Thanksgiving...and more

I’m going to try to fill you in real quick on the happenings of the past couple weeks. So Nov 11 (Thursday-Monday morning) I house sat/babysat some teenagers in the stake. They were actually great kids and it reminded me a little of Becca. I found that I really enjoy teasing teenagers (shock, I know), however I do NOT enjoy their attitudes. It all worked out though because I would just call them out, and then it was off my chest. I just hate that teenagers they think that they can get away with being rude. NOT OKAY! The boy had a little bit of an attitude but since I am pretty cool- he wanted to be my friend rather than compete with me, so it all worked out. Even though they were wonderful kids, it was a LONG weekend. I am just a homebody. I really don’t enjoy being away from home for an extended period of time. Part of the reason that I felt uncomfortable was because of the house itself. So this family had 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 birds and I'm not really a pet person...like at all. I love Gus to death, but he's pretty much my limit. Anyway, so it was kind of a stretch for me to be around so many wonderful animals :)

Probably the best part of the weekend was that the girl I was watching was really into Christmas- more so than myself. I'm pretty christmasy,, but she had me beat by a long shot. She was already planning all her Christmas gifts, she had her room decorated with a tree and lights and the best part was that she knew when each radio stations started playing Christmas music. I felt like a Grinch because I didn't have as much Christmas spirit, but don't worry...we quickly remedied that. Most of the weekend we watched Christmas movies-Santa Clause 1 and 2, Christmas shoes (from the song), and my personal favorite Miracle on 34th street. It was a good experience staying with that family, but I was sure glad to be able to sleep in my own room and bed!

Tuesday before Thanksgiving break I took my car to get fixed, which actually didn’t really happen because there was more work that needed to be done on my car than I thought. So I replaced a baring and a hub something or other, but they told me that the reason I’m hearing the awful noise is because my axle is leaking. Who knew that axles could leak? Not me! Anyway, so I need a new axle, which actually isn’t as big of a deal as it sounds, but it is just something else that needs to be done, and I don’t really have a ton of time to do it- nor do I have the money, but I’m confident it will all work out.

Now to Thanksgiving.... I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous cooking a Thanksgiving meal. I had only assisted up to this point and it seemed like a daunting task, but I figured...I'm at PA School...getting my masters degree...I'm capable of cooking a meal right?.... Uhhh... To add even more pressure, a couple days before Thanksgiving one of the 'cute' guys in the ward came up to me and basically invited himself over for Thanksgiving dinner. Great! How do you say no to someone who doesn't have somewhere to go on Thanksgiving. Well no worries it all turned out great! Nothing was burnt and it all tasted pretty darn good if I do say so myself. We had turkey, stuffing, green beans, YAMS (my favorite), rolls, jello salad, potatoes and gravy, and for dessert- chocolate silk pie! The best part was actually making the meal. A girl in the ward came over and we spent the afternoon cooking and listening to Christmas music.

Now for some classic awkward Betsy/Lizzy moments:
-I was talking to one of my guy friends here on the phone. He was calling to vent about some girl from BYU and how he finally decideed that she just isn't into him. So I was being the good friend: supportive, loving, ya know....Anyway, he went on for a while and then the conversation was lagging. For some odd reason I felt obligated to tell him something about my love life because he had just borne his soul to me. Since I don't currently have a love life...that was kind of tricky...so I just told him the only thing I could really think of and that was, I had decided that I didn't like a certain guy in the ward. I know-lame thing to share, but I had nothing else. Yeah, not too awkward yet, but then he followed it up with. 'Betsy, have you decided about me yet?' (translation in my head 'Betsy do you like me? or could you potentially like me?') Um....first of all- who seriously asks that question? and how do you respond to that? Guys are so dumb! Since I don't like him- it is kind of tricky to say that without hurting his feelings. So I just said, 'well yeah, pretty much. sort of.' I figured if I made my response as ambivalent and confusing as possible, it wouldn't hurt his feelings. The downside to that was that apparently my ambivalence gave him a little courage and he said, 'well just so you know, I still haven't decided about you.' (translation in my head, ' I could like you.') This normally would be a flattering statement unless the guy actually says it to you...and then what do you say???? um, thanks? So I just blew right past it and pretended like he never said it :) That is my all around fix for most awkward situations. haha.

This last week I was reminded of one more funny story. So I a month ago one of the Bishop's sons visited the ward for a couple of weeks (Nathan). He is this super cute guy (I should add single) who is going to UVA medical school. He was doing a couple week rotation here in Roanoke and so I happened to meet him at some of the ward events. Previous to this, his sister and parents had individually talked to me about him and had encouraged me to get to know him. So during one of my attempts to get to know this guy I asked him about his rotation. At this point in time I knew that his overall focus was OB/Gyn but I didn't know that all his rotations had to do with OB/Gyn. So that meant that even when he was doing his current surgical rotation, he was only doing OB/Gyn surgeries. Yup...that was me walking into a mine field...ugh. Anyway, so I casually asked him about his day, and what he did. He vaguely answered the question (for obvious reasons- that were clearly not obvious to me at the time) and in attempts to really get to know him I pushed a little bit and asked him about his specific surgeries. He kind of hesitated and then just said, 'well, we scraped a cervix today.' ......um...'cool. that sounds kind of neat.' hahha...yup...face instantly red...and no way to escape the awkwardness.

The best part is that the next time I saw him, I asked the same question, not intentionally though. Mostly I was just trying to make conversation, because that is what you do when you first see someone...you ask about their day. Don't worry though, the second time I didn't dig for specifics-so it turned out all right.

'Listen to your heart... when he's calling for you'

Today I listened to my heart-I mean really listened to my heart. It was amazing! I just sat there mesmerized in lab listening to my heart. One girl came up to talk to me and gave me a weird look, laughed and then just walked away. I’ve never taken the time to really try to heart everything that I need to hear. There is SO much more to the heart than the lub dub. The more I concentrated the more fascinated I became. I just realized how absolutely amazing it is that all of it (electricital conduction, valves, pumping) is coordinated so perfectly and in most people, the heart works wonderfully for years. The heart beats at least 60 times every minute. I don’t know exactly what that translates to in hours, days or years, but it has to be a ton. How can something work that hard and last so long. It is just such a testimony to me that there is a God and that we weren’t created by accident.

For the rest of the day I kept singing in my head, and aloud, " the heart goes pa-da pa-da and circulates the blood....My body machine is super keen and awesome as it can be. It runs, it walks, it sleeps, it talks and it belongs to ME!" I didn't even care that I sounded like a nutso, I was just so excited about my heart. (after writing that, I just realized how extremely nerdy this all makes me sound- I really am not THAT nerdy. Maybe a little, but mostly the cool nerdy...not the weird/awkward nerdy :))

The last weeks have been pretty busy with school, but there are a few stories that I wanted to share...

I volunteered at the Rescue Mission clinic and this Hispanic guy came in to get some stitches out. He had never been seen before by this clinic so I had to do a more comprehensive note before he could be seen. It took at least 15 minutes to get through all the questions- partially because he kept talking and also because he didn’t speak English very well. Once I had finished and put him in a room a nurse that was working with me said, ‘betsy, you knew he was completely drunk right?’ Now I know there are many positive things that come from not being around alcohol, but this would not be one of those times. I had NO IDEA that he was drunk. I just spent 15 minutes talking to this guy, and I was pretty close to him, so I could smell his breath and I had no clue that he was drunk. NONE! I just thought he was really happy. That’s kind of a big deal, mostly because you can have crazy drug interactions when people are drunk, ugh! My favorite part about the whole situation was when I talked to dad he said, ‘Betsy you just need to hang out at bars more.’ Seriously?…how many Dads say that to their daughters? Haha. Oh I love my dad- and I love that he can say that to me knowing #1-I probably wouldn’t ever go to a bar even if he told me to and #2-if I did, he knows I wouldn't ever drink. Moral of the story is that my new goal for the week is: I’m going to figure out what drunk people look, smell and act like.

Another fun experience was during lecture one day I really had to go to the bathroom. It was right after lunch and I just couldn’t hold it in anymore. It happened to be a guest lecturer so I felt really bad about walking out, but I figured that I wouldn’t be able to concentrate if I didn't go and since my seat is right next to a door he probably wouldn't even notice. So I finally decided to go, I get up and I’m at the door when the lecturer says really loud, ‘ Wait, don’t go yet. I promise it will get better.’ Initially I couldn’t tell if he was joking and then when I put it together, I didn’t know what to say, so I just blushed, smiled and shrugged and walked out. I was super embarrassed! What was I supposed to do, announce to the whole class that I really had to go to the bathroom? When I walked back in-he again interrupted the lecture to say/chuckle, ‘I’m sorry if I embarrassed you.’ Meanwhile the whole class is chuckling and again my face turns bright red, which makes everyone laugh even harder. It’s all good though, because my class knows that I’m kind of a goof ball already, so whateves.