Merry Christmas Gaylord

Another successful Christmas. This is a funny, yet touching video that my family made for us up in Gaylord. Living in the great north, we miss out on a lot of the extended family's Christmas events. Honestly, I can't remember going since I was little. Anyways, having to work yet again this year, I spent a few hours with my immediate family before shuttling off to work. In the mean time, the Early family downstate celebrated without us, again. This year, they made a nice little video for us up in Gaylord. Thanks to youtube, I am able to add it onto my blog for your viewing pleasure. Although in actuality, I'm sure most of you don't even care.

Merry Christmas Gaylord

It is freezing up here!

The forecast for Gaylord, MI:

The current temperature is -2 with a -12 wind chill. Saturday: Wind chill of -12 to -20. This is my favorite, Sunday: "much warmer, high of 15." It is ridiculous that 15 degrees is "much warmer." This is an actual forecast, I didn't make any of it up. That cracks me up!

My Wisdom Teeth.

Well, they are gone. Had my wisdom teeth pulled today. Just so you know, it was a piece of cake. All of those horror stories you hear hardly ever happen. Of course my cheeks are swollen and my gums are still bleeding, but I have hardly any pain.

Everything else in life is good.

A Day of Snow!

Since today is my last day of freedom before heading back to work for a long stretch, I decided to go enjoy the snow. I love to cross country ski so I figured I would head to my favorite trail way out in the woods. It is usually groomed by the state, but because of the big budget crisis, it was cut. I was pretty bummed. They didn't even create a place to park for the person who had enough ambition to cut their own trail (not me). And they didn't even have the courtesy to open up the gate to the trail. Needless to say it probably won't get any use this year. On to my next favorite spot in the back corner of town. Here it appeared that someone had attempted to make a trail, but not a very good one. So I opted to use my snowshoes that I threw in the back of the jeep, just in case. I didn't even have my snowshoes on when this lady in a huge ass Mountaineer pulled up and bellowed at me, "you better stay off the ski trail." Being the sarcastic ass that I can be at times, I yelled back "what trail?" and went upon my way. I did stay off the trail because that would be rude and it wouldn't be as much fun. After spending over an hour walking on the mountain bike trail, I headed back. When I got back to the car, there were a bunch of little kids who were sledding down the ski trail. That definitely made me smile. I think the rude lady deserved it. I just hope that when she got back she didn't scream at the innocent children like the way she did me.

On a different subject, it is so depressing to watch anything on NBC. Thanks to the writers strike, I am watching a 1996 episode of Jay Leno with Chris Farley. Remember him? Maybe I should get cable to increase my viewing options.....

The Storm!

Gaylord hasn't been whomped (a made up word) on with snow since....while, last winter. Two days ago it started snowing and it is no where near ready to stop. Day number one we got hit the worst, I would say Gaylord got a good 14 inches of snow. Trust me, it took twice as long as it normally takes me to snow blow the driveway. A fun activity! The road commission has a huge budget crisis, just like the rest of the state of Michigan. To me that means the potential of getting stuck. One swipe down the main drag by the plow truck didn't cut it for a lot of people. It took me twice as long to get to work that next day and I counted 6 cars stuck in the road (yup, in the road) just trying to get to the main road. Thank God for 4 wheel drive or else I wouldn't have been able to make it anywhere and would probably have been one of the cars stuck in the road. Most of the side roads still aren't plowed and I do feel bad for the people who live down there and have to try and get out. After the big dumping we have continued to accumulate an endless amount of snow with some freezing rain in the mix. I must say though, I actually love big storms, snow blowing, and an endless amount of shoveling. Honestly.

Mush! Mush!

I had my first sled dog "experience" at work tonight. One of the doctors owns two huskies that occasionally he will take to work and leave in his car. Usually he brings them in for a guest appearance. Tonight we hooked the dogs up to a chair and they pulled me around the ER. At a high rate of speed. Those dogs can fly! Seriously, I would say I got up to 15mph. I had to jump off to avoid running into walls, desks, other employees, etc. I could only imagine what the boss would have to say if she would have found out what we were up to. But it was fun! Plus I was able to do all of that without going into the frigid weather we are currently having. Win, win!

I'm Famous!

It's final. I have officially become an extra in a movie. Got my copy of Bonsai in the mail yesterday. So excited! A majority of the hospital has seen it and I even have my own fan club. I could have been confused, but I think the paparazzi were hiding in the bushes when I left work. Ahhh....stardom!

Enter the Haggis

Last night I went to see a band called Enter the Haggis. They are an Irish/Scottish band, so I liked them already. Anyways, they had a lot of excitement and were rather entertaining. For whatever reason I seem to end up in the row where you have to sit by someone you don't know. Wouldn't you know it was an older gentleman (in his 50's) who was dressed in a kilt and reeked of liquor. Of course he had to talk nonstop about stuff that I really didn't give a crap about. Where he met his wife and where he proposed, about his 16 year old step-daughter and her boyfriend, and than about a local bar. Seriously, I don't care. Anyways, I added a sample of their music below. I must say though, they were much better live.

Enter the Haggis

My Adventure with The Flower Lady

So the neighborhood flower lady decided that the stray neighborhood cat needed a home. The cat has pretty much been hanging out in my garage since dropping off a litter of kittens. My nice neighbor decided that she would come over and we would try to catch her. Luckily she brought a 16 year old boy who was going to give her to his mom as a gift. So after 30 minutes of chaos in my garage the cat was finally caught. Of course she is a feral cat so it was kind of risky. Since I know about the possibility of rabies if she should bite me, I pretended to try and catch her, but in reality I just chased her towards the young boy. He did get a little scratch, oh well. He was pretty excited to be able to give this cat to his mother. They were headed to the vet to get her fixed and it would be all his. I just got home a little bit ago and there was a message on my machine that the cat had leukemia and that she decided to put her down instead. Now I feel bad. I hope that the boy wasn't totally bummed out. The poor cat could have finished living her life in my garage, instead her last memories would be of a terrifying event in the garage she called home.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

First big snow of the fall. I could barely find my way home tonight it was snowing and blowing so bad. There were areas where I had to actually slow down to 25mph to decide exactly where the road may be going. It is a heavy wet snow, but enough to cover the ground and than some. Since we had several rollovers that came into the ER I knew the roads were going to be slick. I did make it home in one piece but it took 15 minutes longer than it normally does.

The Mystery of the Lawnmower

Well trying to hurry up and finish raking my leaves before heading to work, I was interrupted numerous times. Once when a guy randomly stopped and asked if I needed any trees cut down. Oddly enough I had a huge popple in the back yard waiting to be demolished. Well trying to winterize the boat, this guy I have never seen before shows up in a pickup truck with a small dog. At first I thought he found a dog and was trying to find its owner. Instead he told me he was the one that "rescued my lawnmower." At last, the mystery is solved. He talked forever, mostly about how he is a recovering alcoholic and how he has been spiritually lead to a better life. Even though he lives down the street on the lake, I have never seen him or his car before. He shared way too many details of his life, I really didn't care. But since I didn't want to be rude I tried my darnedest to pay attention and make appropriate comments. Needless to say, I didn't get my yard raked.

On to a sadder subject, I have been struggling with one of the saddest things I've seen at work. Since it has been on the news everywhere I can share some details. To make it simple, a guy drove into a coffee house in a SUV going 30mph or so. He killed one man instantly and a lady who died in the ER. Two others are in critical condition, both related to the gentleman killed. Other family members of the dead lady were also injured and torn apart by what happened. Of course the driver didn't have a scrape on him and was released. He acted very oddly. I would be a basket case if that were me. He denied it being intentional, but I think otherwise. There were people crying everywhere and little you could do to comfort them. I can't imagine. One minute you are drinking coffee and laughing, the next minute you are crushed by a SUV. It's just plain sad.

In a different story, there was a 28 year old male from Central Lake who was running in a marathon in New York when he collapsed. It is believed it was heart related since he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart at the age of 15. He had a big impact on the community and was hoping to make the Olympic team.

With all this stuff in the news, I think it is so rude of the newscast to interview their immediate family. I think that is inappropriate and should be made a rule that they can't.

Anyways, enough depressing news. I must move on.

Happy Halloween!!

I spent Halloween evening at my parents house passing out candy to all the little neighborhood monsters. When they would knock, I would knock back to see what they would do. Funny thing is, a good chunk of those kids would try and open the door. I found it funny anyways.

Today while I was sleeping, the doorbell rang. No big deal, that occasionally happens when people are trying to sell vacuums or a religion. Either way, I didn't get out of bed to answer the door. When I woke up later, my lawnmower that had been sitting outside by the garage for the past month, was on my porch in front of my big window. I have no idea what that is all about. First I questioned my Dad several times, but he does have an alibi. Most of my friends don't live in Gaylord, and if they were to make a trip to Gaylord, it is not likely that they would spend an extra 15 minutes to go to my house. And most of the people that I can think of that would try a prank, don't even really know where I live. And if it were a good prankster, they would have pushed it right in front of my door so that it would be the first thing I hit when I walked out the door. Since it was raining all day, Dad says it was probably just a "do-gooder" who wanted to get the lawnmower out of the rain. He said that old people are like that. Either way, I'm paranoid about who the hell would have done something like that.

On another note, Hollywood is talking about going on strike if an agreement can't be made in the next couple of hours. What that means for me? There won't be any new episodes of The Office.

Solution to the Cat Problem

I think I know a quick and easy, but morally wrong solution to the cat problem. I'll trap as many feral cats as possible in my garage, close all the windows/doors and leave the car running until its over. Not that I'm suicidal, but if I were to kill myself, thats how I would want to go. Turn the heat on and get nice and cozy, turn on my favorite radio station and go nite-nite. If I did it this way, I wouldn't have to pay the $20 to take it to the Humane Society (those lazy bastards).

What a Day

It is 3am. I just spent the majority of my evening watching the entire 3rd year series of The Office. With a break only to get something to eat. Pretty pathetic? Kinda. I figured I deserved it after raking leaves for 4 hours this afternoon. I'm trying to rationalize......

Post Secret

A couple of years ago I stumbled across a book called "Post Secret." Basically people write down some of their deepest secrets that no one knows and they mail it to this guy in Maryland. It started out as a simple project and has since spiraled out of control. His website postsecret.com has new secrets every Sunday. I check it religiously. I just bought his fourth book and I am rather disappointed in it. So much to the point where I made a postcard and mailed it in. I have also sent in a couple other postcards but none of them have made the book or the website. I still have faith. Here are a couple of videos.

Postsecret Project: Open Up

Best PostSecret

PostSecret

More and more cats, oh my!

A couple of nights ago it was rather chilly and temps dipped down into the 20's. Apparently the neighborhood cat decided it was too cold for her 5 little kittens. So where does she bring them? My garage. Today I was able to catch them and take them to the humane society. Kind of sad, but they said they would probably have to kill most of them because they are to feral already. First she told me it would cost $60, but thats bullshit. Than she decided to charge me $30. Thats such crap. They said in my neighborhood, feral cats are getting out of control. That they know of, there are more than 100 cats. To my knowledge this black cat has had 3 sets of kittens (thats where my garage cat came from). But I think that this cat has gotten close enough where I can put on some armor and try and catch it. Than I have two options. I can get a voucher and have it fixed for free. Or take it to the humane society and tell them that she has little chance of surviving the winter. Which isn't entirely true, but it sure would be nice to get rid of the problem entirely. Is that inhumane? Plus I fear becoming the neighborhood "cat lady."

Its All About Who You Know

Well, for a change, I got to leave work early (that is why I'm writing this at 430). Not even a couple miles from the hospital I got pulled over, and rightfully so, I was driving 67mph in a 55mph. Anyways, it was one of the State Boys and once he saw me all he said was "Oh, it is only you." Of course he knows me from coming into the ER all the time. We briefly talked about some problems he is having with his elbow and than for whatever reason we started talking about the Tigers. After about 5 minutes he let me go, not even a warning. The only thing he asked was where I lived. Never asked for my license, proof of insurance or registration. Not that I'm complaining. I hope I'll be able to return the favor someday.

Donating to Charity

A few months back my Dad showed me a website where you are able to donate money to people in third world countries trying to start a business. The website is www.kiva.org and you can donate a minimum of $25 dollars and of course as much as you may have ever wanted to give a person. Last spring I donated $25 to help a lady establish a clothing business and just got repaid. Her total loan was for $600 and several people loaned her money. The payback percentage is very high. Needless to say I have re-donated that money and encourage all to visit. It can make a nice Christmas present. It gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

On a side note I have to re-pay a visit to the dentist again. I need a couple of caps and the dentist says I need to have my wisdom teeth pulled. As far as the wisdom teeth are concerned, don't you think they are fine back there if they aren't painful and they aren't pushing all my other teeth forward and causing a crooked smile. I wish I knew more about reading dental x-rays. I think pulling wisdom teeth today is similar to everyone having their tonsils removed way back when. An unnecessary procedure. But I think his business has declined for him and that he needs some extra cash for Christmas gifts. Bastard.....

Opps

I just slammed my garage cat's tail in the car door when I got home this morning. Why do I find that so funny?

I have some very good news (for me anyways)....

While visiting my kid sister in Grand Rapids this weekend, we were wandering around looking for things to do. At the Gerald Ford Museum there was a huge fountain that was long and deep. On my list of things to do before I die is wade in a fountain. That was rather risky since there were security and people everywhere. Trust me though, I contemplated it for a very long time. But once I found out it would be federal law-breaking, I opted to go on my merry way.....to the zoo. There was a fountain near the entrance where there was some traffic. It was slightly hidden by some large bushes where I could slip my shoes off and bolt into the water. The water was very cold, but well worth the pain. I do have pictures to prove that this was done and I will post them later.

A day well spent! Cheers!

A Good Practical Joke

If you were to ask me, there is nothing better than a good practical joke. Pulling them off at work is the best. Mainly because you have more tools to set it up and also the challenge of not getting caught.

While a co-worker went to have his lunch break, we set up an IV with the tubing hidden and eventually taped under the desk right where it would drip right onto his lap. Once he comes back, we are talking and laughing and what not. When he slides in front of his computer to do something, I sneak around the corner and opened up the fluids. Just as planned, he sat there for a couple of seconds until he realized his pants were wet. Unfortunately it wasn't a direct hit and just got on his pant leg. Next victim was this girl who was sitting at another desk; when we were cracking up laughing she hadn't a clue as to what happened, even though she was no more than 15 feet away. Anyways, we asked her if she could come over and show us her myspace page. Just for a side note, myspace is super retarded. Anyways, she is addicted to it so she quickly slid over to show us. Just as she is pointing out pictures, I again, sneak around and opened it up. This was a direct hit. And not only did we get her once, she is so obsessed with it, she moved back over to continue on with the pictures. Got her again. Than we pulled the respiratory therapists into it. I had them sit in front of the computer and watch the security camera because I was going to pull a prank on the front desk person. As she sat there all focused and excited, I again went around and opened up the fluids. Another direct hit. Of course than we had to get the new respiratory therapist, another direct hit. It was an extremely slow night and we did this for probably 4 hours. As far as I know, we never got caught....

Other pranks at work include hiding under a bed sheet as a dead body and start moving when an unsuspected victim gets near the body. Another one is taking all the toys that we use for real life education. Things such as bloody wounds you put on your arm, etc, etc. While I was lying in the bed being decorated by my co-workers, the story would be that I slipped and fell in the bathroom and had to have surgery done. We even got the doctor to play along with this one. When the lab guy came to draw my blood, he saw me and looked like he was going to cry. The respiratory therapist wasn't too impressed with the situation and didn't find it the least bit funny. Too bad for him. And with this one, we even decided to try and get the nursing supervisor. When she saw me she was ready to try and find a replacement for me.

Best part with all of these are, I have never got caught. However, these may have something to do with my label, "A bored Sarah is a bad Sarah".

I want an accent

I took care of a lady whose husband was from England. I liked his accent and wish there was some place I could learn to speak like that. I also liked how after I gave him some coffee, instead of saying thank you, he said "cheers!" So from now on, whenever anyone gives me a beverage, I'm going to reply by saying Cheers! So I may not be able to speak like them, but I'm going to use part of their lingo!

The Joys of Work!

It has been awhile. My motto lately has been work all winter and play all summer. So basically I've been picking up a lot of overtime at work. It has been fun, but tiring. Labor Day weekend was full of laughs. Seriously, I was laughing so hard I was crying. And remember when you were a kid and you would start laughing and be unable to stop. Than the next thing you know you don't even remember what you were laughing about. It was like that. I hadn't done that in a long time.

Unfortunately I can't disclose too much information due to privacy laws with health care, blah, blah, blah. But I'll give you some brief details of some of the things I got to laugh about. The first being the 20 something year old that came by ambulance because he tried to kill himself. Not so funny, right? As he is lying there sobbing, I ask him how he was trying to kill himself. He said that he was allergic to apples so he had been eating apples all night. For the most part I am able to contain myself and act professional in front of people, but I couldn't. I seriously busted out laughing, which lead to more and more laughing while this guy is laying there crying like a girl. How unprofessional!!

My second story is probably only super funny to me because you have to know the people I work with and you probably had to be there. I don't know why it is so funny when people fart. Out loud, in front of people, at inappropriate times..... We have this older nurse who was in helping the doctor sew up a guys leg. There were 2 teenage boys in the room at the time, probably 14 or 15 years old. Just as the doctor pushes the needle into the patient, she farts. It was quiet when she did this, and it really came out loud. The kids eyes got big and everyone is trying not to laugh. Than she says in her little squeaky voice, "On that note, I'm going to leave." That is when everyone busted out laughing. We made fun of her for the rest of their visit. They said the whole situation was worth the trip in. I was laughing so hard I was crying and I couldn't even retell the story it was so funny. Just thinking about it right now, I'm laughing.

Good times!

This is Funny

Ed was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really angry. She told him,"Tomorrow morning I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in less then 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!!"

The next morning Ed got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway. Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, and brought the box back in the house. She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale. Ed has been missing since Friday. Please pray for him.

Waking the Dead

Well, I've decided to give this geocaching a second try. Taking the GPS to work I called up EMS for the coordinates to the helicopter landing pad and they were pretty close, but not as specific as the GPS. So, a friend of mine said he has gone before and he would show me exactly what it was I was to be looking for. We decided to do this after working 12 hours so we figured we should find some place fairly close. So, we choose to go to the cemetery. In the dark. With flashlights. You should have seen how many cars were slowing down to watch three people in scrubs run around the cemetery being very disrespectful to the dead trying to find this little hidden whatever. Sometimes, when I was close to the graves near the road, I would pretend like I was praying when the cars would pass. Anyways, after searching for over a hour we decide to call one of the paramedics who is huge into this stuff. It just so happens that she was working that day and that she was the one who had hidden this cache. She said she would come over to help us out. It was the first time and probably the last time that I'll see an ambulance in a cemetery. It really made people stop and slow down to figure out what the hell was going on. So the end result was that we were quite a distance from the grave where it was hidden in a bush. What did I find? A tiny little tube with a piece of rolled up paper to write your name on. But just the fact that we had the experience to walk around in the cemetery in the dark with flashlights and have an ambulance show up, made my day. Even possibly my week, we'll see how the rest of it goes. It was something that will probably never happen again. And that is probably a good thing. It still cracks me up.

Update on my life list

I was super close to being able to cross off a task on my list of things to do before I die. I had gone to the grocery store and wasn't in a terrible hurry to go anywhere when I left. Not far from my parking space was this older gentleman changing a flat tire. First I just walked by, but than my list popped into my head. So I approached him and offered to help. He smiled and said no thanks and said his daughter was on her way to help him. I even asked him twice, knowing how close I was to finishing this task. But again he declined and said I was the only one who had offered to help him. I smiled and went upon my way. Apparently he didn't know how important it was to me to change his tire. So, it is still on the list.

A mixture of events

Well, I haven't posted anything in awhile. But I've been rather busy. I have had a steady stream of company up for the past two weeks. Living up in the great north a lot of family vacation up here. Besides that, my family and I are awesome people and they are lucky enough to hang out with us sometimes. Little modest? You bet!

We had a family reunion of sorts a week or so ago. It is always fun to watch the family dynamics come out. Especially when it comes to the end of the day. I entertained a ton of little kids for most of the day in the water. You throw one kid across the lake, they all want to partake. It was fun though.

I've tried geocaching for the past two days. It isn't working out too well for me. I've spent hours in the woods looking for two of them and came up empty handed. Two of them led me to peoples yards, definitely in the wrong spot. Later checking the coordinates in a small, but accurate area, shows that they are way off. So now I have to sit down with the GPS and figure out how to correct that. But no, I couldn't even find it in the small area. What the hell.....

Other than that I have been hounded every day that I have been off to come into work because they are shorthanded. Tomorrow is the only day I have absolutely nothing to do so I plan on sleeping in and seeing how nice I feel like being. It is supposed to be cold and rainy and I could use the extra money. We'll see.

Ever wonder what $83 dollars could buy you?

After sleeping on my problem last night, I decided I better get up early and take the cat to the vet to have the fish hook removed. After calling them and telling them my current situation, they told me to bring her right in. And of course in the first couple minutes of the 20 minute trip, she takes a dump in the little carrier I had her in. There goes the new car smell. She did not like the car ride one bit, she made noises I've never heard a cat make. Anyways, once I got there I stressed to them several times that she isn't a very domestic cat and that I've never picked her up, etc. So once I'm in the back with the vet and her assistant, they open the door and the cat leaped out of the box and goes nuts. Jumping on the windowsill, bouncing off the chairs and the tables. There is shit flying off of her from the accident in the car, artificial plants are being knocked around, magazines and other papers are flying everywhere, it was a mess. She freaked, and so did the vet assistant. Two comments I remember them saying were "maybe we should have suited up in case she hurts us" and "we are probably going to have to sedate her for this." It was at that point I told them to call me when they were done. So after a couple of hours, I paid the $83 to take her home. She was still pretty groggy when I got her home so I left her in the cat cage for about a hour until I had to leave. When I opened the cage, she was seriously dragging her rear half around the floor with her front paws in an attempt to get the hell away from me. I kept the garage closed and let her be until I came back a few hours later. When I did come back, she ran as fast as she could to get out of the garage. She didn't come back for most of the night and I was actually getting a little concerned that something would have her for dinner when she was so defenseless. But after a good short rain, she showed back up in the garage soaking wet. It has been a bad day to be a cat.

You're not going to believe this.....

Last fall I had two little kittens show up at my house. I housed and fed them over the winter and I named them Ruff and Tuff. Tuff for the most part is gone, but Ruff is pretty much around all the time and has won the tittle of my "garage cat." I've pretty much adopted her. Anyways, coming home late tonight I was in a hurry to take the trash out and start to head toward bed. As I'm petting her, she has this black thing hanging out of her mouth, which I thought was dirt or something. She kept trying to rub up against me which she normally doesn't do. So as I look closer, she has a fish hook stuck in her mouth with a piece of fishing string attached to it. Of course several things pop into my head all at once. First being, how in the hell am I going to get this out. I've never picked her up and I am unable to think of any safe way of doing this. We do it for people all the time at work when people come in with hooks in various places. It is actually quite simple. But to do it on a cat, a wild cat at that (good rhyme there), I don't think I could do it. Second the cost of a vet bill popped into my head. Who knows how much something like that would run, I'm sure they would have to knock her out somehow. And I have no idea how I would be able to trap this cat to be able to take it to the vet. What a hassle that will be. Third, the thought of how this whole situation happened. Obviously she has been hanging around someone else's garage or something. Could you imagine the sight of someone going outside to find a cat dragging their fishing pole through the yard in an attempt to get away. Somehow they were able to get close enough to cut the line. Probably by reeling her in and thus pushing the hook deeper into her skin. So after some thought, I decided I would go out in the garage and dress in some type of protective clothing and try to take it out myself. I figured I would put on my snow pants (good and thick) and my big heavy winter gloves and see what I could do. Mind you it is in the 60s tonight (I know, thats nothing compared to out west and the south), but it didn't sound appealing to me at all. So I decided to peak into the garage and get a better look before I put my armor on. Ruff wasn't there. I checked a while later and she still wasn't there. Great, now what. So after thinking about it longer, I decided, what could it hurt to leave it in for a day or so. I have a bunch of little cousins coming over tomorrow, I'm sure they would get a kick out of it. I really don't have much time to run to the vet anyways. And maybe, just maybe, somehow it will come out on its own. I actually feel sorry for the little cat. I bet that is painful. Or maybe its not, hard telling. But if I were to leave it in for a day, is that some type of animal cruelty or is it just optimism that it will come out somehow? Ugh.

I've been shocked....literally

So last night at work we got a little bored. As you may have heard, a Bored Sarah is a Bad Sarah. For whatever reason, we decided to start messing around with the crash cart. That led to hooking the defibrillator pads up to me, which than we decided what could it hurt if I got shocked with 1 joule. Considering we just shocked a lady with 300 joules to get her out of V-Tach, 1 joule did not sound like much at all. So, I sat on the bed and the apprehension was probably the worst because of not knowing what to expect. It shocked me. It was probably one of the craziest things I've ever done. I had the pads on my lower chest so it wouldn't affect my heart....to much. It basically felt like someone just squeezed you, really really tight. It pretty much knocked the wind out of me. The doctor was present the entire time, basically just to laugh at us. It was hilarious, it still cracks me up. Why would we do such a stupid thing? It has been almost 5 hours now and I still feel so weird. I feel a little sore, like someone kicked me. And it seems like I notice the presence of my heart a little more than I normally do. Probably because I'm paying attention to whether or not it is still ticking.... Good times!

Where have I been?

Well, some of you may or may not have noticed, but I've been gone. After my six days of work, I packed up and headed out camping. I go where I've always gone camping, the upper peninsula. I usually don't have any type of agenda, I just get in the car and go. This trip I ended up first west of Marquette and than all the way west into the Porcupine Mountains.

The first night I stopped at a campground where I was 1 of 3 tents in the entire campground. Out of 110. Pretty sad I thought. I got a spot right next to the playground so I had an endless stream of children running by. Kids are absolutely the greatest. They just crack me up, so simple minded and innocent. I did pretty much freeze that night. The temps dipped down into the 40s and I was very envious of my trailer neighbors and their furnaces going off every couple of hours.

My first day of hiking I spent more than a hour driving around trying to find the Black River Falls. The directions I got out of a book did not match up at all with what I had on my county map. And all the street signs aren't real names or anything like I'm used to. Instead they are all numbers and letters (PS2, PD3, PPR, PU4, etc). Eventually I did cross the Black River and found signs pointing in the direction of the falls. After another 15 minutes of two track dirt roads, the road ends with a trail to the falls. I was surprised to actually find another car in the parking lot. On my way down the steep trail, there were 2 ladies trying to carry some camping equipment down the hill. I offered to help since I was headed that direction. We made small talk and whatever and I went on my way as they started to set up camp. After I finished taking my pictures I headed back up the trail to find them barbecuing hot dogs. I talked to them some more and they offered me some food. Normally I would pass it up, but it smelled so good, I was so hungry and I had no idea how far from any place to eat, so I decided to chow down with them. After I graciously thanked them for their hospitality, they told me to come back later that night for lots of beer. I laughed and told them I would probably never be able to find this place again.So after my free lunch, I headed further north to Canyon Falls. Basically it is a canyon that has been whittled by some very fast moving water. You can walk down along the canyon and the river for miles. There were quite a few people there, so I don't know why I was so startled when this nice boy started asking me about my camera. I stopped what I was doing and talked to him for awhile about photography and all the falls in the area. He was there with a bunch of friends but he wanted to take me even further north to Houghton to see Hungarian Falls. He was cute and I liked his accent, so I'm surprised I said no. But I really couldn't work going any further north into my trip.
So after that stop, I did go to a couple of more waterfalls, including my favorite Bond Falls. I would definitely say it out does Tahquamenon Falls. It was pretty spectacular.
The campground I stumbled across for the night had the most helpful energetic camp ranger I think I've ever met. I was headed to the Porcupine Mountains the next day and really had no idea where to start as far as that was concerned. He said he has been trying to get into that headquarters for years now and so he knows everything and anything about the place. He was a wealth of knowledge. I spent probably a hour talking to him. When I stumbled out of my tent at 730 the next morning, I don't think I even had my tent zipped back up when he popped around the corner asking if I had decided what I would be doing in the Porkies that day.

I don't know what it is about traveling alone, but people treat you so much more different. Feeding you. Wanting to take you different places. I can't say that any of that would have happened if I had been there with a group of friends or whatever. That and I think that the Upper Peninsula just houses more friendlier, down to earth people.

So my third day of the trip included four waterfalls and even a trip into another time zone! The day included my second favorite falls, Sandstone Falls. The most spectacular thing about it is the huge rocks that surround the falls. These four falls were so remote and the trails were so difficult, that I seriously did not see anyone on any of these trails.I met up with some friends to camp with and explore the Porcupine Mountains that evening. I wasn't able to do as much hiking as I had planned due to the lack of energy and ambitions. But we did get some hiking in. I went to both the lowest point and the highest point of the mountains. It was pretty awesome. And there were a ton of backpackers out in the woods. Something that I would consider doing if I knew what the hell to do. There were even a pack of probably 6 or 7 young female backpackers. I was impressed!
On my way back across the Mackinac Bridge, I decided that I would pay for the cars toll behind me. Kind of like a pay it forward type deal. So I told the lady, she just said "okay," nothing else. I wondered why she responded like that. I wondered if people do this more frequently than I would have thought, so she didn't think it was a big deal. Or I also wondered if she may have pocketed the money. I tried to watch the car behind me when I pulled out. They sped up on their way out of the toll booth, but I don't know if they were trying to catch up or if they just drove fast. When they did make it up near me, they didn't look over at me or anything like I would have expected, but than they got stuck behind me in road construction. I would like to think that they were on vacation and that their last impression of the upper peninsula would be what mine was, there are some really nice people that live up there.

Getting to know my neighbors....

Let me first tell you how dangerous tubing is with certain individuals. When people have the need for speed and they are amused by being as mean as possible to get someone to fall off the tube, it hurts. Especially the next day. Of course the stellar sunburn I got does not help matters at all. But I have so many bruises on my legs and arms from tubing yesterday, I feel like someone beat the shit out of me. But what is even more fun is drunk tubing. Endless laughs!

So my weekend neighbors have been up for the past week or so. They come and go like I do, so we've never really talked, just waved on our way to wherever. They have a bunch of little girls who have been out in the woods at night screaming endlessly. I want to go hide in the woods and give them a real scare. I came home tonight with groceries and had been in and out of the house several times. While I'm gathering the rest of the bags in my hand, I turn around and here is a girl (maybe 11 or 12) standing not even 2 feet away from me. I'm all the way in the garage so I don't know how she so quietly snuck up on me (maybe she is part Indian), but she startled me. And I think I swore. Actually I'm sure I did. She was asking about the kittens who I was lucky to get rid of 2 days ago. Apparently she had been going into my garage and taking them outside to play with. I wondered in the back of my head how sometimes they would get outside. But she almost cried when I told her I got rid of them. Her dad (whose name I don't remember due to my lack of active listening skills) came over and I made small talk with him briefly. I assumed since it was almost 10pm and the kittens were no longer around that the little girl would follow her dad home. Wrong. She starts following me around in the garage and outside. I would take stuff inside and she would wait in the garage until I came back out. She even offered to help me, which I thought was sweet, but just go home already!

Yes, she did finally leave. And now I am a step ahead on getting to know my neighbors!

I guess I'm getting old...

I spent the Fourth of July at a friends cabin. There were a bunch of little kids there that entertained me as much as I entertained them. I spent a ton of time in the water tubing with the kids and spent probably a hour teeter tottering with a 3 year old 30 pound child. Someone taught her to say, "keep it moving lady." It was pretty much like doing a hour worth of squats. I'm pretty sore today. I also hung out with them and we did completely mindless activities. We fed the ducks, threw sticks into the lake and played catch with a beach ball. Sure I act like them, but my body isn't as young as it used to be.

The Five Degrees of Kevin Bacon

For lack of things to talk about, I am 5 people away from Kevin Bacon, here's how:

I picked up a hitchhiker last fall whose
daughter went to Interlochen Academy
who met John Travolta who
was in Look Whose Talking with Kristie Alley
who was in She's Having a Baby with Kevin Bacon!

And here is another:

I know a Mike
whose son went out with a girl
who was at a party and met Alyssa Milano (from Who's the Boss)
who appeared on The Tonight Show
where Kevin Bacon also appeared

How lucky am I? Yup, you don't have to say it, you're jealous!

Another unproductive day....

It seems that I am having too many unproductive days. I went to see the eye doctor today. Her and her entire staff were rude. They for sure didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. My big goal the past week or so has been to get rid of the two kittens. I posted an add in the paper on Wednesday. I have received several calls about them. I waited around for two people to show up at my house tonight with neither one appearing. The nerve of them! For a brief period (I'm talking seconds), I considered keeping them. But I quickly caught up with reality and remembered the fact that I'm scared to death of becoming the neighborhood cat lady. Hopefully I'll have better luck in the next few days. When I went to water the flowers today, I discovered that the deer came to the garden for dinner last night. Ugh. And lastly the continuing issue with my Jeep. When I took it in to have the electrical source that goes to my hitch checked, they found there was no voltage. They had put it on not even a week ago. Don't they check that? Idiots. Needless to say, I have to make my fourth trip to the car dealer. I thought that buying a new car would prevent having to take it to be repaired. Sigh...

It floats!

Well, the boat floats! After several hurtles, the boat has made it to water. Some technical difficulties along the way, but it was a successful first launch. Some times when you get going fast (like 30mph, I know, really not that fast), and you start hitting the waves, I feel like the boat is going to snap like a toothpick. It seems so fragile to be doing stuff like that.

So more issues with the Jeep. When we hooked the trailer up, the trailer lights don't work. I had to have the hitch put on last week, but apparently they never tested the lights. So I have to go back to the car dealership again, for the 4th time. I also had them put on this undercoating rust proof stuff on my car last week. Well it seems that everywhere I touch it is just thick goop....everywhere. It is messy and gets all over your extremities and clothing. So I have to also address these issues when I pay another visit to them tomorrow.

Update...

So the past week or so has been rather low key and uneventful. I put in my six days of work and am now resting with my eight days off. Over this time period, I have kinda sorta been working on my life list. I just so happen to know a cop that is a pretty good friend. Perfect opportunity to get into a police line up, right? Well, bad news, they don't do police line ups anymore. He said they use a book full of pictures. The pictures are of other prisoners. He said he could probably get me in the book, but that would be kinda weird. I told him I needed to think about it.

Also on the list is juggling. Lets just say it isn't going very well. My legs are killing me from having to continuously bend over to pick up my dropped balls. I can barely juggle two balls, but thats about it. I will continue practicing once my legs are feeling a little better.

Some pretty cool news in our little town of Gaylord. One of last years members from the high school hockey team, Will Weber, got selected in the second round of the NHL draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets. That is awesome!!

That's about it......

Things to do before I die...

A couple of weeks ago I was able to cross off an event from my "List of things to do before I die." If you look back a few blogs, you can read my story of being an extra in a movie. Everyone has a list, either mental or written, and most of them are very similar. Things such as write a book, travel to Spain, meet someone famous, etc. Well I guess my list is a little unique. Being an extra in a movie was something I never thought would happen. Last fall I was able to cross off "Pick up hitch-hikers" from my list. Now that may seem easy and harmless. But, being a young lady, it can be rather risky. So last fall when I took a vacation alone (also on the list), I picked up a couple of hikers who just so happened to be gynecologists from Ohio. Weird. We had some very colorful conversation. In the end I gave them a ride to their car and they gave me $50. I told them I didn't need the money, but the one guy said, "I'll make more money in 5 years than you will in a lifetime." So I took the money. Back to the list. So I have always had this mental list of things to do. Now, I'm going to write some things down just so I can read back at a later time and laugh at how stupid they are and to see if I've completed any. Without further delay, here is the list:

1. Be a stand in on a police line up
2. Change a strangers flat tire
3. Pay for the next cars order in a drive thru
4. Do something that makes someone say, "You know, I really admire what you did!"
5. Win an award
6. Pull on the "Pull in case of fire"; even though there is no fire
7. Glue coins to the floor and watch strangers try and pick them up
8. Go to a poor area in a city during the winter holiday season, without any shopping areas to draw the middle class. I will put on the worst clothing I own, take a strip of cardboard, and write "Homeless please help" on it. Then I will sit down next to the sign, shaking a change cup. Anyone who gives me change will get a $50 bill until I run out of money.
9. Drive cross country without a map
10. Walk into a crowded bar and yell out, "Next round is on me!"
11. Set a world record
12. Run up the down moving escalator as many times as possible
13. Improve my active listening skills
14. Be a camp ground host
15. Go to the Olympics
16. Return every phone call I receive within 48 hours
17. I'd like to go 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu
18. Wade or swim in a fountain
19. Learn to juggle
20. Go ghost hunting, with all the fancy equipment
21. Drive a zamboni
22. Ride an elephant
23. Learn to play the bagpipes
24. Spend a night in a haunted house
25. Yell, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" in a crowded area
26. Start a fire without matches
27. Fly with one of the Blue Angels
28. Learn to ride a unicycle
29. Partake in St. Patty Day Events in Ireland
30. Get to know my neighbors

So that is a good start of a list. My creative juices are now draining, so I'll have to come up with more ideas some other time that I get super bored....

My Old Wooden Boat....

Last fall I bought my Grandpa's old wooden boat from my uncle. My uncle spent a lot of time refinishing it. Last fall he had to sell it to either someone in the family or some stranger on the street. Since I've always wanted a boat and since it has a lot of sentimental value to my family (in particular all my uncles), I decided to buy it. Today my Dad and one of my uncles spent most of the day trying to figure out the original 50 year old motor. They finally did get it running. A few other things need to be done before we can take it out on the water, but I think that will happen soon. For now though, I get to look at it every time I go out to the garage.

My new purchase...

I spent most of the day harassing the insurance company to finally get the money from my car. And after 3 hours in the car dealership, I am now a new owner of a 2007 Jeep Patriot. It was a long miserable process. Again, I hate car shopping. It is a nice car, but what really hurts is now I have a 72 month loan. Ugh.

Crash....

Well, I had some very unfortunate luck the other day on the way home from work. As I was going north, a large orange county truck pulled out at the last minute in front of me to make a left hand turn. I thought to myself, gosh that was kinda last minute. But, what was more than last minute was the stupid lady that just went right behind him and made a left and smashed into my vehicle. I mean smashed. I knew that when I saw her, there would be no avoiding her, that I was going to get into an accident. I didn't think it was going to be as bad as I thought it was. After the airbags went off and the car started smoking, I than knew it wouldn't be good. My favorite, beloved car is totaled. I was so mad, as I went up to her car to start giving her a piece of my mind, I find her on her cell phone. Imagine that. If there wouldn't have been so many other people around, I probably would have dragged her out of the car by her hair and started beating her. And I am not normally a violent person. What really got me though was the fact that she never apologized. So instead, after she started complaining her neck hurt, I helped the EMTs hold her neck still while we put a c-collar on her and put her on the backboard. And of course, she never said thank you. Again, how rude.

As for me, I'm not too bad, considering how bad my car looked. My knees are pretty banged up, very swollen and turning pretty shades of black and blue. They are also very painful and hurts like hell to walk. The only other area where I'm real sore is my hitchhikers thumb, of course. So now I am car less with a sore hitchhikers thumb and sore knees, therefore being unable to ride my bike or even walk anywhere. It is quite a helpless feeling. Not that I need to go anywhere, but just knowing that I can't go anywhere if I wanted to.

So now comes the task of finding a new car. I loved that car and am sure I will never be able to find a car that offered me all the special features it had. That and not to mention, I only had 11 more months to pay on it, that I just finished waxing it and it had a full tank of gas. It also means that I don't have a hitch to take my boat out on the water this weekend. Plus, I hate car shopping too. But, I guess I'm pretty lucky....

The movie....

So my acting debut is complete, it was everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be. Not sure how much of an actress I really am because I had a hell of a time not busting out laughing. Which was really awkward because it was about an old man in a nursing home dying and something about bonsai trees (something totally random). So my few appearances were walking past a doorway with a towel and blanket. Than a more exciting scene where Jon and I come in from the stairwell and find mud (I think they were supposed to be footprints) where the old man had gone outside to see the bonsai tree....or something. Our job was to look at the mud, to look at each other all confused than walk away. The confused part was super easy because we always seem to be confused. We tried to improv a little, but they didn't like it. And of course they wouldn't let us speak. They even made us put on makeup, which is so Hollywood. But, out of the 600 or so employees, we were the only 2 suckers to show up. It made us feel a little awkward, but a little more famous since there was only 2 of us. The movie was only 6 minutes long, but I think we were probably in 1/12 of the movie. A pretty good portion for our debut. And yes, I will get a copy to show all my friends and family. And I will be able to sell autographed copies if anyone should request one (yes, we were that good). The best part was when the director cried we did such an excellent job. Cracked me up. A bunch of other extremely random things happened while we were there, nothing a lot of people would really be interested in. But after something like that would happen, they would than put us in a closed room. I was beginning to wonder if we were set up to be on candid camera or something bizarre like that.......

Now that the movie is over, I can cross off another random thing off my list of things I want to do before I die. The only other crazy thing on the list was picking up hitchhikers, which I was able to cross off last fall. But that is another story entirely. Now I need to come up with some other off the wall things to put on the list. Good times!

My neighbors...

Living in the senior citizen section of the neighborhood, a majority of my neighbors are snowbirds who go to Florida or Arizona or wherever it is that is warm for the winter. Well, the old people across the street have come home. I think I am a large part of their daily entertainment, which isn't saying much. If they weren't old, I would be concerned about their behavior and maybe even report them to the police. They had most of my life figured out before I even met them. He was able to tell me my occupation, the hours I work and my favorite cereal. Whenever I am outside working, he comes out too to mirror whatever activity I may be doing. If I am doing something they don't want to do, they sit on their porch and watch me. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last summer, so I figure they are in their 80s. He told me that just after their kids came up to build a porch very similar to mine for their anniversary gift. But, if I'm that entertaining to them, good for me.......

On a more exciting note, I will be making my acting debut tomorrow!! Some film maker is coming to the hospital to film a movie about some old man dying in a nursing home. They are looking for extras, so I eagerly volunteered. I was told I would be in the background with Jon (my only friend that is just as excited about this) behind the nurses station. He told me I would have no lines. But, I've been practicing just in case. "These pretzels are making me thirsty." Yes, that is a Seinfeld episode when Kramer is in a movie as an extra. I'm pretty excited about tomorrow. I hope to get a copy of the movie because I am sure most of my friends and family won't believe me.

Wish me luck......

Blogging....

So I have done something that is fairly atypical of me, I decided to start blogging. Not really sure why because I am actually a fairly reserved individual who really doesn't share what actually happens in my life to many people. But, I'm doing it anyways. I have some high expectations of how great this summer is going to be so I decided to share all my adventures on here. I have no idea who, if anyone, will be reading this. My life isn't that exciting, so I'm sure I won't be posting anything daily. But, stay tuned.......