1st Week of Summer Term

The first week of my first Summer class is over. I'm taking a four week course of General Chemistry I followed by a four week course of General Chemistry II. They call this "Gen Chem Boot Camp"; you can take a full year of Chemistry in one Summer term. Each class is four days per week, five hours per day. I am not signed up for the third class, I'm not going to need it for the program I'm planning to go through. This first week was tough. I get home from school, do homework for a while, take care of chores, more homework, fix dinner, and then depending on what is due the next day and how tired I am either do more homework, watch an hour of tv, or go straight to bed. My dog is bored with me, but Rocky always knows where to find me; sitting at the dining room table with all my books and papers spread out like a warm breakfast.

Back to studying. My first exam is Monday.

Another Term Down

An entire term has gone by since my last post. Yes, time goes by in terms for me now rather than days, weeks, or months.

This term I completed the third class of Anatomy and Physiology. It is always a tough class, but so interesting to learn how our systems work as well as malfunction. I also signed up for Off Loom Fibers which I quickly dropped when I found out that the college I'm planning to apply to does not accept studio art course credits. I am definitely not artsy fartsy enough for this class. When Rocky saw some of the projects we were required to do he asked me if marijuana was one of the supplies needed. It was really weird.

This weekend I am frantically carding fiber and preparing for my booth in the Black Sheep Gathering trade show at the Lane County Fairgrounds next Friday through Sunday. It is always a fun show in between the hard work of set up and tear down.

The day after the show I start Summer classes. It is hard to believe that I've already been in school for a year. That's right, last Summer was my first term back. I have my courses planned for the next four terms and then I should be ready to apply to the Medical Technology program next Summer.

This past Thursday I was able to get in a day of observation at Peace Health Lab here in Springfield. Wow, it is a fascinating place! There are so many different areas where a technologist can specialize. There is this one system there that looks kind of like a train set. It has a track that the test tubes travel on. There are several machines hooked up to the track. Each tube has a bar code that has information about the patient and the tests ordered by its doctor. As the tube travels along the track and approaches one of the machines a scanner reads the code, if that is one of the ordered tests the tube travels into the machine where it draws out the amount of blood it requires before sending the tube on its way down the track. If that is not one of the ordered tests the tube travels onto the next machine. It is pretty cool. I was amazed over and over again all day long. The experience just gave me a huge boost of motivation about school. I am begining to truely believe that I was meant to be a lab tech.

Before signing off I have to show you Carly photos. She has a new past time:

Four wheeling!

You can't tell me that isn't the face of a happy dog.

She won't ride the four wheeler with Rocky because she knows she needs a helmut for that, so she just sticks to the trailer when he's driving.

She tries so hard to get the kitties to play with her, but they're just too old and grouchy.

Today she figured out how to open our back door to let herself in. The knob on that door is the lever kind. I suppose we're going to have to teach her how to close it now.

I almost forgot. Remember that fly rod I built for Rocky at an ODFW workshop? Well, Sharon and I went to another ODFW workshop a couple of weekends ago. We spent three days taking four hour classes at a Mennonite church camp near Lincoln City. I took Woman v. Wild, GPS/Map/Compass, Fly Tying, and Archery. The accomodations were comfortable, the people were friendly, and the classes were quite informative. It was a really fun weekend.