Things to avoid when drinking, or Things I learned from staying in hostels and other nonsense

I just got back from Brazil and Argentina (amazing), and we had the pleasure of staying in hostels. We also had the pleasure of meeting some interesting people. They shared with us some

"Don't drink and have a camera. Bad idea."
(Our bunk-mate Helen lost her camera at the bar after a heavy night of drinking. Luckily she had taken the memory key out of the camera and hidden it in her bra, per our suggestion.)

"Always take the bottom bunk. Got drunk one night and fell off the top. Fallen off the bottom bunk too, but you don't fall nearly as far."
In one of the hostels I took the top bunk and woke up several times at the edge of the bed (there was no bed-rail), so maybe this is just good advice in general. 

"Take a taxi home from the bar. Not the metro. You'll never find home that way."

Other things I learned from hostels:

• I could pack a lot lighter if I didn't have to worry about modesty. I could fit everything into a backpackers backpack if I only wore short shorts and tank tops. 
• Europeans either get paid really well or in a lot of debt. Most of the Europeans were traveling for at least 8 months. One of our bunkmates had already been traveling a year and had another year and a half to go. Lucky.
• Don't ask Canadians about healthcare. They have a lot to say about it. Enough that they will wake you up after the lights are out in the room to tell you more.

Other things I learned in South America

• Not everyone in Brazil looks like Giselle. In fact, most don't.
• There are single Mormon guys in Brazil equally frustrated with dating
• You can hide the following in your bra without anyone noticing: a camera, two credit cards, a coin purse and an iTouch.
• Not only is there an armpit of Paraguay, there is also a butthole. It is right across the Brazilian border from Iguazu Falls
• There are varying degrees of quality of South American "luxury" buses. Some have cockroaches. Others are so nice you'd rather stay there then a hotel. 
• You can be in an earthquake and not even feel it. 
• WalMart really does have low prices. Everywhere.

Thank you, Invisalign

I was able to convince my orthodontist that my appointment should be moved up from March 1 (when I should have been done, but will be on vacation), to February 25, so I wouldn't have to wear my last tray for my entire trip. Lucky for me he's pretty laid-back and didn't see the harm. I went in, got the 'ok' from him and had a permanent retainer put on my top teeth.

 Before:

(the small "growth" on the left tooth is added for Invisalign and is not some actual tooth tumor)

After:

 

You might say that the gap I had wasn't that bad, but the gap kept getting larger, and the before photo was actually taken a couple of days after I had started wearing the trays.  Plus, they are my teeth, not yours.  I couldn't be happier. Other than being told I shouldn't bite into a whole apple or raw carrots with my front teeth, I think the permanent retainer is great. No more gross removable retainer (not like it fit anyway). And no more food getting stuck in the gap. Now I'm off to the beach!

It's definitely time for a vacation.

I cried at work today. Within an hour of being there. It was my "third twelve" in a row. I was averaging 5 hours of sleep each night. Yesterday I was there 14 hours. And I walked in today to have the nurse I was getting report from tell me, "I had a night from hell. They are a horrible team [of patients]. They should have split up your assignment." Well, then why didn't you ask the charge nurse to split them up? I had some of the team yesterday and was swamped. I was already exhausted, which means I'm usually emotional. By 7:45 I'd already been approached 3 times for things my patients wanted. I could barely keep it together and when one of the aides came up and hugged me I had to excuse myself to cry for a minute in the bathroom. It felt good. And then I was ready to better face the chaos.

By 8:15 one of my patients was in respiratory distress. I spent two hours in the room getting her stabilized.

I finally saw my last patient at 11am. I had been there 4 hours already. Thank goodness he was stable.

And the madness continued for 8 more hours...

The silver lining is that today was my last day for two weeks! And I'll be enjoying this in 4 days:

Happy Birthday to me.

The scariest show on TV

Last weekend I was at home flipping through the stations. I saw that Hoarders was on. It is a show on A&E about people who can't throw things away and the stuff/junk/food/animals that collects in their house. We had been talking about it at work and I decided to watch. I made a huge mistake. The episode I watched featured a lady whose house had been "cluttered" (that's putting it mildly) for over 20 years.

This wasn't her house (I couldn't find a pic), but it was worse than this. Much worse.

They hauled 8000 lbs of trash from her house.

They found 3 flattened, dead cats in her house-at the bottom of some of the piles.

There were open cans of rotten food.

I can't even begin to describe the bathroom...

They found packages/junk/trash at the bottom of the piles from 25 years ago.

I felt sick to my stomach watching it. Physically ill. I know that extreme hoarding is a psychological disorder and that people need treatment for it. But it was still really hard to watch. And because I was still a little curious, I had to wait to see what happened at the end. My house is not cluttered, but watching it made me feel like I had too much stuff. I wanted to go home and throw everything in my apartment away and then drench my apartment in bleach. Luckily I was in Medina and couldn't go right then or my house would be barren now. I'm shuddering just thinking about it. Don't watch this show unless you want to feel ill.

Not Hoarders. Horror-ders.

How do I love thee?

Socks: $2
Boots: $12
Christa accidentally buying two right boots and being "all right": priceless

I bought a pair of these galoshes in Costa Rica. They were $12. We were in the middle of a tropical storm and these boots were a lifesaver. They're comfortable too. I've worn them a few times in Ohio when it has rained. This week I discovered another use for them: snowstorms. I have shoveled the sidewalks three times in the last 24 hours. I even dug Sarah's car out of my driveway. My feet were toasty warm and dry. I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing them everywhere in the next few days till everything is plowed.  I never thought I'd love a pair of $12 shoes so much and get so many uses out of them.

Action packed short month

This is going to be a great month.

Lost starts tomorrow. The beginning of the end...

 For you Losties, Claire is in the pic. Crazy.

Groundhogs Day

That is Phil in the pic with us

Sadly we're not going this year

My Invisalign is done in 23 days

I leave for Brazil in 27 days

I'm going to Bolivia in August on a humanitarian trip 

(I got accepted on the trip today, so I'm including it in this month)

How old do you think I am? OR You know you're old when...

I don't like being called ma'am. Especially from people who are at least 20 years older than I am. It makes me feel like my mother. Do I look like a ma'am to you? I don't have one gray hair. A patient's family member called me this today. If I'm going to be called something, I'd prefer the following (all of which I've been called):

Sugar
Darling
Honey
Sweetie
Cutie
Dear
Gingie

However, the above mentioned family member may have some insight into my life and have a right to call me old because I recently bought one of these:

 

In my defense, I made a New Years resolution to take my multivitamins daily again. I went and bought huge bottles of them at Costco and it is a pain to get the pills out of each bottle at night. So I separate my pills out once a week. Like my parents. Even though they're old, I'm not ready to be a ma'am.

A first for many

Last week was Restaurant Week in Columbus. Many of the pricier restaurants in Columbus offer a set price ($20-30) for an appetizer, entree and dessert. Since I love food, this is a great week for me. Chris expressed interest in going to Level, a restaurant/bar in the Short North and upon seeing a menu, several others wanted to go. We decided on Friday. Later in the week, Rauchelle informed us it was a gay bar. We still went.
11 Mormons went to the gay bar. 6 guys, 5 girls. It was a lot of fun. We sat upstairs where there were some couches and tables. The rest of the people at the restaurant was a mixed group so we didn't feel out of place.
It wasn't strange until we went to leave.
As we walked downstairs, Candace heard this:
"Here come the straight people."

Another guy heard this,
"He's definitely straight."

I walked downstairs. I've never walked into a room full of so many guys and known that they were probably checking out my guy friend and not me. Oh well.

As we gathered outside, one of the girls in the group asked Candace if she noticed that there were a lot of guys downstairs.
Candace: "Well, it is a gay bar."
Girl: "Oh, that explains a lot."

Anyways, a good time was had by all. I think. The food was delicious. And most of us experienced a gay bar for the first time.

 The night got off to a strange start with Bryce crawling across the table to eat humus from Alan

 

 

Their last night in town before leaving for South Africa for 5 weeks.

Because I love when people burst into "song" and dance AND Glee

Oh Glee, why are your songs so catchy? I'm glad the Italians love you too. Although their dancing isn't that great.



I like the little girl singing on her parent's shoulders.

2000-2009: A review

I'm too lazy to review year by year, so here is a general view, in mostly chronological order (I omitted repeats):

Moved out of my parents house
Drove across the country
Moved into dorms and shared a room
Started college
Had fun roommates
Picked a major
Moved into my first apartment
Met my sister for the first time
Pulled all-nighters 
Had crazy roommates
Fell in love
Studied a lot
Bought a car
Voted in my first presidential election
Worked as a night custodian
Skiied 28 times in one winter
Went skiing the day I learned I tore my ACL and needed surgery
Watched a movie in a cave
Became a TA for a professor
Drove across the country with someone I loved
Visited the Spam museum, Corn Palace and Mt Rushmore
Got the job I wanted in a research lab
Learned to use a Mac
Streaked lots of petri dishes
Saw best friends get married
Went on a church history trip with my extended family
Hiked a mountain
Did a Mormon pioneer trek
Had my heart broken
Went to Vegas but didn't gamble
Bought a tent
Visited all the national parks in Utah
Graduated
Got a job
Went to Disneyland
Saw the Pacific Ocean
Drove through a blizzard
Moved to a new city
Had a health scare with a parent
Went to Italy, Switzerland & France
Called in sick and visited England, Ireland & Scotland
Got promoted
Saw friends have babies
Had Lasik
Played a prank using 300 phonebooks
Rode an elephant in Thailand
Saw the skyscrapers of Hong Kong
Went to Walmart in China
Fell out of love
Got tired of my job and wanted a new career
Applied to nursing school
Moved to Ohio
Went through the Temple
Started nursing school
Jumped into rapids on a white water rafting trip
Learned to knit & crochet
Went to Punxsutawney, PA for Groundhogs Day
Graduated and passed boards
Got a job
Drove a stick shift van all over Portugal and Spain with 5 of my favorite people
Had monkeys attack our car in Gibraltar
Sat on a camel in Morocco
Got OSU season tickets
Repelled down waterfalls in Costa Rica
Had my first code blue at work
Visited ruins and picked up a stranger in Guatemala
Snorkled along the barrier reef in Belize
Watched a patient die
Feared I had a stalker
Saw a concentration camp in Germany
Did a Sound of Music tour in Austria
Visited our nations capital
Rode a bullet train in Japan
Learned to sew
Gained a roommate
Bought a plane ticket to Brazil, Argentina and Chile

Here's hoping I'll have another great decade!