Day: friday night
Time: somewhere around 5pm
Place: CVS pharmacy 481 Lincoln st, Worcester, MA.
So, I'm at work and I am just going about my business of typing a prescription in half a second flat and a guy walks up to the counter who is of mexican descent. He hands me two prescriptions and I start asking him all the questions that I have to ask and start typing away. He tells me he will come get the medications tomorrow, which shocked me because nobody waits a whole day to pick up the infamous percocet (everybody wants it yesterday cause they are in so much pain). About two seconds later, he tells me he needs to wait cause he is in pain right now. I say okay and proceed to finish typing. I look over and he is holding his hand to his head. Not out of the ordinary for someone who is at the pharmacy trying to get pain meds. I look over a second later and he is resting in arm, and essentially his whole body on the counter in front of me. I start to think something is weird. It happened in slow motion, I can still see it in my head. The guys slowly falls to the floor. I can see his eyes roll back in his head, the color just flushed right out of him and down he went right in front of me. Around the counter and out the door I ran as I yelled in a very stern voice for the other intern to "come here now." I'll be honest, I didn't really know what to do, except to tell the guy to remain on the floor. We took his pulse and realized that it was not normal while also realizing that his hands were sweaty and cold. Not a good sign. I ran back into the pharmacy and called 911. The firemen were the first to respond and take his blood pressure before calling the ambulance with the EMT crew. A translator (friend of the guy that passed out) was also called to assist in the fiasco because communication was rough at that point. It turns out that this guy was in the hospital for kidney stones and had just been released. He immediately came to the pharmacy to fill his prescriptions. I don't know what they do at this hospital, but that guy was in no condition to be out of the hospital. So, off to the ambulance he went to recieve fluids because he was severely dehydrated and then back to the hospital. I'm glad it turned out okay, but it got my blood flowing and I had a serious rush going on. It may be inappropriate to say that it was exciting, but it was.
Saturday afternoon: I found out that my uncle, whom I live with, was called as the new stake president. There was a lot of fear and humility and anxiety associated with the whole event. I decided to go support them at the conference when he was sustained. I don't think I have ever actually seen the depths of humility on a person's face until he was called to stand up and then take his place on the stand. Maybe its because I know he and my aunt hadn't slept for two days, they cried for many hours of those two days and I saw the process as it unfolded, but I could feel it as well. I thought it was too bad that the old stake presidency was more concerned with jokes and good times than actual spiritual thoughts or experiences. It's always a good thing to have change in the church, cause you could tell they were done. However, when my uncle got up to give his talk, the tone of the meeting immediately changed. He started off with goals for the stake which hit me pretty hard. "Practice holiness," he quoted from the scriptures and then, "Do good, be good and become better," quoted from President Hinckley. Simple things, yet important principles of the gospel. Their stake lacks foundation and to strengthen your foundation you have to go back to the basics and start from there. It was a great meeting. I found a new respect and love for my uncle and I know he is gonna do a great job.
17 June 2008
Average days
02 June 2008
After thought...
Here is a video from my phone to give you an idea of the utter loudness of the cars as they zoom by. Never knew you had to wear ear plugs at a nascar race... Notice that you can't even hear the announcer as the cars go by. I know it's a crappy video, sorry.
White Trash Roadtrip
So, I'm all about parties and when I found out that peeps from my ward would be going on the second annual "white trash roatrip" to see a Nascar race in North Carolina, I was all in. It was such a fun weekend. Twenty eight plus hours of driving, an all-nighter, a nascar race, buying a nascar shirt at the walmart, street race party with free concert (that unfortunately I didn't get to see) in downtown charlotte, chillin with Trisha's family and lots of other fun events. So, you can never really understand what nascar is about until you have this experience, and I thought it was so great! Actually I compare it to my love for the 24th of July parade (on pioneer day) back in SLC. The party leading up to it is the fun part. Hanging out, lots of people around, eating junk food, thats the part I really enjoy. When it came to the race, I was not so interested in watching circles for 2 hours. I must admit that there were several crashes and a brawl at the end, but other than that watching the race was not my thing. I think one of the other great things about it was when Kyle Busch (??) won the race and he was boo'd and flipped off and people threw things at his car and he continued to do circles in front of the crowd and got out of his car to take a bow for them all. That was hilarious. Here are some pics of the weekend...
The girls posing by a Nas-car
Lowe's motor speedway
Lisa, Lora, Me and Trish at "Street Race" in downtown Charlotte
Me with my awesome turkey leg, iced lemonade and my "white trash" attire
Trish and I walking away from the race
Jared (with an awesome mullet), Lora and Lisa
Marci, Joana, Ally and Kirsti
The whole crew posing at Trisha's parents house before going to the race
The cars as they sped by (its a little bit hard to get a picture like this, I had to try several times until I actually had a car in the frame
Keep in mind that we had to try to look white trash and we still didn't come anywhere near that of reality. But here's how we tried: tatoos galore (including tramp stamps and boob tats), mullets, nascar t-shirts, pants that said "juicy" across the butt, crazy hairdo's, jeans with holes. Can you sort of picture it?? It was a blast. The highlight of my trip was in downtown Charlotte where they blocked off the streets and had everything fried food, millions of people so we couldn't even move and personal space was non-existant, loud music and lots of interesting people to look at.
Besides all the nascar activities, I had a great opportunity to sit and chill with the Cheney clan and that was also a lot of fun. Trisha's mom was an amazing hostess to 10 young adults and we couldn't have asked for better accomadations and company. I also got to stay at her brother, TJ's, house so thanks to them as well. Probably the best part about that was McKay telling me everything I have always wanted to know about pokemon, mario, donkey kong and yoshi. Good times. It was good to meet all you Cheney's!!
20 May 2008
1,000 miles in four days.
Well, my semester break is over and I am back in school. I had such an awesome break. Two weeks with lots of great times. My mom and my little brother, Shayne, flew out to visit me. My mom has never been out here to visit me, so I talked her into coming during this break. I picked up Trisha in Boston and the Road trip/Crazy weekend began. Picked my mom and Shayne up in Providence, Rhode Island and we were off to "The Big Apple"! It only takes 3 hours to get there, so we had some time to go to Times Square that night and walk around. That place is my favorite. It is so bright all during the night with so many lights. It's almost overwhelming to look at all of it, but its so cool. One of my favorite parts was eating yummy food from a street vendor at like 11:30 at night. Where does that happen? This city never sleeps. Hotels are expensive and still I had to sleep on the floor, so I didn't get much sleep.
At 5:30 in the morning, Shayne and I went running in Central Park, which was one block from our hotel. That thing really is massive. I only wanted to go for a 2-3 mile run but we kept getting lost and that resulted in like a 5+ mile run. It was so nice to run around amoungst many other runners and feel pretty cool. Next we tried to go to the "Today" show and display our posters of our Utah pride and wish my sister, Lisel, a Happy Birthday. That attempt failed, but it is one of my favorite memories of NYC just cause it was funny. We saw lots of buildings, walked a lot and ate a lot it seems. I was hungry and thirsty like every second. Some guy on the subway told us about a cool place in Brooklyn called the promenade, which we went to. It's across the river and it is a great place to admire the city and yet sit in peace, away from the hectic city. We wanted to try to see "Wicked," but that didn't turn out, so we saw "Grease" instead and it was fantastic. We left NYC around midnight and I drove us home until nearly 3:00 in the morning. Don't worry, I went through 2 Mtn. Dews and 1 Coke to stay awake and I jammed to myself as everyone else eased in and out of consciousness.
Friday was a more relaxing day, we drove into Boston and had Clam Chowder in a bread bowl in Harvard Square. Nothing better than Clam Chowder in a bread bowl on a cool/rainy day in MA. The rest of the day was chill in preparation for the big race day.
New York City from across the river in Brooklyn
My mom, Shayne and Trish relaxing on a bench in Brooklyn after a lot of walking
Eating a snack from a street vendor in Times Square around midnight
Trying to be on the "Today" show was unsuccessful but a great memory
Time Square at night
What would New York be without taxis??
MetLife tower and Grand Central Station
Empire State Building
Race Day- May 10, 2008. Big Lake Half Marathon in Alton, New Hampshire.
It was another early morning and it was nerve racking as well. For months, myself and many others had been preparing for this day. The thought of running 13.1 miles was really scary to me, since I had only done 10.5 in my training and I had about 10 hours of sleep in the previous 3 days. The race started out bad, with my aunt trying to jet in front of me and get ground on me before I even knew what she was doing. Then my shins started to hurt really bad and I had to make a pit stop to use the restroom. That's when things get interesting. I take care of business and I am on my way back from the woods to the road to continue the race. I trip, I fall to the ground in the dirt and my ego is severely hurt. I kept running and washed myself off at the next water stand. It was so embarassing and I lost time because of it. Luckily, as I was running up the hill at about the half way mark, I saw my aunt in front of me and I got a slight boost of energy. I was so excited to catch up with her. I don't think she was quite as excited to see me as I was to see her. The rest of the race was really good and I managed to get under my goal time of 2 hours, so I am really proud of myself. Next goal in my life, train for a full-blown marathon...
Shayne at the begining of the race--He did really well finishing at 1:49:45! Kicked my butt...
They had entertainment along the route that was pretty sweet
Trisha running with tons of energy. She did so well and finished under her goal!
Aunt Jana, Shayne and I eating at the most healthy place ever, McDonald's, after running 13.1 miles
Mother's Day Sunday, I flew home to Utah to visit for a week. Looking back on it, it seems that I didn't do much. That means it was a successful vacation for me. I love to be lazy when I can. I did however, hang out with my family a lot. I went to Logan to spend time with CJ and Tania and Shayne. I spent time at Lisels, playing with the kids. I think I played every game imagineable with Caleb, he's funny. I watched Zach and Landon play in their soccer games, I watched 2 stupid Utah Jazz games, I watched 2 nearly full seasons of "Lost" so that I am completely caught up now. I went out with friends and enjoyed myself. I'm not one that tends to get home sick, but the longer I am in MA, the more I love and miss Utah. Maybe I want to move back there when I am done with school.
Zach at his soccer game blocking the goal
Landon (in the front) playing soccer
Sorry this post is so long, but I did so many great things in the last two weeks that I had to post them. Thanks to everyone who spent time with me over the last two weeks. I had such a great time all over the country!! I realize how fortunate I am to have such a wonderful family and amazing friends. I love you all!
01 May 2008
The BEST day of my life...
Many of you have heard me say, "May 1st will either be the best day of my life or the worst". Fortunately for me, it has turned out to be the best day of my life. The longest, most stressful, dreadful, busy, anxiety-provoking, crazy, sad, hard, terrible fourteen weeks of my life are finally over!!!!!! School had literally kicked my butt, pushed me into the ground and taken all hope from me during this semester. I have never had to work so hard, stay up so late so many times and still get crappy grades and fail tests. Two nights ago I got 1 hour of sleep and stayed up for 36 hours and then I came home and slept from 7:00 at night until like 9:00 in the morning totally zonked out. I could hardly motivate myself to study for one last test. It has been rough to say the least. And today I am so glad that it's over and I never have to go back to that semester. It is the BEST DAY of my life! Never been so happy about life. I am turning a new leaf and starting new again with some self confidence that I can make it through! I now have a two week break to hopefully chill and have a good time, stress free. And when I do go back its a new semester with a fresh start with a chance to get good grades again. That's all. Did I mention that today is the BEST day of my life? It is!!!
25 April 2008
Thinking back
I'm not really sure why, but due to some events that have recently transpired at my house, I am reminded of a great story from my past.
It must have been 1998 shortly after I got my drivers license. I was invited to attend a surprise birthday party for a friend of mine and many of my friends were gonna be there. I went and had a great time. I don't remember the party, thats not the good part of the story. As my friends and I were leaving to go do something else after the party, some of the kids started popping the baloons. There may have been some hoodlems there, I can't remember. There was also probably some rowdy kids messing around, it was a birthday party after all. We had to walk down the street to where we had parked to keep the surprise. As we crossed the street and were almost to our cars, we heard sirens all over the place. Not so unusual. The unusual part was that they seemed to be coming right towards us. Even more weird is that they (meaning several cop cars) came around the corner and pulled up right in front of us with their lights and sirens on. What?! This is weird and scary. I can't remember if the cops jumped out of the cars with their guns pointed at us, but I really want to say they did. Even if they didn't it felt like they did. So, 6 guys from high school that were not trouble makers were scared. I mean scared spitless. We had to put our hands on our heads, the whole drill... Scary! We had no idea why this was happening cause we clearly did nothing note worthy of cops. We were frisked by the female cop, she took our ID's and still we had no idea what was going on. Finally after several minutes of being scared to death and getting questioned, they let us go (maybe partly because they discovered that the mayors son was one of my friends). Come to find out, one of the neighbors had called the police department saying they heard gun shots!! Pretty sure there were no guns at that party. However, they must have sent the entire city squad to the scene. Several cars on us, several more cars on our friends down the street, several cars at the house. It was crazy! Maybe one of the more scary moments of my life. Now I laugh about it and think of what a great story it is.
