bloom where you're planted

and... it's monday again. how does that happen! i got to watch a video of myself giving a simulated patient counseling session. and i realized that i don't like watching myself. that's all. i love my girls, we went to incredible pizza tonight to celebrate crystal's school. it was a lot of fun.
finley told us the name of the biter at daycare, we asked them about it today and they said that was the one. they think finley is just so smart, and really funny. we know that she is. love her :)

this one's from chicago. i like all the color in it. i call it NO OP.

our weeks go by so quickly. our weekends fly by much faster. i'm just trying to hold on.

for almost two years now, finley has listened to baby einstein lullaby cds while she sleeps. the one that's in now plays on repeat nonstop forever and ever throughout the day. we don't even hear it anymore. so you have no idea how happy i was to find this rockabye baby series. it's full cds of lullaby versions of radiohead, coldplay, the beatles, led zeppelin, pink floyd, greenday, metallica, tool, NIN, and so on and so on. so tonight finley is sleeping to radiohead and coldplay. the only one i could find on youtube for you to listen to was a greenday one (basket case). but you get the idea. i love it!

Spiders, Triamterene, and Stethoscopes

apparently memphis has a spider problem. apparently we are in the heart of spider territory. apparently i didn't get that memo. this morning i woke up, fumbled into the bathroom, eyes still full of sleep. i leaned over to brush my teeth and there sat a monster spider waiting to eat my soul. i nearly had a heart attack. this was one of those crazy wolf-spider looking beasts and it must have crawled up out of the drain. and in my heart i know he has friends (a lot of them probably) and that literally makes me shiver. so there i am, six a.m., standing in the safety of the bedroom, in just my boxers, filling the bathroom with half a can of bug spray until everything was coated with it and the monster had shriveled up and died. i could barely take a shower after that. i had visions of spiders coming out of the shower head, crawling through my hair. i could see them crawling up through the drain and eating my toes. i could feel them creeping up my legs. i had to shake my towel out and each piece of clothing had to be beaten before i could put it on. i know i have issues, but it's not right to scare a man like that when he's half asleep. that just about screwed up my whole day.

today i had to wear a tie. i had to counsel a patient on her new medication. it counts for a grade that is 15% of my final grade in my basic skills class. here's how it went.
1. she was not a real patient... she was an actor.
2. it was video taped, and will be graded by the actor, a real pharmacist, and myself.
3. i had a list of blood pressure and fluid pills to be familiar with and didn't know which one i would have to counsel on until five minutes before the session began.
4. it was a little stressful and i was nervous.
5. i told her she could take advil with dyazide. that's probably not a good thing... ooops.
6. they will email me the video and i have to watch it and grade myself. that should be interesting.
7. i bought a stethoscope and it came in today! check out Finn's site to see some cute pics of it.
8. tomorrow's friday. thank goodness.

walk

this is me. walking to class this morning. thrilling. i know.

garfield minus garfield

this is really funny. it's garfield... minus garfield. it's pretty much brilliant. you can find all of them here http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

that's all

rusty cow

i have to watch sicko for class this week. should be interesting discussions to follow. tomorrow is the first day of fall. and i'm excited about that. i love the fall. i just wish we could have fall, then thanksgiving, and christmas, then skip from new year to about march. i get so tired of the winter. maybe this will be a short one. i've been playing around with layers on photoshop. my burps taste like perkins. that's gross.

thank goodness it's friday

the sun shines bigger in memphis

i made it through three exams in three days and i'm still alive. but barely. time to start studying for the next round.

yo where my bees at?

this is me as a bee. the honey bees are disappearing. and this video is hilarious.

two exams down. one to go. i have learned that i need to study more. that's no fun. we watched fringe. anyone else? i think i really like it. we have dried out now, the leak is fixed. there are fans and dehumidifiers running constantly. you can't hear yourself think. they are coming tomorrow to patch the holes in the ceiling, and repaint the wall (i guess it doesn't matter if there is still water behind them, or if there is mold growing...). i am quite done with apartment living. back to studying. drug of choice... propranolol. i think it might help me on the exam tomorrow. HAPPY BIRTHDAY my love!

flooded

So last night Crystal and I were sitting in the living room and we heard a drip drip drip drip sound coming from the kitchen. we went to investigate and the kitchen floor was a puddle. water was coming out from the outlet on the wall, running across the counter and into the floor. Water was coming out from under the refrigerator as well.

then we looked in the dining room and saw that the wall around the outlets was wet, and then we realized that the carpet was wet too. we listened up against the wall and it sounded like a waterfall running down through the wall.


Then we found out that the laundry room had standing water in the floor, and water was visibly running out of the wall.



We called and called and called and finally got a hold of maintenance. She went upstairs and turned the water off in the vacant apartment above us. but while she was gone to do that water started pouring out of the florescent light in our kitchen. we filled a pot with the water (i thought that only happened in movies).


So the maintenance lady told us she would come back in the morning to check on it (she never did). But when we woke up in the morning this is how wet our carpet was. when we would walk to or from our bedroom water would squish up between our toes.


This is what the wall in the dining room looked like last night, the next picture is from this morning. same spot



We have been calling all morning and finally got their contract carpet dryer man (who was already out to these apartments once this week, and was here again with someone else last night... what does that tell you...) he sucked a lot of the water out of the carpet and set up a fan under the carpet and an industrial dehumidifier. he said he'll be back monday to check on them. and supposedly the contract plumber is on the way. what a way to spend the weekend (crystal's birthday weekend, and i have two more big tests on monday and tuesday this week). i'm so stressed out i can't see straight.

i was raised in the mountains

my first big test is on friday. i tried relieving some stress by playing around on photoshop. let me know what you think...

insomnia makes for long days and long nights (and a very tired baby)

last night i couldn't sleep. neither could crystal. we all went to bed at about ten... and just lay there. i even took two benadryl, but that didn't touch me. then finley started crying, she couldn't sleep either. it was all quite odd that we all three felt so wide awake. there were some sweet moments with her cuddled up between us in bed, the three of us trying desperately to fall asleep. and we shared some great family time at 1:30 in the morning with finley sitting on the kitchen counter, crystal feeding her yogurt, and me giving her chocolate milk to drink from a straw. but by 2:30 am we couldn't take it anymore. we left finley in her bed to cry it out (and it took a lot of crying). the last time i remember looking at the clock it was 3:14. and then i had to be up at 6:00 this morning. it was a long long long day, and i had quite a hard time concentrating. i am quite excited to fall asleep tonight!

today in class we learned that the cigarette is the most effective drug delivery system available. when you inhale a puff of smoke from a cigarette the entire amount of nicotine (which is quite a bit) travels to the lungs, then to the heart, then straight to the brain. so every bit of the nicotine you breathe in through the smoke is completely absorbed by the receptors in the brain. it's a huge dose. so the nicotine is incredibly addictive, and it is quickly broken down by the body, so smokers need to smoke another cigarette to avoid withdrawal symptoms. one other interesting note was that the nicotine gum (when used correctly: chewing a few bites, then placing it in your cheek so that the nicotine is absorbed bucally) is basically the same thing as dip. neat




tomorrow we are going to the zoo! i love the zoo!

fedex and the mountains

i miss the mountains. i like the rain. it rains a lot here. yesterday it rained 3.32 inches. today it was just cloudy and really windy.

today in class we heard a lecture by a FedEx pilot. because pilots can't make mistakes or 747's would fall from the sky daily. i think that was the point. the thing i remember was this video of a typical day's FedEx flight plans. memphis is the international headquarters of FedEx. every night from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am, there are 300 flights that come into memphis. it's the busiest airport in the world during those nighttime hours, and it is the busiest cargo airport of any airport in the world. they handle 3.3 million packages a day. the video is worth watching for a few seconds, until the planes come in and then all leave again. they call it the "FedEx ant farm."







interesting video on the SuperHub

well, that's enough useless trivia for now. i need to go study...

busy weekend

love the pig pickin'. it was so good to see family and friends. it was a lot of driving. but it was all worth it. it was nice to spend some quality time with my girls (especially since we don't see much of each other during the week)


so much good food
love my baby girl!

baby callie
i sweat a lot