Goals for 2007...

I refuse to call them resolutions... resolutions just get broken.

Well... here's 10.

1. Get a dog
2. Get back to the weight I was in high school (I know, that's on everyone's list)
3. Travel to England
4. See Jessica in Louisianna
5. Read at least 20 new books... For fun
6. Go on at least one date (it's been awhile...)
7. Start working my way out of student loan debt
8. Quit drinking caffine every day
9. Start enjoying exercise agian
10. Read the whole Bible

My first scarf...

So, after wanting to learn how to knit for over a year... and being very unsucessful at trying to teach myself. Then I kind of learned from a fellow volunteer in Bolivia... only to have Bolivian airport security yank the knitting needles from my yarn on my way home. I hadn't had enough time to practice and I couldn't figure out how to begin agian. So... finally. My mom's friend Caramel, as a Christmas present, paid for me to take a knitting class with her one night a week for 3 weeks. We've had two classes. I made a scarf. And a half a scarf, but I need more yarn to finish it... But anywho... this is my first scarf. It has errors, but it's a scarf.

Crazy animals...

These are the crazy pets I'm house/pet-sitting for this week. They're kinda cute.


That's Max.


This is Moses... he looks a little snotty in this picture, but he is, so it's ok. :)

FINALLY!

Look what I finally got in the mail today. Two months after I finished my requirements it was finally granted, hence the date on the diploma... and now, a month later, I finally have it. I FINALLY can finish my liscensing process to start my job!

It's been awhile...

So, back when I was a very little girl... my Aunt Lue used to rent attic space to live in from this family. This family, called the Jones' family, had children my age. We used to play with them. It's probably been 20 years since I've seen them. In college I realized that Alli, the girl from the Jones family, was friends with one of my high school friends, Kate... and eventually became her roomate. Still didn't ever see her. Just heard her name here and there. Heard she wasn't their roomate anymore because she did something silly like, go and get married, last year.

So, high school friend Kate had a Christmas party last night. I went to said Christmas party and so did Alli, the girl I haven't seen in 20 years. We talked for awhile. We took a picture together so my Aunt Lue could see it. This is for you Aunt Lue. :)

It's the season...

It's the Christmas season of course... but it appears to me that it's also the season for Aleathea's friends with the first name of Jen to get engaged.

The first one was last weekend. Jen Tripp that I went to Jamaica with in the summer of 2003. She's engaged to a guy named Todd. Now, being I haven't seen Jen in person since we returned from Jamaica and have only talked to her via the computer... I have never met Todd. But, I assume, from the way she talks, that he is a wonderful man. They're getting married this June. Here are Jen & Todd.


Then you have of course, Jen Falck. I met her in college and she's an awesome friend that I don't get to see nearly enough even though we're living only about an hour apart agian. She's really busy. I haven't found out the story yet... but she and her boyfriend, now fiance, got engaged just today I'm thinking. I knew it was coming though. 'Cuz she told me... not because I'm psychic or anything. They're getting married next year (2008) in May or June. So... here's Jen & Mark.

(sorry, that's a 2 year old picture, but it's the only one I have without stealing one from facebook)

Congrats to the newly engaged Jen's of the world! :)

World AIDS Day...

Today is World AIDS Day. Every day 5,000 to 8,000 people die from AIDS. Every day. Below are websites that you can check out for more information or ways you can help to find a cure.

Wickipedia Information
World Vision - Sponser a child orphaned by AIDS
Red Ribbon Ride
(RED)
AVERT
World AIDS Campaign

It's the weirdest thing...

Tonight I got into my car and I was going to swing by the 35 cent pop machine by the police station and use a quarter and a dime from the coin thing in my car. I reached down for the quarter and... no quarters. I could have sworn I had 5 quarters in there last time I checked. Dimes and nickles, still there. Successful in still getting a pop. Then I realized, not only were 5 quarters missing, but I had thrown a folded up $1 bill down by the coins too... My sister and my dad both drove my car on Tuesday, so I figured one of them used it. No prob, just wanted to know where it went. So, I called my dad and he said not only did he not touch it, but he left a quarter in the cup holder. No quarter in the cup holder. Called my sister. She didn't take it either. I'm living in Mora... I'm starting to not lock my doors all the time. Someone could have easily come in my car and taken the $2.25 I think I'm missing... but if they did... why did they leave the nickles and dimes... much less the various car chargers and the GPS thing that plugs into my computer and is worth at least $50. Odd. Just plain odd. I hope that of all the things that could have happened to it, I hope it fed someone who was hungry.

On another weird point... I got my UPS pants, and when I tried them on, they still had the tag on them, so I assumed they were new and not left over from someone that used them last year as a seasonal helper... but I reached in the pocket and there's a $5 and 2 $1's in the right front pocket, all crumpled up like they had been washed in there and left. But the attached tag did not look washed. Weird combination. Maybe they re-tag their pants for organization sake? Either way, it was just odd. But, I got $7 since there's no way to figure out who it belonged to...

So, lost $2.25... gained $7... I guess either way I'm up $4.25. Who knows.

Oh and just to get this off my chest... my mom made Christmas cookies, and I believe in 2 days I have eaten enough Christmas cookies to feed an orphanage of starving children. Ooops.

So...

So, I'm still in Mora. I'm so tired of being stuck in limbo here. I have nothing to do. I am waiting for my life to start agian and for the meantime... I just get to hear about how everyone else has stuff going on. I mean, techinically I'm working for UPS for a month duirng their peak time... but I've only actualy worked one day. They haven't needed me more than that yet. I wait for my phone to ring in the morning, if it does, I go meet a driver somewhere. If it dosen't, I keep sleeping. Tonight I'm babysitting for I think, 7 kids? Otherwise, I fight to keep myself entertained all day. I'm so ready to move. If I could afford December rent, I'd just move down there now and be bored in La Crosse and learn about my new town there. Ok, enough venting. I'm done.

I joined the bandwagon...

I finally joined facebook.com. I couldn't before because 1) I can't get into my St. Scholastica e-mail and therefore can't verify I went there... and 2) PCOM (my grad school) isn't registered with them. But now, you can join without a college so all is well. Yay. I've only been on there for 3 hours, and I already have 26 friends. We're all loosers that are online way too much. Especially those of you who added me at like, 11:30pm. Get some sleep people. Oh wait, that means I'm up too... hmmm... Maybe I'll go to bed now...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all! I was just going though my pictures trying to decide which of my actually-really-there-Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade pictures I was going to put up for you today... I'm not going to lie. If you know me, you know I was not there this year, I'm in Mora for the first time in a few years. I watched it in person Thanksgiving 2004. I was going to put up Garfield... but then I realized I had this picture. One of the things I am thankful for is that one time in my life, I was like, 20 yards from none other than... The Crocodile Hunter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I couldn't beat this one... had to re-post my friend Heather's Thanksgiving story... for more writing by Heather, click here.

************************************************************************************

Oh, Thanksgiving. The day that we Americans celebrate the Pilgrims and the Indians and their friendly co-existence. I remember it like it was yesterday, my elementary school reenactment of that fateful day on Plymouth Rock.

Little Jason Evans played the lead Pilgrim. “Ha!” he said, as the Indian women set about decorating the picnic tables with cornucopia. “You bring turkey and we bring smallpox! Ha! Ha! We are in the process of launching an unprecedented biological war on your people. You will lose 75% of your population because God has given us this land from sea to sea!”

Then Sally Jones, the Narrator, said, “The Indians were only the first step in conquering the new world. Early Americans also marched across the continent and took land from Mexico and Canada, and ultimately moved into the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, claiming islands and finally stealing Hawaii from Queen Liliuokalani so that the state count could be a nice round 50 and the stars would line up right on the flag.”

Out in the audience someone’s dad shouted, “Queen Liliuokalani! Pshaw. More like Queen Lilliputian!” And everyone laughed, because people who are not even 6 inches high, that’s funny stuff.

Jason Evans: Lead Pilgrim then continued shouting at the Indians, “I am still working on my plan to gain the middle part of the continent. My sources tell me that pesky old France is going to grab hold of it.”

The lights went dim over the Thanksgiving feast and the spotlight shone brightly again on Sally Jones. “Fortunately the Americans would never have to fight the pesky French for control of the middle of the country. God saw fit to send slaves to Haiti where a guy named Toussaint (which ironically rhymes with croissant) led a big rebellion. The French were kicked off the island, which meant Napoleon no longer needed the middle of America for sugar cane supplies. So he sold it to Thomas Jefferson dirt cheap.”

And everyone laughed again because, get it, dirt cheap!

The Thanksgiving stage lights came back up. “My plan is called Manifest Destiny and it means Americans can do whatever they want because God wants them to have all the land! Ha! Ha!”

Then the audience clapped really big and my class took a good long bow.

It was a very accurate play.

Man of the Year

So, I saw Man of the Year tonight... It's pretty funny, laugh out loud funny like... But then they throw in this action movie stuff that wasn't any good. Plus a love story. I mean... comedy + love story = normal movie. Love story + action = normal movie. Comedy + Love Story + Activion Movie = way too much. Not normal. But, Robin Williams is great. All the men in the movie are great. The lead woman though stinks, at least in this movie. She does not add to it at all.

"Politicians are like diapers. Both should be changed often; and for the same reason."

It's getting closer...

I finally made a decision on where I'm going to live starting in January...
It's a sweet deal for the price...
Building is only a few years old,
Gas fireplace in living room,
Big dining room,
Big kitchen with dishwasher,
Utility room with supplied washer & dryer,
Big bathroom with jacuzzi tub,
Attached 1+ car garage,
Quiet complex of 4-plexes... Yay...

This is my soon-to-be kitchen:


Yay, I'm excited to have a home agian. It's been awhile since I've had a space that's mine.

Moving somewhere around the 2nd week of January. Starting a week or two after that... Spending about 6 weeks from February to March driving to Prairie du Chein to fill in for a doctor that will be on maternity leave.

So, that's the La Crosse update. :)

Girls can work too!!!

So, I got a temporary job (like 5 weeks) with UPS helping deliver packages. Well, I need dark brown or black work boots. Not a problem I didn't think. Until I went looking for some. I wear a 7 1/2 women's shoe. They don't exist. Most stores only carry them in mens. And the smallest men's size they carry is a men's 8. I wear probably a men's 5 1/2. I was even told by the man in the shoe department at Sears that they shouldn't have hired me because if I don't fit into men's workboots I'm obviously too small to do the job. He showed me some wussy women's boots, I told him they wern't good enough. He told me of course they are, what do I want? A steel toe? I said maybe. He said there was no way I should want a steel toed boot, I'm a girl.

My mom called and I told her I couldn't find boots. She told me to go to Fleet Farm. Why didn't I think of that? I found a woman in the shoe department that helped me pick out work boots. Now I have brown work boots. In a woman's size. Yay.

Maybe not politically correct... but funny...

Ok, so my friend Joslyn posted this the other day... and I think it's pretty funny. Not politically correct... but funny.

Election Day

Today I did something for the first time. I voted actually at my local polling site. It's the 4th time I voted, but the first 3 were all absentee ballots.

Yay for the political ads to be done tonight! I can watch TV without yelling at the TV agian!

The ultimate question lingers until later tonight... will we get a old MN 4-Her in Senate? Hmmm... polls don't look promising... we'll see I guess!

Saturday in Florida...

This morning we slept in a bit, and I mean a bit, it's sleeping in for my dad... and left at 9:15am or so. We went back to Montverde, where my grandma's house is, and went to the Montverde Days Festival. There's a lot of people at Montverde Days for how small the town is. We saw some of the other retiree's from home that winter down here... Then we went off to see a cool sculpture garden that Alison had found in a tour guide thing... although it took us awhile when the sculpture garden was in Winter Park and we first went to Winter Garden... oops. Anyway, that was cool, and I took a bunch of pictures. Then off to Old Towne in Orlando. We walked around there and checked out the classic cars that were there. Then mini golf at Pirate's Cove. I lost both rounds. I'm not so good at mini golf anymore. Then... off to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville at Universal City Walk. All 3 of us were going to get a Margaritaville Margarita... only... my ID was not in my bag when we got there. Grrr... he wouldn't serve me. So, below, my dad and sister with THEIR Margaritaville Margarita's, while I sipped my diet coke.

EPCOT

When we were kids my grandpa told us that EPCOT stands for Every Person Comes Out Tired. It is so true. 10 hours there and we were drained.

I met Pooh and Tigger... Tigger "Grrr"ed at me and tried to take me out the door with him. :) Funny Tigger...


I had a fun day, it's just interesting how different things seem when you're 5 versus 15 versus almost 25... I haven't actually been in Epcot since our band & chior trip at 15. Was there quite a few times between 3 or 4 and 15. First time since 15 today. Anywho... I'm tired.

More pictures at My Kodak Gallery Site ... plan on putting more up each evening.

We were driving out at the end of the day and my dad said something to the effect of, "All of these roads here are still Disney's, not the city's."
Alison responded, "Wow, that's a lot for Disney to plow in the winter."
True northerner talk there...

Warm weather here I come!

My dad is bringing me and my sister to Orlando for a long weekend. Yay! We're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning. It sounds really nice especially since the temperature just plumited here in MN. Yippie!

Trick-O-Treaters?

Well, It's 6:30pm, the porch light has been on and the Jack-O-Lantern has been lit since dark... Candy is in a basket by the door...

And no Trick-O-Treaters yet.

They don't love me or something. Or it's really cold. It's only 30 degrees. It was 63 yesterday. What's with that?

But you know what? I don't care if it's cold... back in 1991, we went trick-o-treating in a BLIZZARD. We were tough kids back then. Although I did whine a lot about the fact that my mom made me put on my jacket and snow boots on over my costume and that was no fun 'cuz they couldn't see my costume! I believe that was Sock-hop costume year...

Anyway... waiting on the trick-o-treaters. If they don't come... I'm going to have to eat all the candy myself. And that will not be good...

AMMENDMENT:
My cousin brought over his 2 kids, they're dragons, they're cute. :)
Then there were two unknown kids.
That's all.

Trans Fat Free...

Ok, so all day I've been hearing about how KFC is switching to Trans Fat Free cooking. Wendy's already did. Lots of groceries have gone Trans Fat Free. But you know what? As much as it's kind of a step forward... they have to replace it with other fats. And mostly, still saturdated fats. Which are not good for you either. Or other fake stuff that they're eventually going to decide kills us too. It's still fat. It's still Wendy's... It's still KFC. Eat it if you like it... just eat it sparingly. It's friend chicken and burgers for gosh sakes, it's never going to be good for you.

Why?

Ok, so one of the random things I'm getting paid for is to help my dad build furniture for Pamida. You know, the cheap furniture they have, and they have a display of each one up? Yeah, that.

Anyway... today I built a gun rack. It's not a bad looking gun rack. But... here's what I'm thinking. It's made of particle board and has a cardboard back. Not bad if there's only adults in your house and you just need somewhere to put the guns. Here's my question though... There's locks on the front. But the back is cardboard. What's the point of locking your cabinet when you can very easily just pull the back off?

SIMS

So, I finished delivering Yellow Books. Waiting for my money from them, probably made about $300 in 4 1/2 days... not too bad.

BUT... now I'm bored. I've been playing SIMS2 almost contantly. Yesterday I played for so long that I dreamed in SIMS all night. That's sad.

I Passed!!!!!!!

I just wanted everyone to know that I passed my board exam!!!! Yes!!! So, now I just have to do paperwork and such before I can work. Soon.

Today I saw Open Season...

"Boog! Rabbit Fight!!!"

Yellow Book... Not the other book

So, I took a temporary job delivering Yellow Books. Right now I'm working on rural Milaca, MN... woo hoo! I've seen awesomely cool farm houses... I've seen falling down farm houses. I've seen super cute dogs and ugly matted dogs. I've seen loud jumping dogs and lazy quiet dogs. I've seen cats that think they're dogs. I've had people refuse the new phone book. I've had a guy ask for 300 of them so he could wrap them up tight and use them as firewood. Anyway... back on the road tomorrow to pass out some more phone books!

Still anxiously awaiting board results...

Barter System

I just got back from spending 3 full days with Rose & Korey. I have a good barter system going with them. I paint, clean, rake leaves, whatever they ask me to help with... and in turn they give me a double bed to sleep in, some home cooked food, and they pay for me to eat out. Works well since according to The Five Love Languages for Singles, my primary love language is Quality Time... which pretty much means I feel loved by my friends as long as we spend time together, dosen't matter what we do. So, we all win - they get things done with my help - and I get to spend time with my friends. Yay! :) On Sunday night when we were all done with everything, we went to Space Aliens, and played games, and got about 50 cents of prizes for $9 in games we played. But we had fun!

Done

I finished my test... and I kinda feel so-so about it. Don't feel like I failed it for sure... but not feeling extremely confident either. So, I don't know, so I'm going to try to avoid talking about it until then.

So, I'm in Fargo staying with Rose and Korey until Monday. :)

Hmmm... Which One?

Ok, I'm exhibiting in an art show in a few weeks... but I have to decide which picture, and I have to decide soon, like in enough time to get it postmarked by Friday, in 2 days Friday. Yup, so here's my choices... please cast your vote. Every one of you that look at this, please.


NUMBER 1
This one would be cropped along both sides so it's tall and skinny with just the woman and her daughter.


NUMBER 2


NUMBER 3

A little early... but okay...

So, I've been whining that I haven't really gotten to play in snow the last couple years. In Philly it melted right away when it snowed, and when I've been home at Christmas both years there hasn't been much snow. But, God heard my whining and gave me some snow a little early this year. Maybe it shows that there will be plenty of snow this winter. Here's a glimpse of what my front yard looked like around 9:15am today, and it's still snowing. :)

Seriously, loosing my mind

My brain is full. I can't remember any more. I'm not a great test taker. I'm terrified. My board exam is on Thursday at 10am for 6 hours... I'm told not to study the day before the exam. I'm scared of not passing... I'd have to wait to take the test agian for 90 days... that comes out to January 10th. I don't know what happens to this whole job thing if I fail... I don't know what they'd do, or if I'd still have a job. This is scary. Please pray that I can be calm until then... and on Thursday that I can pull out of the corners of my brain everything I've learned in the past 2 years... That I can concentrate on the questions and not worry... and that when I really have no clue, that I can make an educated guess. Your prayers will definately help. Thanks for all your support! :)

Happy 25th Birthday Jessica!!!

This is Jessica and I and "Uncle Al" in 2001 - he's a statue in Duluth that we named "Uncle Al" in about 1996 on a marching band trip. We still visit him and sit on his lap.

Today Jessica turns 25. That's a quarter of a century.

Jessica is my longest time friend. We met when we were about 6. That's almost 20 years.
Jessica I think is my craziest friend. We've had some fun adventures together.
Jessica I think is my only friend that's traveled more than I have.
Jessica was the last person I expected to get married before she was 30... she's married. Weird.
Jessica has two funny looking dogs. She thinks they're cute. I think they're funny looking.
Jessica and I can not talk to eachother for months and pick up right where we left off.
Jessica moved to Louisianna with her husband. That's far away, so I don't see her much anymore.
Jessica and I have seen eachother through lots of good and bad.
Jessica used to be able to predict when there was a fresh fruit pizza at our house 'cuz she'd show up every time before we even cut into it. So, when she got married, my mom got her a pizza pan and a recipie for fruit pizza for one of her bridal showers.
We've had a lot of fun together. I need to go visit her! :)

Again - HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSICA!!! :)

Ahhhh... How Sweet...

Free Hugs. Isn't it sweet? I was lead to see this by another friend's blog and finally decided to post it myself.

Happy PA Week everyone!

Today is the first day of National PA Week. October 6-12th it is. It's always those days, no matter what day of the week, it's weird, I know... but anyway... It's National PA week. Which means... since I'm taking my National Board on the last day of PA week, the 12th... I'm in cram to learn as much as possible in 6 days mode. So, We'll chat later...

What?

Ring Ring Ring (507 number on caller ID)

"Hello?"

"Hello, this is Sue calling from the Yellow Clinic, is the Althea?"

"The WHAT clinic?"

"The Mayo Clnic... Is this Althea?"

"Oh.... the MAYO Clinic... and this is Aleathea."

Sometimes I swear I can't hear... And who would of thought I'd ever reject a job interview at the Mayo Clinic. But I did. And the job I accepted is better anyway.

In my "spare" time...

Inbetween studying... I'm looking for a bunch of work to fill my time from October 13, the day after my test, until I move in January-ish... The range of potential jobs are...

Target Cashier
Walmart Cashier or Stocker
Early Morning Menards Stocker
Administrative Assistant
Waitress
Child Care Aide
Medical Transcription Assistant
Lab Secretary
Merchandiser (drive around and fill shelves with Pepsi products)
Personal Care Attendant
Hotel Housekeeping
Kennel Assistant
Bartender
Bank Teller
Home Health Aid
Adult Foster Care
Stuffing Envelopes
Delivering the Phone Book (my personal favorite of the moment)

Isn't this exactly what you go to school for 6 years to do?
Gotta love life's ironies...

Still a kid at heart...

So, I flipped on the TV this morning... and...

VEGGIE TALES IS ON THE TV!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

I love Veggie Tales. Do you love Veggie Tales? You should love Veggie Tales.

Plus I have to love Veggie Tales... it's made in Minnesota.

You should all love Veggie Tales.

Job Offer!!!

I have an offocial Job Offer with Gunderson Luthern in La Crosse... and I have to say, it's a pretty dang good offer, hard to even consider turning it down. The job consists of living in or near La Crosse, and floating between the rural clinics surrounding in MN and WI, up to an hour drive, or as little as 10 minutes. Living in La Crosse because it's pretty central. So... I have to decide in a week's time... But I'm really leaning toward yes since I haven't really interviewed with anyone else who seems promising. I have some others pending... but I need to be hired somewhere and have an offocial supervising physician before I can apply for state liscensure in either MN or WI... so this would make the process much easier. So... if all goes as planned (I pass my boards in 2 weeks, I get certified in both states as quickly as possible, and I pass hospital credentialing, which there's no question really in anything but the board exam since I've never gotten in legal trouble...) Anyway, if all that happens as planned... I'm moving to La Crosse, WI in January to start my first real job! Yay!

A little humor...

One of my study books has an occasional humerous question, humerous mostly because it probably happens more than you think... this was my favorite today.

How can Krazy-Glue be removed if a patient has stuck their eyelids together?

This does present a problem... the two common ways to remove Krazy-Glue are acetone (finger nail polish remover) and ethanol (an alcohol)... both which can under no circumstances be used on the eye...

The answer, incase I got you curious... Irrigation with water immediately... then mineral oil. But sometimes you still have to surgically seperate the lids which is a very difficult and risky procedure.

That's your lesson of the day.

Hmmm...

Last night I attempted to make my first Rachael Ray recipie. If you don't know who that is, especially since most of you have real jobs, tape her, she's great - NBC at 11am central time. ANYWHO... I tried to make the Turkey Tetrizini she made on the show yesterday. It sounded wonderful. But... when I made it, it was just kinda bland. I have two theories...
1) Rachael Ray's food isn't really that good, she just makes her guests say it is...
2) Rachael Ray is a far better cook than I am...
As much as I want #1 to be right... more likely it's #2. I need more practice I guess!

Rose & Korey... or is it Korey & Rose...

The Saga of my relationship with Rose & Korey...

1997
*When I met Korey, we were both 15 and weird not cool in high school kids... but we wer cool in 4-H, so that worked.

1998
*A year later when he brought his new girlfriend Rose with to 4-H stuff, I swore I hated her... not because I had a crush on Korey, but because guys don't have as much time for friends when they have girlfriends, and therefore, I had to hate the girlfriend...

1999
*In July, Rose and I went on a 4-H trip to Washington DC together. She introduced me to her friend Jerry... yay. ;)
*I believe this was the summer that Rose & Korey PROMISED me that I could be their flower girl if they ever got married some day.
*That summer, Korey wasn't at the fair, and Rose & I were practically inseperable, she slept at my head.
*Not only did she sleep at my head, but she liked me enough to know I hated getting up early, so every morning she'd get me a bowl of cereal and a carton of milk for me and wake me up at like 9:30am after she had eaten breakfast and everything. Yay Rose.
*Becuase she also woke up earlier than me every day, she got the news that some fellow 4-H friends died the night before... and she had to be the one to wake me up and tell me.
*We grew up a lot together that summer.
*In the fall Rose & Korey attempted to bring Jerry to a 4-H artsie party in Mora without telling me ahead of time that he was comming... but oops, I found out. But yay for them making it possible for me to see him!
*I made the bowl in socks at Mora Lanes. I won. They all fell down.
*I stood in Rose's field in the middle of the night looking at stars or something, and we almost got stampeeded by cows.

2000
*Korey and I graduated! Yay!
*Rose e-mailed me a lot with problems she and Korey were having. The same problems most couples have when one's still in high school and one went to college. I figured that would be the end of them and my dream of being a flower girl...
*Korey's parents sold their house in Henning so he didn't have a house where he grew up anymore.

2001
*My friend Nick and I took a road trip and suprised Rose by showing up at her high school graduation party... she didn't expect me since I had just gotten home from Isreal the day before, PLUS they live 3.5 hours from me.
*Rose ended up going to Moorhead State instead of the U of M because she'd be closer to Korey.
*They started visiting me in Duluth. At least once a year I think.

2002
*In the spring - he proposed... she said yes.
*Rose and Korey got married in September at the ripe old age of 19 and 20. I didn't get to be the flower girl... something about being too old to be a flower girl... I got to be their maid of honor instead... I guess it's a cooler job... but I still give them crap about it. :)

2005
*They became home owners - and I have a room in their house. :)
*They visited me in Philadelphia! Yay!!!
*I helped Rose learn how to make pillow covers to make cool pillows for their living room.

2006
*On Labor Day they came to see me IN MORA since I got home from Bolivia so late I didn't go to the State Fair.
*Rose and Korey are currently on their first real vacation alone together since they got married. Yay for them!

SEPTEMBER 27, 2006 - HAPPY 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY ROSE & KOREY!!!!!!!!!


There's a ton more cool stuff about them, but I'm gonna stop now. :) If you know them - share fun stories here.

This post was going to include pictures.... but, blogger is refusing to upload them. Sorry.

Panic

Ok, so I panicked... I decided October 6 was coming too fast - so I changed my Board Exam date to October 12... 3 weeks from tomorrow. A little more time. I really need to get my butt in gear and STUDY... I so do not feel ready. STUDY STUDY STUDY.

FINALLY!!!

Finally... All my Bolivia pictures are up. And my pictures from Leah's Bachlorette party and wedding. Now I can quit worrying about, they're there. Yay. Now I can buckle down and study. Sigh... I hate studying. Nothing interesting to tell you about. Sorry.

Except for this little tidbit from Heather... it's "Talk Like a Pirate Day." So... Argh matey... where's your parrot?

What the heck?

So, I have a textbook size bag that I carry around most days... today I had it with me when helping with school pictures. When I got home and I was looking for my keys, in the bottom of my bag I found a large bread knife. Why did I have a large bread knife? I really don't think I put it there... I haven't even USED a bread knife lately... I don't get it....

Aleathea's life...

What has Aleathea been up to?

*Playing with silly Bolivia pictures trying to get them online (151 are now there of over 500... more to come tomorrow night). Check them out: www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea
*Helping organize children for school pictures days!
*Helping with volleyball and football team pictures
*Applying for temporary jobs at Target and Mernards... waiting on that...
*Working on getting a full time job as a PA... say a little prayer please...
*Studying for the PA board exam... more prayers please...
*My dad advanced me some money, so I owe him 20 hours of work, mostly on his rental properties... mowing lawns, trimming along houses and such, pulling weeds from the sidewalk and driveway cracks... manual labor
*Went to my friend's bachlorette party last weekend
*I met my friend Sheree's little boy Zach... pictured below... he's super cute.

Grrr...

I'm having some mild problems uploading pictures and it is taking much longer than I thought... so some will be up today, but probably not all. Sorry. I have over 500 pictures and it's being really slow.

Settled in back at home...

Hey everyone. So, I finally made it home on Sunday night. My luggage followed about 8 hours later. But, it was at my front door by the time I woke up Monday morning, so all was well. I would have written earlier, but my blogger has been acting up and not letting me post. Wednesday I gave my final grad school presentation and I'M DONE!!! Well, I don't have my paper diploma to proove it yet... but hopefully I get that soon. You need it to get state liscensure. So... in the meantime, I'm studing for the national borads (which I take on October 6)... and I'm dead broke, so I'm working part time doing whatever people will pay me to do. My dad is paying me to do yardwark and painting and such at some of his rental properties. My mom's boss, Linda, is paying me to help with school pictures and such at the photo studio. And I'm thinking about getting a part-time job at the new SuperWalmart about 20 miles from here. I hear they'll hire anyone for whatever hours you say you'll work. Oh, and I'm also applying for jobs and interviewing and such. So, I'm mostly keeping busy. Tonight I'm going to see Sheree and her 6-month old Zach, who I haven't met yet. I haven't even seen Sheree in a year! Then, I'm going my other friend, Leah's, Bachlorette party. I'll be back around sometime tomorrow. So, that's me. As I type I'm working on uploading all my Bolivia picutres to Kodak Gallery... so within the next couple hours you'll be able to check them all out at www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea (along with all my other pictures). That address is also on the right of this post.

Almost done!

SO... last night I was having dinner with Korey and Rose and we were discussing a random topic and...

I said, "I'll have to google it... What did we ever do before Google?"

Korey, "Yahoo."

Anyway...

I finally got home from Bolivia 28 1/2 hours after origionally planned...
I was at home for a day...
Now I'm in Philly to give a presentation on Chagas' disease tomorrow - last hurdle to graduation...
Then I will be home studying until October 6th when I take the national board exam... and at the same time I will be working part time...

On my way home

Hey everyone. I finished out my last week in Bolivia very busy. I'll share more later. I am currently sitting in the VIP lounge in La Paz, waiting for my flight to Miami, which should board soon. I hope. I'm in the VIP lounge because after this flight got delayed... then I wouldn't make it through customs in Miami to my next flight. So he tried to change my ticket. But he changed it wrong. Then when I went back and showed him, he fixed it. Now it should work. I hope. So, because of the hassle, he stamped my ticket that I could sit in the VIP lounge. It's nice in here. Did you know that they supply free beverages, including bottles of water and soda in the VIP lounge. And CNN. I haven't seen news in a month. And comfortable chairs. It's nice. Yay. Ok, our pilot is in the VIP lounge now, so I should be on my way... See you all soon.

Week in review...

Sunday - After wrote Sunday afternoon, we went to the futbal game. It was pretty fun, but in a way frustrating because they faked injured so often, got carried off the field, and then ran right back on. I didn´t think that was part of the game... Oh well. Then we went home and relaxed the rest of the night.

Monday - Well, I got sick during the night. So, I spent most of the day in bed. No, I don´t know what I ate. One of the other volunteers got sick too. Anyway... Also on Monday we recieved "the container." The container is the size of a semi that was s shipped from Kansas by boat then truck a few months ago and got held up in customs until Monday. It´s nice to have all this new hospital equiptment... but it´s a lot to inventory, find a place for, and teach the doctors how to use. So...

Tuesday - I still wasn´t feeling wonderful, so they didn´t want me in the hospital around the patients. So, I got organizing tasks that didn´t require a lot of physical energy. I sorted hundreds of pairs of eyeglasses that were used, donated, and measured to see the prescription. They were all in a big box. So, I got to make someorder out of them. I also did some more work in the library with the new books that were donated. I did something else too... but now I can´t remember what...

Wednesday - I worked a 7am to 8pm shift in the ER and with the inpatients. Part of the day was interesting. Part was slow. Nothing to really write home about though.

Thursday - I went in at 8am and worked until 4pm or so in the hospital. Then we moved a big box of laproscopic surgical supplies into another place and I got to inventory it all. Then we watched The Intrepreter. My first movie since I got here. And I´m a movie person.

Friday - Went into the hospital at 8:30am and around 11am we took off with a girl about my age who had attempted suicide with rat posion. She wasn´t breathing, Before I had gotten to the ER, they had done CPR and got her heart going agian. But she wasn´t doing well. We also discovered that she was about 20 weeks pregnant by the looks of it. We don´t have an ER, so we loaded her in the back of a SUV type vehicle with me, 2 doctors, a nurse, and her husband and drove her, very quickly into Cochabamba. It took about 45 minutes. When we left her there she was stable, but still on a ventelator. So... pray for her, her husband, and the baby. Then, I went with Amy to some other missionaries house and figured out what a bunch of donated medicine was. Because on Monday and Tuesday we´re going a couple more hours out into the mountians to do a clinic for 2 days. Then we went out to dinner for Anticuchos. I´m not sure if I spelled that right, but it´s cow heart cooked on a bicycle spoke like schiscabab. Agian, I´m a horrid speller. Then we dropped off 2 volunteers at the airport and came back home.

Puppy update - they´re starting to walk. Not well, but they are. They look like drunk sailers. It´s super cute.

Halfway...

So, halfway through my Bolivia trip... here´s some updates...

*Bolivia is beautiful. The hosptial is right in the Andes mountians, I see the mountians all day.
*The first week was mildy frustrating because they don´t have PA´s here so the doctors don´t know what I can and can not do. So... all I was doing were the same things Michael, the 19 year old pre-med student was doing. The second week they started to figure it out, so things are much better now.
*Twice we´ve helped another ministry with kid-washing. They bring water out to a community without running water, bathe the small children, and give then a new pair of clothes every thursday. Also, on Saturdays they do it for the street children in Cochabamba. It´s very rewarding even though the kids hate baths and scream the whole time.
*The hospital is still getting up and running, more new things being purchased all the time. Especially the last week because Mike, the founder of Hospitals of Hope, is down here with more funds. So, I´ve also been the manual labor, helping build desk chairs, move book shelves, organize medical textbooks into a library... and other things.
*The puppies I told you about last time... Four of them are thriving and getting fatter every day, they started opening their eyes this weekend. The one we worried about died the next day.
*There are a lot of stray, angry, hungry dogs on the streets here in Bolivia. I think there´s as many stray dogs here as there are squirrels in Minnesota. Anyway... Friday morning I was doing a 12 hours shift covering the few inpatients (I think 3 that day) and the ER with one of the doctors... A 10 year old boy came and an had been attacked by 3 dogs. One of his legs had gashes all over. I got to help take care of him, he was very brave though, barely cried at all. I´ve noticed that here. Bolivians are much tougher when it comes to pain than Americans. It´s interesing how much they can tolerate.
*Tuberculosis is also a big problem here, I´ve seen 2 guys my age with severe TB. One had a big pleural effusion (there´s a layer called pleura surrounding the lungs, a pleural effusion is when fluid gets in that sack around the lungs and takes over the room the lungs should have to expand)- anyway, I got to help drain that. I had helped with a pleural effusion once in the US, but not one due to TB.
*Bolivian people are very resourceful. Even when they don´t have to be. For example - there´s an EKG machine at the hospital, and there´s the little EKG electrodes that are like little stickers you sick in certian places to read the heart´s activity. They´re supposed to be used once ´cuz they won´t stick much more than that. Well, the doctors use them over and over and tape them down. At first I thought, what a good idea, they´re working with it even though they don´t have enough resources. Then I went in central supply a couple days later. There´s litterally thousands of EKG pads in there. Tomorrow I´m putting out new ones.
*I´ve been doing some 12 hour shifts in the hospital side, and I only have an interpreter for a few hours of those 12. The doctors here are awesome, they work so hard to be understood. One night it was slow and Dra. Santa Cruz and I sat there for 2 hours with my Spanish-English dictionary. Her teaching me Spanish. Me teaching her English. When I´m over there and it´s slow, so many of the Bolivian staff come to me and ask me how to say certian phrases in English. It´s interesing teaching English, espeicially when they´re so willing to learn.
*Where the clinic and hospital are... it´s countryside, about a half hour outside a city. But next week, Monday and Tuesday we´re going out to "the campo" which means way out in the countryside up in the mountians for 2 days to do medical work there. That should be really interesting.
*There´s so much more to talk about but for now I will leave you with that.
*Pray for me and the other voulunteers here that we can be as effective as possible in our ministry and be good examples of followers of Christ. Pray for the people we come in contact with that they would be open to hearing the gospel. Pray for me that I can keep up my energy and excitement for what I´m doing even though there´s long days.
*Well, now I´m off to go see a professional Bolivian Soccer/Futball game on our day off. Should be fun!

If you get my e-mails update... this is 98% the same message...

I just wanted to let you all know I arrived safely in Vinto, Bolivia.. around 8am yesterday (Sunday) morning. As soon as I arrived, they brought me to another missionary family´s home so I could shower and change and get ready for church. We went to church at an English service that mainly caters to missionaries. Then we went to another missionary families home for a big lunch. Yesterday was Bolivia´s independance day. I missed the parade Saturday night because I was still at the airport in La Paz, so I didn´t get to really see how Bolivians spend their Independance Day. Oh well. Today the clinic is closed because of the holiday and there´s only one patient in the hospital, so there´s not much to do today. I woke up this morning and was told that the guard dog had her puppies overnight. There are 5 of them. So, actually my first medical experience was with a puppy - one of them was struggling, still is actually, but it is very cold here overnight in the mountians - when the puppies were born this morning, one had already died and one was very cold and pretty unresponsive. 3 of us took turns for a couple hours this morning rubbing her and blowing the hairdryer at her on low. She´s doing better now, more responsive, but still the least active of the bunch. So far the mom is not a very good mom and is not letting them nurse much. Also, we think she might still have another puppy in her because of the way she´s acting. We´re trying to get ahold of a vet. So... that has occupied most of the morning. Then the three of us short-term volunteers that are here carried 16 sets of bookshelves up a flight of stairs to the offices and library at the hospital. So, we got our workouts. Now we´re here at the internet place. The other short term volunteers that are here are: Andrea who is a 20-year-old pre-dental student who got here just a day before me; and Michael, a 19-year-old pre-medical student who has been here a month already and leaves the day after I do. Then there´s the guest house hosts, Kyle and Amy, who are in their late 30`s. So... that´s my trip so far! No cool medical stories yet. Those will come. Oh yes, sorry, but I will not be putting any pictures online until I return because there is only dial-up internet here and it would take far too long. Typing this has even taken awhile due to the fact that everything but lower case letters is not in the same place as it is on an American keyboard. So, keep us in your prayers and I will keep you updated as I can.

Off to Bolivia I go!

I am leaving Mora at 3:00am - about 6 1/2 hours from now. My dad is driving me to the airport. I am flying American Airlines from Minneapolis to Miami, then Miami to La Paz, Bolivia. When I arrive in La Paz, I have to collect my baggage and go through customs. Then I need to find a ticket counter for either LAB or AeroSur airlines and get a flight to Cochabamba, these tickets cannot be purchased before I get there. I land in La Paz at 7:53pm, so I pray there's a flight out after 8:30pm or so and that I can get on it. Otherwise, I will be spending the night in the airport in La Paz and getting the first flight out in the morning. When I find out what flight I get, I give the full time missionaries a call, and someone will come pick me up at the Cochabamba airport.

My first full day in Bolivia, August 6, is the Bolivia Independance day. So, hopefully I'll get to see a bit of how they celebrate their independance.

So, I am asking for you to pray for safe travels for me. Pray that my flights leave on time and are safe. Pray that my luggage arrives with me at my destination. Overall - just pray my travels go smoothly.

I hope to be posting updates and possibly pictures on here, so keep checking if you're interested. I don't know how often I will get to the internet while I am away... it may be only a couple times the whole month... it may be every couple days. Not promising anything at this point.

I'm off to weigh my luggage, put it in the car... and hope to sleep for about 5 hours before I have to get up agian! :)

Who woulda thunk it...

So, on Friday my cousin-in-law calls me and asks if I ever got her e-mail..
"Ummm... I don't think so..." I say.
"Well, I sent it from my mom's comptuter, so I might have sent it under her name."
"I know your mom's name, and I didn't delete it... and I check my junk mail... I didn't see it there."
"Hmmm..." we both say.
So, she tells me what the e-mail was about and we figured all that out.
The next day I get an e-mail from her mom stating that she spelled my name wrong in the e-mail. She sent it to: aletheaanderson@yahoo.com instead of aleatheaanderson@yahoo.com. And she didn't get a cyber message saying the reciepent didn't exist. So, she sent an appology e-mail to the other Alethea. Thought that was the end of the story.

Today... I got an e-mail from aletheaanderson@yahoo.com. The people at Hospitals of Hope that I need to talk to before I leave... THEY spelled my name wrong too, in the SAME WAY. And the e-mail went to the other Alethea. She was kind enough to forward it to me. Very nice considering the subject was "Very Important Information." Craziness.

So, after thinking of the craziness for awhile today... I googled her.
She exists.
She has a website. www.aletheaanderson.com.
Wow.

I mean, if your name is John Smith. You've heard of other John Smith's. But man, my name is Aleathea Anderson... that is crazy.

Mario Brothers Lovers...

For those of you who played Mario as a kid... you have to watch this video clip. It made me clap and laugh out loud. It's awesome. Must watch it.

Mario Video

Thank you to Talena on Heather Anne's site. You guys are awesome.

I travel a lot...

"I travel a lot; I hate having my life interrupted by routine."
-Caskie Stinnett-

I think this is my new life motto. That quote is one of quite a few good ones in the journal my friend Amy bought for me as a graduation gift. Amy also was wonderful to take time out of her day to take the subway over to my commencement ceremony. Then we hung out on Saturday for awhile. It's awesome to have Amy in Philly. For those of you that don't know - I met Amy when we went to Jamaica together 3 years ago. This is me and Amy.

Philly so far...

Wednesday afternoon I landed, checked into the hotel, studied, and got dinner. Not too exciting.

Thursday I took my family medicine exam - which I passed with an 82 (above the class average thank you very much). My dad landed and headed out to the hotel. In the mean time I got all dressed up and ready for the fancy graduate dinner dance. It was fancier than anything I've been to in the past. Way fancy. I was excited for the expensive food... but you know, it was like, way too fancy that it was barely good anymore. And I still stick to my belief that crab cakes just taste like fancy tuna. Here's me all dressed up with Kendra, my roomate from when I actually lived full time in Philly.

When I got back to the hotel, I went to Denny's with my dad really late 'cuz he hadn't had dinner... I got pie. :)

Friday I got up in the morning, and got ready to go. We took the bus down to the Kimmel Center - where commencement was. We had some pastry type stuff for breakfast and took a class pictue before commencement. Then we had to waste another hour and a half. I don't entertain myself well. I got bored. Then commencement. So, I walked graduation... got a blank piece of paper all rolled up to symbolize a diploma. Got my hood (the thing they hang around your neck to show what level of education you completed). But... I'm not actually done with school yet - 6 weeks to go. THEN I'll get my real diploma. Here's a picture of me in my cap and gown.

Then dad and I got some hot dogs and soda and went to catch the bus pack to the hotel. Then it went from hot and humid... to torrential downpour while we were waiting for the bus. We got wet. Turns out the expressway was all backed up so things got very behind. Then we went to Denny's agian for early supper. Then my dad headed out. Now more studying for the weekend. Yay.

For more pictures... check out www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea

Rain...

It's finally raining. It hasn't rained in MN in 2 months. The power won't stay on... so the only thing I have to entertain me in the dark is this here laptop and it's battery power. I should be packing to leave for Philly in the morning... but it's hard to pack in the dark. I'm almost done with that. What I should also be doing is studying. It's even harder to study in the dark. So, I'm just waiting.

And yes... As of today, I am finished with all but my elective rotation. Off to Philly in the morning... prayers for my concentration during my exams would be appreciated:
Family Medicine exam on Thursday morning...
Comprehensive final on Monday morning...
2 Comprehensive practical exams on Tuesday afternoon.

Wonderful. :) Can't you tell I love tests... or not.

The Excitement of Good 'Ol Mora...

The police reports from my home town... gotta love the excitement...

7-6-06
There was an unattended fire on Wood Street in a backyard fire pit. An officer put the fire out using his extinguisher.
I bet he was super excited to use his fire extinguisher, probably the most fun thing he's done all week!

7-7-06
A man was caught stealing copper wire and pipes on Hwy 65. Police also found meth in his possession as well as a note making reference to the manufacture of meth. The note also contained many names and phone numbers.
"Are you a crazy meth addict? Circle yes or no."

A purple mountain bike was found in a 4th Street yard. The bike was taken to the Police Department.
Congrats - one person in this town RETURNS things instead of stealing them...


7-8-06
A drunk driver was arrested after speeding down Clark St. The driver, a 20-year old male, was cited for Driving After Suspension, DWI, Expired Tabs as well as No Proof of Insurance.
Aren't you missing one of the most obvious ones here? Underage consumption maybe? Oh yeah... people kinda forget that law around here pretty often...

A 20" silver diamond back Nitrus bike was stolen from a McLean Street yard.
Whoever took this... please return it... it was the poor kid's birthday present...

7-9-06
There was a fight reported outside a Union Street tavern. All parties involved were gone when police arrived.
Since when do we have taverns in Mora? I thought they were called bars.

A portable CD player and a Rascal Flatt's CD were stolen from a vehicle parked on Hersey Ave. The vehicle was unlocked.
See mom, THAT's why I lock my doors... yes, even in Mora.

7-10-06
A dryer started a small fire at Mora High School. The fire set off the sprinkler system causing minor water damage. No one was injured.
Maybe this is a sign the school needs some new appliances...

Random thoughts:

1. It's hot outside.
2. Is it odd that I grew up in a farming community and I JUST finally figured out that there was a difference between hay and straw?
3. If I am counting correctly - Between July 26th and September 6th - I will be on 13 different airplanes, maybe 14. That's a lot.
4. Four of those flights have fresh baked chocolate chip cookies instead of the pathetic tiny bags of pretzels.
5. I'm going to be in Bolivia in 3 weeks.
6. I'm so tired of studying, I'm so happy I'm graduating in about 7 weeks.
7. Except then I still have to study for boards for another 3-4 weeks or so.
8. A guy I grew up with, Eric, was in town this weekend and he had his 18 month-old son at church today and he looks like a little mini-Eric.
9. Air conditioning is a good thing.
10. High-speed internet is amazing after dealing with dial-up for awhile.
11. The one thing I don't like about MN - all the bugs.
12. I have another couple potential jobs - both for St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic - One in Ashland, WI and the other in Virginia, MN... I send them reference contacts - 2 of them have to return the reference form before they will interview me. I hope that happens before I go to Bolivia.
13. I love sleeping.
14. My friend Matt, he's in the National Guard and he organized a 9-year-old kid named Lentrit from Kosovo to come to the US to have surgery because he was born with one leg 6 inches longer than the other. A hospital in Louisiana is doing the surgery and therapy and all for free. His dad is there with him. His surgery is tomorrow - so pray that it all goes well! :)
15. It's finally supposed to cool down a little - yay! It's been so hot lately...
16. Some days I feel like an adult... Some days I don't... It's weird.
17. I'm looking at buying a new digital SLR camera... Deciding if I want to spend money on it. I want the camera. I want it before I go to Bolivia. But they're expensive. But I'm watching them on E-bay. If I knew I had a job shortly after graduation it wouldn't be a hard decision... But because I don't know when I'll get money - it's a harder decision.
18. Animals shed a lot.
19. I like diet coke with Splenda. It's my favorite.
20. I also like Cheddar sesame sticks from Bread & Honey Pantry in Mora.
21. Soon, I'm going home to read myself to sleep.
22. Like I said before - I like to sleep. :)

Working at home...

You know, it's only slightly weird working in the town I grew up in. I feared that I'd know too many people and they wouldn't want to see me. But, not a problem too often. About once a day there is someone in the clinic to see Dr. Schwinghammer that I know somewhat well, usually from church. But not in for something that they care if I see them for. Not bad. But yesterday, twice, I walked into a room, one for a prenatal visit and once to see a 9 month old little boy... and I as I started to introduce myself, it clicked that they looked familiar, and at the same time they said "I went to high school with you!" But they still trusted me. Not bad.

Ok, time to slow down...

In the past week...

Wednesday - I drove about 850 miles from Port Huron, MI back to Mora, MN and I saw my sister's new condo for the first time.
Thursday - I unpacked my stuff back into my mom's house in Mora. And I hung out with my grandma for a couple houres.
Friday - I slept in, ate lunch with my mom and then drove 230 miles to Fargo. In Fargo, I hung out with Rose & Korey, ate dinner, and went shopping.
Saturday - Ate brunch at Dennys and then took a nap on Rose & Korey's couch. Then I helped Rose make a card for Jerry and Kristen before heading to their wedding. At the wedding I caught the boquet. So I guess I'm next to get married. I've never caught a boquet before. Well, I guess I still haven't. It hit this celing before falling to the floor short of the girls. I was toward the front, so I just pickced it up first. So... I'm not sure if that really counts.
Sunday - Church, Lunch, Drive back to Mora (230 miles agian). Go to Jody's to find out how to take care of the cats and bird while she's gone.
Monday - Drive to Minocqua, WI for job interview. That was about 210 miles each way. Interview I think went well. I was the first person they interviewed so I don't know anything. They have good benefits though and Minocqua is a very cute little town, so if they offer it to me, I'll probably take it. Then I drove home agian.
Tuesday - First day with Dr. Schwinghammer. Saw three patients in the hospital, then headed over for Pine City. Afterwards I went to Tim & Dana's and hung out with them and the boys.
Today - Hospital in the morning, then a crazy day at the Mora clinic. Then to Cambridge to meet with Jen for dinner.

That's been my week. It's been crazy. I'm tired. So, hopefully I will catch up now. :)

AAAHhhhhhh...

I'm so ready to be done with school. I'm tired of studying. I'm tired of working and making no money. I'm tired of being tired. Ok, I'm done now...

Today I'm leaving for MN, I get to go home for the next 6 weeks! :)

Aunt Lue - I got my birthday present and I love it. I'm sorry I haven't called. Will try to do that in the next couple days.

In a half hour I'm taking my Emergency Medicine exam... hoping I do alright. Even though I feel like I study all the time... I never feel like I'm learning anything.

Ok, I'm fine, it's just been a frustrating last couple days. I'm off to finish studying, take my exam, and then drive the 13 hours home. :)

Another chance...

Job interview number 2 is scheduled for June 19th. I don't know much about the job since the posting didn't say much... but I gave them my resume anyway. The job is in Minocqua, WI, which is about 4 hours east of Mora, almost to the UP of Michigan. It's a pretty area with lots of lakes and stuff. It's working for the Marshfield Clinic's Lakeland Center. That's a clinic, but I'd be working in the associated hospital as a hospitalist PA, working 8am-5pm and alternating weekends taking care of Lakeland Center's patients who are in the hospital providing onsite care and being the link between the hospital and their regular physician at Lakeland Center. That's what I understand of the job. I will find out more at the interview I guess!

"The Student Curse"

I was informed when I walked in the station this morning at 7am that any time they have a student of any kind riding along... nothing happens. I started at 7am. We did NOTHING until noon. At noon, we transported a patient to the MRI center... three hospitals share one MRI. Nothing exciting. Then a little while later... the most interesting one of the day... A heroin overdose. Except it wasn't extremely cool, 'cuz after just giving her 2mg of Narcan... she was fine. Then we had a hospital to nursing home transport. Then a call to an adult soccer league game... guy got kicked in the head, shoe spike through the ear lobe. He didn't come with us, his wife brought him to the ER after he signed off. Then, a guy fell off a ladder doing some house work. He lost consciousness and had a gash on his leg. But when we got there he was awake and saying he was fine. He also declined a ride from us, and his wife was going to bring him in as well. What an exciting 12.5 hours... I hoped my ambulance day would be much more interesting than that... The student curse continues...

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Public Service announcement: PUT SUNBLOCK ON YOUR CHILDREN! It has been over 90 degrees for the past 3 days, and today we got many, many, many small children in the ER with heat sickness and blistering sun burns. Not right. Child neglect. A 17 month old child should not have a blistering sun burn. Some adult SHOULD HAVE prevented that.

Advertisement: My friend Kristin has an etsy.com site. It's like E-bay for crafty people. She sells handmade jewelry. Her store is called Upon the Waters. If you're in the market for such an item, check out her site. Aunt Lue - I think you'd like this stuff ;) - if you're interested.

I finally learned how my friend Heather has all these things you click on to see a picture on her blog! For those of you who are non-link savvy... Click on the colored part that says "Upon the Waters" to link to Kristin's store site.

Weird...

So, I have a dorm-type fridge in the hotel room here. The kind that the freezer and the fridge part are kind of connected. So, I needed to keep some stuff frozen, so I cranked it colder, and some of the stuff in my fridge froze. Oh well. The weird part was that I looked in and saw that one of the unopened bottles of wine I had from my New York winery tour... Well, the foil part over the cork had come off and the cork was pushed halfway out. I took the bottle out, removed the cork totally, and realized it had become a wine slushy. I put on one of those corks for partially finished bottles and set it out horizontally on the counter to thaw. Thought nothing of it. Then, around 3am (12 hours later)... I was awakened by a big "POP" and then the sound of things falling to the ground. Weird since I'm the only one in the hotel room and I have the door triple locked when I'm sleeping... I wake up and search for the culprit. The pre-mentioned wine bottle... The new cork had popped off and flew across the room. The cork, as well as the wine pouring out of the bottle, knocked things over. If liquid expands when it freezes... And therefore shrinks when it thaws... How did the cork go flying? I don't get it... It's just weird. So, anyway... End of the story is, I lost a full bottle of $14.99 Reisling. Hmmm... Weird.

Not a lot interesting lately...

The last few days in the ER havne't been too interesting. This is a combination of the things happening in the past few days...

Two garbage men rolled their garbage truck in the afternoon. Apparently they're top heavy. I got to stitch part of the passengers scalp back onto his head.

I was putting a splint on a six year old boy's broken wrist. He asked if he could come home with me and play with my kids. I told him I didn't have any kids yet. He told me, "Well, you better hurry up and get a baby in your tummy then!"

One of my really good, really easy IV's I put in an extremely drunk man (and by extremely drunk, I mean I swear he was swetting alcohol)... well, later when he sobered up enough to move, he stripped naked, ripped out his IV, and walked naked down the hall.

A 35-year-old woman got this big sliver under her finger nail and was absolutely out of control hystarical. She couldn't control herself. She's had five children, I think she should be more in control of her pain by now.

*****************************
On another note, just so you all know... I'm toying with the idea of joining the National gaurd as an officer in the medical unit after I graduate. At this point, the money and experience is the big drawing factor. They'll pay off about $31,000 per year of my student loans for 3 years. Plus the regular officer pay and bonuses. So... it's tempting. But I haven't talked to a medical recruiter yet. And I haven't decided anything. And I'm in no hurry to decide. If I decide to do it, I would hope that if I got activated somewhere, it would be a hurricane or earthquake like the national gaurd was origionally intended for. So... I'm thinking about it. If you have political opinions on this about if the war is right or wrong or whatever, I would appreciate you keeping that to yourself. I'm not considering it because I totally agree with everything the national gaurd is involved with... but I do think the pay is amazing, and the experience would be as well. So, that's where I stand. I won't be making a decision for awhile yet. So, don't worry. :)

Blahhh...

Super boring day in Mercy ER today... seriously, nothing fun to tell you about. I saw like, 9 patients in 10 hours... it was very very boring. I had Chinese food though. And watched the last 10 minutes of the ER season finale while working. So... that's about it. Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting!

Don't provoke big rats

A 21-year-old kid came in today telling us a rat had bit him in the leg. Last I knew, rats didn't just up and bite people when walking through a public park. But then again, I've only lived in Port Huron for a week and a half. Well, I guess this guy provoked the rat first. He says it was a big rat. After it bit him, he found a big stick and killed the rat that bit him. He said if he was going to get rabies, he was taking the crazy rat down with him. We were getting all ready to treat this guy for possible rabies exposure when I actually looked it up (because I was told to look up the protocol for rabies immunoglobulin) and I found that you don't prophylax against rabies with rats. The CDC says there's a ZERO chance of getting rabies from rats. There's been one report of rabies in the united states in the last year, and it was from a raccoon. Yup, so the crazy kid went on his way with 10 days of antibiotics. And no worries of rabies.

I am... the Baby Whisperer

I got a new title today at the ER. I am the Baby Whisperer. Here's how it all came about...

We get this story... a 21 month old little girl and her 5 year old brother were playing outside, out in some dinky little town, and they have a pond. The neighbor looks out the window and sees the 5 year old boy standing by the pond, looks around and dosen't see any adults, so he goes out to make sure everything's ok. He walks over to the 5 year old and he points out into the pond and says "Baby!" The little girl is floating face down about 3 feet out from the edge of the pond. The neighbor dashes in, grabs her, and gives her a few rescue breaths after which she coughs and/or throws up a bunch of water. She starts screaming unconsolably. She's in the ambulance and off towards the nearest town with a hospital before they even find the family. Girl gets to our ER after what I was told was at least an hour long ambulance ride alone. Then she's rushed into the trauma room, surrounded by scary adults poking her with needles and sticking little things all over her. Understandably, still kicking and screaming like mad. After that's all done, one of the older nurses picks her up and tries to console her to no avail. Still kicking and screaming like mad. I could tell the nurse was getting tired, her arms were drooping. This little girl weighed around 30 pounds at 21 months, and she didn't look fat. Anyway, so I took her in my arms and after her struggling with me awhile, I decided to start singing to her. I picked twinkle twinkle little star... it worked. She stopped crying and just looked at me. I switched to another song. She screamed. So... Twinkle Twinkle it was. Over and over. But it worked, it even got her through X-rays. So, hence forth I am the baby whisperer. She didn't like anyone but me. Mom and uncle finally got there... there's a weird family dynamic, Mom was very unemotional and detached from the little girl. Anyway... it appears she's going to be ok and she was pretty lucky. Neighbor saved her life. But, where was mom? And why were these two small children outside at 9pm playing by the pond alone? Anyway... when I left she was headed to Children's Hospital in Detroit for a day or two for observation. Still don't like the feeling I got from mom. Just dosen't seem right. The nurses were going to call child protective services on them I think.

Pictures

I finally got 2 more albums published... Here's the shortcut to them... for the rest of my photos see the link on the right.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea/easter_2006

http://www.kodakgallery.com/aleathea/new_york_finger_lakes_adventure

A Busy Day at Mercy ER...

From the moment I walked in, for the next 11 hours I was there, it was non-stop. Here are some of the interesting parts...

A fast moving hockey puck can really split a guys chin open.

A woman lost a condom inside her vagina and I got the joy of taking it out for her.

I had to help do a lumbar puncture on a poor little really sick 4 year old boy.

A 70-year-old war vet yelled at me a lot because he didn't want to be in the hospital and didn't think that he needed to be in the hospital for a nosebleed if he had gone through "7 years in Germany with bullets flying at me" (his wife says it was only 2 years)... and this was nosebleed number 2 of the day which both lasted over 2 hours.

Lots of sick little kids.

An embedded tick in a 6 year old's head.

Ok, I'm too fried to remember what else happened today... I'm just glad for 24 hour McDonalds on a night like this... It's tireing... but I'm really loving ER.

Lesson of the day...

Do not leave curious 4 year old boys alone, even for 10 minutes. They will get into the medicine cabinet. And then you will not know what, if anything, they actually ingested. Then you will have to take them to the ER. You will have to wait in the ER for 4 hours for observation and to get a 4 hour Tylenol level... only to find out your child ingested, at most, 1 Tylenol. Then you will go home with a tired and crabby child around 12:30am.

In the meantime... the curious PA student and one of the RNs will taste the activated charcoal given to the child to see how horrible it tastes and why the kid puked. Even one sip, and we both understood why the kid puked.

There's why when you have children, you need to know how many pills you had in the bottle, so you know how many are missing when your kid gets into it... because they will get into it.

On another note... some of you have been asking what Port Huron is like, if it's a nice town and such.... I couldn't figure out how to explain it until today, and on my way to the hospital the perfect description hit me. Port Huron is like Superior, WI if Superior did not have the wonderful-ness of Dululth to make it suck less. It's just a dreary port city... like Superior.

Adventure from day 2...

1. I got to remove popcorn (unpopped) from both ears of a 4 year old who would not speak to me. Until I gave him a choice of stickers, and he said "Cat in the Hat"... Crazy, "does your ear hurt" and I couldn't get a simple Yes or No... but a full phrase to get a sticker. Kids.

2. A woman who couldn't figure out why her sick husband was so confused. Pretty easy for me to figure out... She told me that since he quit eating she let him drink as much beer as he wanted every day because that way at least he was getting some calories in him...

3. I got to stich my first awake patient... a man who dropped a chainsaw blade on his hand... smart guy. He cut the tip of his finger off last year.

That's the most fun ones... more tomorrow.

Not sleeping...

So, I woke up awhile ago and can't sleep... I ended up watching TV and on the Leno rerun that was on around 3:30am there was this funny woman on named Lisa something or other... anyway, she was talking about the men she dates when she said (and I know this is totally politically incorrect, but it was funny, maybe because I'm half asleep)...

"This one guy I dated, he was half black - half Indian... not Slurpie Indian... Casino Indian. It sucked because every time we went dancing it rained..."

Forgive me, I thought it was funny.

My New York Camping Adventure...

This past weekend was my first solo camping adventure. Granted, it was what I commonly refer to as "wussy camping" - aka Campground with showers camping... Anyway... I took the senic route up to the Finger Lakes region of New York from Philly, taking no road bigger than a state highway. It took a while longer than the big highways would have - but it was so much prettier it was worth it. I got there just after dark, around 9pm, and set up my tent. I hoped for no rain being the ground was too hard for me to get my ran fly staked out well, I need to get some kind of mallet to pound those things in for future trips. I also made my first fire without help! Almost 24 years of watching my parents make fires, and I actually learned something - go figure! Anyway... I went to bed kind of early after a little reading. I woke up to light rain on my tent, but I was warm and dry. I hoped it would stop soon. So I sat in my tent and pouted for awhile that it was raining on my one full day of camping. Finally around noon, I got dressed and headed out to drive around the lake and see what was out there. After just a bit, it stopped raining. So, I drove around the lake, through all the farm land, and it was pretty. Then I got back and did some hiking around the gorge. The sun came out for the end of my hike, but it stayed kind of chilly, so I headed back to sit by a fire. I kept the fire going so long Saturday night that I went through 2 1/2 wood bundles. But I was warm. And I love watching campfires. Fire it so interesting... Anway, I also met this woman a couple sites over from me who was also camping alone. She had ridden down from Rochester, NY on her motorcycle. We sat by my fire for a couple hours and she shared her bottle of wine and we chatted. We had a lot in common for her being a good 30 years older than me. She was fun. Then, pretty sleepy, I went to bed. My sleeping bag is awesome. I stayed warm despite the fact it was FREEZING all night. Literally. I mean, I had a half bag of ice sitting out that didn't fit in my cooler. When I woke up in the morning, before the sun came out, it was still a bag of ice. It didn't melt until the sun was shining bright. So, I stayed in my warm sleeping bag until it got warm. Then I broke down camp and headed out. I checked out a few wineries on my way north. This area of New York is one of the best in the country for wine, and possibly in one of the best in the world according to some things I have read. The funny thing to me was that the winery that said is a "can't miss" according to the book, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die... well, they're stuck up and they don't have much variety. I left there fairly quickly. I bought some good wine from a couple other wineries. If you come to visit me, I'll share. :) I drove by Niagra falls and saw it from my car in the summer... maybe I'll get back there to see it in the summer. I've only seen it frozen and it's pretty cool then. Anyway - in Canada I bought some gas. A friendly Canadian man at the next pump noted that I was far from home and tried to help me figure out how much their gas was in comparison to ours. Neither of us could do it in our heads, but he COULD tell me that it's more expensive than US gas. When it's $1.09 Canadian per liter... it's hard to figure out how many US$ per gallon. But... it did come out to approximately $37 for 10 gallons... definatley more... we're not up to $3.70 per gallon yet. Ick. Trying to figure out that calculation and the accents of all those around me, who were all talking to me by the way becasue of my "foreign" liscense plate... really made me feel as if I was in a different country. But... when I got back on the road and saw all the signs for all the same stores, hotels, and resturants that we have and I remembered that Canada is after all, just a part of the United States. Anyway... so I finally got to Michigan.

I was going to show you pictures... but this is refusing to upload pictures today. Sorry!

Bad blogger... shame

Ok, I'm bad at this, this keeping up with writing on here. Especially in comparison to my friend Heather. She's awesome. She writes almost daily. Except for her recent hiatus of a few days. But she's forgiven, even though I daily look forward to her wonderful writing.

Anywho... I'm going camping this weekend at Watkins Glen State Park. I've heard it's nice. One of the top 100 State Parks in the country. It's in New York, by the finger lakes. I made my reservations awhile ago, and then the forecast was RAIN all weekend and I was disappointed. But God knew I needed it... the rain in the forcast is GONE! Yay! Ok, so I'll be off on my nature retreat for the weekend. Even though the park sounds like it'll be crowded due to it being opening weekend for camping in most of NY. So yes, I will tell you all about it later.

Happy weekend all!

Baths

The power of a relaxing bath. Today was stressful, a lot of minor stresses, nothing huge, but when I got home tonight I was longing for a nice long soak in the bathtub. Only problem... no bathtub. Well, there is a bathtub, but the thing to plug it is broken, so pretty much it's just a shower. So here I sit, wishing I could soak in the bathtub to destress before bed... and I can't. Someday I'm going to put a whirlpool tub in my house. And a hot tub outside. And then I can sit in warm water whenever I want. :)

New ER tonight... YAY!

Oops...

For those of you that received a paper copy of my support letter... I neglected to re-proof read the letter after adding the picture on top. In doing this, I somehow deleted a whole sentence. Here is how the 1st paragraph ends and the 2nd paragraph should start...

"...This summer I will be going to Vinto, Bolivia in South America from August 5th to September 2nd. (end paragraph)
Hospitals of Hope is an organization that provides medical and dental care to people in third world countries. HOH has a clinic in Bolivia..."

Sorry about this mis-print. Also if you notice I changed the date to September 2nd (not the 7th as the original letter said).

I apologize for my errors.

Weather...

The weather people all just make things up I think. I got up and it was very rainy and gross so I went back to bed because I just couldn't convince myself to go outside in the rain to go to church. So, I layed around and relaxed all morning and afternoon. Then around 3pm it got nice out so I went grocery shopping. It was only supposed to be nice for a couple hours. It was supposed to be raining agian by 7pm. It hasn't started yet and it's 10pm. I didn't go out rollerblading because I didn't think I'd have time before it started raining on me. I would have had plenty of time. The weather people cheated me I think.

Aren't they cute...

These are my little cousins I get to see every time I go home. These are from Easter Sunday right before I left to come back to Philly.

It starts today...

As I posted before... I am going to Bolivia for four weeks in August. This is an elective rotation and I will get credit for school, but it is also medical missions - I will finally be able to use all my education to open doors to share Jesus with people. I am so excited for this opportunity.

Tomorrow morning I will be putting the first of my support letters in the mail. I also want to post the info on here so if I miss any of you in the paper mailing... I can reach you this way.

The first opportunity to partner with me in my ministry is to pray for me and the lives of each of the people I will come into contact with. If you would like to be a part of my prayer team, please contact me directly via the comments here, e-mail, or phone so I can keep giving you updates and further prayer requests as the days get closer.

The second opportunity to partner with me is by supporting me financially. I need a total of $2,430 which covers my travel, food, and housing. I have applied for a $500 matching grant through the Fellowship of Christian Physician Assistants, of which I am a member. This grant would partially cover this opportunity.

Please pray about this opportunity to partner with me in my ministry.

If you feel led to partner with me financially please send a check made out to Hospital of Hope, Inc. and send it to:

Hospitals of Hope
3545 N. Santa Fe
Wichita, KS 67219

And include in the envelope my name so they know to whom to credit the money, as well as your name and address.

Any questions or comments... please e-mail me at aleatheaanderson@yahoo.com or leave a comment below.

Why would you give that warning?

Today I saw a fancy convertible with this liscense plate:

RCKLSS

Reckless... now, as much as I appreciate the warning to watch out for his reckless driving... why would one give the cops that warning? I mean, if I was a cop and saw someone with that liscense plate... a liscense plate warning me that they were known for being reckless... I would pull them over. And almost everyone on the road has SOMETHING you could ticket them for if you pulled them over. So yes, that person is strange...

Hmmm... who went into the right career?

Physician Assistant is the #1 Top Growing Job in the United States! :)
(8 out of the 10 are in medicine/science)

Top 10 Best Jobs according to MONEY magizine and Salary.com (according to growth, pay, stress, and other factors) ...
1. Softwear Engineer
2. College Professor
3. Financial Advisor
4. Human Resources Manager
5. PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT
6. Market Research Analyst
7. Computer IT Analyst
8. Real Estate Appraiser
9. Pharmacist
10. Psychologist

Check out how yours compares...
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/other_jobs/index.html

Who says you can't go home...

I got to go home! It was short, but I got to go.

Thursday night I flew from Philadelphia to Milwaulkee. Then I picked up my rental car at 10:15pm and drove the 3 hours to Hillsboro, WI. I then slept a few restless hours at a hotel there before my job interview. I was nervous being this was my first real grown-up professional job interview. In my new pants suit, I went to my interview at the only cafe in the little small town. I shouldn't have been as nervous as I was because in small town midwestern fashion, the people interviewing me we all very nice. It's a classic small town, but I love it. The cool thing is... although it's a small town, they are far from "alone" in rural medicine. It is part of the Gunderson Luthern health system and all their medical records are on the computer. 24 hours a day you can get a specialist on the phone to consult with in 10 minutes through their phone system. X-rays are read by a specialist in another city in a half hour and they send you their report. Although it is a 1200 person farming community - you are far from alone in health care there and that is awesome. Anyway - they will let me know within 2 weeks what is going on with that option... in the meantime I'm still applying for other jobs!

After that, I drove back to Minneapolis and dropped off my rental car and hung around for awhile waitning for my sister to get off work. I took a cab to her work and got a ride home! Yay! I spent a couple days hanging out with my family and just relaxing. I even got a mild sunburn on Saturday just hanging out outside! Yay! That dosen't always happen in April in Minnesota.

Anyway... Over the weekend, mostly on the plane and sitting in the airport I read all of Francine Rivers Attonement Child and absolutely loved it.

Today I've been working on getting some stuff together for Bolivia. So much going on... but if you know me at all, you know I don't like to sit still.