PenguinNerd NOW CLOSED

Blog Number 150 - Plus, New Endings

This, being my 150th post here on penguin_nerd.blogspot.com I have to tell you that this blog is going to be moved. That's right, the secret's out. I have been keeping another blog which was made for only my closet friends as a form of feedback on my life. Apparently my closest friends don't care and my other friends do because all the feedback came from this blog. I'm tired of keeping up with two blogs, especially since they say virtually the same thing.

As of today, this blog will no longer be updated. The URL for the other one is: www.guinsmind.blogspot.com. If you could update whatever it is that brings you here, that would be great.

Much thanks to the few of you who actually did comment, they were appreciated and helpful.

Must go get ready for work now. All of a sudden I'm in a gloomy mood. I'll talk to you all later.

Tschüss.

Long Awaited Update - Plus, The Goingson In My Life

My apologies for not getting to this sooner, I was having troubles with the internet connection to my laptop and truth be told, blogging was the last thing on my mind.

I took the Compass test (the same test as the THEA only on the computer) on the 29th. That was a great day. I took the Compass, did orientation, met with an advisor and registered for my classes all in three and a half hours. Heh. That was fun. I made a 38 on the math section (I needed a 39 to pass) so I have to take a developmental math class, but other than that, I passed the reading and writing sections with a 97 in each and got a 6 (a passing grade) on the first essay that I have ever written in my entire life! I was very proud of that essay, I wish I could have had a copy of it.

My laptop arrived Thursday sometime, I got it after I got home from work. After much complication, we finally have internet to the laptop through a wireless router and an external wireless card. It took a while, but I'm glad we finally got it done.

Saturday I got mauled by a cat at work. This cat flipped out the instant I touched her and she put up a nasty fight, but I won at last and now realize one of the main reasons why I prefer dogs over cats. She left multiple skin abrasions on my hands, arms and wrists, and a hefty slash in the muscle just under my thumb. Yesterday the gash started looking infected so I scrubbed it with Betadine and rinsed it off with hydrogen peroxide (I was at work) and it looks a little better. I'm not sure if it would better help get rid of the infection to leave the wound alone and let it scab over or to keep the wound open and clean. Anyhoo, the wounds are healing and I'll live, although I'll never look at this cat the same way again.

Josh is coming down this weekend and he, Lara, John (Lara's boyfriend) and I are going to Hawaiian Falls for a double-date. I'm so pumped about it - it's going to be so much fun!

I'm trying to think of anything else...oh! Work is going well. Dr. Roberts is back from Iraq and his first day back in the office was Monday. I was his VA yesterday. He had three appointments all day, and the first one was at 6:10pm. Heh. We sat around almost all day - everyone was slow. Dr. Hunsberger had only a few appointment, Dr. Strauch had a few appointments in the morning, then surgery, then he left. Dr. McCullough only worked from 9-1 and left an hour early because he didn't have anymore appointments. To make a long story boring, we weren't very busy yesterday, so things were easy.

Stephen, the new kennel guy, just happened to be scheduled by himself yestreday evening, and I was the one elected to help him finish. That, and someone had to stay because he didn't have a passcode for the alarm system yet. It wasn't that bad, I clocked out at 9:10 last night.

Well, I suppose I'll that's all I have to say. I'll talk to you all later!

Tschüss!

Mini Update - Plus, Frustrations With Work

Good news! I got an e-mail Tuesday night that said my laptop had been shipped and that it would be here in two business days. It should be here sometime today. I'm so excited about it coming!

I'm thinking of taking another job. I'm going in for an interview today, although I don't think I'll take the job. It's weird. Whenever I'm at work (specifically kennels) I want to quit. Whenever I'm not at work, I want to stay. I don't know which side of me to believe. When I'm VAing, I'm fine. It's the kennels that get me. There's a whole long list of things that I'm not happy with. I actually made a pros and cons list and there are more cons than pros. I'm not sure what to do. I've prayed about it a little bit (I need to pray more) and I would appreciate it if you could send up a prayer if you think of me this week. I won't go into detail now, but if you think of me, it'd be nice.

A plus though, yesterday I got my scrub allowance (money my boss gives me in the form of a gift certificate so I can buy new scrubs at a particular store) and got new scrubs on my lunch break and I had lunch with my co-worker, Esther, who is in limbo, as I am, on staying or leaving the practice. I haven't had lunch with a co-worker since I started. It was nice. She brought something up over lunch...if we both left, there wouldn't be anyone experienced in kennels anymore. It's the two of us and two newbies. If we left, it would leave the enexperienced to do it and that would not be good. I need a break from all this. Maybe it'll calm down when I start school.

I'm so excited about next weekend. Josh is coming up here and him, Lara, John, and I are going to Hawaiian Falls and to go see Madagascar for a double-date. Lara's all squealy-excited about it and the rest of us are unbelievably excited. I can't wait...it's going to be so much fun!

Sarah's gotten into this kick where if he's out of his cage, he has to be in the same room with me. He'll scream until I'm in the room and if I don't come, he'll fly to where I am and sit there and be quiet. I don't have to interact with him, he just has to be with me. Sometimes I'll be in the same room and my Dad will have him or something and he'll do nothing but look like he's going to fly to me. Sometimes he'll call for me, but most of the time he just flies off of Dad's shoulder and comes to me. *shakes head* He's a weird bird.

I'm going to go clean my room a little before my interview. I'll let you know what I decide about the job later. Have a great day. Tschüss!

My Little Creation - Plus, Laugh A Little

Something I created when I had two hours to kill at work (we got done early):

YOU MIGHT BE A VET TECH
...if you start cleaning your own house with KennelSol.
...if you start taking Glycoflex (an arthritis medicine) because it really helped your old dog.
...if you can know how much and when to feed your animal to get it to lose weight but can't seem to stick to your own diet.
...if you can go to a dog park and name every breed, including the mixes.
And, you might be a vet tech if "hushpuppies" is no longer a fried food but an everday saying.

Hope this made you laugh! Tschüss!

The New Guy - Plus, The Other Boring Details of My Life

Wanna know something stupid? Susan, my boss, had a new kennel person, on his very first day, cover for someone else for their shift. *shakes head* That's unheard of. I guess there's a first time for everything.

It was cool though. I walked into work this morning, not especially happy to be there, and as I'm walking past Susan's office to go to the kennels, she stops me and says, "This is Steven. He's on a working interview. Show him around back there, show him what you do and stuff." So basically, I got to train the new guy! He's one of only four males in the practice and the only male working in kennels. I'm pretty pumped about it. It'll be good to have another person in kennels. We need them. If any of you need a job, come apply to work in kennels. It's really not as bad as they all make it out to be! *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

Wow. I was hungry. I just ate an entire can of tuna and want more food.

I've worked up my schedule for school. That's kind of cool. Gives me something to look forward to. Work's going to suck once I start school, but you win some, you lose some, I suppose.

I take the Compass on Friday. Don't know what to study for, so no studying will be done.

Josh and I are doing surprisingly well. I didn't think we'd manage to get closer to each other without actually seeing each other. Phone calls do a lot more than I thought. Visits mean more too. By that I mean actually physically being right next to him, holding his hand or looking at him. It's almost weird in a way that I couldn't even begin to describe to you.

Well, I guess I'd better go. It was nice talking to you all again! Tschüss!

Getting the Laptop - Plus, Peace

I finally found the laptop I want and ordered it Monday. Last night the extra stuff came (a laptop backpack, a travel mouse, and a security lock), so now I really can't wait to get my laptop!

I had the most awful day at work yesterday. If anything could have gone wrong, it did. We didn't have enough bowls for all the cats and dogs (well, we had enough, we just had to wash them before we gave them back to the animals), the ceiling was leaking from a/c condensation, we got locked out of the animal control part of the building, upon the starting of school we'll be shorthanded on kennel people which means more work when I'm supposed to do less on account of school, we just had one person quit and another is thinking of leaving, it's simple chaos. No one who works there thinks we get paid enough for what we do. Some of my co-workers are wondering that with the prices of our services so high, why is it that we don't get paid more or that the things we work with aren't the best quality? They say that the management is cheap but it doesn't come that way.

I agree to a certain extent. I don't know about all that stuff, so I can't really say one way or another, but it sure does feel like my co-workers are right. For instance, it wasn't explained to us that when we work holidays, on the paycheck stub the hours for that day are doubled - it doesn't appear as a standard price. Several of us thought that we didn't get paid correctly. I sat down this morning to try and figure it out. Luckily, I did. In that aspect, work is difficult. Otherwise, it's going as well as can be expected.

Last night at Bible study we talked about peace. We were in Galatians 5:22-25, Philippians 4 (I can't remember the verses) and Mark 4 (I think). The part in Mark we talked about was the event where Jesus and the disciples are going across the Sea of Galilee to the other side. All of a sudden a squall (a phenomenally torrential storm that usually did massive damage to the boat and people) came upon them. The disciples freaked out and went to Jesus, who was sleeping on a cushion the entire time, and said to His face, "Don't you care that we're going to drown?" He told them, "How little faith you have," (there had to be some dissappointment on Jesus' part) walked out onto deck and "rebuked the storm saying, 'Quiet down.'" Immediately this violent storm ceased. Even then the disciples asked who this man was.

The disciples (from their point of view) were staring death in the face while Jesus was sleeping. What was said was the disciples lacked faith that when Jesus said, "Let's go to the other side" that's what He meant. They truly didn't believe that they would make it through the storm to get to the other side. Granted, you tend to lose your mind when you're life is threatened, but if they truly believed Him, they could have had peace about the situation, they would have been able to not freak out.

What it ultimately boils down to is where your focus is. If your focus is on yourself, you'll start to worry about things more, you'll stress out about things that aren't necessarily worth stressing out over, your anxiety level goes up causing patience and love levels to decrease and your irritation levels to rise. But if your focus is on God and your trust is in Him, you'll start to see the fruit of the spirit in your life, love, joy, PEACE.

Another thing we touched on was that fruit in Galatians 5 is not plural, it's singular. You cannot have only one fruit of the spirit and not have any others. They're a package deal. Look at them. It's impossible to have one without the other. Just something I learned. It's amazing what you hear when you're willing to listen. Something Meredith said, "God will always be faithful whenever we let Him be faithful." We have to let Him? How awful are we?

Well, house duties call. Laundry and bedroom and bathroom cleaning await me. I need to get them done, hopefully I can do most of it before I go to work this afternoon. I'll talk to you all later. Tschüss!

p.s.
i didn't know this until last night, but Chex cheers me up! (thanks, Jenny!)

Ah, Amazing - Plus, The Most Romantic

I went and visited Josh in Austin this weekend. We ate Chinese food, went to Schlitterbahn, watched the Phantom of the Opera twice, played Taboo, ate pizza and all sorts of fun stuff like that.

The best part was how I woke up Saturday morning. Josh came into the room at 5:30 and sat next to me on the bed and told me "happy 14-month anniversary" and asked me if I wanted to watch the sunrise with him like we did 14 months ago. So we sat in front of the window and started watching. 5 minutes later his alarm clock goes off, playing Savage Garden's Truly, Madly, Deeply, Do (the "I wanna stand with you on a mountain" song). He told me how much he loved me and sang the song to me while we watched the sunrise in front of the window. It was so romantic I cried.

I had a blast this weekend. Josh got me hooked on a game called Guild Wars. It's an RPG where you can kill monsters, have more than one profession, and customize your character's looks and abilities...it's so much fun! And it's easy to learn how to play as well. The controls are simple and everything. It's awesome! Can you say, next game I buy? Lol.

I'll talk to you guys later. I'm going to go eat breakfast and say hello to my squeaking bird, Sarah.

Tschüss!