Shouzer

And it feels pretty great, to be honest.  I just finished up a nice game of NBA 2k7 (Kyle, I finally bought my own copy, hehe), and I figured I’d get on here and post.  We always tend to slack off over breaks, but that’s not a trend that I’ve ever liked..

I went to a Borders for the first time yesterday, and right off the bad I like Barnes & Noble more.  Sure, they don’t have the same selection of DVDs and the like, but what they do have is much, much more organized, from what I saw.  I was looking through Borders’ DVD section, and it was a giant waste of my time.  I couldn’t find anything I was looking for, because it was all over the place.  It’s a good thing I did my real shopping online.  That way I can just type in the name of whatever I’m looking for, and boom..  There it is, ready for checkout.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my family went on a cruise over Thanksgiving break. Well, I’m back now, and I’ve got to say that it was a great time all around. We actually had a pretty big group on the ship (a lot of extended family went as well), which I think really added to the fun. There were 23 total, 17 of which were in the extended group. So if we weren’t doing something together, it wasn’t uncommon at all to see someone else somewhere around the ship.

Honestly, the thing that stands out the most to me was the service on the ship. All around, it was some of the best I’ve ever had. There never seemed to be a crew member who wasn’t willing to joke around with you or help you if you needed. The waiters were very impressive, also. The first day, you were assigned a table in the main dining hall for dinner (if you chose to eat there–many more options were available as well), which meant you had the same pair of waiters everyday too. And, since we really liked them, that turned out to be perfect, as it gave you time to get to know them a bit.

In terms of entertainment, we caught a few comedians on the ship, though for the most part I’d only rate them decent. They certainly weren’t what I was hoping for. However, in the music department we found a band that we all loved called The Best Sellers. We got to check them out a few different nights in one of the lounges (there’s quite a few of them), and it was good every time. Now, strangely, they were a group of four Filipino guys who played a lot of older music. It sounds a bit strange, I know, but they really were impressive.

There was a lot more, too, but it’s late, and I’m tired. I really didn’t end up getting much sleep on the cruise (there was always something to do in the mornings), and I think it’s starting to catch up to me.

Normally for Thanksgiving, I just go home and hang out, which is usually pretty nice all by itself.  This year, however, my family is going on a cruise that’ll last the whole break.  It should be pretty nice, partly because I’m looking forward to the vacation and also because it’ll be my first cruise.  I’ve heard they’re pretty nice, so hopefully it’ll live up to my expectations, haha.

Now the tricky part of this plan is the traveling.  We’re flying out this Saturday and won’t get back until late two Sundays later.  I think the plan right now is to just stay at home Sunday night and drive back here Monday morning, which means I’ll have to miss a few of my classes.  Hopefully we don’t have any quizzes..  Hell, even if we do, I’m honestly not that concerned at this point.

I went up to northern Michigan this weekend with my parents.  My dad was attending a conference up there, and I came along since it had been so long since I had seen them.  We had a pretty cool time.  It turns out that Lake Michigan is far cleaner than I expected it to be.  I was envisioning this nasty, polluted body of water, but it was actually quite clear.  The scenery in northern Michigan is impressive as well.  It features rolling hills, old forests, and winding rivers.  I can now understand why so many rich Detroitians have cabins up there.

On Saturday we went to this island called Mackinac Island which was between the Upper Peninsula and the main hand-shaped part of Michigan.  They do not allow cars on this island in an attempt to keep it as touristy as possible.  It was pretty cool though.  We took a bike ride around it and did a little hiking.

I’ve been bursting to tell everybody about the coolest thing I saw this weekend though.  When I was driving north, I pulled over at a rest stop for a break, and there was a Chevy Trailblazer on fire.  I have never in my life seen a car on fire.  Everybody was just standing around staring at it.  When I went inside, it was just a small blaze under the hood, but when I came out, the flames were pouring out the sides.  There was a huge pillar of black smoke.  The fire seemed to be contained to the engine compartment, and thankfully no one seemed to be hurt.  I was dying to take a picture of it, but I restrained myself figuring that I would not appreciate it if someone did that when my car was on fire.

I just rolled back into Homewood–where Scott lives–after a nice week-long retreat with him in “The Upcountry” part of South Carolina.  We stayed at a place on Lake Keowee which was amazing.  To give you an idea of the location it was about a half-hour drive to Clemson University.

It took about 12 hours to drive there, but the scenery as we drove through the mountains was incredible.  The lake was beautiful as well.  We didn’t do much the first day except drive around some of the towns.  We also went hiking to look at some waterfalls, but unfortunately we missed a turn on the trail and hiked a significant ways past the falls.  What turned into a 45 minute hike turned into a three hour hike, but oh well.

The fun ended the next day, though when what was supposed to be a short boat ride around the lake turned into a four-hour excursion.  Needless to say, Scott and I weren’t exactly prepared for a day on the lake and are burnt to a crisp.

We left a day early and stayed the night in Gatlinburg.  Instead of the Interstate we took the scenic route into part of Georgia, then North Carolina through the Great Smoky Mountains.  The sun was just beginning to set when we started up the mountain, and the views were breathtaking!

Aside from the being burnt to crispy critters, we had a great time!

I had my first class on Wednesday night; it’s an introductory sociology class.  I was a bit surprised to find that there are only about 20 people in the class, all of whom seem to be Detroit natives.  Most of them are majoring in some arts subject.  It’s weird for me to be around people like that because they act and think so much differently than the engineers and scientists I’m used to.  The prof wanted to make a point that we only believe things because society tells us they are true, so he picked a well know fact, that America was discovered in 1492 to prove his point.  So this kid sitting next to me goes off on a rant that America was discovered when people migrated over the land bridge between Alaska and Russia.  He was seriously mad that the prof was implying that America was discovered by Columbus.  I have heard of people like this, but I didn’t know they actually existed.  Talk about a loser.  Speaking of losers, the prof went around the room and made us all tell him why we were taking the class.  Some girl told him she thought it would make her a more well rounded person.  He then proceeded to make fun of her for lying about something like that.  I told him I was taking the class because it started at 5:30.

After class, I went down to the fireworks display downtown.  Detroit has the 2nd biggest fireworks display in the country, with 4 million people attending.  I was pretty impressed with them.  I took a picture with my cell phone that I was thinking of putting up here, but the quality is not very good.  Plus I was too lazy to upload it to my web space.  Maybe I will get ambitious tonight and do that. Next week is shut down week.  All of GM is on vacation.  I have to stay in Detroit because of my class, but I won’t be at work.  On the up side, I get my very first paid vacation on the 4th.  I’ve never been paid to take a day off before; I can’t wait for that action.  There’s a big festival called the Taste Fest, similar to the Chicago taste fest, which features lots of local food vendors and free concerts.  I’ll probably go to that this weekend.  The All American Rejects are playing on the 4th, and I really like them.  Bowling for Soup and Yellowcard are playing next weekend as well, and I would definitely like to go to those concerts if I can find anyone to go with me.  Steve Miller Band and an orchestral version of Led Zeppelin are also coming up soon.  One of the other interns mentioned going to those so I might go as well.

I went over to Cedar Point on Saturday, and it was awesome. Cedar Point is an amusement park in Sandusky Ohio, which is right on Lake Erie. The calling-card of the park is its plethora of roller coasters, including the number one roller coaster in the world, the Millennium Force. It went about 92 mph off the 380 foot hill, and the negative g’s coming over some of the smaller hills was pretty intense. The Millennium Force was pretty amazing, but my favorite was the Top Thrill Dragster.

It used electromagnets to accelerate from 0-120mph in 3.8 seconds. I calculated that out to be about 1.4g’s, but I did that with my cell phone so don’t quote me. The feeling in your stomach is indescribable when you are accelerating that fast. About all I can say is, “it hurt so good.” After reaching 120 mph, you go straight up a 420 foot tower, and then straight back down the other side. It was only about 15 seconds long, but it was the craziest ride I’ve ever been on.

A group of GM interns went out for the trip. I didn’t know any of them before we left, and they all worked/lived together in a little town about 1 hour outside of Detroit. That was honestly a little weird, but they turned out to be pretty cool. I had a good time hanging out with them.

Last week, a few of us–namely Jason, Al, Stephanie, and I–went down to Jason’s condo in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  That’s the big reason I haven’t posted anything for a while.  They had internet down there, but only if you wanted to pay $10/day.  That would have sucked.

We’d gone down there about 3 years ago (with the addition of Kyle and Quint, minus Stephanie), but since then they’d gotten hit by the hurricanes the southeast saw last year.  It was strange seeing some of the local businesses closed and deserted.  There were still a few condos that were being rebuilt and some houses that were being rebuilt, as well.  Luckily the condo we were staying at didn’t get hit very hard at all, so it looked fine.

The trip was pretty fun.  I got a bit sick at one point, but it was all good because even though I couldn’t go out to the beach, I was still about to just lay around and watch tv without having to worry about anything else.  It also means I was the only one who didn’t actually burn, and that includes Al, haha.

The last few hours of the ride home wasn’t that fun.  Al’s car starting having some overheating issues and it got to the point that we had to roll down the windows and turn the heat on high.  That was rough, to say the least.  The heat coming out of the vents was insane.  I put my hand in front of one of them a few times, and it felt like it would have started to burn if I’d have left it there any longer.  Hopefully it won’t be a major issue to get fixed.

I got a new motherboad yesterday, my 4th.  The video was going bad, and i was getting some weird sound-feedback issues.  Yeah, I hate my laptop.

In other news, I’ve got a break starting this weekend.  I have all next week off.  Hooray for no school.

I had 2 pictures left from the Empire State Building so I decided to clump them together in one day.

This is a courtyard in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This is just outside of our hotel. We were on the corner of 77th and Broadway which is in midtown on the upper west side. We were about 30 blocks from the famous part of Broadway btw. I thought the neighborhood was pretty nice actually.

THANK GOODNESS IT’S SPRING BREAK!!!

I’ve been on break now since last Friday at 3 p.m. after my final midterm. Needless to say it’s been amazing! I was able to sleep in, not have to get up at any certain time, and, best of all, I haven’t had to go to class!!!

Monday was great, as I spent time with my sister and nephew. He’s gotten so big. He’s only 3 months old and already weighs 20 pounds…and he’s wearing clothes for 9-12 month olds. He is so cute though!!!! And he’s a really good baby….he’s just ALWAYS hungry! Didn’t really do anything Tuesday, just relaxed and did some stuff around the house…same on Wednesday as well.

Yesterday I came back to STL for a conference…it was on various topics ranging from Trauma Case Studies by the chief trauma surgeon at SLU, to toxicology of various party/date rape drugs, and my personal favorite, forensic death investigation by the chief medical officer of St. Louis (also a SLU doc)

After the conference I drove up to Chicagoland, which is where I am now. Spendin’ some time with the boy while I can. He’s tryin’ to get my to buy a 360 so he can kick my ass in COD2 from 300 miles away….LOL.

Other than that not a whole lot has been happening….same ‘ol stuff….class, study, and work. 

Work has been exciting lately. With the weather turning nicer, more people have been getting out.  And when some people get out, things tend to go crashing….and then we get a trauma.  Exciting for us, bad for the patient.  For instance, last weekend, Level 1 trauma, guy crashed his car into a tree.  He was a freakin’ mess…got the whole works: 3 IVs, labs, xray, CT scans, 4 units of blood, and a chest tube all before goin’ up to the ICU.

Once we got him up to the ICU, he started crashing…he ended up getting a lot more blood and two more chest tubes.  He coded and they called it.  They shut everything off, took him off the monitor and vent…then he started spontaneously breathing on his own.  So they had to put him back on and everything and resume working on him.  I think they finally stabilized him….after 3 hours.

I’m taking this weekend off from work since I’m up here visiting Scott.  We’re just gonna be hanging out and relaxing…he’ll probably kick my ass in Call of Duty 2 some more….he likes to do that…LOL.

In other news, I have to have surgery sometime this summer.  It’s nothing major, I’ve actually had this particular operation three times before.  It’s an operation on my left ear, to replace the implant that serves to connect my incus bone to the cochlea. More than likely, the implant in my ear has either been displaced or simply stopped working, which has effectively made me deaf in my left ear. After my last hearing examination, my hearing was less than 50 percent…so apparently i only use my right ear to hear stuff.  Prolly why Ii’m constantly asking people to repeat stuff.

Well, that’s pretty much all that’s new with me….time for lunch!