinforced how much Ryan and I both want to move back when school wraps up.

3. On that note...what did I get myself into!? I'm not sure if this is normal for this area and/or this time of year, but there have been some crazy goings-on around here. First, the island keeps losing power because there is salt on the power lines? You'd think someone may have planned a round-about for that seeing as it's a friggin island in a body of salt water! Second, I get an email one day that I didn't have class that says something about the water cooling system being down? So, does that mean we don't have cold water in the water fountains? Whatever cold water this was, it was important to enact a state of emergency and cancel classes after noon that day. Ryan said it had something to do with the AC and no cold water=no AC on a day we were setting record high temps...no bueno. Third, Texas City (i.e. that city between me and school) is apparently not doing so well. I was discussing this with a classmate while we sat in a Starbucks in Texas City studying...something to do with a plant or refinery losing power and lots of bad stuff being leaked into the air? So much "bad stuff" that it exceeded any readings on the EPA instrument. My asthma really appreciates it, thanks guys! We got an email about a "shelter in-place" warning, but I didn't know what that means! To me, that says that you set up a shelter somewhere for the workers at the plant/refinery affected by said "bad stuff." So ya, no power (oddly, the Starbucks did have power though...) and bad stuff in the air. Next time, I need an email that says, "Lauren: Stay home and stay inside otherwise you won't be able to breathe. Thanks, the management."

4. Frolicking on the beach: The last time I went down to the beach in Galveston and actually played must have been when I was in junior high. Seeing as I'm now working on my Master's degree...that was some time ago! Well I caught a break from school on a day that Ryan had off work, so we headed down to the beach to play. It's kinda sad-I've lived here since August, and this was the first time we made it down to the beach to actually enjoy living on/near the island. I guess that's what PA school will do to ya!

5. A few of my favorite things...today in Great Syndromes, we combined a few of my favorite things. I can only imagine my mom's and Ryan's faces when they read this :) Research and current evidence+medicine+arguing/debating! Oh, it was fun! I didn't really want to do it at first, but when we started discussing the topic and throwing out what the evidence suggested, I really kinda enjoyed it. Even if I didn't actually agree with the side I was forced to argue for.

6. Congrats are in order: One of the many things I'm thankful for right now is for the fact that Ryan loves his current job-it doesn't hurt that this is seriously his calling in life! He's doing so well, he's learning, and he's really enjoying it all. Congrats are in order because he recently was in competition against the other assistant pro's in the area and he won the competition. Not only did he win, he pretty much blew the other guys out of the water. He's had a rough few years in the job department, so I'm so happy to see him doing so well at something he loves to do. Great job, babe! I'm so proud of you! Oh ya-his prize for winning? A new iPad which he has been wanting basically since they came out. He's like a kid in a candy store now...

All right, I think that's all my ADD brain can think of for now :) I'm sure I'll remember something else come about 2 AM...

POOR EXPLORER

Explorer tried, but it just couldn't go. I went down one morning ready to head to school, and it just wouldn't start. :( So I took Ryan's truck to school, and luckily he had the day off, so he could look it over to see if he could find out what's wrong. His best guess what that it was the battery. He asked when the last time I got the battery replaced was...ummm...ya, about that... I offered to stop at a store and pick up a new one, but he informed me that he couldn't get the battery out because the terminals were too corroded. I asked if we could jump it, and he said no because of the corrosion. So...how do you make a car go if you can't fix what's wrong? Apparently, you call the local shop and they come get it and tow it in. Then, they laugh and have to use a machine that resembled a jack-hammer to get the old battery out. Then, they give you a 7-year warrantied battery for your 12 year old car with 170K miles on it in hopes that "the battery will outlive the car, so we never have to go through this again." Yup, words from the shop owner. I make fun, but they were really super nice and took great care of us. Ryan insisted on taking this picture below...of the new and the old terminals. Gee, I wonder if you can tell which is which. See the pretty blue and rust on the top one? That's called corrosion. Lesson learned...

TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS

So I guess God read the blog last week and saw that I had an easy week...He never lets me get terribly complacent with things going easily. I keep telling myself that it's His way of molding me and helping me grow, but sometimes it's down-right hard! So last weekend, I was all ready to get prep'd for my Pharm final this week. I'd gotten all my materials together on Saturday and planned on dedicating Sunday to making some charts to study all the classes of medications and really getting some solid studying done. Well...change of plans. Instead, I got an awesome migraine, which really killed any reading I'd had planned. So I popped some medicine and was forced to bed until the migraine resolved. The migraine told the medicine "NO!" and instead made me miserably nauseated. Fun new symptom, I also couldn't seem to maintain my body temperature. It would go down to about 97, then up to a fever...back down to 96.4 or so...and back up. So I was dressed like an eskimo buried under 3 blankets and a layer of pillows as I lay miserably in bed unable to hold down any medication or otherwise that might have helped. This went on for the rest of the day and night. Monday morning, I drug myself out of bed (not that I'd slept or anything...), forced down some Excedrin migraine (because the prescription stuff makes me super sleepy, and I couldn't miss my 8 AM class) holding on to some glimmer of hope that I wouldn't see it again, and somehow made it to Walgreens to purchase a variety of things to help with the nausea. I made it to class and back home to my bed without anything too exciting except that I was mentally absent for class, and promptly took the good stuff to get rid of the headache. Like I said, it makes me sleepy, so I was out for the rest of the day and night. I managed to keep down a grilled cheese, a few sips of water, and a popsicle. Popsicles are great for nausea...did you know that? My chemo patients taught me that. Fun side note-Pharm final is tomorrow and I haven't studied. Of course, it all ended up going just fine because God doesn't give me more than I can handle. Some serious last-minute cramming, my best friend Red Bull, and a few tricks from the med students, and I got my A on the final. But hey, it wasn't easy!!

I found a FLEA on my dog, so Wednesday was spent doing anything and everything possible to kill fleas within a sight's distance. I have no sympathy when it comes to fleas. You bite my dog, you die. I hate fleas! My dogs have never had a flea and they're 7 years old! But after talking to a few people around here, I discovered that apparently this region has an issue with fleas once spring hits. Seeing as this is our first spring here, and we weren't notified of this when we got here...we were kinda caught with our pants down. Well that ship has sailed, and we are now armed and ready. There are no more fleas in sight and I hope they've all been warned to stay away! Or else...

Then, there was Thursday...Not only did I have a quiz at school, but someone also knocked on Ryan's window at a stop-light to notify him that all of his brake lights had gone out. When all of your lights go out at once, it's not a fuse and it's not a bulb, which means, it's not gonna be a cheap fix. So I spent today at the car shop with the truck finding out exactly how much it costs to have brake lights. It's really sad, but they remembered me from when Explorer was brought/towed in about a week ago because the battery terminals were too corroded and we couldn't get the battery out to replace it. Yay, happy weekend to me! :/

So as you can see, it was a bit of a rough week, but now, it's Easter weekend! And that's certainly something that shifts my focus-when it's all said and done, I'm still so very blessed! There's always something to be thankful for. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend, and remember why we celebrate.

I COULD GET USED TO THIS

Ok, so far, Great Syndromes=greatness. Instead of taking 7 classes at a time and being in class Mon-Fri 8A-5P, I'm in class about 4 days a week 8A or 9A til 11A. Of course, I still have to study at home, but now I'm studying for one class instead of 7! I barely know what to do with myself-I've been able to run and work out, keep the apartment clean, and even squeak in a nap or two! (But don't tell my professors...) I even had time to take a horseback riding lesson this week! So ya, it's not too bad so far, but I guess that can always change at the drop of a hat.

Now for something I'm not going to get used to...I don't know what happened on Saturday, but apparently people lost their minds that day. Seriously, like everyone. Ryan and I treated ourselves to a movie, but the operator fell asleep I guess. The projection wasn't big enough to cover 1/2 the screen and it kept skipping like it had a bad internet connection or like a CD does when it's scratched. They eventually got it fixed, but don't think I didn't raise a fuss until it was fixed, and I wasn't the only one following the manager around complaining about it. When it costs so much to see a movie, I expect it to go smoother than that! So then we went to dinner-mind you, at 5:30, a perfectly normal dinner time, in a pretty crowded restaurant. Waitstaff was less than mediocre-they couldn't even get our salads out at the same time, there were flies, a guy vacuumed right behind us then yelled at one of the workers across the restaurant, and right in my line of sight was a really nice aquarium-which was supposed to be a plus, but when all I could see was one fish eating another dead fish the whole time...I lost my appetite pretty quickly. Multiple people notified many of the workers, but apparently nobody working at the restaurant cared to fix the situation. The food was of about the same quality as the waitstaff and other workers. Great job, Cheddars...stellar performance. Ryan and I went to Target afterwards because usually Target cheers me up, but even that was a fail because a nearby store was hosting a classic car show in the parking lot...so idiots were amuck in the parking lot and they ventured into Target when they got bored. Even the police decided to park their car "out of the way" in the middle of a main lane of traffic. No lights, it wasn't for direction...they just parked it there. So I bought a bottle of wine at Target, came home and locked the door, and enjoyed the peace of watching a movie on our own TV with the hubs. I'm staying in today.

TEMPORARY LAPSE...

So now that my brain has had about 8 hours to relax, I realized that I never updated you on my rotations! You know, the next year of my life! Kinda important (to me, at least). The fabulous news is that only about 2 months will be spent away from home without Ry and the pups, and 3 of those weeks will be in the Dallas area so I can stay with my family and get to visit with them for a while. Even better...I start in primary care, then graduate to surgery/ER, and my grand finale is OB/GYN and Pedi. Some of my poor classmates have to start in the ER and some other crazy stuff like that. There are lots of us and not really a lot of options, so every year a few people get the short end of the stick in that manner, but we all end up getting done what needs be done. So in short, we get to stay in our apartment and I won't have to be moving a bunch or spend most of my time out of town, which is absolutely awesome! I'm looking forward to all of my rotations for the unique learning experiences at each, but the one I'm probably most looking forward to is my oncology rotation at MD Anderson. Oncology is a strong field of interest for me, so we will just have to see what awaits! And to my UTSW peeps...I'm not cheating on you with MDA. It's part of my education and it's going to make me a better PA, I promise. Love you guys! So ya, I have plenty to be looking forward to! So blessed!

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

That's right folks, I have completed my second semester here at PA school! Overall, this semester was still really intense, but a little less intense than last semester. I think I studied about the same amount (maybe just a tiny bit less), but my quality of studying was much better. Plus, I got to spend more time with patients, so that made me happy. I rounded out the semester with 4 A's and an 89.3...so close! When it's that close, you can only laugh and move on. So you may be wondering, what's next? Well, we have four weeks of a course called Great Syndromes with the second year med students. It's a mix of lectures in large groups and small group meetings where we focus on problem-based learning and actual scenarios. After that, we have six weeks of a few courses designed to guide us in our research projects and help prepare us for clinical rotations. THEN...they're sending me out into the real world on clinical rotations. Watch out, world, here I come! I'm pretty intimidated by rotations, but at the same time, I'm really looking forward to using all of this stuff I've been taught in lecture and read in textbooks over the last year. Let the adventure continue...God is so good!