What Could Be Done

Sometimes you wonder, what could I have done differently?
This realization came to today.
A great friend of mine asked me if I knew someone. A guy from our high school graduating class, and I said no, I did not.
Well, apparently he died yesterday, possibly from suicide.
.
.
.
How sad is it that I went to such a big school that I didn't even know him? His name must've passed at graduation, but I probably didn't even care.

You come to these realizations sometimes, and I just wonder if I could've been a light to him in high school, done something differently to have a different ending to his story.

If anyone is reading this and is wondering if this could happen to them:
www.tosavealifemovie.com

That movie has changed my outlook on life, and I have it if anyone wants to borrow it.
Suicide is never the answer, and we need to get people to see that.

Thanks for reading.

First Official Day at CSB

Well, today is the first full day at college for me. Move-in day was exhausting and sweaty, to say the least. Glad to be up here though and get back to a routine.

Last week was my big EMT week. It was the end of class and my two clinicals.

In my first clinical, we had a guy that got hit by a bomb in Iraq, and that's about all I can say due to HIPAA. We also had a little boy get hit in the face with a brick, and a lady with a hand-size abscess on her butt. Good times with the last one. It was very interesting to see how everything was functioning, as far as whose job was what in the ER.

My ambulance ride-along was 6:30a to 6:30p on Thursday. It was a BLAST. I got to administer oxygen, get a blood glucose reading, administer nitroglycerin, and I took about 10 blood pressures. I learned a lot, such as having 3 pressure points when in the ambulance so you don't fall over, and that you have to be fully confident. We used the stair chair on one patient which was cool. We had one psych patient, one possible stroke, one blown back, two possible chest pains, one respiratory distress, and one transport. Even though we had 7 calls, we had a period of about 2 1/2 hours of downtime, where we went to a fire station base and watched TV and didn't do anything. We did scare a fireman which was pretty funny. Overall not very many really exciting patients, but I got to practice a lot of skills.

Wednesday was the official end of our EMT class. We took our final National skills test, and for the random skill I got Wounds, Bleeding, and Shock, which was really nice because it is the easiest of the choices that were possible. It went pretty well, because I passed. Taking the National written test on October 7th over long weekend.

The rest of today is going to be spent organizing, doing some Pep Band stuff, and having a pre-med club meeting.

Remedy Drive - Epic Amazingness

Pictures are of Phil, Paul and David doing his crazy dance moves. Not my pictures.

Some names are not listed, aka sassy girl because that was fun to write :)

This past Wednesday, our Christian group on campus Magis Ministries put on a Christian concert featuring Remedy Drive. To tell the truth, I wasn't that excited at first. I didn't know the group, had only heard one of their songs, and wasn't expecting too much.

I arrive at 4:00 to begin helping set-up because it sounded fun and maybe my mind would change. I began to help the band unload stuff from their trailer (how they packed all of that in there is still a mystery to me) and introduced myself to the guitar player Paul. He was really awesome, down-to-earth and outgoing. The other guys were very quiet and shy at first but Paul was really into talking with us and letting us help them out. I think I made about 8 trips into the pub from the trailer outside hauling equipment.

Once all of the equipment was in, me and three other people had the responsibility of setting up the backdrops. There was some plastic pieces and velcro, but we figured it out because we are smart college students. The band was beginning to set up some stuff on stage but I only saw 3 of the guys. The other two are Daniel and Magz, who for the most part were the quietest but they also had the biggest responsibilities. Magz was the sound guy and he seemed worried but focused for set-up. Daniel had his son Noah with him who was about 2 years old and so he was very preoccupied. Noah was very cute though and he definitely made everything more fun!

Emily and I helped Daniel set up his drum set which was really fun. We had to find all the miscellaneous pieces in the box he had but it all worked out. Noah was helping too. Once the drum set was set up, Noah crawled onto the seat and was demanding a stick. Daniel said not to give him one or we wouldn't be able to hear each other. He also warned us that David (singer guy to be discussed later) was going to be jumping around and off stuff, but we had no idea how he underplayed that statement.

Next we finished setting up some cables and watched the sound check. I left at this point to go eat dinner with a friend and still hadn't seen the other two members of the band. The band finally showed up to the Reef at 6:45 after I had gotten there at 5:30 so I was happy to see our big group. We sat at a super long table and since I had already eaten I took a seat across from a guy whom I had no idea who he was. From matters of deduction I found out he was the lead singer whom I was warned about which was very strange. He was very calm and quiet for most of the meal, updating stuff on Facebook and other things. What he had to say though when he did talk was really powerful. He described how Christian festivals are very hard to play at, because people will wear such horrible t-shirts such as "abortion is wrong" and get away with it. we all agreed that it was wrong, but do you need to put that on a t-shirt and flaunt it in someone's face? what if someone was there who had one and was looking for forgiveness and redemption and saw something like that? he also talked about how the speakers always try to condemn those that don't belong to the "Christian" population like the gay community and sinners. in reality, we are all people of God and there should not be a war between the gay community and christians like there is now. David was so inspiring and I had never thought a performer would notice things like that. To my left at the table was Phil, the bass player, and some Magis people, while the other guys were all to my right at the other end. Paul was eating a waffle doused in whipped cream, butter and syrup, and I said "That looks healthy" and he said it most definitely is. There were some very awkward conversations going on regarding Jesus' humanity that I'd rather not repeat but were funny to say the least. We tried to describe the CSB/SJU system to David and the buses and the two campuses one school thing. I don't think he really understood it but he tried to learn which was appreciated. We also talked about art which was fascinating, the booking agent Matt has an original Picasso but it is the least appreciated one of the group, and how David really liked the painting the scream and how the mona lisa was underrrated.

Wow this is longer than I thought. After dinner, we headed back to the pub and were talking about how a band should put the words "free beer" in their name and they would get massive following which was funny. Remedy Drive said this band should open for them. Then a few of us decided to help them set up their merchandise counter, which was a huge task.

The first thing we did was count inventory. That was very interesting, it involved lots of folding (which I am now very good at) and counting which I am still bad at. Phil was helping us do some of this so I started getting to know him better. He was giving a girl from Magis sass the whole time because she was throwing it at him too. Example:
Girl: Amanda, have you done white t-shirts yet?
Me: Nope, I am still doing pink.
Phil: _____, shut up and let her count gosh.
Girl: Oh be quiet and do your own thing.

It was pretty funny but we managed to set everything up and it looked great! Phil got a wonderful song stuck in my head which has been replaying ever since with his wonderful falsetto voice "All the right friends in all the right places" is the only part stuck in my head, it is One Republic's All the Right Moves. They had so much stuff it was really cool to see the different options. Once everything was set up, Phil decided to pick this sassy girl to help run the table, which was another little showdown in itself. Phil also tried to get people to join his "beat" when he was beatboxing the whole night, with variable success which was great. People started arriving and I helped put up decorations while listening to B-Rod rehearse his fiddle playing with David on a song. He got to perform with them, it was great!

After people began arriving, you could tell the band had changed moods. Instead of joking around, they kind-of got down to business and got their game faces on. It was really cool to see that transformation and I told everyone how awesome this show was going to be, having no idea what I was getting myself into.

As soon as the show started, I started laughing. All of these cool, down-to-earth, funny guys were hard-core rockers and were so intense. David was doing break-dancing handstand things on top of the piano, climbing the amp wall and jumping off and jumping all over. Paul was the most "normal" of the group and had some ripping solos. Daniel was playing drums very hard and rocking out, and Phil was just hilarious. A lot of people snuck into the concert from other schools which was fine because it was free, but it was really funny to watch these girls scream for Phil. Don't get me wrong, all of the guys were attractive, but usually when you see someone in the public eye you judge their looks first, and these guys I saw their personalities and not their looks at first. It was so funny and Phil totally loved it you could tell. He also jumped up on this huge amp and was shredding pretty well. All of their songs were great and I already have many of them memorized.
For the final song, David, jumped and grabbed the floor of the second floor of the pub, and was pulling himself up the railing going crazy and jumped from like 10 feet. i am surprised he hasn't badly injured himself yet after how many shows they've done. Overall, the guys seemed to have completely different personalities when on stage.

After the show we immediately began takedown, and Daniel left to go hang with Noah. He had awesome hair by the way, it was sortof faux-hawkish but rad. I thought it wa so cool he could bring his son on tour. Emily and I started taking down the drums and the whole group that set up pitched in and it went by really fast. Now all of the guys were really outgoing and Emily and I had some fun with Phil. Emily thought she heard him say something so she said "What?" and he gave her this funny look and said "What?" Phil and I were confused because we both knew he said nothing. Emily said "Nevermind" and Phil said "Did you say something?" and it went on like that for a couple of minutes, we both gave each other this crazy look like she must be insane. We found tons of wood shards around Daniel's drumset and he broke a stick that Emily kept. We began hauling stuff out to the trailer and the reload process started. It is so amazing how they can fit that stuff in there, but Magz had a system that worked really well. We got two t-shirts, a headband, two buttons (one of which Emily lost), and a poster. Once everything was on the wind-down, we all hung out for a little bit longer. I talked to Phil about his awesome bass skills and we made fun of the sassy girl a little. Phil made a bunch of jokes about getting beer from the pub and he looked at some of the pictures that the sassy girl took. Someone asked him about his wardrobe and so he told us that he has a lot of black clothing because he usually only buys something if he can wear it on stage. They also had a ton of reflective patches, which he said was a salute to those in uniform which was cool, and they really pop in pictures.

We then tried to organize a group picture which massively failed for about 5 minutes until everyone realized what was going on. So Phil and I talked about his amazing bass powers, and he thought it was funny that I called his playing "ridiculous", so I added "ridiculously sweet!" Phil and I had an awkward conversation while waiting for everyone to organize because we were standing pretty much right on top of each other. It went like this:
Phil: Hi.
Me: Hi.
Phil: So a picture.
Me: yup.

Then we all put our arms around each other and took some good pictures that hopefully I will upload to this later. Let's just say the funny one is going to have mainly Magis people be funny, because the band did not strike a pose persay, but they will be funny because they didn't really do anything. Then we all hugged each other and the guys left.

Right before Phil left, he went around and said bye to everyone again and thanked us and we thanked him a ton. The sassy girl told Phil to say hi to Noah, and he turned around and looked at all of us and asked us "Did you guys hear anything? Or did that come from over here?" This was him referring to the fact that he didn't hear what sassy girl said even though he did, and we all denied hearing anything, and he left laughing.

The show was great, but these guys were even better. The way they presented the show was so different than their personalities off-stage and it was so cool to talk to them and hear their stories. I feel like many musicians today may have pretended to care about what I had to say, but you could just tell by the way that they looked at you that they were really listening and cared which was so awesome.

Right after they left I can tell you that I already missed them. I want to relive that day over and over except have the memories from that night to go off of. Thanks to Remedy Drive for their awesome amazingness and I will never forget any of the guys or the awesome memories of that night.

Too Much To Do?

Wow it has been a long time.

Some new things that have occurred lately:

1) Received the Bio TA position for BIO 121, freshman first-semester bio.
Feelings: I am very excited about this, a little nervous because these TAs are the ones that are more "strict" and make sure the students get the right process and techniques down for lab. Overall emotion: thrilled.

2) Received a position to do research
Feelings: Very excited about this one. Low time commitment, ease of access is great, good professor to work with, good lab partner. Everything is good. Only worries are whether or not we get anything accomplished. Also, I don't know much about the research we are doing, which I find out more about on Tuesday.

3) Am taking 18 credits of full classes
Feelings: I don't think this is going to be too bad, but I am a little worried about time issues. If I can just create a schedule and be able to work it out and stick with it, I think it will be great. A good experience too.

4) Summer plans - EMT course, 10 extra credits
Feelings: Really excited about the EMT course, I have been dreaming about becoming an EMT since high school if not earlier. A little worried about the actual duties to perform and what if I mess up, but overall this is a good experience and will be very valuable. Really excited about the 10 credits of class too, which involve Elementary Latin, Introduction to Sociology, and Social Psychology. All are classes I have wanted to take but couldn't fit into my schedule. Only trepidation is worrying about whether they will transfer, which hopefully I will figure out before Easter break.

5) Pre-Med Club board
I haven't found out (will find out tonight) but I believe I will be offered a position on the board. This is a big responsibility, maybe not in actuality, but I feel that I may be the head of the PA students here as far as organizing events for them. Although this makes me really excited, I need to proceed with caution and not try to take on too much.

6) Missed opportunities
Looking back, there are so many more things I could be doing this summer to advance my career goals. I am going to try to volunteer at a hospital/nursing home over the summer to try to get some more patient care hours, but it is hard to find a volunteer position with these essential hours. I also have missed out on some great opportunities for internships or studies that I missed the deadline for, such as the Minnesota Zoo, and at HCMC which is just too much of a time commitment.

This would not be so big of a deal if I wasn't coming back from Australia so late, but hopefully I can still do one of these opportunities next summer.


Other stuff:
Room selection is tonight. I hope we can get somewhere we want to go, although it isn't too much of a concern this year. I am getting down to business to get some homework done and study for my psych stats test next Wednesday, a class that I am working hard at but that has come pretty easily so far to me. I have the potential to get an A, and that is definitely a goal.

Also found out today that my research topics for Theology of Healthcare and Biomedical Ethics are OK'd. They include:
Confidential Patient Status and HIPPA - Ethical Issues
The Result of Technology on the Changing Healthcare Field Today.

I have to choose one of those, and although I feel the second one will be the more interesting one, the first one would probably be easier to research but maybe a little more boring.

Stuff coming up:
EASTER BREAK!!!
Timberwolves game
Michael Buble concert
Bon Jovi Concert


Until another day when I feel motivated to keep track of my life,
Amanda

Timberwolves still rock

Timberwolves rock

I love the Timberwolves. Even though they are 8-33, they always surprise you. And Corey Brewer is awesome.

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/top_5_plays_the_week_2009_11_13.html

check out that link for Corey Brewer's awesome half-time shot.

First Blog Posting

I doubt anyone will ever read this thing. But if you do, thanks for reading! Also, these are my thoughts and things that happened to me today, feel free to comment or whatever.

Last night I had the best dream ever. For most of the dream, I was on one of the group dates that Jake, the Bachelor currently, was holding except I wasn't one of the people pursuing him. I was there as a judge of character of the girls and one of Jake's best friends, even though he is 12 years older than me. We were at some sort of book auction (not sure if that is the best place to hold a date) and Jake and I were helping the people get organized. It was a ton of fun because we kept "accidentally" colliding with each other and I gave him grief about carrying so much to show off to the girls. It was pretty fun to hang out with him, and I'm sure it would be in real life too. Those girls on the Bachelor are very lucky. I can't believe that Rozlyn girl cheated on him while at the house. What an idiot, how can you cheat on the perfect man?

Anyway, on to other things. The second day of classes was a little stressful but it was helped by Peanut M&Ms. Molecular Genetics lab will be very interesting but hard, and same with the class. I think that Psych Stats and Bio 222 will be manageable as long as I keep up with them and stick to my reading/homework strategy. Theology may be a little challenging, I'm not very good at talking to a big group of people about my thoughts and issues (hence the blog) so I'm not sure how that will turn out.

Finally, I am very excited about this weekend. My sister and I are planning on going to George Clooney's "Up In the Air" with "free" movie tickets we got from donating. I have an Info Desk shift at the hospital which is always entertaining. You never quite know who will walk through the doors of a public institution.

As for the rest of the week, I have another Bio lab coming up which shouldn't be too challenging, and normal classes. My goal is to keep on top of things and not become lazy! Wish me luck!

In all honesty,
Amanda