i had some intriguing occurences happen in the past couple weeks.
1. my fish attempted suicide.
i was down the hall in the kitchen on the phone, when i heard my roommate scream my name, followed by, "your fish jumped out of the bowl!" i ran back to the room, scooped him up off the floor, and deposited him back into the bowl. then i removed some of the water, to discourage further attempts. it was pretty scary, though i think my roommate was more shaken than i was. rachel the fish must have missed pete. he had been taking care of him for a couple weeks.
2. i signed up for an iv clinic, where we learned to put in iv's, first on a fake arm, then we tried it on each other.
i learned i am not very good at giving iv's. but here was the situation. we had already practiced on the fake arm, and i wanted to practice on someone real. one of the other first years there said i could. now, since i had arrived at the clinic, i had discovered that she had done some phlebotomy before. mostly because she wouldn't stop talking about it. in a conceited manner. over and over. there was another girl from our class who felt that the conversation was a perfect time to discuss her previous experience drawing blood/giving iv's as well. when i started working on the first girl's arm, the both of them, and the instructor, were talking about how great her vein's were, blah blah blah.
i missed.
as i was prepping for her other arm, she told her little cronies how one time when she was giving blood, they missed her beautiful plump veins. they all agreed, in chorus, "i can't believe someone would miss your veins!"
they went on and on.
who says that? did they forget i was there?
i tried the second arm. i was just to the right of the vein, so i had to maneuver it over, and i'm sorry for those who didn't want the detail, but the gist is i basically didn't do it right the second time either.
there was not one moment when either of the three "experts" gave me encouragement, useful advice, or at least shut up about non-useful statements.
were they that concerned that they would be perceived as only ordinary? do they really have to make sure that people around them know that they are better? could they just stop gloating for a second as i try to put in my first iv in my life?
apparently, thinking of others was just too much for them.
3. i went to a new church this past week. saturday night, i went online, found the closest episcopal church to me, which ended up being about 3 blocks away.
i perused the website, it seemed alright. when i arrived at church, i found that the parishioners were almost exactly half and half black and white, which is pretty rare in a church. i found out later that 50 years ago two episcopal churches had joined together, creating the diversity. there were very few in attendance, about 30 or so. after church, i decided to stay for the coffee, where i met a nice old lady whose late husband was a physician at my school. then the priest lady came over. i told here where i was from, etc, and she asked if i went to an episcopal church in connecticut. no, i hadn't, but when i was in boston i went to this church that was sort of episcopal but kind of emergent...and she interrupts me to say, was it charles street church...?
charles river? i said
yeah, i know the guy who started that.
will messenger?
yeah, we went to the same meeting for [something to do with church] for a few years. that's really cool that you went there. i am interested in working with some of those elements, i'd love to talk to you about it.
at this point, i was absolutely shocked that someone in syracuse, right near where i lived, had heard of the tiny church i went to in boston. most people in boston haven't heard of it.
crazy.
so those are my most recent stories. enjoy.
