How has everyone been doing? Come pull up a chair and enjoy some [virtual] coffee with me (hosted by Coco at Got2Run4Me)!
It’s weird to think that there are just 2 months left to this year!
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, I’d tell you that as of last night, I’d had about 15 hours of sleep since Tuesday. I have not had a single drop of coffee. How I still managed to spend most of my 14-16-hour shifts still standing, awake, and mostly alert…I’m still not sure, but I think I have the beginnings of a cold. :[ Lack of sleep/food and being around sick people for most of the day probably hasn’t helped this very much. (For the record, my shifts are actually only supposed to be 12 hours, and the fact that I stay longer is entirely self-induced.)
Isaac is doing his Internal Medicine rotation in the same hospital right now and is interested in Emergency Medicine, so he comes down to the ER a lot to visit and to take care of the patients we admit. We frequently tag-team patients in an effort to help out our preceptors (or at least not slow them down), and I’ve gotten to do/learn a lot so far. I’ve seen everything from hip fractures (tripping over pet dog :[ ) to Kentuckybola (people who get a mild fever and think they have Ebola) to drug overdoses. We also saw a woman snorting powder off of a table in the cafeteria on the security camera tape. (Never a dull moment, right?)
I’ve gotten way more comfortable with suturing! Remember how I almost passed out on my first day? I think I was probably super dehydrated then. I’ve since sutured up someone’s cheek (drunk altercation that led to her being stabbed in the face), performed a digital block and sutured up a mangled thumb (sawing accident), and one other face (due to a drunken fall; this was the worst of the 3 and took 20 stitches, but considering that we at one point could see pretty much see her skull, it’s been vastly improved). I love that I get so much hands-on experience, and it’s been awesome getting to hang out with Isaac too!
I slept in the student/resident lounge from Tuesday through Thursday night because we still had didactics every morning at 7 a.m.
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, I’d tell you that it’s actually been a good while since I’ve done anything to celebrate Halloween. I’m fairly uninspired when it comes to making up costumes and this year wasn’t too different (especially since it’s my first night off). I opted out of two parties and was dubbed “the second worst phone-answerer ever” by Mike (in my defense, I was working).
But! A bunch of us went to the famous Pumpkin House in Kenova, WV last week to help carve pumpkins! There are over 3000 pumpkins there, and most had already been carved, so we finished off the last of them. I may never be able to carve pumpkins by hand anymore. It’s so much easier with a jigsaw! :O
We found our band pumpkin! (Our band name is “The Vagal Tones.”)
I guess no one wanted to try carving out the dragon for the Targaeryens.
I liked the pineapple one!
The disembodied hands levitating underneath the pumpkins belong to Isaac. He was trying to help me light up a couple of the pumpkins I carved with our cell phone flashlights. :O
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, I’d tell you that the autumn here is absolutely beautiful. It even makes the cold slightly more bearable. These pictures were taken outside my gym!
If we were having coffee/tea this morning, I’d tell you that it appears that I’ve turned Lewisburg into my “other Davis.” Back in the day, I’d sneak back to Davis while my parents were on vacation to volunteer at PHAC, visit friends and professors, teach piano, and participate in research studies to pay for the gas it took to get there. It worked out well, because I’d pack as many activities/things on my to-do list as humanly possible into each trip to justify the travel time/cost. I’m employing the same philosophy here too!
- Volunteer at Please Save A Cat & hang out with Linda!
- Pick up Princess Muffin
- Help out at the soup kitchen
- Hospital Day!
- Visit church friends!
- Visit Larry & Trey!
- Print a billion things at school + perhaps get my laptop fixed
- Return library books + borrow more
- Hopefully earn some money at the ring girl competition!
In case you’re wondering, Princess Muffin is my foster kitty from Please Save A Cat.
A couple weeks ago, the sports promoter for said event from above contacted me to see if I’d be interested in participating in the ring girl contest again. I had a lot of fun there last year, and since I was actually planning on being back that weekend anyway…who says no to free stuff and potential free money to throw towards my student loans?
Upon hearing that I’d set a couple state records in powerlifting, he asked if I’d be interested in fighting too. I entertained the idea for a couple days, but with less than 2 weeks to train and no prior experience, I felt like I’d be at a severe disadvantage. (I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that an opponent who’s willing to drive 4 hours round-trip and happens to have a fight gym in the town that she lives in probably has at least a bit of experience. Just maybe.) That being said, I might enter both somewhere in the near future, because badassery points would be full of awesome!
The ring girl contest is essentially a popularity contest, and since I’m from out of town/refuse to tell anyone from school about it, I’m going it alone again. Thus, the chances of winning first place are very slim, but it’d be pretty awesome, because I’d be able to split my winnings with my favorite animal shelters. <3. That being said, however, 2nd-4th place would still feed me for 2-4 months, so I’m a-okay with that too. I hope the super-cute kid (aka my biggest/most adorable fan ever) from last year is there again!
Crud, I was in way better shape last year. D: The combination of no sleep, not much [nutritious] food and long work hours really aren’t agreeing with me.
Sign up before tomorrow at midnight EST!
Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful month! :] Stay tuned on the first Saturday of December for the next coffee date!
- What’s the longest amount of time you’ve gone without sleep?
- What’s your favorite fall activity?
- Favorite thing about fall?
- Do you have any festivals in your town throughout the year? What are they?
- Favorite cookie?
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Oh Farrah, I hope you get some sleep soon! The longest I’ve gone without sleep is approximately 3 days, all 3 of which were leading up to my dissertation’s deadline. I think I probably slept for a week afterwards- I remember being so sleep deprived that I just couldn’t function and was shaking all over. Never again! Your pumpkin carving sounds super fun and your fall photos are gorgeous! I love going on walks around this time of the year because it’s so beautiful everywhere. Have a great weekend!
genevieve @ gratitude & greens recently posted…Friday.
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Thank you! Ohhh man, major major props to you! I don’t think I could survive doing a dissertation. x_x But I definitely feel ya on the no sleep! I’ve somewhat caught up (aka I slept for 6 hours last night instead of 3.5). It was glorious!
I really want to walk through the park here one of these days! I’ve driven past it a couple times and it’s absolutely beautiful, but it’s so, so cold outside. :'(
I hope you have an awesome rest of the weekend as well! :]
those are some very cool looking pumpkins! I can’t believe you have time to blog with your schedule! Thanks for linking up with us today for the coffee date. We will have it all organized next month with a new graphic look forward to seeing you there!
Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner recently posted…November Ultimate Coffee Date
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It was awesome to see so many of em’! I definitely do a ton of scheduling-a-billion-posts-into-the-future when I have pockets of spare time, heh heh heh.
Yay! Glad to hear! This is one of my favorite linkups, so I was really sad to see it go. :[ It sounds like you have enough hosts already, but if you ever need another one, I’d be interested! :P
I’m glad you found the link-up! I think it’s funny that you sutured up a sawing injury but still think it’s great to use a saw to carve pumpkins — I guess you know how to repair any damage. :-)
Coco (@Got2Run4Me) recently posted…November Virtual Coffee Date
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Thanks for starting one up! :]
It’s so much faster and neater that way! :O (At least for me. :x I’m not sure that I’ve ever really tried carving anything much more intricate than a face back in the days of hand-carving…)
I’m definitely getting more comfortable with sewing people up! I did warn everyone to please be careful though because I didn’t want all of em’ appearing in the ER later. Can’t sew em’ all up at the same time! :P
Wow! You are so productive. I am envious. I cannot go without sleep for too long or my body will rebel, but about 28 hours, which was the worst mistake I ever made. My favorite cookie is chocolate chip, which is unfortunate cause I am allergic but it is so good. Well hope you get more used to sutures. Thanks for sharing.
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The nurses have been kicking me out lately because they’re worried I’m gonna die from lack of sleep. :x It’s probably a good thing (defense mechanism!) that your body starts to rebel after a while with no sleep! I know it’s not good for me, but there’s just so much I want to learn! I got to sew up someone’s scalp yesterday and she didn’t feel pain through the entire process! :]
Chocolate chip is definitely a classic! Are there any substitutions that’d kinda taste like it but still be nickel-free??