Sorry this is so late

So I am writing this blog entry on Thursday instead of Wednesday. Sorry Mike, I know your really upset about this. But I wanted to make apple crisp for my coworkers last night and we had the late game. If I would have made it and wrote the blog, I would have been up to all hours of the night.

Tuesday night I got so much done. I did everything that I wanted to and more. It was wonderful. I got up early in the morning on Wednesday and got to finish my meet the university application. I want to be the speaker so I had to write a speech about what I wanted to say. Work was pretty easy. I got a new case from Brooks and it was a hard one about atrial fibrillation. But it is good for me.

After work, I had dinner at Laura's house because the food sounded bad at the hospital and then I picked up the stuff from Dr. King's house to make salsa and apple crisp. I know the two don't go together but that is what she had. The salsa came out really good. I made it in between dinner and my game. No one showed up for the game. We finally got a team together, which was nice. We played and we won! It was great. I got a couple of really good hits and played second base. I played that base pretty well but let a few get by me.

Then I went home and made the apple crisp. I was up till midnight baking it and then could not fall asleep right away and was really tired the next morning...But that is another day!

Signing off for like two minutes!

No Shows:(

So the day started out pretty good. Last night I got some of the things that I needed to get done accomplished. I wrote some of the biography that I had to write done, this morning I called my dad, at lunch I wrote some postcards. Its slowly coming along.

When I got to work this morning, the computers still were not working. We had to hand type a whole bunch of charts and then when the computers did come back on three hours later we had to input all of that information. It was a long process. But it made the morning go by quickly.

The meals today were good. We had pizza for lunch and that was wonderful and for those of you who know me, you know that I don't really like pizza. Dinner was good as well. There was a stuffed chicken breast, rice, and a really good spinach dish.

The afternoon went by quickly except for the arrival of three, yes three packages. I got a package from Rachel with a card and Italian cookies. I got a package from my mom with paper for my scrapbook, a notebook, some dark chocolate and a sponge. Yes, that's right a sponge. Then I got a package from Laura and it had some stickers in it including animals, religious ones, and Indian ones. They should definitely come in handy. Everyone at work is totally jealous. But I am sharing my presents. We munched on skittles today.

Tonight we had the early game for softball. Pat and I went down and we found out that we were the only team there. The other team did not show up. So we played like a round robin game. Where as long as you don't get out, you can keep hitting. It was fun. I then went down to the gym to do the taebo but the VCR was not working. I made several attempts to fix it but to no avail. Atleast I made the effort. Tonight I am going home to work on this biography that I have to write. Hopefully I can get it done tonight.

Signing off!

A Killer Meal

Ok so you know how I told you that I was tired yesterday when I signed off. Well I went home and started to do some stuff. I had to write a little blurb and I had to write some postcards and I had to read this think that Brooks gave me. Well I did none of it. I went home and fell asleep on my bed. I didn't shut the curtains, I didn't shut the TV, I didn't even get inside the bed. I just fell asleep. I woke up at 6am and set my alarm, and shut the TV and went back to bed for another hour.

Work was good today, we were not too busy. We had time to talk and catch up on each others weekends. Then at 10ish a very cool thing happened. I got a package from PJ. I was very excited. I actually thought it was from my mom. It had ice tea, hot cocoa, pretzels, and cookies in it. All the comforts of the Catholic Center. It was wonderful. I also got a letter from my Aunt Rita, which was nice to get.

Then Laura and I went into town to get our fishing licenses for this weekend. I got a three day fishing license with a three day King stamp. I was very excited. We are going camping for 3 days over the 4th of July weekend. I hope I catch fish.

Then when we got back to work, I got another package. This one was from Karen and Rich. It had granola bars, skittles, chex mix, popcorn, mounting tape for my scrapbook, and cards to send to people. Everyone was so jealous. I got two care packages in one day!

Then the computers went down and we were typing label's up the wazoo. It was crazy and we have to redo all of the prescriptions tomorrow because have to actually put them in the computer:( But atleast it will be something to do. After work, I went home and called my mom. It was funny she was all upset that I did not get her care package. I know what hers is (photo paper and a note book). I talked to my mom for a long time and it prevented me from making other calls. But I will try to get those done tomorrow night.

I had to be at Laura's for 6 because I was making dinner. I made mexican. It came out really good. I have been missing cooking so much. It was nice to be in a kitchen and just do my thing. I even did the dishes (which everyone knows that I hate) because I wanted to spend more time in the kitchen. I told Bill and Laura, you buy the food and I will cook it. I love to cook, but it just doesnt make sense for me to cook. Its a waste of money because the hospital pays for all of my meals.

Tonight, it is my goal to get lots of stuff done. Well I am going to try anyway.

Signing off!

Canoeing was wicked fun!

So this morning I got up early, came and had breakfast. Then went home to get ready to go canoeing. I also had to call my Dad because it was his birthday and then I called Mike because it was his birthday as well. I didn't get to talk to either of them though. But I am going to try again tomorrow.

At like 9:50, Laura calls me and tells me that she just spoke with Joan and she was not coming canoeing with us. Both Laura and I were like, great we didn't have to uninvite Pat! But I was not going to call Pat 10 minutes before we were leaving and tell her that she could come with us again. I had already made a fool of myself having to invite her I didn't want to feel like a bigger jerk.

So Laura and I set out for our adventure. We got to Joan's house and learned how to attach the canoe to the car and we were off. We got to the dock and put the canoe in the water and safely made it into the boat. Our goal was not to tip the canoe because we both had our camera's in it. We set off in the direction on our right because our intention was to stay near the shore because the middle of the lake is like 500 feet deep. On the shore of the lake, there is a little town and I mean little but they do have a school. We docked and headed inward just to see. We ended up walking all around the school and on some of the road.

When we got back to the canoe, we decided to keep going to see what was past that. We went about half way around the shore and got to a point where the lake continues on but we just kinda floated along. Ok so we floated into the middle of the lake or atleast into the middle of that part of the lake. We just kinda chit-chatted for an hour or so. We kept paddling and took pictures of each other. It was wicked fun!

When we went to go put the canoe back on the boat we looked like pro's it was great. At Joan's we stayed for a minute to see how she was feeling. Laura and I had to get back so that I could make it to church at 5pm. After church there was a potluck. I made cookies for it. It was fun. I got to meet some new people. Then I brought Becky home from church (she is one of the environmental health interns). I dropped Laura's car off at her house and we took Goliath for a walk. So I got tons of exercise Today. I was going to go do taeboo but umm its like 9:30 and I am exhausted, I am going home and watching some TV and writing some postcards!

Signing off:)

Yeah for garage sales!

Ok so yes the most fun thing that I did yesterday was hit a few garage sales.

I work up at about 10 trying to rest from my late night on Friday. Then I went to get some breakfast. Well actually to most people in the hospital they call it break but I called it breakfast today. Laura said that she would call me at like 11:30 to go for a walk with Goliath. She called at about 12 noon and so we went for a walk with Cher. Yes I said Cher she is one of the nurses that we met at the party last night. We walked on the beach and saw a big beluga whale on the beach. It was dead and had been picked over pretty well. All of its ribs were gone and everything. It was sad, they are such beautiful animals.

After our walk Laura and I were going to go canoeing and Pat asked to come too. So Laura tried to call Joan (a Nurse Practioner at the hospital). She was going to lend us the canoe, but she was not home. So Laura called me and I called Pat. I decided that I still wanted to go out. So I asked Pat if she wanted to go to town to get a coffee and then do some garage sailing. She said yes. So we rented a vehicle and set out.

The funniest thing happened. We got stuck in traffic, in Dillingham. There was road construction and they were only letting cars through in one direction. There was a huge line of cars...I think it was almost ever car in Dillingham. Then someone actually honked their horn. I nearly died laughing. Road Rage in Dillingham...that is it, I can die a happy woman I have seen it all. But I hope I don't die yet!


When we got home, I started watching TV and then called my mom. Remind me to do it in a different order next time. I got wrapped up in a movie and really just wasted minutes cause I was not paying attention. Then I talked to Laura. She said that when she talked to Joan. She wanted to come. So four people in a canoe, has anyone ever done this. The most I have put in a canoe is three. So Laura and I discussed it and we decided that I had to call Pat and tell her that she could not come because it was Joan's canoe and its not like we could refuse the person who owns the canoe. Yeah it was not an easy phone call. But I told Pat that we would take her out in a couple of weeks because we have access to Joan's canoe.

Joan is leaving town for a month or two. Speaking of leaving, everyone is leaving...there will be no doctors in the hospital. I am serious. They are all going on vacation for a month at a time. I cant believe it. It should definitely be interesting.

After that, I made cookies for the potluck after church and worked on my scrapbook...Laura aren't you proud! I have been getting a lot of it done. It should look really good by the time that I leave and I am definitely excited about that.

Signing off!

Its time to party!

Ok so I didn't come in last night when I got home because I don't even know what time I got home. I know it was really late but it wasn't dark, cool I know. Anyway, we went to Mark and Kathy Slawson's going away party. Ok so I really didn't know them that well but I did want to say goodbye and it was a really good excuse to go to a party. So I got Laura to go or so I thought and then as we were leaving the pharmacy she was like well maybe I will just give you my keys. I feel like being a home body. So I was like fine I just wont go cause I didn't want to go alone. Then she was like ok, but I felt guilty. So when Pat mentioned it, I was like well I don't know. If Laura didn't go we didn't have a ride so I didn't want to get Pat's hopes up!

So then I went to do Taeboo (I am not sure how you spell it) and took a shower made my rice to bring and called Laura. She was all ready to go and had taken Dr. King's dog for a run. So I called Pat and invited her and we went.

When we got there, there were so many people from the hospital there. I didn't know very many people well but that was why I was there, to get to know people. Dinner was wonderful we had halibut, baked potatoes, and a 100 different sidedishes all designed to make your mouth water. So we ate and talked and drank and I got to know different people. I met lots of new people too.

Then I got to try something that I had never tried before Caribou. It was delicious. Yes I know, I keep trying these big game meats, what's happening to city girl Kris??? Don't worry I am still city girl Kris! Anyway then they cooked halibut a different way and I tried that and then they cooked salmon a different way and I tried that,they were both really good.
I also got to try some home brew and it was really good. They also made some wine and that tasted good too. It was in beer bottles so I am not really sure it was wine exactly. But I will find out.

So at like 1 in the morning after getting there at like 7:30, we went home. Mind you a good chunk of them were going to the willow (the bar) but Laura did not want to go and she was my ride. So I went home and went to bed.

But there were a couple of other funny things that went on on Friday. I woke up late at 8:30 and I was susposed to be to work at 8. I woke up and before I got to the phone, it rang...it was Laura asking where I was. So I was kinda late to work, oh well. They really didn't seem to care so I don't care! But you know what I have been experiencing lately...I wake up before the phone rings. I wake up like 30 seconds before the phone is about to ring. I don't really get it. It happened to me this morning and it happened to me like a week ago. It very interesting. Maybe I am getting psychic...I doubt it.

Work was pretty good, it was not too busy and someone brought us a smoked salmon spread. So it is after trying smoked salmon twice now that I realize that I don't like it. It just doesn't taste good, I don't like the smoked flavor. But that is personal preference.

Oh yeah so I had one more comment, I am so out of the loop here as far as music goes. There are only two radio stations here in Dillingham and one is NPR and the other plays whatever it wants when ever it wants. Usually nothing good. So I am totally out of the music loop. I couldn't tell you how has a new song out or anything like that. Its interesting what you get out her and what you don't. Dillingham is definitely different!

Signing off!

Aerobics

So, I attended my first aerobics class today. It was pretty good and could be considered equivalent to the hard bodies work out at the gym at URI. Laura and I went to the Lutheran Church for the class. The church just has chairs set up as the pews and so you can just clear them away and work out. So essentially I worked out in a church. Its a very interesting town, I keep trying to tell you that.

So work was slow today, we did not have clinic today, no patients means so prescriptions which means no work. But we did have our P&T meeting today. P&T is pharmacy and therapeutic meeting. At this meeting we discuss what is going on in the hospital as far as pharmacy goes. I had a presentation to do on a drug, and it went over really well. We added the drug to the things we carry. Brooks also made a dessert pizza, it was really, really good. It had blueberries and walnuts on it.

In rounds this morning, there was a really funny story. So Dr. Hyndman, (who is a really amazing lady and extremely funny) says that a patient is FOS and keeps going with her work up. So I write down FOS and circle it thinking its some medical term that I have never heard of. So I go down stairs and ask Brooks what it means, he has no idea. I pull the women's chart and look to see if I can find it. No where to be seen. Later in the day, I ask Dr. Hyndman what the term was and she just smiled and said FULL OF SHIT. I nearly died laughing. I laugh out loud still now, 5 hours later.

Dinner was pretty good, and lunch was too. They had turkey for lunch with a mixed veggie and noodles. I skipped the noodles but did enjoy the turkey and veggies. Other than that thinks were good. I am off to write more postcards, birthday cards, and read the wealth barber. I am learning so much. I am determined to become wealthy. Talk to you soon

Signing off!

Ok so were on a downward streak:(

We lost again and this time it was by 6 runs. Oh well, we cant win them all. I played a little better, I hit the ball three times and made it to base two out of three. They were about ready to put me at third again and I was like...are you sure? Then Bubba showed up and he played third. I was having a bad game and already had the title of this blog entry. It was going to be "adversity only makes you stronger" But in the bottom of the 7th, I touched the ball three times in the outfield and didnt make any mistakes. It was a sign from God to keep playing I think!

So what else did I do today, well I got up at a reasonable hour (7) and called the URI financial aid office to get my loan straightened out. I finally got it straightened out and I was happy about that. At work, we didnt have that much to do. Brooks and I got to go over some of the questions that he has been giving me. So that was pretty easy and interesting. I got them all right.

Lunch was ok, the meals are getting old but the only other options are 10 dollar hamburgers. So free is good, especially when you are not getting a paycheck. Dinner was not good either. But on a good note, I liked yesterday's lunch, it was salmon.

So I feel so out of the loop up here. I just found out from an email that Amy and David are dating and have been for 13 days. Guys you are susposed to keep me in the loop. By the way, Congradulations I am very happy for both of you! Bottom line, if something good happens your first reaction should be got to tell kris! Ok so that is not going to happen but lets put me somewhere high on the list. I like to know my friends are happy. Like PJ for example, we type regularly now and we are getting caught up on each others lives. As fun as I make the bush sound, I need the lives of my friends to live by!

Ok so that was my rant for the day!

Signing off!

The WORST game EVER!

Ok so maybe not ever, but I played so badly tonight. I was embarrassed. But it is only one game and I am trying to put it behind me. But first I need to vent. So they put me at third base and that was fine. I have played it tons of times. I just need to learn to throw myself on the ground to catch the ball. The ball went right through my legs one time and so on and so forth. It was really bad. Then batting, I didn't make it to base once, I kept hitting fly balls or easy to field grounders. I am depressed but most of all I feel like I let my team down because we lost the game.

But on a lighter note, I had dinner with Pat tonight. She invited me over to her house and we had pasta with moose meat and bread. I brought oreo's for dessert. It was a really good meal and it was just enough pasta to hopefully curb the craving that I have been having for pasta. Actually I just came from her house we had a late dinner.

I have to get to bed earlier tonight, I was up really, really late last night. After I left the pharmacy, I went home to wait for Andrew to come over. We had to say goodbye. It was surprisingly sad and really had to say goodbye. We became such good friends in such a short period of time. So we spent an hour and a half just talking and making plans to see each other again. Actually the weird thing is that he will be in RI for the whole month of July...But I will still be in AK:(

Anyway, so Andrew leaves, and I decided to get into bed because I am tried and its 11:30. Well not 5 minutes after I got in bed there is a knock at my door, its Andrew. He's like, there is a bon fire at the beach do you want to go, I am like definitely. So I change and we head out to the beach. We get there and there is no one at the bon fire that we know so we leave. But on the way, we run into one of the Doctor's wives and she needs help with her fish. So we pile into her car and go to her house and help her with the fish. Then Andrew walked me home (what a gentleman). So needless to say I was quite tired this morning when I got out of bed at 7:45. I was almost late for rounds!

Today in the pharmacy it was not as busy as it has been which is a very good thing. I got to hear tons of brooks stories about how Dr. Swonger made everyone in the class try certain drugs to see how it would effect them. Or how they shut down the campus so that people could protest the Vietnam war. He had some great stories.

Other than the stories, Brooks asked me about the book he asked me to read, its called the Wealthy Barber. So I have to start reading it right away. Maybe not tonight because I am so tired but soon:)

Signing off!

A busy day in the pharmacy!

Ok so after getting in really late last night, I definitely did not want to get out of bed this morning. I got up at 7:45 and threw on cloths, ran to get breakfast, then scooted up to rounds. Guess what, I was the first one there! I could not believe it...well I could:)

Then it was one patient after another and another and another. They all had problems too! But we made it through. I also got my computer fixed too. The enter key fell off, did I tell you? The computer people were really nice about it!

Then I had to say good bye to Andrew, he is leaving tomorrow morning to go to Anchorage. That makes me sad! But I should see him again since he goes to school in conn. We had dinner together.

I am on my way to see the domestic violence memorial. Apparently at high tide they through flowers out into the ocean and it is powerful and beautiful. Laura and I are going. I will let you know how that goes!

Signing off!

OK, ok so I am getting behind!

Ok so yesterday I did not drag myself over here in the evening to check write my thought so I am going to stay here until it gets done. I might have to sign off instant messenger to get it done but I am going to try!

Ok so I got up yesterday early in an effort to get things done. Smart idea I know. So I went for breakfast, called my dad to wish him a happy father's day and then my mom called. She said that after I left her at the airport they would not let her on the plane. She had to go back over to the ticket counter and talk to them more. They finally let her on the plane. I am ready to lodge a complaint. She made it fine in Anchorage and then in Minnesota as well. But she is home safe!

Then I came over here to check my email. After that I went to get a car out only they didn't have one to take out:( So I decided to walk figuring that someone from the hospital would pick me up because the church is like 4 miles from the hospital and I only had 30 minutes to get there. But it was not until I was almost about there when Terry (the computer guy) picked me up and brought me the rest of the way. I walked home. It was a good walk I just didn't want to be late for church!

When I got back to my apartment, I made lunch and then did my laundry. I also read the homework that Brooks assigned me. I was all set to do some correspondence because I am so behind and it was 5 o'clock. So I called around and tried to get Pat, Andrew and Roy to come to a BBQ that Laura and I were going to but only Pat came.

It was a really good BBQ, we had moose burgers, salmon, and the usual pasta salad and potato salad. It was very good. We kinda sat around and chatted for a while. Then Laura, Pat and I went to the dump. It was really cool. We saw two bears and I took some crazy cool pictures. I thought it was going to head right for our car.

We got home after midnight and as much as I love you all I was not coming over here to write my fantastic story

Signing off!

Saying Bye to Mom:(

Ok so you caught me, I am a day late. I am writing this on Sunday and not Saturday...But if I hadn't told you, you'd never know. I am writing late because I was out late last night and didn't feel like coming over to the hospital at 11.

Ok so our morning started off well. I went to get breakfast at the hospital and brought it back to my apartment so that my mom and I could eat together. Then we packed all of her stuff and got ready to go to the Lake. I wanted her to see it since Bill (the dentist) would not be around to take us out. Now, I was kinda breaking the rules because you are not allowed to take a company car out to the Lake (the roads not entirely paved yet and a rock could damage it). But I was prepared to try anyway.

When we went to go check one out there were both out. So my mom and I decided to work on her scrapbook instead. We went back to my apartment and around lunch I went over to see if they had a car to take out. They did. So I went back and grabbed my mom, we ate a quick lunch and then we went to get the car. I was very excited until I rounded the corner and saw two people standing beside the car I was taking out. They wanted to hitch a ride with us into town. So out of the goodness of my heart I said ok. So I took them to the post office and to the grocery store and then back home.

Then my mom and I were off to the Lake. Ok so its Saturday and its Dillingham. So you wouldn't expect road construction to be going on but it was. They were working on Lake road. (The big project in Dillingham this summer is to pave the Lake road) So we had to sit in like 30 minutes of traffic on the way to Lake road. Then we made it to the lake. We took pictures and watched planes fly in and out. Then we turned around and made our way back through the traffic and took pictures of the church and the welcome to Dillingham sign for my mom's scrapbook.

So ok not that interesting thus far right well it gets better.

I wasn't going to share something that my mom did, so as not to embarace her but I have to share now cause its so funny. So in flight on my mom's way her she lost her license. We realized it the night before we left Anchorage. So I like the good daughter called the airport and asked them what we should do. They said that she would have to come very early to the airport and speak to a manager and if she had a copy of her birth certificate faxed that might be a good idea. So we had my grandmother go to the Auburn city hall and get a copy of my mom's birth certificate. When we got to the airport at 8 am, 4 hours before our flight, we went to the ticket counter. There was a very nice man there who said that just the fact that my grandmother was willing to fax a copy of her birth certificate was enough for him.

Then we went to the Northwest ticket counter to see what she needed to do for her flight from Anchorage to Maine. Another very nice man said that she might have to go through some extra security but that we should be fine. Great I thought we are all set. So we go to Dillingham and I think everything is fine. At about 4 o'clock yesterday I called the airport and was like, just to let you know, my mom is coming down and she doesn't have her license. They were all like well she needs to go to the police station and get a new ID or she cant get on the plane. So I kinda started to freak out. I was already really upset about leaving my mom and such and then this. So thank goodness Laura was in my apartment saying goodbye to my mom. She drove us to the police station. When I told the policeman what was going on he just looked at me and said that there was nothing that he could do. So my mom got really flustered and started looking through her wallet and found her BJ's card. Guess what, it has your picture on it. The police officer said that she could use that! Who knew that a BJ's card was a valid form of ID!

Then we went back to my apartment and I feed my mom and we got her luggage and went to the airport. We checked in just fine at the airport, they said that it was ok to use. So we waited for my mom's plane to come in and it was late. So when they called her fight, my mom and I did a teary eyed goodbye and she went to board the plane. I wanted to get out of there because Laura and I had a cookout to go to and if I stayed any longer I might have burst into tears. So Laura and I left.

We went to Lisa's house last night for tacos. They were soo good. They were made of moose meat. I ate them and really enjoyed it. Its different up here. I am one of those people that cant eat anything killed in your own home but I am going to reconsider my stance on that. I will keep you posted.

Then Laura and I went to the Dump to look for bears. But we both had our camera so we were sure that we wouldn't see any. Guess what we didn't:)

Well that was my day
Signing off!

Movie Night

Today was a pretty easy day, I didn't have to work so I got to sleep really really late like 10:30. Boy did I need it! Then I got up and had breakfast. Then we started mad scrapbooking. My mom wanted to take a scrapbook home with her to Maine about her adventures. So we spent all afternoon working on that. In addition, we watched TV including the Princess Diaries and Third Watch. At about 4:30 we came over to the pharmacy take pictures and see Laura.

My mom and I borrowed Laura's car and went into town for fish. We ended up at the Chinese Eagle and surprisingly enough they didn't have Chinese food on the menu. They are only a Chinese food restaurant at lunch! We both had halibut and chips. The Chinese Eagle has the best French fries in town! Then we went to the Market and spent 8 dollars on ice cream! And then went to the only place that you can get coffee in town and got some. It was not too bad but I vowed that I would learn how to use the expresso machine in the pharmacy.

Then we (My mom, Pat and I) went to Laura's for movie night. We watched Miracle. It was a really good movie. I love hockey movies for some reason. Oh and I also decided that I need to buy the Mighty Ducks trilogy. It was almost midnight when we left Laura's so mom almost got to see the sun set. She would have only needed to stay awake for about another hour. That was not going to happen!

Signing off!

Its 3 in a row now!

Yes I know, its a pretty uneventful town. The excitement of my day is playing softball and winning. But hey there isn't much in Dillingham to do but we make the most of what there is to do!

So today was a good day in the pharmacy. It was a slow day and we had to say good bye to Luke...No he's not gone for good just for the rest of the month. He is going to MAINE for a wedding and to take the Maine law test. He left at 4 today. I have tomorrow off so that should make it interesting because there will be three people in the pharmacy when there is normally 6 on a Friday!

It is nice to have lunch with my mom and dinner with her as well. I let her eat the hospital warm food and I had her make me a sandwich. So she is getting the true Dillingham experience right down to the food.

You know I am picking up an Alaskan accent. It is playing softball that I really pick it up because they all talk the same and at the hospital they really don't have an accent because most people have been here less than a year. It is interesting and I could listen to people talk all day.

Tomorrow I don't know what we are going to do but it should be fun anyway. We have to get out and do something like go bear chasing. I was kinda thinking of going to the dump. I know that doesn't sound all that exciting to you but you can see tons of bears there if you hit it at the right time.

Signing off!

WE won again!

So today was a pretty interesting day in the pharmacy. We had an infectious disease patient that I got to work up and do what is called a soap note. A soap note basically is a quick presentation about the patient. So I worked on that, read about some diseases like cellulitis and then read more about vancomycin. It was a long day of reading and I was exhausted.

I had lunch with my mom and then we had dinner in my apartment. It was nice. After that I worked on my scrap book and printed off some pictures. The ones we took this weekend were wonderful. I cant wait to show them to everyone.

We had our game as well. I got three hits and caught a couple of grounders. The guys caught the fly balls. I am pretty sure that they think I cant catch them. I am not sure if I can but I would like the opportunity. Anyway, we won and the balls were caught and that is all that matters.

Everything else is good, my mom has just been hanging out which is wonderful for her. She came to my game and got to act like the proud mama she is. I have Friday off, Brooks is cool by the way. I don't know what we are going to do yet but lets pray for sun.

Signing off!

Its been a long time!

So its been a while since the last time I did one of these. So I am just going to talk about what happened today and will tell you all about the other days later.

Today, my mom and I got up really early and went to breakfast at the Alaskan Bagel company. I had a Belgian waffle it was really good. Then we went to check in our bags at the airport. That was an experience. WE had to sit there and remove stuff because the bags were too heavy. But everything made it to the plane eventually! Then we went to return our rental car and they dropped us off at our hotel. We did a little more shopping and then got a ride to the airport. The plane ride took about an hour and a half and Laura picked us up at the airport.

My mom and I had lunch in my apartment and then we went into the huge metropolis of Dillingham and gave her the grand tour. It took 10 minutes! We then took the grand tour of the hospital and that took a total of 30 minutes with time to stop for conversations along the way. After that, we unpacked out stuff and waited for dinner. Laura, Andrew (med student), My mom and myself went out for dinner. It was great we had Chinese. Then Laura, my mom and I went for a walk on the beach. We saw 6 eagles flying around us at one time it was so cool. We also saw some dead fish and fish bones. The salmon have started to run here and so when the fisherman catch them in their nets they tend to leave the fish heads on the beach for the seagulls to eat.

After that we went to look for bear tracks. There had been a reported sitting of a bear on compound. I got pictures of the tracks. There were moose and bear tracks. Looks like the bear found dinner:( But that was our day.

Signing off!

The Third day of my great Anchorage Adventure!

So my mom and I got up early and decided to get on the road early. We went to get my shoe fixed first. I took it to a shoe repair place and they were going to mail it out to me in Dillingham. I was excited about that. Then we decided to go see a glacier. You have to go on a boat tour for that. So we headed back down the same way that we came from yesterday. The cruise was only about half way to seward though and took over an hour. We saw a glacier and then we saw a black bear.

On the way to the tour though we saw some other people stopped on the side of the road and I of course pulled over. There were Dall sheep on the side of the road. They live in the mountains, they are white and like 5 feet tall. It was a great sight to see. After the glacier tour we went to the Ulu knife factory and took a tour and bought 7 knives. After that we went to take pictures of the combat fishing. This is where people practically stand on top of each other and fish. Its amazing that they actually catch something but they do.

After we saw the combat fishing we went to the Zoo. We only had an hour and a half before it closed but we thought it would be fun anyway. We managed to see everything in the zoo but my favorite part was getting to see the polar bear in the water. It was just playing with its ball and having such a good time. Polar Bears are beautiful creatures.

After the zoo, we called my grandmother and talked to her for a while and I noticed that my cell phone had two missed calls. So I looked to see who they were from and it was Mike and Tom. They were staying in my apartment and wanted to say hi. I could not call them back at that moment but I decided to later.

We went back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner. We went to the Moose's Tooth. Its a Pub and they only serve pizza, salad and beer. Which is fine with me! We had a really good pizza and don't even really like pizza! I actually liked my beer as well.

After dinner went back to our hotel and I checked my phone. Tom and Mike had called back and they were drunk. I had made the mistake of telling them that they had free range of my apt. I forgot about the alcohol. I was kinda bummed at first because they drank my favorite bottle of wine but they told me that they would replace it and I was ok with that. Then my mom and I went out to finish our shopping. We had a lot to do because I really had not bought anything thus far.

I spent a good chunk of change on souvenirs and got a couple of things for myself as well. I was happy with what I bought. I just hope I bought everything that I need for all of my friends and family. But the real question was are we going to make it back to Dillingham with all of this stuff and is my mom going to it make it back to ME with all of that stuff. Bedtime!

Signing off!

The Second day of my great Anchorage Adventure!

So Sunday morning we got up early, well early for us. Pat came to pick us up and we headed off to go pick up our rental car. That took forever because we had to wait in line and then we realized that mom did not have her license with her. We hoped that it would not be more for me to drive the car and it wasn't. So I got to rent my first car. It was a silver 4 door and it was a nice car. It even had a CD player!

Our goal was to get to Seward and we didn't care at what time we got there. So we just started off, if I saw something that I liked I stopped and the same went for the rest of us. We used the Milepost and it was wonderful. We stopped a few places along the way to take a few pictures but our first real stop was at the gold mine. We got to pan for gold and see all the old tools that they used etc. I got a few nice gold chunks and so did Pat.

We continued on to Griswood and they had a nice gift shop that I had read about so we stopped and looked around. My mom liked a sweater so we decided that if she didn't find anything else that she liked we would stop back and buy it. We also decided that we would put off lunch and get ice cream now. Which we did and it was really, really good. Once we got back on the road, we drove for a while and stopped at bird point. You should be able to see a bunch of birds from here and also whales. The tide was out so we didn't see any whales. Then we stopped at the Wildlife Refuge. It was great. I got to pet a Moose and had a deer lick my entire arm. It was great!

Then we continued on to Seward and there were no stops to be made unless they were amazing. We only stopped at 3 to eat lunch, we stopped on the side of the road and made a picnic. My mom brought lots of food from Maine. When we got to Seward, we walked around and looked at the shops. I bought some cards and such. Then we went the sea life center to look at the gift shop. Then we got expresso, because I was not going to make it home otherwise and headed home. Seward was not like many of the small towns in Maine and just not quite what I was expecting. ]

As we were driving home, we saw all of these people stopped on the side of the road. So I decided to stop as well. There were beluga whales. It was so neat they were just floating in the water. We watched them for a while and then made our way back to Anchorage. It was 9:30 when we got back to Anchorage and decided to grab a quick dinner at burger king. It was like the only quick thing open.

Then we dropped Pat off and went back to our hotel.

Signing off!

The first day of my great anchorage adventure

So, we started our adventure by first having coffee and breakfast in the Cafe that I told you about yesterday. I am definitely in love with it. I have also decided to open my own cafe if I ever moved to Dillingham permanently. It would be called Kris's Kafe...I am still working on the name suggestions are welcome. Feel free to use the comment button! Pat picked us up from our hotel and then drove us to the cafe and then we went to the Mall. We saw Harry Potter. The movie was great. I loved the movie as the movie and if I had never read the books I would have loved it more. But it didn't really follow the book and that made me sad. I keep thinking that they did this differently and they did this differently and so on.

Then we went to a Fred Meyers. They are like a Target/Walmart type of store. I wanted to get chocolate chip cookie mix for the church potlucks they have. We shopped and I bought tons of souvenirs to take home for everyone. Then Pat brought us back to the hotel and my mom and I went to a local market where we got to look around for other gifts. They didn't have many native gifts but they had lots of interesting things and we bought some great stuff. After that we went to Church. The Catherdial was not a large church and probably not half the size of Christ the King in RI and smaller than Sacred Heart church in Auburn. The most interesting thing about the church is that the minister had everyone who was a visitor raise their hands and 80% of the people raised their hands. It was very interesting. The pope also visited the church in 1981!

After that we went to Glacier Brewhouse and had another wonderful meal. We split and order of halibut fish and a Mediterranean pizza. It was really good. We had to wait a long time for the table because I think that everyone who when to church went to the same place but it was worth it. Then we did a little more shopping but ended our night early at about 10.

Signing off!

Friday, June 11

Ok so I want to record everything that I did in Anchorage too. So I decided the best way to do that would be to write to entries a night...So stay with me kids!

Ok so I went to the Sea Inn in downtown dillingham on Thursday night. That was pretty interesting. We had one beer and stayed for about an hour and a half. It was fun though. We were having these deep conversations in a bar it was kinda weird. Anyway, after we left we ended up at the red trailer and talked till 1am. It was fun...I have not gotten to hang around with people my own age like that since school let out.

On Friday, I got up and finished packing. I got into work and stayed for about an hour and then Laura took me to the airport. I got to Anchorage at about 12 noon and the first thing that I did was get a cup of coffee. It was a wonderful treat. Then I got on a bus and went to my hotel and checked it. Not the nicest place but it was reasonable. Then I walked to this Cafe that Lisa (tech) told me about. It was awesome. I sat out there and wrote postcards for an hour or two. Then I took the bus back to the airport and waited for my mom to come in. She actually got there early.

We then took the bus to our hotel and dropped my mom's stuff off. And we went out to dinner. We had at Humpies and it was really good. Its a bar kinda similar to the Mew's. After that we did a little shopping. We went to the JC Penney's for a few minutes to check out what they had to offer and then we went to some down town shops. There we met up with Pat and her boss Bobby and his wife. We walked to a few more shops. There were all open until midnight. But we only stayed until about 10. Then we went back to the hotel because by that time my mom had been up for 24 hours.

I was wide awake though. So while my mom was sleeping, I got to watch TV.

Signing off!

Our game was canceled!

So it was pouring rain out here today. The game was canceled which was good because it gave me time to pack and clean my apartment before my mom came. I am about to head up to the red trailer or the house of love. To meet a bunch of people. We are going to be making the pub crawl. It should be fun. WE are going to hit both bars in town. It shouldn't take us very long! This is Dillingham after all...There is two of everything:)

Other than that today was not over exciting. The clinic was closed in the morning so we did not have many prescriptions to fill but I did get to go into our lab today and see how everything worked. That was pretty cool. Ernie the microbiologist answered all of my questions that I had about a patient.

So I leave for Anchorage tomorrow morning and I am very excited. I am going to roam around the city during the day. Actually, I plan to find a coffee shop grab a seat and write some more postcards and letters. I have to catch up. Then I am going to meet my mom at the airport at 6pm. I am very excited, we are going to have so much fun! I finished the Harry Potter book and am definitely ready to go see the movie. Everyone that I talked to has said it was excellent. I cant wait.

Well that is all for now, I will try to write tomorrow morning about what happened tonight but we'll see. I will be safe and oh my the way, my cell phone works in Anchorage so if you get the urge to call me you can until Tuesday!
Signing off!

The last restaurant!

Ok so its official. I have hit all of the restaurants in Dillingham. If you can get food there I have been to it. Today was Lisa's last official day. She will be working Friday but I wont. Only half of us will be. It is a National Day of Morning, I believe that is the term. We here at the hospital should be given the day off but because we have patients coming from the villages that have been planning these trips for like a month, they decided that they could not send everyone home. So there are certain people that will be here and certain people that wont. Brooks told me that I could come in but if I had something better to do then I could go do it. So I told him that I would go to Anchorage sooner if given the opportunity. He said that was fine with him. I was pretty excited. I changed my plane ticket and am flying out at 10:15 in the morning. I am going to store my luggage at the airport and then head into town and see the sights a little bit before my mom gets there. It should be fun. I am really excited to go to Anchorage and to see my mom.

So we had another game today. WE WON again. I am really not sure how we keep wining but we do and I am totally excited! I had a really good hit today. It was a line drive. I have found my bat and it works well. Andrew (one of the other med students) is the next Norma. Well that is just my nick name for him because he has this signature move. Actually, you may all get to meet him. He goes to school in Conn. and have a very good friend that lives in Narragansett. So we are definitely going to hang out together when we both get back to the East Coast.

Ok so I do have some bad news, I hurt my foot. I didn't hurt it playing softball or anything like that as far as I can tell but it hurts. I have an ace bandage around it right now to try to protect it but we shall see. I didn't got for a walk or go to the gym today to give it a couple of days rest. I hope it helps.

So as I mentioned Lisa is leaving. I am kinda sad about it. She was really nice and she liked me. She even bought me lunch today. I had a fish sandwich by the way. It was good. So tomorrow just to let you know I might not be writing. I am not completely sure because we are going bar hoping in Dillingham. Its Mike the interns last night well sort of last night and we are taking him out. There will be atleast the four interns and hopefully Luke. I am not too sure about Luke though. I cant tell if he likes me or not or if its just me. He is very quiet. So I am going to try to be extra nice to him tomorrow and not pick on him for being a guy (that is probably why he doesn't like me) and hopefully he'll come.

Signing off!

We won!

So yes I have some exciting news, we won our softball game. It was wonderful. We only one by one run but that was enough for me. Today was kinda cool in the pharmacy.

I really spent the day reading up on a few cases. I learned a lot today. I was just reading and trying to take in as much as possible. If I could just memorize this little green book that we have I would be all set but its 200 hundred pages are darn near impossible to memorize. Anyway, the more that I look up the better off I am.

So today after work, Pat, myself and Andrew (a med student) all went to play softball. Yes I recruited a player, I was pretty proud of myself. He did a great job too, caught two fly balls and got a couple of hits. I did well as well. I had no balls come to me in the outfield but I did get a hit and a walk. The best news of all is that I did not fall down. I know, I was really happy about that. Then I went to Ricardo's which is a Mexican restaurant in town. It was good, we had pizza and beer. I went with this engineering guy and Pat. It was interesting but at least we got to go to another restaurant. I drank Alaskan Amber. Apparently its the only beer that they import out of AK to anywhere else. It was pretty good as far as beers go. Probably one of the best that I have had ever. Much better than the bud that we had on the boat on Friday:)

For the record, there is no such thing as normal people land. Tom just told me that it was 2 AM in normal people land. I am surrounded by normal people.

Lastly, to report...I got a letter from my Aunt Rita. I was very excited about that. She is so sweet. I will have to write her back just as soon as I get a free moment to write her a letter. Tomorrow will be good I suspect.

Signing off!

I got a package, I got a package yes I did.

So its official. I got my first care package today and it was from Alyssa. She wins the award for Kris's favorite person of the day. The package had dunkin donuts coffee, taco chips (my favorite kind) salsa and homemade cookies. I passed those out at work! It was a very exciting day. Other than that not much happened. I went for a walk for about an hour and then I went to the gym for about a half of an hour.

Brooks is gone for a couple of days. I think he is off in his secret spots fishing. But the pharmacy ran fine except that we have not received a drug order in about a week. We were running out of so many medications. But we got one in today. We all rejoiced. I have never been so happy to see drugs in my life.

Other than that things are good. I just realized that I didn't do anything new today. That makes me sad. My goal was to try to do something new every day. Oh well.

I do have one piece of sad news though. I have three blisters on my feet. My 10 mile walk did me in. So hopefully they will heal quickly. I am still walking on them so they cant be that bad but I don't want them when I go to anchorage. That would not be cool. BTW I leave in 4 days and get to see my mom in four days.

Well I have to go write that email to everyone who doesn't read this. It is Monday after all.

Signing off!

So I just have two things to add. I am building an igloo outside of my apartment because I don't really like my apartment and am going to live in that for the rest of the summer.

Now if you believe that then gullible is written on the ceiling.

I also have a prayer request. Someone I know just fell and fractured her lumbar.
Please, please keep her in your prayers.

Signing off for real!

Sleepy Day

So this morning I got up and went to breakfast at 7:50 like I always do on the weekends because at the hospital there are meal times and if you miss them you are out of luck. So after eating my oatmeal, bacon and an orange I went back home and decided to read for a little while. Well I fell back asleep and woke up at 10:15 which meant that I had to hurry because I didn't want to be late for church.

So I got to church and found out that we had no priest. He was having heart problems. Not really sure what that means. So our pastoral assistant presided over the ceremony. She opened the service and read the liturgy of the word and then we had an interactive homily and received the body of Christ. Then we had coffee and a snack downstairs. So I guess my some conclusion is that if you are a female and want to become a priest you should move to AK. Because here a woman can pretty much run the show as long as you have a priest around once and a while to consecrate the hosts.

Oh yeah at the service we also sang Abba, Father and I thought of the catholic center and that time that Angela suggested we sign it for some prayer all though I cant remember what we did it for.

Then I went to lunch and went home and did a little reading and fell back asleep. Till 5pm when I got up and went to dinner. Eat, sleep, eat, sleep....I was not going to home after dinner though cause I would have probably gone back to sleep. I went to see Laura and see what she was up to. She had just finished dinner as well and asked if I wanted to go for a walk. So we ended up walking 10+ miles tonight. It was awesome. I don't feel like a lazy bum any more. Anyway.

So while I was sitting in here, someone came into the pharmacy and started asking me questions. I was like, I am not working, I don't want to answer these questions but I did. Its ok I guess. I couldn't really be helpful though because I didn't know the conversion and couldn't find it anywhere. Oh well. Time for popcorn and a movie.

Signing off!

Wha Happened???

So I know what your wondering, what happened to Kris? She has been ever so faithful at her posts why didn't she post a new one yesterday. Well the truth is that I got home at 1 am last night and was not about to make my way to the hospital to let you all know what I did. So today you get a double long entry.

yesterday was pretty quiet in the pharmacy. I did not go out to lunch aren't you proud. We actually had a good lunch in the hospital. I did finish my presentation to the hospital committee that decides what drugs we are going to stock on our shelves. It's not due for two weeks but I was not busy so I finished it. Luke is looking at it right now, so we'll see what he thinks then I will hand it to Brooks.

Then Laura and I went out with a dentist here at the hospital on his boat. Bill just moved up here from FL not too long ago, by the way he lived near Daytona which is kinda near my brother Tracy's old house. So Bill bought a boat and wanted to show us tourists a moose or bear or something. So we went out on the Lake Aleknagik to see if we could find a moose. No luck...we hunted for a good hour and couldn't find anything. So then we decided to go to a river off of the lake and try some fishing. So as you may know, I have never really fished before in my life. So Laura gave me a brief lesson and I went to it. On my second cast, I caught a FISH. Kris Braley, city girl herself caught a fish. It was an artic chard which are very popular up here in addition to the salmon. I was very proud! We got pictures so you will see it don't worry. Bill caught like a hundred fish and Laura caught zip but she was more showing me then fishing so that explains it.

The Lake was so beautiful. I cant even begin to describe it. Not to mention the fact that it was huge. I road at full speed for atleast a half of an hour before we got from where we were to the shore. The snow capped mountains were a sight to behold. I couldn't imagine a more beautiful spot. We also stopped at one of the little huts that are along the water. Most of them are beat up and uninhabited but the one we stopped at seemed like people still lived there. There was a TV and a washing machine but no windows, just frames. I didn't really understand that but I went with it. Now I mentioned that there was a TV but mind you this is in the middle of the water and there is definitely no power there. So my guess is that he was using a generator.

We did see a couple of bald eagles and they were both magnificent. I also saw a beaver. The sunset on the water was breathtaking. I can't imagine more brilliant colors every coming across the sky like those.

I cant say enough about my adventure on the Lake. It was intense. (where is the thesaurus when you need it)

So this morning my phone rang at 7:20 and by the time I got to it there was no one there. I was kinda bumming because I was awake after that for good. So I ended up going to breakfast. Then at 10 there was a walk for HOPE that I participated it. We walked from the hospital to the fire station and had hot dogs...my favorite..not! Anyway, it was a really good 5 mile walk and we met some other townsfolk. Then I came home and did my laundry. I had to actually find out where my washer and dryer were because I couldn't find them. Eventually I did and got it all done. Then I finished Harry Potter year 2. I even started on Year 3. I have heard that the movie is good. I cant wait to see it. I am hoping next Saturday but I am not positive if we will be able to see it. I hope so! Then I ate dinner, went for another walk and decided to come and check my email.

That is pretty much all the news of yesterday and today.

Signing off!

Fall # 2

Ok so its like 10:28 here and I just got back from both softball and the gym. I had to stop by the pharmacy and tell you about the game today. So let me set the stage. Its the second inning and I am up to bat. We have one out and a runner on first. Now the pitcher is these floaters, so you have tons of time to look at them. So I am up there ready to bat and the first ball comes and almost hits me but I quickly ducked out of the way. The second pitch, strike the ump calls. Ok so the next two I am safe they are both balls. Then the pitch its a nice one and I decide to go for it...I hit and start running...Foul ball the ump says. Darn so I hurry back to the plate for one more pitch. The pitch comes and its a nice one so I swing and I hit it, Yes! I say to my self. But then it happens, I slip and I cant catch my balance and I fall flat on my FACE on home plate. The ball is fielded and goes to second, OUT calls the ump. Then to first and I almost made it after geting up completely embarrassed. But no, I am out too. So by so perfect hit turned into a double play.


Now I am not sure if I mentioned it but the last game I fell flat on my back trying to make a catch. When I went in to get my glove my only words, apparently I can't stay off the ground!

So other than that not much happened today. We had a fire drill and a generator check. The pharmacy was pretty quiet today and that was ok. I did go out to lunch again...not my brightest move I know. But lunch today was beans and franks...and I just couldn't eat that. I have to get over not liking the hospital food because its so expensive to eat out. You would not believe how much it costs for a hamburger. Anyway, hopefully the food tomorrow is good. Otherwise things are good. I finally booked a hotel room for my mom and myself to stay in anchorage when she comes to took some time but I found one...lets all pray it was a nice one!

I cant wait till she comes I got two days off the week that she comes.

Signing off!

Fun times!

Ok so when I left you I was about to go take the hospital vehicle out and go to the game. Well when I went down there both cars had been taken out...What's a girl to do! So I decided to call Laura. She didn't answer but I decided that I would go over and see if she was home because I knew that she was picking up her stuff that was shipped over on the barge and I thought that she might be outside and could give us a ride. She was! So we helped her unload all the boxes that were in her car at the moment and then she took us to the softball field. I got to play center field for the whole game! I went up to bat three times and struck out twice (once was on a fly ball, apparently if you hit a fly ball on your third strike it counts) oh well. But I did make it base once on a nice hit. I met tons of people and they all had accents. It was so funny. I cant even explain it.

So in the middle of the game, it started to rain. So we got soaked. Then a huge and I mean huge, beautiful rainbow came over the field. All I could think about was Carol. She must have been thinking about me too! Then we had to find a ride home. I didn't think that it would be a problem, its not like anyone lives that far away! Anyway, this intern named Chris gave us a ride which was really nice of him. Yeah did I mention there are three chris's on our team!

So then I had gotten my package in the mail and wanted to see if my printer worked. Well it did but it took me 2 hours to figure it out. I didn't get to bed until midnight. I know that it is not that late but I had to get up at 6:20. So I would have liked a little more sleep.

There was also a spider in my apartment last night and I was a little freaked out. I hate spiders. When I woke up he was gone. I hope I didn't eat him.

Then when I got to work the next morning I found that we had 5 patients. 5 patients...I couldn't believe it. Two of them had heart problems and that was one thing that I wanted to work on this summer. So I actually spent 4 hours doing research on this patient and couldn't really find that much information to explain the doctors diagnosis so I decided to speak with the doctor. We are meeting tomorrow. Then this afternoon, I received a call from a village nurse and I questioned the dose that the patient was getting. When I asked the doctor about it he changed the dose. How cool!

Oh I almost forgot, I went to out to lunch today with Luke (the pharmacist) and Ronya the girl that quit. I forgot to tell you that she is back. I don't know that happened but she's back and I am trying to learn parts of her job and actually paying attention this time. But anyway, we ate at the Muddy Rudder. There is one in Maine and it reminded me of home. The woman that runs the place is also from Maine but way way up north. Anyway, I had a bacon cheeseburger it was good. But I got to find out about Luke some more which was cool because I just met him on Monday. He's from Maine too! Tons of Maine connections, I am telling you. So now I have eating at half of the restaurants in dellingham. There are only like 4!!!

But that is pretty much it, I have a softball game tomorrow. I just went to the gym here and worked out a little bit. Trying to get in shape for hiking...Yuck!

Signing off!

Softball Season

So I have decided to join the softball league in Dillingham. Our season is very short, only a month long. But we are playing tons of games, atleast two a week. I am excited, hopefully it will be fun. That is why I am writing this so early. Its not even 7 pm here. I am on my way to the field and will not be back until late. Yeah, my game is not until 8 how cool is that!!!!

Goodnews! My package came in today. I was totally excited. Even though I knew what most of it was I was excited to see the surprises that my mom put in for me. I got my printer and that I am really excited about. I can finally print some pictures of the places that I have been here in Dillingham. I hope they come out good.

Oh today I found out what my village visit would be and we are going to King Salmon, yes its a town and its right next to Katmai ( I think I spelt that right) which is were all the bears are. I will definitely get to see bears now. Don't worry Laura, I am not putting myself in danger just to see bears. I am perfectly safe.

So softball is not exactly on my list of good training for hiking but I think that it should be fun, I cant wait.

Well don't want to be late....Signing off!