kapachino

Category: around here

  • What The Coming Week Holds For Me

    I can see the light…at this time next week I will be finished with my second semester of nursing school, one that has been quite difficult.

    Today I am studying for my pathophysiology exam. I also got a bunch of other stuff done, like filling out my FAFSA and my tax amendment form. By the way, ladies and gentlemen, do yourself a favor and remember to make copies of all the forms you send in to the IRS. I have done so every year except this year, and this is the year that I found an additional W-2 after I had already sent my forms in. I was quite annoyed with myself.

    Tomorrow I will take the patho exam and go in for a bird flu vaccination check-up. I am also going with my boyfriend David to finally meet his best friend. (Interesting side-note: his best friend’s name is Barry. My other brother’s name is Barry. David has a brother named Chris. My dad’s name is Chris. Weird.)

    Saturday I am actually foregoing the chance to see Anne Lamott speak and Carmen is taking my ticket. I am saddened, but instead, I am traveling with my parents to the wonderful city of Lubbock, TX to see my brother Barry perform in the spring play, To Kill A Mockingbird. (Second interesting side-note: They have a black guy playing the role of Atticus Finch. Kind of changes the whole dynamic, don’t you think?) I have seen all of Barry’s college plays and I don’t want to ruin the tradition. Also, I don’t get to see him much and I jump at the chance. Plus, with all that time in the car, I think I will get a lot more studying done than if I stayed home.

    Next week I have three finals: Monday – Gerontolgy; Tuesday – Pharmacology; Thursday – Adult Healthcare II. The last one is the most important and the one that I am actually nervous about.

    One year from now I will practically be an RN. That’s so crazy.

  • Tennis Love

    I’ve been house/dog-sitting again since last Friday, so I haven’t seen Carmen, my roommate, since before then. We finally made plans to hang out last night, but I wasn’t sure what we were going to do until I texted her around 4:30 p.m. to ask. She responded, “I have two free tickets to the tennis match, want to go?” The tennis match she spoke of was part of the men’s clay court championship, which is held at a club which is conveniently located right behind our apartments. We didn’t know who was playing, but it sounded like fun.

    We strolled on over, slightly late, enjoying the weather. If we had driven there, we would have had to pay ten bucks and probably would have had to walk farther than we live. We found our seats near the top of the stadium (it was still a great view), and took a look at the program. At the moment, Tommy Haas of Germany was playing Nicolas Devilder of France. Carmen spotted one of her high school students who informed us that Tommy Haas is ranked in the top ten in the world, but Devilder is a no-name. Haas was dominating. But Devilder was French, and so Carmen liked him right away.

    “I could date a tennis player,” she said.

    “Would you date Devilder?” I asked.

    “Well, he looks kind of short.”

    “I don’t think he’s short, I think he’s average height.”

    “I don’t know. He is French, I like that.”

    “But Carmen, you don’t want to date a loser, you want to date a winner.”

    “That’s true.”

    After the singles match finished (which Haas won), the doubles teams came out. Mike and Bob Bryan of the USA were playing James Auckland of Great Britain and Stephen Huss of Australia. Apparently the Bryan twins are the #1 doubles team in the world right now, with quite a few tournament victories under their belts.

    “Ooh, Carmen, you could date a Bryan brother.”

    “Yeah!”

    “Which one would you go for? I suggest Mike.”

    “Yeah, I like Mike.”

    “Which one is he?”

    “He’s the one serving.”

    “How can you tell?”

    “Because someone just yelled ‘Let’s go Mike!’”

    “No, they yelled, ‘Let’s go Mike, let’s go Bob!’”

    “And then someone ELSE yelled, ‘Let’s go Mike.’”

    “I didn’t hear that. Anyway, I’m not sure about the name ‘Bob.’”

    “’Bobby’ is cute, though.”

    “Yeah, ‘Bobby’ is cute.”

    “And besides, it’s probably short for ‘Robert’ and then I’d call him ‘Rob’ or ‘Robby’ or ‘Robby Bobby Coconuts.’”

    “Be careful, Mike is getting jealous.”

    The Bryan twins won the match easily, did a chest bump to celebrate, and then they charmed Carmen a little more by giving short little speeches about the match and how they love playing in Houston. And then they played a short game against two of the ball kids, winners of a contest, who were probably about 10 years old. The brothers had to hold hands as a handicap, just like in an elementary school P.E. class. I have to admit, it was quite endearing.

    We rushed with many of the other fans to catch the brothers on their way out. We unabashedly (well, maybe a little abashedly) held our ticket stubs out for them to sign. I couldn’t get to Mike, but I sure did get Robby Bobby Coconuts’ autograph.

  • I Lost $182, But At Least I Have My Truck Back

    This morning I was awakened around 6:20 a.m. when it began to storm. I thought, “Ahh, what a nice morning to sleep on.” I knew that soon enough I had to get up and start work on my research paper, but it wasn’t time yet. It was raining pretty hard, and then I heard a strange noise outside my window. I just figured it must be hailing, and I actually thought to myself, “I’m glad my car is in the covered parking spot.”

    A little later on in the morning, my roommate Carmen went to go work out. When she came back she asked me, “Kathleen, where’s your car?” My stomach sank. I looked out the window and sure enough, it was not in the spot where I had parked it the night before. “Carmen, I have no idea where it is,” I responded. I went outside and looked around, called my mom to make sure no one in the family came to get it–she said she thought it was probably on its way to Mexico–and so I finally came to the sad conclusion that it must be stolen.

    I immediately called the police to file a report. My mind was racing. How much money was this going to cost me? How am I going to get anywhere? What did I have inside the truck? I loved that little thing. I was going to drive it into the ground. Was this really happening? After speaking with the police, I called my insurance agency. They were asking me a bunch of questions and while I was on hold Carmen and I began to talk things out. Through this process I realized that maybe my car wasn’t stolen–maybe it had been towed. So she ran to the apartment office to find out if they knew anything while I was on the phone. The insurance agent was in the middle of telling me what was going to happen when Carmen rushed back and said, “Kathleen! It was towed.”

    What happened was that when I renewed my registration a few weeks ago, I was sent new license plates with a new number. I forgot to notify the apartment office of this, and they did an inspection of the lot last night and since the plate number didn’t match up with what they had on file, they towed it without even considering that it was the same car. Do you see the irony my friends?? It got towed because it was parked in the covered spot. So Carmen took me to pick it up, and it only cost me $182.39. What did I get for that money? I got my truck back–but it shouldn’t have been taken to begin with. I got my stress level elevated a few dozen notches. And I lost basically the entire morning since I could hardly concentrate on anything after the fiasco. I am not a very happy camper.

    But I do have my little delinquent truck. When I picked him up I felt like I was bailing a kid out of jail. I of course documented the experience.

    dscf0609 The auto storage place

    dscf0616 The sign out front

    dscf0623 Signing my life away

    dscf0620 There he is! (The tan one.)

    I am trying extremely hard not to be stressed out with my life these days, but I have a feeling that sometime within the next month there will be a breakdown. I am serious about this. But for now, I am holding it together.

    P.S. UCLA let me down tonight, and I had to say goodbye to the trophy that could have been–and one day will be–mine.

  • Some of Today’s Happenings

    So, someone was murdered on a public bus today. Two blocks from my apartment. I ride the bus three times a week. It really makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

    Also today, I went back and worked a half day at the cancer clinic where I worked for two years before starting nursing school. I can honestly say that if I hadn’t left when I did, I might’ve lost my mind. Things are crazy over there. They are at least 3-4 full-time staff members short. They are weeks behind. They have papers to be filed out the wazoo. I barely even scratched the surface when I was there, and I will probably end up going back to work more half days even though I really don’t have the time.

    And finally, be very excited because after my soccer game tonight my toenail is now hanging on by a thread! A momentous day is coming soon…

  • Spring Break 2007!

    It’s Friday of the week of my spring break, and even though I really do need to spend most of my time today working on school assignments, this is the first day that I actually don’t have anywhere school or work related to be, and this fact causes me to rejoice. This is how I have celebrated:

    >I slept in until 10 a.m. This means that I got almost 12 hours of sleep! Wow!

    >I have not changed out of my oh-so-comfortable-and-cute shorts and shirt that I slept in.

    >I guess it goes without saying that I have not taken a shower, although I DID wash my face. But what doesn’t go without saying is that I have absolutely no intention of showering today AT ALL.

    >Also, not one speck of makeup will be applied.

    >All of my schoolwork will be done from my bed.

    >Lunch will consist of a Hot Pocket and probably some ice cream.

    That’s about as far as I’ve gotten. Later this evening, around 6 or so, I will get myself together and mosey on out to my parents’ house for our weekly dinner, where we will watch “Monk” and I’ll have some more ice cream. I tell you, if I can’t have a proper spring break, I’m going to make the best of what I get.