responsiblity?

at work yesterday, the head doctor called me into his office- i immediately thought 'ut-oh', since he usually doesnt talk to us unless it's to tell us what's been done wrong... but i guess i was quick to judge. he asked me how i liked my job so far, and i told him that i liked it a lot. he went on to say that since two people in our office will be leaving at the end of the year, he wanted me to start learning more things about the office so i could take over for them starting in january. they'll hire a new person to work check-out, plus an additional person to help share whatever responsibilities i'll have. so i'm essentially getting a major promotion, which both excites and saddens me. exciting, because i'll get a pay increase and because it shows that i've been doing good work in the office (and it's being recognized). saddens, because i've gotten to a point where check-out is almost second nature to me, and i'm really comfortable with it. now i'll have to learn a whole new set of ropes. but, as the doctor put it...and i agree... i have a college degree and am capapble of doing much more than receptionist work. i'm really glad that he'd given me this opportunity, but i also get that kind of nervous feeling of questioning whether or not i can handle what's thrown at me. experience tells me that i'll be fine, it just takes time to get adjusted.

so, come january, i'll no longer be a hot medical receptionist...i'll be a hot medical (insert new title here).

sickspot

i've spent the better part of this weekend getting over a cold - actually, i dont think i can classify it as a cold, more of a really annoying sore throat and a slight runny nose. it hasnt escalated into full blown cold status. yet. i've been doing my best to keep it at bay with herbal tea, echinachia, bed rest, and chicken and stars soup. i've babied myself in hopes that this wont turn into something that will make my work week a nightmare (although i only have to work 3 days- huzzah for thanksgiving!). and with that, i'm off to bed...

in other exciting news...

this is my 102nd blog post. that's right, i broke 100. although most of my earlier posts were just pictures....who cares, the moment is good and still stands.

that is all.

my kind of town

last weekend parley and i made a 7 hour trek to chicago for the reunion show of a band called the promise ring. this band was one of the original emo classics, paving the way for much crappier bands like dashboard confessional and brand new. anyway, i'd never really listened to them before, but parley got 3 tickets and invited me....and i do like chicago a lot. on this trip i got to see a lot more of the city than i'd ever had before, and it opened me up to a lot of likes and dislikes about the city. i've compiled a short list:

likes
* the train- it's so nice to be in a city that has good public transportation. we stayed with our friend drew, who lives about a 25 minute walk from wrigley field. he also lives about 5 minutes away from a train stop. we ended up riding the train at least 4 times a day, so we had access to downtown and the good shopping areas without the hassle of trying to park a car, all for the low low price of $1.75 a ride. plus, now that it's cold out, the waiting booths have heat pumped into them, so you kind of feel like a reheated burger at a fast food restaurant. drew, parley, and i ended up taking a lot of arty train pictures, which i hope to get a hold of and post at a later time.
* the stores- pretty much take everything cool about columbia and multiply it by 10,000- that describes chicago's shopping. thrift stores as far as the eye can see. we spent an entire day parusing record stores, clothing stores, more record stores, and lots of little interesting shops. there was this cool looking chinese gift store, but it was closed...
* the food- chicago style pizza is the best. st. louis style sucks. any kind of pizza that is at least 60% cheese gets my vote. a lot of places are very veggitarian-friendly (not that that helps me, but should i ever decide to adopt a healthier life style...). we went to this diner and i got this huge stack of the best pancakes ever.
* the colleges- this is kind of a no brainer, but columbia university beats university of missouri-columbia hands down. we hung out in the dorms with some of drew's friends, and they are the classiest dorms i have ever seen. the have film editing rooms and movie theatres in there. plus, having your dorm in a 16 story high rise is pretty cool in and of itself- incredible views.
* not just one, but two ikea stores- that's right, in addition to the one in shaumburg, they've built another one, slated to open later this month. parley and i had a fantastic time looking through the massive 4 story sweedish wonder. and they had a cafe with really good really cheap food. i got this meatball meal for 4 bucks, and then negated the cheapness by buying a slice of chocolate truffel cake that cost almost as much....but it was sooooo tasty.....mmmmmm, luscious.

dislikes
*the train- and i only say this because we were riding home at 3am one night and this guy sat down next to me who was totally drunk and probably high, and he proceeded to hit on me without shame. (drew and parley were seated behind me- they laughed and took pictures...) the sad thing was, he kept forgetting pieces of the conversation (he kept introducing himself- 5 times at least). then he randomly yelled out "go cubs!". good transportation, but it is public transportation nonetheless.
*man, is it cold!- the day of the show, not only was it windy, it rained. so i was cold and wet- my least favorite combination. maybe i'd develop a tolerance to it if i lived there, but i'm pretty sure i'd never leave my place of residence and rack up a huge electric bill.
*my compassion would kill me- there are homeless people everywhere, always begging for money. drew was telling us that when he first moved there, he was astonished by the amount of homeless people he saw every day- he really wanted to do something about it and make a difference. 6 months later he hardly notices them. he's already seen a couple dead people in the streets, which is really sad... i wouldnt want to become desensitized to something like that.
*i like grass- while there are trees and parks, i found myself missing open spaces and nature. the biggest 'yard' i saw was about 3ft by 6ft. i really enjoyed the ride home, seeing all those semi-rolling hills.
*'different town, same faces'- parley made this comment at a party we went to. yes, the town is cooler, but there are still the same stupid, silly, drama-infused people there that there are here. cool town does not automatically = cool people.

perhaps my list was not as short as i thought. but hopefully it gave a good rundown of how my weekend went. all in all, not a bad trip. not a lot of downtime though...didnt get a lot of sleep, and drew's living room had a huge skylight so things got really bright in the morning, making sleep harder...but we had a free place to stay and a good tour guide...so things worked out well.

undigested beef

william and i just came home from the hickman high school production of a christmas carrol (his girlfriend was in the chorus- and before you start wondering why my roommate is dating someone who's still in high school, please keep in mind that he himself is only 19.). it was pretty much everything you could hope for from a high school production- a mix of talent and not-so-talented, frequent sound problems, etc... but it wasnt that bad. it made me think back to when mary ann and joe would do orchestra pit for lafayette productions. maybe it was because i was young, but those musicals always sounded really good. i kind of wish that i had done stuff like that, but there was only so much of mrs. person that i could take...i had a keen dislike for that woman.

things i'd like to know how to do...

yesterday at work someone had a seziure in the waiting room. there was one other person out there at the time, and they totally freaked out and screamed for someone to do something. the girl at the front desk ran to get a nurse, but the person in the waiting room came into the office and looked directly at me and said 'you need to get out there and help her!'. i dont know if she realized that i wasnt a nurse...but i was a little stunned by that. i didnt know what to do any more than she did, yet she was assuming that i did simply because i worked in a medical office. 5 seconds later the nurse was attending to the person in need. it really made me wish that i did know what to do in a situation like that. according to the nurse, there really isnt anything you can do other than hold the person still and help them ride it out.

also, last friday we had a patient come in who was deaf and without an interpereter. she couldnt speak or read lips, so we had to communicate via written notes. it really made me wish that i knew sign language- at least more than the words to 'search, ponder and pray' and the phrase 'more milk, please'.

beep-beep beep-beep yeah!

parley and i are going to chicago this weekend because he somehow scored tickets to the promise ring's one time reunion show this saturday. i've never really listened to the band before, but parley really wanted me to go...and i like chicago a lot...and we have a free place to stay (our friend drew)...and there's an ikea store in shaumburg. we decided that we'll take my car up there to save on gas (little japanese car vs giant american truck...car always wins), which has dropped to about 2.15/gal.

*digression: i hate how i think that's cheap for gas right now. i remember when gas was less than a dollar...when paying 1.50/gal.was considered expensive...and now that i've experienced gas that cost over 3.00/gal, 2.15 suddenly seems so great. ugh. i shouldnt be feeling winds of change like this in my early 20's.

anyway, i figured it would probably be a good idea to get the car tuned up before we made that kind of trek. i'd noticed that my car's idle had gotten a lot more rumbley, and it was only getting 28mi/gal. on the highway as opposed to something in the 30's. i took it to the friendly meineke down the street and they said they'd take a look and call me back with an estimate.

turns out that all the spark plugs were in need of replacement and the wires that were connecting them were of such poor quality that one had actually frayed apart. my 4-cylinder car had been running on only 3 for heaven-knows-how-long. they also replaced the distributor roter, but the distributor cap was deemed salvagable- and that saved me about 40 bucks. total damage to my checking account: $120.22- half for parts, half for labor (i passed it by parley, my resident rip-off detector, and he said the price was legit). the great thing was that i could really tell a difference in my car performance when i picked it up. the major rumble was next to gone, and the acceleration had dramatically improved. i'll no doubt save money on gas, too.

this whole experience has left me feeling extrordinairly responsible, mostly because this is the first car repair that i've paid for all by my self (well, i had to borrow some from parley, but i'm gonna pay him back...).

"my, mr. freud, what big ears you have"

this morning i had a wierd dream where i was at a fancy gala of some sort. my boss was there, and i could tell that he'd had a few. he gave me the keys to his super awesome sports car and told me i had 3 hours to do whatever i wanted with it. so i, along with this drug rep that was schmoozing me all night, took it for a spin- i was going well over 100 on these crazy winding roads.
i dont take much stock in dream interperetation, but what do you think this one means? a raise in my future?

"it's bringing love! get it!"

sometimes i think conservitives have too much time on their hands. not to worry, i think the same goes for liberals too- somehow i got on this greenpeace-esque mailing list, and i got an email asking me to sign a petition to ban the production of kleenex (kills the rainforest). i'd much rather be passionate about something truely cause-worthy...

next time i'll just dress up as matlock...

at our office meeting a few weeks ago one of the girls asked if we could dress up for halloween since it fell on a work week. dr. puri said it was ok, and this other girl and i said that we would definately dress up. i decided to revive my holly golightly costume, since most of our patients are older and (i thought) would understand the reference. not only was i the only person who actually dressed up, not one patient knew who i was. one guy even had the audacity to say 'hey, how come no one in the office dressed up?'. i just kind of looked at him like, 'do you think i look like this every day?'. very disappointing. i suppose i've learned my lesson: leave the esoteric costumes for hipster parties where originality is appreciated and stick to the simple stuff at work. sigh.

absence makes the heart grow fonder....or forgetfull.

my apologies to those of you who frequent this blog and have found me absent for the past two weeks. a combination of busyness and intermittant internet access have prevented me from posting as often as i would like. but i think my internet is fixed and hopefully things will calm down around here now that halloween is over. i have yet to blog about costumes and parties and other seasonal goings on....much to post about indeed...but that will have to wait for another time. i will, however, leave you all with a lovely picture of me and josh that i took at the mizzou homecoming game last month (he's been begging me to put a more flattering picture of him up here anyway). the game was a lot of fun, the first football game i'd been to since living in columbia. we won in an overtime tour de force buy a field goal. it was also about 80 degrees outside and i got sunburned...


*incidentally, the double straw thingie was not meant to be cutsey- josh has this wierd thing where he cant drink out of the same straw or cup as anyone else. this was a rather bold move on his part...