Why, yes, that Policeman IS on a horse!

There is a police... office (?) on the first floor of the apartment building across the street from my building. I say office because it is no where near big enough to be a station and it looks like they just have a single desk in a waiting room type area in font. And apparently they like to ride their ponies there.

Today in my Patient Management lab we got to play in wheelchairs for two hours, which included an obstacle course in which not only did you have to maneuver through, our lab instructors got to pick if you only had arm control or if you could only use the right/left side of your body to move the chair. It was hard!

Tomorrow I start my cadaver lab. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. My mom is sending me a pair of scrubs to wear, which is very nice, cause the TAs said whatever you wear in there will be ruined by the end of the semester.

Sleepy time.

First day of scchhoooooooooool. Patient Management with Laurie (I'm Dr. Laurie Kontny but call me Laurie cause Mrs. Kontny is... I dunno... my MOTHER IN LAW) is going to be interesting, tomorrow we start wheelchairs and patient transport in lab. There's a lot about what the profession of Physical Therapy is, and I get the feeling lecture will be a lot about our scope of practice and the more legal/ethical side of things.

Right after that, it's an hour of Culture and Disability with Dr. Solbrush (or whatever), who wishes to be addressed as such. I'll bet you already know which lecture is going to be enjoyable. I don't know if Doc S just sounds like this, or if he is TRYING WAY TO FUCKING HARD but it sounds like he's so concerned with sounding like he is lecturing at a Graduate Level and so conscious of being beyond politically and grammatically that he seems to loose track of what he is actually saying. The man says "umm" and repeats himself way too much. Maybe he's nervous. Maybe he doesn't have the best people skills. Maybe that's just how he is. But man, I already hate listening to him speak.

Gross Anatomy with cadaver lab. Need I say more?! It's going to be great. Unfortunately we can't take pictures for medical privacy issues. So no pictures of my group's body's insides. :( :(

Good fucking Christ.

That's all.

*After financial aid.*

Back Porches

Well, this is the back of our building, looking at the 6 unit bundle that is to the north of the 6 unit bundle I am in. It's possible to get onto the roof from the northmost building, and I am very tempted to go over there if I ever have a day off (not likely) and try to even out the horrible farmer's tan I've developed over the past three weeks of football. The dress I'm wearing to Rachel and Brian's wedding is light and spaghetti strapish, and as proud as I was of my tan lines in high school at prom, I'd like to just look normal now.

Nichole brought her mini-fridge from the dorms to the apartment last year.

It's known as the Beer Fridge.

{COLLEGE!!}

Across the street at the Harp and Shamrock the bartender (Ted) often gives out free drinks. Nichole and Marie frequently showed up last year, and thus he knows them well. I've only been over there twice but he knows me now too. He looks kind of like a crack-head but he's not. He's actually pretty cool. Did I mention he gives me free Mike's Hard Black Cherry? It's my new favorite!

He also doesn't look at me weird when I order tequila and Sprite.

This is Jack. He's Marie's and is the most god-awful irritatingly loud thing on the planet. He also desperately needs to be reminded that he is loved and is generally a very cuddly cat. I like him much more than Phoebe, as I have yet to find him lying on my bed like he thinks he owns it. He's also easy to please. He just flops down on his side and is perfectly happy if all you do is rub him (none too gently either) with your foot. He gets all purry and goes nuts rubbing his face on the carpet and stretching out so you can get to his belly.

I've been letting him sit on my lap while I'm on the computer because he loves just having someone touch him, even if it is just my forearms resting on his back while I type. I don't know how much longer that will go on though, it makes me sneezy.

Speaking of my computer, last night my hard drive crashed. Again.

Apple gave me a new one. Again.

I lost everything that I had put on my computer since April 4th, but that is mostly just pictures (a bummer but not the end of the world) and some music (which I can reload when I come home in October).

Apple is on the awesome list for this though. I called this morning, they got me into the genius bar after football practice, put in a new hard drive and gave me a keyboard/cover in less than 45 minutes, and then didn't charge me for it.

Cool.

I miss my boyfriend.

It's my Daddy-o's birthday today. He's a pretty swell guy and I hope one day Drew will be as good a father to our children as he is to me. He's always been there with advice or strong arms to fold me up in; from when I was little and could snuggle into his chest on Saturday morning to now when I just need a hug. He can fix anything or any problem, and knows everything there is to know about everything. He's perfect. He's my dad.
And I have his chin.

I have the worst luck with glass.
Today I grabbed a mason jar that had broken and I didn't notice until I looked down and my entire palm was red. It was just a little cut, but the glass was sharp enough to make a very clean cut that just kept bleeding. It's stopped now, and it just kind of stings.
I haven't seen my own blood in a long time though. It was kind of interesting.


Tomorrow we've got two football games (JV and Varsity) at some school that's about an hour away. Molly said to be prepared for a 10-11 hour day, which isn't as intimidating as you would think. A whole lot of that is going to be sitting around, then taping people, then dealing with blood during the game, then injury evals, then riding home. Plus, Molly, Nichole, Mackenzie (student from Corcordia University), and Bailey (from UW-Milwaukee) are going on an AT outing to get lunch before the game. It'll be fun. We'll bond and ensure Tyler (also from UW-Milwaukee) feels outnumbered by all the estrogen when he starts coming for his clinical on Saturday.


Also, blood:

Since I have east-facing windows I have been woken up quite rudely by the sun every morning around 7. I try to go back to sleep, but the blinds are crap in these apartments, and so it only gets increasingly warm and bright in my room.
I'm hoping the posters block out enough light to keep it darker, and the white backs reflect enough to keep it cooler in my room tomorrow morning.
If it works, I'm giving myself 25 points for being resourceful.

Hello there. No I have not been shot because I live in Shit-Hole Milwaukee, nor have I been stabbed because I live on 22nd street. I'm just slacking.
Last week, everyday was the same. Wake up at 5:30am, leave at 6:00am, get to Homestead by 6:30am, tape and pre-practice for an hour, first practice, injury evals and snarffing lunch, second practice, wondering where all the people I told to get ice are, home by 3:00pm, True Blood, dinner, in bed by 9:00pm. Repeat.

All in all, I'm enjoying being at the High School. However, it's reminding me of why I'm going on to PT school afterwords, and making me really glad I decided not to stop next spring. Right now, I'm doing a lot, A LOT of acute injury evals; ankles, knees, shoulders, backs... and honestly, it's just not floating my boat. I mean, I enjoy it enough that I don't dread going to practice, but I enjoy the rehab aspect of things SO MUCH MORE, and that's something I don't really get to do a whole lot of at the high school level.
I haven't decided yet if it is because rehab is most of what I have done so far and I am comfortable with it, and that I keep encountering injuries that don't fit into the textbook description of what we learned, and it makes me feel incompetent that I don't know; or if it's because it's just not my thing. Either way, I know I've just got to just wait for it to grow on me like Marquette did in general.

Yesterday I went to the state fair. I got a bit sunburnt, more freckles, my first funnel cake, and looked at all the animals. Dairy cows are much larger than I thought they would be.

We finally got a shipment of supplies in today at Homestead. It was like Christmas, but instead of presents we got tape and bandaids and shoulder slings.
I was in charge of making sure the shipment matched the inventory list and then putting it away. It was great, I got to organize.

I was not aware of this before now, but I got good news today. Two-a-day practices only last until the end of this week, and then go to normal practice time of 2:30 -5:30pm. I only have to wake up super early tomorrow and Saturday then I get to sleep in! Yay! Sleep!
Once I get a list of days that we have events other than normal practice times, I'm going to try and get a few hours at the bookstore. Hopefully I will be able to work something out.

Kitchen

Today was a gorgeous day in Milwaukee. When I got up this morning (still feels obnoxiously early - will that ever change?) it was cold enough that all the humidity had condensed into dew on the grass, and it would have been perfect weather for jeans and a light sweater. By the time Nichole and I got to Homestead High, it had warmed up just to the point that I was comfortable in my t-shirt and shorts with OR without the light jacket I had.
So far it has not been uncomfortably hot at practice, and sunny enough that I believe that I am tanning very slowly (and will get a wicked farmer's tan by the end of the season) with no risk of burning. Every now and then a big, fluffy, white cloud will float across the sun and you can see the shadow move across the practice fields. I do need to invest in some sunglasses though. I believe mine are somewhere in Shellie's NEW YORK purse that she brought to the pool in Vegas for us to put things in.

Marie and I even turned the air off this afternoon and have just had all the windows open all day. It's currently 8:21pm and I could change out of shorts into long pants and still be comfortable, which I predict will make perfect sleeping conditions in an hour or so. Speaking of sleeping. Despite the fact that I get up at 5:25am everyday and do not take a nap, I cannot for the life of me fall asleep when I get into bed around 10pm. I know I'm probably still used to staying up till 3 in the morning, but you'd think after four days of this I'd be so exhausted I couldn't keep my eyes open. Around 9 or so every night I've been getting a second wind or something, and gone back into AWAKE! mode.

Marie and I (mostly Marie - I cleaned the shower though. It's a good thing I really don't mind cleaning the bathroom, cause I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the only one doing it. Which I will be doing every week so I don't have to scrub it down like that again) cleaned the kitchen today, so now I can take pictures and show them to you and you'll think our kitchen is nice.
Oh yeah, and that IS the BACK DOOR that you see, which goes out onto a PORCH!

Posters today.
Woo.

My dad suggested spritzing the cats with water when they venture in here. Good idea.

How fucking great is that?!

Also, my desk finally showed up, which is superb. I also got a little basket thing that sticks in the corner of the shower for my things.
While wandering around Barns and Noble I made a new friend. I was looking at a book with dog pictures in it, and this lady walked up; I turned around because I thought she was David and I was going to show him a picture that looked like his dog. But we just started talking, this lady and me (I cannot remember her name) about if I was an animal person, and if I had dogs, and what kinds I wanted, and what she wanted (a pit, a boxer, and a.... something else of that nature). We ended up standing there talking for like half an hour about dogs and Marquette (she was an alumn) and Milwaukee and where we wanted to move too to live. It was crazy, but nice at the same time.

I'm starting to realize that my room is going to be the only clean room in this house. Either Nichole or Marie needs to buy an odor eater and put it by the litter box in the bathroom; it overpoweringly smells like ammonia even when it's clean.

Oh, and football preseason. They are doing 2-a-days right now, one from 7:30-10:00am and one from 11:30-2:00pm. Which means we are there from 6:30am-3:00pm. Which means I get up at 5:30am. Which for me, who didn't get up before 10am all summer and is used to working from 1 to 7pm, was a rude awakening this morning. It's not even 10 and I'm ready for bed.
However, it's going to get me 40+ hours a week for the next four weeks, which will put me way ahead of schedule on hours when classes start. It'll be nice not having to stress about getting them all done.
Practice itself is a bit boring, but there's always something to do, and it's really nice having Nichole there to talk to the whole time. Having said that though, I'm glad I'm going to PT school. From what I have experiences of both, I enjoy rehab more than the acute injury evals - though I still enjoy that part of it too.
Eating lunch at 11:00am is going to be a bitch though. I'm hungry again by the time 3 rolls around.

Now if I could just find my thumb tacks... I really want to hang up my posters but I have no clue what I did with them last May!

Senior Year

School hasn't started yet, but I'm back in Milwaukee so I might as well start posting again. I can already tell this year will be better than last, because my apartment wasn't 100 million degrees when I walked into it yesterday. The CENTRAL AIR (!!!) is set at about 75* or so, but more importantly it keeps the humidity down.
Neither Nichole or Marie were here last night so I've had the place to myself all weekend setting up and getting organized and trying to figure out how to keep their cats out of my room. Not that I don't like the cats, cause I do, I just don't need them being all "Look at me, I'm a cat. I'm in the goddamn way," while I'm moving a dresser across the floor.

So here's my room:

I think my room here is actually about the size of my bedroom at home. (The one upstairs that has as of last Tuesday - 3 man weave on the bedrooms to put my grandma in the Master on the main floor so she did not fall down the stairs.) I'm still missing my folding table/desk but I am pretty sure that is at David's house still. The wire rack I was using as a pantry last year is in my room and, now that I've been to the grocery store, is being used as a pantry again. Still in my bedroom. It was much easier to set up this way than try and claim space in the kitchen which is fairly small given the size of the apartment and just cannot hold 3 sets of everything.

This is the PhoebeCat, she has an elusive brother Jack (or BoyCat as I call him). Currently, they are not allowed to roam my room and are only tolerated being in here while I am updating my blog and don't want to move my laptop off my lap to throw them out. I think they both clearly understand I don't want them in here, because they both like to sit in my doorway and wait until I'm not paying attention, then sneak in to crawl under my bed. Under no circumstances are the cats allowed under my bed. I do not want cat hair all over my things. Simple, really.

In other news, I woke up from a nap this afternoon, looked out the window and thought "Where the fuck am I?" I had been having a dream that Drew and I ( and my sister for some reason) were back up in Montana playing in the ponds.

I am very home sick.

Luckily, Marie is here and she has people over so I will be going out to sit with them instead of curling up in the fetal with my Drew's-cologne-sprayed-Teddy-Bear instead of pouting that I am not at Bear Lake with him.