The Weird Ways of Life

Life has a funny way of being...not what you expect it, yes?  Unfortunately, I still can't load images onto the blog. I need to go somewhere that has a better internet connection to do that and one way or another, it hasn't made it to the top of my list. Still thought I'd write an update as I haven't been in touch with many of you!

Life in Topeka has been...well, rather eventful. My time here has included my car air conditioner breaking down (twice now), my apartment air conditioner breaking down, my sink getting plugged, re-"decorating" my apartment with my mom (a very successful trip to goodwill to cover, decorate, refurnish, etc etc), desmoking as much of the apartment carpet as I can, going to Missouri to see my sister Tania and her wonderful family three times, a trip to Omaha Nebraska to Winter Quarters, a couple very long trips to laundermats to get my laundry done, going shooting for the first time (with a 45, it was kinda awesome), speaking in the family ward I was attending church at and then (through an interesting series of events, long story) deciding to attend the student ward that's 30 miles away instead, crazy.  It's been enough to keep me busy. Then in my clinical I have had such wonderful experiences as having a coworker whose mother unexpectedly died, which was sooo sad and then having the stress of everyone picking up his patient's at work- makes life interesting and eventful, seeing a patient whose clavicle was broken completely in two and the outside piece was completely displaced (she kept saying, oh that piece is gone, you just can't find it) and actually being the first medical professional to pick up on this (ie she went to the ER twice and her general practitioner before coming to me)- it was an old fracture that never healed and apparently the two pieces separated last week when she fell, being present for the rather dramatic and unexpected change at the hospital described gently as "the hospital will not have as many employees and will not be as big as it once was" aka. we're laying off 105 people in the next 24 hours and oh- by the way, it's all administrative positions or people who have been here a long time so..you no longer have a support staff (both our office people were laid off, tell me how you run a clinic when in the morning you have two office people and by 10 o'clock the next morning, you unexpectedly have none), getting in trouble with my program because amidst all that I didn't manage to get my midterm evaluation completed on time, and neither did my CI, oh and finding out the same day that they were doing lay-offs that the head of our department is changing jobs, moving to a different clinic, so at the end of this week, there's a new head of the department/boss. Can I just say, it's an interesting time to be an intern? The clinic is undergoing such dramatic changes that nothing feels very stable. I've had quite a few interesting patients including some that have given me more information than I ever cared to know, some who flirt too much, and I think by the time I leave I will officially be a "mean" therapist. This week my patients all decided I was mean. What can I say? shoulder injuries and knee surgeries hurt and I can't help it, I figure when they can walk again they'll be grateful to me!  It's true they call me mean, but honestly, it's been AMAZING to interact with patients. I love it. I love being out of the classroom, I love the hands on learning, the crazy stories, new experiences.  It's still life of course, no dream world- there's the miserable patients, paperwork galore, messing things up and having to fix them, but really, it's so good to be doing what I hope to do in the future!...the not very distant future even!

Finally, there's "the gang".  There's a bunch of old men who live in my apartment complex who sit out around the back of this guys truck every night and smoke, drink sodas, and chat. They are so funny.  They've sort of become my "guardians".  I'm officially supposed to let them know if I'm going to be gone for extended periods of time so they won't worry, they think I can't date a guy until they approve first, they've given me a curfew to be back on the premises and I still break it! and they tell me that this place is like hotel california, once I get in, I'll never get out.  They crack me up.  I was really hesitant to get to know them at first, but they've become the people who I associate with most in Topeka.  They crack me up. There's something kind of dreamy and wonderful about warm (sometimes hot), humid summer evenings, sitting back the truck, listening to all of the reminisce about life and experiences, hear stories about Vietnam, hear the history of this weird place where I live, see them get excited about my hopes and my future. I've never experienced anything quite like it, but I'm growing to rather love those hours out there.  They spend all evening and I spend an hour at most, but I love that time to just stop and have nothing to do.

So that's a bit about me.  Hopefully more exciting things will appear on the blog soon!