I have a deep and abiding love for literature, for complex stories and their application to the way we live and process our experiences. Unfortunately, I tend to get hung up on overly elaborate details and descriptions often found in the typical novel and miss the broader points.
Cody has introduced me to Japanese literature and continually shows me new authors to read. His latest discovery is a woman who goes by the pen name Banana Yoshimoto. I just finished a novella from her called Kitchen and it was glorious.
The book reminded me of nothing so much as mental sorbet - her tone is light, relaxed, and flowing. It's a fast, 107 page read, but completely worth the half hour or so I spent. The story is about two people whose lives are both touched by quiet tragedy, how they come to terms with it, and how they find solace in one another. It's beautifully simple - no epic, grandiose quest, no end of the world or imminent social change. There's a quiet reflection she conveys that just drained away the stress I've been feeling and made me appreciate the little things we do for other people that mean more than some of the big ones. It was a refreshing change of pace.
Of course, as is wont to occur, this peaceful reflection was then destroyed on my way back to Pocatello on Easter. It's normally a quick, forty-five minute drive. Not a particularly appealing stretch of desert, but with music it's bearable. After approximately half an hour on the highway, I felt something strange happen in the rear of the car and it started handling oddly. I realized a tire had blown and pulled off to the side of the road. The car behind me had seen it happen, and the friendly occupants came out to see if they could help. I popped the back, grabbed the spare tire, went for the jack in the handy side compartment, but - oh, what was this? No jack in the little slot?
How odd, I thought, as I'm not functionally inept and do in fact know how to change a tire. The jack should be here. I have the lever to crank it up . . . Luckily the gentleman driving the other car had one and he zipped off to his car to grab it. We jacked the car up, removed the lug nuts, and discovered to our dismay that the tire was rusted to the bolts. Neither one of us had a hammer. We kicked the wheel, shook the car, drove the car on the wheel, all to no avail. I called the illustrious father and convinced him to bring both a hammer and an actual tire so I wouldn't have to use the spare. The kindly gentleman apologized for not actually being able to help, took his jack, and left.
I then called my less-than-illustrious older brother, as the car was previously his, to discern the location of the jack. His response of "Uh, I dunno, I guess I took it out," was less than helpful. I started rooting around under the seats and, lo and behold, found the jack. The bent jack. Figuring it was better than nothing, I stuck it back under the car and jacked it up - which was really stupid, as the jack bent more. Two more helpful cars stopped, but they were also unable to remove the cursed tire.
At this point it was getting dark, so I threw the components back in the car and started to tromp around the side opposite the freeway to sit inside my useless vehicle. Enter the flashing lights of a police officer. He stepped out of his car and came over to make sure I wasn't some sort of hook-handed hitchhiker about to murder the occupant of the stranded Subaru, then informed me he didn't feel right leaving me alone to wait for my father and would stay in his car so nothing happened. It was a kind gesture, but he also left the flashing lights on so it appeared as though I was getting the world's longest DUI. Half an hour later the previously mentioned father appeared, bearing both wheel and hammer. A few quick taps removed the bastard tire, which he took as I went for the replacement.
"Kirstin, I've never seen this tire before."
"What?" I turned around to see him raising an eyebrow at the sadly deflated hunk of rubber.
"This is not one of our tires. And where's your hubcap?"
Said hubcap has been missing for weeks. I assumed it had fallen off, as the car is from 1996 and is, well, awful. Apparently not so. Some delightful inhabitant of Pocatello stole just one of my tires and thoughtfully replaced it. Can you see, dear reader, why I hate this place?
We put the replacement tire on and discovered it was rather lacking in air pressure. And was studded. I then got to drive 35 mph down the road to the next exit for a gas station with my hazard lights flashing and the studs making the whole car vibrate.
After this ridiculous venture I threw myself into my apartment (I may have been throwing a mental hissy fit. Don't look at me that way, you'd do it too.), poured a glass of rum, and downed it. And then remembered I hadn't eaten anything in a good six hours.
It was a long night.
- SqueezeBox
(forthcoming post that will actually appear in a timely manner: Kafka on the Shore and potentially an accordion video of a sea chantey)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Whaaaaat? An update?
It's been a shamefully long time since my last post. I blame insane classes, high work schedule, and the fact that I've been basically dropping comatose into bed when I come home. It's been a hard semester. We're wrapping up the cancer module right now - this post is a brief break in the sea of ridiculously hard to spell drugs I'm adrift in. I'm having a difficult time forcing myself through this last push of intensive studying. It doesn't help that I tanked one of the exams and am therefore on the borderline of two grades, or that I don't want to specialize in oncology.
Thankfully spring break is in two days and I'll be able to relax then. We'll be between modules so unless I want to read ahead on GI/hepatic stuff, I'm free from studying woes. I also have most of the week off from work, so I plan on playing video games, reading through a stack of books, and playing my accordion. There may be a road trip with Dan in there as well.
As I haven't updated in forever, I also haven't mentioned my current boyfriend. His name is Dan, and he's a good mix of nerd/outdoorsy. He enjoys discussions of chemistry and video games while at the same time taking me longboarding and snowboarding. Having a boyfriend who lives a block away is very strange. Pleasant, but strange. We can have dinner together at the drop of a hat, or he can stop by and play some Modern Warfare with me, or any number of things I'm very unaccustomed to.
One last thing before I dive back into the world of cancer and pain treatment - Pi day was this Sunday and I managed to convince my fellow students to participate. I made blueberry, chocolate truffle, and lemon meringue, while two others made pecan and banana cream. It was a delicious success. I'm not counting my mental block regarding all things lemon that ended in the lemon meringue resembling more neon yellow goop than anything in pie form. I can't make lemon bars either . . . it's a citrus-y tragedy.
There will be more posts from now on as the next module is rumored to be the easiest we have and I'm planning on actually using my camera more. And playing/recording the accordion playing. Now that I have a full size I'll be able to expand what I can do (if my arm holds up, that beast is heavy).
- SqueezeBox
Thankfully spring break is in two days and I'll be able to relax then. We'll be between modules so unless I want to read ahead on GI/hepatic stuff, I'm free from studying woes. I also have most of the week off from work, so I plan on playing video games, reading through a stack of books, and playing my accordion. There may be a road trip with Dan in there as well.
As I haven't updated in forever, I also haven't mentioned my current boyfriend. His name is Dan, and he's a good mix of nerd/outdoorsy. He enjoys discussions of chemistry and video games while at the same time taking me longboarding and snowboarding. Having a boyfriend who lives a block away is very strange. Pleasant, but strange. We can have dinner together at the drop of a hat, or he can stop by and play some Modern Warfare with me, or any number of things I'm very unaccustomed to.
One last thing before I dive back into the world of cancer and pain treatment - Pi day was this Sunday and I managed to convince my fellow students to participate. I made blueberry, chocolate truffle, and lemon meringue, while two others made pecan and banana cream. It was a delicious success. I'm not counting my mental block regarding all things lemon that ended in the lemon meringue resembling more neon yellow goop than anything in pie form. I can't make lemon bars either . . . it's a citrus-y tragedy.
There will be more posts from now on as the next module is rumored to be the easiest we have and I'm planning on actually using my camera more. And playing/recording the accordion playing. Now that I have a full size I'll be able to expand what I can do (if my arm holds up, that beast is heavy).
- SqueezeBox
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Adventures in Compounding (and other things)
Today was another one of the compounding Saturdays of doom. I went into work (running on very few hours of sleep, thanks to the inane urge to watch Watchmen at midnight last night) and was presented with twelve IVs, 50 syringes to put 0.1 mL of a drug into, and a stack of things that needed to be made. I spent two hours in the hood -which is pleasant enough at first, but soon it becomes a sweltering nightmare in which you're focusing so hard on tiny details that you start to forget big picture things. Like the fact that I still have one more exam coming up, or that you should probably remove surgical booties when out of the hood so you don't walk around looking like an escaped mental patient the rest of the day.
It wouldn't have been such a bad day except that we finally got the H1N1 vaccine in and another shipment of the seasonal flu vaccine. The other intern essentially had to spend the entire day in the blood draw room sticking needles in people while I ran back and forth from the compounding room to help the pharmacist out during rushes, usually whilst covered in whatever cream I'd just spilled. An observation of note: wearing a surgical mask, even if it's just to prevent yourself from breathing in hormone dust, freaks patients out. Moreso when you burst flailing from the room and trip over the rug while trying to wipe a concoction of testosterone off your arm before it absorbs enough to cause some rather unpleasant changes.
I ended up making something like 600 mL of a stock cream and filled well over fifty syringes with the stuff. The true trial of the day, though, came in the form of a thyroid capsule that for some unfathomable reason contains olive oil. I have no idea why anyone would put olive oil in a gelatin capsule, but I valiantly attempted it with the assurances of the lead compounding tech that she'd done it before and it works pretty well.
I don't know to which dark gods she has been sacrificing sheep to be able to make that work, because I spent two hours trying to coax the oil/pig thyroid/silica gel mess into those capsules. It smelled terribly, looked like death, and refused to cooperate. I gave up when the syringe I was using exploded the vile mixture all over the window and wall, and vowed to steal the dark secrets from her on Monday.
Also, I recently gave in to a two-year wish and bought myself a squishable. It's amazing. That's him above. I dubbed it Worthington and promptly spent the afternoon taking pictures of him attacking various things and being quite the intellectual. The afternoon would probably have been better spent studying for the dosage form and design final I had Friday, but everybody needs a break, right? And that particular final turned out to be ridiculously easy.
The aforementioned projects are still in the works - one of them involves setting up a program that would allow a group of people to see what their friends are reading and connect to other people who read the same things. I can't do it by myself, so the ever-awesome Cody will hopefully be helping me iron it out when we both have some actual time. I got the idea from him, as he has been talking about keeping track of everything he reads, and I think it'd be a neat way to connect with your friends and with other people.
There may be another post up tomorrow. I, in a lapse of judgment, agreed to let the techs take me out to the bars tonight for a few hours. If some other less-than-suave "gentleman" tries to shove his hand in my drink his time, he's going down.
It wouldn't have been such a bad day except that we finally got the H1N1 vaccine in and another shipment of the seasonal flu vaccine. The other intern essentially had to spend the entire day in the blood draw room sticking needles in people while I ran back and forth from the compounding room to help the pharmacist out during rushes, usually whilst covered in whatever cream I'd just spilled. An observation of note: wearing a surgical mask, even if it's just to prevent yourself from breathing in hormone dust, freaks patients out. Moreso when you burst flailing from the room and trip over the rug while trying to wipe a concoction of testosterone off your arm before it absorbs enough to cause some rather unpleasant changes.
I ended up making something like 600 mL of a stock cream and filled well over fifty syringes with the stuff. The true trial of the day, though, came in the form of a thyroid capsule that for some unfathomable reason contains olive oil. I have no idea why anyone would put olive oil in a gelatin capsule, but I valiantly attempted it with the assurances of the lead compounding tech that she'd done it before and it works pretty well.
I don't know to which dark gods she has been sacrificing sheep to be able to make that work, because I spent two hours trying to coax the oil/pig thyroid/silica gel mess into those capsules. It smelled terribly, looked like death, and refused to cooperate. I gave up when the syringe I was using exploded the vile mixture all over the window and wall, and vowed to steal the dark secrets from her on Monday.
Also, I recently gave in to a two-year wish and bought myself a squishable. It's amazing. That's him above. I dubbed it Worthington and promptly spent the afternoon taking pictures of him attacking various things and being quite the intellectual. The afternoon would probably have been better spent studying for the dosage form and design final I had Friday, but everybody needs a break, right? And that particular final turned out to be ridiculously easy.
The aforementioned projects are still in the works - one of them involves setting up a program that would allow a group of people to see what their friends are reading and connect to other people who read the same things. I can't do it by myself, so the ever-awesome Cody will hopefully be helping me iron it out when we both have some actual time. I got the idea from him, as he has been talking about keeping track of everything he reads, and I think it'd be a neat way to connect with your friends and with other people.
There may be another post up tomorrow. I, in a lapse of judgment, agreed to let the techs take me out to the bars tonight for a few hours. If some other less-than-suave "gentleman" tries to shove his hand in my drink his time, he's going down.
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