The Grand Adventure! Part-the-First

I've decided to divide our recent adventures into three parts, with this being Part-the-First. We'll see how long it takes me to finish all three parts, but the third is my personal favorite, so hopefully they will all get done as a result.

Kyler and I took off, on a jet plane, for good ol' PDX, or Portland, Oregon, for those of you who don't speak Airport Codes. For the first time in over a year, we got to hang around Oregon for a few days, and it was pretty much awesome.

First, we got to see a bit of family, and enjoy spending time with them and thinking of new restaurant/shop ideas (brownie/choc-tacos anyone?). I've missed my family, especially not seeing them at Christmas, and this helped a lot. Plus, they tell some very interesting stories...

Also, Kyler and I went to the beach with my mom, dad, and sister. It was seriously amazing at the beach. So warm and sunny. Well, except at night, when it rained so hard that it woke us up. But we were in a yurt:

and thus warm and dry.

We took lots of pretty beach pictures, as should be obvious,

and I tried to make a sandcastle.

I ran to get Loradona to come and look at it, but then a big wave came and... the motte-and-bailey castle just couldn't handle waves twice or three times its height. Such is life.

We also went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, where Kyler and I had a discussion on who should be who in this picture:

Jeanette: Should I be the cow?

Kyler: I can be the cow if you want. (He doesn't want to offend me...)

Jeanette: But the cow's a girl. Are you a girl?

Kyler: How do you know it's a girl? It could be a boy.

Jeanette: It's a dairy cow. It has to be a girl.

Kyler: Fine, you can be the cow, I'll be the farmer. After all, I used to call you Angus.

Jeanette: (shakes head)

Loradona and I also decided at the beach that we were twins, especially in our awesome mittens! Who doesn't agree?

Kyler and I also went to Powell's, had lunch with my dad, went to the Scandinavian Store, and rented a car... but more on the latter two in the next entry.

All in all, it was a blast to be able to spend time with my family and my beloved homeland.

And, since I'm not sure where else to put this picture, and it is in Oregon after all, the view of Mount Hood from our airplane window as we headed back east.

Physics in real life

Because I’m that cool, I have two somewhat embarrassing and/or strange anecdotes to share with you.

The first is from Tuesday. I went to the gym at about 6 PM, and all the usual elliptical machines that I like were occupied, so I tried a different one. It was a little strange, but a fine workout, nonetheless. The foot-thingy of this strange elliptical apparently had a little more mass than my usual ones, however… something I discovered when I hopped off when the time was up, and the momentum of the machine was enough that it swung back and hit me in the ankle. Ouch. I have a nice, swollen bump and the beginnings of a bruise now, and it’s rather tender to the touch. Who knew that physics like mass, velocity, and momentum would actually matter in real life? Or come back to hit me, literally?

The second is from Tuesday night. I had a dream. See, Kyler and I had dentist appointments Wednesday, and apparently I was a little anxious about it (it is the first one I’ve had since before we got married, after all… I know, I’m a slacker). In my dream, I was flossing my teeth in preparation for the appointment, and there was something stuck behind the last of my molars that was really difficult to remove. I go to the mirror and open my mouth, and back behind my teeth is a shelf of gums (kind of like Mom’s Attic in U Haul trucks). On this shelf… it’s a veritable salad gold mine. There’s several peas, lettuce, carrots, etc, and I have no idea how long they’ve been there. I think, I have to clear that out before the dentist sees! So with my toothbrush, I reach back and swipe across the shelf, dumping its contents into my mouth. Tasty.

In other news, I leave for the airport in about 36 hours. No, I am not ready.

Who needs to grow up? Who needs to know their future? Over-rated!

As previously promised, this episode of Kyler and Jeanette features a healthy dose of pretending to be seven, a fair amount of wishing for phone calls, a little disappointment, some decent food, and something to look forward to. But I can't spoil the plot so soon! You must be patient!

First, Kyler and I pretend to be seven years old. I realized that in the entire eight months we've lived in this apartment (such an eternity!), we hadn't made a fort. This thought immediately shamed me, and the planning began. Cookies were made, furniture rearranged, and movies netflixed. As a result, Kyler and I had a fort to be proud of:We even spent the night in it, and it wasn't too bad. We used all the couch cushions as a mattress.

Second, the days were accomplished that Kyler should hear from grad schools, offering interviews, and giving us a definite future instead of the unknown. Days came and went, and no phone calls, no emails, no letters... no known future. Interview weekend for at least one of the schools (if not all) has now past, and Kyler has heard nothing. Needless to say, he was a little disappointed. However, we did as I promised: we'd go out to dinner wherever Kyler wanted, whether in celebration or in consolation. In this case, it ended up being the latter. However, the consolation food appeared to have worked:

Before

After

(Okay, so he's really bad at looking sad, or even happy, when he's told to for the camera. Use your imagination a bit.)

Third, the Olympics are just around the corner! In less than a week, we will be heading out to Portland, and then a few days after that, up to Vancouver, British Columbia! Who needs silly sporting events like the Superbowl (especially when you don't have TV) when the OLYMPICS are so close?
And, as a bonus, here is a description of a less-than-typical,-but-not-altogether-strange day at work:
9:55 AM - Get to work (I'm working the later shift today). Paulette is not at her desk, and I put my stuff down and am about to go see if I can find her or if she needs help with anything.
9:56 AM - Get a page that there is blood in the clinic. Instead of finding Paulette, I decide to go pick it up.
9:56:30 AM - Jan calls. "Jeanette! You're here!" "Yes." "Did you get that page?" "Yes." "Are you going to go pick it up?" "Yes." "Great! Paulette's in the OR, call us if you need any help." "Okay."
9:58 AM - Start processing blood.
10:45 AM - Get paged by gross room. A surgery that had been a mastectomy yesterday and today is a lumpectomy creates a rather large piece of tissue, and the staff doesn't want to get in trouble.
10:50 AM - Get to gross room. The lumpectomy is rather large; the tumor is not.
11:15 AM - Come back to the lab empty handed.
11:16 AM - Continue processing blood.
11:30 AM - In between blood spins, embed some polyps in paraffin.
11:35 AM - Continue processing blood.
12:15 PM - Tell Paulette to go to lunch. She might never get the chance otherwise.
1:10 PM - Meet Kyler for lunch! Yay!
1:50 PM - Continue processing blood.
3:15 PM - Paulette changes out of scrubs and goes home.
3:30 PM - Get called into the OR at the University.
3:32 PM - Leave Lab Aides in charge of blood processing; change into scrubs.
3:40 PM - Wander around University Hospital, trying to find OR 4.
3:45 PM - Find OR 4; collect tissue.
3:50 PM - Get paged by Huntsman OR.
3:51 PM - Get patient information on University OR patient
3:52 PM - Get paged by the Lab Aides.
3:53 PM - Leave University OR; call Lab Aides
3:55 PM - Head to Huntsman OR 4.
4:02 PM - Meet Lab Aide at Huntsman OR Front Desk; trade tissue from University OR for collection equipment for Huntsman OR 4.
4:05 PM - Enter Huntsman OR 4.
4:15 PM - See blood splatter all over the surgeon's neck and face mask.
4:25 PM - Breast is removed.
4:30 PM - Enter gross room with breast.
4:40 PM - Receive tissue from staff.
4:42 PM - Get paged by Huntsman OR 1.
4:43 PM - Freeze cancerous breast tissue.
4:44 PM - Get paged by Lab Aides.
4:45 PM - Freeze "normal" breast tissue.
4:47 PM - My boss enters gross room: my favorite surgeon needs me in the OR.
4:48 PM - Grab cryotubes, a pen, and liquid nitrogen.
4:50 PM - Enter Huntsman OR 1.
4:51 PM - Inform my favorite surgeon that Thais no longer works here and hasn't for 10 months.
4:52 PM - Start freezing vials of polyps.
4:55 PM - Freeze "normal" colon.
4:58 PM - Thank my favorite surgeon and leave OR.
5:00 PM - Realize I've been away from the lab, on my feet, and constantly moving for the last hour and half.
5:01 PM - Collect my equipment that I left in the gross room.
5:02 PM - Head back to the lab.
5:10 PM - Enter lab; Aides are hard at work finishing/starting several patients worth of blood.
5:12 PM - Weigh tissue from University Hospital.
5:20 PM - Start entering tissue from University Hospital into the computer tracking system.
5:30 PM - Weigh breast tissue
5:40 PM - Start entering breast tissue into the computer tracking system.
5:50 PM - Check on Lab Aides
5:55 PM - Decide to change out of scrubs.
5:59 PM - Colon can wait until Monday to be weighed and entered into the system, right? As long as it stays frozen...
6:02 - Log off computer.
6:05 - Lock up drawers with patient information.
6:06 - Check on Lab Aides.
6:12 - Head out to the car.
6:15 - Thank heavens that Kyler is picking me up.

I’m dreaming of a Great White North Christmas

So, I'm feeling a little guilty about not posting about Christmas or anything yet... especially since I blog-stalk people and get upset when they have nothing new. I love being hypocritcal.

I’ve officially had my first Christmas ever not in Oregon. We spent two weeks in Raymond, hanging out with friends and family and not going to school or work. Very nice. A few amusing anecdotes from our trip:

Kyler’s niece, Abby, got a flat iron straightener for Christmas. She has previously told Kyler he should straighten his hair, because she doesn’t like the curls. Because he’s a nice uncle, Kyler allowed Abby to straighten his hair, and because I’m a nice aunt, I got pictures.

Isn’t Kyler’s reaction to himself awesome?

Abby the also did my nails and made over Jarett. Fun times.

Kyler won Littlest Pet Shop, the board game. Brooklyn may have been a tad disappointed, but she survived. Plus, Kyler and I had let her and Paiger pretend we were jungle gyms all afternoon, so life can’t be too bad.

The Cougars won, and it broke my heart. We went to Sugar Bowl, the high school basketball tournament that takes place in Raymond every year. Over the course of two days, we watched at least part of every game that took place in the high school gym, ate popcorn and tacos in a bag, and hoped to win the raffle that included Olympic gear as its prize. Alas, we did not win. Raymond made it to the final game, and while they were playing Cardston, I realized that it was basically BYU vs Utah… but not quite. Raymond Comets play in red and white, Cardston Cougars in blue. And, for the first time ever, I watched the Cougars win and it broke my heart. However, there’s still this to look back on for the town:

Five teams won provincials in 2009, including basketball. Not too shabby.

Raymond was covered in snow. Some people thought we were crazy for actually walking sometimes, but we enjoyed it. Plus, it meant we got to take cool pictures of snow mounds, trees, and each other. See?

We also watched movies (Avatar and Sherlock Holmes in the theater), played on the computer, made and ate tasty food, and started Warcraft characters for nearly everyone. It started out with just showing Kyler’s mom, and quickly evolved to Brooklyn begging us to bring the laptop with us so she could play (or watch us play the character she designed, rather).

Aren’t the adorable? Characters were made for Maria, Kari, Jarett (x2), Abby (x2), Brooklyn, Paige, Katelyn, Kristina, and Russell (the last three were Brooklyn’s creations). The highest level achieved by any of the characters: level 4 by Jarett.

All in all, it was a good vacation.

Next time, on Kyler and Jeanette’s blog—“Forts and Grad School: Childhood and Adulthood Come to Blows.” Or something.

In Canada, but speaking of non-Canadian things

Ah, the Great White North. Kyler and I are here, and enjoying ourselves mightily. I kind of wish we never had to go home, because this whole hanging out with friends and family and relaxing thing is basically great. Ugh, and I can't stand to think of how many emails I probably have waiting for me at work. Let's not think about that, shall we?
This is my new skirt I bought with the gift card I got from Kyler for my birthday. Pretty, eh?

So, on to News You Can Use...
Kyler was approved for his greencard. In three years, he can apply to become a citizen. Apparently the fact that we've been married more than two years made the whole process much easier. Who knew? But I'm glad we waited... who needs more paperwork? That's the good news. The bad news related to it is that the guy who interviewed us suggested Kyler does NOT go to school in Canada, since he'd be living outside the country for longer than 6 months at a time and the government might think he's abandoning his citizenship application. Well, actually, the guy said if Kyler wants to do both (become a US citizen and go to school in Canada), he should wait until the three years is up and he is a citizen because then the government won't care how long he lives outside the country. But, for now, he's just not applying to Canadian grad schools. If things don't work out, maybe we'll try that Plan B.

Kyler graduated! Well, assuming he passed all of his classes this semester, he did. And we're going on this assumption. It doesn't really feel like much has changed, but maybe it will when he starts working instead of going to school. We'll see.

We went to Temple Square to see the lights the day after Thanksgiving, and I don't think I'll ever do it then again. It was way crowded, and felt like I was on a conveyor belt that couldn't stop or slow down, and yet couldn't actually even see the lights and nativities anyway!Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Aren't they pretty?



Shepherds watching their flocks.


There's a ton more we've done, but I think I might wait until after Canada to post on all the Christmas-like things. It'll give us time to get more pictures.Kyler and I were kind of frightened by the icicles outside our apartment complex. They could totally hurt someone!

Of Rocks and Hard Places

So, today was an interesting one, and upon request I have agreed to explicate it.

Jeanette, dearest wife of mine that she is, bought me a laptop for Christmas/Graduation. It is a fine laptop. Unfortunately these things don't materialize out of nowhere, however, so it had to be delivered. The problem with that is neither of us are home during the day, thus making it hard for us to be here when it might arrive. I thought perhaps they might leave it with a neighbor or the apartment manager, but no. It basically came down to a choice: either let it sit out in the open in our apartment complex all day, risking a rather effortless theft from just about anybody, or I skip the morning shift at work.

Now, I'm not one to miss work lightly. Until this semester, where I've had to take quite a bit of work off for immigration reasons, you could have counted the number of my absences or tardies on half of one hand. The people at work are also rather reasonable folk. I figured I could count on them to be understanding of my situation. Upon lengthy deliberation I decided to call in and tell them I would not be in until my later shift that afternoon.

It would have been almost ridiculously easy to lie at this point, and say that I was not feeling well. There would have been no repercussions whatsoever had I gone that route. Unfortunately I often try to be honest with the beings around me, I was rather straightforward about my situation. The morning passed, I got homework done, my laptop came safely, and I was even able to be around to receive a call from Les Schwab, letting me know my tire (see previous post) was ready for me to have put on. I even felt rather charmed about the whole thing.

My boss didn't see things that way, however. When I got to work, he pulled me aside and informed me that I should have been fired. If I'd had more than two weeks left of work, he probably would have fired me. He himself had Fed-Ex packages sitting on his porch, but it was no excuse for missing work, and my actions were grounds for termination. If I'd been in the real world outside of BYU, no boss would have hesitated in immediately giving me the axe. I was apologetic and went back to work pretty depressed about it.

Then I talked to one of the full timers, the one who I would've worked for that morning, in fact. He seemed shocked at my boss's reaction, and said that me being gone for that reason was no problem at all. My coworkers also expressed that they weren't sure what the big deal was about. I don't blame my boss, really. He's just doing his job. A job that involves enforcing rules. I'm not sure I regret my decision, though. I certainly don't regret being honest about it. I was faced with a rock on one hand and a hard place on the other, and I've come out of it with a new tire, a safe laptop, and a few worldly lessons learned. Hard to see how the day could have been more productive.