Future1investor’s Neighborhood

• Seeing random shoes (not pairs of shoes) alongside the street or road. How do shoes get thrown out of a car? And why do they throw just one? Does it make sense to throw one and keep one? What good is one shoe? Unless you're a pirate, I guess, but to my knowledge there aren't a lot of pirates in Rochester.
• Old guys with ring tones that sound like porn. Seriously, I witnessed this today. This guy who had to be 80 was standing there and just as I passed him by, his phone rang. Boom-chicka-bow-wow.... Well, ok, to be honest, I've never watched porn (and have zero interest in doing so), but that's what everyone says the music sounds like.
• Why I say I'll do things that I know I have no talent or capacity for doing. I think it runs in certain parts of my family that people think they're capable of things they're not. I really hope I didn't inherit that gene. I might have, though. We're having a baby shower for a coworker tomorrow and I thought a rubber ducky theme would be fun. I have this recipe for a ducky cake, and in the picture it's just the cutest thing. I've made it before, but what I apparently forgot is that to build this cake requires an ability to transcend the laws of physics. It was one of the most frustrating experiences I've had in a while and it looks terrible. (I had to pour myself a glass of Malbec afterward.)  I'm going to bring it in tomorrow because I'm too tired to run to the store right now for a normal cake, and I'm going to ask opinions. Like anyone would say that it looks dumb anyway...  I've come to the conclusion that I'm an idea person. Which means I need to work my way up enough to where all I have to do is think and I'll have people to do the actual work for me.
• What posesses people to steal pumpkins off of people's porches and smash them in the street. Someone please enlighten me: how can this possibly be fun? It's rude, it's stealing, it's destructive, it's messy, and it makes little kids cry. Where is the pleasure in that? Or maybe the more appropriate question is, what kind of person finds pleasure in that?

[Insert something witty here that summarizes this post in to a nice tidy package. I never was good at introductions or conclusions.]

Pro: Finding SweeTarts for $.25/roll at Walmart.
Con: Eating them when I'm in the midst of realizing that I'm gaining weight.

Pro: Beatles Rockband, and that my kids now sing Beatles songs.
Con: Uh, can't really think of one here, except for maybe that I suck at guitar.

Pro: Being done with school. (Have I mentioned that?)
Con: Having to wait until December to find out what my board exam score was and get my diploma.

Pro: That the snow only lasted a day.
Con: That there's lots more where that came from.

Pro: Buying new jeans from my favorite online store with a sale price, $10 off, and free shipping.
Con: They changed the cut!! Buggers.

Pro: The Bruegger's salt bagel I had this morning with cream cheese and cucumber slices.
Con: I don't even want to know the sodium content, but sometimes you just gotta do it.

Pro: Less than two weeks until the girls' shopping weekend at the Mall of America!
Con: Being too poor to enjoy it.

Happy Tuesday! (What's left of it anyway.)

So I finally had one of those dreams in which several Vox neighbors show up. Apparently I wasn't married in this dream because Brian was nowhere to be found and I was dating one of my neighbors!  Not saying who, though.  :)  And this neighbor was also dating 2-3 other girls at the same time, trying to make a decision, apparently.  (I don't think any of my competitors were Vox neighbors...I think one of them was Jessica Biel, actually...which is weird b/c I really don't care anything about her so what she was doing in my dream is beyond me.)  And I was worried that this neighbor wouldn't want to go out with me because they found out that I'm really kind of a slob. Although.......my house wasn't normally as bad as it was that day in my dream. One of the other girls made it messier so that the person we were all dating would be totally turned off. Other Vox neighbors made appearances too, as random friends that happened to be peripheral to this dating drama.

I woke up thinking about what a weird dream it was, and also how I need go get back into blogging. Now that I'm writing it all out, it also makes me think that I'm SO glad I'm not on the dating scene!

LOL!

So we stopped at Wal-Mart tonight for a third Wii controller. Bailey is at a sleepover and we thought it would be fun if the remaining 3 of us could bowl together.

Yeah. We came home not only with the controller, but with Beatles Rockband.

I think this rules out me getting a Wii Fit for a while. Oh well, I still have the treadmill.

But might I say that even though we were on the Easy setting, I kicked butt while I was singing. Drums and guitar....yeah, I have some work to do there.

What's new with you? I want to know.

With me?

My sister Beth and her husband Alfredo welcomed a delightful new addition, baby Isaac, into their family at the beginning of the month. Yay!

Esther came to visit from England for about two weeks. We went to New York City. We went to Chicago. We turned 32. We ate and ate and ate. We laughed almost non-stop. I was sad to say goodbye.

Traffic Jam

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My classes are kicking my butt, but in a good way; kicking me into shape intellectually. I feel as if I am slowly being shaped into a better scholar and a better thinker. With the exception of one class which is fairly dull, I am being challenged and pushed. As part of my undergraduate research training scholarship I am working with a faculty member who looks at teachers who become sexually involved with their students. I am delving into Shakespeare more deeply than ever before. I am researching medieval drama. I am learning data analysis and research methodology. I am soaking up brilliant literature and finding that my Current Political Ideologies class, in which we discuss philosophy and psychology more than we do politics, is really just inexpensive therapy. I love it all. This kind of stuff makes me love being a student.

Love it so much, apparently, that I am studying (in theory -- certainly not in practice) for the GRE so that I can -- with luck -- get accepted into the Master's program that I'm eyeing.

I am also, for the fifth time, teaching a class for gifted students through Purdue's Gifted Education Research Institute.

No matter how busy I am, my little ones -- as enchanting as ever -- still need me just as much. They also need those pesky quotidian necessities such as food, clean clothes, rides to activities and friends' houses, and someone to listen to the stories of their day. I'm not going to lie: finding a balance is hard. Fortunately, my little world is full of very supportive people and I am not afraid to admit to my limitations. I can call my mother-in-law, tell her I need help, and know that she will be willing to get on a plane and take over the reins at home for a while. She arrives in about two weeks.

Photos of Esther's visit to follow. In the meantime, here's a taste of NYC.

Lady Liberty

Brooklyn Bridge

Angel

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Vox just did something really stupid. I blame the huge, memory-sucking, rolling drug ad on the sidebar that convinces me that my child has ADHD and needs Vyvanse, and then proceeds to list every possible side effect. Grr. I was trying to write a post but now I'm mad and don't want to recreate it. :( Anyway, life is good and busy. I told someone recently that I didn't know what I was going to do with myself once I was done with school. They told me that I'd be surprised how my time would fill up. And how (to borrow a saying from my grandpa). All the running around and actually making a few meals keeps me busy, if not always occupied.

I even have a book to read. You actual bookworms out there are going to laugh, but I'm just not ready for "real" literature. Besides, I like books about people. It's Uncommon by Tony Dungy. I've admired Dungy ever since he was the defensive coordinator for the Vikings. So when his book came out I always said I'd read it - then the other day I saw it in the church library and snagged it. Haven't had the gumption to start it yet, though.  

The reason why I don't want to read today is that yesterday we got a Wii! Yep, we decided to join everyone else and get one. It was kind of an impulse buy, but it's really an early Christmas present for the entire family and now we won't have to get the kids anything. (They don't need any more junk anyway.) So we got it set up and the kids are playing it now. There's no school tomorrow or Friday so I can guess what they'll be doing all day. At least this is something active, which is why I'm not opposed to a Wii. Hopefully, especially with winter coming, they will actually get some exercise while they play.

I have a couple of topics for real blog posts ruminating in my head but those will have to wait. Even before Vox ate my first post, I wasn't much in the mood for being serious & thoughtful. ;)

I don't talk sports with people a whole lot. Girls never want to talk sports, and guys want to talk every stat in the book. I'm somewhere in between. I love games but don't always know every intricacy of every minute rule. I can cheer and get excited with the best of fans. And boy, can I get mad when my teams don't perform. :) But I certainly don't know who played for whom, what number they wore, and what their batting average/ERA/QB rating/free throw percentage was every year since the original Olympics.

So this year, my team, the Minnesota Vikings, acquired a new quarterback. Maybe you heard about it? His name is Brett Favre. Something you might not know about this guy is that he spent several years playing for a team that I will hate until the day I die, the Green Bay Packers. HUGE midwestern rivalry. Hate the Packers = Hate Brett Favre = Hate him even more when he beats up on my team. So when he signed with the Vikes I was terribly conflicted. Do I get excited because for the first time in a looooong time we have a QB that can possibly deliver? Do I give in to my disgust that he held it out for months (I might play....no wait, I want to be retired....well, maybe I'll play......maybe not......well, ok, I'll play, but only if you agree to worship me)? Am I psyched when I consider the potentially deadly combination of Favre and AP? Or am I annoyed that once again, the Vikings have spent megabucks on an old guy who's well past his prime, tying up their budget for any future draft picks?

I'm still no fan of Favre, but I'm coming around. And tomorrow night the Vikings and Favre take on their old nemesis. On Monday night. In HD. Rock on.

And then shall we talk about the Twins? What a tear they've been on the last couple of weeks! Erasing a 7-game deficit to tie for the lead in the AL Central and a spot in the playoffs (well, ok, they did have some help). Today was supposed to be the last baseball game in the Metrodome but instead it will be Tuesday when they take on the Detroit Tigers for the title. We've had so many players step up since Morneau got hurt. Many fans - myself included - worried that with Justin gone, we were toast. He's one half of the dynamic duo (the other half being the lovely and talented Joe Mauer). But the whole team  has stepped up. Cuddyer. Kubel. Span. Young. Punto. Tolbert. They're just lots of fun to watch right now. The game is at 4 on Tuesday. Maybe I'll tell my students that if they're done by 3:30 so I can get home, I'll give them extra credit. :)

For all the fun of being a sports fan in MN right now, there are plenty of low points and lots of heartbreak. I'm riding the wave right now.

Next it'll be time to see what Kurt Rambis can do with the Timberwolves.

Go us.

I'm pretty psyched. No more school, no more studying. I'm a MOM again!

I know I made lots of references to tests & stuff on Facebook, but here's the rundown on how this is all working out. I've been taking anywhere from 2-7 credits per semester, year round, since the summer of 2006. The degree I am (was!) working on was a BS in Clinical Laboratory Science. It's a distance program offered by the University of North Dakota - who has a pretty developed CLS program - and they have a deal with the Mayo Clinic for current lab employees to attain their CLS degree, where all of the clinical lab work is done either in the labs here or by staff that come down from UND 3-4 times a year. I already have a BA in Biology Health Professions (with a chemistry minor), so many of my credits transferred from Northwestern to UND. So I had all the prerequisites, I only needed the classes that are clinical lab-specific, like clinical microbiology (different from regular micro in that it only focuses on bugs that cause disease in humans), parasitology, urinalysis (which really is kind of interesting once you get past the fact that you're messing with people's pee - you can find out a lot about someone's health), hematology, and clinical chemistry (which is all those test for enzymes & stuff that get run on blood). Blood banking is also a major component of the CLS curriculum, but since I teach blood bank - actually teach in this very program to an extent - and have a certification in blood banking - they let me out of those classes and gave me credit at only half the cost of tuition. Bargain, eh?

So anyway, that's what I've been working on and complaining about for the last three years. The last couple of semesters have been particularly rough. My final class was a 2-week-long lab in Hematology, which took place in August. I had to register for it as a fall class, though, so I'm still waiting for the "official" final grade on that (even though I already know what I got). After that, I spent about a month studying for two big tests I had to pass. The first was the comprehensive final that UND gives. I have to pass that in order to pass the program. The passing score is only 70%, which normally I wouldn't even blink at because I'm an A/B student.....but this was HARD and I knew it was going to be hard. I was actually more worried about that test than the board exam. So I used one of those worksheets where you color in the bubbles (with a #2 pencil, of course) and then the person down here who proctored the test was supposed to fax that answer sheet in so that I'd know within 24 hours how I did. Well, almost a week went by before I heard about mine. I finally emailed my advisor asking how I did. Turns out that the girl who proctored me faxed one side of the answer sheet twice, rather than faxing both sides. **sigh** But he was nice enough to at least tell me how I did on the stuff he had information on. My weak area was - no surprise - clinical chemistry. The bane of my academic existence.

The second test I had to take was the national Medical Technologist board exam. Passing that test would make me an official certified Medical Technologist, or lab tech. This one is the "real deal," so to speak. I was so stressed about it. I took the test on Friday, Sept. 25 and took the two previous days off work to study. Which I'm glad I did...there was more cramming for this test than I care to admit. So I was able to take this test right here in town, and it was a computer based test. What was really nice was that right away when you're done, this test tells you whether you passed or failed. I passed. I won't get my actual score for another week or so, but beyond simple curiosity I don't even care what my score is. No one will ever look at it besides me and the UND people. The funny thing is, I got a LOT of blood bank questions! I couldn't believe it. I mean, I didn't even study any blood bank except for a few "numbers" things and I was kind of figuring I'd get very few questions on it anyway. That's just the way my life works. I was somewhere between laughter and disbelief when those blood bank questions kept coming up. I totally believe in the providence of God, so I was also thanking Him for giving me questions I knew the answers to.

So now I'm done. Well, pending the result of my UND final. I still haven't heard back on that. The proctor girl is part of our CLS program here and they were getting ready for a HUGE inspection around the time I took the test, and now she's had a baby, so who knows if UND even has the results. I'd think they'd have gotten it in the mail by now. I'll wait a while longer and then email them...I hate being a pest.

My official graduation ceremony is Thursday, November 19. They have a ceremony for us during a time when the UND staff is down here. There are a handful of people graduating from my program, a few that are getting their MS in CLS, and one getting a certificate in laboratory financial management or something like that. I've been asked to speak at the ceremony, to give the greeting from the CLS/certificate students. So I have to figure out what I'm going to say.

Oh yeah, also, many people have asked me why I'm in school when this isn't an advanced degree, and isn't required for me to keep my job or get a promotion. There are a few reasons. 1) The MT/CLS certification is required in many places to even get a job in a lab. By having it you are saying that you have the background knowledge that a lab tech needs. I (and many others) got jobs at Mayo with just a biology or chemistry degree because Mayo's need for bodies in chairs is so huge, they can't limit their hiring to MT's (although it is their first choice). And they have the resources to teach people what they need to know to work in that particular area. I'm a perfect example. So really I'm just getting to where I should have been all along. I don't intend to ever leave Mayo, but you never know where life's going to take you so I feel like I'm more marketable now should I ever need to be. 2) If I do get tired of blood banking and decide to do something different, I know where I would and would not want to work (although I had an idea of that before). 3) Back when I was in college the first time, I'd thought I would get MT certification. My advisor encouraged me to apply for programs. I decided not to, for reasons I won't go into right now, but I have always regretted it. This was a great way for me to do something I've always wanted to do - to take care of what I've always considered to be unfinished business - and I'm thankful that the opportunity was there. It was definitely harder in some ways to do it this way than if I'd just done it back when I should've, but I guess that's the way it goes.

It feels good to be done!  I was going to use this blog post to talk about what I've been doing since then, how I've been rediscovering my life, but I'll save that for later.

This morning at work, a strange smell filled the halls. It smelled like something had been burned, but it wasn't the typical burned-popcorn smell you so often find in break rooms across America. (Or at least around here.) For a while, none of us here in my office could quite figure out what it was.

Eventually, one of my coworkers went down to the breakroom to get something to eat and shortly thereafter came back, stating that she knew the source of the stench. Apparently, someone - I don't know who but presumably someone who works in my division - came in with wet socks this morning. (It's a rainy day.) Someone else who was sitting in the break room - and I do know who this was - told him/her to put the wet socks in the microwave. He does it at home and it works great.

Seriously.

How dumb do you have to be to microwave socks?