I'm such a time-waster.

If time were a tangible commodity, I would be on every watchdog group list in the nation... NO! THE WORLD! Thanks to a seminary friend's website, I have just spent about the last 3 hours listening to songs that a guy makes up for people. His website is here. This also made me remember another fun song that is available for download. Now, all this time wasting has made me hungry. Time to go downstairs now. Have a good day.

Accident Free for 3 days.

Well, my side finally quit hurting! It's been 3 days, I think. I'm excited. I'm not going to die after all! WEEE! Anyway, I'm here at the CPE house. I'm on call tonight, as I have been 99.9 percent of Thursday nights for the last 3 1/2 months. This is my last Thursday on-call. I am covering the absolute last on call night for this unit next Wednesday. One of my CPE mates asked if I could cover for her, and I said I would gladly oblige. I'm going to miss this place, this experience, and most of all, the people. We've really bonded, I think. We're available to each other, honest, and encouraging. I'm going to miss it.

I hope that when the next class comes in for summer Greek, that I will be able to bond with some of them considering that they will be my actual class, I think. I have met some absolutely wonderful people at the castle, but they're all ahead of me. I won't be that far ahead of those coming in this summer. So, I hope...

And with that, I need to go downstairs and have some wonderful granola goodness. Have a blessed evening.

Still Waiting...

to start puking, that is. My side still hurts, in an off and on manner. Thought I was going to start tossing my cookies last night, but I didn't. It's weird though, my symptoms aren't exactly like classic appendicitis symptoms, so I don't want to go to the E.R. and have them tell me it's gas or something. But it's been one full week of off again, on again side pain. I was at the hospital where I do my CPE on Saturday night because I volunteered to be the person who did 3 on call Saturdays instead of 2, (or 2 1/2) and I was in the trauma bay with someone when it started hurting so bad I had to step out and sit down for a while. The patient was unconscious, and the family wasn't there yet, and the doctors were doing a procedure on the person, but I still hated to leave her. But, the pain became tolerable, and I was able to get back into action. So, I'm unsure about what to do. I'm sure you all are sick of hearing about my inaction on this matter, but hey... It's my blog and I'll blather if I want to. Ok.

In other news, Saturday was a busy day: 2 MI alerts, (heart patients) two traumas, and one SICU patient/family. They were all incredibly different from each other. I was glad that I was hanging out at the hospital instead of the CPE house because I only got paged once through the pager. Since I was in the hospital, I heard the codes overhead and was able to respond. The people were grateful (or so they said). This coming Friday is my last day on the actual floor, although I'm covering the on call night for one of my CPE mates next Wednesday because her mom is here from South America, and is flying back home that day. I can't believe it's coming to an end. Wow.

And that is that. Mom has been out of the hospital and out of the nursing home for a while now. My oldest brother and his wife have decided to take care of her at home in order to stave off nursing home care for as long as possible. Ma gets really depressed when she's kept from home for an extended period of time, although sometimes when she is home, she doesn't realize it... Who knows. I'm tired. See ya.

Six weird things about me...

Hmm, just for fun, I thought I'd consider myself tagged by RuthRe. I don't know if these are truly weird things, but whatever...

1. I wore the same hooded, black, zip-up sweatshirt almost EVERY SINGLE DAY of my undergraduate career. It was my security blanket, really. I still have it and wear it quite frequently, although not everyday. BTW, I DID wash it regularly.

2. I find immense joy in learning new words, and really, in the English language, on the whole. I regularly throw out new words while I am engaged in persiflage, and find it quite amusing. (Although, I try to do it in situations where the humor will be seen by those with whom I am conversing, so they don't feel dumb. I mean really... I don't think many people are dumb at all. I just like using big words.) One of my favorite sentences in the whole world is: Never use a big word when a diminutive one will suffice. The other favorite sentence? The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Why, you may ask? Because it contains every letter in the Engligh alphabet.

3. I was about a foot shorter than the "regular" kids in my class in grade/middle school. I was the short kid who got made fun of by the older kids, and was defended fiercely by most of the kids in my own class. Now, I'm the happiest person you'll ever meet to be perfectly average. Modern medicine is wonderful.

4. I was semi-famous for a couple of years because I was the "Now You Know Girl" in my high school media class. Those of us who took media had to put on a newscast to be broadcast on Fridays throughout the school. Weird facts were my thing back then. So, I bought these prop nerd glasses and came up with humorous places to stand while my camerawoman would tape me. She'd turn on the camera and I'd say, "This week's bizarre fact: Did You Know that.... Blah blah blah... NOW YOU KNOW!" And while saying "Now you know," I would contort my face. People were coming up to me on the streets and at Restaurant for YEARS after I graduated. They would say, "Aren't you the 'Now You Know Girl?" And I would say, "Yes, yes I am." And they would ask me to do one for them. Hehe. I miss those days...

5. My oldest brother is twenty-two years older than I am, and I didn't meet him until I was five. I still remember the day because he brought his fiancee home and they brought donuts. If they'd not brought donuts... I probably wouldn't remember the day.

6. I won my school's spelling bee three times, and thus went forth to the county spelling bee. I always got out fairly soon, but it was because I was nervous. One time I was a little bit mad though, because this guy started over and changed his spelling (which you are NOT allowed to do), and he spelled it right the second time. But, when it was my turn, I did the exact same thing and got dinged out. But, hey.. What can ya do? It's not like I'm going to turn into Steve Buschemi's character on Billy Madison or anything. :) Hehe. So, these things aren't THAT weird, but I don't care. See ya.

WebMd is not to be substituted for medical advice.

Alright, so here I sit, unsure as to whether or not I have appendicitis. My lower right tummy has been hurting for two days, and I'm starting to feel a little bit pukey. However, my sinuses are also draining, and that could be contributing to this nausea. That, and I didn't eat a good dinner because I'm too tired to go downstairs and cook something. The pain is less severe today than it was yesterday, leading me to think it's not appendicitis. I was talking to one of the staff chaplains at the hospital today about appendicitis and he was telling me how it felt when he had it. I'm not quite feeling like that, so I think I'm okay. Heck, this pain/nausea could be stress related or due to the fact that I've spent 10 hours in the car in the last 2 days. Who knows? If I start feeling worse, I'll be making a trip to my friendly neighborhood hospital, despite the fact I have no insurance. So, here's hoping (and fervently praying) that it's not appendicitis.

I'm feeling very sad.

I just received news that the man my mom used to date died this evening. They went out for a couple of years, and I really came to love this guy. I posted a good long while back, asking if people ever see other people as parental type figures. Dick was the first and only guy my mom saw after my dad died, and I came to see Dick as a fatherly figure. He was a lot like my own dad, and he was just special to me. I was sad when he and my mom stopped going out, but that didn't make me lose any respect for him. He was still very vibrant, and I think he could see Mom sliding downhill. I'm sure it was hard for him to see her start sliding, and it would have been unfair of us to expect him to stay with her as she continued her cognitive decline. I tried to speak to him every time I saw him, just to reinforce that I still cared for him. I saw him in his car on Sunday, and now I only wish I would have stopped him and said, "Hi." I really loved Dick. I can't believe how sad I am about this.

I guess I'm not that damaged, after all. Because I sobbed when I heard.

Thanks be to God for Dick's life, and for all he was to those around him. He'll be missed.

To and Fro

Well, I came back to Seminary last night after a weekend of being home, yet again. I have been home every weekend for about a month now. To tell you the truth, I'd rather stay here. Granted, I love being at my home church, and being with my family, and being able to see my nephews, and sleep in my own bed, but the back and forth is not helping me settle in. But, I feel like I need to be home because of Ma's surgery and subsequent illness. And now, I'm going home again after CPE tomorrow night because it's Holy Week and things close down up here and all that jazz. And then, April 18 is Howard's 1st birthday. I want to be there to celebrate that with the family, too. But then, I hope to stay here until the semester ends, which is May 11th. I'm leading worship and preaching on the 20th of May, so I'm looking forward to that. I helped lead worship yesterday, which was fun. As I was shaking hands with people as they left, our congregations oldest active member shook my hand and said, "You did a nice job. Oh, but what's that on your sleeve? Ha-April Fool's!" I giggled a little then, but it's crackin' me up now. I don't know... Maybe you had to be there.

Anyway, Ma is still in the hospital. They're trying to find out from where she is bleeding. She received two bags of blood on either Friday or Saturday. She's not sleeping well because when she's out of her element she doesn't. So, she's getting more and more confused again. She had been getting better while she was at the nursing home, but with all that's happening with being hospitalized, having more anesthesia for some minor procedures, and not sleeping, she's sliding back downhill. So, hopefully she'll be able to get out of the hospital soon so she can start getting with it again. Anyway, I hope you all are doing well, and that you're enjoying the promise of spring out there. I can hear the birds chirping right outside my windows. When I look out the window, I'm always surprised to see how green the grass is. Spring is a good time of year.

Oh, and after today, I probably won't be back online until next Tuesday. Sis and Bil's computer desk was moved and it's not by a phone line, and my computer will stay here. So, if you come lookin' for posts, don't think I've fallen off the face of the Earth. Hopefully BiL will use his mad skills and hook up a phone line so they can get the Internet in the dining room where there computer now is... Who knows?

Have a blessed Easter, and don't eat too much chocolate-Send it to me, instead!