Week 2

The second week of school turned out to be very fun, very successful, and very productive. :) (I hope I didn't just jinx the third week... aw oh...)
On Tuesday, Emily and Courtney acquainted me with a Bridgerland apartment of boys whom we played with a lot during the week. A series of pranks went back and forth, from stealing tandem bikes and leaving ransom notes to putting a club on Emily's steering wheel and playing Deal Or No Deal to get the key to unlock it, to paying ransoms with cookies and shoving them in people's mouths while watching our football team get creamed by the U.

I also found out this week that I was hired for a job that I applied for somewhat out of the blue! I started training on Wednesday and I really like it thus far. I work in a research lab of the Animal Dairy Veterinary Sciences (or something like that) dept. and I deal a lot with lamb's DNA, whether it's still in the blood or has already been purified. I'm still in the training process and will undergo radiation training and lab safety training in the future. Dunno what I'll do with radiation yet...

I also started the process of getting matched with another student to tutor via Bridgerland Literacy. The woman I tutored last school year moved back to India, so the people I was matched to for this year are actually from Ethiopia! I will be tutoring a couple who speak verrrry little English but who are very eager to learn. We already have a schedule set up, but the hard thing this time will be transportation. I don't have a car and neither do they--they don't speak enough English to get a driver's license. And they live way the heck out west. :( Hopefully hopefully we'll figure something out. I'd really like to tutor these people and they really want a tutor!

Well, that's about it that's new in the life of Emily. School is starting to pick up now--especially O-chem--and so I need to really get myself in gear for that. For serious. =0)

I hope I'll have good news to report for next week and that all of your weeks go well too.

First Day

Ya know it's gonna be an interesting year when the first day of school you have a girl have a seizure in your lap.
Yes, that's right, folks. We were all sitting in physics learning away when the girl directly in front of me started seizing and leaned over the back of her chair so that her head was pretty much in my lap. None of us really knew what to do, but eventually she was taken care of by some trained people in the class. A woman that must've been an EMT came crashing through the row and started slapping the poor girl trying to see if she'd respond. Of course she's not going to respond! lol. They helped her out of the room and she was back a while later, luckily.
I remember when the same thing happened to me in the doctor's office about three years ago..... I passed out into a chair and my mom later told me I had gone over the back of my chair as well. Only instead of my head landing in someone's lap, it landed in a potted plant... I even dreamed during the episode... so I'll be honest, I wasn't totally worried about the girl... I still haven't figured out of these kinds of episodes are a weird brand of passing out (I'd just gotten a shot, she'd just given blood--there was a bandage on her arm) or a mini seizure, since you do in fact convulse....

Anyway! Other than that, the first day of school went pretty normally! It's the perfect temperature here in Logan right now and rest assured us students are taking advantage of that. The lectures have just started to pick up now and while we're doing somewhat of a review in organic chemistry, we're jumping right in in physics. I must confess, while sitting in physics today I was positively fascinated with what was being taught! I'm FINALLY learning about the REST of the subatomic particles! :)

Well, I hope you all are having marvelous weeks and that you're learning things regardless of whether you're in school or not. :)

To All Women 18 to 20

Okay now this is a frustration post, so feel free to navigate away from my blog now.

WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE 19-YEAR-OLD GIRLS THINKING THESE DAYS??????? THEY ARE GETTING MARRIED FREAKING LEFT AND EVER-LOVIN' RIGHT! -AND AFTER KNOWING THE GUY A RIDICULOUSLY SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME!!!! WITH AN EVEN SHORTER ENGAGEMENT!!!!
AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ABOUT THEIR HAVING BABIES!! YOU CAN BARELY TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF WITHOUT PARENTAL SUPERVISION, WHAT IN THE ROYAL WORLD MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN RAISE SOMETHING ANY MORE COMPLEX THAN A PLANT!?!?!?!?
GET TO KNOW THE MAN BEFORE YOU MARRY YOURSELF OFF. HECK, GET TO KNOW YOURSELF!

ALL 19-YEAR-OLD WOMEN WHO THINK THEY ARE READY FOR MARRIAGE, STOP.
Sa-LOW down. Take a breather.
We know you two are 'in love' but try, try and be semi rational. Realize your own limitations, your own lack of life experience, your own utter ignorance and naivety and remind yourself that IT NEVER HURTS TO WAIT A LITTLE WHILE TIL YOU ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING INTO!!!
It's not just "Oh yay, I get to choose the menu and dress the guy and live with and sleep with him and blah blah blah blah blah.
IT'S SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT AND YOU'LL LAND FLAT BACK ON YOUR PARENTS' DOORSTEP WONDERING WHERE YOU WENT WRONG IF YOU GIVE NO THOUGHT FOR A FEW LOGISTICS AND PRACTICAL REALITIES!
The guy may very well be the-best-thing-that-has-ever-happened-to-you as well as be older, but the VAST majority of men are still not smart enough to actually stop the marriage from happening prematurely. They compartmentalize everything and right now the only drawer that's pulled out is the one that contains the I-want-you-I-need-you-oh-baby-oh-baby file. The drawer containing the you're-too-young-and-just-shouldn't-be-doing-this-yet file was unfortunately thrown out when you graduated high school, and they just don't think about that--the file is gone!
All they see is the fact that you want to be with them as much as they want to be with you. Which is a lovely thought, is it not? Too bad that mentality is hopelessly flawed, eh? since marriage is a million times BIGGER and harder than that.
You have to do it for yourself. You actually have to think when the rest of your LIFE is on the line. You have to think about what is BEST for you at this stage in your life, not just what feels good at this stage in your life, or this month, or this minute.

The 'when' plays a very large role in the 'why', and is just as important as the 'who'.

Booo to Bugs!

I'm not terribly sure why, but bugs seem to have it in for me lately.

Story #1
Last night I was in bed, reading scriptures, minding my own business, when a hornet flops onto my bed.
Ugh! Nasty!
Then, to top it off, a gangly ol' spider scuttles out from under my sheets and over the edge of the bed.
After that, I was like, Ah heck no! I ain't sleepin' here!

Story #2I was picking raspberries in my yard this evening, anticipating a very yummy snack, la de da, and BAM! Nuther spider! It freaks out when my fingers touch the berries it's on...
Ugh again!

Story #3
A mosquito sucked my shoulder blood.

Story #4
Today I was at my grandma's house taking care of her and as I was bending over my bag, searching for something inside, I see this hairy creature in my peripheral vision behind the chair...
AAHHH! I jumped so high!
I'm not really sure why I was startled, because it was just Chewbacca, the dog, or the mop, rather, that lives there... (Sorry, I just stuck this story in. It's not a bug story.) I've gotten so jumpy from work though. I get startled all the time. I'll come out of a room and BAM. Like last week, when I came out of the upstairs laundry room kinda late at night and a visitor was walking down the hall and scared me to death--and I, in jumping, probably scared her too.

Am I the only one who does this?? And am I the only one that bugs hate?

Camp Cancelled!

Booooooooooooo hoooooooooooo!!
Yes, that's right. Camp Wyatt was canceled due to the H1N1 virus and the risk it poses being spread from little asthmatic camper to little asthmatic camper. I was naturally very disappointed for my own reasons--I look forward to Camp Wyatt every summer now--but I felt even worse for Heather! Heather Herd, my close friend, was volunteer director of camp this year. She has worked soooo long, sooo hard since about last November to put camp together and it's all for nothing now! If anyone has reason to cry over this, it is HER.
So I'm taking her to go do something fun next week. Ya know, now that we're all off work and have nothing to do. . . . :-( :-( :-(

The Zit I Found In the Backyard

Whilst weeding the sandlot and gravel areas of our back yard today, I found a very interesting creature among the unwanted nature I was plucking up. At first, I wasn't sure if it was a living organism or part of a tree, but when I touched it, its little swiveling end that I termed a head moved around and around.
It was about an inch and a quarter long, a third of an inch wide, circular, deep red, and had somewhat of a shell, except for one end, which looked like a slug's tail end. I picked up the oddity and watched it mechanically move the one part of itself that was able... and then went back to work weeding.
I showed it to my mother when she got home. She took one look at it and after realizing she had no idea what it was, told me I should show Papa Bear.
So I showed my father when he got home, and he told me to squeeze it "like a zit." Why I listened to him I can only blame on impulse. I squoze it a tiny bit before I realized it was less brittle than I had anticipated and dropped it, as white puss came out of the side of it, poor thing.
Daddy-dear thought it was hilarious.

Just goes to show, never listen to your father.

New Job

When you're in college, SUMMER = JOB = $$$ = If-you-want-to-come-back-to-this-lovely-institution-you-had-better-make-some

Last summer's job was a very difficult one. I worked in skilled nursing and you get everything there. Some days I felt like an under-trained nurse in an ICU. So needless to say, thus summer I wanted that to be my excuse to search for an easier job--something fun like retail.
Eventually, however, my better judgment took over and I ended up applying at an assisted living/Alzheimer's care facility, The Wentworth... and got the job.
I started orientation on Thursday and they had me work in Stratford, the Alzheimer's unit. Holy cow it was not even CLOSE to how hard my last job was!! But in all honesty, I plan on working harder than I did with the CNA I was shadowing on Thursday. I'm used to being on my feet the entire eight hours except for when I'd finally sit down to chart. We'll see how this coming week goes, however. I plan on being busier. And the administrator who hired me said he plans on having me trained as a med tech.
I didn't know what that was either, don't worry.
Basically they just train you to administer medication. When I heard this, I thought, "Sweet!"

It's definitely what an older, more mature person would call "a better career move." :) Medical schools like applicants to have as much patient exposure as possible--years if you can help it. So I feel like my time will be better spent with another summer in healthcare than in the mall. Besides, I love taking care of my patients. :)