Uncreative First Post Title

Hello!!!!
Finally decided to start a blog like everyone else. My life after all, is so exciting I am doing the world a disservice by not sharing all the the wonderful things I've been up to.

Actually, the reason I have not started blogging is because I have been busy and not exciting at the same time. However, there have been some new developments lately, so I guess I'll share.

First off, for those who might read this who have no idea what I have been up to at all, I am no longer living with older lady I was homesharing with. She was really nice but my sister moved up from Maine and I was very excited to live with her instead. We are renting a room in a house together with many other people. The other people I am not close to at all, I don't even know all of their names. I spend most of my time at Greg's which is just down the road and is where I am right now. The reason he is not at his computer is because he is on a neuroscience retreat this weekend, and if you know him, you know he is certainly really excited about it. (Lots of sarcasm there.)

Anyway, I have been very busy with school. This is my second semester at St. Mike's. The first semester was incredible. My professors were brilliant and the classes were very challenging and exciting. I am afraid no other classes here can ever compare to those first two, but we'll see.

Last semester I was working a few different jobs: I was substituting, working some nights at Rite Aid, and one afternoon a week at an after-school program. This semester began with just subbing, which I really enjoyed most days. (Except for getting called at 5:30 in the morning.) However, I wasn't working enough days to pay the bills so I signed on with a temp agency also. The first couple jobs they gave me were not too exciting, inventory and working a switchboard. However, this week they finally got me something good!

On Wednesday, I started working at the Fletcher Allen hospital in the cardiology wing. I schedule heart catheters. It is full time, M-F 8-4:30 which means I don't get to sub anymore, at least for the next couple of months while it lasts. That is too bad, but I am happy to have a job I can depend on. I was also applying to be a paraeducator, which would have been really fun, but with this job I am making about $150 more per week that I would be doing that so I guess it is worth it.

Also, although it is not related to my field of study, I really enjoy the work so far. It was a LOT to learn at first, especially since I have no medical background. I have to put together charts for the nurses on each patient I schedule, for example. I didn't know what a heart cath even was when I got there, let alone echos and stress tests, which I need to look at to make the charts up. But I am learning and it is very exciting. The first day I was there, they let me watch an actual heart cath!

I got to stand behind the glass with the doctors who were watching the computers and monitoring the patient. They explained a lot of it to me. I got to watch them put this wire into a person's femeral artery (I think it was the artery and not the vein anyway) in her leg and feed the wire all the way up through her body and to her heart. We could see all this because they were pumping contrast through the wire tube. Contrast is like dye that can be seen by x-ray. So we were looking at the x-ray monitor and whenever it pumped out the contrast it would fill her veins and we could see them and her heart clearly. It was amazing. And even I could tell where they needed to put the stent in--you cuold see her vein was pretty much collapsed in this one spot. So they fed a balloon through on the wire and inflated it in that spot to poof the vein open again. Then they fed a stent in which is like a metal culvert to keep the vein open there forever. It was soooooo cool. I have never spent much time in a hospital at all, I've never even had like a broken bone or anything, so it is all very new and interesting to me.

I also really like all the people I work with. I share my office with some of the nurses and they are really nice and don't mind if I ask questions. I also feel like I am on Scrubs or something, because all the time while I am working there are patients being wheeled about on their operting beds, and I can hear their heart monitors. The holding area where they wait for their heart caths is right outside my door in a big open hallway. It is a little creepy though because almost all of them are old, and there are usually family nearby being all worried. Also, I have been there three days and I know already of at least one person who died after.

That's really my biggest news. Today I need to do all the dishes Greg and I have made over the past week and a half I think. His kitchen is indescribably gross right now so I am going to spend the morning cleaning. Then I am going to lunch with a girl named Heather who is one of the few people besides Greg and my sister that I know well enough to hang out with sometimes. She's the fiance of a guy in neuroscience who is friends with Greg, so the four of us hang out sometimes. She's also in education but a lot farther along than I am so she is great at giving me advice, etc. Anyway, I am really excited to hang out because um, like I said, I don't do it very often. It is hard to make friends in my classes too because most of the people in my classes last semster were considerably older than me and have families already. They were very nice, but not people I would call up on a Friday night, haha.

Oh one more thing! I am building a shelf! I am very excited about it. I'll post pics when I am done.

Okay off to get cleaning!