Another Thing

So I'm still alive. Barely.

I never realized school would be so intensive. I knew it would be tricky and moderately hard (especially working full time), but I never knew there would be so much testing involved.

So on my On-week this is how it goes: I wake up at 730 (which is later than I should, but I can't make myself get out of bed before then, whether I'm awake or not). So I get up and rush to get ready in the morning so that I can drive to work and catch the 8 am shuttle to school. School goes from 830 am to 230-330 usually, and till noon on Thursday/Friday, but regardless of the day I go straight to work afterwards on the shuttle. On days that I get out later I'm behind in hours, and on the two days I get off early I'm making up work for those hours I didn't get...and so all said and done I get off from work at about 1230 am every day I work. Then I go home and take a shower, then I pass out and wake up in 6 or so hours for the next day of school.

I have no time to myself to even think. I don't have time to study, to hang out, to read my scriptures (I listen to them at work on my ipod), to run (I have a half marathon coming up in October that should be interesting)... And they're cross training me at work, which wouldn't be a big deal if they had people to cover the up front stuff I don't have time to do while training. As it is, there are two of us at night to run our respective instruments and to split the remainder of our time bringing in samples to lab, splitting tubes of samples that have different tests on them, sending samples to storage, and filing SPEPS. It's a lot more work than it sounds like, and the person I work with at night is a total greenie. I think that's what I'll name him. He's awesome, but he's new and can only do so much given that. He's actually awesome, but the old night person who is now the day person on his/our instrument, is a total slacker. He does what he has to, and nothing more. It drives me crazy. So I'm trying to help Greenie, train, and we're both doing all this stuff that they really should hire a third person to do at night which is frustrating. I need to talk to my supervisor.

School is another thing. We have 2-4 tests a week. This is not easy material either. Hematology, Immunology, Microbiology...We're accountable for everything mentioned or even eluded to. Plus we have labs with all of them, which are time consuming. My Basic Immunology (I have a Clinical Immunology class as well) professor is an evil dictator (which I'll get into on another day). So on my On-weeks I struggle through, and on my Off-weeks I spend myself cramming for tests I have the next day and which it's the first time I've even looked at the material. Those rare days I have off with no school (saturday/sunday on my off-weeks) I spend studying for the tests I have on my on week. This is hard considering for some classes the material taught on the day before the test will still be covered on the test. So I've acquired a myriad of grades, none of them failing (I have to get C's to not fail out of the program), and we'll see how this all goes. Next year will be cake actually. It will be all clinical rotations and no testing, so the days will be long but not intellectually taxing. Just draining. I can live with that after this year so far. I can't believe it's only been less than a month. It feels like ages. I have my Clinical Immunology final on Wednesday. I think that's why so many tests. We have a bunch of classes that only go part of the semester, but to be certified at the end of our program we will be taking tests designed by the state, not our professors, which is why they're cramming so much knowledge into our courses.

Luckily I went into this program with two friends. Worm is on my on-week, so though I see both friends the same amount of time at school (which is a long amount of time), I'm actually able to study with him. Plus Steven is married and the little free time he has is spent with his newly pregnant wife. We're all happy to see each other suffer with us. Steven stresses out a lot, and has reason to with so much on his plate. He's kind of my opposite, so he has the same amount of crap to deal with as I, with the added problem of a family to worry about. Worm, who I will now refer to as "Guy" after finding out that this is his legitimate middle name, is the most lax person I've ever come across in all of my years. It's impossible to be stressed out around him much, because the concept is foreign to him. He's also super cynical, and is me essentially in guy form. We bring out the cynicism in each other, and are ultimately more cynicism than ever will be present in one room at the same time. We can say anything to each other without worry of the other taking it badly, and others are often baffled by how seemingly rude our humor is towards each other without any insult being taken. We also talk about stupid and random things that come into our heads suddenly, and It's altogether a refreshing thing. He's kind of keeping me sane right now. Plus it's just always good to have a study buddy to learn more. We generally go buy mass amounts of sugar and caffeine, then takes random breaks to reward ourselves while studying to places we feel like going on whims. Like the 7/11 for slurpees or Graywhales to buy myself cds. The best thing is that I have no romantic interests in him in the slightest. That I think is why it's so easy to talk to him. I LOVE guy friends like that. I don't have to be inhibited in any way in what I say, because there's not even a glimmer of a spark there. I did realize that I will not have a glimmer of a dating life for at least the next year, which is depressing. I'll live, but I'll come out of this whole experience very much isolated...more than I already was. I wish there were cute guys in this program, because we all spend so much time together, but there are only 32 people total, so the odds weren't good to begin with. Considering half are girls and many of the guys are married...not so much. I do have a slight crush on this one kid, but it is just that; slight. Most of the time I can't so much decide if I have a crush on him after all, and then sometimes I do. Whatever.

So that's my uneventful eventful life in a nut shell. A truly crappy nut. A walnut? I'm not a huge fan of walnuts in the shell. Or walnuts not incorporated into something with sugar in it actually. Man I should really go to sleep right now. I have a practical exam tomorrow I'm not studying for right now. Guy came over tonight to study, and we ended up taking brownies to people we know after we each consumed 3 of them. It was partially to be nice, partially so we wouldn't get hugely obese from our horrible newly acquired habits of eating nothing but junk, and partially to get out of studying. So basically it worked on all accounts. I think we've just needed a break lately though. After cramming for our 3rd test in a row this past week we reached delirium. He would ask me questions he knew I didn't know the answers to, I would make up my own snide definitions, he would respond snidely, and we would laugh with no control over it whatsoever. At one point I snorted and we laughed about it for 20 minutes. That's how burnt out we were at that point. I'm super excited for Fall Break incidentally.

The Week of Ends

I titled this with the intention of writing the actual content of this post the next day. Come 2-3 weeks later...

I haven't written in a long while. I should change the name of my blog to that. I really don't have a good excuse either, other than that I don't tend to have any free time to think to myself lately; unless it is composed of the maturation of cells, immune responses, or different bacterial/pathological diseases that can occur from a lack of hygeine and common sense. Then there's the fact that I have nothing to write about, which will also tend to do it--whatever it is. Thus the week of ends where pretty much in the course of days everything changed, and most of the normalcy in my life terminated. But despite those facts, I do have a computer at my command at all times, and we have the internet at my house...both ideal situations for others to hear about my non-life.

So 2-3 weeks ago I started school and changed positions at the lab to be working nights instead of days. All this was like being thrown into a swimming pool without the prior knowldege of how to swim--which I should know considering I can't swim--just hoping that desire to live would trump the tendency to drown. I guess school has only been going for 2 weeks, but it feels like a wide expanse of eternity stretching out both from behind and in front of me. I had my first exam in hematology 10 days from when class started, and on my birthday no less. I'm not sure how I did, other than that I was prepared and that I didn't fail. But I do now know how that particular professor will test, and I'm not too worried about it in the future. It will be a lot of looking at stains on microscopes and differenciating cell types and stages, which would be interesting if I could dwell on it more instead of rushing from one subject to another. Immunology will be another matter for sure. I have two Immunology classes actually, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about them. On the one hand, after working in the Immunology department of my lab for 3 years, it's cool to see the names of the tests I've heard thrown out over the last few years and to finally know and understand a little about them, and what's involved with them. I answer a lot of phone calls at work with people asking questions about sed tests, and it's quite something being the middle man in a conversation between two people who know what they're talking about when you yourself are off in a distant land where English is still the national language and latin is extinct. But both classes (basic and clinical) are exremely involved, and if my professors could talk any faster than they already do my hand would fall off from the effort involved in writing it all down. I did get a nifty digital recorder for lectures, which I think is more of a security blanky than anything else, because I have no idea when I'll have time to relisten to any of these lectures. Microbiology, like Hematology, shouldn't be horrible. We do a lot of culturing of bacteria in agars in the lab, and I actually quite enjoy myself. Why, just the other day I accidentally stabbed my agar with my thumb, simultaneously wiping out my developing community of chicken broth bacteria and in its place laying down the beginnings of what would become quite a beautiful array of skin flora. This was the part of my Genetics class I actually liked.

Anyway, I have 4 classes and 4 labs to go with them. On my on weeks from work I go straight from school to work, and straight from work to bed. Then I wake up and go to school. Factering in showers, brushing of teeth, eating...I get far less than the recommended 8 hours of sleep that I'd like, and there is no time left over to even study, which makes for delightful evenings of study on my off weeks. Going from school lab to work lab has thus far thrown me for a loop. I'm used to the morning people, and considering I'm the only person working at night right now for the most part (until the new kid I will work with gets trained and starts nights), it's just kind of eery getting to work and having the lab so empty. The morning people are so happy, and the only morning people still there when I get to work are the former night people, and we're all still getting used to the changes so I generally have no time to think at work either. There's a lot to do at night, far more than two people should have to handle on all days except Monday/Tuesday, so it's even more fun when one person is doing them and doesn't quite have the schedule down that is required to finish them all in a 10 hour period. On the one hand work is just different enough that when I go straight from school to work I'm suddently trying to let my mind adjust to the changes, like ones eyes would to a change in light or darkness. But it's the same in that both are fast paced and there's a lot of science involved, and for someone with a lot of varying interests and hobbys in addition to an interest in science...It's a lot more monotonous than I'd like.

All this has taught me that I will either have iron self-discipline by the end of this whole experience (the next year for sure, and the one after that though it will be less intense than the first), or I will have a nervous breakdown which will probably result in a name change and a life spent outside of the country documenting the lives of flatworms. We'll see how it goes and hope for the first.

Back to Black. And Some Blue Too.

I changed my template back to black. That blue was driving me crazy.

I guess a lot has happened, but I can't think of more than a few things. First of all...wait for it...I got a macbook. I've been opposed to macs for most of my existence, but my pc crashed after the power outage of two weeks ago and I needed something fast. I'd been thinking about it for a while now--especially after roommate #2 got one at the University bookstore a few months ago--so it wasn't entirely an impulse buy. The nice thing about macs are that they start up in about 10 seconds, everything else loads up fast (like mu-zac), it's really thin and pretty, they're cheap, no viruses and no virus protection needed, and apparently they're very good for designing graphicky things. Mine was especially nice as it came with a free canon printer and an ipod. It came with the 4 GB, but I already have one and instead upgraded to an 80 GB. It all came to just barely over 1.7 thou. The main thing is getting used to it coming from a pc mentality. I'm already pretty good at using macs luckily, because all of the computers at the Marriott Library are macs, and I've been using them for 4+ years now--*sigh*. It's sad when you take the 8 year plan for college and don't end up a doctor at the end of it.

That same day I got my computer Worm came with me to buy fish after we donated plasma. Scratch that--he came with me to buy a computer, to lug my printer home, and THEN to buy fish with me after we donated plasma first thing in the morning. He's pretty much been my form of transportation since my car died, as he lives within comfortable walking distance, which is saying a lot in this heat. What's with this weather lately? Then we went to the movies and to Spag Fac with Duckling. If I had a penny for everything I love about the two of them, I'd have many pennies.

Back to the fish: we spent a good hour at least trying to decide what kind to get. I called #2 to see if she had any preferences, but unfortunately she had every confidence in my ability to choose them. I was trying to decide between tropical ones, which are all colorful and pretty but otherwise dull, and semi aggressive, which I felt would have more distinct personalities but were unfortunately lacking in color. Most were blackish, whitish, grayish. I went with semi aggressive...I know, quite the shock to you all. I got an angel fish with these two long whisker-like projections from it's mouth area, a catfish with whiskers--that have nothing "like" about them, two bulgies (?)--budgies maybe? which are striped and apparently more school oriented, and a shark. It's more of a wanna-be shark, since it looks nothing like the picture you have in your head. He's little more than an inch, thin and long (as long as you can be when you're an inch), and black with red fins in all of the spots where one has fins. I LOVE him. I also got a pretty ugly fish for Devin to keep in our tank, and it's greenish-orange? It's slightly bigger than the two striped, and it follows them around like it thinks it's their family. I think it too is a more school oriented fish, but I didn't really think of whether it would get lonely or not, like I did the others, because it wasn't my choice. He needs a friend, so I suppose I'll soon have two ugly fish in my tank. Getting the fish seriously give me as much joy as did the computer, which is kind of sad. Which goes to show that I love the fish a lot, not that I don't like my computer as much as I could or should--because I do. I also bought some fake plants and stuff. Maybe I'll post pics of my fish later...cuz I'm a nerd like that.

Multifarious Happenings

So I made my template blue. I don't know how I feel about this decision quite yet. Anyway, I decided it was about time I put down a new post that was actually new. And so I now get to write about stuff that's going on or went on before I got lazy and busy and stopped writing on this. So without further ado:

#1) I finally got the internet. That means I have no excuse not to post more often anymore. With that we also got cable. I don't so much watch it, but sometimes I do. I rather enjoy the cooking channel and Animal Planet. Are there anything animals can't do? The answer is yes by the way, but they're still pretty amazing.

#2) R.I.P. my dear beloved Eve. You were my first car, and my last--until I get a new one. You were passed on down the family until you met your untimely demise in my hands. I don't think anyone was surprised, but it still wasn't how you deserved to go.

#3) I got a bike. I don't really fancy the idea of buying a new car any time soon, because I'm far from rich and have been trying to save up money for various things for quite some time no, plus I'm a terrible driver to boot--and no one needs to deal with that right now. Actually I'm not sure if my license is even still valid at this point. I haven't heard otherwise, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that to be the case. Thus I will be riding my bike to work for as long as I can stand it. Before when I tried this little experiment I only made it two days, then borrowed my parents' van, and then my little sis's car...but I recently figured out how to change the gears, so I'll be trying again. I figure I'll be okay once I become less lazy. My particular bike at the moment was given to me by my supervisor at work, Scooter. It was his wife's and he really is such a nice guy. As you can see by the picture enclosed, it's from about the 70's, it's pink, it has a stand holding thing attached to the back, the bars curve, (those last two things were essential on the list of what my bike must have), and I put a bell on it. I'll probably hook a basket onto the back pretty soon. I'm not very particular, so it will do. If I get more into biking in the future I'll get a nicer bike, but for now, as I've already said, it'll do.

Sheidi and I rode down on bikes to the Farmers Market my last Saturday off, and for some reason it wasn't as bad as riding to work. I still walked when we got to the monster hill between 9th and 13th East, but it was bloody hot and not nearly as painful. It was a fun little excursion anyway, and I bought a lot of food-stuffs while I was there. I rather enjoy food markets. Now I just have to take up cooking again.

#4) I was tricked into signing up for a half-marathon in Moab in October. Actually that's a lie, I let myself be coerced, and I don't quite regret it. It'll make me start running again for starters. I wasn't horribly pleased to find out that the last 5 miles are uphill, but it won't kill me I suppose.

#5) I've taken up rock climbing more seriously (that's a lie at this point), or at least I intend to (that's not a lie). I went a few times with Aaron, Brett and Clark last year, but I'd like to go more. This is because my good friend at work (who coerced me into the half-marathon) works part time at a climbing gym and is certified when it comes to teaching people how to climb. She gets all sorts of climbing gear for free, and she's the nicest person pretty much ever, and she gave me her current climbing shoes so I wouldn't have to get my own. As you can tell she's one of those naturally athletic people who's very outdoorsey and is ardently engaged in such activities at all times. We're going to go climbing the day before the half-marathon down in Moab, and I've already gone with her and Sheidi up Little Cottonwood to climb. It was a lot of fun, she gave me tips and help while there, and I think it'd be an excellent hobby to pick up. So the next time you guys go rock climbing Aaron, you'd better call me.

#6) My roommates and I are getting fish. I really want a fresh water shark, and my little bro-in-law says I need to get a chinese something or another (it's supposed to keep tanks clean, but doesn't get too big), something with stripes, and I want some sort of angelfish. I already accomplished the rather massive task of cleaning out the tank he and my little sis gave me (it's a 29 gallon), washed the rocks that go in the bottom after they spent the winter and fall in my parents back yard in a bucket, and filled it with water in pots and pans with the help from roommate #2 and her boyfriend. We had a bit of trouble figuring out how the filter works, and because we didn't know what we were doing it made a delightful grinding noise at first. Now it makes normal, quiet, gurgling noises, and we've already added some water conditioner, so the tank is ready for fish. I've already decided on some names, and now I just have to find fish to fit them.

#7) Roommate #1 finally got married and moved out. I still see her because she's one of my London girls, but I'll miss her, even though we're never all home at the same time anyway. Rather than calling my new roommate #1 now, I've decided just to call her roommate #3, and if any more come along I'll just continue to move down the line of numbers.

#8) I'm in summer school, or bummer school as I like to call it. That's actually the first time I've ever called it that, but it definitely fits so I'm keeping it. I'm taking a psychology class (which I rather enjoy, but I may have already screwed it up with not having enough diligence for an online course), and statistics (which I don't really enjoy all that much on account of it being pretty basic and boring). My friend Worm is in my Stats class with me, which is good because it's from 730-9 pm, and I need someone to keep me awake. It's also good because it's in Murray and I don't have a car. He moved recently to about a block away from my house, so we can carpool, only it's not really that because I don't contribute and thus it doesn't precisely fit under that category. Anyway, we sit in the back drinking sugary beverages and sniggering at everything and anything. We're much too much sarcasm for two people to contain, so that works in our mutual favor/disadvantage. My professor also happens to be a 3rd grade teacher, and his method of teaching us does anything but ensconce that fact. I don't study for that class, so it's little inconvenience, and I'm doing just fine.

#9) I got into the Med Tech program in school for the fall. I don't remember if I've mentioned this on here already, but there you go. I also got a promotion and a raise, and another raise, so I'm going to try to work out my schedule to keep working in my same section for the fall. I don't know if it will work, but I think it'd be just as hard for them to have a brand new person doing my job than having me for less and odder hours. Ultimately it's about what's best for them, so if I have to move on I will, sad as it would be. I really enjoy my job at the moment, and all of the people I work with, so hopefully it'll work out. I'll talk to Scooter on Monday. However, I really need to start going into work on time from now on. That will be my goal this coming week. Night school and Ultimate on Thursdays makes it difficult, but I think I can do it if I discipline myself into getting more sleep. Of course, I need to start running again, so I'm not sure where this spare time to sleep will come from. Arrrrrrgh. That's the problem with my fall schedule I'm coming upon as well.

So these are the things that have been happening. That puts me semi-up-to-date, at least as far as the things I can remember go. Maybe I'll go back and look through my pictures and remember more things I can write about, since they're a more accurate representation of what happens in my life, but I'll probably forget before I get to that point anyway.

Beyond Belated

I think I'm pretty good at the "pity me" approach to this blog. In fact I'm mainly writing now so that there's a recent post that's not somewhat depressing. I simply never have time to write when I'm busy and happy.

So today is the last day of my on week. I have a list of activities to keep me busy on my off week, and most of them are errand type things. I love errands. I mean, I like doing things that are planned and really fun, but they take a lot out of you and usually include quite a bit of spending. Just loafing and watching movies while you clean your room is awesome on the other hand, and free, and I just found out that I can check out Nova/PBS/History Channel movies from work and take them home! This is for CEU credit, which I need 12 point of for work a year, but I'm not particularly in need of the CEU's; I just love those movies. So interesting. Anyway, I also plan to organize all of mine and my family's pictures into the many frames and picture albums I have accumulated over the years. Also on the list is finally finishing the putting together and sending of Kristen's care package, planting the remainder of my tomatoes, lots of reading the Count Of Monte Cristo (which a few friends and I are reading for what we decided is our own book club), and playing with my sister's 5 baby ducks! She saved them from an overflowing canal last week and they are the most adorable things I have ever seen! I don't think I can talk about them without ending the sentence in an exclamation point! But I will because that could get obnoxious. They are beyond tiny because they're younger than you'd get them at the store. There used to be 7 but the little one died and one escaped from the green house. My neices are so excited about them, but they're not allowed to hold them because they're too little. But I did! Okay, enough about the ducks. I will end with a picture of me holding all 7 in my hand. I just put my hand in the swimming pool they live in palm up, and they all clustered onto it for warmth (they'd been swimming in the little pool within the big pool they live in just prior to that moment, so their little feet were cold). So cute and fuzzy.

=(

I have an archaic draft in my post section from the 9th which I will eventually post, but am going to ignore for now because I want to.

I'm at work. I have a media assignment due by the end of tonight online. I also have a 30 minute quiz on 3 chapters I have yet to read due on Saturday, and an exam for 60 on Saturday at noon for those same 3 chapters plus the two preceding them. I could really use some sugar right now. Thankfully I've started the assignment, and it shouldn't be hard to bust out the rest of it tonight. I think I'll wait till after Frisbee though. It's the last night of League, so I have to show up. I'm a little sick right now with some sniffles, so I can't have Mtn. Dew--it aggravates my condition, and I'm pretty sure it's what caused it in the first place.

Despite these things I'm a little sad. That doesn't make sense, but basically none of those things is causing my mood. They may contribute slightly and definitely aren't helping, but they aren't the cause. The same goes for work. I just woke up with a sadness in my heart today. I would watch a really depressing movie with junk food, but I have studying and sleeping to do. I've started going to bed earlier so I can get to work on time. Just a few more days till I'm a little more free. I'm still doing overtime, and I can feel myself settling into brokeness as I contemplate the many things I will need to spend money on in the next little while. That might have a larger part to do with my mood.

Having said all of that...I guess I should say that I got accepted to my program for the Fall. I will be spending the next 2 years studying Medical Laboratory Science with at least 2 people I already know. I'm excited, though I will not be able to work full time. It should be interesting. I also got my raise at work, so we're happy about that, though if I switch departments in the Fall it will be short lived. We'll see. Other than that I am finishing off 2 pre-reqs for my program this summer, which is not so good this week. My night stats class is super boring and late, so my friend Worm and I sit in the back drinking loads of soda and snigger at random things, and at the fact that we have to take a class that doesn't challenge either of us. And that is life right now. And I think I'm going home right now.

Bleh

I decided something needed to be written in red.

As per usual I have nothing to write when I do have the time to write, and no time to write when I have things to say. Last week I know I did a lot of things, but remember practically nothing. I didn't work, and that was nice. I finally got over my month and a half cold/bronchitis, which makes me very happy. I bought a lot of new books, and cds. My car was broken, now it's not. I made cookies last night, and now I'm tired.

I'm supposed to be getting a letter in the mail this week back from the program I applied to for school. I didn't really feel any anticipation or anything about it till now. There's no reason I shouldn't get in, but if I don't I'll cry and cry and cry... And suddenly I'm here thinking of all the reasons they wouldn't let me in. I'm also supposed to find out if I get a promotion at work this week. If I don't I'm outta here, that's what I decided. I deserve it more than everyone else, save one person, and if they don't appreciate me enough now, then everything else about them saying they'd "work around my school to keep me here" is bogus too. If I don't deserve it now, I won't deserve it any more then. And frankly I deserve to be getting paid more now, because I work hard and my job is hard, and even if they budget for more tech III positions in July, it's not worth it for me to stick around and work this hard till then without getting paid for it, not with the year that awaits me in school if I get into my program. It'll be hard regardless, but if I start making more now I'll feel more obligated to stay on in my department, which I do love. But if I don't get it, I'm switching either to part time in another department, or just to an easier department. That's that.
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So that's my patented "line of time." It's now tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure I'm quitting my job. I've looked into a few positions, one of them part time, but I think I'll wait to see if I get my letter this week, and then I'll know what my schedule for the fall will be before I make any rash decisions.