update on school and other things

it's hard to believe that the semester is nearly over.  it seems like it just started!  next week i have two finals, and a presentation.  i have to keep working on my research proposal while i'm working at the hospital, which starts on the 14th.

for this next rotation at the hospital i'll be working in hematology.  i'm a little nervous.  i was nervous about working in microbiology in the summer but i had a blast.  i loved it!  the people there were funny and they joked around all the time, but did their work, too, of course.  it was so much fun.  i hope hematology will be fun too.  it'll definitely be different than micro, though, because micro is very hands on, and hematology is very automated.  i know i'll get a lot of practice making blood smears and doing differentials.  i just hope i don't come home with a headache everyday from looking in the microscope for 8 hours.

anyway, the blood bank class has been so much better this semester than it was in the summer.  i don't know why i had so much trouble with the first part during the summer, but i'm happy that it's a lot better now.  chemistry has been okay, too.  the only thing with that is for the first part of chemistry back in the spring, there was a lab that helped with the grades because the labs were very easy.  this semester, there's not a lab for the second part.  that means i have to do better on the exams and i can't rely on easy lab grades to boost my average.  i'm doing okay so far, but i need to kick butt on the final.

my management class is weird.  the teacher hasn't posted a single grade for us all semester and i don't know how i'm doing in the class.  i'm sure i'm okay, but it would make me feel a lot better if he would post our grades.  and the methodology class is a disaster.  it's so disorganized and confusing.  i finally turned in my research proposal, but i haven't gotten any feedback on it yet.  this has been the most unorganized class i've ever had and it's frustrating.

on another note, i went to a funeral yesterday.  it was the 3rd funeral i've attended in less than 2 years.  it was for a man i worked with when i worked at the bank.  he also was the DJ for our wedding reception.  he was a great guy.  very funny, and nice.  he liked motorcycles, playing the drums, and being a DJ.  he also was a pastor sometimes.  he attended seminary and filled in preaching sometimes at his church.  i will miss him a lot, but i know i'll see him again.

i had a nice conversation with my pastor yesterday.  i really like my church and i'm glad we have a place to go every sunday.  the members of our sunday school class are really funny and i really enjoy seeing them every week.  i wish we saw them during the week, too.  i'm pretty happy.

a story about my arm

     when i was a kid i was retarded.  we had this toy table and chair set in our bedroom.  so one night we decided it would be a good idea to jump back and forth between one of the chairs and the bed.  we did this several times.  at one point it was my turn to jump from the bed to the chair.  well...i slipped on the sheets, and my arm hit the edge of the chair as i fell.  i screamed.  i don't remember how much it hurt because i was 6 years old.  my parents came into the room, comforted me, and i went to bed.
     a few days later my school had a field day.  there were all sorts of things we could do.  one thing i chose to do was an obstacle course.  the only part of the course i remember was where we had to crawl through a tube thingy.  i got to that part, got down on my knees and started crawling.  once my left arm hit the ground i felt a deep burning pain.  this was the same arm that i had hit on the chair a few nights before.  i started crying and couldn't finish the obstacle course.  my teacher came up to me to find out what was wrong.  i told her i hurt my arm and she just had me sit out for the rest of the day.
     the next day, i went to the bathroom with a group of girls in my class.  as we were leaving the bathroom i tripped on a rug and landed on a ramp in the hallway.  this made my arm hurt even more.  i started crying.  the teacher called my mom.  my mom came and picked me up from school and she took me to the doctor.  the doctor took x-rays and we discovered that my arm was broken.  it probably had been broken since the night i fell on the chair.  so, they put on a cast.  the following day was the last day of school and i remember hiding under my desk because i was embarrassed that i had a cast.
     later that summer we were at a swimming party and i promised my mom that i would be careful and not get my cast wet if she would let me get into the pool.  she agreed.  five minutes later i fell in the water and my whole arm under water, soaking my cast.  and my cast smelled really bad the rest of the time i had it.
and there you go.