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Jan
22

Last Week

After moving to Maryland, I took my time finding a new family doctor. It wasn’t until I got a call from my old practice in Myerstown that I realized I should schedule an appointment. I have a thyroid condition that requires some monitoring, although I have been on the same amount of synthetic thyroid hormone for a few years. I needed a new prescription, so it was imperative to find a new doc.

I had my first appointment with a new doctor on Tuesday. My heart rate was elevated. An EKG was ordered. Blood work in addition to the normal thyroid tests was ordered. Five tubes of blood later, I was back at the doctor on Thursday. My heart rate was still elevated. Sinus tachycardia and a referral to a cardiologist.

more »

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Jan
09

Another New Year

Time keeps passing. I can’t believe it’s 2012 already, and I can’t believe I’ve been dating my boyfriend for almost three years.

We had a very busy end to December. It included Christmas with my family and his family, a vacation in Cambridge, MD and a trip to Cape May, NJ for New Year’s Eve with his friends from college. This past weekend we went to the AHL Outdoor Classic game and took a spontaneous Saturday road trip to the beach with friends from Hershey who came to visit us. I’m hoping that this week is somewhat mellow, and I hope that this weekend is relaxing. I’m exhausted!

I didn’t make any resolutions this year—yet. Tonight we chatted with Dan’s college roommate and our host from NYE who is starting a wellness coaching business. We may take him up on his offer to help us change our lifestyle so we are less sedentary and can get in better shape. Since we started dating, we’ve both gained a bit of weight. And it’s been especially hard for me to manage my time and stress with student teaching last spring and starting this new job with the long commute. I need to learn time management and I need to set goals. So my resolutions might kick in once we start that.

I’m also thinking about taking up art journaling. It might help with the wellness coaching and it might also help with my mental health, which has its own ups and downs—especially in winter.

Forever a resolution is post more. I always say that I will do that, but it’s so hard compared to what it used to be. The internet now has us trained to speak in 140 character bursts or reveal our whole life in a few sentences with a Facebook status. I want to change that for myself; I want to go back to expressing myself with paragraphs. There’s a lot I want to do in 2012, actually. Maybe I will sit down and make the list this week.

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Nov
07

I haven’t been diligent about posting…

Life has been busy.

That might be an understatement.

On a typical day, I leave my house around 7:30 and drive to Chestertown while listening to BBC on satellite radio. Before this daylight savings time nonsense it was News Hour, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I suppose I’ll get used to the news program that is on after that, though today it was a lot of feature stories that were long and boring. Anyway, I drive to Chestertown and always get there 10 minutes later than I’m aiming for because I inevitably get behind a dump truck or tractor.

I work for several hours doing things I enjoy (for the most part). I am very lucky, actually. My job is pretty cool. I get to work on social media initiatives, do research, coordinate things and fill in the cracks when other people in the office need help. I’ve been compared to a swiss army knife.

Lunch is either at my desk or in the dining hall. Once in awhile I will go to the shopping center and pick up something at Rose’s on my lunch break. A floor mat. Scrubbing bubbles. Halloween makeup. But if I’m eating lunch at my desk, I am likely doing homework. That’s right, I’m still taking classes at Saint Joe’s. After this, I will only have one more semester.

I work a few more hours and then I bolt, typically at 4:30. Last week I had to stay later a couple of nights. It happens. I’m okay with that happening.

Another hour-long commute home, this time usually fighting off sleep. I will call my Mom or listen to Bloc Party at obscenely high volumes to stay awake.

Dan and I eat dinner, sit on the sofa, and go to bed. There’s usually some more homework in there. Sometimes there’s laundry.

So, I really don’t have a valid excuse for my lack of posting. I’m going to try to get better about that. Promise.

Category: Life on the Eastern Shore, Teaching & Learning  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment
Aug
25

The Earthquake

I was on campus.

You see, I’ve been freelancing at my old job from college since we moved to Maryland two and a half weeks ago. So, when the earthquake hit, I was sitting alone in an office on the top floor of Bunting Hall at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.

In college, it was not uncommon to hear testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground, which is located across the Chesapeake Bay. My first thought, as the shaking started, was that it must be something over there. As it got worse, I was worried that the construction in front of the building had gone horribly wrong. Only near the end of the earthquake, as the bookcase in the corner rattled and the plastic of the copier down the hall creaked did I think, “This is an earthquake,” and move to the doorway of the office.

Reports say the earthquake was only twenty seconds. It felt much longer.

Other confused faces poked their faces into the hall from their doorways. We looked at each other in bewilderment. The consensus seemed to be to go outside, so I followed. I tried to text Dan, but it didn’t go through right away. Eventually he got back to me and said, “You had a tremor too?” It turned out that 50 miles away, he’d been evacuated from his building as well.

Thankfully, it was a beautiful day to stand outside for 45 minutes. The College decided to send nonessential staff home. I listened to CNN and other news stations on satellite radio as I drove an hour back to our apartment and tried to wrap my head around what happened.

I still don’t think I completely understand.

Now it’s time to prepare for a hurricane. These things seem so alien to write about as a Pennsylvanian/Marylander.

Category: Adventures, Life on the Eastern Shore  Tags: , , , ,  One Comment