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Sweet, Sweet Summer Time

As I started my bike ride this evening, I was thinking about all of the annoyances of the day. The short walk to the benefits orientation today that ended up being about 2 miles, the woman who would not stop talking during the orientation and held up the whole process, the over abundance of receipts on a day when I lost several hours due to the aforementioned orientation, the blister on the bottom of my foot, etc. Needless to say, I found myself somewhat cranky in no time.

Then I rode by two young children who were riding their bikes, full of glee. It reminded me of the wonderful feeling of freedom that comes with a bike at that age. You can’t drive; you can’t get anywhere without one of your parents taking you. And then you get a bike and a whole new world of possibilities opens up. We lived in the country so I wasn’t able to ride my bike to friends’ houses as a kid, but I was able to ride over to the local grocery store to pick up hot dog buns or chips or whatever for my Mom. I remember the exhilaration of taking off on my bike, loaded down with a fortune (you know, a whole $10), headed off on a very important mission. I would pretend that a meteor was coming to destroy the earth and the only thing that would save civilization would be for me to get to the space station (aka grocery store) in time to activate the protective shields. I would race down the road, wind in my hair, the hero of every story.

Back to the present: I then passed an ice cream truck and then children waiting expectantly, clutching their dollar bills with huge smiles on their faces and I was reminded of summers spent with my best childhood friend, Sarah. She lived in the “big city” (if Peoria Heights could be called that) and they had an ice cream truck that would come by. We didn’t have such amenities out in the country and it was always such a treat to buy something from that magical truck.

Next came a trip past a field full of small children who were playing baseball. I remembered the ugly jerseys, the itchy pants, the helmets that never fit quite right. The exhilaration of catching a fly ball, the nervousness of stepping up to plate, the joy of playing with some of my best friends. I also remembered walking to the car with my Mom during one of my brother’s baseball games and feeling a lump in my calf and asking my Mom if I had cancer (I still don’t know how I knew that a lump could be cancer at that age- I was pretty young) and her laughing at me and telling me that it was muscle. I remember the awesome concession stand candy, the ice cream after games, the smell of grass, and the feeling that summer was going to last forever.

As all these memories swirled around in my mind, my mood lightened and I remembered the joy of summer time. I’ve lost a lot of that joy as I’ve gotten older and have grown to dislike the heat more and more and I have to work during the two and a half months that I used to have free. But, there is still joy to be found despite the heat and work and daily annoyances. And all it took was a simple bike ride to remind me of that!

time flies

I can’t believe that I’ve had this blog since 2004. It’s crazy to realize how much has happened in my life since then. I graduated from college and started a med school program. I dropped out of med school and then went to div school. I graduated from Div school and got a real job. It’s just crazy. I mean, I try to think about what I would write on my blog on any given day and I feel like I don’t have anything exciting or worthwhile to say and then I stop to think about all that has transpired over the years and I realize my life isn’t as boring as I believe it to be.

I do have some exciting news to share. I got a second job! I’ll be working for the University of Illinois Foundation as an Office Support Associate. It’s going to be kind of intense as I will be working full time there and then 20 hours a week at the church. I just keep telling myself that it’s not forever, it just for now. I am really excited to have real person health insurance and dental and vision insurance as well. And I’m excited to be able to pay the rent on the swanky townhouse that I’ll move into in August. So, all in all, I think it’s a positive thing.

I’ve been playing softball on my church’s recreational team and that’s been a blast! It really makes me wish that I would have played in high school- I love the sport and probably wouldn’t have gotten injured as often as I did in basketball (who am I kidding- I get injured in tennis, which is a non-contact sport). We’re not especially good- we’ve lost 3 games and won 1, but we have fun and I’m getting better each week.

I also joined a USTA (United States Tennis Association) local league. We’ve only had one match, but I’m enjoying it so far. We have one match a week and we only play against local teams. If we do well in the regular season, we will advance to regionals. I played #3 doubles (there are 2 singles and 3 doubles matches at each match) and was shocked at how rusty I am. I haven’t played competitive tennis regularly since college and it showed! I made a lot of silly mistakes and got really tight towards the end of each set and had trouble closing them out. But, we did close the match out and won 6-3, 6-4. Our team won the overall match 4-1, so that was nice. I’m looking forward to playing more and getting better throughout the season.

I was talking to my brother last night about the world not ending as it was predicted to. The conversation went something like this:

Me- “I’m kind of disappointed that the world didn’t end.”
Chris- “Really? Because you have a match on Tuesday to look forward to.”
Me- “No, we don’t play this Tuesday because we have a bye week. So, the world might as well end.”
Chris- “Sure.”

Good times.

I was looking through some old papers that I wrote while I was at Duke and was really surprised that I had written them because they were kind of good. I feel like I’ve gotten stupider since graduation and that concerns me. I guess it’s more that I haven’t been writing regularly (and that I’ve been watching the Real Housewives of New Jersey- don’t judge me- it’s addictive). But, seriously, I’m kind of concerned about this. I’m not sure what the solution to this is, but it’s bugging me.

I guess that’s it for now!

Doctor Blues

I know, two posts in one day. Don’t get spoiled.

So, I went to the doctor last week. Well, he’s kind of a doctor. He’s a resident. I told myself that it would be fine because all needed was a refill on my medications and how hard is that to screw up? It was a not entirely benign procedure.

I have crappy health insurance that refuses to provide any sort of legit drug coverage. I heard about Wal-Mart (yes the evil corporation which shall not be named) and their $4 prescription plan that does not require you to have good health insurance and decided that I should get in on that. Unfortunately, the specific drug that I was on was not part of the plan, but another one that was pretty much the same thing was. I printed off the list of medications that they cover to take with me to the doctor.

When I got there, I explained the situation to the doctor, basically saying something along the lines of, “I have crappy health insurance and my medication is expensive, but if I were to switch to this medication (pointing to the paper I brought with me), I could get it for a lot cheaper and it’s my understanding that these medications are dynamic equivalents.” He ignored pretty much everything I was saying and muttered something about looking the drug up on their computer. Ummm, not really what I wanted, but ok.

We moved onto my medical history (always a fun time). As I was listing off all of my prior surgeries, I was trying to explain my wrist surgeries. I pointed to my ulna, not completely sure if I had the right name for the bone and said, “They shortened this bone first. It’s the ulna, right?”
His response, “No, that’s the ulna and radius.”
“Umm, right, no, I mean, they just shortened one bone first. The ulna I think.”
“That’s the radius.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s the ulna.”
“Nope.”

I looked it up when I got home. It’s the ulna.

Then he asked about my crappy health insurance. I explained to him that I am not able to get good health insurance because of my “enlarged heart.” He looked quite concerned when I told him that my heart was enlarged. I went on to explain that it’s really not enlarged, that it appeared enlarged on an x-ray because I had been working out often and vigorously. His response, “Well, that wouldn’t have made your heart appear larger, but go on.” Wait, what?? Because I clearly have no idea what I am talking about and neither does my former doctor or the cardiologist he had me see. Or the medical community in general. I would have been ok with him displaying skepticism about the idea of exercise causing the heart to get larger because maybe he’s never come across a case where that happened, but he completely dismissed what I had to say.

I considered telling him that I had been in a medical school program and that I was not a complete idiot and that maybe he should tone down the overbearing confidence in his rightness all the time until he’s fully licensed and board certified and able to practice medicine on his own. But I didn’t. I sat there and smiled sweetly because I’m a pansy.

I managed to stay sweet until the very end of the appointment, after he finally figured out that I wanted to change my prescription to a specific drug (that exchange was also exasperating, but it was too long to try to re-create- you’ll just have to trust me on that one), when I asked for a year’s worth of refills. He told me that that’s illegal and they can’t do that. Really? Because every doctor I’ve ever seen since high school when I started this medication has written me year long refills. His response, “We’re more legal than they are.” Right. He wants me to come back every three months to get refills. And I want to find a new doctor.

The Big Letdown (aka Thursdays)

I started this post last Sunday afternoon. I got tired halfway through and took a nap and I’m not sure where it was going. It’s been sitting on my computer, uncompleted, waiting for me to remember what I wanted to say. I’m tired of staring at it so here you go.

So, I got a second job. Kind of. It’s a temp/seasonal job that starts around the middle of March and ends around the end of May. I’ll be scoring the writing sample from 3rd-5th grade ESL standardized tests for about 20 hours a week. I’m not going to lie- I am less than thrilled about the nature of the job. I anticipate that it will be boring and repetitive and mindless, but at least it will be feel like it’s unending Seriously though, I am glad to have something even if it’s only for a few months.

I was going to post on Thursday, but I’m afraid that I jinked myself last week. I posted about how it was guaranteed to be a fantastic day and then it wasn’t. The same thing happened the week before. I didn’t post anything, but I woke up on Thursday, full of enthusiasm and optimism, only to have my spirits dampened by a rather sucky day.

This past Thursday, I woke up a before my alarm went off and was reading in bed with the windows open, thinking about what a beautiful day it was and I found myself buoyed with optimism. And then I remembered what had happened the past two Thursdays and how I had entered them with great expectations only to by denied. It got me thinking that perhaps I’ve been putting too much pressure on Thursday to be the best day of the week. Perhaps Thursday just isn’t up to the challenge and crumbles under the weight of my expectations. Perhaps I should temper my enthusiasm and just enjoy what comes and not have the anticipation of greatness. It’s not that I wake up every other day expecting them to be awful (unless I have a dentist appointment or some other such atrocity), but I don’t have quite the same expectations of awesomeness that I have for Thursdays. So, from now on, I shall temper my enthusiasm for Thursdays and just enjoy whatever goodness may come.

TGIT

It’s Thursday! For church staff people, usually Thursday is their Friday because their week begins on Sunday. So, it’s Friday AND there are new episodes of The Office and 30 Rock AND I have Ladies’ Night (a tennis clinic at Atkins). So, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a great day!

I’ve been trying to get into a more set routine, but it’s hard because I don’t have my second job figured out yet. I still kind of feel like I’m in limbo. I have set an exercise routine, which has been nice. I’m doing Zumba on Mondays, jogging and lifting on Tuesdays, Zumba or some other cardio on Wednesday, tennis on Thursday, jogging and lifting on Friday, and tennis on Saturday. Ideally, I would just play tennis everyday, but it’s not financially feasible and I don’t have that many people to play with yet. Jogging is my least favorite form of exercise and I generally hate every moment of it. I wish that I liked it, but I never have. I honestly don’t understand “runners” who run everyday and enjoy it. It’s craziness!

I think that’s all I have for today. Life in Champaign is still awesome and I’m really happy to be here! I guess I can’t really ask for much more than that!