Westward Ho!

In 54 days, I'll be moving to New Mexico for a year long fellowship in regional anesthesia!  Whoo hoo!  I'm finally going back to the West.

In 92 days, I'll take the boards (eww), and in 95 days, I start my fellowship.  Who knows what'll happen after that.  I don't know where I want to live when I grow up.

9/11 Again...

It still resonates.  It's still sobering.  The images are still fresh.  I see it on a bigger TV now, but it's like 12 years ago.  I see the people jumping from the TV images and feel as bad now as I did then.  This year, it's also a Tuesday like it was in 2001.  I've progressed in life.  The US has had many changes, some good, and some bad, but it's eerily similar to 2001.  No, I don't have German, nor do I have my Orgo lab, but it causes pause to stop and remember.

I'm watching "102 Minutes that Changed America" on the History Channel.  I didn't watch it live as it happened.  I didn't know that I should have watched it.  It was an early morning for me, and I wanted to sleep.  There would be something on the news later.  This is what got me started watching the Fox News regularly.  I also read newspapers in Australia where I had lived for the summer of 2001.  The show has voices of people who would never be heard from again.

There was a change then.  No one could put their finger on what it was then or what could even happen, but now, it is known as the "Post-9/11 World."  Things are different.  We manage.  Those of us who remember traveling before may always have a hint of annoyance that things aren't what they were.  But I have to think that despite annoying me at the airport, the TSA is helping prevent another event like 9/11.

I thank God for the people who gave their lives to help that day, and I pray for the families affected on this anniversary.  I pray that God is seen through this disaster and the memories of it.  That people seek Him for comfort.  He is there is the midst of this.  He wants us to rely on Him.  Jesus and the Holy Spirit can provide comfort, guidance, and help.  I don't think anyone actually reads this blog, but maybe someone will one day.  These are just my random thoughts while watching a show and remembering...

Jeremiah 29:11

MMMMM.... Fudge

It's not enough that Kraft Marshmallow Creme changed their packaging jars, they also had to go and change the recipe for Fantasy Fudge -- previously the best fudge I had ever had.

Fortunately, when I made it, I was not paying attention to all the instructions due to being super tired, so I didn't notice the difference until I put the chocolate chips in and then noticed the 12oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips was changed to chopped up blocks of semi-sweet chocolate. I couldn't remember the exact amount for the chocolate chips, but I was sure there were chips. I felt like I was taking crazy pills with the new change!

Nevertheless, I continued and added chocolate chips until the color and consistency of the old fudge that I knew and remembered. The recipe I ended up with was a morphed recipe of the old and new fudge recipes, and it turned out pretty well. Part of it has to do with I can't ever remember the temperature to heat things to having lived at so many elevations, but the 234 instead of 240 seemed to work quite well for Milwaukee.

I will continue to at least use the old recipe. Kraft, for shame, it shouldn't have been changed. And I did love the glass jars, they were perfect for storing other things.

Fun Patients Make My Day

On Friday, I had 2 scheduled cases before being on call. The second patient and his wife were very entertaining while I was waiting to go back to the OR with the patient. I had to give him Afrin and nebulized lidocaine treatments before going into the room, and he was just so funny about their descriptions.

He was compliant with taking the medications I asked him to take. Afrin, as he scrunched up his face with disgust, was "just like licking a monkey's foot!" He couldn't tell me how he knew what a monkey's foot tasted like. Then came the lidocaine nebulizer. He took huge breaths to get it over with fast, with a worse face than the Afrin. I was talking with his wife, and I was like, "What do you think this will taste like?" She said matter of factly, "We'll find out shortly, and I'll hear about it for the rest of my life." When he finished the treatment, we found out that lidocaine tastes like "licking a platypus' butt." If I hadn't given him versed, it would've tasted like "licking a rhino's leg." This was all made worse by the glycopyrrolate I had given earlier where I was then making him chew on a cotton ball.

Fortunately, he was very good with doing the treatments, but I'm sure he'll never forget me and the "wonderful" drugs I provided.

9/11/01

It's been almost 10 years. This must be what the JFK assassination was like for my parents. Now they have 2 events where they remember exactly where they were.

I remember exactly where I was. I was a junior in college at the University of Arizona . I was asleep in my dorm room in La Paz. It was dark. I had a later starting class -- a 6 unit German class. I had probably stayed up late the night before, and I was sleeping in as late as possible -- as per usual. When I am awakened from a deep sleep, I am always confused.

Shortly after 0700. The phone rang. My roommate and I ignored it. It must be a mistake, why was someone calling this early when both of us were asleep. A message wasn't left, but the phone rang again. I begrudgingly answered it to make it stop ringing. It was my mom. My mom was frantically calling from Hawai'i very early in the morning.
Mom: "Ashleigh, our government's under attack!"
Me: "Huh? Why is someone attacking Honolulu?" [I pictured a Pearl Harbor like attack on the State Capitol building in Honolulu.]
Mom: "Just turn on the TV!!!"
Me: "Why would Hawai'i be on the news?"
Mom: "Do it now!"

By this point my roommate is confused as to what's going on as I'm getting out of bed to turn on the 13" TV we had in the dorm and find a news station. We saw both towers. This is right after the 2nd tower was hit. We watched for a little bit then we turned off the TV and went back to bed for a few more hours. After we both woke up again for the second time, everything had transpired.

Should I have stayed up and watched TV? Probably. I had my mom asking me how I could've gone back to bed. But I did. I was a 20 year old college student -- basically carefree.

It was what was talked about. We were even allowed to have conversations about it in English during German class. I was relieved that O-chem lab wasn't canceled -- it would've been a hassle to try to make up. I also had the easiest O-chem test on 9/13. My professor blamed 9/11 for not being more creative with questions.

Living at the UofA campus, there was a strange silence after with the lack of planes flying to Davis-Monthan. It was even weirder when they started flying over campus again about 9/15 or so.

Little did I know that having traveled all over the world (getting back from Australia in August 2001) never worrying about plane travel that ever since my first trip on a plane after 9/11 in October 2001, I will always have a seed of thought about "what if..."

Wow, so my 6th winter in Wisconsin is nearly done, and I have 839 days left of residency.

I guess at some point I should start thinking of where I want to go.

The contenders:

Arizona -- Tucson v Phoenix
Tucson -- Wildcat country, neat city, Nico's Tacos, Eegee's
Phoenix -- Scottsdale is nice, Manuel's Mexican food
Pros for both: concealed carry, parents are there

Cons: Terribly allergic to the entire state which would require allergy shots
Phoenix -- Sun Devil Territory... my Arizona, Wildcat enthusiasm wouldn't be appreciated.

California -- Orange v San Diego
Like the suburbiness of Orange County, still have friends there, possible connections at St. Joe's, familiar with the area, still feels like home
San Diego -- great weather

Cons: The state is wasting all their money.

Hawai'i -- Maui
Perfect weather, 2nd home, friends, great food
Cons: island, expensive, liberal

Texas?
Maybe East TX? There's family there, Blue Bell ice cream. I've liked it every time I'm there.

Who knows where I'll end up as of right now.

It's been many years, but I think I finally have something to say. In the past 7 years, I left England after falling hopelessly in love with the country and people, finished up college in Arizona, moved back home to Maui to be a phlebotomist (worst year ever), went to medical school in the Middle (aka the Midwest -- it's all just about the same: snowy, flat, and people with funny accents), and now been a doctor for over a year which brings me to:

I survived intern year (just barely) doing time in a year of pediatrics at a busy top ranked children's hospital. Actually, it was beyond busy. Finding time to breathe was a plus, and the whole "eat when you can, pee when you can, sleep when you can" was definitely true. I even had medical students get on my case for not having eaten since breakfast; they said my Trader Joe's fruit leathers or caffienated Sports Beans (thank you Jelly Belly) didn't count as a meal.

Needless to say, I did make it through the year, despite the many times that I just wanted to hide in my sock drawer and sleep for days. I guess I did learn something seeing that I am no longer terrified of children, and I can unwrap a baby and wrap them back up. I am still leery about picking up a baby. I like kids who are interactive and fun. And I feel even more strongly that kids shouldn't be sick... thanks to my time in the HOT unit (heme/onc/transplant). (One of the strongest kids I met was a 4 year old with cancer. He had more energy than everyone in the unit, he ran circles (literally) around the nurses' station. I tried playing with him one night while I was on call, and at 10pm, I was tired... he was an Energizer Bunny.) Every time a new diagnosis of cancer came in, I wanted to cry; and I learned that there is a fine line between doing something to someone and not for them.

Now I'm off to the land of anesthesia. It's definitely a different course than I had anticipated for myself even 2 years ago, but it will work out. Three more years of residency, then off to attending-hood. Who knows what'll happen between now and then (aside from many nights in the hospital, passing gas, waking up early in the morning...). I guess I'll find out as I go along the road. Here's to 30 June 2013!

ARGH!!!! Stupid thing somehow got deleted! GRRR!!!! Anyway. My parents noticed that I hadn't updated this for a LONG time because I thought people don't come look at it because I never get any comments. Um yeah, so new pics are up since that last time. They have my Xmas stuff, Sweden, and things around London, etc... I'm back in class (3rd week, started 3 Feb, hehehe) =D I no longer have class only on Tues, Wed, and Thurs, with 2 easy classes, but rather, i have class Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri, with 4 harder classes, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, and German Foreign Policy since 1945 (in German). Yeah, so I think I'll be loads busier this term. I'm out!

I'm sure everyone is going to be jealous (not really, but oh well). Last night I went ice skating at Marble Arch again, and during the time I was ice skating, Baby Spice was there. Aren't you all green with envy? I'm not. Oh well, the only famous person I've seen in London so far is Baby Spice... lucky me... hmm... On an cooler note, I'm done with classes until February as of Thursday! Oh yeah, and it's rather cold here now. Below 0°C with wind chill (-7°C to be precise -- 19°F) high's about 2°C (right about 35°F). I'm freezing here!

Hey! I'm not sure how many people are reading this anymore, but I'll give those of you who are a summary of what I've been up to since 17 October. So that weekend, I went with a friend from San Diego to Leeds. That was fun, and it was neat to get out of London and breathe clean air (as well as see another part of England). It's also really pretty up in Leeds because they have trees and grass that aren't restricted to royal parks. For Halloween, my friends and I dressed up and went to Leicester Square, where no one else was dressed up. I figured since a british guy suggested that we dress up, that most people here do, but nope, they don't. So I walked around for a bit with a plastic grass skirt on, but I eventually took the skirt off (i had skate pants on underneath, don't worry.) Then I went to Stonehenge and Salisbury this past weekend. I'm glad I went to Stonehenge, and was able to see it, since I had wanted to see it since I was really young, but it really wasn't as spectacular as I thought it was going to be. Also, since I forgot my umbrella on my bed (i took it out of one bag, but didn't transfer it to my other one), being soaking wet all day put a damper on the trip. Well, only the outside of my courderoy jacket was soaking, it didn't get through the fleece, which was nice. Sunday night was good as well because Harrods put on an early Bonfire night (aka Guy Fawkes Night/Day) fireworks display. It was awesome, some of the best fireworks I'd ever seen. They had it on for 15 minutes, and had like 10 finales, the fireworks just kept coming, and they were "coreographed" (sp?) to James Bond music (Harrods is all decked out in Christmas and James Bond stuff at the moment, since the film's coming out here on 20 November). After the fireworks, Harrods started to snow, well, they have machines that shoot out bubbles, like dishwashing soap type bubbles, but they smelled like the scrubbing bubbles to clean the bathroom at home. That was really fun as well. Last night I hung out with my friends for my birthday, and I caught a glimpse of some fireworks from my window. Ok, i've taken a lot of pictures since, but i haven't had time to edit them to make them smaller so they fit on my webpage, speaking of which, since the last files were so big, I have to start another webpage for my pictures. No worries though, it'll be easy, another yahoo one. I think that's about it. I have to get going to training for work because they want me to work at Harrods, and I have to know what to say in the interview there (which means, I'm going to have to BS, but my friend who got a job there, Emma, said they didn't ask her too many questions where she had to lie. Cheers!

Photos are up! Look for the link to the left. In other news: it's bloody cold here! The temperature in the night is now -1C (about 30 for all of you people who haven't done much science) and highs of 11C during the day (about 52F). I also have a job! What? Ashleigh has a job? Yes, and I will be selling cosmetics and frangrances at department stores. I may also be able to work at Harrod's! That'd be cool. =) I've also started shopping. "Is this the same Ashleigh we know?" you may be asking yourselves, but I am the same Ashleigh. I go shopping about once a week with a guy from Scotland, Adam; he shows me good places to go for stuff, and places with sales. So I've managed to buy some fantastic winter clothes. =) If any of you come to London at some point, H&M and Next are fantastic stores. I'm also sick, again, =( that's not fun. Especially since it's cold. I can't think of much else to say, since this is a place I just briefly say what I'm up to. Oh yeah, last week, my friend Sarah from UA studying in Spain came and visited me. =) That was loads of fun. Then this weekend, I'm going to Leeds, where it's even colder than here. I'm out! TTFN!

ARGH!!!!! Right now Hotmail's being stupid because it won't let me access one of my accounts! GRRRRRR!!!!!!!

On a better note. I got cool stuff at Camden Lock Market today. =) That place is pretty nifty; I think I'll have to go back sometime when they have more posters because they didn't have many today, and that's the main reason I went, but I got other cool stuff besides posters. I love spinny rings (the centre part of the ring spins around the part on my finger, and the centre part has waves on it). =) Oh yeah, and the computers on campus take zip disks, so I can put pictures up on my page; I think. Sometimes yahoo's weird when it comes to zip drives though. So maybe sometime next week you can see some of the pictures I've taken so far.

That's all I'm up to. Not doing much this weekend, and now I'm heading out because I want food for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. =) Cheers!

Guess I haven't updated this for a while. oops... Anyways, I still don't know my time table completely yet. But it looks as though, i'll have Mondays and Fridays off. =) YAY!!! long weekends for Ashleigh! Um, so in the past week, I changed my time table, showed up for a class that wasn't going at the time because the International office messed me up, and did some fun stuff. I went on the London Eye, a BIG ferris wheel type thing with these pods that are like observation decks that hold 25 people. So, I just found out where computers are that I can use disks on, so maybe sometime in the future, once i take more pictures, I'll burn them onto a cd and put them online (since i still don't have internet in my room, and the way it looks, i don't think I will.) I'm having fun, and I'm not really homesick yet (sorry fam), and yes, I am doing my school work, the little bit that I have at the moment.

I had my first class today, Shakespeare stuff, it doesn't seem too bad, I only have lecture every other Monday, which is good! So I guess I'll stick with it then. And I was just told that there is no class on Wednesday because of the Tube strike (and I thought I was going to have to get up really early to walk 30-45 min to campus.) So I have 2 days without class this week, since I won't have class on Tuesday anyway. YAY! Um I think that's about it. I saw My Big Fat Greek Wedding last night for the second time; it opened here on the 20th, so another American and I went with some of our British friends. Bye for now.

Today was a good day. I went out with a girl from Indiana, and we bought black leather boots, like stylish ones, so we can have winter type boots. Then we went and got a tour of Buckingham Palace, and we then thought we were walking towards Victoria station, to catch the tube to Westminster to see Big Ben, but as we rounded a corner, I saw Trafalgar Square... oops. But then we walked to Big Ben and Parliament, and we got there in time to hear it ring at 4:30pm, which was cool. Oh, and we saw the Thames. That's about all I'm up too.

So I've had a busy past 2 days, uni orientation, shopping, for general necessities, like bedding, and a mobile phone. =) The phones over here are sooooo cool! America is way behind, too bad the phone I got isn't tri-band, so I can't use it in the States. Oh well, I can get heaps of use of it over here. Not much else had happened besides meeting lots people, and hanging out with the people in my flat.

I'm in London! But I don't have a phoneline in my room. So therefore, no pictures for you guys yet. But I did get here safe, so that's good. Have a good weekend, I'm off to eat lunch/dinner, whatever meal it is that I'll be grabbing from the McDonald's near my dorm (blech).

Wow, I leave Maui in a week. Weirdness. Strange to think too, that I won't be back until next June, and one of my friends, Kristin, from U of A is here interning at Hope Chapel, and I won't be here. =( Anyways, I'm getting closer to be able to have internet in my dorm room; I'm getting a modem convertor for my laptop. Yay! So, I'm steps closer to being able to update my picture page, since I can post on this page from any computer with internet. Oh well, that's enough of my pointless talking just to be able to post something up here. By the way, packing is not fun at all. I've never liked it, and I never will. It's sad too when Black Velvet will get in my suitcase, and I know I can't take her with me. Aww... I'll miss my kitties and my family too.

Neal left last night, so all of Maui is in mourning. It's one source of entertainment is gone. j/k. But it's sad because I won't see him until next June.

My stupid comment thingies aren't working, so I'm trying to mess with those to get them to work.

Still not much going on, on Maui. I went to breakfast at IHOP with Jill, Anne, Neal and David, then slept. Physics for 12 weeks can wear a person out.

David: David says "Everyone who has eyes that can see or ears that can hear shall see the movie kung pow. It is good. Also, I must say, I am cool. Everyone will recognize me as their leader for i am present leader of URS (United Russian States). United Russian States is comprised of Russia, Mongolia (capital territory), Canada, Hawaii, Scandanavia, Zimbabwe, Yugolsavia and much more. I am the Supreme Emperor and Dictator of the United Russian States (SEDURS). Responsibilites to me: you must make me brownies... and muffins... i like muffins... chocolate muffins... yes... muuuufffffinnnnnss... ashleigh will go make me some now, so follow her example.

(2 hours later)

David: i like muffins... and brownies...

Ashleigh: Okay.... so David took over the computer. Good thing I have lots of room. =) But as David says everyone must see Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. Ok, I think I'll be going now. Bye bye!