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.

A trip to the outlet mall...

Today I went to the outlet mall to buy a new pants suit. Didn't think that would be too hard. I saw about 4 stores devoted only to men's suits. Why don't they have any stores like that for women? Then as I sauntered through all the other stores for women's suits, most of them I found would make me look like a grandmother. I did not want to look like a grandmother. Why couldn't I find a suit that would make me look mature and grown-up, but yet still look kind of young. Finally... I found some. Not at your typical grown-up clothes stores. But at H&M. Who would have thought I'd find some of my grown-up clothes at H&M. Oh well, it was much cheaper than the others and doesn't look cheap! On a side note... If H&M is supposed to be a Swedish store, why is the music they play all American artists? Sweden has their own music, play Swedish music in a Swedish store. Also... I went in a pet store to look at the puppies. But the puppies made me sad because they're in little tiny cubes and have no room to run and play like puppies should. I literally almost cried. Someone, bring the puppies home!

Things that make me go Hmmmm....

You know those signs that say "Your speed is ___"? On a single lane highway it makes sense. But, when you're on a 4 lane highway full of cars, how can you tell what cars speed it is telling you?

Why did Mandesa have to go home on American Idol? I like her! I guess I can't complain... I didn't vote.

A few days ago the apartment building had a sign on it that said "We will be shutting off the water from 9am - 2pm for necessary repairs." You know, I think I would have liked it better if the sign said "We will be shutting off your water all day just to piss you off because we get a kick out of the power we have over your daily schedule." It's as if they decided they should say it was necessary so we wouldn't complain. But then they even kept the water off at least 3 more hours then they had to (thankfully I wasn't home to deal with it)... and then for 4 hours agian 2 days later. Hmmm...

Sunday it was 70 degrees and I went rollerblading in shorts and a sleeveless shirt and it was BEAUTIFUL. Today, 3 days later it went from snowing to cold and sunny then snow then sun then snow then sun. It was a crazy day. This weather is craziness.

Random Fun-ness

My cousin Matt finally proposed to his girlfriend (now fiance) Dana yesterday. I haven't had a family wedding since July 2000. And that was the other side of the family.

On Wednesday this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.
That won't ever happen again.
(Thanks for that one Teri!)

Today I helped remove a uterine fibroid the size of a fetal head. This woman had a crazy messed up uterus.

As for me - I'm busy learning all about the female reproductive tract. :) That's about all.

Bolivia Here I Come!

I was accepted to do my elective rotation in Vinto, Bolivia with Hospitals of Hope. Yay! So, I will be spending the month of August in Bolivia! Yippie! Anywho... if you want to check out more about the organizaiton I'll be working with, you can do so at www.hospitalsofhope.org. Pray for me and this opportunity!