Happy Birthday Bacon!

Today is Bacon's birthday; this would be the family dog for those of you that don't know. He is a cocker spaniel, which generally live to be 12-13 years old. He was also the runt of his litter, resulting in him living to about 10 years old. Bacon decided to prove everyone wrong by celebrating his 15th birthday today, which comes out to be about 76 in dog years according to the experts. The average person would say that he turned 105 in dog years. Either way, he is an old dog living a long, happy life.

I was a nerd and had a doggie birthday party for him. Obviously Taffy was here to celebrate, along with Dax (my sister's dog). We played a party game too called bob for biscuits. Yes, it's similar to bobbing for apples during Halloween, except for you put milkbones in the water. I had each dog take turns bobbing for biscuits. Bacon ended up winning by eating 3 biscuits. Taffy got 2, and Dax was afraid of the water. After about 5 mins or so, Dax got the hang of it and was putting his entire snout and face in the water to get biscuits that sunk on the bottom. It was hilarious watching the dogs after the game was technically done. If anyone out there with a dog needs a good laugh, throw some biscuits in a big pot of water or a kiddie pool. It's very entertaining watching the dog get them out.

We then had Bacon open his presents, with help from Taffy. Taffy LOVES opening presents, and Bacon likes to eat the treats once they are opened. It's a team effort. We were going to have a birthday cake, but the baker at the pet store was on vacation all week so no birthday cake. It was still a great party. Happy Birthday Bacon!

(anti) Merry Christmas

So it's been almost 2 months since my last post, and I am desperately in need of some posting. It has been a pretty stressful 2 months. Where do I begin? I have no idea so let's try to some it up in a semi-creative way.

M is for My grandparents have gone from being in the hospital to being in a nursing home. My grandpa fractured his pelvis in 3 places, and my grandma got depressed from worry and being home alone.

E is for Every day is spent searching for a job. I've had some interviews, but no job offers.

R is for Road trip to the Wisc Dells for my dad's birthday. We stayed at the Kalahari for the weekend. The water park was awesome!

R is for Road rage has gotten worse due to increased stress level.

Y is for Yuletide cheer no longer exists. Long story short, christmas gets more depressing every year. Family is supposed to make the holiday season fun, but mine does just the opposite.

C is for Care conferences for both my grandparents. So far they are greatly improving. They were supposed to be out by Christmas, but that didn't happen so we are shooting for mid-January.

H is for Hormel interview, which went well. However, I need either previous experience in a laboratory setting or a BA in a biology-related field. No job.

R is for Really old dog --> Bacon. He turns 15 on Monday, which is pretty much a miracle. Cockers generally live until about 12 years old. Bacon was the runt of his litter, so we were told he would live til 10 years or so. He has proved everyone wrong, and will be turning 15 on Monday, which is about 76 in dog years. Happy birthday Bacon!

I is for Insurance companies stealing my bank account info and stealing money from my account. I was lucky enough to open up a brand new checking account, get new checks, and a new debit card. I now have a box and a half of new checks to burn from the old account.

S is for Snow accumulated to 1 foot in less than 48 hours. It was insane, and it sucked to shovel. Hooray for snow blowers!

T is for Taking my grandpa to the clinic for his dr appts. The latest one showed his fractures healed! One step closer to home (literally).

M is for My best friend from childhood had her first baby a few weeks ago. A healthy baby boy named Gavin.

A is for Apartment searching with a good friend from high school. She got a job offered before graduating in the spring, so we found her a really nice apartment building right across the highway. Now let's just hope they have a place open in may when she needs to move in.

S is for Sucky Christmas celebrations every year. I might be wrong in saying this, but I can't remember a 100% fun Christmas since I was 6 when we still lived in the trailer court. It's almost like the house we live in now is cursed cuz holidays have not gone well since we moved in 15 years ago.

This year, being the most recent, ended in my dad drinking half a bottle of tequila with no food in his stomach and losing $200 in a game of pool, not counting the money he was "dropping" on the floor for my younger cousins. And we can't forget about him announcing some very personal info about my sister that no one needs to know. I have a hard time believing that he did it, but I can't honestly say that I'm surprised. My dad has always been on the verge of alcoholism, and it comes out to be the worst during the holiday season. He thinks he's being funny when he's drunk. Maybe he is to the people that don't live with him. To my sister and I, he becomes the most annoying person on earth. I don't know about my sister, but to me, I hate Christmas, and I hate celebrating Christmas. Between his drinking and my mom's mood swings, I would love to skip Christmas every year. Then maybe I can have a happy December, or at least one that isn't so depressing.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! It's been a pretty eventful weekend. On Friday, I went to a Halloween party in Wisconsin. Since there was no theme, I dressed up as Dracula's daughter. It was a pretty cool costume, right down to the silver vampire fangs. The house decorations were amazing! There were fog machines filling the house with fog, tons of food, table pool, and rock band. It was a lot of fun, even if I didn't get a lot of sleep and had to drive 2 hours home to cat-sit. Last night, I had another Halloween party to go to. In honor of the hostess turning 50 in a couple weeks, the theme was crazy nursing home. It was hilarious! There were people dressed with extra padding for "extra love," and several people had adult diapers on. I went as a nurse to keep everyone alive and under control. There was also tons of food. And of course, we sang happy birthday to the hostess and had yummy birthday cake. It was a lot of fun.

Today, on the other hand, hasn't been quite as exciting. My mom and I went to a play this afternoon, "The Chocolate Factory." It was a dance production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was very nicely done. The songs were very similar, and the costumes were great. I even knew the composer/orchestra director. He was one of my teachers in high school, and it was nice to catch-up with him after the production.

Now for the not-so-exciting part of today, which would be right now. Before I get into the deep of things, I have to say that I have been doing really well about not letting my unemployment get to me. But it is all starting to hit me, hard. In the middle of last week, my grandpa was admitted to the hospital for pain management from falling and fracturing his hip/pelvis in 3 places. Now, my grandparents are convinced that my grandpa won't be returning home, but instead will be heading to a nursing home right from the hospital. In my opinion, this is a good thing. At an assisted living center, they will be able to get proper care and socialization. My grandparents see it as a place to get dumped and forgotten. My mom has been losing control of her anger lately, not that it's really anything new. It's just getting more out of control lately. I have been unemployed now for 2 1/2 months. I have been filling out applications and calling clinics every week, and still I have nothing to show for it. We are taking a family vacation in a week to Wisconsin Dells, and my mom was complaining about money issues. If anyone is going to complain about money issues, it should be me since I'm the one with credit card bills and student loans to pay and no job. With everything building up, it just set me off. And I now see myself as a lazy bum living on my parents couch without a purpose in this world. I have been trying so hard to get me back on my feet, but I keep getting shot back down. I am beginning to think that I will never get out of this negative-energy-filled house and this controlling town where only people who work at Mayo and IBM actually have money. As the final result to all of this depressing stress, I have had a killer migraine for 3 days straight. I know they say that it gets worse before it gets better. This can't get much worse, so honestly, it can start getting better anytime now.

Pre-Halloween Festivities

Wow, it's been a couple weeks. Normally one would expect a lot to happen in the a 2 weeks span of not blogging. In reality, there hasn't been a lot of excitement. For starters, my dad had his last doctor appointment about a week and a half ago. His shoulder is healing nicely, and my dad has almost all the range of motion that he will gain back. It's now just a matter of building his strength back up. Even so, it was his last appointment unless something happens in the future. It only took 10 months post injury, and we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. :)

A week and couple days ago, I spent the weekend in Wisconsin. Some friends from school were having a Halloween movie marathon consisting of some pretty special movies: The Thing, The Brood, and Poltergeist. I've seen Poltergeist, and it has always been one of my favorite Halloween movies. The other two I have never seen, but I have heard of The Thing. It was a special movie taking place in the cold and snow with a demon dog. The Brood, on the other hand, was a very special movie that I could have definitely lived my life without seeing. I can't even really tell you what it was about; it was that special. What I can tell you is that if you cross Alien with Dolls with Poltergeist, you will get something similar to The Brood. Aside from the crazy movie choices, it was a great night joined with popcorn and candy. The morning following, we all went out for breakfast at Keys, and it was amazing! The french toast was freshly made there, as was the freshly squeezed orange juice. It's a bakery and a restaurant. I'm not exactly sure how common of a chain it is, but if you ever cross paths with one, I highly recommend checking it out.

In the middle of last week, my mom and I took my grandma to the Senior Expo in town. No, I am not a senior, but I do like free stuff, especially Bunnie's coconut cake from Canadian Honker. My grandma was able to get some informational brochures, and we all got fold-up canvas bags from Think. And, of course, we all had coconut cake, with is like heaven. My sister made the weight-watchers version of the cake for Easter last year, and it was just as yummy! The day after the expo, this past Friday, we had our first snow of the season. It was raining for a little bit. In the matter of 30 mins, it was near white-out conditions outside. We ended up getting 4.1 inches, and that was in just a couple hours. It was insane for the first snow of the season.

Due to the weather, going to the pumpkin patch was pushed back a day, to this past Saturday. I love going to the pumpkin patch, even it was a big mud puddle from the crazy weather the day before. I didn't let that get me down; I still found the perfect pumpkin. We also got some squash, carmel apples, and apple cider. I love fall. Yesterday, we all got together to carve pumpkins before dinner. I carved a dog, my sister did an angry clown, my brother-in-law created the Landshark logo, and my dad did his tradition "BOO." It was a lot of fun.

Weddings followed by Eagles

So it's been a week since my last post; I apologize for my slacking. I really have no excuse, since I've been pretty bored in the past week. Then again, that's what happens when you don't have a job! Anyways, this past weekend was pretty exciting. On Saturday, my dad's work was sponsoring a project called "Bras for a Cause." Most of you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. In honor of a local organization, Join the Journey, several businesses around town collected bras, whether new, old, or gently used, it didn't matter. This past Saturday, the bras were tied together and were supposed to fly through the air attached to a hot air balloon. Sadly, it was too windy to fly the balloon. Instead of flying around town, the balloons were still tied together, but they were attached to a lift to fly about 40 feet or so in the air above the highway. I donated 5 bras to the cause, and I was able to find 2 of them flying through the air. It was amazing to see them all tied together! There were 2600 bras collected, resulting in $2600 being donated to breast cancer research.

On Saturday night, my parents and I headed to a wedding reception for an old neighbor. She currently lives in Arizona, and she got married in Cancun last month. Since so many of her childhood friends and relatives still remain in the Midwest, she held a wedding reception here. There were pictures from the wedding on each table along with candles sitting in sand from the beach and a vase with sunflowers, the flower of the wedding. Similar to her brother's reception, there was a "before they met" slide show with pictures that started it all leading up to their marriage. They even played video clips from the wedding in Cancun. It was created very nicely. Then it was time for cake, which was some of the BEST chocolate cake I have ever had! And I don't normally eat cake. I don't know where it was from, but it was like eating fudge with butter cream frosting. It was AMAZING! And of course it had sunflowers made out of frosting on it. As tradition goes, the dance started shorting after starting with the father-daughter dance. It was a great reception, even if it was outside in 40 degree weather. Welcome to Minnesota!

Sunday contained even more excitement. My parents, sister, brother-in-law and I headed to the National Eagle Center for a day of family fun. I highly recommend the center for anyone and everyone. It is a lot of fun, even if you don't have little kids. And it's cheap! There are presentations with eagle demonstrations 3 times a day. We got to see the newest addition, a young bald eagle, flap his wings and eat his lunch, a rabbit leg. We also had our picture taken with a live eagle after the presentation, a adult bald eagle. There are interactive exhibits, such as coloring, taking quizzes, and seeing what it feels like having an eagle on your arm. On the second floor, there are some videos playing, as well as an observation deck overlooking the Mississippi River to find eagles soaring in the sky or sitting in a tree. My dad and I were lucky enough to see one soaring in the distance. It was a great experience. For lunch, we headed to an Irish pub, and it was very yummy. And then we wandered around town a bit looking at the pumpkin sculptures and scarecrows in honor of Sept-oberfest. I can't remember when I have done so much in one weekend before! It was a lot of fun. Now it's time to search for a job some more. One of these days I'll be lucky enough to go to work again. Until then, I have cleaning, and scrapbooking, and much more to do.

Wild - Birthdays

This past Tuesday was spent in the cities at the home opener for the Minnesota Wild...and it was amazing! Although, it didn't start out the best; in fact we flat out sucked until 3rd period. Here's the shortened play-by-play. 1st period: a couple [pretend] fights, meaning the refs stopped the players before any fists could even get thrown, and no scoring. 2nd period: the ducks score 3 goals and we have a couple fights, and these were actual fights this time. It was great! Well, the fights anyways, not the scoring. During the intermission, about 1/3 of the fans left. No one had much hope for the wild at this point, me included. It didn't look good. 3rd period begins with a fight, go figure. 10 mins 30 secs left on the clock and BAM! Wild scores! We were FINALLY on the scoreboard! The crowd gets pumped, cheering up a storm. At about 5 mins 30 secs left on the clock, and wild scores again on a powerplay! The crowd goes WILD! hehe pun intended :P By now, I'm sure everyone that left was sorry. It was so intense; everyone was on their feet cheering and screaming. When there was about 2 mins left on the clock, the wild scored their 3rd goal, tying up the game. This lead to overtime, where the wild scored about half-way through, wining the home opener for the 2009-2010 season. :) Yay Wild!

Today was also spent in the cities. Tomorrow is the 22nd birthday of my best friend of the past 7+ years, so I went up for the day to celebrate a day early. She recently had a baby girl a little over 3 months ago, and this was the first time seeing her as well. She is so cute! We went for a walk to get lunch, and headed back to her apartment to watch a movie, "The Gingerdead Man." It's a haunted/comedy/fake/gory twist on the fairytale "The Gingerbread Man." I recommend it for anyone who likes old horror flicks. There is also a part 2, which I have been told is as good as the original but have yet to experience for myself. It was a great day, and much needed seeing how we haven't seen each other since my birthday this past February.

B-dubs + Hockey = An Interesting Night

This past Saturday started the official NHL season for the Minnesota Wild. Sadly, the game wasn't televised on a station down here, so I met a group of people at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the puck drop. It was a great game, even though it was the first season opener we have lost. On the bright side, it was Brunette's 600th career goal. Go Brunette! And I had a great dinner since BWW has awesome food. After the game, we all went back to my sister's house for a night of categories. Before the fun and games continued, we walked Dax around the block since he'd been locked up in the house for awhile. It was my first time playing categories, and it was pretty entertaining. I don't remember them all, but each card in the deck is a different category. For example, 10 is question master. Every time someone answers a question of the question master, they have to drink. 2 is rhyme time, which means you pick a word. Going clockwise, everyone says a word that rhymes until someone can't think of one, and that person has to drink. In other words, it's a drinking game, but if played correctly, you don't drink that much. And we'll just say I got pretty lucky with it being my first time. After the game, long story short, the night ended pretty quickly. I'm not going to get into it. We'll just skip ahead and say half the group wanted to go out to another bar, and the other half--me included--was ready for bed. Seeing how the group that wanted to continue to party was already half-gown, the rest of us got to play designated driver. I was the lucky one to drink the new Pontiac; I was the second person to ever drive the car--the first was the owner. It was a pretty interesting night. I blame it on the full moon, since that always brings the crazies out.

Family Reunion

Since 1 family reunion wasn't enough back in July, the other side of my family had a reunion yesterday. We really only see each other twice a year: Memorial weekend and Christmas. So I guess I can't complain too much haha Anyways, this was thrown together somewhat last minute. My aunt and uncle from California flew up here for the week for a wedding. Since we haven't seen them for 4 years to the day [yesterday], we all met for a family reunion. It actually was kinda fun. My relatives from the cities came down as well, so the only ones missing were the relatives from Oklahoma, where there is almost no communication. But that's too much info to get into. So, we had a big potluck dinner at my grandparents house and caught up. It was a great day to sit outside and visit, with exception to the smell of dead ladybugs and swarms of mosquitoes. And there was awesome food: everything from cowboy beans and pasta salads to fresh fruit to zucchini cookies. I went home with a very happy stomach :P Now let's just home that it's not another 4 years til we see my aunt and uncle from Cali again, but maybe only 1 or 2 years...

Let's Play [preseason] Hockey!

I went to my first preseason Wild game yesterday, and it was AWESOME! My dad won tickets at work on Saturday. After a long and intense discussion, it was decided that I got the pair this time and my sister got the pair next time. Her and I went to a game together last season, so she didn't want to do that to my brother-in-law again. So, I went up to the game with lab partner. For those of you familiar with Xcel, the tickets were for club level. It was pretty exciting to finally take the short escalator and be asked to show my ticket. Although, the best part was the game. There were 10 fights in the entire game! It was insane! 5 fights were in the first period! Crazy yet, it was most of our newbies playing. We apparently have an angry team this year, so hopefully that will remain in our favor. We won last night 3-0. I can't wait til the regular season starts up. I love fights, but we'll hope the team can keep it [somewhat] clean so no one gets evicted from the game.

The Beginning of Fall

Before welcoming in the new season, we ended the official summer season with a free pancake summer. Our electric company has a member appreciation day every year. This year, it was last Thursday. We each got a free canvas tote with a thermos and a free cookbook, in addition to the free supper. There were pancakes, sausage links, milk, orange juice, and ice cream for dessert. It was really yummy, and it was free!

To welcome in the new (and my favorite) season, my mom and I went to Quarry Hill for their annual fall festival. Yes, it is usually geared more towards families with children, but who says adults can't take part in it too? Plus, it's free to park and enter. It's been a long time since I've been to the nature center, so we wandered the grounds for a bit. We were going to go canoeing in the pond, but we couldn't due to my mom's recent accident at work. This past Tuesday, she slipped in a puddle of water--the temps don't know how to put up signs or clean up their messes--and sprained her knee. It's nothing too serious, but enough where she gets to wear a stabilizer brace for a couple weeks. She's doing a lot better now, and the swelling has gone down completely. There were lots of children activities: leaf ornaments, bag stamping, ring toss, ect. If it wasn't so expensive, we were gonna tour the cave, but throughout the year they have free tours. We'll wait until then. After wandering outside and through the building, we decided to decorate pumpkins. I gave mine hair, arms, and a tail (cuz I'm just a dork that way). My mom's pumpkin turned oriental and also had hair. It was a lot of fun, and now our first fall decorations are up on display.

Last night, we continued to welcome fall; but this time, with a loud bang. Our neighbor is in a band called Dr. Savage, and they were putting on a concert. They did a lot of 70s and 80s covers, as well as some of their own stuff. It was a lot of fun. We usually hear them every other Wednesday when they practice, but it was nice to actually see them perform.

Pulp Cap

I'm sure you all were on the edge of your seat waiting to hear how the procedure went. Okay, maybe not, but I sure was! So Taffy had her dental/pulp cap done this morning, and all went well. Doc capped her fractured tooth, and the tech polished up the rest of her teeth. Due to my awesome brushing--which is really only twice a week--there was almost no plaque nor tarter on her teeth. But after a week and a half of no brushing, her breath was getting stinky. I'm glad to be able to brush again! And especially without her fighting me now. Also, I learned today that they are going to start doing root canals and placing silver fillings at the clinic next month. Yeah, I know, who would have thought canine dentistry would go that far? Due to her fractured tooth, she is on the list to be a demo dog. The cap will stay in place, but can also be a temporary fix. If it slips out of place or if bacteria gets underneath it, an abscess can still form. A root canal or filling would prevent that 100%. And by being a demo dog, it's 100% free! I know there's other dogs on the list, so we'll see what happens. Either way, I'm happy to have Taffy home and free of a toothache.

Fractured Tooth

Taffy had to go visit her friend the vet today, so I was lucky enough to go visit my ex-work. About a week ago, Taffy fractured her upper left premolar. I'm guessing it happened while chewing on a bone, but I'm not sure. Either way, she freaked out when I was brushing her teeth this past Friday, so we got an appointment. Because the fracture was caught early, the tooth is able to save. There is pulp exposure, which is why it's so painful. She goes back in Monday morning for a dental procedure consisting of a pulp cap on the tooth and a full dental cleaning. Might as well get the rest of the cleaned up while she's under. I'm sure everything will go just fine, but I will still be worrying on Monday. That's just how it goes.

The Great Minnesota Get-together - Part 3

Yup, you guessed it. I went to the state fair yet another day. It's a tradition for my mom and I to go to the fair every year, so we headed up on Friday. I also toured an apartment that I've been looking at in the cities, and it seemed like a nice apartment. The rooms are in process of being completely remodeled: new carpet, new counter tops, new windows, new appliances, ect. They look amazing! And a new pool was put in last summer. As long as I can find a job in the area, I will move up there. Finding a job is always the hard part. If that doesn't work out, then looks like I'm stuck here 'til spring. I don't wanna be stupid and move in the winter. Minnesota winters suck, especially when it comes to driving. On a different note, we went to check in at the hotel and ate dinner at Chili's.



We were up bright and early on Saturday for breakfast at the hotel before heading to the fair. I must say, the main reason why we picked the hotel was because of the waffle bar for breakfast. I love waffles! And there was free fruit, cereal, bagels, and the other usual breakfast food. The waffles were by far the best. It was then time to head to the state fair for a day of fun.

I did have a nicely written post all set, but blogger just decided to error and lucky me, I get to write it all again! Gotta love stupid websites. Anyways, you are now lucky enough to have the short version cuz I'm too lazy to remember and rewrite everything. So, here goes nothing! We wandered buildings and got some free stuff. I came across my future car, the Ford Fiesta. It comes in lime green and will be out next year. It was sooo exciting to see it! :D We also saw Tonic Solfa at the leinie stage. They are always fun to see in concert, and it was free! We ate lots of food, including: sausage wrapped in a pancake on a stick with syrup, deep-fried mac 'n cheese on a stick, deep-fried fruit on a stick, birthday cake gelato, funnel cake fries with powdered sugar and chocolate dipping sauce, deep-fried popcorn chicken, cheese curds, deep-fried oreos, and deep-fried reeses. I love fair food :) Ending the night was listening to the grandstand show: 38 Special, REO Speedwagon, and Styx. Since we have seen 38 Special and Styx before, REO was the most important, and they put on the best performance! It was a great ending to this year's state fair extravaganza.

The Great MN Get-together - Part 2

One day at the fair just wasn't enough, so I went again yesterday. Okay, so really I planned on going yesterday first. OAR was the grandstand show last night, so I joined my sister and brother-in-law at the fair yesterday. We had perfect timing upon arriving at the fair. The shuttle dropped us off near the miracle of birth center, and we got to see the last baby piglet be born in a litter of 12! I have seen a cow and a sheep in the past, but this was the first time my sister had ever seen it at the birth center. The pig was having some difficulty, so a senior vet student assisted in getting the last piglet out.

It was then food time. My sister got a deep-fried banana split complete with ice cream, blueberries, strawberries, and whipped cream. My brother-in-law got a bucket-o-fries, the best fries out there. I went after leprechaun legs aka deep-fried green beans. The last person who joined us, who also hates getting her picture taken, was safe with cheese curds. Yes it's a basic fair food, but still deep fried. The green beans are sooo yummy! TGI Friday's also has them as an appetizer if anyone wants to try them.

We wandered the fair some more: eco experience, education building, and international bazaar. Along the way, my brother-in-law became a chicken at the Gold 'n Plump stand. My sister and I also got our picture taken with the state fair mascot; I think his name is Fairchild. In eco experience, my brother-in-law and I took turns grinding coffee on a bike. It smelt amazing, as most coffee does. There were free samples too, but I only like how coffee smells. I also pretended to be a farmer driving a tractor with several giant windmills in the background. Now I can say that I have wind energy! And then it came time for food again. The choices this time around were a brat burger, garlic fries, and an elephant ear. I just got a pineapple shake.

Before we knew it, it was time to head over to the grandstand to listen to OAR. As much as I would have loved to be inside the gates watching, I couldn't afford it due to my current job situation. Plus, sitting right outside the side gate, you can hear them perfectly and glance through a bag every once in awhile to get a glimpse of the stage and the giant movie screen. It's totally worth it, especially for being free. Also, it's the perfect spot to watch the fireworks show after the concert. After 2 nights in a row of seeing the fireworks, I feel spoiled :P

Once again, it was a great day at the fair, even though I didn't complete all of my missions. I did get a ucare bag, so one mission complete. However, I was unable to find the Arby's hats. I have it narrowed down to 2 radio stations where the could possibly be, so let's hope for Saturday! Either way, it was another great day at the Minnesota get-together.

The Great MN Get-together - Part 1

Happy September everyone! And what do you ask that I started the month off with? Why the Minnesota State Fair of course! At the last minute, lab partner and I decided to head out to the great Minnesota get-together. It was a blast, as usual. I don't think I have ever not had fun at the state fair. I guess I'm just a nerd that way. Anyways, upon arriving at the fairgrounds, we first headed to the Leinie stage for a free concert of a new country group called Trailer Choir. They have one song on the radio right now, which is the same song with it's video in spot 12 on the CMT countdown. This song would be the infamous "Rocking the Beer Gut." For those of you who have not heard this song, you need to! The video makes it even better. They also did a couple covers: "Bobby McGee" and "Sweet Home Alabama." The concert was a lot of fun. I had only heard the one song by them before hand, and their other songs were just as catchy. They were so good that I had to go buy their debut album after the concert. I highly recommend them for you to go check out, even if you're not a big fan of country music. Because it was the Leinie stage and its still summer, there were free samples of leinies! Now most of you know that I am not a beer person, but I am very dedicated to my sister so I had a summer shandy just for her. :)

After the concert, we went to get some food. I had my usual deep-fried mac 'n cheese on a stick, and she got a bucket of the best chocolate chip cookies ever--well next to homemade I guess. We wandered the education building and got free stuff. We wandered the eco experience and got free stuff. We collected a few canvas bags: St. Cloud, St. Thomas, Bethel, eco experience, st. scholastic. Kemps had a promotional tour going on, so we each got pictures taken with a cow and cow tattoos. The end of the night was drawing to an end, and we needed more food. Lab partner was a wimp and went after a plain old foot long corndog with ketchup and mustard. I however, went with another state fair favorite: peanut butter hot dog with honey and banana. The hot dog is injected with peanut butter, drizzled with honey, and topped off with sliced bananas. So yummy! Then we watched the ch5 news until fireworks. We were even on the news clapping and cheering for the state fair!

However, we were on a mission to get a lime green medica and turquoise ucare canvas bags, but they were gone for the day by the time we made it to their stands :( Also somewhere in the park, there is a stand giving out arbys hats that are like headbands. I was thinking arbys all day but no one knew since we couldn't find that either. So now I have a couple missions when going up again later today as well as Saturday. I told you I was a nerd when it came to the state fair. :P

Garage Sale

Yesterday and today have been spent at my sister's house for an end-of-the-summer garage sale. Her house is a PERFECT location, or so we thought. Yesterday was pretty slow, but we still made some money. We were hoping today would be better with it being Friday. Also, there were 3 other sales in the area, so that would have to draw a crowd, right? Wrong. Today was even slower than yesterday! Her and I both passed the boredum by reading. I read 200 pages in my book between the 2 days. I only have a couple chapters left! I have NEVER read a book that fast before. Then again, I have never had that much free time either. Anyways, we didn't sell a whole lot, so looks like there will be another sale before winter hits.

And now to the best, or in my case worst, part of the story. During clean-up, everyone--meaning my sister, my mom and i--was pretty annoyed cuz we were all hungry and sad due to the poor turnout. I just shrugged it off cuz I was too hungry to care. But my mom isn't quite that strong. My sister was too tired to not shrug it off, which she had every right after being up since 2am last night. Anyways, clean-up turned into a fight so we never went out to eat. The plan was to go to Buffalo Wild Wings after cleaning-up. But it didn't happen cuz my dad got annoyed quickly and left, forcing my mom to be even crabbier. And by then I wanted nothing to do with anyone. So my dinner became a bowl of cottage cheese and mandarin oranges. At least it was healthy.

Once again, I say that I can't wait until I'm out of this house. I am driving myself insane with most thanks to my mom and her crazy undiagnosed mental issues. I know it would be rushing it, but I really hope I can land a job and be out of here in October. *crossing my fingers* Or have a miracle that allows my parents to actually get along. But I have been waiting for that since age 6. I'm 21 now and it hasn't gotten any better, so I see no hope for that.

Carry on my Wayward Son...

Last night was the concert of the summer, with the exception of Emerson Drive. I guess I should say it was the FREE concert of the summer. Kansas was in town ending the riverside concert series. I had been looking forward to it all summer, but [as usual] I was hit with a hardball also known as my parents. I'm not going to get into it too much since you have all heard it before and because I was able to vent about it earlier today to my awesome lab partner. Long story short: My dad wanted to take a nap instead of going to a family friend's annual pig roast, so my mom got mad even though she didn't want to go in the first place. After lots of nagging and arguing, my dad decided to not go which pissed my mom off even more. I can't wait until I am out of here! If only I had a job... Anyways, my mom and I ended up just going. After meeting up with my sister and brother-in-law, she was her normal fake self that had to constantly complain. Why can she not hear herself? It's soooo annoying! But whatever; I'll hopefully be out of here soon. As for the concert, it wasn't as great as I expected. Whether that was due to my ruined attitude or the fact that they played more jam-out sessions instead of actually singing, I have no idea. It was prolly a combination. And of course the song I wanted to hear the most--which is also the title of this blog--was the second, and last, encore song. That's just how lucky I am.

But it was worth the wait, and the fact of getting home at almost 10pm when I had to be up about 530 this morning. Why so early you ask? I may still be unemployed, but I was lucky enough to babysit 2 little kids today from 645am til about 415pm today. The 2 are very entertaining. We made pancakes and bacon for a late breakfast, and then we headed to the park for hours of entertainment on the playground. After working up a sweat, it was time to head back home and set-up the sprinkler to cool off. It was a long day, but well worth hanging out with the kids.

Steele County and Shriners Weekend

Almost 2 weeks have passed since my unemployment began, and its been another great weekend. And the weekend isn't over yet! The week was pretty boring. I caught up on scrapbooking and did some job searches, but no luck so far. Friday was the day of the annual girls weekend to Medford. It all started quite some time ago as a back-to-school shopping trip to the Medford outlet mall. Now that school is over, we still go every year just because. I look forward to getting my moose munch from Harry & Davids. And being an outlet mall, there are usually some really good deals. After the shopping extravaganza, we migrated down the road to Russell Stover for some chocolate and ice cream. I now have some German black forest chocolate bars to hold me over until our trip next summer. My sister and I both got ice cream as well. After contemplating over flavors, I decided on firecracker ice cream, which is strawberry ice cream with pop rocks. It was very weird eating ice cream while my mouth was popping, but it was very yummy. We then headed to Owatonna for the Steele County Fair, another tradition that started a couple years ago. I love going to the petting zoo, which has everything from monkeys and lemurs to deer and llamas to kangaroos and ostriches. It's pretty exciting. This year there was also an Asian otter and a camel. We were going to wander the midway, but it was a giant mud puddle from all the rain. However, we were lucky enough to see the cannonball. In other words, a guy was shot out of a cannon and flew over the ferris wheel landing in a net on the other side. Because I still don't have my camera, I wasn't able to get a picture of him flying. My mom's camera is kinda slow, but oh well. It was still cool to see.My sister and I got to pet sting rays, and we all saw hermit crabs elsewhere at the fair. Do you remember hearing about the giant inflatable rubber duck from the Dakota County Fair? Well it returned to Steele county! So of course I got my picture taken next to it again. It was a fun fair, even if the grounds were muddy from all the rain in the middle of the week.

Today was complete opposite, weather wise. Since Wednesday, there has been a Shriners convention going on in town. Ending the convention was a parade today with 100+ floats/groups. There was shriners from all over the midwest, as well as from Canada. My favorite was the dragon who sneezes cool, foggy stuff. He hasn't sneezed on me in a parade for years, but my sister and I were lucky and got sneezed on today! my brother-in-law also got sneezed on while taking a picture of the dragon approaching. It was hilarious! There were also shriner bands and choirs; a couple choirs were even actually singing! It was amazing! They usualy just play music and lip sync. There were also TONS and TONS of clowns, one of which was dressed up like Popeye, complete with a can of spinache. The shriner motorcyclists put on a show, as well as go carts and 4-wheelers and several other motorized vehicles. It was a great parade, even if no candy was thrown. The only downfall was the heat. Even though it was only 75 degress, there were no clouds and very little wind causing it to feel like 90. If nothing else, I got my Las Vegas tan back, so it was all worth it.

Stay tuned for tomorrow: Kansas comes to town for a free concert! I can't wait! :D

Emerson Drive

My first week of "vacation" has ended on a good note, and its still the beginning of the weekend! I got together with my best friend since kindergarten, who is also leaving me for school on Sunday, so it's our last weekend together til fall break. So what did we do? We headed out to 331 to see Jason Brown and Emerson Drive. And it was awesome! Emerson Drive didn't come on until 9, but we still headed out early to get a parking spot and a decent spot on the hill. We started by sharing a giant plate of nachos and getting a couple drinks. After a long and hard decision, I got a cotton candy. So next time, I only have 2 to decide between: a rubber duck or a gummy worm. The cotton candy was yummy. We all know that I'm a rum girl. Now I have decided that my rum of choice is Malibu. After time, we braved the heat and humidity and headed back to the chairs outside. Jason Brown (the opener) was alright. I only knew 2 of his songs, and I was really going to see Emerson Drive. However, Jason thought that he was cooler, cuz he didn't end until after 9, resulting in Emerson Drive not starting until 9:35. They only played for about 70 minutes, which is pretty sad since the opener played longer than the headliner. I'm not going to complain a whole lot though because Emerson Drive played all 5 songs on my list! And then some of my other favorites that I didn't "request." These 5 include: I Wanna Be A Good Man, Fall Into Me, Take It From Me, I Should Be Sleeping, and Moments. They also did quite a few covers: Fishin' in the Dark and Boys of Summer. They ended the concert with an encore, of course. And what was this encore you ask? Devil Went Down to Georgia, yes a cover but also a classic. It was a great concert, and a great way to end a week of "vacation."

Kasson and Dakota

I have officially survived 36 hours of being unemployed, and I have accepted the fact that I have no job. Since I had 5 days of vacation left, I am looking at this week as being a vacation. As much as it sucks to be unemployed, it will be nice to be able to just lay low and relax. I will be able to catch up on things and sort out my life, not to mention relieve stress. I have time to do several things, including:

• relax and lounge with Taffy and Bacon
• scrapbook my Vegas trip and my random memories
• clean my room and prep for my sisters garage sale
• hang out with my friends before they head back to school
• SLEEP IN! (but we'll see if this one actually happens)

On a different note, my dad decided that my sister and I need to celebrate today instead of sulk in our sadness. We needed a distraction, so we all went out for breakfast this morning at Daniel's. They have the BEST Eggs Benedict in the world! (or at least in the greater Minnesota) It was amazing. After breakfast, we didn't feel like going home. Some how we ended up in Farmington at the Dakota County Fair, which was fine with me. The fair was awesome! There is the usual 4H exhibits and food stands, as well as free buildings and a historical village. Sadly, we didn't experience a fake band robbery this year, but we did witness a tractor parade. Not quite as exciting, but still historical. It was a lot of fun today, and it was just what the doctor ordered. Tomorrow I get to file for unemployment and begin a new chapter of my life.

Unemployed

Looks like my feelings stayed true as always. About 20 minutes after arriving to work this morning, I was called in to a meeting with the boss doc and head tech. I could tell it was going to be bad news when they called me in. Neither of them knew how to tell me either. The doc kept taking deep breaths, and I'm just sitting there thinking to myself, "Just tell me and get it over with." He finally came out and explained the situation to me. Apparently I have improved greatly and have a lot of potential, but a cut had to be made. Lucky me was it. So, I get to go file for unemployment tomorrow and begin my search for a new chapter in my life.

As if this didn't make for a bad Monday, I recently found out 2 other pieces of information. First off, a good friend of mine also got laid off, so we get to have an unemployment party together. For the second part, we will have to go a week back in time. A week ago, I found out that I was going to be an aunt next spring. I was ecstatic! However, and I'm sure you can guess what is coming next, my sister miscarried sometime over the weekend. I found out today. So looks like its a bad day all around. Today lived up to the true stereotype of Mondays. It has to get worse before it gets better, right? Well I think it just got worse, so better must be just around the corner. Let's hope anyways.

Celebrating my Heritage

Last week went by sooo slow! I didn't think the weekend would ever come. Half of our surgeries canceled, as well as several appointments. It was very slow, in case you didn't get that the first time. However, we did see some pretty exciting cases. As a refresher, the doctor I'm with this month is not only the boss of the clinic, but also the main exotic doctor. This past week we saw several birds, a bearded dragon, a guinea pig, and a rabbit. My favorite was the egg-bound cockatiel. Obviously the bird was in pain and it was a partial emergency, but it was so cool to assist with. The bird had 2 eggs, one of which opened inside the birth canal, so the second egg was stuck. The doc was able to clean the first egg out and manipulate the second egg to pass. It was awesome! The bearded dragon was sick and not eating, so we just had to give it some meds to stimulate his appetite. Apparently the owner takes him [the bearded dragon] with him to run errands. Can you imaging seeing a beardie while grocery shopping? Whatever works. The bunny rabbit was really cute too, and sooo soft. If they actually did something, I'd love to have one as a pet. But I think all they do is twitch their nose and sit there wondering where to hop to. The bunny needed her teeth filed down, so I made a bunny burrito while the doc filed the molars down. Otherwise, it was a week of vaccine appts and wing trims, nothing else really too exciting.

And then FINALLY the weekend came! I spent Saturday at Harriet Island with my lab partner at the Irish Fair, even though she isn't Irish. Once again, it was free! We were even lucky enough to find an open spot on the street a couple blocks away, so we didn't even have to pay for parking. There was a variety of entertainment: Irish bands, Irish dancers, and comedy shows. There were also several food stands of Irish food, which looked and smelt amazing! Silly me ate lunch before going there :P There was also a cultural center with photos and traditional clothing from Ireland. There was also a display of a famine ship, which my great-great-grandpa came over to the states on a lont time ago, just like in the movie "Far and Away." I didn't get to stay as long as I wanted because it was so hot and muggy and wet outside, but it was still really cool to see.

I can't wait until I live in the cities, and then I can go to free fairs and festivals all the time. Hopefully it will be sooner, rather than later. I'm sure you are all waiting for the job update. I haven't had my meeting yet, which I'm guessing is because we didn't have any surgeries last week, so I couldn't have had a full review. Tomorrow, we have 3 surgeries set-up. And I don't have a good feeling about it. Today I had to work my old Sunday shift of 4:30-6pm. Because we have a TTA coming in tomorrow, a fentanyl patch had to be applied tonight. I have only done it once before, but never on my own. The stupid dog decided to kick it off 3 times. By the last time, I had taped almost the entire leg! As long as it stays, I'll be fine. If not, I'll get chewed out by the doc tomorrow. Woo hoo! I can see him firing me on the spot, but hopefully it won't be that bad. Because I hate the place so much, part of me wants that to happen. The other part--which is the bigger part--wants him to be understanding and give me a second chance. We'll see what happens. I used to be so happy and loved going to work, but now I'm dreading every single day of work. I hate it! If this keeps up, I know my depression will return, and I really don't want that. So let's hope for the best, which would be moving to the cities in the very near future and working at the rehab center.

Another Month Gone

Another month has come to an end, finally! I didn't think the month would ever end with the dr. For the record, once I thought things were getting better, something would happen causing it to go back to the beginning. I feel like I can't win with her, no matter how hard I try. She always kills my confidence. So I am soo glad that my month with her is over. Although, because a new month starts tomorrow, I will now be with the owner again. In other words, he will be keeping a close eye on me. If things don't improve with him, I'm gone. So I really hope I hear from another place just in case that happens. It's always nice to have a back-up plan. I'm crossing my fingers that I hear from the rehab center and get an interview.



On a side note, my best friend since kindergarten turned 21 this weekend. We went out last night with a small group. We started at the Redwood Room for drinks and dessert. The birthday girl and I got martinis, and her boyfriend went after a mojito. We all shared desserts, which consisted of the chocolate beast--rich moist chocolate cake a la mode with drizzleds chocolate syrup and strawberries--and a white chocolate mousse with raspberry puree. This was my first martini, a passion martini. It was rum-based, of course. I like my malibu. We then headed to whistle binkies on the lake, where we met up with a couple other people. We each had another drink and some free popcorn while socializing. It was nice to see everyone again, even if a couple people tried to pressure the birthday girl into drinking more. I don't think I'll ever understand why people just want to get trashed and not remember their 21st birthday, but oh well. It just goes to show how people mature at different ages. We still had a great night, and she had a great birthday.

The next day (Sunday), I went to the Berne Swissfest with my parents. Since I went to Switzerland last spring, it was exciting to see an authentic Swiss festival, and it was free! There was a Swiss fashion show and yodeling concerts, a variety of Swiss foods, and a mini Swiss heritage museum. When I went to Switzerland, I was in Lucerne. There was a couple posters of monuments that I visited, so that was cool to see. And of course, it was exciting to eat the food. :)

Luau and Reunions

It's been a pretty eventful weekend. Some friends from Wisconsin came down last night for my annual luau party. It was so much fun to see them! Also my one of my bestest friends from high school was in town, so she stopped by for a couple hours as well. She couldn't stay too long since she had surgery this past Tuesday; she had her gall bladder removed. I haven't seen her for a long time, so it was great to see her and catch up as well. Like most parties, it took place in the garage, or the pub, or the beer garden. What its called depends on who you ask. There were a few pool games going on, followed by pirate life. It's similar to the original life, cept its Pirates of the Carribean themed. In other words, the game pieces are ships. Instead of choosing a profession, you choose to be a pirate or a landlubber depending on who you draw for a captain. Instead of getting married, you stop at the shipyard to buy a ship. You then have a chance to RAID other players ships for money or for the Black Pearl. You also have a chance to pick a mascot. The game is a lot of fun, mostly due to the raiding. I came in second place thanks to all my life tiles. In addition the fun and games, there was a dog party going on. Bacon and Taffy were obviously hanging out in the garage. My sister was in Alpine Valley for the night, so I was dog-sitting Dax as well. Maeby, my 2nd lab partner's dog, also joined the mix. The dogs were a riot! They were chasing each other around the pool table and wrestling almost non-stop; it was great entertainment.

Today was another party, although it was of different sorts. Today was a family reunion on my mom's side. I admit, I wasn't really looking forward to it, mostly because I hardly know any of the extended family on my mom's side. But it wasn't too bad, other than long. There was a lot of food; everything from fresh fruit to pasta salads to deli sandwiches to desserts. In other words, the food was amazing! And there were left overs, so I'll have a good lunch tomorrow. As far as the relatives go, not very many people recognized me or knew who I was, but that's ok since I didn't know who they were either. It was nice to visit with the people that I do know though. The best part was my aunt convinced a couple people that I was her daughter and that no one knew about me because I didn't get out of the house much. It was hilarious.

As for the job update, I have started to look for other clinics hiring in case the situation progresses instead of inproving. I have contacted the rehab center that I interned at last summer to see how everything is going there. I loved being there, and I would love to return. With thanks to my internship there, I fell in love with animal rehabilitation. I believe that is more so my calling vs. a small animal clinic, so we'll see what happens. Time will tell.

The Job From Hell

It's been a LONG week; thank god it's over! So since my last post, I have been trying my hardest to do better at work but I don't feel like I've gotten anywhere. I ask questions and try to do better, but I feel like the doctor still hates me. Luckily I haven't caught anyone talking behind my back this week. However, I overheard a group of techs talking about a party that's next weekend. This party is a bachelorette party going on a week before the tech's wedding, and I was never invited to the party. I don't know if it was intentional or what, but it kinda sucks not being included when I thought I was friends with this person. It just goes to show how included I'm NOT at my work. Also, I thought things were going well with my doctor. Yesterday was surgery day, and half of our surgeries canceled that morning. That left us with 2 kitty dentals, both of which had to be done by the dental tech. I spent most of that morning trying to look busy and filling in where needed since neither the dental tech nor the doctor allowed me to help with anything. How am I supposed to get more comfortable with anesthesia if they don't allow me to have experience? It's almost as if they want me to do horrible so they can fire me, or maybe that is just in my head. I don't know anymore. Again today, I thought things were going well. Then I couldn't get an angry cat in his carrier. I guess I should have put my hand in the cage and had it ripped to shreds instead of asking for help because the doctor got annoyed when I asked for help. And I didn't even ask her! I asked another tech; the doctor just happened to walk back at the same time as the other tech. Oh well. I wish she would just be honest with me so I know why she hates me so much. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I ask for help when I need it, but she gets annoyed when I do. It's almost like one of my teachers in my anes/surg class; she was older too. Maybe its a traditional vet thing. Whatever it is, I wish it would leave the air of my clinic. I used to like waking up and going to work every morning. Now I am dreading every day and counting down til the weekend, or til my day off just so I can get away from everyone. I find myself hiding in the basement every night and on my days off because I just want to be away from them all. I thought my career was supposed to be fun; boy was I wrong there.

Getaway

So looks like it has been another month without posting, and I am definately feeling it mentally. There is so much going on in my head right now that I will prolly forget half of it while posting. Thats just the story of my life, or at least part of it. I have been feeling so overwhelmed lately, especially in the past few days. As most of you know, a new month started a week ago. June seemed to go really well, or so I thought. Doc and I were getting along very well. She was very helpful, yet fun to be around. She was very knowledgeable, yet open to jokes and sarcasm. She would give me tips in a friendly manner instead of criticism. Or at least I thought that's how the month went. Today I found out some other news, but I'll get more into that later in this post.

As I said previously, the new month's schedule started a week ago. This means its my last month of my first full doctor rotation. This doctor and I haven't had a lot of interaction, so I wasn't sure how the first few days would go. Let's just say they didn't go as well as the first few days with the other 3 doctors. The first day was a little shaky, but it always is. It takes time getting the routine down since each doctor has their own way of doing things. Anyways, there were 3 times last week that got me into trouble, and I'm still not exactly sure how. Maybe someone out there can help me make sense of each situation.

1. A fellow tech wrote me a note accusing me of leaving at the end of the day without asking if anyone needed help. In my defense, I asked everyone but her because someone asked her when I was standing right there and she said no. I checked with my doctor and she was fine. I checked with everyone up front and they were fine. I checked with all other techs and they were fine. Yet she accused me of leaving without checking with anyone. Apparently she is specialer than everyone else in the clinic.

2. I got in trouble for not knowing anything about fluid therapy. So even though I have properly set-up several fluid therapy machines and properly calculated fluid rates and properly connected them to patients, I don't know anything about fluid therapy. The actual scenario: there was a machine beeping "occlusion" that was connected to a very angry kitty. I checked the machine and there were no blockages so I set it to start-up again. A few mins later it started beeping again. Normally, you were disconnect it from the patient. I tried and was almost attacked, so I simply stopped the machine. And then what happens? I get yelled at by the same tech with accusations from scenario 1 and accused of not knowing fluid therapy. So I guess she wanted me to get eaten alive by an angry kitty. Nice to know that I'm appreciated at the clinc.

3. And that brings us to the last scenario. The same tech was involved, but this time she was the teacher and my doc was angry with me. We had a frisky cat to be spayed that we couldn't get an iv catheter in, so we had to box the kitty down to intubate and place a catheter. I have never boxed down a cat before. We had one chance to do it in school, and there were no kitties that week so we watched a video. I never had the chance to assist during my internship. The doctor almost had a cow right then and there when she heard that I've never boxed down a cat before. The doctor also shot down my self-esteem when intubating the dog we were spaying later that day. So that made me feel so much better about myself (sarcasm). I am stressed-out enough on my surgery day, and it doesn't help when my doctor has no confidence in me.

So that's my 3 horrible scenarios of last week, the week from hell. And that brings us to today, the day I had a meeting with the head tech at the clinic. When she called me into the meeting room, I knew she was going to ask how everything was going so far. What I didn't know was that she was going to confront me on those scenarios. So my self-esteem is now shot at work, especially when it comes to surgery days. The doctor I was with last month went to the head tech claiming I'm not trained well enough in surgery and anesthesia. The doctor this month claimed that I know nothing about monitoring equipment. I'm sorry if my school wasn't good enough for more than an EKG and pulse oximeter. My school didn't have a blood pressure monitor that worked. And up until 2 weeks ago, all we had working at the clinic was the EKG. It's not my fault that no one in the clinic took me up on the offer of helping me in the past few months. I am not afraid to ask for help, but no one shows me how to do things. Everyone just does it for me, so how am I supposed to learn? I don't ask people to do things for me. I ask for them to help me and give me their tips and advise. Yet in the long run, I get in trouble. And now, if I don't get my act together, I will lose my job. Isn't that a great way to start the week? As if I don't have enough stress in my life already. Long story short, on top of being on "probation," I am living with my parents--one of which [my mom] hates the world and lets everyone know it, and the other [my dad] is trying to ween himself off of oxy which hes been taking for his shoulder since december==who hate each other pretty much all the time, and I have no friends in the area, not to mention free time away from work or home just for myself. I have always tried my hardest to keep my work life and personal life separate, but after today it all hit me. I had a mini breakdown while talking to the head tech. I feel bad because she thought it was just work-related. I didn't have the strength to tell her about my personal life. Anyways, hopefully things with get better. I figure the only thing that will make it worse is losing my job, so it can't get much worse. So if anyone out there has any advice, feel free to pass it along. Thanks in advance!

The Longest Post

I can't believe that it's been almost 3 months since my last post. Apparently I don't know how to keep up with my new year's resolutions :P Anyways, it has been a pretty crazy 3 months. Yes, I know that is no excuse, but it's all I got. So, in March, I celebrated my sister's birthday and Taffy's birthday, all in the same weekend! Taffy has a ball opening her own presents (go figure, she's a dog). She would be happy shredding open nothing, as long as it was wrapped in paper. Although, it does help if there is a yummy treat or bone inside. She went crazy over her beef knee cap. She didn't even want to let me take off the plastic wrapper; she ripped it off on her own! My sister liked opening her presents too, but not with quite as much enthusiasm. Then again, she didn't have something as exciting as a beef knee cap or jar of peanut butter. Also in March, my dad was finally able to start therapy with his shoulder. It wasn't going to well though due to swelling and lack of motion. He is doing a lot better now, 4 months post-surgery.



April is when the real excitement started: my first month as a CVT paired with a vet. It was pretty stressful and hectic as well. I hadn't dealt with surgeries since my internship in the fall, so I wasn't very confident. Luckily, there was only 1 surgery each week with the exception of the last week when we had 2. It was a nice and easy transition, and they all went well. It was mostly spays and neuters, with one declaw. Of course there were about 4 dentals each week, but I couldn't help with those. In addition to the surgeries each week, there were 3 days of appointments each week. The vet I was paired with for April is the newest vet to the clinic. She's been out of school for about 2 years, so she doesn't have quite the clientel as the other 3 vets. Therefore, some days were definately slower than the average. However, it was a nice transition to the tech side vs. patient coordinator. I did miss working up front though. It was weird not dealing with the clients all the time. It was definately nice not having to worry about the phones though :)



Besides my life at work, there was the last Wild game of the season. Sadly, we were one loss away from going to the play-offs. But we still had a good season. As far as the Stanley Cup goes, there is always next year. A week later was also the last Swarm game of the season. It wasn't are best season, but still a great game to watch. Go lacrosse! In mid-April, I had the luxury to celebrate my great-aunt's 90th birthday, which was a surprise party. Whoever thought surprising a 90-year-old woman has some gutts. It was a very laid-back party, and it was nice to see everyone.



May soon followed, which meant I had survived my first month being paired with a vet. I admit, I was a little unsure after the stress of surgery day each week. I must have paid more attention in school than I thought! So, in May, I was paired with another vet, which just happened to be the boss man as well. Nothing like adding more stress to my work day! It was exciting to see all of the exotics. My favorite exotic case this month was the neuter of a sugar glider. It took a whole 30 seconds, but it was exciting. Normally when a neuter is quick, such as a cat neuter, you simply gas the animal down after giving premeds to calm nerves. Due to the small size of a sugar glider, we put his entire body in the mask! And with a small cauterization from the laser, the sugar glider was neutered. It was a challenge calculating pain meds for the little rodent as well. The other exciting exotic was a turtle in pre-shell rot stages. Otherwise it was basic nail trims, wing trims, and beak trims on birds.

And now it is June, which means I'm half-way through my first doctor rotation at the clinic. Time has gone by so fast! Anyways, the first day has gone well with the new doctor. We saw a 14 week old puppy today that has been coughing nonstop for a few weeks. Antibiotics haven't helped at all, so we needed to do chest films. His owner has been having a rough time and couldn't afford it, so he surrendered the puppy. After taking the chest films, his lungs look horrible. We also found a foreign body in his stomach; dr is thinking a rock. The lab puppies really will eat anything ;). Anyways, we put him on fluids tonight. Tomorrow we will either induce vomiting or go in for exploratory. Should be an exciting day tomorrow either way.

Happy Birthday To ME!

I admit, it's been a week since my birthday, but it's been CRAZY. I haven't had time to blog since then. So, I was lucky enough to have the day off from both jobs on my big day. The plan was to drive up to the cities to get K since she doesn't have a car, but that didn't really go as planned. She was going to catch the light-rail to MOA, and I would meet her there. We'd shop for a little bit before heading back home. What really happened: she slept through her alarm (go figure) and I had to drive an extra hour to pick her up. It's a good thing she's my bestest friend and worth that extra drive haha I admit, I was NOT very happy about spending almost 6 hours of my birthday in my car, but it was nice being able to celebrate with her. Especially since I hardly ever get to see her anymore.

So after joining up with my parents, we headed over to BWWs to hold the reservation. My aunt also meeted us there when she got off work. I started off with a blue hawaiian, which is the equivilent to my first cocktail over in Germany, the swimming pool. And it was yummy! My sister and bro-in-law joined us a little later, as well as some family friends and co-workers. I also enjoyed a peppermint patty shot. I had a b-52 shot, but it was not good. grand marne and baileys are icky, and even worse when combined! I still tried it. After all, what better way to know what I like and don't like. A random guy from the bar bought me a shot of jack daniels, which I passed on to a friend of mine. I do not like jack, even if it's free. I also had a tropical mojito, which was delicious! Can you tell I like rum? I have decided I'm a rum girl, so now you'll know why the rum is gone :P After the bar, we headed back to my place and played rummy while drinking champagne. I just happen to win, maybe cuz it was my birthday, or maybe cuz I'm just that good.

Saturday wasn't quite as exciting, but still fun. My mom and I went to cici's for dinner, which was amazing. I have always wanted to go, and now that one FINALLY came to roch, I can! My favs were the spinach 'n cheese pizza and the mac 'n cheese pizza. Although, it was all really good. After cici's, we went to play bingo. A couple of my friends came down from Wisc since her birthday was a week before mine. You get to play for free during the month of your birthday, so we both played for free. It was great! Even though it was her husband that won, it was still fun. The rest of the week has been spent working. It's nice being full-time, but I feel like I have no time for myself anymore. I guess I should just be happy I have a job. :)

Time to Enter the Real World

I was recently informed that once of the technicians at the clinic is moving to Decorah and transferring to the vet clinic there. I was sad when I heard the news, and I'm going to miss her a lot. However, this means that there will be an opening for a full-time technician. I was approached a couple weeks ago about being full-time as a patient coordinator (receptionist), and I accepted this offer with great enthusiasm. After all, how can I say no to more money and more hours with the economy the way it is?

Yesterday, I was approached again by the boss and technician supervisor. Jokingly, I thought that I was in trouble. Of course it was just the opposite. I was receiving a type of promotion. Instead of becoming a full-time pc, I will be a full-time technician! And I will be entering the normal rotation! Starting in April, I will be with a doctor. I am so excited! But there is a little part of me that is scared. Since I haven't been out of school for very long, I'm still somewhat intimidated and not very comfortable with anesthesia. Luckily, I will have some time to get used to it, but we'll see if I'm ever fully comfortable. Either way, I will now be full-time. Not very many people can say that they were hired on at the clinic where they interned AND immediately after. So many of my friends are still looking for jobs after interning. I got lucky. Now let's just hope I don't mess it up.

Lover's Weekend

So normally this weekend would have been spent with that "special someone." But I'm not luckily enough to have one, so I worked this weekend (go figure). After work on Saturday, I took Taffy over to Petco for Valentine pictures. Sadly, Bacon wasn't up for a car ride or staying at work for the morning. Anyways, Taffy and I ventured to Petco. She got her picture taken and a heart-covered bandanna. The picture came in the form of a valentine that says "Be Mine." It was a great valentine present from my dog, even if I had to bring her there to get it done and pay for it. It was still very cute. The rest of the day wasn't too exciting until dinner. Since my dad hasn't been up to leaving the house since his surgery, I decided to make a festive dinner for my parents. It consisted of heart pasta chicken alfredo, ruby red gelatin, and pink bubbly punch. I must say, it was delicious! And that's not just because I made it. We had heart cookies and choco-cherry cupcakes for dessert, in addition to chocolate-covered love fortune cookies. My mom and I decided to keep it festive the next morning: pink chocolate chip pancakes and pink eggs. And of course, pink milk! So, sure, it would have been nice to have that "special someone" to spend time with this weekend. But, you don't need one to have a good valentine's day. All you need is people, or animals, that love you and love to spend time with you. Hope you all have a good weekend!

2 Weeks of Chaos

It's been a pretty crazy last couple of weeks. It would have all began 2 weeks ago on Saturday. Once I was done with work, I headed up to the cities for a Swarm game. First, I met up with a school friend at her brand new house with her new puppy. I would have been on time, except for mapquest decided to tell me to turn right on a street that could only be turned left on. I went around the block a few times before calling her, and turns out I was supposed to go left. I was actually 3 hours down. They could see my car the whole time. That's mapquest for you! The house is really nice, and the puppy is so cute! Taffy will have yet another friend once we move up there. The Swarm game was awesome! It was for a classmate's birthday. We were up on club level, so not too close to the field. However, we all got autograph passes to go on the field after the game to meet & greet some of the players. Sadly, we didn't win. Although, if the refs would have counted 2 of our goals, we would have won. We ran out of challenges. It was still a good game, and it was fun meeting the players.

The next exciting event would have the the following Monday, which was the beginning of the Chinese New Year. Most of you know that I am not Chinese, so why would I celebrate do you ask? Because it's a great excuse to make Chinese food! And an excuse to have a party! Even though it was just my parents and I, it was a nice dinner. I made Chinese chicken salad, which was amazing, and wontons, which were just as yummy. There were Chinese chocolates (haystacks) and fortune cookies for dessert. It was a very tasty dinner. Just like the Chinese do, we opened our windows to let the bad from last year out and the good from the new year in. It was pretty cold outside, since it was in the below-zero stretch, so the windows were only open for a matter of seconds. It's the thought that counts.

There were more long days of working, and then we reached the superbowl. Like every other Sunday, I had to work at the clinic. However, I only missed the first quarter and part of the second quarter of the game, so not too many commercials. I was just happy to make it home in time for half-time. Afterall, I don't care too much for the actual game. I was cheering for Arizone though, since it was their first time. The steelers are good, but it's not fair that they one again. They have already won 5 times; did they really need a 6th win? Apparently. Oh well, it was a good game, and Arizona put up a good fight. The following day, I started fulltime in place of the tech on maternity leave. She had her baby almost 2 weeks early, and that means more money for me :)

And that brings us to this weekend. Last night was the annual tree burning party at a family friend's house. It's a night of yummy food and a huge fire of Christmas trees and wooden pallets. There was barbaquesu, cowboy beans, noodle salads, cookies, brownies, and so much more. There was a really yummy fruit salad with grapes, cream cheese, vanilla yogurt, and walnuts. Someone else got lazy and bought strawberry cheesecake, which is fine with me cuz it was really good. Outside by the fire, there was a wooden swing chair. We got a really cute family picture, as well as one of just my parents.

Speaking of my parents, tomorrow is my dad's surgery on his shoulder. Some of you may remember, almost 2 months ago my dad fell on the ice and tore his rotator cuff. In other words, he tore a tendon in his shoulder. The MRI revealed possibly a second torn tendon, but we'll find that out during the surgery tomorrow. I admit, I'm a little worried just because there is always a risk with anesthesia. The surgery is pretty common, but I know he will be in a lot of pain afterwards. However, they do say that it gets worse before it gets better. Let's hope that all goes well.

Boards

My certification exams were this past weekend. After reviewing the powerpoints all week, I felt prepared. The national exam was on Friday about a 2-hour drive away. Being the paranoid driver that I am, I allowed a little more than 2 1/2 hours to make the drive. I was afraid of traffic and accidents with it being a snowy Friday morning. Luckily, there was no traffic. I arrived an hour early for the test, so I have extra study time. But of course I didn't study cuz my brain hurt. I met up with some classmates, and we caught up before the test. According to the e-mail, check-in was at 8am and the test was supposed to start about 8:45am. Due to slow people and proctors, we didn't start the exam until 9:25am. 225 questions later, I handed in my exam and headed to IHOP for lunch. We had 4 hours, but I was done in a little over 2 hours. IHOP was really yummy, and cheap since I had coupons.

I returned on Saturday to take the state exam. Unlike the national exam, this one was in familiar territory. It was held at my school with my teachers at the proctors. It was more relaxing, and it went on time. This test was only 100 questions, lasting about an hour. Instead of being the typical bubble test, it was timed over a projection. Each question was on the screen for 30 seconds, and only appeared once. There was no time for second guessing, so it was a good thing that most of it had pictures. I'm thinking I did okay on both exams. However, I won't hear back for 6-8 weeks. In other words, it's either going to be a good birthday present or a bad birthday present. I'm crossing my fingers for at least one good score!

The Power of 3

Most of you know that I have the big certification exam this coming weekend, so the plan was to spend all day today, tomorrow, and Thursday studying for it. After all, I didn't spend $200 for nothing. However, when I went to work yesterday, I was informed that a coworker of mine had a family emergency. She had to leave Sunday to go to Montana for the week. Because I am the new person who gets all the crappy hours, they decided to schedule me to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, before they even asked if I could! So of course I explain that I planned to study for the exam, but they wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Finally I was able to compromise into being allowed to bring some notes with me to study when it's slow. I guess it's better than nothing.

Anyways, the day was long yesterday. Due to the weather, one doctor had to leave early afternoon. With the other doctor in surgery til 2, there was only one doctor on. Luckily the weather caused a pretty slow afternoon. Around 4:30, two clients called in to see if we had time to see their sick animals. I said yes and set one up for each doctor around 5. One decided to show up around 5;10, and the other around 5:20. The clinic closes at 6, so right away I knew that I'd be there later. However, I was thinking maybe 6:30 at the absolute latest. Boy was I off. I didn't clock out until 7:10! That's an hour and ten minutes AFTER we closed. It was retarded and annoying, but at least I got paid for it.

So it took me another ten or so minutes just to walk to Buck surrounded by drifts and find him under all the snow. 25 minutes or so later, I finally make it home. By then, I'm not even hungry due to a very intense migraine accompanied by sinus pressure. I decided to make a salad since I knew I had to eat something. During dinner, I was informed that my aunt passed away earlier that day. To make matters worse, I find out that the funeral will be sometime on Friday, the same day as my national certification exam. So not only have I not seen her since October, but I won't even be able to say goodbye at the funeral.

This morning I woke up planning to study all morning and go to work this afternoon. While eating breakfast, I am informed that my great-aunt passed away last night. I can't even remember that last time that I saw her. Once again, her funeral will either be on Friday or Saturday. Either way, I won't be able to go due to the exam. It sucks. Part of me wants to skip the exam to be with my family, but then I will be out $200 because there are absolutely no refunds. So I am forced to pick the test over my family, Now I'm just waiting for death #3 to come around, since they always seem to travel in groups of 3...

Everyone's Doing the Fish

So I finally got my new cell phone yesterday! I've been waiting quite some time to get rid of the free phone I got a couple years ago. Since the 2-year contract is up this month, I went to Alltell to upgrade yesterday. I got the new LG camera phone, so I can now take pictures and all that fun stuff. I love the phone! It's so fun and light-weight and exciting! Then again, most new things are fun and exciting. I love it.

Also yesterday, I went to see Reel Big Fish and Streetlight Manifesto in concert. It was amazing! I've seen both in concert before, with the last time about a year and a half ago. I didn't recognize too many songs by Streetlight Manifesto this time around, but Reel Big Fish played a lot of their old stuff. I new every single song that they played! We had a really good spot too, not too far from the stage and just the right angle to see everyone. I have a great spot to watch Scott the dork too. It was a great concert, and of course ended with a 3-song encore.

After the concert, we went to get half-price appetizers at Applebees. It wasn't the best supper, but it tasted good and was cheap. Then we went geocaching; it was my first time. The first couple were still hidden in the snow, so we headed to a different town on the way home. I found my first geocache in Coates. It wasn't very exciting: a pack of crayons and a keychain. However, there was a hockey stick and puck just underneath the cache, so I took that as my prize instead. A couple hours and a few caches later, I made it home for [half of] a goodnight's sleep.

Taffy, the ADD Dog

Taffy had her annual check-up today, and she was pretty darn excited to go to work with me. She was so excited that she forgot to poop this morning, so I had no sample to bring in to have checked for parasites. It's a good thing that I work tomorrow, so it can be checked tomorrow. Anyways, once the doctor entered the room, she decided to have a little excited tinkle on the floor. I was hoping it wouldn't happen, and I thought I was safe after she said "hi" to 6 people before the doctor. Oh well, we're used to that at the clinic. She got her physical exam on the table, and all checked-out normal. She's even lost over 4 pounds since last year! She weighed in at 29.5 lbs, which is 4.2 lbs less than last January! Now she's only 2.5lbs overweight. I guess all that running around the backyard is helping her out. Luckily, she only got 2 shots this time, bordetella and lepto, and she didn't even flinch. She didn't care about her blood draws so much either, but I was told that she jumped off the countertop, aka about 4 feet up from the floor. She's kinda psycho that way. It was a good vet visit. No ear infections, no plaque/tartar on her teeth, and a decrease in weight. So looks like I have a healthy dog again. :)

Lets Play HOCKEY!

So I went to the Wild game this past Saturday, and it was a special event. We got going early that afternoon in the van; there were 7 of us total. The weather wasn't the greatest. We were lucky enough to have a nice sheet of ice falling before any snow came down to hide it. The two roomies somehow managed to create a drinking came on the way up. Every third car in ditch got one drink, as did every cop car. Snow plows got 2 drinks for safety. Why you would drink more for safety, I'm not sure. It's kinda ironic. Anyways, they had fun with it, and they were pretty fun afterwards. We saw about 37 cars in the dirch throughout the entire 1 1/2 hour drive.

Before the game, we ate at the usual location, Eagle Street. It was packed! Luckily we got there about 2 hours before the game started cuz there was a 40 min wait. Finally when we got called, we started following the hostess to our table. She was heading towards the kitchen, so I was thinking a special chef's table, which would have been pretty sweet. However, turns out there are stairs in the kitchen leading to a basement. There's more bathrooms and a complete bar in addition to the extra seating downstairs. It was so crazy! We had no idea that it existed, so it was pretty sweet. Plus, since we were that close to the kitchen, our food arrived within 10 mins of ordering. So no worries after waiting for 40 mins. We made it across the street in no time for puck drop.

The game was pretty boring at first. The entire first period wasn't very exciting. Finally during the second period we got some powerplays accompanied with goals. Not to mention, the 2 goals were within seconds of each other! It was amazing!! Although, the red wings decided to tie it up 2-2 in the third period. Sudden death overtime was uneventful other than a fight. Next up was a shoot out, aka my first LIVE shoot out!! Even though everyone in front of me stood up and I had to was a majority of it on the screen and we didn't win, it was still exciting to see my first shoot out. Now all I need to see is a live hat trick, or any hat trick for that matter. I've heard about them, but never seen one. Last chance this season will be the last home game in April. If not, there's always next season. Let's go wild!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone! It's a time of new beginnings and new adventures. I have a few resolutions for the new year. I suppose I can't say that I will try to post more cuz that was my resolution for last year. This year, I first plan to work out more. I recently joined a new work-out club with lots to offer. I forgot how good it makes me feel to work-out, so I am going to aim to hit the gym at least 3 times a week. My other resolution for the year is to declutter my life. I came across a book last month at the library by Peter Walsh (the guy on TLC). It helped open my eyes to see that I have too much stuff that I don't use or don't need. The plan is to get rid of clothes that I never wear, books that I never read, and so on. I have already done the first step of decluttering and got rid of 2 boxes of clothes alone! Hopefully it continues working as it should so I can declutter my room and my life. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted on how it goes. Happy new year everyone! I hope this year is better than the last, and wish you the best in 2009.