pressure front

There has been a Winter Weather Alert on Milwaukee since Monday afternoon, and it goes until tomorrow afternoon. There is a Blizzard Warning with Lake Effect Snow in effect until Wednesday afternoon. It is predicted we will end up with anywhere from 20 to 28 inches of snow over the next three days, which will cause snow drifts anywhere from 4 to 10 feet. This picture was taken as I left for class at 12:45, from the 3rd story landing of my apartment building, out the front window. Usually, I can see all the way down to the lake, which is two miles away. Today, you can very faintly make out the Shroeder/Cramer Complex of Health Sciences, which is four blocks away.
In physics, my professor said that LECTURE WILL BE CANCELED on Wednesday if the Blizzard Alert is still in place, regardless of whether or not Marquette calls a snow day.

This is what it looked like coming out of the athletic training room today at 4pm on my way to Medical Ethics. (PS. My professors likes to watch documentaries on STRING THEORY. I.Want.To.Be.His.Best.Friend.)
Milwaukee, your "blizzard" does not impress me.
You have let me down.

bla bla bla blatty bla bla

Iowa was so much fun!
Ok, well, the track meet itself was fun. Even just being at a meet again brought back so many good memories from high school... and made me really miss it. As I am not board certified yet, I am only considered an Athletic Training Student in the presence of a certified AT, so Dave Leigh, who is also one of my professors, traveled with us. He's basically the most awesome person in the world, and told me at the start of the meet that he was just there to supervise and that he really wanted Alicia and I to run the show. So I took charge and tracked down the head AT of Iowa and got our barrings with her, I was telling our team where to go and where we would be if they needed us, I was taping ankles and giving out ice and doing evals, I was sprinting across the field house to get to the girl who pulled her hamstrings in the 400 meter dash and catching one of our girls as she passed out after her leg of a relay.
Granted, one ankle, one hamstring, one shin, one fainter, and about 50 billion bags of ice was ALL that I did during the 9 hour meet, but I still feel pretty good about my abilities as a future athletic trainer right now. Alicia seemed so hesatant to do anything without glancing at Dave first, and he mentioned to me how he was impressed with how professionally and calmly I handled everything - example of:

Girl walks up to where we are sitting looking... well... I just know that "I'm about to ask for something" look.
Me: "What can I get'cha?"
Her: "I think I'm going to pass out."
Alicia: *freezes*
Me: *Jumps up and gets behind her, hooking my elbows under her armpits*
Dave: "Ok, just go ahead and sit down and put your head between your knees."
Her: "okay..." *eyes rolling in and out of focus*
Me: "Hey, I got you. We're just going to sit down nice and slow ok. Go ahead and lean back on me ok?"
Her: *leans as I slide her down onto the ground*
Her: *is very pale*
Me: "Alicia, slide over our ice cooler and help me put her legs up on it."
Her: *is back* "Oh man this is embarassing."
Me: "Nope, you are totally fine, I'm going to put this bag of ice under your back and one on your forehead ok? Then we're just going to sit here as long as you need ok?" *I ask her about fluids, which are fine, if she is diabetic, she's not, and food. She hasn't eaten since breakfast at 8:30am, it is now 4:00pm and she just ran a 0:58 400meter dash, which is hella' fast*
Me: "Here's an orange. I want you to eat this ok."
Her: *eats orange. Feels better. Sits up. Eats a cookie. Feels much better.*
Dave: "Michelle, I'm impressed, you handled that very well."

Bam! Roasted!

Then I got back to Marquette at about 12:30am, and after not being able to sleep at all (but watching Easy A) on the bus. I got back to my apartment thinking I needed to do laundry after soccer (a mere 8 hours away) to find the note "Laundry room Closed" on the laundry room door. Awesome. I am wearing my LAST pair of clean underwear. I check to see if I can get into the laundry room, which I can, but there are currently no washers in it. Fuck. Off.
So I had to pack up two weeks worth of laundry and haul it to a friend's house.

Now I'm back in my room wondering if 8:40pm is too early to turn in for the night.

So if you attach a carrot with a potato pealer, you get very thin strips of carrot that can be used like lettuce in a BBQ chicken, rice, lentil, and salsa salad.

Yesterday, one of the soccer boys threw a roll of pre-wrap at me.
While he was riding the exercise bike.
While he was talking to another soccer player.
While I was explaining an exercise to someone.
While we were on opposite ends of the athletic training room.
While there were people walking in between us.
AND I CAUGHT IT.
Underhand.
Down by my right knee.
Without looking.
I was pretty damn impressed with myself, let me tell you. One of the other soccer guys who say it was all, "Damn. That was pretty cool." So I told him not to swear in the training room, but thank you for the complement.

I'm going to IOWA today for a two-day track meet. Granted, the 5 hour bus ride there, and back, is going to suck, but when I tell a future employer that I have traveled with the Track Team, and not only that, but OVERNIGHT and as an UNDERGRAD, he or she will be impressed.
Plus, I like watching track, and unless someone falls off the pole vault, I don't to worry too much about any traumatic injuries. The most the track people ever ask for is for a band-aid or to roll out their calves (see: pain and torture) after they run. Easy. As. Pie.

Bleh

Snow is bleh.

I need to clean my apartment. Like, now.

I need a nap.

I need to read a lot of stuff.

I need to go buy a book.

Salsa is delicious yes?

Hurray for further expanding my basic medical knowledge! We're currently learning about the heart, and a disorder called Sudden Cardiac Death. That's right. One minute you are fine running up and down the basketball court, the next minute you have dropped dead. In most cases, this is due to something being structurally wrong with the heart. The only problem is that in about 85% of the cases, DEATH is the first symptom (this includes no family history of heart problems).
It's kind of scary stuff. I hope I never have to put the skill of using an AED to the test.
Tomorrow in lab we are listening to each others' hearts! I'm excited for this lab, I love the way a heart sounds!

I called my mom to ask her about my dad's heart (he has Mitral Valve Prolapse which occasionally causes an arrhythmia with heavy exercise) and when she answered the phone my mom is all "MICCHHHEEEELLLLLLEEEEE!!!!~~!!!~!~!~!" and in the background I hear about 7 other women going, "Oh it's MICHHHEEEELLLLLEEEE! MICHEELLLLEEE!! MY BEEELLLLLLLLLLL!!"
Ummm... apparently once a month a group of 50-ish women get together eat dessert for dinner, drink a little bit too much wine, and call it "book club."
But my mom also told me that I should start coming to book club this summer because some of the other ladies bring their daughters and she wants to show me off. Which is fine. I'll let everyone know how big of a deal I am and get tipsy with my mom's friends. Maybe it will like, improve our relationship, or something.

I'm a girl!

It's kind of ridiculous how much I love these boots. But I do! They are sexy and empowering and I just feel like a total badass when I wear them. (which I want to do everyday) However, the next time I get the urge to pull on high heels and tromp around in the slush and snow to and from school and all over campus, tell me no. My feet are freaking killing me! I don't understand how some women do this all day everyday, like, the balls of my feet are going to be so sore tomorrow!!
I still just fucking love these boots though.

I forgot to mention yesterday something my ethics teacher said. We were talking about the moral theory of Utilitarianism, and how it would apply to saving a drowning child. Good: Life saved, family happy, bla bla bla. Bad: (and here I quote) "Wet socks. Which is the single most vile thing on the planet."
Oh my god I've found my soulmate.
He also posted something online about how inner city public schools are starting to look like prisons and that people are starting to worry about the influence this has on children. When the zombies come, those people will be eating their words and scrambling for a spot in an elementary school where you can very effectively lock people out.

snow

You know, as far as Mondays go... Well, today was pretty ok.
First I woke up from a really odd dream involving my great grandma's house and my calves/arches DID NOT feel like they were going to rip when I stood up. Usually they do, because I usually forget to stretch them out before I get out of bed.
Had toast for breakfast. Mmmmm toast. I ran out of butter about a week before the semester ended last year, and didn't buy more until yesterday, I missed toast.
Realized I would not need coffee to get me through physics lecture. I like to think that means I'm adjusting to getting up everyday at 7am rather than noon.
Did well on my Physics quiz.
Got out of my Exercise Prescription/EKG lab early so I was able to go back to my place and put some chicken in my crock pot. I love my crock pot by the way. All you do is throw everything in there at once, set it on low, and then leave it there for 8 hours while you do other things.
Made myself some salt and vinegar flavored sauted vegetables for lunch. They almost tasted like the potato chips, except healthier and not like potatoes.
Went to the training room and had all my soccer guys say they missed me over break and are sad I'm not working with them anymore because their new group of students doesn't know how to do anything. It made me feel pretty loved.
Went to medical Ethics and OH MY GOD MY TEACHER HAS A MOHAWK. He's 30 and working on his PhD or something, swears a lot, and waves his arms around when he talks. He kind of reminds me of my cousin Nathan and Matt Mabey. I think this class is going to be awesome!
Got home and checked on my chicken and Mmmmm! it smells so good! I pulled it out of the crock pot to shred and it was just FALLING APART on the fork before I could even get it to the plate!
Currently eating my chicken. I used the pulled pork sauce recipe from Jill and it's pretty freaking good. Not as good as the pork, but chicken was cheaper than pork yesterday.
Now, I'm going to nap for an hour or so then go to the gym, get a great work out in, and get totally ripped.