The University of Arizona

I know a few of you have been waiting for an update about school.  Of course that is an interesting conundrum since 99% of my time is now spent doing homework or studying for a test and I have 1% of my remaining time to eat, sleep, blog, and be with my hubby.

What is bad about the U of A?  

1. Well, it isn't much different than Pima except that it is MUCH bigger.  There are people, literally, everywhere.  

2. When riding your bike, pedestrians insist on standing, sitting, lollygagging or simply blocking the bike lanes.

3. When you are a pedestrian, the bicyclists will literally run you down and kill you.

4. Monsoon season is awesome until you have to ride home in it, or better yet ride to school in it.  There is nothing worse than sitting through 3 air conditioned lectures when you are soaked to the bone.

5. Grabbing a bite to eat takes an hour, 55 minutes waiting in line and 5 minutes to swallow it on the way to your next class.

6. The professors simply don't give a damn.  Come, don't come, do the work, or don't.  It is all the same to them.  At least at Pima they pretended to care.

7. Sorority girls and Fraternity boys annoy me to such an extreme I may have to start taking hostages.

What is good about the U of A?

1. I have been accepted to the Honors college and they are accepting me as a Junior which will make graduating with honors an attainable goal.

2. I will most certainly lose weight since I bike an average of 15 miles per week and Matt and I are swimming at the UA Rec center 3 times a week.

3. There is more anonymity and people (generally) don't recognize or know me.

4. We are saving a ton of dough now that Matt is taking the Hyundai to work and I bike everywhere I need to go.

5. My CatCard gets me discounts almost everywhere...again saving money.  Nothing I like better!

6. I get to listen to my iPod everyday.  It is no longer a really expensive solitaire machine but an actual product I use everyday.

7. If nothing else, at the end of the day I can say I am a WILDCAT!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Classes:

Monday:  

Chemistry Discussion Hour

Organic Chemistry Lecture

Calculus II

Tuesday:  

Organic Chemistry Lab

Molecular and Cellular Biology Lecture

Wednesday: 

Organic Chemistry Lecture

Calculus II

Thursday:  

Molecular and Cellular Biology Lecture

Molecular and Cellular Biology Lecture (HONORS)

Friday:  

Molecular and Cellular Biology Lab

Organic Chemistry Lecture

Calculus II

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright everyone, that is all the typing I can tolerate for one day.  I have spent more hours at this computer today than I care to think about.  Will write again soon when something interesting or amazing happens!

Meet Princess Allura...

Please meet Princess Allura, my new bicycle, purchased the day before school started at K-Mart. She is beautiful and fun, but most of all she is pink! Her name is Princess Allura because I am watching Voltron right now and the pilot of the blue lion wears pink. I have already gotten several compliments at school about her and she is much easier to maneuver with 25 pounds of books on my back than Matthew's 10-speed. My only complaint so far is that I have been soaking wet for the first two days of school. If I am not sweating my butt off than I am drenched with rain. I don't do well when wet! YUCK!

I am hoping to add some upgrades to Princess Allura in the near future.  Most of all I would like a basket on either the front or back that will accommodate my backpack.

The New Princess Allura

The Original Princess Allura

More details will follow regarding my first week at the U of A after my first week has concluded.  Keep an eye out this weekend.

Esophagogasroduodenoscopy Update

I heard from the doctor's office today regarding my test results.  The good news is that all my biopsies came back normal and healthy.  The bad news is that we still don't know what is wrong with me.  I have a follow-up appointment with my doctor in September.  In the meantime I am still taking the pro-biotics and GERD medication.  Hopefully these will help and my doctor will have further advice when I see her.

Surgery, Work, Dogs, Sister & School

As most of you know by now, I am home safe and sound from my out-patient surgery and am doing well. Other than having the feeling for a couple days that I swallowed a golf ball, I haven't had any other side effects. My test results should be back on Tuesday and hopefully they have given the doc some iota as to what is wrong with me. In the meantime, she has prescribed me Prilosec to maintain a condition called GERD which i didn't know that I had. It is my belief that the GERD and whatever else is wrong with me are not related but if it helps than I will take it.

Next is that I have officially submitted my two week notice to my job. It is something that I desperately worried over and stressed about, wanting to make the right decision. In the end I knew what I had to do...I had to give up the job in light of school, scholarship, health, and family. My boss was absolutely amazing about it and there are already plans to try to get me back in over the summer next year. I have to admit that I feel like a bit of a loser right now since college students all over America maintain a job and school simultaneously. I really believed I could do it all but fear overtook me and I just can't lose that scholarship. Here's to hoping that it was the right decision.

Thirdly, Matthew and I found a dog at the Humane Society which we are interested in. It is a boy schnauzer mix about 1-2 years old who is a stray. They don't know much about him but we are hoping to meet him today or tomorrow. I am staying cautiously optimistic.

Fourthly, my sister is awesome and bought me (with her trade) the first season of Voltron on DVD. I watched the first disc this morning and I am so happy!!




Lastly, school starts on Monday and I am a nervous wreck. I have waiting so long for this moment. I realistically know that it won't be the way I envision it to be but hope that I am not disappointed by the bureaucracy of it all. OH MY GOD, I'M OFFICIALLY A WILDCAT!!!

Esophagogasroduodenoscopy

I dare you to say that three times fast. Actually I dare you to pronounce it once correctly.

My outpatient surgery is going to take place tomorrow at 1:00 in the afternoon. I can easily say that I am apprehensive and nervous and will just be happy to have this over with. I will call and/or write on my blog as soon as I am feeling up to it. If all goes well I should be back to normal within 2-4 hours of the procedure. Lets hope that happens! Until next time....

Our Trip to Vegas 2008

Matthew, I, and all the pets are safely home from our vacation. I am still a little tired from the events of the week, so I will simply give a brief overview of what we did and later in the week will regale you all with stories from our trip!

Monday:
Star Trek: The Experience
Lunch @ Quark's
Checked into the Monte Carlo
Dinner @ the New York, New York
Watched Olympics

Tuesday:
Lunch @ the Silverton Buffet (delicious!)
Bally's for "The Price is Right"
The Palms for the Playboy store and club
Dinner @ In & Out Burger
Watched Olympics

Wednesday:
Relaxing morning by the pool at the Monte Carlo
Lunch @ Big Dogs
Dessert @ the Star Trek: The Experience
Rides/Museum @ Star Trek: The Experience
No Dinner....too full!
Watched Olympics

Thursday:
Breakfast @ Starbucks
Tix 4 Tonite (to get show tickets)
Mirage for Seigfried and Roy's baby tiger exhibit
Lunch @ La Salsa
Planet Hollywood for Popovich's Comedy Pet Theatre
Dinner @ the New York, New York
Watched Olympics

Friday:
Breakfast @ Panera's in Henderson
Back to Kingman to pick up the puppies!!
Dinner with Family
Drive back to Tucson

Saturday:
Arrived in Tucson @ 1:00 am

Summer School is Finally Over

Sign Language 101 and 102 are officially over. I took my last final this morning and just have a meeting with my teacher tomorrow to find out my final grade. Overall, my experience with sign language was a good one. I learned ALOT and enjoyed it for the most part. The language itself is very interesting and my teachers were nice.
The only thing I wasn't enjoying was that towards the end I found it difficult to juggle work and school. Work has been calling me in to pickup additional shifts and school was getting more stressful all at the same time. I guess this is good practice for when U of A starts in two weeks, but it has given me a good opportunity to really examine if I am going to be able to handle both. U of A is far more difficult than Pima and I will have more classes. I have a lot of thinking to do in the next couple weeks but ultimately my scholarship is what is most important.

Tucson Heat is Destructive

Due to some technical difficulties which have been resolved, the blog I tried to post a few days ago is now back up (albeit rewritten).

Matthew and I recently decided to move our master bedroom from its location to another room of the house. This came about for two reasons. First, the boys next door like to party. They like to party so much that they do it all the time. I wasn't getting any sleep and they weren't working with us. Second, the master bedroom is extremely hot. It is on the West side of the house and gets a great deal of sun exposure. We successfully moved the rooms...the master bedroom is now the computer room and the old computer room is now our master bedroom. It is working out marvelously thus far and we are glad we made the change.

The one surprising element we found in the old master bedroom was the ruined blinds. We had window covering overtop of the blinds to block the light. Little did we know that the Tucson sun could make the blinds look like we took a blow torch to them.

Anniversary

Today is Matthew and I's 3rd wedding anniversary. I cannot believe how time has flown. I have taken the opportunity today to think a lot about what has happened in my life during those past 3 years. Some things I wish I would have done differently, some I wish I hadn't done at all, but some things I don't regret in the least (I am hoping that is the way it is supposed to be). Marrying my amazing husband is certainly the best choice I have ever made. Here is to 75 more entertaining years of marriage!

Diverticulitis/Diverticulosis is the Diagnosis

I had my appointment with my GI doctor today and have been tentatively diagnosed with Diverticulitis/Diverticulosis. You can read more on the internet if you are so inclined (http://www.gicare.com/pated/ecdgs02.htm). I am on antibiotics for the next 10 days which will follow with about a months worth of probiotics. After we get back from Las Vegas in August I have scheduled an outpatient surgery where the doctors will confirm if I am allergic to Gluten. According to my GI doc my symptoms are not synonymous with a wheat allergy (plus my blood results were inconclusive) so she doesn't believe that is the problem. We are checking Gluten just to be certain. In September I have a followup appointment with my doctor to discuss what is next for me. Just as I suspected, my Doc believes that this has been a problem reaching back to my late teens/early 20s and was directly responsible for the sensitive surgery I had 3 years ago. It is unfortunate that doctors these days treat the ailment but never delve into why the ailment began in the first place. It is great that my previous problem has been fixed and life is much better because of the surgery....but the problem started somewhere and no one bothered to find out where.

Second Day on the Job!

Yesterday I worked from 4-8:30 pm and this time it was simply a visitation (also known as a wake). Myself and my co-worker assisted the family as much as possible and tried our best to stay out of their way in order to allow them time to grieve. In general the evening was quiet and uneventful however I must admit that being in the mortuary, at night, in the dark, by ourselves, was very unsettling. I am hoping that with time and experience I will overcome my imagination and become more comfortable. In addition, before locking the gates at night, we have to drive around the cemetery and confirm their aren't any guests visiting the grounds. The second creepiest thing in the world...driving around the cemetery at night!

First Day at the New Job!

I started my new job today (much earlier than expected)! Overall I had a good time and enjoyed the work. I was involved with two different services starting at about 10 o'clock this morning. Each service took about 2 hours and they were back-to-back. The training was definatetly hands-on as I jumped right into my work immediately and just followed the lead of my boss or was told what to do in advance and when. I was able to handle the job much better than I initially suspected and after the initial uneasiness of seeing a deceased person I was fine for the remainder of the day. One thing I do know, I need to wear better shoes. Heels (1 inch) killed my feet today after having been on them for so long. I work again tomorrow, so hopefully I can find a new pair of flats tonight.

Greer, AZ doesn't suck...

Matthew and I were invited to a cabin getaway with Bruce, Christine, and their family for the July 4th weekend. We went and took the dogs with us and had an absolutely wonderful time. The temperature never rose above 80 degrees, we roasted marshmellows at night, read books (there was no TV, cell, or computers service), played cards, ate delicious food, and went canoing. What a relaxing trip! I can't wait to go back!