Here you go & Why am I doing this?

This post gets two titles because an adoring friend wanted me to update and because I am wondering why I am doing this when I should be in bed. It has indeed been awhile and some funny things have happened along the way. Last Tuesday stands out in my mind. Some, if not most, of you have heard these stories, but for those of you that have not I hope you get some laughs out of this. Tuesday morning was spent with some of the football players again. I love bugging guys while they are in the middle of trying to devour an omelet. These guys really are fun to be around. They pretty much take everything in stride (especially coming from a little white girl), so they just laughed when I called them out on stuff. Like when they say "man, we know all this stuff already" and I say "oh really, is that why you keep losing football games?" One such player did ask me if I was going to call him later that day since we were friends now. I said, "Brandon, I don't call boys." Brandon replies, "Ah man, Mary. Well what your number is then? I'm gonna call you today." Hmmm was he joking? Nope. Did I give him my number? Yep. Has he called? Nope. Did I cry myself to sleep last night? Yep. Just kidding. Telling Anthony Dixon to lay off the alcohol during football season was entertaining. Even I had to laugh at what I was saying as I was saying it...mainly because he was also laughing at me. I also busted it while trying to walk down a wet concrete sidewalk that afternoon (I told you Tuesday was eventful). Sometimes I wish someone was following me around with a video camera. Does that make me conceded? (Is it conceded or conceited? I'm dumb.) Okay, maybe a little. I just like to laugh at all the dumb things I do/say. Is that such a crime?

I was not into Bulldog Bash this year. Sorry all you lovers of having sweaty drunks rub up on you and breathe down your neck. We did however break into a house (we knew the person, no worries). That was quite eventful. Saturday brought the 100th day of rain to Starkville. I rather enjoyed myself the 1st half in the luxury of Jane Gray and Allan's living room. When the rain went away, the mud came out for all to play (in). That reminds me, I need to wash off my Chacos. I don't really want to talk about those inches that took away our chance of victory over the purple-lovers.

Okay, I seriously have to wrap this up. I started at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Columbus today. This is a 6 week rotation. 3 in Clinical, 3 in Food Service. I'm starting in Clinical while Natalie is in FS first. She has to be there at 5am tomorrow. Yuck. That will be me in 3 weeks!!

I hope all my friends know that I love them....I'm not sure why I said that. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Love and miss.

Focus

Hello friends! I can't even really tell you everything I've been up to lately. I loved my rotation at the hospital in Eupora. Learned a lot. A whole lot. And I got to know the awesome Amy Farnsworth better. Plus. My current rotation (which will remain nameless) is extremely frustrating, so I'm not even going to tell you about it. Let's focus on the good, shall we? Only 5 more days there anyway.

Funny patient story: Go into this lady's room (I can't even remember what's wrong with her, which is probably a good thing. not sure if I would be breaking some form of law if I told you) and she is quite overweight, which we already determined by calculating her BMI from her chart. She hears the word "dietitian" and immediately says, "Don't y'all be putting me on no sugar-free diet!! I won't eat it if it don't have no sugar!! I got to have my sugar!!" (HAHA I am laughing out loud retelling this story.) Then she goes into this story about how some dessert was "slap-yo-mama" good followed by this confession. Amy asked her if her weight was steady at 218 and she said, "Yeah, it is now, but when I got married I weighed 298 but you wouldn't ever known it." (BAHAHA) Okay, here are my thoughts: I'm pretty sure if I weighed nearly 300 pounds you would be able to tell. Too bad she doesn't care that she once weighed 300 pounds. And, congratulations Mississippi. This is why you are the #1 state in obesity.

I thought of a perk of my current rotation: I get to see a lot of athletes throughout the day. I mean, a bunch. Yesterday we counseled some of the football players at 7 in the morning while they ate their breakfasts. Can I just say that I really wish I was a football player? I mean, they get to eat alllllll day loooooong. Whatever they want pretty much. Dream. Terrell Johnson cussed out a fly that was obviously bugging him while I told him about carbs. I met Barry Stewart today. He's been sick. Sad. And Riley Benock is crutching around on crutches (isn't that what you do on those things?) FYI. Oh, and the guys on the tennis team are still hot. Just saying.

I am struggling loving people that bug me. On the other hand, I was thankful this week for Luke 6:16...the last four words. "who became a traitor." This detail was needed for God's perfect plan to unfold. For that I cannot be grateful enough. And I was encouraged with Luke 9:10. One word: withdrew. We all need to find shelter in Jesus and rest in Him. Just like the 12 did.

Got to go to the Union to promote something. Don't you love harassing people with information they don't want to receive?? That's what I thought. I am having serious friends withdrawals. Good thing Supper Club starts tomorrow night. :)

Love and miss.

Bambi is no good

Who wants to hear what I've been up to the past week?!?! Not everyone all at once.

We finished up with the Extension Services rotation Thursday. Got good evaluations. You can stop worrying. Friday, Erin and I traveled the awesome road to Memphis and had din with Emily Orr Vanderpool. Weird. The name, not the dinner. Saturday was just like Christmas morning!! It was the Mr.'s birthday so the three of us made the biggest breakfast in the history of the world. Then two, yes two, hours later Emily and I met with some awesome friends (Anna, John, Erin, Lori, Greg, and Greg's new roommate. His name is Peter.) to eat some Memphis pizza. I'm glad I'm a big girl so I can enjoy such luxuries as eating humongous meals every couple of hours. Sidenote: I'm eating one of those little Laughing Cow cheese things and I'm pretty sure I just consumed some of the aluminum foil. Mmmm. End sidenote. We had a little reunion that night for the b-day. It was great seeing lots of friends whom you never see all in the same room. Pretty exciting. And Windham got a puppy boxer. Martin was very popular with the ladies. Have you ever not gone to church because you couldn't find it?? Me either. Until Sunday morning. Emily and I drove around for 30 minutes trying to find the church where Erin, Lori, and Greg went to and couldn't. That's Memphis for you. So we went home and watched two episodes of Mad Men. Hmmmm Sort of the exact opposite of going to church.

The hospital in Eupora is awesome!! It's Wednesday afternoon at 3:41 and I am not still at work as I normally would be. Until 4. We got to leave at 2 today!! Woo hoo!! (Dang it, I just ate all the Wheat Thins.) So yesterday morning Natalie and I get on 82 to head to Eupora. She is driving, we're behind this 18 wheeler (which make me even more nervous as of 7/30/09) and she is waiting on this Jag to pass so she can get over into the left lane. Once she does, the Jag and the 18 wheeler both break hard, Natalie does too, and this rather large deer goes sprinting across the road. I turn around as she keeps driving to see if Bambi makes it across the other side of the road and she disappears. Yes, my friends, this deer was taken out of this world by a dump truck. Neither of them ever saw it coming. Thank you guardian angels. We made it to work without any more excitement.

I am pumped about this weekend. I don't have class Friday morning. Anna is coming. First football game. And we get Labor Day off! No, we weren't suppose to. We get 2 weeks at Christmas and that is our only holiday. Officially. So we hope and pray that our preceptor gives us the holiday off. I will be hoping and praying this again at Thanksgiving.

I'm enjoying these weeks that are more laid back because they won't all be like this. Off to continue enjoying a long afternoon not at work!

Is that why they moved to Mississippi??

So today Natalie and I were asked to write two monthly articles, one for September and one for October, and turn them in by Friday morning. No biggie. 200-400 words is not a lot when you are a master of fabrication like myself. Anyway, we have this awesome preceptor this week who just lets us work on our assignments the whole time we're there which means no homework at night. I like this set up. A lot. Well the nutrition building, fondly called the Herz...I actually just made that up but think I will begin using it...got a little old after being there the past 2 days. I have this brilliant idea to go over to Barnes and work (it was more of my dying need for coffee that sent us there but whatever) and off we go. I don't know if you know this but there are lots of things to distract you in a two-story building. For instance, we were at a table on the second floor and a wasp suddenly appears beside Natalie's head. Not cool. The bathroom is always a good excuse for wasting time because you have to go back down to the first floor. Which leads me to my first story:

The only way to know if said bathroom is locked is to just turn the handle and push. If it opens, you simply hope and pray that no one is in there because this will inevitably lead to an awkward encounter. This is what I do, turn the handle, push the door, and as I am hoping and praying I see a woman of Asian descent right in the doorway (I see nothing) and hear multiple Asians freaking out that the door has just been opened. Do they have locks in Asia? Just wondering. Of course I apologize and close the door. And then I wait....and I wait....and I wait some more. I am beginning to wonder what in the world these people could be doing in there. I mean, come on. Others need to get in there too you know. After about 8 minutes of waiting and reading the flyers on the bulletin board numerous times over, they come out. Who knows?? That was a lovely way to use some minutes of my morning.

It has amazed me this week how quickly the hours fly by now. We didn't go to lunch until 1:30 because we thought it was still around 11:30. I kind of like it. We only have one more day with Extension Services p.s. Woo hoo!! For those of you who are wondering where the title of this post came from I will now put you out of your suspenseful state of being. This afternoon, still at Barnes, Natalie and I were discussing the two physicians from India who are in our Tuesday night grad class (there seem to be a lot of ethnicities in this post). We were saying how nobody could understand a word they said, even the teacher. And I'm sure the content is knowledgeable because they are physicians in their homeland, but we will never know because we can't interpret. I wondered, out loud, if they could understand us since we cannot understand them, and Natalie says, "I guess that's why they all move to Mississippi...because we talk so slow it's easier for them to understand us." Of course I die out laughing, and we both decide that this has to be the reason for them to move to such a random town as Starkville, Mississippi.

I'm not sure, but I think this post is getting kind of long. Hmmm (or Mmmmm....that's for you Libbie). I am off to my kitchen in my humble home to decipher cooking a chicken breast. Please pray I don't get salmonella. I don't own a thermometer.

Love and miss.

1 Down

Hello Amigos!!

So much went on this week. We started our rotations for DI on Monday. My partner, Natalie, and I started off with the MSU Extension Services. The Office of Nutrition Education is through Extension and they were having their annual training this week. So we helped with that all week. Monday was overwhelming (hello assignments) but each day got a little better in terms of how exhausted I was. I just have to get into this new routine. Some have heard me say this already, but I figured out a great way to explain what it is we're doing this year: I have a full-time job but instead of giving me money they give me assignments and on top of that I have my night grad class on Tuesdays and intern class every Friday morning. One good thing is that I don't think my grad class is going to be as stressful as I thought. Two papers, a midterm, and a final. I can handle that. So Natalie and I got to know each other really quick. I'm happy to have a partner that I didn't know so I can make a new friend! She is 3 years older than me so I guess I need to start acting more mature.

Sidenote: Last week during training I took a Coke with me when we went back for the afternoon. Okay, so I usually never drink Cokes because I don't like the way they taste, but I was out of DC. So I drink this Coke during our first lecture, that RD leaves, Dr. Lee starts going over something different. After about 10 minutes I start saying random things and wondering where they are coming from and laughing about nothing. Every time I look at Jane Gray I start giggling and CANNOT stop!!! Fortunately, Dr. Lee knows me well and just laughs at me, but I am on a serious sugar high at this point. I start crying I'm laughing so hard (again let me say that nothing funny has happened. I'm just laughing for the heck of it). Then, just like a 5 year old, I go from high to low in about 60 seconds flat. After that I'm ready to lay my head down on the table and take a nap. Okay, that was a typical Mary story that I thought I would share. End sidenote.

I think Thursday nights are going to be my new favorite thing. I felt like I had conquered the world yesterday at 5 o'clock and it was only the first week. I don't care though because every week that goes by that I don't get kicked out of my rotation is an accomplishment. So last night we had a girls night which I used as my celebration time. :)

Alright. More to come later.