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Today was my last day in the Hematology lab at St. Joe's. Leaving was really hard - the lab staff was so sweet to me and helpful while I was there for the past 5 weeks. Sniff, sniff. Next week it's off to the U for a week of viruses. Good times.

I can't remember the last time I wrote in this thing, so for everyone who wants to know, here's the latest and greatest in my life:
*I'm moving out in August, back home to AV (ah, the beauty of the post-college empty nest crashfest)
*I'm seriously contemplating, researching, and praying about moving far far away in December or January....below the Mason-Dixon line....where big hair and belt buckles abound....
*I am now officially 2 years closer to being halfway to 50

Last weekend I had my first ever Minnesota Cabin experience. I almost fell out of the boat because the water was so choppy, and didn't get to go waterskiing, but I'm optimistic that the next 23 years of my life will hold at least one more cabin adventure and my hearty skiing skills will see the light of day.

Tonight: small group bonding followed by a movie with Jen and our "boyfriends" (Ben and Jerry)
Tomorrow: wedding invitation assembly with Fran and friends, church, parents
Sunday: Sunday school at BBC, lunch with Meg at Cafe Latte, small group

You know you've been working in the medical field too long when....you wake up at 3am shivering and automatically think "I must have severe blood loss. I'm going into shock. Or maybe I have kidney failure"....there's still time for me to change my major.

Tomorrow I get to sleep in for the first time in 2 weeks. Hallelujah.

Last night Jen and Geoff and I went to Grand Ave and ate Thai food. I generally don't do asian food but it was divine, despite that our carefully calculated Thai food order was thwarted when the waiter informed us that roast duck in curry was no longer offered. After that we walked up and down Grand, goggling at Smith and Hawken and Restoration Hardware, spotting lots of fun cars, and then ending the evening with a trip to the Grand Old Creamery. MMMMMM!

Today at the hospital I was splattered with an entire 5mL tube of blood for the second time in a week, except this time Kaakou was to blame instead of Debbie. I seem to have a predilection for involvement in freak lab accidents. Let's hope this trend doesn't continue.

I'm really enjoying not having to study all night, every night. Although I have to admit that I miss the excitement and variety of school. There's something strikingly disappointing about the real world and frankly, college didn't prepare me for the monotony of the workplace.

Life has taken some interesting, overwhelming turns this week. Not only did a number of things go in a direction I was not ready for, but to top it off, the kitchen sink fell apart at 12:30 Sunday night and flooded the kitchen. Mmm hmm, everything AND the kitchen sink.

Right now I have the french alphabet song running through my head....someone make it stop!!!!

Tomorrow I get to watch 2 bone marrow draws. I'm a little nervous at how I'll take it - will I faint? Will I be mesmorized? Will I want to puke? That's something to look forward to. The woman being drawn is recovering from acute myeloid leukemia, a pretty nasty thing to have. Honestly though, it's one of my favorite diseases. Just don't let her know that!

Clinicals are going well. The people at St. Joe's are really really nice and welcoming. When I showed up on Monday to the lab wing I was greeted with a sign that said "welcome to the heme lab, Gretchen!" I feel right at home. In fact, I'm seriously considering just hanging out there when I'm done with clinicals in December, but that's a few months off so we'll see how the other hospitals rate.

My "normal" heat strokes have begun again, and are picking up in frequency since it's getting hotter outside. I might have to break down and buy an AC for my bedroom, or risk dying of brain-fry this summer. Mmm, wouldn't that be lovely?

This week has been a sweet reminder of how much I love my friends. Each day has been a jumble of faces and conversations 5 months in the making. I'm thankful for school and for that experience but I really missed them all. Yesterday is a prime example of the general theme of the week:

It started out too early - 6am - after having gone to bed at 2am. Jen and Meg were on my couches and we were all cranky, tired, and very tempted to climb back to our respective sleeping quarters. Eventually we all got up, showered, and made our way to Lake Nokomis for the Walk for Life. We met up with our small group, walked, and hung around afterwards bee-bopping around and talking. Some of us went to Panera downtown, where I parallel parked for the first time (aside from driver's ed). Ok, actually, I started to parallel park and got scared so Jon finished the job for me. Thanks Jon! I'm glad some of my friends know how to drive a stick.

Following lunch we went back to The Flat (what we have all dubbed Jon, Josh, Brad, Sam, and Dan's house), where I experienced my second first of the day. Jon needed to take his motorcycle to the shop, which is right next to my house, but the bike itself was sort of taken apart already....so Jon sat on the bike, Meg and Lisa held tow ropes connected to the bike while sitting in the trunk of his Golf, and Jen captured the moment on film, firmly planted in the middle seat, as I proceeded to drive the Golf from Jon's house to the bike shop completely in first gear. (5 miles or so) We got a lot of funny looks to say the least. At the bike shop we all picked out "our" motorcycles, mine being this humongous ordeal with a teal and chrome finish. The man working there let us sit on them, and so starts and ends my motorcycling career.

After church and ice cream sundaes a group of us went downtown to our friend Mike's appartment. We then all walked to my favorite sky scraper in Minneapolis - 225 south sixth street (the round one with the saucer thing on top) where he works as an I-banker. He took us to the 47th floor to the board rooms - the view was amazing, as was the building itself. Whew, talk about posh. Thus concluded my day of firsts, and what a way to end it!

Tomorrow I start clinicals.

This morning I went golfing with Jess, Jake, and Joe from class. We all suck. Par was 36, I got a 98! However I did get a bogie on hole 4 and a double bogie on hole 6. I blame the rest of my bad score on my incomplete set of golf clubs (courtesy of Jake's sister). I was missing irons 2,4,6, and 8, my sand wedge, and my putter. So I had to putt right handed which you would think would be easy, but it's not! Anyways, we had a really fun time despite our incompetence as golfers, and plan on going again this summer. Long live the game of golf!

His oath, his covenant his blood
support me in the whelming flood
WHEN ALL AROUND MY SOUL GIVES WAY
HE THEN IS ALL MY HOPE AND STAY

That pretty much sums up life right now; perhaps reading "Hard Times" by Dickens would be appropriate. I don't want to go into detail, but lots of things I know, lots of things I love, and lots of things I've ever thought to be true are being snatched out from under me like a rug - praise God that He is my hope and stay!

I really don't enjoy sanctification.

I just found out that an old family friend is a model for Calvin Klein. And while this isn't incredibly shocking based on the nature of this family's good looks and tremendous artistic skills, it's still a little disturbing to google "Jonathan Nee" and see him sitting there in a fur hat or walking down the runway. Interesting. I guess you just never know what people will be when they grow up!

Yesterday I got cut off by some dude going 20mph in a 50mph zone, so I pushed on my horn and remained firmly connected to the button. Car horns are supposed to be intimidating and "move it buddy", right? Well whoever made my car didn't get that memo. Not only is said horn a confident soprano, but said horn cannot find its pitch - very intimidating indeed. And amusing.

Well here I am, on the brink of falling apart but still hanging in there. It's almost disturbing to me that college is coming to a close, so I'm going to make a list of my favorite college events:

*camping on the lawn at Covenant
*bobsled races in the basement of Carter Hall
*Wednesday pizza and movie nights
*changing my major 13 times (maybe not a favorite but definitely worth noting)
*discovering Starbucks coffee and keeping them in business from that point forward
*intermural soccer and smash mouth football
*LUPI's calzones and the creepy waiter
*5th North mystery dates
*Kilter
*Steak N'Shake
*my first and only Gopher football game
*the U! oh I LOVE the U!

I guess there's more to be said but I'll spare you all.

And for the countdown:
5 finals left!

Yesterday I went for a run - nothing out of the ordinary...until I got lost and ended up in St. Paul...needless to say the run went a little bit longer than expected! Well then after figuring out I was not where I wanted to be, an incredibly large fly flew right into my mouth and latched itself onto my lip - ew - and somehow managed to stay there for a little bit as I tried to pry it off. Mmmm...nothing like a good run....

And for the countdown:

2 case studies
1 incredibly procrastinated lab report
8 finals

I think I'm getting dumber, or else I have a brain tumor. First off, I can't spell anymore to save my life. In 5th grade I went to the district spelling bee and used to be a superchamp at spelling. Today while I was doing the crossword puzzle I spelled the word greet "great"....wow.....I also have the inability to write or speak what I'd like to say - I get really tongue-twisted and my notes are an absolute mess because I can't spell, and then I can't properly jot down what I want to say! Ugh! And it's only been getting worse. I must be dying.

2 1/2 weeks to go....

Ok this might be really boring for you all, but I'm just tickled pink! I got my clinical rotation schedule today, and so here it is!

May 22 - June 23 Hematology @ HealthEast St. Joe's

June 26 - 30 Virology @ U of M medical center

July 3 - August 11 Nothing! Vacation for my brain!

August 14 - September 1 Acute Care Chemistry @ U of M medical center

September 5 - 22 Special Chemistry @ U of M medical center

September 25 - October 27 Microbiology @ Abbott Northwestern

Oct 30 - November 3 Off

November 6 - December 8 Blood Bank @ VA hospital

WOOHOO!!!! Of course, this is all depending on if I pass all my classes this semester....but I will, Lord willing, and the creek don't rise!

Oh, I'm so excited to see this year come to a close!

Yesterday is most certainly up for the "my favorite day of the year" award. Jen and I met up at Lake Nokomis for a stroll/jog around the lake - the weather was superb by the way - along with everyone and their mother, and their grandmother's dog. After our jaunt we went to Fat Lorenzo's, and let me just say now that if you've never been there you need to go soon - it will change your life. We drew on the table, and ate really good pizza and just had a blast. Our waiter was this little foreign man who was just adorable, although I think he thought we were nuts because we were having such a good time. And we were in fact having a fantastic time! After that I received a phone call from a certain someone stemming from the xy chromosomal persuasion, and we talked for quite a long time. In fact, it was so long that both of our phone batteries died mid-conversation! (at different points of course) Wow, once again, I didn't know I had it in me!

And Hanson, thank you for telling me the Master's was last weekend. I got major friendship points for knowing that, which I will gladly hand over to you since you were the source of cet information.

Overall, a great way to end a horrendous couple weeks of studying and exams. I feel refreshed!

Hanson,
my deepest apologies for not telling you about the cat in the bag.

And to continue the lame countdown:
19 days of class
1 exam
8 finals
22 weeks of clinical rotations...
and then I'm a real person!

Last night I rented the movie "a state of mind" which is a documentary on North Korea. FASCINATING - highly reccomend it. It's about 2 young girls who are gymnasts for the state, and goes through their preparation for the "mass games". Mass games tells the story of Korea using large groups of gymnasts. Each gymnast's goal is to perform in sync with all the other hundreds of gymnasts in order to prove what a good communist he or she is. The performance is held for the general public, but also for the leader of the country, their "father", the General. The whole movie was amazing. Go rent it! (And then be thankful we live in America)

At last, springtime is here!!!!!!

The thing that I've enjoyed the most so far this springtime has been the wretched stench of the river. Yes, that's right! After lying dormant for the winter and not running for about 4 months, it's good to get out and use those atrophied muscles. But it's even better when the ground thaws and emits its smell. Maybe that's weird, but it makes me incredibly happy to smell that horrific smell again. It reminds me of the fall.

School is almost over too! Just 20 days of class, one exam, and 8 finals to go and then my friends, the torment of the 2005/2006 schoolyear is over. Whew, that will be exciting! This also closes out my college career - it's about time!

And so on that note, I'm going to go run a few miles and take in the scenery, the houses, and the smells of springtime.

Wonderful things happened today. I started out in a very sour mood, loaded down with the expectations of classwork and upcoming exams, combined with the realities of time. I almost started crying during chemistry lecture - come on now, that's borderline pathetic! But things turned around during lunch, when my friend Jake informed me:

"I had a hampster once. I got a 20% discount on him because he only had one eye. His name was One-eyed Willy."

Sweet mercy, I almost wet my pants!

On a totally different note, I found this quote on an email (thanks Bob!) and thought to myself, AMEN!

"God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth... The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain, his brother's is sure."
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I just took an online quiz to find out my fashion decade and it said that I set trends and fashions...umm, has anyone seen my ensembles lately? Because I almost wet my pants when I read that! I don't think t-shirts and jeans qualify as trend setters, but ok.