Viva Las Vegas

Where to start….ah, at the beginning…

About a month ago, I got the idea to visit some friends of mine in Las Vegas during the 4th of July weekend. So after purshasing my ticket, securing my lodging, and getting a day off work, I was set.

Thursday, July 3 came and my sister and I were off to LAX for our 45 min flight to McCarren Intl airport in Vegas. We arrived and hooked up with our friend. Let the fun begin. Or so we thought…

Come to find out my friend had the flu. It had been going around there in their church so I made sure to dissinfect my sleeping area.

But despite all that, we settled in for a weekend of fun by having a group of young people over that night for a movie night. We watched The Patriot and ate popcorn on the eve of July 4th. That made the movie so much more real. But that’s another post for another day.

So the next day, July 4th, we woke up to find out that my friend’s mom and dad and brother in law had the flu. Uh oh. They all stayed home while we went to a church picnic at Mount Charleston in the mountains surrounding Las Vegas. We had fun playing volleyball, barbequeing, and hiking. Ah yes, hiking.

Well all I was wearing was flip flops so I did not plan on taking part in the hiking that day. Guess I was wrong. My friend, who was also wearing flip flops and who had hiked this mountain before, assured me that I would be fine. So me, not being one to turn down an adventure, started up the mountain with my friends.

As I was nearing the top, my foot slipped and as I regained my balance, I happened to look down. I saw my toes covered in blood. I wasn’t really worried, per se. Just kind of shocked. I found a large rock, sat down, and took a look at my big toe. I guess I had sliced it on a sharp rock, because I saw a large chunk of skin hanging off and I could see all the way to the second layer of skin. I thought maybe if I rested for a minute it would be fine (I still think my brain was in shock and wasn’t functioning correctly). As I was sitting there I watched as the blood rolled down my foot and puddled in the dirt. That’s when I decided I should probably turn around and go back down the mountain.

I called out to a couple friends and told them I was going back. They accompanied me down the mountain because by that time, the shock was wearing off. I still didn’t feel pain, I just couldn’t walk correctly.

So as I got down the hill, I found a water spicket and washed off my toe. Not very well though. From all the hiking, dirt had lodged in my wound. So I bandaged it up and went on about my day, still not feeling pain. (I refrained from uploading the photo here on my blog for those with weak stomaches. It was rather bloody.)

That night I thought nothing of my foot and continued having fun. A group of us climbed onto the church roof and watched the fireworks from the Vegas strip. Then we played basketball and messed around till late that night.

When I got home I soaked my foot in some hydrogen peroxide (holy cow that was painful!) and some sea salt on request from my friend’s mom. It cleaned off some of the dirt but there was still a lot left. After a call to my parents and some advice from my friend’s parents, we decided that I would take a trip to the ER the next morning to have them clean it out. Bad move…

Saturday morning, time for more fun? Yes, but first I had to endure one of the most painful times in my life. Being ignorant, I thought this trip would simply be a quick time of pain but that it would be over quickly. Wrong.

Fast forward, I am lying on a cot in the ER, waiting for my doctor. My sister is on one side of me and my friend is on the other side. The doctor explains that I will have to have a tetanus shot (no problemo) and that in order to clean out my toe I will need a shot of Novacaine to numb my toe (although this made me nervous, the nurse assured me that it was a small needle, so I cooled off a bit). But what she forgot to tell me was that small needle was going directly into my wound. Into the exposed skin. Into the second layer of my epidermis. Into the heart of my agony. I winced, bucked, tensed up, cried.

The tears didn’t stop for a while. That pain was worse than the injury. As I laid there crying, wiping a mixture of tears and mascara from my cheeks, another nurse came and began scrubbing the wound. I felt the pressure of her scrubbing but partway through I began feeling another sensation: pain. The Novacaine was not working. I told her, but she didn’t seem to believe me. So the scrubbing continued, and my tears increased.

After what seemed like forever, she was done. I looked down and saw that it was a lot cleaner, but it was also a lot redder. The wound had been reagitated and began hurting a lot. I thanked the nurse, paid what I owed for their service, and headed out the door.

I grabbed some lunch, took my pain meds, and continued on with my day. That night our group of kids went shopping at an outdoor shopping market. Even though my toe was in pain and I was high on pain medicine, I had the time of my life.

Sunday night we all went downtown to the Vegas strip and walked through the Bellagio hotel. Their flower gardens are beautiful and we had fun just roaming around the hotel. We watched the water show out front then headed down the strip to see the sights.

After getting home late and watching a movie, we fell asleep early Monday morning. Before I fell asleep though, I began feeling ill. I shrugged it off as needing sleep. The next morning I woke up feeling even more sick, but I had a flight to catch so I pressed on. Right as I was about to hop in the shower, I began throwing up. Argh. I had caught it. That flu bug I had avoided my entire time in Vegas had finally caught up with me.

After debating delaying my flight a day, I decided I could make it. After all, it was only a 45 minute flight. So I threw all my luggage in my suitcase, threw on some clothes, and headed out the door, large metal bowl in hand to catch my sickness. The drive hurt but I was throw-up free. But the minute we stopped the car, it came. To spare you the gross details, I threw up a lot. But I had come this far, I couldn’t stop now.

I emptied my bowl, got my luggage out of the car, got my ticket, and headed for my gate. Yes, people looked at me funny as I lugged around a large metal bowl, but what did I care. The security lady even laughed and asked me if I planned on baking while on the plane. Not feeling the need to explain my life story, I simply said yes.

We got to our gate about 2 hours early. I laid down on the ground and was out. To sum up the rest of the trip, I got on the flight and sat down (our seats were in the very last row of the plane…great). I laid my head down and went to sleep, not to wake up until we landed in LA.

After landing in LA, I felt really good and knew the bug had passed. I don’t know why it only lasted a few hours, but I was thankful it was over.

So, what to some may sound like a trip of pain, illness, and misery; I can honestly say this past weekend was one of the funnest weekends of my life. I met some great new people (I will never forget you guys, Muriel, Keith, Peter, Isaac, Chris, Yuri, and Bryan!), saw a beautiful city, and got to spend time with some of my closest friends.

So what’s a little hole in my toe or an upset stomach? I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

The Next Step

Today as I was driving home from work, a friend of mine text me. He mentioned he had a job opening he wanted to talk to me about. He has just recently moved to Texas and become the director of media, student ministries, singles ministry, and marketing at a growing church. He has a great role of influence in leadership and is doing well there. He mentioned to me that the pastor of that church had told him he wanted to hire a staff writer/research assistant to help with writing curriculum and researching things for sermons, books, etc. My name automatically came to his mind so he contacted me.

I graduate from college next May and have an open door as to where I go from there. I have been communicating with a school in Virginia that talked about having me teach high school history. But nothing is set in stone yet.

So the question is: do I want to teach or do I want to write for the rest of my life? Over the past two years I have had a job as a writer/editor/proofreader at my church’s publications company. It really broke me into writing and introduced me to the world of journalism. I have enjoyed using my writing skills and developing them more. But I have also seen the stressful side of writing as well. Meeting deadlines, pleasing the boss, working, working, and reworking things until they are just right. While this is all normal and to be expected with a career in journalism, it can be a bit nervewracking nonetheless.

But on the flipside there’s teaching. And in saying that, I must mention that I’ve never taught before. Yes, I’ve taught the ocassional Sunday school lesson to the 4 year olds at church. But nothing like being in a classroom for 8 hours a day, every day. I love history and would love teaching history. But am I ready for it? Am I really meant to teach? I have no idea. Like I said, I don’t have enough experience to warrant a knowledgable answer to that question.

So what now? What’s the next step? I honestly don’t know. But I know I’ve been given two great opportunities, opportunities that I will not take lightly.

Sleeping in Hospital Waiting Rooms

Life has been one large roller coaster ride lately. Within the month of April, I have spent more time in a hospital than I ever want to (over 70 hours). Here’s how the story goes:

April 1: My baby niece is born. I already wrote a post on this, but it was a whole day spent in the hospital nonetheless.

April 11: Around 3 am, my dad wakes up with extreme pain in his kidneys. My mom takes him to the emergency room where they wait for several hours before being seen by a doctor. I spend the night awake by the phone, waiting for her to call with details. After he is seen by the doctor, she calls to tell me that he has kidneystones and after they picked up his medicine they would be home.

April 12: Dad still in extreme pain from the stones. The vicodin is no longer working for his pain.

April 13: Still in pain. Enduring it. Doctor said to wait and come back in on Monday if things weren’t better.

April 14: Sunday, more pain. Poor dad can’t take much more.

April 15: Monday. We encourage him to go back to the doctor. He wants to wait one more day. We give in.

April 16: 2pm He can’t take it anymore. Mom takes him to the hospital near our house.

5 pm I get a call from mom saying that the kidneystones have lodged in his kidney and they are blocking his kindeys from working…they are failing fast. The hospital doesn’t have a urologist who can take a look at him, so they are going to transport him to the nearest hospital, covered by our insurance, that has a urologist: 45 minutes away. They load him up in an ambulance, hit the lights, and take him away. I find a ride home from work, change, grab dinner, and wait for my mom. Mom comes home, we leave.

Update: My Life

Well I know I haven’t posted in a while so this is my filler post to let you know what’s going on in my life.

First: this week is Spring Break for my college so I worked a lot during the first part of the week and took Thursday and Friday off. My family and I are in St. George, Utah, as I write this post. We drove up here yesterday and spent the day today hiking and sightseeing around Zion National Park. If you have never been there, I wholeheartedly recommend it. Even if you don’t enjoy hiking per se, there is a free shuttle that tours the different sights. The most beautiful hike though was the 1.5 mile hike along the Virgin River in a valley between two large plateaus along the Pa’rus Trail. It is foremost a bike trail but is for pedestrians as well. Most of the trail is paved and takes you over several bridges and through a camp site. Tomorrow we drive home, but this has been an experience I will never forget/ I am glad we came. I will post photos when I have them uploaded.

Second: my sister in law is due to have my niece today, but as is the case with most first born children, she is late. So that is another exciting moment I am looking forward to in my life. I will post pictures on that as well when it happens.

And last: this summer I will be traveling back to Washington DC to finish sightseeing and to talk to a school about possibly working there when I graduate college next year. I would be teaching history in a high school in Herndon, Virginia, just outside DC. I know the administration of the school and would love to work there, especially since it is so close to DC.

So there it is…my life. Thanks for reading.

Microsoft Word is Possessed

At my job I write alot. In fact, most all I do is write. So I am very familiar with Microsoft Word. I use it every day of my life. But today something happened that has made me reconsider my use of Word.

I was innocently typing away when suddenly the paper clip “helper” popped up out of nowhere. I was confused as to why he suddenly appeared but thought nothing of it since I could easily make him disappear once again. So I proceeded to right click on Mr. Paper Clip and select the command to hide him from the drop down box. What happened next still sends shivers down my spine.

When I clicked to hide him, a box came up. This was not a normal text box in Word. But this box came as a small conversation cloud from Mr. Paper Clip. Kinda like how comic strips have those thought clouds or conversation clouds above characters to show that they are talking. Well it was like that. I had never seen it before.

The cloud said: “You’ve hidden me several times now. Would you like to turn me off permanently or hide me again.” Somewhat of a freaky analysis, yet that’s not where it stopped. I admit the message somewhat scared me, but as I looked closer I noticed that Mr. Paper Clip was staring at me with a mean look on his paper clip face. I mean, he was actually glaring at me!

I was beginning to seriously get scared. I mean, did this animated fellow actually have feelings? Was he upset that I had ignored him  for so long? Was he upset enough to exact revenge upon me? Would he erase all my documents, thus essentially ending my life? What would happen?

As I was pondering these life-changing questions, I thought of a solution! It was brilliant! A sure-fire success! I slowly crept my mouse toward Mr. Paper Clip. I made sure he didn’t see me coming. Just then, I clicked “No, continue to hide me.”

Poof. As quickly as he came, he disappeared again. I was free. I could return to a normal life, a life of carefree writing. All fear was gone. All apprehension dissolved. I was free at last.

But I only hid him. That means he is still lurking in my computer, ready to strike again who knows when. That scares me.

Merry Christmas All

Well right now I am in Western Tennessee at my cousins’ house just hanging out. I will be here for the next two weeks. I won’t be online very much and I do not get cell phone reception up here (because we are really in the moddle of nowhere). So communication is limited…but it’s really nice to get some time away.

So I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Daylight Saving Time

No, I didn’t misspell the title to this post. Just read on.

This past Saturday I kept wrestling with whether or not this was the week that we all roll back our clocks. It seemed to me that we always changed our clocks on the last Saturday of October, making last Saturday the day in question.

I had heard conflicting reports of friends who were rolling their clocks back and others who were still at the same time. I was confused until I read this article. It explained that a new law was in effect in the United States this year. It seems President Bush signed a new bill back in 2005 that pushed Daylight Saving Time back a week. (That would explain the conflicting reports from friends…some were from Europe which still observe the original date.) This change is hoped to help conserve energy and whatnot. Whatever. It just means we have to wait another week to get that extra hour of sleep.

So while at the website, I decided to read around a bit and see what else the site had to say about DST. Well, it seems we all have been saying it wrong. Most of us have referred to it as Daylight Savings Time. This is not grammatically correct. It is Daylight Saving Time–no ’s.’

Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Because of this, it would be more accurate to refer to DST as daylight-saving time. Similar examples would be a mind-expanding book or a man-eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an ’s’) flows more mellifluously off the tongue. Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage and can be found in dictionaries.

Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, but it is not as politically desirable.

So that’s it. Have a happy Daylight Savings Time, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight-Saving Time, and Daylight Shifting Time on Saturday.