I miss having this blog. What do I do? I want to be able to tell stories about my future work, while being anonymous, and don’t want to write about my personal life on the new blog. But I only want 1 blog. Should I just suck it up and write about personal stuff as well as hospital stuff on the new blog? Advice please.
Anyway – Jen and I ran in a race in Vancouver this weekend – which was so exciting. Jen ran the half marathon in 2:12 and I ran the 8km in 1 hour.
Literally… As you all know.
But also figuratively. The time has come where I would like to write more about my in hospital experiences with a more anonymous flavor!
If you’d like to continue to follow my adventures at my new home, please send me an email and I will forward you the new address!
I’m not sure how I will work my personal life into an anonymous blog – I guess that means no photos, but since I rarely did that anyway – not too big of a deal. I’m sure I’ll figure it out.
Anyway, it’s been a pretty good run and I will always have fond thoughts of my first blog. However I am looking forward to my new anonymous life, where no one can google my blog by my name, and I can’t get fired for writing about my experiences. Also maybe creeps won’t be able to read about my life and know where I live! Awesome.
Please keep in touch.
much love,
dani p.
So, I briefly had a panic attack this week regarding privacy and my blog, and for once considering that it is possible that I might not want everyone in the world to read this. So I am still toying with the idea of having a subscriber only policy, or moving blogs to an anonymous one. In the meantime I have come to terms with the fact that my life is not exciting or scandalous and only my mom and 3 other people read it anyway.
I quit my job at the call center. I found the one thing in life that was more emotionally corrosive than accounting – calling people and asking them for money!! EWWW. 2 days of training and 1 day of work was all I could handle. And then I quit via email – classy. Thinking of even going for one more shift was making me physically ill. In fact I would have to say that this was the WORST job I have ever had, narrowly eeking in front of my job as a campground attendant. This got me thinking, which jobs have I had and how I would rank them. So without further adieu… (from worst to best)
So there you have it. Number one job is driving around giving people the gift of Pizza. That just goes to show you that you can work toward a goal and what you think is your dream job, but find true happiness in something you just stumble upon.
Other new and exciting events in our life include NOTHING. I go to school, do book keeping (I picked up some new clients), then I sleep. Yesterday I flew to Vancouver, met our friend by the luggage carousel, delivered some buddy passes, and then went back through security and flew home. That is about the height of excitement in my life. Jealous yet? 🙂
Out of desperation I have taken a job at the call center at SAIT. We call unsuspecting alumni and while trying to make them feel like a part of SAIT’s family ask them to donate some money. We also try to bribe them with faulty tax information (actually since I emailed the management and called them on this, I doubt I will have the job for long). The job doesn’t pay all that well, and I really wanted a job at Starbucks. So I am kind of down that Starbucks didn’t want me. Seriously, I can’t even get a job making coffee.
So far I have undergone two days of training at the call center. It’s not a difficult job, but I do worry for one of my co-trainees. Reading is not her strong suit.
Sidebar – There are a lot of people employed at the call center who are in the “AIM” program. I didn’t even know this program existed – Administration Information Management- and I am not sure what they learn. Seems to be a combination of Secretary and Business Admin. There are also a lot of want-to-be accountants. It didn’t go over very well when I said, “I am in Respiratory Therapy because I used to be an accountant and it was killing me slowly.”
Back to my slow reader – some of the more notable reading errors are alumni (pronounced alumini, kind of like aluminum) and initiative (pronounced inactive). Now – I am not a genius myself, but it seems to me that for a job that involves calling people and READING from a script (a script that includes tricky words like “alumni” and “initiative”) that reading may have been a pre-requisite. The trainer suggested that she substitute her own words for the “hard” words. You might be interested to know that a good substitute for initiative is problem. I had NO idea that they two words were synonymous! God, I just learn so much every day.
On the school front all seems well. This semester is much lighter than the last- my classes include the following:
This has freed up a pile of my time – and why I can now work at a call center. Lucky me. Oh, I also seemed to have picked up another book keeping client – lucky me. And it is eating my soul.
I applied for my practicum to be in Lethbridge. The opportunities in the hospital are much greater there even though it would mean a part time move. Jen was most gracious in saying that she wanted me to get the best education possible even if it meant that I live in Lethbridge for a year and she live in Calgary. So even though that would suck a lot I am still hoping that when the results are posted on Monday that I am in Lethbridge. I am just reminded again how lucky I am. One of my classmates was told by her boyfriend that he would end it with her if she didn’t pick the city HE wanted. What absolute bullshit. I am thankful every day for my wonderful Jen and our lovely catten family 🙂
Ok. I have been back in school for 5 days and I am already kind of tired of it. The current dilemma is choosing a practicum site.
Options include Calgary, Lethbridge, Saskatoon, Regina, Red Deer and Medicine Hat. There is some sort of complicated system for drawing your position even though you submit a list of your preferences. Now, of course it would be easiest to stay in Calgary given that I currently live here and also have a life here, but there are good reasons to choose other sites. I have to list 3 preferences which are Calgary, Lethbridge, and Saskatchewan. I have no desire to live in Medicine Hat or Red Deer. Yes, I would rather live in Saskatoon or Regina than MH or RD. Ok – so even though Calgary is very easy to stay in there are some really great reasons to do my practicum in Lethbridge. The RTs in Lethbridge actually get to intubate (which seems like something that should go without saying for RESPIRATORY therapists – but not in Calgary) and they also get to insert arterial lines. The staff is smaller so you get to do more things and they get to know you instead of just calling you “student.”
Of a 12 month practicum 9 weeks would be spent in a Calgary hospital, 3 weeks of May is a holiday, 4 weeks of August is summer break and 3.5 weeks is Christmas holiday. So really that doesn’t seem like very much time in Lethbridge. That actually seems do-able. But then I think about it and I am such a home body. I like my space, and my girlfriend, and my cats, and everything! In Lethbridge I’ll be living in my grandparents spare room or on whoever’s couch I can find – the budget for a second condo is not very gigantic ($0). All of this will be decided by January 31st… …
On a lighter note – we wandered into the new Holt Renfrew today. I was just checking out the shoes and found several pairs for like $1000. I was trying to imagine a situation in my life where I would spend that much on a pair of shoes. I can’t imagine it. Nevermind I would never have a place to wear shoes like that. Fancy shoes.
Oh yes and Pancakes had to go to the vet today. I always knew she was special but the vet said this – “wow this is one ADHD cat.” As pancakes climbed all over the examining room and climbed his leg. The other thing of note the vet said was, “Pancakes is fine – now give me $77.”
So I am also seeking a job right now.
Jen and I got engaged on New Years eve over a Romantic Dinner. !! We spent last weekend in Vancouver (primarily to go to my dear friend Christy Ney’s wedding) but also celebrating! How exciting! I have the prettiest ring in the world!
Jen and I went to Cabo for Christmas.
Day 1 – Arrival at hotel (Riu Palace – Cabo San Lucas). We were treated to a drink from the hotel lobby bar (literally a little booth with a Mexican and some pitchers of drink), the first of many. The guy who checked us in mentioned something about dinner reservations for Christmas and we nodded and finished our drinks. He waved the bar lady over and she brought us more drinks. We dumped our stuff in our very damp smelling room complete with towel formed into swan, bar in room, and two double beds attached by one giant headboard. Hungry, we set off to find supper and then realized with the desk man had been talking about. Mexicans celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve and dinner tonight was by reservation – which we didn’t have. Oh well – they seemed to be used to useless tourists so they squeezed us in and we had a VERY nice Christmas dinner complete with all kinds of meats, sushi, seafood and lots of desserts. I imagine there were vegetables too. We made friends with some nice ladies sitting next to us and they guarded our stuff while we filled our plates. Again and again. At some point I think I must have lapsed into food coma because I do not remember the rest of this day.
Day 2. Christmas Day. We had ordered breakfast to be delivered in the morning. It never came and when I called to complain they said that we had forgotten to indicate a delivery time and I said that was ridiculous, but it was actually true as evidenced by the photo I had taken of the sheet. So instead we wandered down for breakfast. Thus began an entire day of wandering from restaurant to bar to restaurant to bar to eat and drink continually all day.
Day 3. Boxing Day. In the morning I got up before 7 to stand in a line to get a reservation for a fancy restaurant. For some reason we were bored of being in the same place for 24 hours (the first sign that an all inclusive vacation may not become a pattern for us) so we decided to take a taxi into town and walk around and be tourists. I don’t know if we looked poor or something, but the doorman suggested with take public transit instead of a taxi ($10!). Under normal circumstances I think it would have been fun to take the bus. Some of our best Bahamian experiences were on the bus – like the time the guy with the billy club got on and we were sure we were about to become the newest statistic. However, because I had made us a fancy dinner reso for 6 PM we thought we were pressed for time. Round trip the entire adventure took less than 2.5 hours when all was said and done. The town of Cabo is SMALL. We wandered around, some other tourists took a photo of us in the belly of the whale and they pretended to steal our camera and I was a bit relieved because we need an excuse to get a new one, but the they gave it back. We hit the little shops, and also the mall. We had better luck with shopping with the vendors on the beach, where we were able to obtain some Mexican Coach sun glasses for Jen! We decided we should head back to the resort where we could sit by the pool and absorb all the sun possible. Never ones to do the same thing twice, we decided a WATER TAXI would be an exciting way to get back to the resort, even after the water taxi driver tried to talk us out of it because the cost was twice the normal taxi and also the water was quite choppy. No way – I wanted the water taxi. We didn’t wear life jackets and Jen held on white knuckled all of the way back. We were still quite a ways from shore when we realized there was no dock, and the driver shouted, “I will get close and then you have to jump out of the boat.” I immediately thought this was a bad idea since Jen can’t swim. Also – it sounded dangerous. No worry, we were able to get close enough that I only got wet up to my knees. Anyway. We made it back in plenty of time for our fancy dinner. I had a steak that had a half inch slab of cold butter on it. It was interesting – and delicious. I am pretty sure any time you take meat and add more fat you will end up at delicious.
Day 4. The long journey home. We didn’t have to leave the hotel until 1:30 so we had a good chunk of the day to mill about. Jen had prepaid our way to and from the Airport before we left Canada which was nice because it was so damn convenient. We were subjected to what I assume was more stringent screening guidelines at the airport since someone tried to blow up an airplane with his panties on Christmas Day. This more stringent screening consisted of a twelve year old Mexican rifling through my shoulder bag before sending me on my way with an adios. I was hungry as usual, but the Pizza at the airport was 90 pesos a piece – which roughly translates to $9. I LOVE pizza, but even I cannot hand over that much for pizza. Then… the tv on the airplanes was not on for the entire time we were over the US due to new regulations imposed by the big bully US. And that pretty much wraps up the Mexican Christmas of 2009.
Here I am. A month later. Some updates.
We were allowed back into the hospitals for one last time before Christmas break. I spent an afternoon in an Emergency Room. All I need to say is GI Bleed. GROSS. But I did get to bag the patient while we transferred him to the ICU.
What else. Jen and I went to Banff to celebrate our birthdays. For some reason Jen didn’t bring a winter coat. Or any coat. I took some funny photos. As I always do, and then delete them because they take up too much space on my phone.
I am supposed to be studying and doing a ridiculous exercise involving making up questions for a teacher instead of writing a quiz. I would have rather written a quiz. But I do not ever see eye to eye with this rather special teacher.
Next week is my lab competencies. I have 4. That’s stressful. Then the following week I have 6 exams in three days – finishing on the 23rd.
We are going to Cabo on the 24th – I promise I will take some good photos and post them. Promise.
Back to procrastinating.
I made a brief little trip to the island on the weekend. As usual it poured the entire time. As an added extra bonus it also snowed a bit. I thought I would be a good daughter and help my mom weatherstrip her little house – which apparently was made by the least handy old man in history. I also bought some expandable foam. I thought it would be good for sealing those extra large cracks. It turns out that stuff is extra sticky. It doesn’t wipe off of windows very well. I also glued my hands together. As a super awesome finale I sealed shut my mom’s crawl space – completely by accident. The space around the door looked suspiciously like cracks.
Now I am at home. Since Jen is away I am characteristically chicken and scared of the dark. I slept with the lights on last night. But that was confusing to pancakes who spent the night doing laps around the bed, and playing in the bathtub. Boy does she look tired now.
Quote of the day from facebook – ” I thought the shot was really bad for you because they dont know the future side affects and i heard it had 25 times the legal limit of mercury in it !!! “
We are really entering scary times when people start saying ridiculous things like this.
