You gotta have heart!

Recently, I've been a little down in the dumps.  My family being here was a little overwhelming and I'm just trying to get through work.  (I only have a few weeks left!) 

I'm thinking that going away again will help some of this out.  I love my parents, but after having to mostly rely on them for the first few months of the year and then still being home since then, I'm ready to move back to school.  

I also had to cut back on my exercise regiment a little bit.  After gradually starting to increase my lap numbers/strength training in the pool, I noticed that my ankle was giving me some grief.  After some intense motrin regimentation we've come to the conclusion that I probably tweaked some ligament or tendon in the ankle, and since I do not (physically) remember how my foot should feel anymore, this is not surprising.  Apparently my exercise really does help me.  It not only was/is keeping me healthy, but it does that little thing known as giving endorphins.  They really do help!  I promise!

Here's my plan for the next few days:

1)  Re-start swimming and get ankle to feeling better.

2)  Get together a final "here's what I need for school" list.

3)  Get room clean again.

I think that these things can definitely be managed.  I think that I just forgot that I "gotta have heart."  And I'm positive that they will help me!  I just need to smile.

Smile, though your heart is aching,

Smile, even though it's breaking.

When there are clouds in the sky-

You'll get by.

If you smile through your fear and sorrow,

Smile and maybe tomorrow

You'll see the sun come shining through

For you.

Light up your face with gladness,

Hide every trace of sadness.

Although a tear may be ever so near,

That's the time you must keep on trying,

Smile, what's the use of crying?

You'll find that life is still worthwhile,

If you just smile

~Charlie Chaplin

Waiting for life.

It's been a while since I've updated this dealio.  So here we go.

The family came and went.  That was a crazy week and a half.  You know that saying "It's great to see the cousins go, but it's better to see the family leave?"  Well, I'm not sure that it's entirely true, but I think there's a point to that.  For ten days we had a variety of people in and out of our house.  Which was fun.  Of course we ate horribly for the whole week, which was not so fun.  But, I did get to see my youngest cousin (he's 8) who I haven't seen in a few years, and it's neat to see him now, because he's like a real little person.  And he's as sharp as a knife, which made him very whitty and entertaining.

Beyond actually seeing them, we did get to do some fun things.  We had the actual reunion, which was crazy.  It also taught me how important my dental hygiene is, as many of my family are missing teeth.  We also went shopping, to see that new Twilight movie and bowling.  It was a lot of craziness.  Oh and we had Ted Drewes' pretty much every night.  That's not healthy.

After the family left I've just kind of been relaxing around St. Louis.  I'm working, but I kind of have been giving away shifts left and right, because I hate my job right now.  Actually, I think I've mentionned this before...but it's most of the people, not the job.  I enjoy most of the patients and most of the work.  The idiots who don't know what they're doing and complain about little things like lunch time or why they have to work in a certain location are the ones that I hate.  There will be people that I miss.  And I'm going to visit them.  The others, not so much.

I'm very much ready for school right now.  I've been hitting up my Netter's Anatomy and Physiology Flashcards hard recently, and I'm getting more and more excited about starting school.  I was with one of my friends last night who is going to school with me in the fall and we both had the same conclusion:  that school needs to start soon.  I like being home and doing nothing/slaving away at my workplace, but I'm ready to start up again, and I guess it'll be a little bit like being an adult.  We were talking about how busy we are going to be and how we aren't going to get any sleep.  However, I've decided that I'm ready.  I often do well on little sleep.  So medical school, Bring It.

That's pretty much it right now.   I'm just biding my time.  I've got a little bit of shopping to do here and there, but other than that, I'm just waiting.  Waiting for school, waiting to move out and waiting for life to begin.

Schlueters

Well.  I've got family coming in starting tomorrow.  

We're having the big old family reunion on Saturday.  I mean there's going to be 80+ people there, most of whom I do not know.  This should be interesting.  And the heat's not going to help.

My mom's one of six and is the 27th of 28 cousins.  Wow.  Her oldest cousin is 71 and has great-grandchildren.  So one can see that the numbers are big.  And what's scary is that we all look alike.  So I guess if one was to come by Pavilion 2 in Forest Park on Saturday, you'd be able to see my scary cult-like family.  But I would definitely advise against it.

The other fun to add to the situation is that there will be at one point or another, an extra 9 people in my house.  That's a lot of extra people.  My mom recently bought a new bed, for my room when I'm gone, and she's just going to set it up in the front room.  No big.  I'd be scared to sleep up there anyways.  

So, I hope that I don't get overstimulated or anything.  Here's to family.

I promised...

Here's some cool photos from my summer galavantings!

Here's me with my favorite ride from Cedar Point...it was awesome.

Standing in a glass box 1030 ft. in the the air.  No big deal.  (In the Sears Tower)

Oh and the view straight down.

The Shedd Aquarium.

This Walrus guy was really cute.

As was this little sea turtle.

See?  I told you all that I've had fun this summer...even if it doesn't happen at work!

Water Your Mind

AND READ!

Summer reading.

The St. Louis County Library has a new summer reading program.  It's something about how we should grow with reading so we need to water our minds.  Or maybe that's the other way around.  But, needless to say I'm doing it because I love the summer reading program.  If you read 10 books you get entered into a drawing for free stuff.  How cool is that?  Especially since I love reading.  

So far I've read two new books and re-read one.  The new books are The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen and Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay.  The latter of the two was really good, but a sad one.  The first one was good but left a lot to be desired.  The book that I re-read was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.  Obviously that's a good book.  In fact, most teen fiction geared at younger teens is great (i.e. The HARRY POTTER series).  Not that I like that one.

The current book I'm reading is entitled Say You're One of Them, which is a collection of short stories, based in Africa, put together by Akpan Uwem.  It's hard to get through because it is so sad.

Finally, I'm waiting for a book called The Magicians.  I'm just going to link it so that anyone who wants can look at it.  I'm very excited.

Reading is one of my favorite pasttimes because it allows me to have an outlet into other worlds.  Which is pretty great. 

Summer is on June 21st.

So here's an update of my almost-summer...well I've had "summer break" since I literally broke my ankle, but now it's hot too!

1.  I went to Cedar Point with my dad.  It was AMAZING.  My dad's favorite was called The Maverick.  It is the future of roller coasters with a super smooth and fast elevator lift and speeds of 92 mph.  And the first hill was only 100 ft, but went 100 degrees - you seriously feel like you're falling.  My favorite was Millinium Force.  It was built in 2000, and the first hill is 300 feet.  And it was pretty awesome.  Just saying.  

2.  This past weekend I went to Chicago with one of my friends.  It was fun, we visited the Sears Tower, Shedd Aquarium and the Chicago Premium Outlets.  We also hit up a White Sox game.  The sears tower now has a new dealio where you can step out onto a glass box and look straight down, 1030 ft.  This was also super-de-duper cool.  

3.  The weight loss is going pretty well.  I've lost 11 pounds.  Lose It! is working.  Whoop-de-doo.  I hate being healthy.  But unfortunately, I need to be, so I'm keeping it up.  For reals.

4.  Work is crazy.  There's so much drama going on and I try not to get involved, but it's difficult, especially since I'm one of those not-taking-sides people.  But, I'm quitting in exactly 6 weeks and 3 days.  

5.  I'm glad to see my friends who are home!

6.  I've got my crazy family reunion coming up here soon.  I'm sure there will be not only a halt on eating healthy but also some good stories.  Or rants.  

That's pretty much all I've got right now.  I do have some pictures of the things that I've been doing...roller coasters and Chicago, etc.  I promise to put them up later, just as soon as I find my camera cord.  It's mysteriously missing.

Only Shooting Stars Break the Mold

Today, I was listening to the soft rock station.  Yes, I quite like that station, especially at night when Delilah is on even if she is corny and often times picks songs that do not go with the story.  Such as the Mexican Hat Dance.  (It happened once, I promise).

But today, on said soft rock station the song "All Star" came on.  I just now, like a hundred years later, realized how cool that song is.  I actually once had that CD, but I'm not really sure where it went and it's a little bit upsetting to me.**

I mean how clever is this: 

Somebody once asked could I spare some change for gas

I need to get myself away from this place.

I said yep, what a concept I could use a little fuel myself

And we could all use a little change...

As I was blasting this song and remembering all of the words I guess I got a little too excited.

And I just realized that my story went no where...oh well.   It's still a cool song and we all already knew how uncool I am. 

Or maybe how beyond awesome I am....

The Video's pretty Kick-Ass too:

As a side note I do remember the CD disc being light blue and having a little martini glass on it. And I thought it was scandolous!