Oh good grief, it's been over a month. I do apologize for the lack of updates.
So, first and foremost, LPN school. It's going well so far; it's only been three weeks but I've already had about ten tests in both my classes, and thankfully I'm passing them with A's, but that's liable to change anytime, so I do spend a lot of time studying. I was (and am still) excited about our uniforms-- we get to wear scrubs and be all official and stuff!!! Thankfully they're very comfortable, and it's easy to transition from school to work, since I pretty much wear the same thing at both locations. My classmates are pretty fun; most of them are either retired military, as we're about an hour outside of Quantico, or moms looking for a career. So far the group I more or less "hang" with consists of Jay, a Korean mother who is always happy about everything; Steph, the mother of a special-needs child and my main study-buddy; and Mike and Courtney, who only come twice a week for Anatomy to fulfill their pre-requisites for an RN program. Mike is very smart and outgoing, and Courtney is pretty shy but sweet. So far we're taking Trends in Nursing, which is basically a common sense class for nurses, and Anatomy and Physiology. The Trends professor is a former hippie from the 60's, but she is really fun and works at Snowden Mental Health clinic. The Anatomy professor is nice, but her class gets annoying when she starts reading verbatim from the text during lecture. We all can read the text, we need a lecture based on the text without it just being the text. If the class only required us to know the info from the book, we wouldn't need this lecture. Ah well, that's just me being nitpicky. Still having fun, and looking forward to clinicals next semester. The one downside is that I get up at 5:30 every morning to get ready for class. When I hit the road at 6:30, the traffic on the 95 is just starting to back up, so I know I'm leaving at a good time, even if I do get there about an hour early.
Work is going well. I work at Doc's dental office a few hours each day, cleaning, setting up trays, seating patients, that sort of thing. In October there's a a class for dental x-rays that I'm taking and he's paying for, so I can use the x-ray machine and take pictures of people's teeth, so that's pretty exciting. The patients are all really nice, and some of them bring their young kids in and I have to babysit them, which is always fun. There was this one girl, she couldn't have been more than 4, and we played with the stuffed animals and the toy cars in the office and just had a blast. She was so cute. And just this week, a new mom brought her 9-week-old son to the office. He was smiling at all of us and just being absolutely adorable. It's little moments like that that make the job awesome.
Been slowly learning to budget; right now I'm living off of $20 a week, and only spend about $100 a month in gas. Between tuition and rent and insurance, I'm still very well off financially. I feel really blessed. The only downside to where I live is that there's no internet, so special thanks to Starbucks and Panera for having free wi-fi as well as good edibles.
The one thing I feel bad about this whole move is the fact that it was so fast. I more or less hastily shoved all of my things into my car and drove off without hesitation and without saying goodbye to a lot of people. I do miss people back in California, but I don't regret leaving one bit. I'm also looking forward to fly back for Christmas, which should be fun.
It feels wonderful being here and having a purpose in life again.
Warm Regards,
Liz
Showing posts with label how can people do this to themselves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how can people do this to themselves. Show all posts
Friday, September 30, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
#12- Road Trips, Part 2: The Move
I have mentioned that I like driving long distances, right? This road trip has not made my love of driving any less, but it has made me completely exhausted.
Let me explain.
Three weeks ago a friend of the family, Doc, offered me what I consider to be an absolute godsend. He knew about my unsuccessful attempts to get a job within an ambulance company and my unsuccessful attempts to get into a CNA or RN program around San Diego, so when he came to visit, he offered me a job at his dental office, a room at his house, and offered to pay for my nursing school tuition. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity, but, because the world hates me, there is a big setback.
Doc lives in Virginia. I lived in California. All of my worldly possessions were in California.
Thus began the epic quest of packing and driving across the entire country.
Day 1 I spent driving to Lake Havasu to pick up my travel buddy, Sibling #5, while the family was out there on vacation. Day 2 was spent hanging out with all my younger siblings for the last time until Christmas. We went to the movies to watch Cars 2 and had a good time. Also had to take an extra look at the radiator just to make sure that the damn thing wasn't still leaking.
Day 3 was spent driving a stretch of Route 66 along the 40 in northern Arizona. When you think Arizona, what do you think about? Desert, right? Wrong. There are forests there. Forests! I never knew about them! And before we got back on the 40, we stopped at a Roadkill Cafe. Those actually exist! I always thought that it was just a joke on a t-shirt, but sure enough, they do exist. And the food is grand. Once we reached Flagstaff we headed south to Florence to visit my friends K and Sergeant, and we stayed the night there.
Day 4 was mostly spent driving out of Arizona, because we decided to be adventurous and take the scenic route up the 60. Driving through New Mexico sucked, because there were storms everywhere. I haven't quite recovered from my last journey through storms that bad, so Sibling #5 drove while I remained stiff and tried not to scream. Finally we reached our hotel in Amarillo around midnight and we passed out.
Day 5 we were late getting on the road due to a mortal injury. As I was putting my things in the car, my suitcase, which maybe weighs about 60-75 pounds, swung with enough force to rip my left big toenail up without ripping it off. The sucker was sticking straight up while my toe was bleeding like crazy and I was howling in pain. Sibling #5 actually helped me push it back into place, which hurt even more. And it didn't help that he put it back crooked. (Not like he meant it, it just happened that way.) Luckily I'm a medic and remembered I had a first aid kit in my car and was able to clean it with hydrogen peroxide before wrapping it. Unluckily hydrogen peroxide stings like a bitch. After that we drove through Oklahoma to Missouri, which cost us $8 because of the tolls, and stayed with family.
Days 6 and 7 were spent in Illinois with more family, an aunt and uncle in one town and a set of cousins in another. It was fun, for the most part, and rather relaxing, except for the fact that I still had a hurt toe. It's funny how the smaller parts of us hurt the most, especially the toes.
Day 8 is today, and we made it to West Virginia, where I'm sitting in a Best Western taking a break. Technically we could have gone the 14 hours from Illinois to Virginia in one go, but Sibling #5 and I have been in close quarters for a week now and we're getting on each other's nerves. Just today I've been snapping at him and he's been growling at me, so this is better for the both of us.
Tomorrow, Day 9, the road trip ends and I get to unpack my car. Hooray for me.
All in all the whole experience has been quite an adventure, because I cannot go anywhere without something exciting happening.. My radiator hasn't been giving me too much trouble, thankfully, and the only real trouble I've been having is my toe, which is making me hobble horrendously.
As summer draws to a close, I hope everyone out there makes it home from vacation safe. As for me, this is a new and exciting leaf I'm turning. LPN school starts next month.
Warm Regards,
Liz
Let me explain.
Three weeks ago a friend of the family, Doc, offered me what I consider to be an absolute godsend. He knew about my unsuccessful attempts to get a job within an ambulance company and my unsuccessful attempts to get into a CNA or RN program around San Diego, so when he came to visit, he offered me a job at his dental office, a room at his house, and offered to pay for my nursing school tuition. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity, but, because the world hates me, there is a big setback.
Doc lives in Virginia. I lived in California. All of my worldly possessions were in California.
Thus began the epic quest of packing and driving across the entire country.
Day 1 I spent driving to Lake Havasu to pick up my travel buddy, Sibling #5, while the family was out there on vacation. Day 2 was spent hanging out with all my younger siblings for the last time until Christmas. We went to the movies to watch Cars 2 and had a good time. Also had to take an extra look at the radiator just to make sure that the damn thing wasn't still leaking.
Day 3 was spent driving a stretch of Route 66 along the 40 in northern Arizona. When you think Arizona, what do you think about? Desert, right? Wrong. There are forests there. Forests! I never knew about them! And before we got back on the 40, we stopped at a Roadkill Cafe. Those actually exist! I always thought that it was just a joke on a t-shirt, but sure enough, they do exist. And the food is grand. Once we reached Flagstaff we headed south to Florence to visit my friends K and Sergeant, and we stayed the night there.
Day 4 was mostly spent driving out of Arizona, because we decided to be adventurous and take the scenic route up the 60. Driving through New Mexico sucked, because there were storms everywhere. I haven't quite recovered from my last journey through storms that bad, so Sibling #5 drove while I remained stiff and tried not to scream. Finally we reached our hotel in Amarillo around midnight and we passed out.
Day 5 we were late getting on the road due to a mortal injury. As I was putting my things in the car, my suitcase, which maybe weighs about 60-75 pounds, swung with enough force to rip my left big toenail up without ripping it off. The sucker was sticking straight up while my toe was bleeding like crazy and I was howling in pain. Sibling #5 actually helped me push it back into place, which hurt even more. And it didn't help that he put it back crooked. (Not like he meant it, it just happened that way.) Luckily I'm a medic and remembered I had a first aid kit in my car and was able to clean it with hydrogen peroxide before wrapping it. Unluckily hydrogen peroxide stings like a bitch. After that we drove through Oklahoma to Missouri, which cost us $8 because of the tolls, and stayed with family.
Days 6 and 7 were spent in Illinois with more family, an aunt and uncle in one town and a set of cousins in another. It was fun, for the most part, and rather relaxing, except for the fact that I still had a hurt toe. It's funny how the smaller parts of us hurt the most, especially the toes.
Day 8 is today, and we made it to West Virginia, where I'm sitting in a Best Western taking a break. Technically we could have gone the 14 hours from Illinois to Virginia in one go, but Sibling #5 and I have been in close quarters for a week now and we're getting on each other's nerves. Just today I've been snapping at him and he's been growling at me, so this is better for the both of us.
Tomorrow, Day 9, the road trip ends and I get to unpack my car. Hooray for me.
All in all the whole experience has been quite an adventure, because I cannot go anywhere without something exciting happening.. My radiator hasn't been giving me too much trouble, thankfully, and the only real trouble I've been having is my toe, which is making me hobble horrendously.
As summer draws to a close, I hope everyone out there makes it home from vacation safe. As for me, this is a new and exciting leaf I'm turning. LPN school starts next month.
Warm Regards,
Liz
Sunday, July 3, 2011
#11- Why Summer Sucks.
It's hot. I do not do well with hot. Being of primarily Northern European/Scandinavian descent, the sun and I do not get along well. I do not tan, ever. Ever. I tend to burn, painfully and agonizingly, and usually in the most embarrassing and inconvenient places. I am also more prone to heat exhaustion than most people will believe. But gee, you might say, I grew up in Virginia and I live in California. I should be used to it by now. Well, I would say, being used to it does not mean I have to like it.
Last summer I went to Oklahoma to visit a pair of dear friends of mine, and the first thing we did was go on a hike through the Wichita Mountains. One of these friends was, at the time, a drill sergeant in the army, so he takes going on a hike seriously. We had SPF 95 sunscreen (something I was eternally thankful for), bug spray, an extra backpack full of water and Gatorade, and camel packs-- large water bottles that one carries like a backpack with a straw one sucks the water through. Smart, right? Well, we liked to think we were being smart, and we were. Here's what went wrong. We left around three in the afternoon, which meant we were out at the hottest point in the day (usually from three to five pm). In Oklahoma, believe it or not, it can get pretty damn hot during the summer; I think we were hiking though 100 degree weather, at least. Add a healthy dose of humidity on top, which made it hard to breathe, and you can imagine how hard it was.
Regardless, it was a good healthy walk, and despite a lot of the area being scorched from a recent fire it was still pretty country. We got up high enough to get a marvelous view, talked a lot, joked around, and had a good time.
And then I realized I was severely dehydrated and hadn't been drinking nearly as much as I should have. I was afraid I was going to drink too much and get stomach cramps, but then I unwittingly went to the other extreme and barely drank a drop.
This was before I took the EMT course, so I didn't know the signs for heatstroke, but now that I look back on it I'm fairly certain that while I wasn't quite there yet, I was well on my way. The good sergeant had me sit down and gulp water and Gatorade as much as I could for a while, but it wasn't getting much better. Plus it was starting to get dark, so we had to huff it back since we didn't have a flashlight. Not good for me. Thankfully, we stopped more frequently for water breaks and I was able to rehydrate relatively well, and we managed to make it back to the car before I passed out. To my credit though, I walked over four miles over mountainous terrain in God-awful heat that nearly killed me and-- I have witnesses who will testify for me-- I did not whine once. I used to whine if I had to walk to the store. I'm so proud of myself.
However, I feel like those mountains issued me a challenge. One of these days I'm going back to that trail, and now that I know what not to do, I'm going to win.
In the meantime, have fun hanging out in the sun, everyone! If you need me I'll be inside with the air conditioning, getting paler and paler by the day.
Warm Regards,
Liz.
Last summer I went to Oklahoma to visit a pair of dear friends of mine, and the first thing we did was go on a hike through the Wichita Mountains. One of these friends was, at the time, a drill sergeant in the army, so he takes going on a hike seriously. We had SPF 95 sunscreen (something I was eternally thankful for), bug spray, an extra backpack full of water and Gatorade, and camel packs-- large water bottles that one carries like a backpack with a straw one sucks the water through. Smart, right? Well, we liked to think we were being smart, and we were. Here's what went wrong. We left around three in the afternoon, which meant we were out at the hottest point in the day (usually from three to five pm). In Oklahoma, believe it or not, it can get pretty damn hot during the summer; I think we were hiking though 100 degree weather, at least. Add a healthy dose of humidity on top, which made it hard to breathe, and you can imagine how hard it was.
Regardless, it was a good healthy walk, and despite a lot of the area being scorched from a recent fire it was still pretty country. We got up high enough to get a marvelous view, talked a lot, joked around, and had a good time.
And then I realized I was severely dehydrated and hadn't been drinking nearly as much as I should have. I was afraid I was going to drink too much and get stomach cramps, but then I unwittingly went to the other extreme and barely drank a drop.
This was before I took the EMT course, so I didn't know the signs for heatstroke, but now that I look back on it I'm fairly certain that while I wasn't quite there yet, I was well on my way. The good sergeant had me sit down and gulp water and Gatorade as much as I could for a while, but it wasn't getting much better. Plus it was starting to get dark, so we had to huff it back since we didn't have a flashlight. Not good for me. Thankfully, we stopped more frequently for water breaks and I was able to rehydrate relatively well, and we managed to make it back to the car before I passed out. To my credit though, I walked over four miles over mountainous terrain in God-awful heat that nearly killed me and-- I have witnesses who will testify for me-- I did not whine once. I used to whine if I had to walk to the store. I'm so proud of myself.
However, I feel like those mountains issued me a challenge. One of these days I'm going back to that trail, and now that I know what not to do, I'm going to win.
In the meantime, have fun hanging out in the sun, everyone! If you need me I'll be inside with the air conditioning, getting paler and paler by the day.
Warm Regards,
Liz.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
#4- Blogging is hard...
I have had other blogs in the past that I eventually deleted because I no longer cared about posting in them. However, I decided last night that this time I was going to dutifully catalog interesting/funny things in this new blog once or twice a week and not let it die.
So I've been sitting here for two damn days now wondering just what was so vitally important that everyone in the world had to know about it.
So far I've tired to write a post about family (I got paranoid and deleted it), how crappy my previous jobs were (I again got paranoid and deleted it since I didn't want future prospective employers to read it and think I was a whiner), the fact that it was now March (March evidently is not interesting enough to post about).
And this ramble is the result.
Hooray for me.
Warm Regards,
Liz.
EDIT: So apparently the Oscars happened. Whoop-dee-doo. I honestly could care less about spectacles like that.
So I've been sitting here for two damn days now wondering just what was so vitally important that everyone in the world had to know about it.
So far I've tired to write a post about family (I got paranoid and deleted it), how crappy my previous jobs were (I again got paranoid and deleted it since I didn't want future prospective employers to read it and think I was a whiner), the fact that it was now March (March evidently is not interesting enough to post about).
And this ramble is the result.
Hooray for me.
Warm Regards,
Liz.
EDIT: So apparently the Oscars happened. Whoop-dee-doo. I honestly could care less about spectacles like that.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
#3- Amnesia: The Dark Descent. BEWARE THIS GAME.
Quite possibly the scariest game I've ever encountered, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a first-person survival horror game on the PC from Frictional Games. You wake up as Daniel, an amnesiac, in a dark castle, where you find a note from your former self which pretty much boils down to:
"Hi, this is your former self, I drank something to make me forget everything so don't be too scared. You have to go to this room under the castle to kill this guy Alexander. Don't ask why, he's just evil.
By the way, there are monsters following you that alter reality and makes you go insane.
Ok, good luck dude!"
So there you have it. As you play the game, you find notes and journal entries and live through flashbacks from Daniel's past that eventually unravel the gruesome history of the castle which actually turns out to be a compelling and interesting story, without becoming too weird, which happens too often in horror games with zombie-like monsters.
Why is this game so scary? Well, it's not necessarily what does happen, it's what doesn't happen. It's the knowledge that there's something there, but you don't know where exactly it is or whether it knows where you are. It's a fact that people are generally more afraid of uncertainty and the unknown. You don't know what's behind that door you're about to open. You don't know what just walked by you, or if something did actually walk by you. You don't know why that candle's lit, since you did nothing to light it. You don't know if you're actually hearing those footsteps behind you. You don't know why there's blood all over the floor. You don't know who's arm you just stepped on.
You see where I'm going with this?
Also, the game's original lighting is such that you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face. (Lame people that don't like this fact can brighten it so it's practically daylight inside the castle, but that just takes the fun out of everything.) So you have to light candles and torches with tinderboxes that you find scattered around the castle. However, these tinderboxes are very rare, so don't waste them. You also find a lantern (if you're observant enough to see it), but the oil doesn't last very long, and extra oil is scarcer than tinderboxes. However, if you stay in the dark too long, Daniel starts to hallucinate. You hear him grinding his teeth, and the area around you starts wavering as you stagger around. How do you maintain your sanity? You stay in the light and solve puzzles. But the monsters are attracted to light, and the more puzzles you solve the more likely it is you'll be found. Plus the music in this game makes a creepy atmosphere, and the added bumps and footsteps all around you make you wonder if you really are alone at your computer.
What do you do if a monster finds you? Run and hide in the corner like the little bitch that you are. No seriously. That, actually, is what makes the game so scary (for me, anyway); you cannot defend yourself. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and other horror games at least let you punch what's coming at you. Here, no way. You have to turn off your lamp and hide somewhere, anywhere, in the dark corner or in a wardrobe or something, and pray it didn't see you in the first place. The damn things can even smell you out, so you have to get away from it before you hide.
All in all, the game is unbelievably freaky, but it is a very good game. The way the game drags you in and puts you in Daniel's place is actually pretty awesome, making it one of the best horror experiences. I couldn't even get past the demo, that's how much it scared me, so now I provide moral support to my brother as he plays it.
Also, watching videos of people's reactions on YouTube is incredibly entertaining.
"Hi, this is your former self, I drank something to make me forget everything so don't be too scared. You have to go to this room under the castle to kill this guy Alexander. Don't ask why, he's just evil.
By the way, there are monsters following you that alter reality and makes you go insane.
Ok, good luck dude!"
So there you have it. As you play the game, you find notes and journal entries and live through flashbacks from Daniel's past that eventually unravel the gruesome history of the castle which actually turns out to be a compelling and interesting story, without becoming too weird, which happens too often in horror games with zombie-like monsters.
Why is this game so scary? Well, it's not necessarily what does happen, it's what doesn't happen. It's the knowledge that there's something there, but you don't know where exactly it is or whether it knows where you are. It's a fact that people are generally more afraid of uncertainty and the unknown. You don't know what's behind that door you're about to open. You don't know what just walked by you, or if something did actually walk by you. You don't know why that candle's lit, since you did nothing to light it. You don't know if you're actually hearing those footsteps behind you. You don't know why there's blood all over the floor. You don't know who's arm you just stepped on.
You see where I'm going with this?
Also, the game's original lighting is such that you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face. (Lame people that don't like this fact can brighten it so it's practically daylight inside the castle, but that just takes the fun out of everything.) So you have to light candles and torches with tinderboxes that you find scattered around the castle. However, these tinderboxes are very rare, so don't waste them. You also find a lantern (if you're observant enough to see it), but the oil doesn't last very long, and extra oil is scarcer than tinderboxes. However, if you stay in the dark too long, Daniel starts to hallucinate. You hear him grinding his teeth, and the area around you starts wavering as you stagger around. How do you maintain your sanity? You stay in the light and solve puzzles. But the monsters are attracted to light, and the more puzzles you solve the more likely it is you'll be found. Plus the music in this game makes a creepy atmosphere, and the added bumps and footsteps all around you make you wonder if you really are alone at your computer.
What do you do if a monster finds you? Run and hide in the corner like the little bitch that you are. No seriously. That, actually, is what makes the game so scary (for me, anyway); you cannot defend yourself. Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and other horror games at least let you punch what's coming at you. Here, no way. You have to turn off your lamp and hide somewhere, anywhere, in the dark corner or in a wardrobe or something, and pray it didn't see you in the first place. The damn things can even smell you out, so you have to get away from it before you hide.
All in all, the game is unbelievably freaky, but it is a very good game. The way the game drags you in and puts you in Daniel's place is actually pretty awesome, making it one of the best horror experiences. I couldn't even get past the demo, that's how much it scared me, so now I provide moral support to my brother as he plays it.
Also, watching videos of people's reactions on YouTube is incredibly entertaining.
Warm Regards,
Liz.
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