so many choices:
sewing machine
courage to quit my job
digi SLR cammy cam
R1100R
gold plated manjo
a trip to the canary islands
uhhh...a little help?
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Things that make me go UGHHH
I've been thinking lately. It's been twelve days of this. Which may be enough to call it a permanent thought. I need to quit my job.
I went to Film Kitchen a few weeks ago. It's something I like to do with a few select friends (and sister and brother o' mine, should they be in town). It's a little monthly movie night, which for 5 bucks gets you food, popcorn, beer, and an hour and a half of local filminess presented by neighboring Pittsburghers. This month's was a showcase of snapshots (artfully pieced together and dubbed over) by a few of the major newspapers here. The one documentary I can't seem to get out of my head went something like this:
On May 2 (yeeeaaaaah buddy!) last year, the Children's Hospital located by my current workplace closed. It moved to a bigger, better, newer, more colorful building in Lawrenceville (1,000,000 times more appealing than Oakland, dreaded Oakland). What this means is that not only do the beds, diagnostic equipment, linens, charts, bath supplies, computers, and monitoring systems have to move, but the patients and nurses do too! That's something I hadn't actually thought about. There was a systematic way of doing it, and I have only a very small grasp of how it was done. The move was talked up for awhile before the big day finally came. Each patient had a personal ambulance that took him and his nurse to the new facility, about two miles away. The documentary that has infested my thoughts presented the cutest little trached toddler and his mother, as well as the nurse taking care of them over a several day/several week span. I'll leave out the details of this boy's illness. I'll insert a bit about the joy on his face, the eagerness to get better, the motivation, and the uplifting atmosphere. Not all cases with pediatric health are like this experience, I am very well aware of that. I am also very aware of the fact that children tend to be smaller than 260 pound rude, incontinent older adults, i.e. they are way easier to provide bedside care for. This actually may be directly related to the reasons I don't particularly care for my job. I don't know. Should I go to outpatient? A physician's office? Insurance agency? I'm not ready to quit the field. That's not what's supposed to happen. All I'm saying is, once upon a time, I had an idea that included taking care of little kids. And this idea disappeared until a Post Gazette photographer reminded me of that old resurrected wish.
Then again, who likes being low man on the totem pole all over again anyway?
I went to Film Kitchen a few weeks ago. It's something I like to do with a few select friends (and sister and brother o' mine, should they be in town). It's a little monthly movie night, which for 5 bucks gets you food, popcorn, beer, and an hour and a half of local filminess presented by neighboring Pittsburghers. This month's was a showcase of snapshots (artfully pieced together and dubbed over) by a few of the major newspapers here. The one documentary I can't seem to get out of my head went something like this:
On May 2 (yeeeaaaaah buddy!) last year, the Children's Hospital located by my current workplace closed. It moved to a bigger, better, newer, more colorful building in Lawrenceville (1,000,000 times more appealing than Oakland, dreaded Oakland). What this means is that not only do the beds, diagnostic equipment, linens, charts, bath supplies, computers, and monitoring systems have to move, but the patients and nurses do too! That's something I hadn't actually thought about. There was a systematic way of doing it, and I have only a very small grasp of how it was done. The move was talked up for awhile before the big day finally came. Each patient had a personal ambulance that took him and his nurse to the new facility, about two miles away. The documentary that has infested my thoughts presented the cutest little trached toddler and his mother, as well as the nurse taking care of them over a several day/several week span. I'll leave out the details of this boy's illness. I'll insert a bit about the joy on his face, the eagerness to get better, the motivation, and the uplifting atmosphere. Not all cases with pediatric health are like this experience, I am very well aware of that. I am also very aware of the fact that children tend to be smaller than 260 pound rude, incontinent older adults, i.e. they are way easier to provide bedside care for. This actually may be directly related to the reasons I don't particularly care for my job. I don't know. Should I go to outpatient? A physician's office? Insurance agency? I'm not ready to quit the field. That's not what's supposed to happen. All I'm saying is, once upon a time, I had an idea that included taking care of little kids. And this idea disappeared until a Post Gazette photographer reminded me of that old resurrected wish.
Then again, who likes being low man on the totem pole all over again anyway?
Monday, March 15, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Bloody 'ell, it's sheep!!!
We made it here!!! Aside from the short (~28 hour) delay post-Pgh Snowmageddon, we are intact. Monday morning we arrived to Trafalgar Square and found our hotel. We've been roughing it with pint stops (the n in pint is intentional) roughly every two hours. It's the company I'm with, not me. I'm not sure this is my preferred type of trip. We're (there's 5 of us total) doing slight sightseeing and eating a helluvalotta fried foods.
Best finds thus far:
Lincolnshire pork sausage
Guinness, cask-style
Tesco sandwiches
Digestives!!!!! (actually not a new find)
Space Raiders
Chicken Tikka bits
Ya know, here's something I found. The Trusty LP states that London isn't a bad town to be in if you're a vegetarian (we've got two of 'em in tow). I find that to be semi true. You must must must like Indian food. The McDonalds has a chicken tikka masala wrap. Ahhhh to be at home in Nepal in London.
We're currently in transit to Edinburgh. Funniest notes/central themes of train trip:
nuclear power plants
sheep
nuclear power plants
sheep
see above
That's the jist of this 4 hours ride. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Unsure of what the next few days will bring. It's pretty fly-by, as far as plan-making goes. I know that a soul night, whisky trail, and haggis haggis haggis will be involved.
Maybe this trip will cause headcheese to be a staple in my little apartment refrigerator.
See ya later, Mom.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Adventures, Adventures
Prior to moving to Pittsburgh, I was told by several people that Pgh never ever ever gets snow. Seemed preposterous to me, as my hometown is only 3 hours away, and the weather is generally pretty comparable. "It hardly snows," they said. "Only two inches a year," they said. "Just gray skies," they said. Well. Last night dumped about a foot and a half on us and we are stranded here, much further away from the airport than I'd like to be. Without an egg in the house to bake a cake.
No big deal though. There are movies to watch, banjos to play, and cats to scratch.
We'll fly out tomorrow instead, with a one hour layover in Philly until we reach London town. And. AND. I'll get reunited with a Mister Tariq Patel from my old Chitwan haunts!
No big deal though. There are movies to watch, banjos to play, and cats to scratch.
We'll fly out tomorrow instead, with a one hour layover in Philly until we reach London town. And. AND. I'll get reunited with a Mister Tariq Patel from my old Chitwan haunts!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Cee Majoring
Christmassssssssssss!!!! Got to hang out with the other chilluns. We made a roundtrip relative tour. I don't think we had hit up the Lawas side for the holidays in years. Thank goodness I had the entire weekend off from work. Jenny and I got each other almost the exact same gift AGAIN. From her, I received an I <3 CLE shirt, as I decided to exchange one of those C-bus Homage Pittsburgh/6burgh/Whoooooo We are Champs! tee-shirts. Some dogs never die.
(How did I get so lucky) in having yet another complete weekend away from Presby, I learned to ski!!!!!! Jon Scott and I, along with several others, rented a house in Seven Springs for a few days. I think I ate my way through a dilapidated backyard shed, there was so much food. Skiing = mostly a success. Aside from the very last run, in which I was cut off by another more experienced skier and thrown (literally) into a state of near-concussion, the weekend, physical activity-wise, went pretty smoothly. In fact, I believe I'm headed out there again on MLK Day.
Two other exciting news of note:
(1) In a few short weeks, I leave for London and various areas of Scotland! It is a bit strange not planning my own trip, but all the dirty work's been did, ie. hotel, transport. We're gonna be gone for ten days, ten long, lovely days...
(2) I'm borrowing a banjo from a retiree I was introduced to at the Elks Lodge Banjo Club, and he's teaching me to play in his grocery store-turned home-turned grocery store-turned antique banjo mecca. Would this be easier if I had kept up with 8th grade clarinet??
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Quit-Pitt-Shit
I am done. Done. And I'm never going back.
Until the beginning of January. But it will be even more short lived than this little obsession that brought me here. I hate (as in, absolutely) this college. I took my last final today. I did terribly. Just one of those things you know off the bat. The reason you know it is because you never knew it; I don't think I learned a damn thing this semester. The things that some of these "professors" attempted to teach the class were wrong. And I am aware of this misinformed knowledge because I've ALREADY LEARNED THIS STUFF IN COLLEGE!!!
The texts are outdated (usually something I normally wouldn't mind due to my desire to use cheaper older editions, but my god, things in the health realm do change if FIVE years pass). My Informatics book cited Wikipedia. WIKIPEDIA. One of my professors sounded very adamant when telling us that men have atypical chest pain during a heart attack, whereas women have that very strong, heavy, crushing feeling when the heart infarcts (ummmm, I think most of us--non-health people included--learn in middle school that this is in fact not the case). They try to teach us to do a nutritional assessment by having us keep a 3 day food diary OURSELVES (and why not do an actual assessment on someone else, like you would on a patient, that makes far too much sense). These are a few things that have really irked my bones the past 4 months in regards to the curriculum/program content. Don't even get me started on the positioning of the soap dispensers in the bathrooms...
I can honestly say I've never been more let down by such a huge life decision in my, ahem, life. Ugh. This education ain't cheap.
Disappointment such as this has led to a bit of a turn: I'm quitting Pitt (with the exception of a disaster management course just for kicks) and transferring to Ohio University. It's going to be so much more wallet-friendly as well as less time-constraining (as far as my ridiculous night-day-night-day swing shift schedule goes). It's an online program. I've always felt a little funny doing internet classes in the past, but I'm much more excited about this than paying 6 G's a semester to listen to incompetent professors rattle on...
Also exited, I might add, to be reunited with G Town peeps (word to my mother) even if only briefly...THIS week!!!
Until the beginning of January. But it will be even more short lived than this little obsession that brought me here. I hate (as in, absolutely) this college. I took my last final today. I did terribly. Just one of those things you know off the bat. The reason you know it is because you never knew it; I don't think I learned a damn thing this semester. The things that some of these "professors" attempted to teach the class were wrong. And I am aware of this misinformed knowledge because I've ALREADY LEARNED THIS STUFF IN COLLEGE!!!
The texts are outdated (usually something I normally wouldn't mind due to my desire to use cheaper older editions, but my god, things in the health realm do change if FIVE years pass). My Informatics book cited Wikipedia. WIKIPEDIA. One of my professors sounded very adamant when telling us that men have atypical chest pain during a heart attack, whereas women have that very strong, heavy, crushing feeling when the heart infarcts (ummmm, I think most of us--non-health people included--learn in middle school that this is in fact not the case). They try to teach us to do a nutritional assessment by having us keep a 3 day food diary OURSELVES (and why not do an actual assessment on someone else, like you would on a patient, that makes far too much sense). These are a few things that have really irked my bones the past 4 months in regards to the curriculum/program content. Don't even get me started on the positioning of the soap dispensers in the bathrooms...
I can honestly say I've never been more let down by such a huge life decision in my, ahem, life. Ugh. This education ain't cheap.
Disappointment such as this has led to a bit of a turn: I'm quitting Pitt (with the exception of a disaster management course just for kicks) and transferring to Ohio University. It's going to be so much more wallet-friendly as well as less time-constraining (as far as my ridiculous night-day-night-day swing shift schedule goes). It's an online program. I've always felt a little funny doing internet classes in the past, but I'm much more excited about this than paying 6 G's a semester to listen to incompetent professors rattle on...
Also exited, I might add, to be reunited with G Town peeps (word to my mother) even if only briefly...THIS week!!!
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