Life is back to normal and I LOVE it

To update you..... I had my MRI last Friday. It was quite the enjoyable experience. I was given an atavan pill to help calm me down and make me sleepy. By the time I was laid on the MRI stretcher and was comfortably position with a pillow on my back (I had to lay on my side) I was sooo close to falling asleep. A facecloth was put over my eyes so that I could not see how close the machine was to my face and a warm blanket was put over my body to keep me warm. I actually didn't want to come out of the MRI and was REALLY tired on the way home. I now know why someone has to come and drive the patient home as I went straight to bed when I arrived home... it was 9pm on a Friday night!  

Yesterday I wrote my exam.  It was quite enjoyable. 100 multiple choice. One of those exams where I knew why the wrong answers were wrong so I was confident in my answers.  I am happy it is over and have decided to wait until the spring to take a course as the required courses I need are not offered in the winter through online education and I am taking 1 in June and 1 in July. June I will take "Family Violence".  Not looking forward to the content of that course.

Today I met a friend for lunch at St Vital mall and then finished Christmas shopping. My sister was at the mall as well as she had the day off work, as did I, so we hung out together which was a lot of fun.  This coming weekend will be fun. I told friends I was not available to get together until after my exam was over. I forgot the week following my exam is Christmas so this coming weekend I am getting together with 7 different people in a span of 3 days!!! Good thing I have a few days off next week to recouperate.

Well I am off to wrap presents and clean my condo!

Challenges for the week.

2 days from now I have to go for an MRI. This past spring I put my shoulder out of place... so bad in fact that I could not move myself anywhere for a month. I had to live at my mom's, had to have people push me a lot of the time. No fun. The orthopaedic specialist I saw suggested an MRI as he was not going to inject collagen into me as I am on blood thinners so I could bleed internally to the point of death.  Well the date of the MRI has finally arrived. Friday night at 8:30 I have a date with the MRI machine at the hospital at which I work at.  This experience wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact I am severely claustrophobic. If I am sleeping and have the covers over my head, wake up and can't find my way out from the covers I begin to hyperventilate. When the airplane doors are closed and locked I begin to literally see the walls of the airplane close in on me. Soo that makes this MRI all the more exciting. For those of you who are unfamiliar with an MRI machine it is basically a large machine in which the patient lies on a hard bed and is slide into this massive machine. The body of the machine is then placed VERY close to the patient's body and a hammering noise occurs every so often during the exam. The examination takes about 1 - 2 hours.  The hospital called me this evening to remind me of my appointment and told me I will be sedated so that I will not be able to comprehend much of what is going on. I will still be awake but not as conscious as I normally would be. I have spent the last week with a flu which I am finally getting over so let's hope that I won't get sick in the MRI machine.  So that is my first challenge.

My second challenge I took on last night. Lately I've realized that Facebook has become somewhat of a constant presence in my life. I check it at least 5 times/night and instead of calling friends on the phone I'll send them a Facebook message. I have my final exam in my nutrition course on Monday afternoon so I figured this would be a great time to try and go for 5 days without Facebook.  I have a 95% in the course right now and want to get at least 95% on the final so if I place restrictions on myself with Facebook that will help. It's ironic as the moment I wrote on Facebook I was taking a break from Facebook, my gmail inbox was immediately overflowing with emails from people saying they don't believe I can do it, and they'll believe it when they see it. Thanks for the vote of confidence people.

That's about it from the deep-freeze city of Wpg.  I'll let you know how my MRI and exam went.

Lesson I learned today

I participated in an interesting activity today and I challenge you to try this the next time you are hurt by someone's actions. I was told to write a list of people whom I know love me, support me, and care for my well-being. My list initially consisted of my mom, my sister, my brother, my sister-in-law, my nephew (even though he's almost 2 I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm cool), and then I had to list specific names of friends and coworkers who support and love me. I was surprised to see the list of people. On the other side of the page I was told to write the name of the person who hurt me by their actions. My "teacher" in this activity said that when we as humans are wronged by others we think only about the person who hurt us, we don't think about the people who support us, love us, and encourage us. It was like a lightbulb went on in my head as I realized how I have spent weeks, months focusing on that one person and not on those who love, support, encourage and shared my anger, hurt and frustration in this incident. 

The lesson I learned today is that it's good to focus on those who love and support you and don't give a moments thought to those who hurt you because those people aren't worth your time. As a friend of mine said last night..... in the end when we all have to answer to God in regards to our actions, those people who wronged us had better have some pretty good excuse for why they treated us the way they did.

I wish I had learned this lesson a few weeks ago and saved myself the stress, frustration and anger that some people can hold over you if you let them.

Interesting.

For those of you who don't know I am currently completing my degree at the U of M in Family Social Sciences, with a major in Child & Adolescent Development.  With that said I came across this interesting article written by Jamie Johnson. Jamie Johnson was once featured on Oprah as the heir to the famous Johnson & Johnson line (mothers of babies will know of this company). Jamie writes weekly blogs for Vanity Fair magazine exposing the "underworld" of the wealthy. He has gotten into trouble with his family members for his articles, lectures, and notariaty for his actions however he believes the world has a right to know and he doesn't feel that his status and prestige make him untouchable to those middle and lower class people.

I know in Hollywood social classes mean something, especially when one gets in trouble with the law. Here in Canada, in Winnipeg, I'm not so sure it matters as much, unless you are immersed in that culture. Being sent to a private high school I remember popularity being based on the street you lived on, where you vacationed, and who you knew. 15 years later stuff like that doesn't really matter to me anymore.

In any case this article caught my eye and made me wonder whether the content of this article is valid. I don't clearly remember the age that I "realized" the social class I fit into however this article does have me now thinking.

Check it out.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/style/the-one-percent/#share-1000000000186853

Fall is here!!!!

I enjoy summer however fall is my favourite season. I love the changing of the leaves. The view from my condo provides an amazing array of green, orange, red, and yellow leaves. I love the crispness in the air when leaving to work in the morning. I love getting out the warm fall sweaters, wool blankets, and turning on the heating in the car. I love fall because it is the season of my birthday (next Monday October 5 for those of you that feel inclined to buy me a Starbucks gift card).   :)

As much as I am looking forward to fall I also am excited to hopefully have my last few days of summer from October 27-31 in Vancouver. I'm flying out there with a friend for the U2 concert, to see friends and family and hopefully make a trip down to Seattle. Vancouver is suppose to have amazing weather the end of October. Last year my friend was on the beach Halloween day in shorts and a tank top. Here's the hoping that will be the case for me. In any case a change of scenery with mountains and hilly streets will be fun.

As I said I love fall however after having been outside today I think my body is not climatized yet to the chill so I think I will go make myself a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Til next time....

Stay fit and have fun! (I just saw that commercial on tv).

Start of a new year!

I realize January 1 is the official beginning of the new year however since I was a little kid it always felt like September was the start of a new year. New clothes as summer was over so shorts and skirts went into hibernation and out came pants, sweaters, and jackets. School started which was great as I was the loser girl who impatiently waited on July 1 for Sept 1 when school would begin. I loved school so much I would play school with my dolls during the summer months. New school year meant new school supplies.  How can one not think of September as the start of a new year?

This September is no different. Ok summer weather is just arriving so maybe the summer clothes will stay out a few more weeks however other than that everything is new.  I accepted a term position at the Children's Hospital working in the urology, renal, Child/Family Services, Child Protection, Sports Medicine/Dance and Orthopedic clinics (all these clinics are situated in one location, each clinic on a different day). Ironically the person normally in this position went back to school to be a nurse so I am in her position until the end of the University year, April 2010. My position began September 7 so this falls under the category of "new" for Sept.

After having taken a year off my schooling to focus on myself and re-evaluate life I am back in school. I am taking an online distance education course titled "Nutrition for the Changing and Healthy Lifestyle". I read the first chapter tonight and felt as though I was back in high school chemistry class; amino acids, carbohydrates, peptides. Can't wait for the scientific aspect to be over so the theory asked can begin next chapter.  

There are other new things happening which I am not at liberty to discuss right now as they are in the works however when the time comes you shall know.

Stay tuned and enjoy the summer we have left.

#1 pet peeve

There is one thing I HATE HATE HATE the most. I hate when I'm waiting for an elevator, the button is pressed, people are waiting for the elevator to arrive and then some idiot comes and presses the button. Does the person really think that 20 people standing around the elevator did not press the button? Does the person think that they have the magical touch to make the elevator come more quick?

Today I was waiting for the elevator at work, the button was pressed, there were 5 people waiting for the elevator and some dumb lady comes to press the button. I looked at her and said in a snotty voice "The button was already pressed". She looked at me and said "Oh I wasn't sure if it was". I responded "Do you really think 5 people would be standing here waiting for someone to come press the button".  That's how much I hate when someone comes to press the button.... I am mean and snotty to them.