Patches? Who Said Anything About Patches?

I can't figure out why a Boy Scout uniform would need patches. Especially when the uniform has to be worn for seven days at summer camp. Oh please. The shirt doesn't need patches. How can the shirt need patches. It's not the last minute yet.

The conversation I needed to have yesterday:

"Mom," from the vocal cords of Bigfoot, "I YOU need to put patches on my shirt so I can take it to camp."

Everything comes out of Bigfoot's mouth as YOU instead of I. HE needs to do nothing. YOU, meaning I-the mom, need to do everything. I will eventually break him of this habit. Just like I will learn to type without stupid mistakes or the backspace button.

"Which numbers does it need?" I'm thinking it is the shirt that has repeatedly gone home with another Boy Scout, is full of Steam-A-Seam spots, and has come home twice with missing numbers. This is not the shirt Bigfoot has in his mind.

"All of them."

"What?"

"Yeah mom, ALL OF THEM."

"Where is your shirt with the patches?"

"I don't know. I need patches on the blank shirt so I can go to camp."

If I had this conversation yesterday, new patches could have been purchased and the larger shirt would have been properly assembled.

The troop leaves for camp tomorrow. Through today's course of events, lessons have been learned. I learned the Scout Shop is closed on Saturdays in July and August. Patches are not available in a single thrift store in this condemn blessed county. Shirts are no longer available in the thrift stores. Boy Scouts is not dead, just not showing up in thrift stores. Red numbers aren't showing up in stores either. That Weird Woman was told at one thrift store that scout patches are actually being thrown out when shirts do come in. Not cool. Bigfoot has his first lesson in sewing today. He has learned how to use a seam ripper, needle, thread and threader.

He may take all night, but the shirt will get done. The Mom-Fairy may show up and finish it tonight.

Did This Really Happen to Me?

Now that I have six five weeks left of school, I am wondering just what happened this week. I went from a great start to total a total chaos of mess.

Monday was a great day for me. The pin-stripe black suit went on. My resume was printed, on pink resume paper of all things. I normally don't even fathom the idea of printing a resume on anything other than a shade of white and heavy-weight paper. This time, I needed to tap the "extensive" supply of paper at school. My choices of color extended to green, gold, gray, and pink. Right off the bat, green and gold are out of the picture for me. I could have handled the gray if it wasn't a dark gray. Pink ended up being my option since it was the only paper I cold find that would actually make the ink look good on the paper. For some reason, that pink paper ended up being a good thing. Peninsula Community Health Services is working on my background check for externship right now. I don't think I even had a ten minute interview with the lead technician at the clinic and she told me to head over to the administrative offices for paper work! I got my externship!

Tuesday, I learned it is darn near impossible to pull from an ampule, chemo style. My first round in the chaos of Tuesday's lab involved the flinging of an ampule with it conveniently breaking open for me. not only did I not get it the first time, I screwed it up the second time. How anyone pulls anything from a 2ml ampule in a vertical flow hood successfully, I may never know. It reminds me of the Tootsie Pop owl. I never did finish my chemo lab on Tuesday.

I learned on Wednesday that it takes 2 hours to fill 6 retail style prescriptions. New patient information; fine. I can handle that. New Dr. Information? Why am I having to create 6 new doctors in the system? Oh, and to whoever wrote the Robitussin prescription: We don't have it in tablet or capsule form on the school shelves. We only carry it in OTC strength and in syrup form. It takes 100mg to administer a minimum level dose. There is no efficacy in 10 to 20mg of guaifenesin every 4 hours. Let alone, 30 tablets will not do the job. Did you not read the PDR when you wrote the form, or did you just make it up? I had to deal with this crap on Wednesday. Thank you.

I was about to blog about all of this Thursday, that is until I got home from school. That Weird Woman was sick. I had dinner to make, and a conference call to sit in on at the same time. By the time I was done with everything, I was feeling awful, right along with the rest of the family.

I don't like running route when I am feeling sick. I wake up late, drive slow, and make mistakes. Not being able to get back to sleep afterwards due to a caffeine high doesn't make the situation any better. This would be the particular case when I have a demo gig for the day. So today, I fell asleep after route, and woke up late for demo.

Since I hadn't read my sales info, I decided it would be a good idea to stop at Cash & Carry today for gloves. Boy, was that a life-saver. I never needed them, but would not have picked up a food-service grade plastic tray if I had not gone in for gloves. I never did need the gloves, but did need the tray. Actually, I was supposed to have a cooler, but never got that in the mail like I was supposed to. Just like the store I was supposed to work was supposed to receive a memo about today's demo. Sure. Whatever. the store did not know I was coming. The produce manager didn't really want to help me out. There was no product in the store, and he was very adamant that he doesn't carry it what so ever. My confirmation letter sent me to his store, but the forms were printed for another store. My scheduler couldn't figure out what was going on. The other store had no product in stock for me and wouldn't have any for tomorrow either.

So I found my car making its way back across lovely Bremerton to the parking building where I park for school. Since I found my Friday afternoon free of working, I could at least make use of the time for open lab. I, along with two other classmates did make a very nice ointment of sugar, peppermint and clove. Measuring out 15 grams of petroleum jelly is not really my idea of a good time, but the practice was useful.

So, if this was the week I went through, can someone please wake me up now?

Bigfoot's Week

50 miles in the Olympic National Forest
6 Days of HOT weather
Swimming in the lakes and rivers
Wild animals
Drinking glacier water
Thunder and Lightning
1 Forest fire started by the lightning
1 Hail Storm
A wet sleeping bag from having to use the bag's sack as a bear bag.
Pizza somewhere near Hoquiam
Tired feet

I Finally Got It Finished Today!

Today was one definitely of those hectic homeschooler days. I woke up late for route, causing me to meet my rider late. Ok, so I made up for that with a route completion time of 1:45. Nice. I haven't done that to date yet.

Ok, so I came home, decided I needed a nap, woke up late for what I could afford. I still had this dear TB paper to write. Even at 8am, I still couldn't push out even a paragraph. I guess that wasn't too big of a deal since I had to get myself and the car off to a rear brake job. Got the car to the shop, after turning around for the checkbook and my purse. On the way over, I was reminding myself to ask for a fuel filter along with the brakes. I was in perfect hectic homeschooling form and forgot.

Well, that gave me something like four hours to finish the paper that I still only had half a page done. Of course, once I got to school, I couldn't use the computers in the Pharmacy Lab right away. I ended up having to use the resource room. That's just fine until I have to plug my ear plugs into a tower below the desk. I'm not too fond of playing Twister to listen internet radio while working on a paper.

At least I finally got my paper finished today. All fourteen pages jetted out of the school printer one hour before the cut off. Nice.

I walked out of the module today with straight A's! YES! Six weeks left!

I love it when I have a hyper-under-control day. I get so much stuff done, even if things seem a little crazy and hectic.

Writer's Block, and Not on the Blog

Ok, so I have a paper on Tuberculosis due, only TOMORROW. I'm supposed to write two to three pages on the topic. So far, I have? Less than one page. Why? I have no clue. Normally, I can pump out somewhere around nine or ten pages in just a few hours. Tonight, I couldn't even get a paragraph out, let alone, make it sound good.

Instead, I'm wasting my time wondering why the HELL Michael Jackson was given propofol? And, what was his doctor SMOKING to think of giving his that stuff? This is a drug only to be used as an anesthetic for surgical procedures. It stops you from breathing. It can cause myocardial ischemia. Why the hell is MJ taking this stuff like it is a household injection? This doctor makes me sick.

Now that we have physicians giving out drugs for reasons other than what they should be used for, I have other stuff to do. Like update my Facebook page, read email, play games. Anything but write a term paper.

Thirty-three Excuses for Cake (and some very good drinks)

There are thirty-three reasons I been eating cake since Saturday:

July 25, 1976-2009.

That Weird Woman made me cake for my birthday. Unfortunately, everyone in this zoo was too busy to eat it until yesterday. Birthday cake is no fun when you cut it by yourself. Monday was the first day I could cut it and share it in one five-minute period.

Saturday, I was too busy to eat cake. Bigfoot needed supplies for the 50-miler hike he is currently on. I needed clothing for Saturday night. Beadgirl needed new clothes, as if she isn't growing. I really needed to take the kids to Famous Dave's for barbecue. I had too much to do during the day to eat cake.

That isn't to day that my birthday didn't turn out bad. My good friend from TeleTech, Brandi, took me out on our first clubbing experience in Seattle. Since I haven't had a drink in over a year, I've lost touch with the various forms of alcoholic combinations. So, I made it simple on myself. I asked the bartender to make me something fun on my birthday. I got this:

2 lime slices
ice
vermouth
grenadine

times five, along with some drunk guy who wanted to take me home. Not to forget the "Greek" guy who decided Brandi's boyfriend is a loser.

I don't think so. I happen to like her boyfriend. He is very good for her, and he drove us to and from the ferry in Bremerton.

I decided it was time for Cinderella's carriage to turn into a pumpkin.

And it might as well have for that matter. We learned that the Washington State Ferry terminal at Coleman Dock locks up at 2am. Brandi and I were told by the state patrol officer that we could stay outside and that there are cameras around the terminal.

For some reason, four hours outside the ferry terminal just doesn't thrill either me or Brandi. Knowing our luck, we would have been picked up by the Seattle Police for hooking Alaskan Way. I have to admit, we would have made very bad hookers if we had stayed all night at the terminal. Thankfully, her mom's boyfriend came to pick us up and let us crash in Northgate for several hours. Sleep is a good thing, especially on an air mattress in good company.

Aaaah, The Sweetness of "Voluntelling"

Right along side of the joys of Cub Scout Day Camp, come the joys of volunteering. I love volunteering for Cub Scout Day Camp; especially when my good friend Harry is in charge of putting camp together for 150 boys. When he runs a camp program, volunteering at camp is fun.

Even more fun, is being able to volunteer someone else into a staff position. For most people, I wouldn't even think of volunteering them into positions without their knowledge. However, when the person I am volunteering is That Weird Woman, I have no worries what so ever.

Wednesday, while at camp, I was chatting with a friend of mine. My good friend Harry approached and made a comment about needing staff for the week. Neither one of us was available to staff all day for the last two days of camp. However, we knew That Weird Woman would be. On that Wednesday, she became the Games station staff for Thursday and Friday. She was officially Voluntold.

The joys of Day Camp. I was a good girl to my mom and told her Wednesday night when I got home form school. She had plenty of fore warning for the next day, with time to visit camp and shop for decorations.

Friends and Family really are wonderful.