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LadyAquanine73551

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Summer's Here

4 min read
 It has been so long since I wrote a journal entry.  This medical career college thing has literally taken over my life!  For 9 months, I've been learning everything there is to know about being a Clinical Medical Assistant, and then some!  It's harder than it sounds, and I only anticipate my life will get more difficult in the next few months I think I've fainted..  For now, I've found time to rest and reflect , as well as try to clear my head. 

The teachers were nice, and my fellow classmates were mostly good people to train with, but being a CMA is hard work, despite not being trained as much as a doctor or nurse .  I spent 10 weeks, from October to December, learning how to work in the office.  That turned out to be the easiest part of the training.  After Christmas, it got more difficult.  I went to another classroom to be trained by a different teacher who trains students on how to work in the back office, to do the medical side of the assisting.  So for the next 10 weeks, I was training in a different area.  We made extensive use of the medical laboratory next door.  I remember being intimidated by that room when we first went in there, but it turned out not to be so bad.  What did surprise me was learning how to inject people .  That one I did not expect, nor did I expect to learn the basics of taking an EKG, or blood samples .  We all used saline solution for practice, since all it contains is water and salt, and the human body has that in abundance in the bloodstream. 

 Finals was a scary time for me, mostly due to anxiety and fear of failing.  But despite the fear, anxiety , and shaky fingers, I managed to pass the hands-on exam, as did my chosen partner, despite all the mistakes we made . 

A week before that, I made a last-minute decision to switch over to the 30-week program, where I would spend an extra 10 weeks learning Phlebotomy and EKG.  It turned out that taking blood samples was actually the easier of the two disciplines.  It's hard, trying to read the squiggles on the paper and understand what's going on with the electrical activity of a patient's heart .  I can mostly understand it, but even now, I would have to do some private studying Reading at home to remember it all.  I am pleased to report that I passed both classes.  The last class was very small, with 6 other women in it besides myself, and two very nice teachers.  I even got my family  to come in and help get all my pokes in for Phlebotomy.  (We had to do 50 successful blood draws and 10 extra in order to pass the class).

All my finals were finished last week, and I cried as I left the school .  I'm really going to miss that place.  It's the first school where I really enjoyed the people and the learning.  If it paid well, I would have happily become a teaching assistant there . 

 I have needed a vacation very badly, and I still have not gotten one.  But I can't afford a vacation for now.  The last part of my education requires that I go into the field and train at a medical facility of some kind, and I am waiting for the career coordinator to call me Phonecall.  She is only one person, working through 88 students, so it might be a while before she calls, though she has a month now to do so.  I have no idea when she'll call, or where she'll send me .  I only hope against hope that I'll do well there, and not get dismissed.  I have to complete 200 hours of training there, so it'll be 5 weeks. 

I have asked both my parents, after all this is finished, if we could go on a real family vacation.   Something that's 1-2 weeks long, and away from here.  I need a vacation after all this medical madness.  It's been a wild 9 months, and I'm not sure how long I can go without some form of escape . 
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I made a very important decision a few months ago.  After missing the deadline for signing up for fall classes at the community college [again] , my family and I realized I was going nowhere with this nursing career I'd chosen.  So my parents looked around online , and discovered a medical college right here in town .  It is technically a Trade School, but many people go to Trade Schools instead of college, and the training and certification you get from those is almost as good as any college diploma .  You are restricted to specific areas of work, but that isn't an issue for many people, particularly if they want to work in a specific field. 

 I was originally against the idea of trade school because my mother used a bad example when suggesting it to me years ago.  She suggested I try becoming a Dental Assistant 4 out of 5 dentists recommend brushing your teeth!, because I could be trained in less than one year and be ready for the job market quickly, as opposed to going to college for years and having nothing to show for it.  The entire idea repulsed me , because the last thing I wanted was to sit next to a dentist's chair all day, working on people's gross, disgusting, wet mouths.  I take good care of my own teeth 4 out of 5 dentists recommend brushing your teeth!, but frankly, many people don't, even in today's society of high cleanliness standards.  It's not as bad as 100 years ago, but some of the stuff in people's mouths can still gross out people I think I am going to PUKE!

I didn't realize that Trade Schools teach other things besides dentistry.  So when mom and I visited this medical college  and looked through the various jobs they trained people for, I realized that I had struck gold .  The job I chose to train for is Clinical Medical Assistant.  It's a cross between being a secretary and a [sort of] nurse , without the heavy medical training actual nurses and doctors have to learn.  Half the time I would be working in the office of some medical facility, taking calls, setting up appointments, making sure the visiting patients were comfortable, etc.  The other half of the time I would be bringing patients back to the examination rooms, taking their vitals, getting them ready for the doctor, and educating them on how to use various medications  or medical devices.  I remember going to our doctor's office in the past and meeting nice ladies who did that, and I thought "Yeah :D (Big Grin), I could do a job like that."   Some people choose just to do the office part , but I think it's important to do the second half too.  It makes the experience for the patients much easier, and if you do it right, you get repeat business . 

So, I signed up for classes, bought several sets of scrubs and white leather shoes, and got going this past October.  Turns out, there's a lot of stuff we cover each week.  I sometimes worry my brain will leak or implode/explode from all the info the instructor is cramming into it .  We have to learn medical terminology, we have to learn how to do office stuff, we have to learn a bit of law, filing, doing inventory, taking care of computers, talking on the phone properly, keeping patient confidentiality, dealing with difficult people, it's a lot of stuff to learn.  I've been doing up to 3 hours of homework every other day .  So the job is a lot harder than it looks.  And I'm not even finished yet!  We have to do another 10 weeks after the New Year, and that involves using medical equipment properly.  There are also a lot of legal "do's and don'ts" for Medical Assistants.  One issue I might run into a lot, however, is people might mistake me for a nurse or doctor , because we all wear scrubs and behave similarly, but I would have to make it clear who the doctors and nurses were, compared to my job.  I have great respect I salute you! for both fields, after hearing about what they have to go through to train for those jobs. 

It turns out that Clinical Medical Assistants are very important for any medical facility.  They are the ones who act as the middle-person between the doctors/nurse practitioners, and the patients.  They also do all the office stuff that would otherwise take up too much of the medical experts' time, when they could be treating patients.  CMA's also act as representatives of the facility.  If people like us, they will like the medical facility as a whole, and will want to come back.  I want to be one of those people where the patients say "I want to talk to So-n-so, I like her."  

However, I think all of this is gonna be worth it, because after the training is done, I'll have marketable skills that I can use to get a proper job that pays a reasonable salary .  People won't see me as expendable anymore, and I can get work anywhere in the country!  Your average Medical Assistant earns a nice tidy sum to live on too.  I'm so excited! :happybounce:  
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Summer Birthday

2 min read
:happy: Today's my birthdaybirthday cake.  Despite the temptation to skip, I had to go to my summer school classes Grump because we had two situations I couldn't afford to miss.  I've changed over to another college :writeexam: because the community college I was attending recently just didn't have what I needed to get into nursing, and frankly, the commute was brutal.  Sadly, summer school in college isn't much of a picnic eitherWorking Around the Clock - College Emote

But I didn't come on here to complain on a day like this talk to the hand+plz.  I had a nice birthday Party, despite school obligations.  I got two new [well, they're new to me] Dragon Age games Dragon Age 2 Icon mini, which I'm already sinking my teeth into, fabric to make a lovely Chinese dress if I want one made, three adorable plush dragons Pixel: Pixel Emoticon ~Western Dragon, checks, and gift cards Gift Purple to use at places I like.  happy hug Grandma was visiting, so she had the extra bonus of being a guest at the party 1st Emoticon: Happy Birthday.  The cake Dark Chocolate Cake Type 3 with candles 50x50 icon was chocolate with chocolate frosting.  (Giggle Have I ever mentioned that I'm a chocoholic? i luf chocolate

So now I have a three-day weekend, and it's time to enjoy summer as a birthday girl.Fun cake 
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Autumn

10 min read
I haven't found much motivation to write in the past 3 months .  I most certainly didn't want to parrot Halloween  again.  Apparently 2 years in a row now, I've written journal entries on that holiday .  College has been a pain too , though that's an occupational hazard for college students in general.  But it is nice to get back into the game and have a daily routine .  I just wish I didn't have to drive   62 miles a day, round-trip .  The campus I go to is 31 miles to the south of our town, and I have to drive a twisty, twiny mountain road  partway to get there, as well as two highways full of traffic.  Plus, in both directions, I have to deal with crazy speeders.  Nothing irritates me  more than drivers who go 20-30 miles over the speed limit (it's like you're just begging to die Dead (RIP) at those speeds) and idiots who dive through one lane after another on the 4-lane highways.  And I have to deal with that 5 days in a row!  Next semester, I'm gonna set it up so I don't have to go 2 days a week.  I might even consider taking an online class so I can stay home, but still go to school, like my brother does.  My parents have been talking me into transferring to a college campus less than 10 miles to the west in a nearby town, though I have been a bit hesitant since I heard of their real shooter  a few months ago. 

 Oh yeah, my school had a shooting scare just 2 days after the Vegas massacre.  So instead of going to class, I ended up hiding  with a bunch of other students and administrators in the college president's office, with the shades drawn.  We had police, national guard, news helicopters, and everything.  Thankfully, nobody got hurt, but we were all outraged and very irritated when the whole fuss turned out to be over a NERF GUN, of all things.   I think we all had the how DARE you scare us over that! feelings on our minds as many of us just plain went home after the all-clear sounded.  On the bright side :) (Smile), I learned that I apparently can keep a cool head in high-stress situations.  I mean, two of the female students I was hiding with were on the verge of tears, whereas I was wondering if we would all be okay and on high alert.  As long as I know the procedure, you can count on me to help out when something insane is going on.  I'm still scratching my head  over this, but for some reason, I kept referencing cartoons while we were all hiding.  Don't know why.  One of the girls complained that nowhere was safe anymore, and I made a point about trying too hard to be safe by quoting Dory  from Finding Nemo: "You can't expect nothing to happen to him."  That made a few people smile . 

The thing is, shooters  like really big, open, famous college campuses; schools with names everyone in the country knows.  The community college I go to is not known to many outside the county, does not have a huge student population, and it's kind of off the beaten path.  You'd have to really know where you're going to find it.  On the other hand, the campus is not "closed," with a wall, so anybody can just walk in.  So we have obscurity and remoteness to defend us, but if a shooter really wanted to come in and kill us, there wouldn't be much to stop them.  Oh well. Shrug 

 Halloween was quieter than last year.  I didn't wear a costume, and we didn't have nearly as many people come to the door.  It was actually kind of stressful because I spent the entire day on my feet, going from place to place.  School, shopping for candy  and new decorations (talk about last-minute, eh? ), and taking care of some other business I can't remember at the moment.  I didn't carve the pumpkin  mom bought this year, so instead, I took a black marker and drew a Jack-o-Lantern face on it.  We did, however, get some new pumpkin  lights, and I took advantage of some old pumpkin buckets we had to make some nice lanterns on either side of the front walk.  Turns out if you don't want to carve a pumpkin , all you would need to do was take one of those orange (they come in pink and green too) iconic pumpkin buckets, put a candle inside, place it in front of your house, and light the candle when the sun goes down.  Worked like a charm. 

A few memorable things that happened after the Trick-or-Treaters started showing up was, the grade-school kids loved our anti-burglar stickers.  See, when mom and dad went to Alaska last summer, they discovered that Alaskans LOVE their guns .  Of course, considering how large the pests are up there, I'm not surprised they would need to guard their homes with rifles.  The only pests we get have 6-8 legs and are tiny Bug.  I have yet to see the 2-legged kind in our area (thank God).  But mom couldn't resist buying some stickers to put on one of our front windows by the door.  One says "If you can read this, you're in range," and shows a human target with bullet-holes in the center.  The other says "Nothing in here is worth dying for," and shows a gun or something like that. Giggle A little girl asked me what "in range" meant.  I told her "It means the bullet can hit you."  But I assured the kids that I had no interest in shooting anyone, and those stickers were for evil burglars. 

Memorable costumes included a miniature Halo soldier, a little shark, female zombie triplets, matching clowns, ninjas, and a huge variety of classic Halloween costumes.  It seems the generic costumes are more popular these days, rather than always going full pop-culture.   

I did hear about an interesting new movement among Halloween-lovers.  It's called "The Teal Pumpkin Project."  I read about it in online news, where some people who hand out candy at the door, are becoming increasingly aware of kids with gluten problems (thankfully that is still rare in the child population) so they get candy that is safe for kids with gluten allergies and put a pumpkin painted teal on their porch as a signal to any Trick-or-Treating kids with gluten issues.  In the past 5-6 years of childcare, I have only met 2 gluten-sensitive kids out of hundreds of ordinary children.  Most are either normal, or once in a while you'll meet some with milk allergies.  Shrug Not sure how you can make or buy candy that's gluten-free, but they must exist. 

 One thing that was really weird was, I had a strange craving for the movie Hocus Pocus.  I didn't even like that movie as a kid!  Why the hell would I want to watch it now?!  And yet I wanted to see the Sanderson Sisters.  So I downloaded it online and watched it on my laptop .  I think I took the story a little too seriously as a kid and was turned off by some aspects of the film.  Now it's just goofy to me.  Strange how one's perspective of older movies changes over time, isn't it?  

On a sad note, my grandma died earlier last week .  She was my dad's mom.  We were all very sad to hear of her passing.  Poor grandma had suffered from Parkinson's Disease for over 28 years, and I think it finally killed her.  A week before we got the sad news, she had just gotten over a scabies infection some elderly guy at her retirement home had passed onto her (I'm still wondering how a human could have gotten that, it's normally a problem for animals with fur), but then had to be hooked up to a breathing machine and had trouble swallowing.  She had pulled out of similar situations before, so we did not know if she would be okay or not.  Now we know .  I actually had not seen grandma in over 8 months, and frankly, I don't want to remember  how she was in the last few years of life.  It's easier to remember how she was when I was little, or even during my teenage years.  At least she's not in pain anymore .  To be honest, I think part of her died with grandpa back in '97, and it just took 20 years for her body to catch up.  She was a Jehovah's Witness (one of only two in our family, most of us are either Protestant Christians or don't follow anything) so she had to be buried less than a week after passing.  They don't believe in embalming the body.  What made it even worse was, I couldn't fly off to funeral on a whim because I had a test coming up in one of my classes, and I had to be present for lessons in the other class, so I was shackled to the house and the dog while my family took dad's car to go attend the funeral .  They were gone for 3 days.  Colleges are not as kind towards re-taking tests or doing makeups as high schools are.  Evil school, grrr.... But then again, I greatly dislike funerals (besides obvious reasons) because in the days beforehand, I would have been coming to accept the relative or friend being gone, and then am reminded of the sadness  all over again at the funeral.  My parents said I was missed.  At least the relatives cared . 

 Domino finally did something so gross and disgusting, I cannot write it here because it would make anybody reading this lose their lunch I think I am going to PUKE!.  I'll just say, that I was very short with him during the time my parents and brother were away.  Let's just say, he took recycling  to a whole new level, and I'll leave it at that . 

 Thanksgiving is coming up, and my parents signed us up for having international  students come and eat with us.  We were assigned two students, though we got kinda nervous about one of them being a vegan .  My family is omnivorous, so we don't have much respect  for vegetarians or vegans.  My dad and brother in particular  don't look at vegetarian/vegan males in a favorable light.  Thankfully, the vegan student found an all-vegan family to have Thanksgiving with (not sure how you can have Thanksgiving without a turkey ) and we got two nice Chinese  girls coming to visit.  For some reason, they each chose an American name to be known by .  I guess they got tired of people mispronouncing their real names, though learning a foreign name isn't as difficult as you think, if they teach you the phonetics behind it.  So hopefully, they will have fun at our house Pray

  So that's my fall 2017 season so far.  Hopefully Christmas  will be better this year than the autumn. 
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Eclipse 2017

7 min read
Nod Well, yesterday was very interesting.  I'd been hearing about the solar eclipse  coming for weeks before it actually took place.  Truth be told, I haven't seen one since I was a little kid, back in '93.  At that time, I was in 2nd grade, and the teacher took us all outside to watch.  She took 2 cards and poked a hole in one of them.  We then stood with our backs to the sun and watched the eclipse on the cards she held up.  It was cool, seeing the sun turn into a crescent as the moon covered it up.  :) (Smile)

[Update: I did some research, and figured out that it was May 21st, 1993, so it would have been near the end of the school year.  This was a partial solar eclipse that was passing over north America from south to north.  Based on the position of the sun in my memory, the location of the school, and where we were during this time (the butterfly garden), my teacher would have been showing us this early in the morning, probably at the very start of class.]

What was special about this particular eclipse was, it was the first time in 99 years that a total solar eclipse had passed over North America .  It went all the way from Oregon to South Carolina, and of course, Oregon was the big hot spot.  The last one to pass over was in 1918, so this was a once-in-a-lifetime event :happybounce:.  The night before, I saw a video by NASA  on tumblr on how to make a pinhole projector using a cereal box.  So yesterday morning, I built it, and mom dug through one of the boxes of old family photos and found exposed film Film.  She says that all you need is three layers of exposed film to cover your eyes with to see the eclipse safely.  That's what the lenses of the "eclipse glasses"  everyone was buying were made out of.  Frankly, it doesn't surprise me that people would have to buy special glasses nowadays, considering people rarely use film anymore in cameras Camera.  Both methods worked . 

Would you believe even my brother woke up early enough to take a look?  I'm glad he didn't miss it Hug.  Poor dad was stuck in training at work Sad dummy, even though I called and texted him numerous times.  I'll help him to find photos Camera and videos to make up for it.  My mom and brother came out into the backyard to take a look at the sky show .  Domino  came out too, though he couldn't understand what we were doing Giggle.  Eclipses mean nothing to dogs Giggle.  We don't live in Oregon, but we had a very good view anyway.  We got an 80% coverage, and the sky darkened a bit, like on a cloudy  day, even though we had clear skies.  I explained to my family that our area was going to be under the moon's  Penumbra, the lighter part of its shadow.  Oregon and other states would get to be within the moon's Umbra, the darkest part of its shadow in the middle.  Despite how big our moon is, its shadow during an eclipse is "tiny" by comparison, and only covers so many square miles on earth .  In fact, much of the time when a solar eclipse does occur, it's a partial one and hits un-populated areas, like the middle of the ocean , or near the poles. 

Even with the film over my eyes , I could only look at the shiny crescent the sun became for a few seconds at a time.  I also jokingly said it looked like a shiny thumbnail Giggle.  After the eclipse reached its peak I watched for a few minutes and then had to leave for class.  But before I went, I told my mom and brother about the diamond-ring  effect some people see when the eclipse finishes, should you see a total one.  It's where the sun  starts to emerge again from behind the dark disc of the moon , creating a bright spot and a ring of light around the moon.  It's very pretty to look at in photos and artwork.  Solar scientists who study the sun's corona all the time like when solar eclipses occur, because then it's easier to see the sun's corona.  Normally the sun's light blocks out that part.  One way solar scientists can study the sun's corona and flares all the time is to create an artificial "solar eclipse" with their viewing equipment.  They'll deliberately have special cameras aimed at the sun with a disc covering the main body of the sun up, and the image appears on a computer screen, so nobody's eyes get burned out. 

I got to look at the sun Sun once through a telescope .  It was because of the astronomy  class I took a few years ago.  The Prof was very strict about the use of his telescope (considering such a beauty costs quite a bit) and he didn't want anyone to go blind .  He used very strict protocol and warned us (in graphic detail) what would happen if we tried looking at the sun with an unprotected telescope.  He says the retina has no pain nerves, so you wouldn't feel anything when they were burned out, but you would look into that lens, and it would be the last thing you would see for the rest of your life.  So my class obediently let the prof put a special protective solar lens on his telescope before letting us each take a look.  The sun looks like a golden rice ball .  It looks almost unremarkable when you take away the glare, the corona, the solar flares, and most of its other defining features.  However, with the lens he was using, you can see the granules (little swirling vortexes of gas) on the photo-sphere (sun's surface) as well as sun spots.  I have no doubt he used that very same telescope to watch the sky show yesterday .  He's a very hardcore astronomer, right down to the math and realistic photos. 

Aww Even cooler was, I heard some little babies were born during the eclipse too!  Isn't that cool?  That'll be a story those little ones will be able to hear for the rest of their lives and tell their own grandchildren.  I saw an adorable photo online of a baby girl born during the peak of the eclipse .  The doctors and nurses would take turns going outside with the special glasses to take a peek .  All the babies in the maternity ward got these cute little black sleeping bags with orange fringe sewn on that said "Solar Eclipse 2017." Aww  It was a very cute photo.  That's extremely rare, being born at such a time.   Kinda eclipses having Halley's Comet  in the sky when I was born (pun totally intended). 

My math prof was up in Oregon yesterday, so we had two subs to keep the class going.  I was kinda confused  as to why we needed two subs, though it's possible the second one was running late and needed help to keep us students busy until he showed up.  Our real teacher will be back tomorrow for class. 

So yesterday was very exciting for an astronomy enthusiast like me.  
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Featured

Summer's Here by LadyAquanine73551, journal

Autumn and School by LadyAquanine73551, journal

Summer Birthday by LadyAquanine73551, journal

Autumn by LadyAquanine73551, journal

Eclipse 2017 by LadyAquanine73551, journal