Week 7

Well it's been one of those weeks where I know things will be better soon but would prefer instant satisfaction! We worked on reviewing other students rough draft and answering questions about them. Pretty interesting, I found a lot of different writing styles. I think the best review I seen was actually on my paper. It was clear and concise without being rude or sounding sarcastic. I am actually excited about incorporating the input from both my professor and classmate into my final draft. 

Life's Trials

Well this has been a very long week for me, my heart is broken and there is nothing I can do. To give a little background information my Memaw has been wanting to move back to Texas, closer to my mom. So my mom went hunting for a house for her, she thought she found the perfect one. Yes it needed a lot of work but the payments were perfect since my Memaw is on a fixed income we were worried about cost. Mom put a down payment on the house then with the help of a few family members got my Uncle Chic (yes funny name I know) to move here from Florida to fix up the house before Memaw got here.

My Uncle packed everything he had including his "Patches"(his dog but more like his own son) mama kitty and blue (older cats he has had since kittens) and got here New Years Eve. He and my cousin Jordan have been working on fixing the house everyday since he got here.

The other night my Uncle decided to go to Houston and stay with my Aunt Elizabeth for a couple of days just to visit and relax. He has been having some stomach pain lately but thought it was just nerves because of all the changes. The next night my Aunt rushed my Uncle to the emergency room because he was doubled over in pain. They find out it is a kidney stone and send him to Ben Taub Hospital for surgery because it looks too large to pass. My mom closes her grooming shop for the day (which happens to be right across the street from Memaw's new house) rushing down to make sure her brother is okay because my aunt has to get to work and no one wants to leave Uncle Chic alone.
The next day I hear sirens, as I look across the neighborhood I see 2 ambulances, 3 fire trucks and a few cops racing down the road toward my moms shop. It took me a little bit to get information but when I do I hear that it is not the shop on fire but the house across the street. My heart dropped, see when my uncle left he put Patches, Jojo (a rescue), mama kitty and blue in the house. My mother checks on them throughout the day to potty, feed and water them, everything was fine. 

I told each of the emergency workers that there were animals inside but the house was almost fully involved and they would not let anyone near. Finally, after the fire was completely out I went searching. I know for sure that mama kitty made it, however Patches and Jojo did not. I am not sure about blue I have been searching for her since it happened to no avail. No one has told my uncle yet, we are still waiting to see if he will have to have surgery. If so we will tell him once it's over, no one wants him going into surgery that devastated.

My heart hurts for him, everything he owned was in there except the clothes on his back. I can't bring myself to be there when they tell him, his heart is going to break. I am exhausted, I have let myself fall behind on school work trying to help my mom take care of things while she is down there with him and all I want is a good nights sleep. I'm afraid it will not be anytime soon.

Today

So I am sitting here mulling over my rough draft that is due by the end of the week. I don’t know what to write. Will it be good enough? I know I need to clean the house, I have work in both classes that I need to get done, tired of being home 24/7 and plain exhausted although I know I slept last night. Then looking at the TV I see the devastation in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. My heart cries for the people that have any connection to the area. I wish I were already a physician’s assistant or some other allied healthcare provider who could run to their aid. It’s amazing, I remember getting a CNN breaking news message on the ninth stating that there was a 6.5-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Northern California causing damage and power outages. I am not even sure I heard about it on TV, just a brief message on my phone and that’s the last I have heard of it. Three days later a 7.0 hits Haiti completely devastating the area taking away so many lives.

I am amazed that 5 tenths of a point more did so much more damage. Yet I don’t know that it is solely because of the magnitude that it’s so devastating. I don’t know anything about the area but it probably has a lot to do with the quality of living in the area. I know I am seeing buildings completely demolished by this quake but it does not seem like the quality of their structures is all that great. What I mean is that certain areas of the world could probably hold up better to these quakes than others. I don’t know I am just rambling.

I truly believe deep down that there is a reason for everything. I can only hope and pray that this horrific disaster brings money to the area to not only rebuild structures but make them safer as well.

Week/Unit 5

Its been another interesting week both at home and in school. In Pharmacology, I am learning about drugs that are used for circulatory and respiratory disorders, so much to learn in so little time!
In Comp 2 we are working on pre-writing strategies and the writing process in general. My writing process usually starts with a big jumbled mess of information, pretty much free writing. I just put everything down I know or think about the subject without regards as to how it is laid out or grammar. Then I take each sentence or main idea and put it all into different groups kind of like clustering or outlining, whichever I feel more comfortable with at the time. I find doing it this way give me a good base for my rough draft and finally a paper worthy of handing in to my professor.
One thing I would change academically is my tendency to get off track and mess up my own schedule!
School is influencing my life in a lot of ways. Probably the biggest change is the amount of time I spend working on academics. I love my classes and honestly enjoy learning about our amazing bodies so when I find out something new I tend to research it more. This in turn causes me to get off track forcing me to refocus myself!

Unit 4

Does the Internet blur the lines of “legally owned”? Consider sites like YouTube and Wikipedia.


Yes, I believe that the internet blurs the lines of "legally owned". There are many sites that use copyrighted information such as music and allow users to download them. To most it is no big deal but to those who lose money because their albums are being downloaded freely it is a big deal. There are also sites such as Wikipedia that allows the public to contribute information without requirements to identify resources. I personally feel that when it comes to plagiarism everyone should give credit where it is due, someone else worked very hard to obtain the information and deserve the recognition for it.

Today's Ramblings

So it's almost 10:30 and we've been told all day that there is a possibility of snow tomorrow. Being a Texan that's a bit exciting! That's all I have to say about that!

Anyways, went to my first Pharmacology seminar today and fell in love! Our bodies are amazing! Did you know that our liver metabolizes a lot of drugs that enter out system? Did you also know that grapefruit reduces the livers ability to metabolize? Knowing the answer to these two questions explains why doctors tell us not to drink or eat grapefruit while taking medication!

On a different note... If my calculations are correct it has now been a year since Jeremy and Alex's MOTHER has tried to reach them. It sounds sad but in all honesty here is how it looks to me... There wasn't a single time this year I had to sit and watch my daughter cry because her mother "promised" I didn't have to watch her sit at the door or stay home from friends house waiting on a phone call or visit! I didn't have to watch my son cry because again his mother showed up and didn't want anything to do with him. I didn't have to sneak out and hunt for things to give them so I can write "from mommy" on because again she let them down. Alex is blossoming more and more each day, coming out of that shell she used to hide in. Jeremy, I don't have enough words to express how proud I am of him. He has become such a strong young man in many ways, emotionally, physically, academically, better than you could imagine. 

Okay, it's time for bed now, gotta get a little more reading in before I go to sleep. Goodnight all!

New Term Started This Morning!

Well here I am beginning term 5 at Kaplan, with two new classes and lots of material to cover I'm sure I will be busy! Both of my classes, College Composition II and Pharmacology look rather intimidating, this just means I will have to work harder for my A this term. I let my CGPA drop to a 3.9 last term so I have created myself a schedule and set aside time to study with my bff, hopefully classmates will be interested in study groups or something of the like. I have to keep myself on track and focused, this seems to be the biggest weakness I will have to overcome.