Month: October 2005

I got nine hours of sleep last night (as opposed to my normal six) and I feel like I’m on top of the world. I don’t think I realized how tired I was all of the time. I would get to work and just feel drained. Turning on my little heater was out of the question or I would start to nod off. It finally hit me last night and I crawled into bed at 11 as opposed to my normal midnight or 1 AM.

Now that I realize I need more sleep, I’m not sure what to change. I work 45 hours a week and have class till 10 o’clock a couple of times a week. I have studying, my books for fun, all my TV shows, my netflix movies, my dog to play with, keeping up with friends, and talking to Wade. Now obviously tv would be the logical thing to go, but I have to admit that I love just chilling on the couch for a little while. Hmmm – I think I’ll just create a few more hours in the day….

My EMT instructor showed his ignorance today. We were discussing hazards at scenes and gas/fumes was a big issue – for good reason. Everything he said made lots of sense – until he said cell phones could cause explosions. Then he went so far as to say it happens often. Therefore, you should not go to rescue a patient near a large gas spill with fumes because you never know if your phone might inadvertently ring. It took everything I had not to laugh out loud.

Cell phones causing an explosion at gas stations is a huge urban legend that has been proven false many times – by Mythbusters (the discovery channel tv show that evaluates urban legends), by gas companies, and by snopes (a website that investigates urban myths – Wade introduced me to it). Yet people still believe it. I had a guy stop me the other day in the middle of my conversation at the gas station to warn me. I told him I was an EE and cell phones couldn’t cause explosions. He huffed off.

Wade got an awesome ego boost the other day. He was talking with someone at Tech and the person mentioned two job openings – one at the wood shop and one at AWPL (Advanced Wood Products Lab). Wade has worked at both places and would be qualified for both jobs. He also knows the people in the labs and doing the hiring. The person on the phone informed him that the resume on his website was out of date and asked him to update it and send it to them – they were using that to write the job descriptions. How cool is that?

Wade is just starting his job looking process. He would love to leave Atlanta (I’m kind of indifferent on the matter), but Atlanta has quite a few things going for it. Number one being I am employed here. We’ll see where the jobs take us, but at least he knows he has an offer somewhere. (Being at Tech would give him continual access to some awesome machines – which will definitely weigh into the decision.)

I have this great life philosophy – chocolate makes everything better. So far this is working for me. Katie Whitehead introduced me to rice krispie treats with chocolate and now they are one of my favorites. Jamie came over for dinner and we decided to make some for dessert. We ate a lot of them, but there are a few left to take with me to work tomorrow.

My electrical engineering background (not to mention my time as a patent examiner) came back to haunt me in class tonight. We had a pop quiz on acronyms. I had looked over the list of acronyms earlier in the day so they should have been fresh in my mind. However, as soon as I reached the letters “CRT” I had to think twice. My first instinct was Cathode Ray Tube. (I am guessing some fellow engineers and geeks will have the same reaction.)

So now I had to switch gears and go from engineering to medical. I did finally come up with the correct answer – Capillary Refill Time. Now for a little lesson: CRT is the time it takes for color to return to the nail after you press down on the nail tip and should be less than two seconds. (You can also test CRT on the palm of the hand or the bottom of the foot.) This is a generally accepted method of assessing peripheral perfusion and, indirectly, cardiac output. However, the time can be greater than two seconds for women, the elderly, and someone in a cold environment.

In other news, I made an A on my first test and a 100 on the pop quiz. Yeah! I never did that well when I was at Tech (we won’t compare Georgia Tech to a technical school right now).

Look at the cute picture Wade found for me. I just love frogs!

I had class for 8 hours last Saturday, had to study all this past weekend, and then I had a test tonight. For a class taught at a technical college, there is an insane amount of work. I had to memorize all the systems of the body, ambulance control, medical and legal issues, etc. I was hoping not to have to spend the entire weekend studying, but it didn’t quite work out that way. I spent most of the weekend at the kitchen table (see the pretty tulips Wade gave me?)….

But now the test is finished and I hopefully did alright. There were 200 questions and a lot of bubbling on a scan tron. Then we had to wait around for everyone to finish the test so that we could listen to some lecture – blah!

I spent about 5-6 hours on the phone last night. I tend to be pretty bad about catching up with people using the phone. Thank goodness for email! I normally wait so long to talk to people that I feel like I should really have time when I do call – as in at least an hour. But finding an hour or more to dedicated to a phone call never seems to happen.

I hope we end up living somewhere that has call based calling rates. When I lived in DC, I could pay $10 for a home phone line that gave me unlimited incoming calls and 30 outgoing calls. In Atlanta, the minimum phone bill is around $40. Because of that, Wade and I both just use cell phones. But talking on a cell phone for hours gets uncomfortable.

As luck would have it, I got stuck in some nasty traffic yesterday. I was bored and had plenty of time, so I called everyone I knew. I called Melissa, Rob, Mindy, Matt, Kate, Wade, and Mom. Only Mom answered and she was sick in bed. Before I got home I had connected with Mindy – this was the end of a 2 month game of phone tag. We talked for a couple hours and as we were hanging up, Kate called. I then talked to Kate while she made her hour drive home from class. Then I talked to Wade – he probably got short changed. I was pretty sick of the phone by then.

Ah well, now I feel mostly caught up with my long distance friends!

Babies are so cute. Here is Liza Upshaw in the outfit we gave her. See the little pink bunny on her tummy? I believe she is about 4 weeks old. How sad that I probably won’t get to see her until Christmas time.

I have finally decided that I will never make it through my class if I continue reading books at the rate of a couple a week. There is a used bookstore in Paducah that I love to visit whenever I am home. I am still getting books off of trade-ins (courtesy of my mom moving and cleaning out her library). I tend to find an author I like and read everything they have in print. Most of the time this works out great.

There is always an exception, and that author is Fern Michaels. I read one of her newer books “Late Bloomer” and really enjoyed it. However, most of her older books I don’t like at all. The bad thing about me is once I start something I always try to finish it. I decided now would be a great time to finish up her Vegas trilogy. I can read while I work out or have a few spare minutes, but I definitely won’t be reading when I should be studying. It’s more of a chore to finish these.

My biggest pet peeve is her characters are inconsistent. In one book you have a couple that love each other and all is going great (yes these are romances). In the next book he is off having an affair and she has always known he wasn’t faithful. It seems to me the author should have alluded to that a little earlier instead of making me like the character and then turning him into a jerk, with no warning!

Wade dragged me to the movies tonight. After class all day (8+ hours), I wasn’t up for much but Wade really wanted to get out. He wanted to see the new Wallace and Gromit movie: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I was less than thrilled, but didn’t put up too much of a stink (Wade might argue that one). We were pushing it close (as always) and ended up at one theater a little too late. So we went on to the next one, and Brad joined us. I have to admit the movie wasn’t that bad. It was actually pretty good. Not near as good as “Best of the Best”, but few are! There was a short before the movie that I found hilarious – penguins and polar bears and Christmas time.

We had an infection control specialist come speak to us in my EMT class tonight. This guy has taken some big certification test and works closely with the CDC. During his four hour talk, he had some great stories and explanations.

Why hamburger meat must be fully cooked: I always wondered why restaurants only serve hamburgers fully cooked. I know my mom and several others prefer them a little more rare. However, all restaurants will serve a steak rare. The specialist informed us that the bacteria is found in the exposed part of the meat (the outside). Even a rare steak is cooked on the outside, if not at all on the inside. The problem with hamburger meat is that it is all mixed together so it all must be thoroughly cooked.

To ruin sweat tea for all the true Southerners: The process of making sweat tea, especially when the tea is hot and sugar is added, creates an incubator for bacteria. Most people let the tea cool naturally rather than running it over ice to speed it along. The bacteria thrives in the warm environment with sugar. He also said the bad taste you get when tea has gone bad is when the bacteria has grown enough that you taste the bacteria over the tea and sugar. (This particular topic came up during a Hepatitis A discussion.)

I was sitting in my EMT class tonight and realized that I am one of three misfits. As a simple way to break down the group: of 35 students, 32 smoke. We have a break every hour and all 32 of them go to the one designated smoking area on campus. About 30 out of the 35 have no prior college experience. I am also one of the older people in my class. The oldest is a 50 something woman and everyone else seems to be under 21.

I overheard this conversation during a break and thought it was hilarious.
Boy says, “Are you a Christian?”
Girl responds, “Yes”
Boy says, “I think God put you in this class to help me pass.”
Girl says, “I know God put me in this class to finally pass it.” (This is her third try.)
Oh geez!