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| Thursday, February 14th, 2008 | | 11:34 pm |
-Hope and prayers to those students and family members in NIU. Yikes. School shootings are always so.. freaky and random. Eurgh. -Hope people had a good Valentine's Day. Got a stuffed teddy bear, a card and some money from mom, a card and some money from grammy. Gave mom a matching stuffed bear, a card and some chocolate. Crap. Gotta thank grammy in the morning for the card and cash. Forgot to do that. Eep. -Kinda nervous for an interview tomorrow. Gotta interview a RI Dep't of health informatics leader for GPH 735. She was a bit.. short on the phone. "At least you don't need it next week or something. What's your number so I can call to cancel if I have to?" I understand being busy, but.. yikes. If it weren't necessary, I wouldn't bug the lady. Hopefully it'll go well tomorrow. She hasn't called to cancel, but my voicemail mailbox was full for a couple of days and I didn't realize it. I'll give her a ring in the morning just to confirm I'm coming up. If she has to cancel, well.. I'll talk to the prof about an extension and see if I can get in contact with the other RI option that we were given. Tried to call him before but the phone wasn't in service or something. Meh. Too many "what if"s just gotta see how it'll go. -Hah. finally got in touch with Dr. Mather with the grad project. Score. Been trying to get in touch with him since like November. Only.. he doesn't like that I'm doing my project because it's exactly what TERC is doing. Maybe I can just work with them. Gotta talk to Becky about that. Figures I get this news AFTER I submit my workplan. Which was already late. And not AMA formatted the first time. **sheepish** And still need to get cracking on the MCAT. Current Mood: nervous | | Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 | | 2:53 pm |
The car is fixed. And the repair shop didn't charge us anything for it. I'm just hoping it stays fixed this time. edit: My car smells like cigarettes now. Bleh. Current Mood: relieved, somewhat | | Monday, November 26th, 2007 | | 7:37 pm |
pictures. and stuff.
I've got some pics from my memory card that I wanted to post, just because they're amusing Some are of a neighborhood kitty I have dubbed "Dopple" because he looks like a mini doppleganger of my old cat, Gator. Only skinnier. And he has a twin. Whom I haven't gotten on camera yet. The only way to tell them apart is that "Dopple" has normal paws and his twin has mitten-paws, thus the twin's nickname "Mitten-paws" Yes. I am original with naming them. I'd call them by their real names, but they don't have collars. I think they belong to a next-door neighbor. Anyway. "Dopple" was lounging on our porch ( Kitty! )The rest are of two horses in a small field near my house. ( Ponies! ) | | Thursday, November 22nd, 2007 | | 11:00 pm |
Random
Oh turkey day. Food + Family gathering = drama. I'm glad I worked third shift this morning, given the car problems and christmas approaching. Rather groggy now, but eh. Did make 30 dollars an hour for sitting all night with a dementia patient that we kept sedated with Adavan. Apparently this boy was giving problems in the ER to the point where they had to call the cops to deal with him. Fun. That was before we got him up in MCU though. I was very glad we had Adavan handy for when we had to straight-cath him so we could get about 500ml of urine out of him for lab tests. This boy also pulled out his IV from his arm. So it took about 4 nurses and 5 different tries to get a new line into his arm. Turkey day wasn't so bad. Went to the aunt's house. Saw her soon-to-be ex dropping their daughter off. My grandmother was a bit lost in her own world.. narcissism combined with dementia. Mom is a sensitive special snowflake right now so she took it all personaly and looked like she was about ready to cry by the end of the evening. My aunt was just like "dude. whatever." And my little cousin was cute. I made my awesome croissant bread pudding dessert, so my job was done. Anyway. I have a new AIM buddy list handle: MariaKatarina84. Got really sick of the old one. Oh yeah. I tried to sign up on a singles community here on LJ. I've been single for four years. I would like to discuss issues of singledom with other singles. I was denied entry into the community. Oh well. There're others. So.. um.. yeah. Need sleep. Current Mood:  sleepy | | Monday, November 19th, 2007 | | 6:38 pm |
my car... **headdesk**
Why do car issues always show up when you need to be saving/spending money on other things? About a week ago I took my car to the shop for a routine oil change, some new windshield wipers and for them to check the blower motor because pine needles always get in it during the fall months (damned pine tree right over where I have to park my car. bleh). So of course that gets all set for about a $100. Then I go out today to Westerly Hospital and get some info on Lyme disease from the research nurses for my grad thesis. Then I'm coming home and feel a couple of really big thuds under my car, right near my seat. I see some round thing fly out from under the back of my car in the rear view mirror and watch it bounce down the road behind me. It looked like a really big-assed black rock. Then the engine revs up really hard but keeps slowing down, no matter how hard I press the gas pedal. I pull my car over to the side of the road only to see all of my transmission fluid leaking out onto the ground. Great. Luckily I've got AAA, so I get it towed to the local shop. Thank Science for living in a small town where the auto shop is like.. 2 miles down the road. No word yet from the mechanic about cost, but there are really only a few options for it: 1) the transmission line got cut from whatever hit under my car. 2) the transmission -case- got punctured from whatever hit under my car 3) a pipe leading from the transmission was hit and dislocated from whatever hit under my car So it's either replacing parts for the transmission.. or if it's 2) I'll have to -replace- the transmission. Which is gonna cost about $1200. Fucking Ow. Current Mood:  stressed | | Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 | | 7:10 pm |
Elizabeth - The Golden Age
Okay, first note: I want to raid their wardrobe department. SO BAD. So yeah, went and saw Elizabeth - The Golden Age. The Good: COSTUMES SETS - zomg that floor map thing was awesome. Not sure how much was on location, but I liked the camera work.. lots of full circle angles, walk-and-talks and "fly on the wall" stuff. Dramatic acting. I liked Cate's portrayal of Elizabeth. She was mutli-faceted, flawed, but you really felt for her. And I liked Bess and Walshinham (Geoffrey Rush is always awesome in his roles. He gets so into them). Was amused to see "Beckett" from PotC as Mary Stuart's keeper. I also liked Mary Stuart. She was interesting. The Eh: The action sequences with all the ships.. although awesome looking, were a little confusing with Clive Owen staring intensely in the distance. Minor issue. Just a little confused. Sea battles are different from fighting between opponents. The Bad: I don't particularly like the way Spain in general was portrayed. Even the English baddies (ie: The Jesuit) were multi-faceted and conflicted and had issues with their end of the plot to assassinate Elizabeth. Spain was portrayed as one-dimentionally crazy/religious/assholes. Especially King Philip. You couldn't relate to the character at all. He was just.. religiously nuts. How accurate that was, I don't know. But at least have some internal conflict amongst the baddies. Makes them more relatable and makes for a better overall conflict. Argh. Oh well. | | Sunday, September 16th, 2007 | | 6:00 pm |
Thank Science for gift cards
I just spent about... $200 on clothes and shoes. I paid about $25 for it all. Whoever invented gift cards is a genius. I really have no reason to be splurging on clothes and such right now except for that most of my stuff is out-of-date and I don't have a lot of warm-weather tops right now. Hopefully it all fits and looks good once it actually gets here. things that were bought lately: ( cut for those that just don't care )Yes I am wasting time until I have to go to work tonight. The idiot first shift manager thought I was coming in on first shift. Not to say I was aware until I woke up at 2pm since I have to stay awake until 7 am tomorrow morning. And Joanne didn't -ask- me to come in on first shift. She asked for either second or third shift. They need sitters apparently. I hope it's the same mellow patient from before and not some new crazy that can't be helped even with Adavan and Haldol. That person better knock out and -stay- knocked out for the night. And I need to hear back from the GPH advisor on the thesis project. I hope she approves the idea or I'm back to square one. And I've only got til June next year to finish it up and -graduate-. And that reminds me I need to buy that MCAT Physics book. Hopefully that'll help me improve my score on the physical sciences section for January. Current Mood: amused | | Friday, June 8th, 2007 | | 5:20 pm |
Money-whoring
Okay.. I don't normally do these things, but this is pretty personal. A good friend of mine from highschool had a stroke during her senior year of college. She's in a coma now. Her mom and a bunch of people from the community are trying to raise money so that they can get her a handicapped-accessable van, and just general funds for medical care. The vans are vital for the medical care transport for anyone who's handicapped. They're great, but pricey. If any of you could donate anything, money-wise, that'd be great. The goal is $25,000 by the end of the month. They've already got $20,000, so it's just that last little push. If not, thanks anyway. Where to donate: http://www.magswheels.org/You_Can_Help_Maggie.html Current Mood:  hopeful | | Monday, April 16th, 2007 | | 2:26 am |
| | Saturday, April 14th, 2007 | | 1:55 pm |
I'm starting to realize that I really hate my life right now. All I do is work and school. I don't have social outlets. I exercise only somewhat. I don't have friends here. Well.. I've got one.. and that's rocky. So yeah, It's a little pathetic. So I'm changing things up. I've signed up for the MCAT. July 24th at noon. Only 5 and a half hours long. Only! The prep material for it was about 1500 dollars. Can't move to Boston for a little while.. have to wait at least until the MCAT is done. So I'm switching local jobs. I hate my job. I'm tired of it, I'm tired of the people. I've been there for 3 years. Time to go. I've got two jobs lined up: Per diem at South County hospital in the ER. and Per diem in Westerly hospital up on Med Surge. Also put in for 24 or 32 hour part-time jobs at South County and Kent... no response from any just yet. Now it's just a waiting game. I've got a project I've got to start up for my CBPR class.. I have to contact Speakeasy at URI.. hopefully they are still there and organized, and want to work with me. I've also signed up for a fencing class. Adult beginner at Rifac. That starts up on 5/3 at 7:30 at night. Oh! I need to hound the ACen crew. I paid for my pre-reg badge last month. I still haven't received it yet. WTF. I know they mentioned they were taking 'mail out' orders up until April 12th. So hopefully they're just gearing up to mail everything out now. Either way, I want my damned badge. | | Friday, March 30th, 2007 | | 2:36 am |
Ow.
I got kicked in the chest by one of the residents today. fucking. ow. Debating going to the doctor. It's a bone bruise, so it's not like they're gonna be able to do much. Also need to email Kaplan about the MCAT online study system. Gotta figure out if I buy it now, will it be good in July. And starting two new classes.. gotta finish up Biostatistics hw. And respond to someone in the forum in my CBPR class. Fuck. Someone just hire me so I can get away from these crazy old people! At least I've got the job fair at URI next week. South County hospital will be there. My one worry about South County is that... well.. we get most of our hospital outpatients, both forever-residents and the temp surgical rehab people, from South County. And they always come to us with bed sores, soaked clothing and nonsocimial infections. I'm worried that the staff at South County just -sucks-. But it's a hospital. And I need out of this nursing home! | | Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 | | 8:57 pm |
Gah. My face is being a bitch. More specifically, the skin on my face is being a bitch. I've been rosy-cheeked for years. My skin is transitioning I think, out of that oily teenage thing to more normal skin (less zits, yay! more dryness, meh). So I'm trying to find a good facial moisturizer. I want one that can take down some of the redness in my face and will provide a mild SPF. I -was- using Aveeno with colloidal oatmeal. Plus an Aveeno with Salicylic acid for acne as a shower wash. They were working well, but the lotion was a body lotion (giant tube), so I wanted something facial-appropriate. So I tried Olay Complete combination/oily (before I realized that my skin was transitioning). It worked really well for about a week... then my skin started getting really dry and kind of in pain. Then I tried another Aveeno combination: The shower cleanser with feverfew and the lotion with SPF to match. It was good after the shower.. bad after using the lotion. It felt like my face was on fire and trying to flay itself off. Gah. So I'm back to using the Aveeno with oatmeal. Does anyone else have this issue? The sensitive, dry skin that can't handle other moisturizers? | | Monday, March 12th, 2007 | | 12:44 pm |
Ugh. I am having trouble sleeping. I don't know what's going on. I'm tired as all hell.. but my brain won't shut off at night. Exercise won't stop it, pills helped.. but only minorly. I'm guessing it's just stress. Classes are ending, final to do, new classes to start up, MCAT to study for, bills to pay, textbooks to get in the mail (already bought them), new job to look for, old job to still deal with, mom's colonoscopy appointment coming up. I do feel rather accomplished though. Pre-regged for ACen. Just gotta get the badge in the mail. And get plane tickets settled. I've got my test date for the MCAT: Tiesday, July 24 at noon up in Warwick. It cost about 200 dollars. Ouch. I've also applied for a local job. Still trying for things in Boston, but.. may hold off on it until summer, if only because once I get my MCAT done in the summer, I can move without worrying about classes for a few months. If I move before the MCAT, I'll have to either delay it/cancel and reschedule, or change my testing location (both of which cost money). Mom's colonoscopy appointment is coming up. I have to go with her because she'll have to go under anasthesia and I need to drive her home afterwards. Of course work didn't give me the day before off that I requested (the appointment for the procedure is at like.. 8 am on monday. I just don't want to work the sunday before it. I don't want to be tired for monday morning). Maybe I'm stressed about that too. Also some school stress going on, as well as schedule changes. My grade in the leadership course has been slowly dropping, and since we didn't do so well on the group assignment (grar for unclear directions -- even after we asked the professor point blank), I gotta ace the final in order to keep my GPA up. I'm hoping for a B rather than a B- at this point. The professor is a tough grader, too. Kind of irksome.. She'll drop like. .1 of a point off of something that was only worth 3 points.. no real reason given why.. it just wasn't good enough to get full credit. grr. And with scheduling, I won't have any classes over the summer semester, June through late july. Now that one of my classes got switched from Fall I to Spring (not sure if it's I or II) I won't have a class during Fall I semester. And then I'll be only on part-time status. After this semester, I've only got 5 classes left.. then some Practicum thing, not sure if that's required for the degree though. Then it's on to med school applications... Oye. No wonder my brain won't shut off at night. | | Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 | | 2:21 pm |
How'd I spend Valentine's Day? Going to a dental cleaning appointment. With my mother. Though there was a funny/awkward moment with the hygenist: Her: So.. your mom's out there? Why is she here? Me: She wanted to drive me. Her: ...and you're how old? Me: 22. Her: O.o? Me: Yeah.. I know. To be fair, the weather is horrendous and my windshield has a crack in it, so I don't want to drive it anymore than I have to before I get it fixed next monday. And we had to go food-shopping and figure out what we're doing for dinner tonight. I also have to go the auto shop -again-. This time it's the sway-bar brushings that need to be replaced. They're starting to rattle around. Gonna see if I can get the inspection done then too.. it's up in May anyway. God this weather sucks. | | Monday, February 5th, 2007 | | 1:10 am |
Job stuff
Finally got a response to that interviewer in BWH. No actual 'No' but they have to hold off on hiring because they don't have some of the prelim work done on the study before they can start it up. So as soon as they know, I'll get an email **headdesk** whenever that'll be. So onto more job hunting. Because I can't wait forever, I don't have a guarantee on the job at BWH and I may get better offers elsewhere (**snerk** whether this last part is positive thinking or just delusion is debatable). Research assistant - BMC - General Pediatrics (BMC password: maalmeid, userid/app number: 20082606) Research assistant - Tufts/NEMC - molecular parasitology lab Research assistant - BWH (I kind of feel bad applying for a job in there under another department.. but..) - Infectious Disease Research assistant - MGH - Psychiatry - Anorexia/Bulimia Laboratory assistant - Harvard - microbial/ecology area Research assistant - Harvard - microbial/cellular bio alright. getting tired to the point of making spelling mistakes. Will continue tomorrow, minus being so picky (there are a bunch of jobs on there that I've already applied for.. and damn the MIT ones are intimidating) | | Monday, January 29th, 2007 | | 5:07 pm |
**is ded from sick**
Ugh. I just do not feel well. I've been sick since last thursday or so. At least thursday is when I woke up with a lot of nasal congestion. It started off as just that. So I figured it was a headcold, took a bunch of meds/vitamins/etc. Now the symptoms are shifting around. I can breathe out of my nose, but I'm still stuffed up enough to sound bad when I talk. There's nothing coming out, though, so it's all stuck up in there, gross as that is. Now my throat is sore and my stomach hurts. Just this weird nausea thing. Meh. Debating calling out of work tomorrow. Doubt that I will, just because by this point resting more isn't going to make it go away, so I might as well get in there to make some money. And Russ is really irritating me lately. First he sent me an email asking me "What are you wearing?" and then sends me a text message basically calling me a 'retard'. Then he calls today asking me if I wanted to hang out. OMGWTF. I lashed back at both the email and the text, told him I didn't want to hang out. And I still haven't heard back from BWH about the job offer. Mrs. Mihelakis did say it would be from one to two weeks to know if I'd go up for the in-person section. So there are a few options: 1) She's still trudging through compiling a group of candidates to meet in person. 2) There may be issues at BWH about if they should hire/who they should hire. She may want to have me come up, but others may not. 3.) She's choosing not to bring me up to Boston to meet, and is just finishing with other work first before letting me know. My guess is either 1 or 3. It's not even an issue of 'Please give me the job' yet. (Well there is, but I can't focus on that. It's too desperate). It's an issue of 'Just let me know one way or the other so that I can get on with things instead of waiting by the phone/email every day for your response.' Time's running out on that apartment thing, too. I -want- in there (at least until September. After that, who knows), but unless I get a guarantee on a job somewhere, it's not financially responsible to put money towards it. Current Mood: tired, cranky | | Thursday, January 18th, 2007 | | 12:44 pm |
Interview with BWH
Okay, right now I'm still buzzed from the interview, really excited, and also really drained. Man I'm gonna sleep tonight. Maybe I can leave work early and come back to rest. So with the interview, At about 12:08 I was starting to worry that Adrianna would either not call or would be rather late in calling, but then she called up and we started to talk. She sounds very nice, mellow, rather young (I still can't tell what her age is, but she's the Director lady, so I'm guessing not that young). We did the basic 'how are you's and then she started asking me about who I was, what my qualifications were, my career goals, skill sets gathered from undergrad and work. She sounded impressed. She asked why I wanted to move up to Boston: I want to get out of my tiny town, fresh start, room at an appartment (hopefully), employment and educational opportunities for medicine/science, blah blah blah. Then we started in on the job requirements and duties: When I first printed out the pages for the job, I thought it was a bit of a glorified secretary thing, but no. No, it's rather different. TIMI study group basically sets up national and international research sites at hospitals and the assistant's jobs are to help get the ball rolling with new sites, pick up ongoing sites, monitor their progress, ensure they have all necessary forms (insurance, consent, financial) and supplies and such. We work primarily phone, fax, and email, and read over print documents, file away hard copy and transmit everything into an electronic database. The assistants also aid in training sessions for those on sites. Each assistant gets their own assignment of sites, and there's some travel involved (like flying out to the places) for monitoring, inspection and training issues. Troubleshooting is also in there. Other stuff mentioned, The new trials probably aren't going to be starting up 'til February - April area. Which works out for both Adrianna and I since she needs to round up the next batch of assistant kids. And I need to give my two-weeks notice and make room for moving up to Boston I'd be a BWH employee. 9 holiday days, 20 sick/vacation days. roughly 30k salary. benefits package (medical, dental, vision, etc.) I'd get a MBTA pass. The next step, the ending of the interview was rather.. well a little anticlimactic, in that Adrianna didn't make definite plans to have me come up to Boston for the face-to-face interview. But what she did say was to go over the materials for the position and give her an email, letting her know my interest level. I think she needs to take a step back from each candidate after the phone interview/screening in order to decide which ones will go on further in the process. So I already sent her the email, trying to sound excited, confident and not too desperate. So anywhere in the next two weeks I'll know. so cross your fingers. | | Friday, January 12th, 2007 | | 3:46 pm |
I have a (tentative) phone interview.
I finally got a bite back from one of the job postings I put out. Thank God. it's the research assistant - BWH - TIMI clinical research program. The lady who contacted me, I think is Greek, given her last name, she wants to set up a phone interview for next week sometime. Squee! (p.s. Hire me, damnit) Current Mood: excited | | Monday, January 8th, 2007 | | 3:05 pm |
Airing of Grievances
Oh My Fucking God. WTF. My Car. The Incident: My car has been making weird squealing noises when I start it up and when I accelerate for a while now. Then when I started driving to work on sunday, it started to overheat. I looked down at the dashbord and the damned temp gague was past the 'H'. WTF. So I had to call into work on Sunday and then go drop the car off at the shop. The Good News: The mechanics finally diagnosed it today (at like.. 3 o'clock). They don't think it's a major issue, just one or two of the belts. Needs coolant. Hopefully will not be too expensive. The Bad News: I have to work tomorrow. The mechanics aren't done with the car yet. I don't know if they'll be done with it tonight or not. So I called into work again and was going to offer to switch what days of the week I could work just to reorganize my schedule and not lose pay, since I already lost Sunday. Work won't let me switch my days because if I try to work wednesday instead of tomorrow, they'll be really painfully short for tomorrow. They also apparently won't come and give me a ride to work either, although that was promised as a job perk when your car's out of luck or there's a snowstorm and they need people. The alternative, if I don't get my car, is to get a rental car. 116 dollars for two days. Goddamnit! Other annoyances: My mother keeps telling me I should stop making so much money. I grossed about $7000 this year. I can't claim a dependent status with her for insurance and whatnot unless I make under $10,000. But then shit like the car and all the christmas stuff.. and job interviewing in boston happens and I need more money now than I ever have before. I'm tired of being punished for doing well financially (and $7,000 is not that MUCH, damnit. What I have in the bank now is probably gonna cover my first, last and security deposit and maybe have 1,000 extra for living expenses for the first couple of months for an apartment. That's it. With my earning potential as a bacheloriate and getting a masters, $7,000 is kind of pathetic. YOU CAN'T LIVE ON IT). So I'm going to have to start a 401k and hide some money from the actual paycheck system. That way it looks like I'm making less, but it's just a small portion going into a retirement account. I make less petty cash, which will suck (especially given the whole 2-week pay period thing), but at least it's money the taxation crew can't touch. In other news, My crazy aunt Catherine from New York has moved down to Rhode Island and is now staying in Middletown.. or Newport.. I forget which. I kind of want to go see her, until I hear stories from my mom and dad saying she's heavily Bi-polar and doesn't particularly like to take her meds. She also tends to get really fixated on younger members of the family. She did it with my cousin Michael.. she wouldn't leave him alone for a while. She got fixated on me once before.. she sent this huge box of stuff for my 15th birthday (my quinceanera, I think, given portugese customs). There was a coat, a backpack, a coach purse, jewelry, postcards.. all sorts of stuff. It was rather weird. Current Mood: stressed | | Monday, January 1st, 2007 | | 2:15 am |
job hunting
Onward with job hunting, because I have nothing better to do tonight. I'm basically searching by key words, so now: medical assistant -medical assistant - BWH - reproductive medicine sigh. more tomorrow. depends on what words you put in to hunt.. next to nothing viable under 'public health'. Meh. Most medical assistant gigs want that med assistant certification. Which I get.. but it limits the options for those of us who actually have B.A. or B.S. degrees rather than the necessary associate's. On Bostonworks it's all heavy senior director gigs.. fuck they're looking for a new Bureau Chief for UMass Medical School. meh. oh well. one more done. |
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