1/22 Oops - Longer than I expected sorry!

I promised I'd update tonight, but I'm not sure I have much to update with...

A little birdy left me notes to find as I went through my wardrobe and I thought for sure I'd seen them all but this morning I found another :) My favorite so far:

"Away to the island went Kristen
to her heart she began to listen...
It took her awhile
But now she can smile
The buckeye flew away from the snow a'driftin'"

This morning started out crappy. I woke up pretty late. Late being 6:45 when I try to catch the bus at 7 or 7:30. Luckily, I still take my showers before going to bed so I did not have to scramble too much, but I still managed to miss the 7:15. It came early. Figures. The past couples days here have been really windy and we've seen rain at least once during the day, usually in the mornings. Last night and tonight are so windy that when I go outside to smoke, I almost get pushed over. Needless to say, I stay in when it's super windy!

So I got to work a little bit late, but it was no big deal. After a meeting with Shelby and Susan, and seeing how much they put on us, they decided to take us out to P.F. Chang's for lunch. Apparently some people don't know what that is, so I think saying it's a really expensive Chinese restaurant sums it up alright. I think our meals were probably at least $30/person, and there were five of us. Phew! Glad I wasn't picking up the tab! :) It was nice to get out with Shelby and Susan and feel like they're getting to know me a little more. They're both pretty young and have a great sense of humor, so we all had a good time. They think I'm sassy. And Susan told me she thinks I look like I belong here. Not "native" obviously, but I could be mistaken for someone who's lived here all my life. Considering the green eyes and freckles and white skin, I was a bit surprised to hear that! :)

The rest of the afternoon went pretty quickly. I had to deal with my Ohio doctor and the local pharmacies, well actually Jenn and Mom had to deal with Dr. Shemory's office. And I was going to have our hospital's pharmacy fill the Rx for me, but it turned out since we only do therapy there, the prescription I needed was not readily available. I had to call the hospital's pharmacy across the street and arrange to have it sent there, and give them my Ohio insurance - which apparently tripped them up a bit. Then I had to call Shemory's office and leave a msg for a nurse to call me because apparently the girl answering the phone couldn't just write down a freaking phone number. I was almost in tears - mostly because I'm PMSing - TMI, sorry. After work, I walked to the pharmacy and only ended up having to pay $2.87 for it so it turned out alright. I am still BEYOND GRATEFUL to Mom and Jenn for helping me out with that situation. Hopefully the meds kick in ASAP and I can live in comfort once again :) Glad I still had my insurance...

Anyway it is now official that I schedule a floor everyday. Looks like I'll be doing the third floor consistently, so that I can get used to the patients and the practitioners and their schedules. Since we took a long lunch, and because I had a complicated schedule today, it took me a bit longer to do the schedule and I got pretty frustrated as it grew closer to quitting time. It was my own fault. We are supposed to schedule new patients first, to be sure they are paired up with their primary PTs and OTs, but I forgot one, so when I got down to the last couple patients I tried to squeeze this guy in and ended up short on hours from PTs and OTs and scrambled to fit them in. Since it's all a big puzzle, I eventually worked it out - but I saw my first hint of stress from scheduling. Right now, they still have us squeezed into this small room, and two of us are working off of laptops....apparently once we are officially doing our own floors, we will go to our respective floor for the afternoon to schedule on desktops. I won't get to talk to the girls, then. But I can take my iPod and hope no one bothers me.

Tonight I came home kind of grumpy. Just the day - and stressing over the usual bills and rent and car payment - and worrying about finding things like the post office and a place to buy a bus pass. It's frustrating right now and tonight it definitely got to me. Zach had the pleasure of hearing it all on the phone tonight - but of course, knowing Zachary, he told me to breathe and told me it'd all be okay. Thanks for that. But we all know I'll continue to freak out - it's my nature.

I obviously have the internet at the apartment now - which is great. I spent some time downloading songs and singing louder than I should in an apartment building. My poor neighbors. (I think I have neighbors?! I never see 'em).

Dad: Boston Legal comes on at 9 pm here. Zach: American Idol comes on at 7 pm here. So when I said nothing's on at 7, I totally lied. I missed American Idol. Rob and Big comes on at 10:30 tonight.

Stupid TV time zone crap.

Hopefully tomorrow starts off a little smoother.

No exciting bus stories. No one farted on me today. I know I didn't put that story on here, but long story short, this creature of a woman who looks like she's straight from the trailer parks in Ohio sat basically ON me at the bus stop - I moved over and she raised a leg and ripped one LONG AND HARD for a good 2 seconds, shaking the bench. This was Friday. I'm still having nightmares about it... YUCK.

The pool is done in the backyard. I saw them start to fill it, so this time tomorrow that pool should be full. It's pretty cold, though. I'm outside in a sweatshirt and jeans after work.

Okay I guess that's it. I rambled more than I thought I would! I feel like I had more to say but (lucky for you) I can't remember...my brain's worn out by this time at night.

I know lots of people are reading this - you've all told me so - wish you'd leave me comments. Makes me happy to read them...

Jenn - I hope things are working out for you at work - your Myspace makes it look like something got worked out. Can't wait to hear what you've arranged.
Dad & Patty - Hope you guys are staying warm. Dad you said you have a long day (not sure why) so I hope it goes smoothly for you...
Suzette - I miss you a TON and think about you a lot. During the day mostly - so I wish I had more time at work to write you. I haven't forgotten about you and I hope things are looking up for you - keep me updated.
Kami - It was SO nice talking to you for the first time since I've been here - I can't believe it'd been that long. But it was good to have our little chats again...I miss those.
Pam & Dan - I hope you're still reading!! It was so nice to talk to you on the phone the other day - I hope my craziness and multitasking wasn't annoying and I get to talk to you again soon. I guess weekends are good for that!!
Sharon & Sherri - Haha I KNOW you're reading!! I'm sorry I didn't respond to your emails today - but it was SO good to hear from you guys. I miss being in the office with you ladies...I hope I didn't leave you with more stress...hopefully NDS is behaving themselves :)
Zachary - I appreciate your calm and collected attitude sometimes. I tend to ignore things a lot and they build up at once and you know that so it's nice for you to offer to help and be there to at least listen to me whine - I wish I didn't ruin our conversations with that - cause it's nice just chatting with you and gossiping. I can't wait to get your package - even if it is just bills from Akron :)
Mom - I'm glad things worked out for you in the mornings - I hope that's still going alright for you - I haven't heard an update lately. Also - I miss you more than you know as well...I think about you all the time and wish we were communicating more. You are truly my best friend and I'm so grateful to have you and I need you in my life. I miss you so much. Not near as much as I love you, though.

OKAY! Not trying to get sappy or make it harder than it has to be, just some things need to be said when it crosses my mind.
Okay that's it for now. Shower time before some junk TV to fall asleep to...hopefully I wake up on time tomorrow morning! Anyone who may think about it at 6 am my time - a wake-up call never hurt ;)

Have a GREAT hump day...oh, and tonight they had a big gathering for the two women that were murdered on the island...and they all joined together to sing and light candles. Just makes you think how lucky we are to be loved by one another and have supportive people in our lives - not horrible souls that only bring us down and intend to hurt us. So maybe just kind of look around tomorrow (today when you read this) and try to appreciate what's around you...I know that sounds silly and cliche but...there's a lot out there that we take for granted.

Love you guys

me.