Thoughts from the weekend + a "sick" day

I'm in the mood to ramble. So here goes.

Last week at work seemed interminable. Geez. It was probably due to my deciding to stick it out here until June. These are going to be some interesting 7 months.

Anyway, so on Thursday night I decided to give my lovely husband a present. I've forgotten to mention that we're both avid gamers. As in computer/video games. He used to be mostly into action games but now I've managed to turn him onto role-playing type games as well. I got him this one. It's actually really cool because the premise is that there's this other story going on alongside the main story and occasionally you even interact with the protagonists. The game started off a little slow and for a while I was nostalgic about the Final Fantasy Days. But, thankfully it picked up quickly and we had loads of fun with it on Saturday.

Saturday was my first day as a volunteer at a Manhattan hospital. The ER can be kind of boring on Saturday mornings. I heard that all the action takes place Friday and Saturday nights. So for the first two hours or so I was just standing around trying to not be in the way and observing the environment. They're like a well-oiled machine. Everyone is busy constantly. The pace is sooooo different from my job. There's a lot more motion and person interaction. One of the more interesting things was when I looked on as the ER attending and some residents were doing wet reads of some X-rays. I listened on and it was kind of interesting how they look for abnormalities. So my tiny glimpse of Radiology was quite positive. I can definitely get into that. It's not that I'm not a people person, but being able to diagnose (i.e. problem solve) sounds like the most fun.

I got bored of standing around and went to the Pediatric ER. I figured there would more of a need for an interpreter there since people without insurance or private doctors tend to take their kids to the ER for regular stuff. And if they're working full-time I figured they'd do it on a Saturday morning. Sure enough within 15 minutes I got my first interpreting experience, and thankfully it was with a fellow Dominican. I did ok but fumbled a little bit due to nerves. And of course I forgot about the formal form of you, Usted, until the very end. Yikes! Peds ER has much more potential so I think I'm just going straight there next week.

One thing I learned: scrubs do NOT look good on everyone! *shiver*

I called in sick yesterday because I had a ton of errands to run. I ended up putting in a 15 hour (non-work) day.

7AM woke up
8AM was at my car dealer for our Toyota's 45k service. I figured I'd splurge on this one since it was the first major service since we bought it. I waited around for 2 hours and paid way too much money. That will be the last time I do that. My car will just have to go to Jibby Lube or wherever.
10:30 AM headed to the assessor in Rye. Was informed that I needed to go to the Rye Town one. So I asked where I was and they said Rye City. UGH. How annoying. Managed to file our application for the Star Rebate credit (a full 8 months AFTER our closing date since I haven't had time to visit the assessor). Was informed that the darn thing wouldn't take effect until the 2006-2007 school year. Thanks!
12:00 PM ate a nice brick oven pizza slice in New Rochelle and headed to school.
01:00 PM decided to stop by JC's job to see his new office. Spent some time with him and his boss.
01:55 PM Oh shit! Am going to be late for my appointment with the financial aid guy at school.
02:10 PM Am running up the stairs in Lewisohn hall and managed to drive to 116th, park at a meter, and make it only 10 minutes late.
02:50 PM Had a good conversation with financial guy and he outlined a plan for us to be able to survive through me quitting my job next year and becoming a full-time student for 9 months. Long live loans!!
02:55 PM Oh shit!! Am going to be very late for my appointment with my OB/GYN at Cornell on the upper east side!!!!!!!
03:20 PM After driving like a maniac, I finally pull into a parking lot and leave the car there. I then jog three blocks to the hospital. Go me! I couldn't have ever done that before. By the way, Columbus avenue, is THE best way to go downtown fast. The lights are arranged very favorably for speeding :-p
03:30 PM Am 30 minutes late for my appointment and end up having to wait an hour and a half as an evil twist of fate.
05:00 PM Doctor finally sees me and deems my baby making mechanism completely normal! YAY!
05:30 PM Am back in my car. Oh shit! I might be late to class! Drive back up to Morningside and thankfully found parking right away.
05:55 PM Nice I even have time to pick up something to drink before class. I get some Vitamin Water. After several months of limited juice drinking I can now appreciated watered down flavors like that.
06:00 PM As I am speeding up the steps diagonally (fastest path between two points is a straight line) I come to think how easy it is for these young-uns to study compared to me. They don't have to worry about their mortgage, their car payments, their fertility, cooking dinner, cashing out of their 401(k) plans, and laundry. Nothing competes with their studying. Damn. If someone had told me that before I would have NEVER gone to the real world and just gone directly to grad school. *sigh* Better late than never.
06:05 PM Take my seat in class and take off my coat and sweater to everyone's amazement since it's COLD in the classroom. I'm so hot from all the running around I feel like I'm going into menopause or something.
06:10 PM Class begins and I devour my balance bar within the first 10 minutes.
06:50 PM My first clock glance. It's so cool that she's an interesting professor and I don't get ansy in class.
07:25 PM Class is over. I follow her to her office hours to ask a question about molecular orbitals and wave functions. I need her to get to know me since I will be requesting a recommendation from her shortly.
07:45 PM The day is not yet over. I'm now driving up to the heights to meet my good old friend for my first official clarinet lesson. Long story.
08:15 PM I got JC lucky today and was able to find a parking spot in under 10 minutes. We begin our lesson.
09:00 PM It has become evident that I will *not* be an immediate virtuoso on the clarinet and that it will be MUCH harder to pick up that then saxophone. Darn. But I won't give up despite my fingering issues and intonation problems.
09:30 PM Lesson is over and overall it went well.
09:40 PM Head over to the International buffet to pick up some dinner. I neglct to see how much money I have before going in there. When my stuff is weighed I start panicking. I was able to pay by using all the spare change in my purse. Damn. Who knew that pollo guisado and rice were that heavy?!
09:55 PM Finally driving home.
10:10 PM Low fuel light goes on! Will have to stop at the cheap gas place in New Rochelle to fill up. This will add at least 5 minutes to my commute home. @#(*&(*
10:30 PM Arrived home, tired and hungry as hell.
10:40 PM Enjoy a nice late night Dominican dinner.
11:30 PM Some well deserved sleep.

Ok maybe I am a tad bit overextended. But hey, I want to embrace life and all it offers. Carpe Diem!