Woke up this morning before my alarm clock. Did feel well, stumbled into the bathroom for some Motrin. Just after lunch time had a recurrence, took more Motrin, just now decided I couldn't take it anymore, took more Motrin. I'm a pharmacy student, I don't know a damn thing about drugs, I hope Motrin isn't too bad for my me. I know tylenol isn't good for your liver in large doses but have no idea about ibuprofen. Oh well, I don't really drink anyway, I have a healthy liver it should be okay. I just want to feel better so I can sleep good. I'm so tired when I wake up these days it's like I didn't get any sleep at all.
Met with the group today. My group members gave me EXCELLENT directions we left about 4:40, and I got home before 5:00 and only drove slow on a fast road for about 30 sec. (on ramp to off ramp). I hate not knowing where I'm going and they gave perfect directions. I think I was more excited about that than I am about nearly being caught up with lectures--well the important ones anyway. Maybe I'll catch up with all of them next weekend, or the next. It could happen.
I'm such a spaz. See that proves it, I just used the word spaz. Anyway, I'm sure no one else is sitting around worrying about how and when they are going to reschedule classes. One of my many groups was supposed to meet after the med. chem. exam tomorrow. According the the schedule they sent me earlier, tomorrow's stuff was supposed to stay the same, but the professor posted on blackboard that it is cancelled. So I don't know if ours is cancelled or if it's just G'ville. Now by group people are e-mailing asking when we should meet instead. We'll probably meet off campus, but I don't know anything about where anything is in Jax. And I really hate driving in the traffic. Have I mentioned that yet? Blah! Blame it on the hurricane is my new motto.
The morning our phones were messed up. No one could hear what my mom was saying on her cell phone. I fixed it later, just needed a little tap. But anyway the phones were all connected. She called Nikky, who couldn't hear her, so Nikky called the house and I told her that Mom was at work, and right before we were getting off the phone we could hear beeping like someone was dialing and then my mom was on the phone going "Hello?" And then she was all confused because she couldn't figure out why I was on the phone when she just dialed Nikky. Then later mom called my cell phone from the lab and while we were talking we were like, "can you hear me okay?" and mom was like "yeah, but I don't know who is dialing up." Yeah that was the house phone, I just connected to the internet. But it seems to be better now. We were wondering how many other people in the neighborhood were connected to our phone lines.
So...It's over now. we're still supposed to get some rain, but the hurricane part is over. I think it was not as bad as francis, even though it was supposed to be stronger. I think it was because it was a shorter duration. We had one big tree go down, but it was behind our house and didn't fall on our property. We saw that it was breaking so we all got to watch it go down. No damage. We lost power for about an hour, and were VERY surprised and VERY happy when it came back on. I believe I've already written about how much I dislike the lack on electricity. They never did cancel Nikky's School she is going to wait to go back until tomorrow morning. She will miss her first lecture but that's probably better than driving back tonight before they can start clearing things. The news keeps showing all this damage in Tampa, I'm very surprised they didn't cancel her school. Luckily mine is cancelled, I will probably drive back to Jax pretty early so I can study for my exam Tues. I assume the date will be the same even though we will be missing our review session. But I guess we'll have to wait and see for sure. Blackboard is still down so I can't watch any lectures. At least I had been catching up on a lot, so I'm not as behind as I could be, and maybe by the time I get back to Jax they will have straightened out the problem with my internet there. They better have!
So now I've lived through two hurricanes in one month. I've lived in Florida for 20 of my 23 years. I've been through a total of two hurricanes, they were both in the last month. Does anyone else think that is wierd? I mean, we've had scares before, but they never actually hit us here. And we had the March no name storm in 93, but that wasn't a hurricane, it wasn't even in the season. But other than that all we have are usually Florida thunderstorms. I think it is crazy how often I have to evacuate these days.
Did I mention we boarded up our windows? Well I didn't, they were boarded when I got here, but the house is boarded up, well half of it is. We've never done this before, not for any of the storms this year, but I think the rapid succession has got everyone spooked, so mom decided to board up this time even tough it wasn't supposed to even come here until after I got here. It is really wierd to not be able to see out the front window. And the cat still sits in the window and looks out even though all he can see are boards. I think he is a little wierd.
So...I finally did evacuate. I decided it was time to stop being a responsible student and start being a responsible person. So I left Jacksonville. But, nothing ever goes according to my plans. I was supposed to miss the storm completely, just a few rains or something. Of course, by the time I got here the news people were saying, "oh, oh, look at that, it looks like the storm path is just going to follow Malissa." Seriously, these people should put a camera on me, they'd win the pulitzer, or whatever news award they are going for when they stand out in the hundred mile an hour winds to do a newscast that no one can hear anyway because of all the wind. So, by the time I got here and they decided for sure that the path was really changing it was too late to do anything. So here I am again, in the path of the storm. It's not as bad as it was last night, today they eye is supposed to be going just south of us. Like Francis. So we won't get it directly, but I think they are saying we might get some hurricane force winds and the like. They waited until this morning to cancel classes tomorrow. This caused quite a bit of stress for me, because I thought I'd end up driving to Jax in a hurricane so that I could be there for my presentation. There are 7 of us in the group, 3 researchers, 3 presenters, and a handout maker. I'm the first presenter. I couldn't not show up. But finally they cancelled class. Whew! They still haven't cancelled Nikky's school yet, and the storm is going to be pretty close to there, I don't know why they are taking so long this time, well, I guess USF is always slow, but come on! I'm at the lab now (which is like next door to the house) I'm stealing (well, he said I could) the wireless internet from the business next door. He told my mom it was no problem, they would just run the cable through the wall like it used to be, but I have a wireless card, so I don't need that, the router is really ncie. Good service. I was going to watch a couple more lectures, because we all know I'm really behind. But like I said. Nothing ever goes according to plan. Blackboard is down. So I can't watch them. I knew it was down when I left to come over here, through the wind and the driving rain (kidding, it's only a little rainy and windy right now, the big stuff will be much later), but for whatever reason I did not connect that I wouldn't be able to watch the lectures when I was coming over here.
They are saying that we will probably loose power today, it's flickering in some places, and my aunt has already lost cable, but so far, so good here. It will probably go out later anyway. Well, the wind keeps picking up to a pretty good clip and then dying down, so I'm going to shut down and go back home during one of the lulls. Will post later, provided there is phone, and/or power. Depending on my mood. Class is still on for Tuesday, and they don't seem to be getting it in Jax, so I'll have to be back to the real world by then.
So...On with the computer problems, and the no cancelling of classes.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to stay here for a hurricane. I'm pretty sure the building would fall down around me. Not that it is falling down now or anything, it is just that I don't think it was built to withstand 100+ mph winds. You know? So it's noon and still no word. I think I might just go home anyway and come back tomorrow if necessary. I really don't want to have a drive home once the outerbands make landfall, not my idea of fun.
My internet still isn't working great. Last night after I posted it was suddenly much faster, I watched two lectures! Then I was going for a third (because it was the second in a series), but it started getting all slow again and skipping, I really wanted to watch the whole thing so I could cross it off my list, but it was like 3 am, so I gave up halfway through. I just finished watching the second half, the connection was not any better and I was able to pack in between the buffering, I didn't miss anything. That is how bad it is.
They keep moving Jeanne west, so I'm thinking it is now going to really affect Gainesville, so I'm going to go check the web-site to see if they have just cancelled all classes. I can't believe they cancelled classes for Ivan before it even got near here, and Jeanne is supposed to hit TOMORROW and I haven't heard anything. What are these people thinking. I need to know this information so I can make plans.
So, something is wrong with my internet. It is really really slow all of the sudden. It was fine this morning, I watched 2 lectures, I had plans to watch tons more. Then when I went to watch the third one it was suddenly buffering all the time. I've seen the network like this a couple times, but never this slow, and never ALL day. Sometimes in the middle of the day. But I've never had a problem at night. I don't know what the problem is but they better fix it. I have mucho lectures to watch here. And, Jeanne is looking like she wants to visit the east coast so I'm not sure what to do. They haven't canceled class Monday so I can't leave, but if there is going to be a hurricane I am not staying in this apartment. I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't stay standing for long in a direct hit, and it would be a direct hit if I had to be here. And I really don't want to end up in a shelter when I could just be at my house. Today there was a tornado warning for UNF, I'm like 2 seconds from there--in traffic--so I was worried, but nothing happened. I was talking to my mom online and she was like, well just go down stairs, and I told her they are outside, and she was like, what's outside? So I told her the stairs were outside and she was like what do you mean? So finally she gets what I mean, and then she says go downstairs in your aparment, and I'm like, there is no downstairs in my apartment, and the stairs are outside. I don't know why it was such a hard concept, she came and looked at the apartments with me when I signed my lease. I think she was just not paying attention to me. Anyway, my apartment opens to the OUTSIDE, it's like a deck with stairs that go down.
So my internet problem, I just finished watching a 45 minute lecture that I started at like 1 today. I turned it off several times to do other things hoping that when I was done the connection would be back to normal, but NOPE. So I watched it while it was buffering like every second, because I have to watch them, I'm so behind, I had it all planned, I'm supposed to be catching up. Instead my connection spead is like 18 kbps. Or whatever units they are supposed to be. I tested it. Hello! I can get better than that on dial-up. They definitely need to fix this.
Also they need to tell me if the hurricane is going to hit here, I need a definite. And then I need to know if school is going to be canceled.
Why do things need to be so complicated. Why can't the hurricanes stop threatening and hitting us, why can't my internet work right and why can't I just keep up with the damn lectures? Hello people, I have an exam Tuesday, and presentations and a quiz, and lots of stuff to do, not to mention that I want to get it done so I can take a breath.
Wow, there's another America's Next Top Model? I did not know this, why do they not advertise, I would watch it. I don't have any idea why I like it. And why is it that all the girls they find on here are always poor, from the streets girls that can wear 5 inch stelletos without killing themselves? Where do they find these people? Makes for good tv anyway.
So I'm going to think about suffereing through another lecture tonight, but I think I'll just go to bed, I don't think I can stand 2+ hours of skipping lecture. Bleh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last night was the PBD exam. I felt much better about it than the biochem exam, but some people felt completely opposite. I think most people thought PBD was better though. That makes me feel better that I do. But I'm still a little worried, I know there were a couple that I got wrong already, on was a tricky one where he put pathophysiology instead of pathogenisis, and I'm pretty sure I got it wrong. The other one, I was just thinking wrong. But anyway, there were a couple tricky ones on there, that I saw when I was taking it but I'm afraid that I missed more. And I didn't think I was really prepared enough to feel that good about the exam. So I don't know what to think. But I think I did good. The biochem exam is a different story completely. But now things are going to be a little less stressful for a couple days, I have a presentation tonight, but I had to turn in the outline and presentation already, so everything is done for it, I just have to show up and present and not forget the stuff I know like a deer in headlights.
I'm a little worried about Brook, I know she is going through a lot, and she is probably busy with her internship, but her last post worried me some, and I left a comment that said to call me if she wanted to talk, but I haven't heard anything. And I don't want to bug her if she doesn't want to talk, because I know a lot of times I'd rather just not talk about it. And I know that most of the time I'm really not a good person to talk to anyway. But she hasn't posted anything else, so I hope that what ever was bothering her is better now.
I hate ironing, and I think my pants don't like ironing either.
Yeah that's it for now. I'll be busy this weekend with lectures--more than I want to tell you about.
My palm has been itching. So maybe I'm getting money, or I guess I could have a fungus. But I hope it's money, but it better not be that loan money from FAMU, 'cause I'm not a student there, and I've never been one, nor have a ever even been accepted there. If they do send me a check I'm going to Kill someone or maybe every degenerate person there. I soooo should not have to deal with their stupidity. I didn't get accepted there. Thank God! Heads will role. And if in 4.5 years I get a bill for that money, I might have to kill everyone there. I can't attest to their academics, but their administration needs some work (yeah, like everyone should be fired).
It's occuring to me that I'm really not a good student. I have 14 lectures to watch. I should watch them this weekend, but I think I'm going to put most of them off and spend my time studying for all the crazy stuff I have to do next week. Figuring out amino acid interactions being at the top of my list. I've watched all the lectures that will be covered on my tests this week, so I guess that's not too bad. And I had a lot more to watch earlier in the week. I told them when I applied that I wouldn't do well with the distance learning thing, but did they listen to me? Nooooo. Instead they gave seats in Gainesville to people who don't even go to lecture anyway because they can just watch it later on video. Whereas I would actually go because it was a scheduled event. Watching lectures online is not exactly scheduled, and they don't even get posted at the same time every day, and when they are posted I'm usually on campus in groups. But I am very happy that I got in and that I can get this over with.
I heard that a few schools in daytona just closed down for the semester and told their students that they would open next semester because they wouldn't be able to make up all the stuff they had missed due to the hurrricanes. I would have been mad if they did that to us, because I'm ready to get this over with and I don't want it to take any longer than necessary, I want to be a grown up some day. And I want the beamer too. I really want the beamer.
Okay, so I need to stop procrastinating. I need to do this work. But first I have to go to the store.
Breathe in...Now breathe out.
So in case you haven't heard we've seen more than our fair share of hurricane's this year. Luckily Ivan didn't hit us (well not lucky for the people that it did hit--but you know what I mean). And now there is Jeanne. I hoping it will go north and hit North Carolina. Well, I guess I should hope it doesn't hit anything, but mostly I just hope it doesn't bother me. They can't cancel anymore of our classes. I'll go crazy. We'll all go crazy. I think most of the college of pharmacy here is a little crazy because of it. So...Med. Chem. Exam 1 down. Tonight, after I get done with this and eat I have to watch all the biochem lectures I haven't been watching. Tomorrow we have a review session--THANK GOD! And Monday we have the exam. Wed. we have the PBD exam and Thurs. I have the ICS presentation (the outline is due tues, and the powerpoint is due wed). The next monday I have a PBD presentation, and tues. I have the PSR presentation, wed. I have ICS (but I just have to listen to other people present) and another Med. Chem exam on thurs. Did you follow that?
Dinner's ready.
I think it did pretty good on the exam tonight. I just hope I can repeat that with biochem and PBD. PBD is our big credit course, so it will be difficult just because of the sheer amount of material we will need to know. Biochem is going to be difficult too. From what I've heard the professor knows we really don't need any of the info from the class for anything else so he makes the exams really hard. I was talking to a girl who was a microbio major and just finished biochem and she said she was lost in some places in his lecture. Imagine how other people feel who haven't even taken it before. I have some old tests and he gives these multiple choice questions where there are multiple answers. If you leave one out you get points off, if you answer one that isn't the answer you get points off. So if you are really wrong you can loose 5 points on a question. So we can get negative points on the exam. Hopefully that doesn't happen. And to make it worse, I'm behind on the lectures, and I haven't been keeping up with studying. Damn hurricanes. I've already decided that if I fail this semester I'm blaming it on the hurricanes. I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one. A lot of people were without power for a LONG time, so they couldn't watch the lectures, and it's really hard to prepare for a hurricane when your glued to the computer. You can't exactly take notes while boarding up the windows. So...the point of all that was that I had it much better than some.
All these presentations we have coming up wouldn't be so bad if someone would just tell us what we are supposed to do. All they tell us is the topic and eventually they get around to telling us our group assignments. Last night I sent out an e-mail to my PBD group and I never did get replies from everyone. But right before the exam while we were all sitting in our seats that were sufficiently spaced, I head someone ask if they knew who I was. They were actually across the room, I guess it was one of those selective hearing things--Cognitive psych actually was right. But anyway, after class everyone was waiting for me--except on girl, and I'm not sure if she is in our group, she is on one list but not another. And we all decided that we would actually meet next week after the PBD exam.
I really don't like being in charge of stuff like this so I'm going to wait to hear from someone about the PSR group. I can only be so extroverted. We'll see how that goes. Besides I'm such a huge dork I'm sure people get my e-mails and are thinking, "Jeezz, I have to be in this group, this girl can't even make her e-mails make sense, how can she possibly present information?" Anyway, I really don't want to add to my responsibilities list another group to corral. So, I need to get on those lectures, as it is I'm not going to finish watching them all tonight. This is the problem--no time! Well, and no motivation to watch them.
AHHHHH!!!! So much to do. I can't even talk about it all now. I will tell you that my alarm clock is possessed. Last night I couldn't get it to play my CD, well not all the tracks anyway. Today I can't get it to stop. At first it came on and I thought, "hey, I didn't have that set for this time" and I checked it and it was set for this morning's time. I don't know why it did. For a while it would play a couple songs and then start at the beginning again. Then it would only play part of the song. Now it keep coming on and I can hear it spinning but it doesn't actually play. I even turn off the alarm, so it's not even set to go off in the morning, it is off. I don't know what is going on. I even unplugged it and then plugged it back in--that should have fixed it, it fixes everything--but it is still doing it. I don't know what I'm going to do.
I'm not exactly sure if all those dots are in the right places. I really have no idea where I live.
So you know how I was all stressed out about exams and presentations and my crazy schedule? Well...Dunt Da Dah Da Dah Ivan to the rescue. So am I really excited about the cancelling of classes due to the hurricane? Well no, not really. It means we will be really behind and they will rush to get everything in and I don't know if I can deal with that. But yes, I am happy that they cancelled mondays test and moved the Wed. test. Right now they have just cancelled Mon. classes (and the test along with it--duh), and they will cancel other days later on if it is necessary. So, all I have to prepare for is the presentation next week. Because I have no way of knowing right now if we will have class on Thurs. I also have several lectures that I still need to watch, and I need to prepare for those tests even though they are being postponed. It's not as easy to do here, because we have dial-up and I need high speed for the streaming video.
I am surprised though that they already cancelled our classes because they haven't even canceled classes for UF yet. And you would think that since gainesville is closer to the hurricane it would be the first to cancel. They have canceled most public schools in this area. So I'm sure they will cancel Nikky's school, they just haven't yet. I was very surprised by that e-mail, I was kinda like, "Are you sure you want to do this? You're not joking right? This is for real?" But it seems to be real.
So anyway, with the hurricane and all I came home tonight. It is much closer to the predicted path of the storm and right on the entry path, but I feel more secure in this house than I would in my apartment. It's not falling down or anything, but I'm not so sure it would hold up in a hurricane. Whereas, I'm very secure in my house. Hmmm....I will have to stick one of those maps up here with the path and mark my places so it will be more clear to those of you who don't have any idea where the places I'm talking about are.
So...I bought gas. Who'd have thought that would ever be blog-worthy? Well it is now. So I talked to my mom this morning and she said that when she went on a pick-up today that people were lined up again at the pumps. So I was like, "then I should probably go find a gas station and fill up, too." Because I know that at times like these gas can become pretty rare. So I decided
I would fill up after I went to school to make some copies. Then I get back in my car and my radio station is out, and I only have one in this area so I have to find a different one. And the first thing I hear on the new station is this girl talking about a rumor about jacksonville limiting the amount of gas people can buy after a certain time. They told her that was not true and I hoped that other people hadn't heard the same rumor, because unlike these people, in case of an emergency I have to drive 3 and a half hours to my house, and I'm not sure that my just under half a tank of gas will get me there. So I need gas, these people don't. It turned out to be an aweful station, so I changed it and kept hearing the same rumor on different channels, all being denyed and assuring everyone that they had checked with city and state officials and this was a big giant lie. So anyway, now I know that everyone in the world will be getting gas, and I have to drive to the walgreens where my practicum preceptor is just to make sure I can find it. Luckily there was a gas station right in the same shopping plaza area thingy. The line actually didn't take too long, I think I might have cut some people that were there longer, but that was because they had gotten themselves stuck in the middle and I was on the outside where there was a free pump, so they couldn't have gotten there anyway. So I was lucky. Put half a tank or so in--17 something dollars. Not bad for a little piece of mind. It's not like this thing is going to get here until the middle of next week, but with the rate everyone is going, there won't be anything left by then.
Also, I didn't have any bad travel experiences today, not that I can remember at least. But that eminem song from 8 mile and american woman (the old one) with all the guitar are not exactly good music for me to listen to while I'm driving no 95. It's a little stressful already. I need something a little less pressing while I'm driving. At least my station was back by the time I was going back to my apartment--not that it was that big of a deal by then--not so much traffic.
I think I might need to start a blog about stuff that happens just while I'm in the car here. It's about all I write about these days.
And on a different note, I have mucho studying to do today. And tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day (test day). I made copies today for that presentation. I also called about my books. They told me last time I called they would be mailed last thurs. and I had 2 day shipping, so I figured even with the hurricane, they should have gotten there. But I called again, and she said that the book they were waiting on (that should have gotten there thurs) didn't get there until Tues, because of the hurricane, but the hurricane shoudln't have messed up a thurs delivery--it wasn't until friday that stuff started closing, and sat. that stuff started happening with the hurricane--and it was fine between gainesville and here. So anyway, it got there tues, but no one was there tues, 'cause campus didn't open until wed. So my books will be mailed either today or monday. I figure if they were going to be mailed today then she would have known for sure that they would go out today, so that means they won't go out until monday, so I won't get them until after my presentation is due. But I should get them right after that. And that's only if this other hurricane doesn't come and eat my books. Did that make any sense? Probably not. So I had to copy some books was my point. From what I saw from the old edition of our text it wouldn't have done me much good anyway. But I found another that was very helpful.
So this weekend I will catch up on my lectures, study for med. chem. and prepare that presentation for ICS(integrated case studies). And maybe study for that other test that is coming up on wed. (whatever it is).
So...Some more complaining.
Note to fellow jax drivers. Please check your mirrors before changing lanes. When you almost run into once because you didn't check to see if someone was there and I have to swerve to the right (luckily no one was there) and then you do it again there is a BIG problem. So this is what happened. There were 3 lanes, I was in the middle, then a an on ramp came on. SO there are temporarily 4 lanes. You merged onto I95, then you changed lanes and nearly hit me, and I swerved to avoid catastophe, then you did it again, except there was no further left lane for me to swerve into--Just a big giant wall. Why the hell do you think you can change lanes 3 times without looking to see if someone is there? I think all the blood in my body rushed to my head and when it was over it all rushed back to where it was supposed to be and left me partially deaf for a couple minutes. There were other small incidences today, as well as that crazy person who cut me off and nearly hit my car and another at the same time yesterday. I think the hurricane scrambled people's brains and they've all forgotten how to drive without causing serious harm to other drivers. I'm going to have to get a bumper sticker made that says, "I'm not from around here, please don't hit me." Or something like that. Again I am left wondering why anyone would choose to live in a city where getting everywhere was such an ordeal. Why do people like to live in Jacksonville anyway? Before the traffic was always scary, but it was never so dangerous as it has been in the last couple days. I don't know what is going on.
I got another updated schedule, they are moving a test back, which is going to change the week after next--and remove a test next week. I think. It's so difficult to keep things straight when we have so many calenders to refer to all at the same time. But at east this means that I will have less tests next week, and more time to prepare for the presentation. But I still have a test on Monday, so I'm going to stay in jax this weekend so I don't get behind. Looking at the schedule it may be several weeks until I get back there. Unless of course the hurricane comes. Blah!
So Frances wasn't really that bad of a hurricane. The most damage was done by falling trees, and a few people lost a couple shingles. I don't ever want to deal with anything worse. But what is really interesting is the damage path. There isn't one. The entire state is covered by this. They started evacuating Miami on Thursday and on Tuesday it hit the panhandle. Driving from My home (about 60 miles due North of Tampa) to Jacksonville, I saw all the damage, for the most part it wasn't too bad. But I knew as I drove that every town I passed had probably lost power and there was a good chance they hadn't gotten it back on yet. Today in class I talked to people who had just gotten power back on this morning, and some who didn't have any power yet. People who lost phone and cable. There was not a single person with internet access for the entire weekend. Some, like me, probably didn't even know that we were having class today. It's not so easy to find out when you have no power. We were only getting one station on our emergency radio. It was out of Ocala. I had to call their info line, where a recorded message told me the Alachua county rumor line, who I called to find out that Gainesville was open. Then I called information 3 times. First to find out if my apartment was still standing, then to get the number for the Jax campus (no one was home and the message only said that class was cancelled Tuesday), and finally to get the number for the Gainesville campus to see if anyone could tell me--no answer. So from all of this I concluded that we probably would have class. So we were all there today. Stories and all, knowing that for many of us, computers were still a novelty, after being without.
And then guess what happened. Surprise! You have to do a presentation next week! This is what it's about--enjoy! Oh, and we know you missed that quiz, so you can take two in the same day. And we need to throw in an extra lecture today because the hurricane made you miss a lecture and you need it for tomorrow. But don't worry one of today's lectures was cancelled, and we'll just wait to make that up on Friday. Here's your 50 thousandth copy of the UPdated schedule! And don't forget to study for the two tests next week and the one the next week while you are preparing that presentation.
Okay, Okay, I'm going to stop complaining, I just had to get the panic out of my system. I'm taking it one thing at a time. I can't tell you how many lectures I actually have to watch still. I am caught up and only have today's to go, but I'm not sure how many that actually is--4 I think.
So, the crick didn't actually rise, so to speak, but we did lose power. For about 49 hours. It went off Sunday afternoon about 2, and came on today, after I left for Jacksonville, just after 3. Just about everyone in the county lost power at about the same time--except Lori--but we didn't all get it back at the same time. I'm pretty sure they turned it off. But I'm very happy that the crews worked around the clock to restore it after the whole deal was over--though I would like it better if they fixed mine first the next time. And the next time may just be next week. They're predicting Ivan in the gulf, that's not so good for my house, and I'm not staying in Jax in my apartment if they think it will cross the state and end up here, I'm not so sure the structure can take hurricane force winds, and Ivan is supposed to be much stronger than this one.
Being without power is really not fun. Let me give you a picture. First, we're in Florida so it's hot--no AC, so we leave the doors and windows open--muggy. Everything is wet. All of your clothes are wet, because you always end up outside in it. You begin to treat your one dry set of clothes like they are precious. You get smelly--no power=no running water. You begin to think that taking a shower in the rain is not so bad an idea, then you actually do it. You cook everything on the grill--if you have one. Everything in your refridgerator gets warm--you must eat it or throw it away and within 12 hours it starts to drip. Then it's not just a drip. You then come to the point where you must cook and eat everything today or throw it away. But you can't really remember what is in there, and you don't want to open it long enough to look and see because you're letting the cold out. You can't even read a book, it's stormy and gets too dark by 6. This means you can't play a game either--unless it's by candlelight--how so fun. And probably worst of all is that you can't flush, unless of course, you poor water into the tank after. Tip for people who haven't done this before. We have cats--so we have cat litter--we keep the jugs that it comes in, and before the storm we filled them with water. We had like 10--and figured that would be like weeks worth of flushing water--nope. One jug=about one flush. So, since it's raining, put a trash can under one of the eves that tends to overflow. Refill the jugs with this water. Good idea--but you get pretty wet doing it--cause it's always raining.
The storm was not bad at all, in my opinion. There was never a point where I was scared of it. But the loss of power for so long was nearly unbearable. My aunt came to our house, she is crazy. And so I was worried about her while I was there. And whenever my mom left the room she made sure to whisper to herself, I'm pretty sure she did that just to make me wonder--I think she likes being crazy, so she does things to make it worse on purpose. She likes people to think she is getting decrepit. But she didn't stay for too long.
I took a shower when i got here, it feels so good to be clean again. While a nice rinse in the COLD rainwater is okay, it doesn't last long until you are gross again, you just can't wash the crude off.
At least they canelled class Friday and Tuesday, so I don't have even more lectures to watch, but I do have 3.5 to watch still so I better get on that.
Insert Breaking News Music Here
So I know that the news says it's been raining here all day, and that the hurricane's a comin'. But in all actuality it hasn't rained here at all today. That's a little wierd considering it's the rainy season and it rains here everyday. But the weather has actually been pretty nice all day. Pretty hot really. I photographed a wedding in Chaz today. It was indoor, and their wasn't nearly enough air conditioning to keep the place cool.
Everyone else in the world is freaking out about the hurricane though, it's just because they predicted Charley's path completely wrong and no one was ready for it, so now the entire state of Florida is in a state of panic. Really the only thing we over here have to worry about is the threat of tornadoes. And yes, I realize we are in the direct path, but we are on the other coast, and by the time it gets here the hurricane it's self will be weak enough. So really we just need to keep an eye on the weather and be prepared if tornados become a problem. But like I said, there hasn't even been any rain today. Jenn called me today and was worried about it, and thought I was crazy because I wasn't so worried, but you'd think she'd know by now that I worry about everything, so if I don't think it's that big of a deal, then nothing has happened to make me worry yet. I did hear there was a tree down in St. Pete. But like mom said, that happens in out normal rain showers this time of the year.
So we don't have our windows boarded up, we don't even have boards. We do have duct tape, so I guess if it gets real bad we can tape them up, but we all know that that doesn't really do any good, when the window breaks it cuts the tape, so it's really just to make people feel like they are doing some good.
We watched 2 movies tonight, and we're so bored with watching the weather we're about to go crazy. The thing is moving so slow the picture never changes. Now, if I was in Palm Beach, where the thing is sitting, it would be a different story, but here we're totally bored with the whole thing. And then I feel wierd that everyone else is freaking out and I'm not. And if Progress Energy shuts off our power tomorrow for the fun of it, I'm going to be on the phone complaining about it. There is no reason to do that unless it gets really bad.
So we got our practicum preceptors, which is just the pharmacist we will be working with, it's not far from my apartment, which I'm very happy about. And we're going to have to make up our quizes that we missed from the class they cancelled, and we're going to have to do it the same day we are taking the next quiz, so I'm not too excited about two quizes at once.
So I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow, well, you know, if the crick don't rise.
Lectures to watch: 3.5
So as it turns out I really had 6 lectures to watch because they are recycling lectures from last year and they stuck 2 lectures in there with out saying anything. And then I only had half the notes for the biochem lecture, so I still have half of that to watch. Blah! But I got 2 and a half done, so that's good. The hurricane is still coming, but it looks like it is slowing down and weakening. This probable means that the next time there is a hurricane they won't let me out of school until it is too late to evacuate and I will have to ride it out in my third story apartment, that I'm pretty sure isn't sound enough to weather a hit, especially taking into consideration it's proximity to the beach.
Lectures to watch: 5
I've decided that I am going to start posting that every time I post. Maybe that will be enough of an incentive for me to watch them on time. And it wouldn't be that many except that there is yet another hurricane and I spent the morning getting ready for the quiz we were supposed to have only to find out that class was cancelled. Which I'm not complaining about. But it meant that I could come home today, which I did, and so I didn't get to watch any lectures today. The good think is that class in gainesville is cancelled tomorrow, so there won't be any new ones until Tuesday, and that should give me plenty of time to catch up. And study for that quiz more, and time to refresh some organic chemistry. I can remember functional groups all day, I just can't remember their pHs. I'm not sure I really ever learned that, or at least I can't remember it, but it has been a while, so I guess that could explain it. And I need to learn the amino acids again, and this time I need to learn about their polarity and charges so I know how they will interact with each other. For someone who really doesn't care for chemistry I really picked an odd field. What was I thinking? One never knows. I officially joined ASP yesterday. One task down, a million bazillion to go. I think it is harder to be a student when you don't see other students very often. I always talked to other people in classes, so when I didn't understand something I would just ask while we were there, and even if I couldn't get an answer, I would have a feel for whether others were having the same problems or if it was just me. Now, I don't have the sense, and it makes me nervous because I can't tell where I stand. That's why I can't wait for the groups and stuff to get started so I will be able to talk to people more about the subject.
We learned to take blood pressure, pulse, resps, and temp yesterday (at least I think it was yesterday--my days are confused again, with the evacuating and all). Wow, learning how to take the temp had to have been the hardest part. Did we really need instructions? I've taken BP before so it wasn't a big deal, but the girl who was practicing on me couldn't find mine, so I guess I don't have one, it looked like she was doing it right. So that was fun. We still haven't gotten our practicum assignments yet though.
It only really rains in Jacksonville, while I'm on I-95 in the city.
