This week is a week of "lasts" - so to speak.
Tonite was our "last" alive for a while, and possibly ever? Dunno. It was fantastic though. Cory Siewert led worship (love his heart), Scott said a diddy, we had communion, we had coffeehouse... I danced, jumped and swung my arms around in the back with a few friends. It was blessed. I also presented Scott with a Thank-you card and gift cert to take his wife out on a hot date. Our church is having a rough time right now, so, in feeling with with Scott's whole visage, I told him that I felt some of us should pray for him and lay hands on him. He was good with that. We did....
I will miss weekly harassments of any sort with Scott. Mind you, I'm pretty sure that our Blackberry Messenger antics will not end. Plus, he still has to put a good word in for me to my current *crunch*.
This summer we're going to join with other churches for sports nights in the park, fellowship, funs, etc etc. I'm definitely digging the conglomeration of all the Kelowna young adults. It's seriously fantastic. .... And i am serious. Back in the day it was as if there were a competition between denominations as to who when where and when- - and there was no mulitple church attendancing. If you did, it was just wierd. (I did, and some found me wierd). Now, it's almost normal -- going to one church in the am, another in the pm, yet another for some mid-week hang out bible study or fellowship. One pastor said a few weeks ago "we are all ONE church. There is ONE God. ONE body.... .... ONE church." I agree. So now it's all about meeting as many as I can from different churches. It's awesome. :)
And tonite is my 3rd last night shift (or shift at all) in Admitting. As of May 1, I will be a casual in Rehab once again. Yippee!!!! No more night shifts, no more weekends, no more evenings. YES! I will miss the steady paycheck and shift differential though, but that's just money - and something God wants me to challenge Him on (or rather, trust Him in). No more drunk idiots coming in at 3 am after bar fights. No more freaked out surgical patients staring at my chest and cracking dumb jokes. Oh wait. I'll just have cognitively challenged pts staring at my chest and muttering disinhibited thoughts. Awesome. No more cops (*sigh* I will miss that..). No more paramedics or transport personnel telling me funny naked people stories. No more ER docs asking me to do something with THEIR hair, or calling me stylish, or telling me they always see me in purple...No more spying on cute Med Residents sipping coffee in the lobby. No more urologists buying us pizza... Awe, now i'm getting reminisent. I guess I will miss this stuff....
All of it.
But it's good.
Onto bigger and better. Onto physiotherapists and occupational therapists, to free massages and foot orthotics, onto harassing neurolgists for an MRI referral... Onto using the gym equipment after hours... And to so much more I don't even know about yet!
Just 2 more night shifts... 2 more.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Life Organization, I think....
I have been on "holidays" for the past week and a half. It has been beautiful. No schedule, no must-do's ... nothing. I also haven't gone anywhere - even when opportunity arose. See, the holidays needed to be taken or else i would have had over 100 holiday hours with about 40 sick pay hours all paid out to me the first week of May and as a result, have been taxed unbelievably so. I decided instead to take as much holiday time as I could to prevent the mass pay out (altho, there will still be lots paid out... )....
But during my time off work I've still found myself busy. Coffee dates with friends, random shopping sprees, facebook chatting (with friends not in this city/country/world... ha!). Not to mention the mayhem of Easter and the 22 people that brought to our house! All good of course.
This past Wednesday was a stand-out point though. I made a date to see my friendly psychologist, ahem, mentor, uh... future boss. He told me to come see him so we could discuss my "life". Wednesday mornings though, usually -if i'm not working - consist of me going to attend Teen Challenge's public chapel. I love it there.... A mid-week church service of the heart. Plus, I get to see some of my coolest friends all dressed in dress pants, collared shirts and ties. This week I 'gave up' my wednesday morning to facilitate a forum with the John Howard Society RJ program -- all the while hoping that the 'vicitm' wouldn't show up so i could go to chapel.
The forum went really well though. It is more or less mediation between 2 people -- you tell your story, now you tell yours -- anyone have anything else to say to anyone else, let's make an agreement -- what do we want to see come of this.... sign here, here's your copy, thanks for coming out! Once everyone's gone, it's an amazing feeling --- to have been a part of something restorative - to see people get a second chance, to see people healed, to see people get their answers.....
I left feeling like i made a difference -- and then onward to discuss my life.
Sitting in Dr. M's office is never wierd -- probably because i'm not a patient. I've been in there so often to "chat" about random things and to hang out, to borrow a book or two, to get reference letters. Our discussions are always encouraging. We talked about what my plan is for school, what happens if Plan A doesn't come through - at least I know more or less why it didn't. We planned out Option B -- or what we could do, really. See, in the Psychology dept. he had 3 psychology testers who administer various neurolpsychological tests to patients who have had some form of cognitive change (stroke, head injury, tumor, surgery etc). I've thought of doing that for a while but never really got around to it. Talking about it this time got me excited though -- simply because it's beneficial to have the training no matter where I go after. Once trained, i could use my learned skills to administer tests to children referred to a child psychologist. I could be more aware of behavioral cues and differences in regular children in a school setting.... I could generally just work during off seasons or when I need work as a tester and make a pretty good wage doing so. Plus, i could give IQ tests (the real ones) to friends as a way of me practicing!! Very cool.
Dr M. and I bantered on about my potentials in any facet -- how he could use me once i'm trained in a bunch of different ways/places .... how i could use my training in a million ways in the future... We talked about my future -- goals, money, life... He told me what he would have done differently, he told me that he thinks my place in life is a good place to be.... Encouraging!
It was exhilarating! I'm excited about life! I'm excited about where God leads! In retrospect of where I was last year, I can't believe how much I've learned about myself, about others, about God.... And I am more than blessed to have made the friends I've made in that time too. Wow.
I followed up my "Sesh" with a good visit to a co-worker on maternity leave and her wee munchkin. Rad people. Then... that evening I had dinner with a fabulous friend and gabbed about boys. *sigh* My friend even said to me "Your eyes are sparkling with excitement! What have you got going on?"...
It just seems that life is coming together in a way. What I dont' have doesn't seem to matter because in the big picture, it's all about what you do have. I don't mean "stuff" == but rather an attitude of joy, or praise, or recognition that life IS good even when it sucks. I can't take the friends i have for granted because I am who I am on account of their influence! I have legs that work and eyes that see -- and sometimes we get so petty in the little things. God is good... He is just SO good and He sure seems to know what makes me joyful -- what I truely need.....
But during my time off work I've still found myself busy. Coffee dates with friends, random shopping sprees, facebook chatting (with friends not in this city/country/world... ha!). Not to mention the mayhem of Easter and the 22 people that brought to our house! All good of course.
This past Wednesday was a stand-out point though. I made a date to see my friendly psychologist, ahem, mentor, uh... future boss. He told me to come see him so we could discuss my "life". Wednesday mornings though, usually -if i'm not working - consist of me going to attend Teen Challenge's public chapel. I love it there.... A mid-week church service of the heart. Plus, I get to see some of my coolest friends all dressed in dress pants, collared shirts and ties. This week I 'gave up' my wednesday morning to facilitate a forum with the John Howard Society RJ program -- all the while hoping that the 'vicitm' wouldn't show up so i could go to chapel.
The forum went really well though. It is more or less mediation between 2 people -- you tell your story, now you tell yours -- anyone have anything else to say to anyone else, let's make an agreement -- what do we want to see come of this.... sign here, here's your copy, thanks for coming out! Once everyone's gone, it's an amazing feeling --- to have been a part of something restorative - to see people get a second chance, to see people healed, to see people get their answers.....
I left feeling like i made a difference -- and then onward to discuss my life.
Sitting in Dr. M's office is never wierd -- probably because i'm not a patient. I've been in there so often to "chat" about random things and to hang out, to borrow a book or two, to get reference letters. Our discussions are always encouraging. We talked about what my plan is for school, what happens if Plan A doesn't come through - at least I know more or less why it didn't. We planned out Option B -- or what we could do, really. See, in the Psychology dept. he had 3 psychology testers who administer various neurolpsychological tests to patients who have had some form of cognitive change (stroke, head injury, tumor, surgery etc). I've thought of doing that for a while but never really got around to it. Talking about it this time got me excited though -- simply because it's beneficial to have the training no matter where I go after. Once trained, i could use my learned skills to administer tests to children referred to a child psychologist. I could be more aware of behavioral cues and differences in regular children in a school setting.... I could generally just work during off seasons or when I need work as a tester and make a pretty good wage doing so. Plus, i could give IQ tests (the real ones) to friends as a way of me practicing!! Very cool.
Dr M. and I bantered on about my potentials in any facet -- how he could use me once i'm trained in a bunch of different ways/places .... how i could use my training in a million ways in the future... We talked about my future -- goals, money, life... He told me what he would have done differently, he told me that he thinks my place in life is a good place to be.... Encouraging!
It was exhilarating! I'm excited about life! I'm excited about where God leads! In retrospect of where I was last year, I can't believe how much I've learned about myself, about others, about God.... And I am more than blessed to have made the friends I've made in that time too. Wow.
I followed up my "Sesh" with a good visit to a co-worker on maternity leave and her wee munchkin. Rad people. Then... that evening I had dinner with a fabulous friend and gabbed about boys. *sigh* My friend even said to me "Your eyes are sparkling with excitement! What have you got going on?"...
It just seems that life is coming together in a way. What I dont' have doesn't seem to matter because in the big picture, it's all about what you do have. I don't mean "stuff" == but rather an attitude of joy, or praise, or recognition that life IS good even when it sucks. I can't take the friends i have for granted because I am who I am on account of their influence! I have legs that work and eyes that see -- and sometimes we get so petty in the little things. God is good... He is just SO good and He sure seems to know what makes me joyful -- what I truely need.....
Here's a picture that made me smile today. I stole it off of facebook. The three guys in the picture are 3 of the coolest people I know. ... Daniel (blue shirt), Cam (center) and Mark (black shirt, camo shorts). This was taken when they went to the Phillippines with Teen Challenge as ambassadors. Mark and Daniel will be making Sushi at my big birthday bash coming up next month.... wahoo!!
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Do you RANT in your dream?
No?
I do.
I did the other night...
Back a couple of years ago i took a distance class on --- current topics? I can't even remember what it was. Being a distance class you do have to submit opinions on this chat program with others in the class and then comment no their topics too. -- all relative to the course of course! I couldn't go on there and randomly choose to seek opinions on different aspects of life that truly mattered to me, no, it was all relative to class topics.
One week we were discussing FASD (Fetal Alcoholism) and how women should or should not have any alcohol during pregnancy. People would of course talk about how their mother did or did not drink; about how these women who do choose to drink should have their children taken away; rehab programs for mothers etc.
My woman's lib and internal feminist started burning inside me. WHY ARE WE BLAMING THE WOMAN? IS THERE NO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE MAN?? Seriously. We blame Eve for the apple (unless you go to a good church that reflects on how the Man is the "man" of the house, the leader, and in the situation of Adam and Eve stood in passivity choosing not to encourage her otherwise or reflect on God's heart for the matter, and how ever since then men have held this passive stance while still dictating on their women).
So, in this subject of debate, I got on there and said "when a woman is pregnant, she doesn't get that why by herself, so why not during pregnancy, the man choose to remain sober and clean as a means of support?"
In my mind, it's only fair. They are a team - or should be - and intend on raising the child together, so.. yes?
Further in my thoughts then I considered this -- have any scientists dared to think about how alcohol may POSSIBLY effect the sperm in any way? The body is a unit - ETOH goes everywhere.... why not to the testes? Have they not considered the possibilty that deficits in some way may result from a man's choosing to drink all the time before spreading his drunken swimmers? Or what about age? We know that men in their 70's can still aid in producing children but could their sperm be a bit "defective?"..... The body is falling apart after all.
Not last year I read an article on just that. Albeit it was short - but i was vindicated, and oh SO happy. Older men (like those in their 60's and 70's) should not reproduce. They say that even men in their 40's have a higher chance of problems in terms of the 'health' of their sperm. Gee, you think? Argh. Maybe now they're looking at he effects of alcohol too. I thought I read something about that too somewhere, but perhaps I'm wrong.
Back to my dream.
I was sitting in this public forum and everyone was discussing and arguing over whether women should have a sip or not of alcohol, let alone a drink while pregnant or considering pregnancy. For one, the most damage is done in the first 6-10 weeks of gestation if you drink a lot - and generally, people may not even know they're pregnant! But in my dream i started spewing facts I didn't realize I knew, facts about the man's role, and what about the potential deficits to DNA construction in drunk sperm, about how men should choose to remain clean with their woman if they dare want to call that child theirs and take some so-called responsibility.
I was steaming. But i was clear in my point. In my dream they applauded me. I wasn't looking for that but it made a point.... And I took it.
I have nothing against alcohol per se, but i really do NOT like what it does to people. = what it does to their bodies and most importantly, how it destroys life. Our neighbor was a drinker but his family didn't realize just how much until now, in his 70's his brain has atrophy'd so much that he's not really there: Korsakoff's Disease - dementia as a result of alcoholism.
I mentored a child for the RJ Program at the Boys and GIrls Club who was FASD. He has such big dreams but cognitively ...... he's not rational. He will struggle for the rest of his life. It broke my heart.
I hang out with guys who were addicted to anything and everything. One of them told me that he wouldn't have a conversation with a girl unless he had alcohol in his system and a brown bottle in his hand. When I first met this guy and talked with him for a while he asked me how he was doing socially-wise - whether the conversation was okay because he wasn't used to talking to a girl without a drink in his hand and a smoke in the other - he had been clean for 11 months at this point.
In my psychopharmacology class we studied all the drugs, their potency, their effects (long term and short term) and all the studies pointed to tobacco and alcohol being far worse than others out there - or at least just as bad as some others out there. No joke. If they were not "legal" today, they would never be legalized because of how harmful they are. That took me for a surprise. In otherwords, you're far better off ingesting some good ol BC Bud (not smoking, cuz that hurts your lungs) than you are anything else. It's not addictive, doesn't hold long term effects unles you become a chronic user... (not that I'm advocating at all! i despise it all!). OR, i thought that i would be better off 'chipping' one weekend - getting high on cocaine for a weekend - and then back to life come monday. [this is common among many professionals who choose to be what they call "chippers", going on a cocaine high for the weekend - no addiction, just a 'get away from the every day']. Again. I don't recommend any of it.... but as a whole, it paints a pretty good picture for the use of any "drug".
Ignorance isn't bliss.... it's stupidity. A lesson I'm learning in detail.
Have you ranted lately?
I do.
I did the other night...
Back a couple of years ago i took a distance class on --- current topics? I can't even remember what it was. Being a distance class you do have to submit opinions on this chat program with others in the class and then comment no their topics too. -- all relative to the course of course! I couldn't go on there and randomly choose to seek opinions on different aspects of life that truly mattered to me, no, it was all relative to class topics.
One week we were discussing FASD (Fetal Alcoholism) and how women should or should not have any alcohol during pregnancy. People would of course talk about how their mother did or did not drink; about how these women who do choose to drink should have their children taken away; rehab programs for mothers etc.
My woman's lib and internal feminist started burning inside me. WHY ARE WE BLAMING THE WOMAN? IS THERE NO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE MAN?? Seriously. We blame Eve for the apple (unless you go to a good church that reflects on how the Man is the "man" of the house, the leader, and in the situation of Adam and Eve stood in passivity choosing not to encourage her otherwise or reflect on God's heart for the matter, and how ever since then men have held this passive stance while still dictating on their women).
So, in this subject of debate, I got on there and said "when a woman is pregnant, she doesn't get that why by herself, so why not during pregnancy, the man choose to remain sober and clean as a means of support?"
In my mind, it's only fair. They are a team - or should be - and intend on raising the child together, so.. yes?
Further in my thoughts then I considered this -- have any scientists dared to think about how alcohol may POSSIBLY effect the sperm in any way? The body is a unit - ETOH goes everywhere.... why not to the testes? Have they not considered the possibilty that deficits in some way may result from a man's choosing to drink all the time before spreading his drunken swimmers? Or what about age? We know that men in their 70's can still aid in producing children but could their sperm be a bit "defective?"..... The body is falling apart after all.
Not last year I read an article on just that. Albeit it was short - but i was vindicated, and oh SO happy. Older men (like those in their 60's and 70's) should not reproduce. They say that even men in their 40's have a higher chance of problems in terms of the 'health' of their sperm. Gee, you think? Argh. Maybe now they're looking at he effects of alcohol too. I thought I read something about that too somewhere, but perhaps I'm wrong.
Back to my dream.
I was sitting in this public forum and everyone was discussing and arguing over whether women should have a sip or not of alcohol, let alone a drink while pregnant or considering pregnancy. For one, the most damage is done in the first 6-10 weeks of gestation if you drink a lot - and generally, people may not even know they're pregnant! But in my dream i started spewing facts I didn't realize I knew, facts about the man's role, and what about the potential deficits to DNA construction in drunk sperm, about how men should choose to remain clean with their woman if they dare want to call that child theirs and take some so-called responsibility.
I was steaming. But i was clear in my point. In my dream they applauded me. I wasn't looking for that but it made a point.... And I took it.
I have nothing against alcohol per se, but i really do NOT like what it does to people. = what it does to their bodies and most importantly, how it destroys life. Our neighbor was a drinker but his family didn't realize just how much until now, in his 70's his brain has atrophy'd so much that he's not really there: Korsakoff's Disease - dementia as a result of alcoholism.
I mentored a child for the RJ Program at the Boys and GIrls Club who was FASD. He has such big dreams but cognitively ...... he's not rational. He will struggle for the rest of his life. It broke my heart.
I hang out with guys who were addicted to anything and everything. One of them told me that he wouldn't have a conversation with a girl unless he had alcohol in his system and a brown bottle in his hand. When I first met this guy and talked with him for a while he asked me how he was doing socially-wise - whether the conversation was okay because he wasn't used to talking to a girl without a drink in his hand and a smoke in the other - he had been clean for 11 months at this point.
In my psychopharmacology class we studied all the drugs, their potency, their effects (long term and short term) and all the studies pointed to tobacco and alcohol being far worse than others out there - or at least just as bad as some others out there. No joke. If they were not "legal" today, they would never be legalized because of how harmful they are. That took me for a surprise. In otherwords, you're far better off ingesting some good ol BC Bud (not smoking, cuz that hurts your lungs) than you are anything else. It's not addictive, doesn't hold long term effects unles you become a chronic user... (not that I'm advocating at all! i despise it all!). OR, i thought that i would be better off 'chipping' one weekend - getting high on cocaine for a weekend - and then back to life come monday. [this is common among many professionals who choose to be what they call "chippers", going on a cocaine high for the weekend - no addiction, just a 'get away from the every day']. Again. I don't recommend any of it.... but as a whole, it paints a pretty good picture for the use of any "drug".
Ignorance isn't bliss.... it's stupidity. A lesson I'm learning in detail.
Have you ranted lately?
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