This last weekend Patrick and I drove to North Carolina. We left Friday evening and came back on Monday afternoon. What prompted this fairly short trip, with the incredibly long drive? Katie's mother-in-law, Tammy, died Thursday after a long and painful fight with terminal cancer. I have known Tammy since I was 17. She was my boss at the movie theatre I worked at during high school, and I briefly dated her step-son (big mistake!). She was a very giving person and she loved her children a great deal. I went, not only because of the role she played in my life, but because I thought it was important to be there for Katie and Seneca. There was no funeral or service.
The trip, in and of itself, was uneventful. I will say that if I never drive through the Smokey Mountains again, it will be too soon. The roads were pretty icy and the truck-drivers drive like lunatics. Patrick and I tried to keep ourselves entertained on the 10 1/2 hour long drive, with books on tape, music, and general discussion about our future. When we arrived in Winston Salem we went out to Tammy's mother's house to see Katie and Seneca. It was a somewhat surreal experience. The majority of these people I hadn't seen in almost 10 years...some of them I could have stood to never see again. But, all in all, we survived and were able to spend some time with Katie and Seneca before the started packing to go back to New Mexico.
The up side of this journey was that I was able to visit, briefly, with Gemma and Josh. We stayed with them the one night we were in NC. They are both doing very well, and it was good to spend some time with them. Hopefully we will get another opportunity to see them before we leave Michigan during our week-long trip to DC in March. Our hope is that they will be able to come up to spend, at least, the last weekend with us. It will depend on Gemma's exam schedule.
My first exam of this semester is Monday, in Microbiology. I'm not worried-but I don't want to be too self-assured about this material, so this weekend will be spent studying. Yay.
Speaking of...time for class.
17.1.05
Hey Baby it's cold outside...
As the title might suggest, it is absolutely freezing here. Just in Ann Arbor it is about 7 degrees F right now. That is without the wind chill of course. I guess we should count ourselves lucky, Chicago is -14. Now I know why we left the Midwest/east coast area. It is too damn cold here! I made the mistake of leaving a gallon of milk in Zoom Zoom last night and this morning, found it frozen. I had to put it in the refrigerator to thaw.
Because of this weather and the accompanying humidity, my knee has been swollen for almost two weeks. Earlier this week the temperatures went up to almost 50 and my knee was a lot better; the swelling went down, there was little to no pain, and I could walk normally. With this drop in temperature it has swollen again and I have to walk with a slight limp. Glucosamine Condrotin and ibuprophen have become part of my daily breakfast. Ick. Patrick wants me to have it looked at while we are here, as I probably need another surgery. I would rather wait until we are back in NM, where I know the doctors. But if I need another surgery, I really should get it done sooner rather than later.
Tomorrow I have to go to staff selection all day. This seems an awfully long and drawn out process with 25 other people, each of whom have their own input. There aren't too many people that I really think would make amazing RAs. I figure that we'll just go down the list. I won't be here next year anyway, so really, it is more about who Stacey and Adam want on staff.
This last week was, for me, spent on duty. Which isn't really a big deal unless you get paged. Which I did, several times. The most "interesting" one was from last night. It came in at about 10:30 pm from Oxford building (which is actually across the street from the FIJI house). A resident had cut her big toe at 1 pm yesterday afternoon. By 10:30 pm it hadn't stopped bleeding, so she decides to call the RA on duty to ask him what she should do. The RA, apparently not knowing either, calls me. I tell the RA to contact Housing Security to take her to Urgent Care and to write an IR. How do these people get into college, let along Michigan!?!?! I don't get it. If you are bleeding, and you don't stop bleeding for a half hour to an hour later, you go to Urgent Care. You don't wait almost 10 hours to notify someone that you need help! Bloody morons.
Lois' laptop came in this week and she is VERY happy with it. She had set up the entire house for wireless, which will be nice this summer when Patrick and I are home. We both have wireless cards in our computers so we won't all be waiting to use the desktop in the kitchen.
My family seems to be doing fine. Apparently Katie and Seneca are going back to NM on March 10th, which they seem to be very happy about. I think that it must be very difficult for them in that house with so many people.
I'm trying to pick up another class, online Growth and Development. Hopefully the instructor will contact me today or tomorrow to let me know if she will let me into the class. My two other classes are fine. The only thing I am debating about it whether or not to buy the Microbiology book, which our instructor says we don't need, but she then puts questions on the labs that specifically require the book. Choices, choices.
Because of this weather and the accompanying humidity, my knee has been swollen for almost two weeks. Earlier this week the temperatures went up to almost 50 and my knee was a lot better; the swelling went down, there was little to no pain, and I could walk normally. With this drop in temperature it has swollen again and I have to walk with a slight limp. Glucosamine Condrotin and ibuprophen have become part of my daily breakfast. Ick. Patrick wants me to have it looked at while we are here, as I probably need another surgery. I would rather wait until we are back in NM, where I know the doctors. But if I need another surgery, I really should get it done sooner rather than later.
Tomorrow I have to go to staff selection all day. This seems an awfully long and drawn out process with 25 other people, each of whom have their own input. There aren't too many people that I really think would make amazing RAs. I figure that we'll just go down the list. I won't be here next year anyway, so really, it is more about who Stacey and Adam want on staff.
This last week was, for me, spent on duty. Which isn't really a big deal unless you get paged. Which I did, several times. The most "interesting" one was from last night. It came in at about 10:30 pm from Oxford building (which is actually across the street from the FIJI house). A resident had cut her big toe at 1 pm yesterday afternoon. By 10:30 pm it hadn't stopped bleeding, so she decides to call the RA on duty to ask him what she should do. The RA, apparently not knowing either, calls me. I tell the RA to contact Housing Security to take her to Urgent Care and to write an IR. How do these people get into college, let along Michigan!?!?! I don't get it. If you are bleeding, and you don't stop bleeding for a half hour to an hour later, you go to Urgent Care. You don't wait almost 10 hours to notify someone that you need help! Bloody morons.
Lois' laptop came in this week and she is VERY happy with it. She had set up the entire house for wireless, which will be nice this summer when Patrick and I are home. We both have wireless cards in our computers so we won't all be waiting to use the desktop in the kitchen.
My family seems to be doing fine. Apparently Katie and Seneca are going back to NM on March 10th, which they seem to be very happy about. I think that it must be very difficult for them in that house with so many people.
I'm trying to pick up another class, online Growth and Development. Hopefully the instructor will contact me today or tomorrow to let me know if she will let me into the class. My two other classes are fine. The only thing I am debating about it whether or not to buy the Microbiology book, which our instructor says we don't need, but she then puts questions on the labs that specifically require the book. Choices, choices.
12.1.05
Classes begin
I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed in the classes I have been to thus far. I think I expected that the material or at least the expectations of the instructors would be fairly challenging. I'm not finding that. I'm not saying that I would like to have more work than is necessary, I would just like to have a firm understanding and mastery of the material and I don't know if I will be getting that here. I'm told I should be patient and wait to see how I feel as the semester progresses, but I truly don't think that this will be a terribly challenging thing for me. In fact I have contemplated adding a third class to my schedule since I have the time and inclination to do so. I don't know what my schedule will be like when we are back in NM, so I should take advantage of the time I have here.
I think Patrick is enjoying his classes. He is taking pathophysiology and pharmacology on top of microbiology and nutrition. His schedule is more hectic than mine and he'll have more information thrown at him with those two classes, but it isn't anything he can't handle.
The switch of staffs that Adam and I did is working out okay. Not great, but then that wasn't the expectation. So far no major eruptions, just your basic "I'm a Michigan student and I have to question everything that comes out of your mouth" type responses. I tend to tell them that they have every right to question our motives and our decisions. But that they need to be aware that the likelihood of their questioning us will change anything is slim to none. They don't much care for that response. But I'm not here to make friends.
I took Adam, his girlfriend Em and Nate to the airport this morning at 5 am. They are going to Colorado for a week to "ski". Adam has been skiing only a handful of times and only in Michigan (which has hills in comparison to the Rockies). I told him I want to see pictures. I also forewarned him about sunburn and altitude sickness, so hopefully he will listen. I guess we'll find out when I pick them up at MIDNIGHT next Wednesday.
Time for class.
I think Patrick is enjoying his classes. He is taking pathophysiology and pharmacology on top of microbiology and nutrition. His schedule is more hectic than mine and he'll have more information thrown at him with those two classes, but it isn't anything he can't handle.
The switch of staffs that Adam and I did is working out okay. Not great, but then that wasn't the expectation. So far no major eruptions, just your basic "I'm a Michigan student and I have to question everything that comes out of your mouth" type responses. I tend to tell them that they have every right to question our motives and our decisions. But that they need to be aware that the likelihood of their questioning us will change anything is slim to none. They don't much care for that response. But I'm not here to make friends.
I took Adam, his girlfriend Em and Nate to the airport this morning at 5 am. They are going to Colorado for a week to "ski". Adam has been skiing only a handful of times and only in Michigan (which has hills in comparison to the Rockies). I told him I want to see pictures. I also forewarned him about sunburn and altitude sickness, so hopefully he will listen. I guess we'll find out when I pick them up at MIDNIGHT next Wednesday.
Time for class.
9.1.05
A weekend alone
Patrick drove to St. Louis this weekend for Academy, a conference for FIJI. He left Thursday morning and I have been enjoying a weekend alone since. The majority of it was spent cleaning my apartment and watching movies. I went to see Phantom of the Opera again and enjoyed it this time as much as the first. Amazingly, seeing it on the stage didn't have as great an impact on me as the movie has. Perhaps it is because you can really see the emotion and feeling on the actor's faces more so in the movie. Or perhaps it is because with a movie there is a great deal more that can be done with the sets, etc. Either way, I almost went to see it again today, but restrained myself. Barely.
I got to speak with Gemma this weekend as well. She had left me a couple of messages over the break but because I never check my home voice mail, I didn't get them until yesterday. So I called her back and we were able to catch up. I also got to speak with Will and Pete, which was nice but a little strange. I haven't spoken with either of them since my last visit to NC, almost 2 years ago. It was kind of a struggle thinking of things to talk about. But they seem to be doing well. Will is in his last semester of law school and can't wait to get a job. Pete is still seeing "the once and future Jew" (as Gemma puts it) and they have a bet that if Pete takes off 25 pounds by spring break, she will pay for the vacation. If he doesn't then he has to pay. Interesting bet.
It still somewhat amazes me that all three of them are in law school. They will be perfect at it, no doubt.
Classes start tomorrow. I'm a little aggervated because I was waitlisted for my microbiology class and then got kicked off the waitlist. I go to re-register for the class and it comes up that I have to have instructor permission. This place is so frustrating. I emailed the instructor and advisor to see if they can take care of it before my class on Tuesday. Hopefully it will be cleared up by tomorrow.
I got to speak with Gemma this weekend as well. She had left me a couple of messages over the break but because I never check my home voice mail, I didn't get them until yesterday. So I called her back and we were able to catch up. I also got to speak with Will and Pete, which was nice but a little strange. I haven't spoken with either of them since my last visit to NC, almost 2 years ago. It was kind of a struggle thinking of things to talk about. But they seem to be doing well. Will is in his last semester of law school and can't wait to get a job. Pete is still seeing "the once and future Jew" (as Gemma puts it) and they have a bet that if Pete takes off 25 pounds by spring break, she will pay for the vacation. If he doesn't then he has to pay. Interesting bet.
It still somewhat amazes me that all three of them are in law school. They will be perfect at it, no doubt.
Classes start tomorrow. I'm a little aggervated because I was waitlisted for my microbiology class and then got kicked off the waitlist. I go to re-register for the class and it comes up that I have to have instructor permission. This place is so frustrating. I emailed the instructor and advisor to see if they can take care of it before my class on Tuesday. Hopefully it will be cleared up by tomorrow.
6.1.05
A change of staff
Because Adam's staff has been giving him such a hard time these days, we have been encouraged to switch staffs. So I have now inherited a group of people who probably don't want me for their supervisor any more than I want to be their supervisor. I guess we will see how this goes. I'm trying, as Adam is fond of telling me, to be optimistic but the realist in me is coming through. This is going to be a pain in the ass.
5.1.05
A Christmas Break (from Ann Arbor)
Christmas break didn't exactly start off on the right foot. Patrick's and my flight home was scheduled for December 23rd at 5 pm. December 22nd it snowed about 6 or 7 inches. Thinking that I would never get out of this god-forsaken state, I guess you could say I went a little manic. I was shaking and dizzy. I wanted to leave for the airport 4 hours early because I was afraid that the traffic would be so bad we would miss our flight. Fortunately, Patrick was able to calm me down a little bit and we made it to the airport in one piece. Our flight leaving Detroit was only delayed about 45 minutes- and I was starting to feel hopeful that we wouldn't spend Christmas in an airport. We arrived in Dallas thinking that we would have to sprint to the gate to make our connection. It turned out that our flight in Dallas had been delayed an hour. So we settle down to wait. We didn't get on the bloody plane until almost five hours later. The plane we were supposed to be on was late and then the crew we were supposed to have was late. Everyone was late. Finally, we arrive in Albuquerque at 12:30 am (NM time). When, wonder of wonders, they lose our luggage. We had packed one bag for both of us and it had all our clothing and a couple of gifts for Patrick's mom and my dad. No one knew where our bag was, but they assured us that it was probably on a later flight from Dallas and would be in to Albuquerque on the flight arriving at 2 am. We decided to leave and have them deliver it to us. We go to Frontier because both Patrick and I are starving on top of being really angry about the bag and the delays. With full tummies, we head up to Santa Fe and go to bed.
Christmas Eve morning I wake up-only to put the same, dirty clothing back on. We call the airline and still no bag. I decide to go to Target to get some t-shirts, socks, underwear, toiletries and a pair of really comfortable flannel lounging pants (which Patrick hates). I got home and took the best shower in the world.
We saw my dad, siblings and nephew on Christmas Eve and had a nice dinner. Scott is still the cutest baby ever! He has big brown eyes and the longest eyelashes I have ever seen. Joanie's pregnancy seems to be going well. The baby is due May 16th, but we think she will have a caesarian on the 10th. She has finally settled on a name for the baby boy - Oliver Michael Casalino. Oli for short. Enough said.
Christmas morning at around 2:30 am, our bag was finally delivered. Maybe Santa really does exist. In keeping with the Christmas spirit, Patrick left a bag of cookies for the delivery person, which I am sure they appreciated. We spent Christmas morning with Patrick's family and Christmas afternoon/evening with mine. My mom has been really helpful in helping us look for a home in Albuquerque. We actually spent a majority of our time in Moriarty looking at MLS listings. We found two that we liked enough to go look at, but didn't like the area they were in - the student ghetto. Now we are looking at the Petroglyph area of Albuquerque, at some new developments that are being built out there. If you go to this link: http://www.longfordhomes.com/albuquerque/sundoro/index.html
you will see the area we want to build our home. The one I love is the 335, but our budget will really determine what we can afford.
The rest of our break went by very fast. We saw Phantom of the Opera and Meet the Fockers, both of which we enjoyed a great deal. We ate. A lot. And I didn't exercise at all. Ick.
We also planned a trip to DC for Spring Break. Lois wants to go to the new Native American museum and we are meeting her there for a couple of days before we head down to NC to see Katie and Gemma.
Neither Patrick or I wanted to get back on that plane to come back to Ann Arbor. But we did. More's the pity. Work has been uneventful for me, but Adam has had to deal with some of his staff being a bit prickish. Oh hell, a lot prickish. I am just looking forward to the day I can pack up my apartment and get the hell out of here. Five months never felt so long. But! School starts on Monday, so hopefully that will encourage the semester to go by faster. Microbiology here I come!
Christmas Eve morning I wake up-only to put the same, dirty clothing back on. We call the airline and still no bag. I decide to go to Target to get some t-shirts, socks, underwear, toiletries and a pair of really comfortable flannel lounging pants (which Patrick hates). I got home and took the best shower in the world.
We saw my dad, siblings and nephew on Christmas Eve and had a nice dinner. Scott is still the cutest baby ever! He has big brown eyes and the longest eyelashes I have ever seen. Joanie's pregnancy seems to be going well. The baby is due May 16th, but we think she will have a caesarian on the 10th. She has finally settled on a name for the baby boy - Oliver Michael Casalino. Oli for short. Enough said.
Christmas morning at around 2:30 am, our bag was finally delivered. Maybe Santa really does exist. In keeping with the Christmas spirit, Patrick left a bag of cookies for the delivery person, which I am sure they appreciated. We spent Christmas morning with Patrick's family and Christmas afternoon/evening with mine. My mom has been really helpful in helping us look for a home in Albuquerque. We actually spent a majority of our time in Moriarty looking at MLS listings. We found two that we liked enough to go look at, but didn't like the area they were in - the student ghetto. Now we are looking at the Petroglyph area of Albuquerque, at some new developments that are being built out there. If you go to this link: http://www.longfordhomes.com/albuquerque/sundoro/index.html
you will see the area we want to build our home. The one I love is the 335, but our budget will really determine what we can afford.
The rest of our break went by very fast. We saw Phantom of the Opera and Meet the Fockers, both of which we enjoyed a great deal. We ate. A lot. And I didn't exercise at all. Ick.
We also planned a trip to DC for Spring Break. Lois wants to go to the new Native American museum and we are meeting her there for a couple of days before we head down to NC to see Katie and Gemma.
Neither Patrick or I wanted to get back on that plane to come back to Ann Arbor. But we did. More's the pity. Work has been uneventful for me, but Adam has had to deal with some of his staff being a bit prickish. Oh hell, a lot prickish. I am just looking forward to the day I can pack up my apartment and get the hell out of here. Five months never felt so long. But! School starts on Monday, so hopefully that will encourage the semester to go by faster. Microbiology here I come!
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