Halloween

I know it's delayed, but I had to get the pictures from a roommate. This was my Halloween costume this year. I honestly haven't dressed up for Halloween since....maybe I was 12 or something like that. I had a ton of fun doing it this year though. What were we? The Chinese Olympic gymnastic team, passports and all to prove that yes, we were 16. :)



From left to right: Kate, me, Megan, Lori


The mug shot- same order as before.


Kate


Megan- she's amazing, she made our medals,
passports and flags for the "leotards".

SPI

Standardized Patient...Interviews? I don't even know what the I stands for, but those three letters have been the cause of serious fear and trembling this semester. Tomorrow at 12:30 I will be told to enter a room that is actually set up to look like a doctor's office and I will take a patient history and do an initial examination of an actor who is paid to act like a patient with some kind of injury. While I do this, there will be cameras and on the other side an unknown faculty member watching and evaluating me. Pretty much the scariest part of the semester considering all that could potentially go wrong the first try. Really, I am sure it will be fine, but there is some unavoidable anxiety that goes with the situation. It is super funny to watch the stress level of the class rise (probably even funnier when I am not one of the individuals experiencing it).

Anyway, one of my classmates sent this scene from Grey's Anatomy out to the class. Perhaps it won't be funny to the rest of you, but it cracked me up because it is probably how my dreams will be tonight. This week we met with some students that are training to be Physical Therapist Assistants and one of their students was being evaluated in a similar situation and in that scenario the patient coded (aka their heart stopped beating, start CPR). Pretty much- my worst nightmare (physical therapy clouds my dreams these days). I know none of it will happen and everything will work out fine tomorrow because even if I fail on my first try, I get a second chance. Nevertheless, it's that unavoidable anxiety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eF1gmkmoIs

North Carolina

It's been quite a weekend! I went down to Fayetteville, NC to visit Catherine (same friend who came up a few weeks ago). We had a really fun and relaxing weekend. The drive is beautiful- the highway is surrounded by a wall of trees that are turning colors, it's really amazing! Here's the proof of the trip. Oh and by the way- turns out that they pull people over for speeding a lot in NC- blast! Wish I would have known that earlier- once you cross into Virginia you can speed, but not so much in NC. :(

The colorful leaves...








Catherine and her adorable niece at the Veteran's day parade!



Catherine and I at the parade. That is the Fayetteville trainstation in the background. It's really old, but still operating.


Apparently no southern parade is complete without the "bars and stars" of the confederate flag. I must admit that this is the first parade that I have attended that has had a confederate flag- don't think it is considered appropriate in Colorado or Utah. But, there you go! The real deal- a whole "float" dedicated to the confederacy. Welcome to "The South"!


This is me at the Special Forces Museum in Fayetteville. It goes through the history of the special forces from WWII to present. There was a fake "plane" that you could sit in that is like the old planes...from WWII I think...that they did airborne missions from and jumped out of. So- this is me preparing to jump!

Voting

An interesting change from the west to the east- When I was in Colorado and even more so at BYU people asked all the time "Are you going to vote?" I think the majority of people that I knew at BYU never voted. Change of pace- out here not a single person asked me if I was going to vote, but when I was going to vote or if I already had voted. I am amazed at people's enthusiasm over politics out here. I don't always love the politics, but I must admit that I love that people appreciate the right that we have to vote. Honestly, getting to the polls was the number one priority yesterday. I think it is quite a priviledge that we have to dictate who our leaders will be and what goes on in our country and we often take advantage of what a blessing it is to have that freedom.