August 30, 2006

Dentally cleared

As of Monday I'm dentally cleared to serve in the Peace Corps. Two more weeks until I get to complain about medical taking too long.

August 28, 2006

"The goose is cooked"

Well my mother's $500 shopping spree was passed onto me. That's right. I had that unimaginable duty of gathering $500 worth of food in five minutes. It was like supermarket sweep...except we kept the food.

How did I fare? Well it would've gone better if I wasn't limited to just two of said item (of which I understand the store manager's reasons). Alas the list of food follows (from my memory atleast):
two hams
two geese (one was dinner yesterday...not that good)
two ducks
6lbs of ground meat
two racks of ribs
2 filets
2 ribeyes
2 NY Strips
2 pot roasts
2 pork tenderloins
a chicken
a cornish hen
2 bags of doritos (random buy)
2 cans of macademia nuts
2 containers of the good OJ
Limeade (no idea really)
4lbs of colby cheese (seriously...lots of cheese)
Assortment of ice cream
Hot pockets/pizza/pizza rolls

Thats all I can remember. Exciting no? Needless to say I could've gotten up to $800 and I probably did.

As for this week I'm in the process of moving into another house. I figure if I have a year left until the PC I might as well have some form of privacy. Speaking of the PC it took like three days to get the correct stuff to send off for dental. First they couldn't find my panorex. Then I asked for a better contrast and they couldn't do that. But alas on the last day I got some negative and a brighter picture. Hopefully that's enough for them.

Week two of waiting begins...

August 22, 2006

Hold up

About 6 months after turning 16 I got a job working at Marsh Supermarkets. I worked there for four years (holidays and such during college before RA stuff) and enjoyed the comradery (for the most part) with my fellow employees. Cut to Saturday. My mom goes to the store in what I think the last week I'll not have to pay for groceries. She tells me about some contest and asks me to look at the receipt to see if she was entered. I look it over and yup she's automatically entered. Big deal.

She won. What is this reward? $500 shopping spree for this weekend. I'll be eating very well on Saturday. Don't know what I'll be eating (steak, lobster, shrimp, turkey, cornish hen, macademia nuts, etc) but it'll be good.

As I find this out I notice a packet arrived from the Peace Corps. I immediately know its not an invite packet (no email saying I was medically cleared especially since its not been gone too long). Ahhh my dental stuff was returned with one request. Which made me rather happy. That means they've looked at my stuff and went through it AND I only had one issue. My panorex thing is hard to read and needs a brighter contrast or on photo paper. I'll be picking up my new copy on Wednesday and mailing it out that day (hopefully).

Either they're on top of the game or they want to get me through the clearance fast. I'm hoping for both. :-)

August 18, 2006

Spoke too soon

So my packet was received yesterday. Imagine that. A little complaining then WAMMO! Nicely done PC. Way to keep me on my toes. A little unnecessary but oh well.

But my stuff is under review. Doesn't that sound fun? In the mean time I was reviewing stuff for the Foreign Service. Its one of the options I was thinking of after Peace Corps. I read over the scenarios and stuff for the interview and things like that and went "dear God I can do that". My experiences with student government and being in residence life really prepped me for crisis control and taking over a situation. Lets just if I become an Ambassador's Aide and an earthquake occurs, rest assured I could handle it.

This is all on my confidence in myself though. It'd be sad if I believed that and I failed miserably. :-)

So this blog will be a bit unused until I hear from the PC. Which could be a week, a month, or two months.

August 17, 2006

I get by (a little whining I may regret later)

My best friends in Florida without me, my friends are waiting for me to move into a house, and I JUST applied to another job. Sounds all complicated but PC has been playing with my life.

I kept having dreams that I would get invited earlier than my supposed nomination date. I was told there was a chance my invitation would be different. So it left me to not make any moves. So I didn't move to Florida (amongst other reasons like student loan payments). So I've not moved in with friends (would hate to move in and then two months later have to leave). And I didn't want to apply for the job if in a month I was leaving.

Ahhh this wrecks me. Its left me in a bitter mood at the moment.

My medical packet full of information (including an index to assist the medical screeners) was shipped last week and yet mytoolkit hasn't changed. I check my hotmail every 15 minutes waiting to be told that they have received my medical packet and are processing.

I know processing will take some time, unless of course they want me to fulfill another program, then I have a little wait to endure.

My impatience is growing just wanting to know that they got it. Waiting for clearance is I'm sure going to suck.

August 10, 2006

FINE!

No not fine as in "how are you?" "oh I'm fine". Which everyone says but nobody means.

I'm finally finished with medical paperwork (hopefully). Endured my eye appointment today with an extremely attractive, unfortunately married, optometrist. Bit expensive. My lenses were $80, frames were $10 (insurance covered like 95% of frames), and I had to get some sort of retinal scan thingy ma bob. I wasn't paying attention to the optometrists words. :-)

I'd walk it to the post office box in the circle but its raining fairly hard. Oh well. The mail tomorrow. And then waiting for 2 months. Score...

August 8, 2006

Another update...sort of

Tomorrow I get to go in and have my PPD (yes I read the sheet) read and placed on my form along with whether the lab results were normal or abnormal. Well thats based on my labs being done as my doctor said they were to be finished on Monday. Thursday I'm fortunate to say is when I get to go and get my eye stuff done.

Luckily there's an optometrist in Monument Circle. Thats really random. I mean its REALLY random. I mean in the circle there's the South Bend Chocolate Factory (I doubt I'll actually go in there), a radio station, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, an Episcopal Church, Starbucks, and an optometrist? Weird. Alas I'll be going during my "lunch break" to have all the forms filled out and on my walk back I can stop by FedEx to place the ENTIRE packet in the mail. Sweet freedom!!!

Well thats hoping that I don't have to have any more exams. As long as the bloodwork shows that I'm not diabetic (sister and grandmother are), that my cholesterol is reasonable (I've lost 3 lbs to help that), and hopefully I won't have to visit a psychiatrist (father's bipolar but on meds and is relatively okay...annoys me at times but okay). Teeth are fixed, holes still there from wisdom teeth, and my vision doesn't suck that much.

Sweet sweet freedom from these forms. Not all too difficult to fill out but time consuming.

Of course once the invite stuff comes I know I'll have to fill out more forms. But they won't be about my apparent allergies to sulfa, latest bowel movement, if my balls are normal, or if my gums bleed.

August 7, 2006

Clearance

So today I go in for my PPA (PPD? something with a big P). And I'm kinda excited. Do you enjoy pain? Not so much. Do you have a crush on one of the nurses? They took my blood how can you like someone that does that?

After I get this done (and measured on Wednesday) I'll only have eye paperwork to fill out for clearance. Ahhhh the sweet sweet thought of being done with paperwork. Well thats if they don't require any more medical work. Lets hope not.

On a sad note my once prevalent saying of "Don Johnson told me that my balls are okay" has run lame. So sad. I enjoyed saying it for the fun factor and the odd looks. Alas there was a time limit.

On an even sadder note (possibly happier note?) I learned today that I'll probably be invited to Azerbaijan and not the Republic of Georgia......wait a minute....you lied to us!!!

No my faithful readers I've not. Alas I was under the impression from my recruiter the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Republic of Georgia (ie the Caucus region). When I repreated Azerbaijan and the Republic of Georgia to him he said "don't forget Armenia". So I ASSUMED (yes I know what that means) that it would be Armenia. Turns out he has no clue. Then I met someone on Yahoo! (note the exclamation mark...don't want that to get confused for regular Yahoo) that has the same nomination heard they were starting up a pilot program in ROG (got tired of spelling it out...besides I've that its the way PCVs refer to it). So I thought ROG was it. I mean here's a source. Well she must've lied or gotten some bad info (or got lied to but thats not a real option...probably got lied to but who's counting correctness here?). I got in my email from said Yahoo! from another group I joined recently the PeaceCorpsEEandCA (which doesn't happen to be very active....yet....) or maybe it was CIRPCA...anyway. A PCV in Azerbaijan posted about a new pilot program for Azerbaijan was starting next summer. Ahhh I fit that category AND that region. Man it seemed like a sign. Then she said that it was for Youth Development. BING BING BING!!!

So now I get to meet some Azeris (as I have learned from Wikipedia that they go by this), eat some caviar, and plan on learning a difficult language. But on a bright side a lot of people can understand it. Weird...I know. In some places its called Turki or Turkmen. Its spoken in northern Iran, Azerbaijan (duh), ROG, parts of Russia, eastern Turkey, and some parts of Western Europe. Chance of using that ability for the government later on? Lets hope.

On a really sad note I've met two highly educated people that didn't know where the Caucus Mts (or Black and Caspian Seas) were. No not my parents. No not some friends (although I met some people over the weekend that had no idea either). My dentist and Don Johnson (MD not Tubbs' best friend).

Its unfortunate but the best way I give directions is to say "if you know where Chechnya is then go south a bit" or "look at Ukraine...go south to the Black Sea and go right". Telling a doctor that makes me feel smart. :-)

August 4, 2006

My balls are okay

So when I went in to get my tests taken, physical done, and other stuff it was interesting to say the least. The nurse was a bit flustered when I was like "here are my forms I need to have filled out". Needless to say she wasn't thrilled. Turns out my eye sight is okay by their standards, blood pressure, and all that junk was A Okay. Didn't really have doubts on that.

Then I met Don Johnson...my doctor. Ahh the humor I had before meeting him. I just couldn't bare to ask him where Tubbs was. He was far too nice. While filling out all the forms he kept initially every page. Hopefully PC is okay with that. He okayed the stuff I filled out about myself. Kinda weird. Then the physical came. Turns out my nuts are okay. What guy isn't concerned about his little friends? I was!!!

Then he wrote a nice looooooooooong list of labs for me to get done and had me schedule time in next week to get my PPA done (which I had done at one point but they lost all that stuff). So I had my nine or so tests done. Pee in a cup then four vials of blood drawn. Ahhhh Peace Corps how much you hurt me.

But...my balls are okay..

August 1, 2006

Mecidal stuff

Here's the thing. When I was two years old I got some kind of virus. Nothing too deadly or serious that modern medicine couldn't handle. Although when I was like 4 I almost died from chicken pox....seriously.

What did my parents do? They took me to the hospital and I was put on antibiotics, aka Sulfur Drugs (now known as simply sulfa). And what happened? Projectile vomitting and diarrhea. So they took me off my meds, gave me a lot of fluids, and put me on a different antibiotic. Since then I've been deemed allergic to sulfa (and probably penicillin since my mom is).

So while realizing that "hey now I have a doctor I can visit" I realized I should start filling out my medical forms. Then tada I came across stuff about my medical history. They want to know my reaction to the drugs and if I have a pen to shove in myself when I get a bad reaction, etc. I was 2 years old...2...I don't remember what I ate on Sunday let alone how I react to sulfa.

Crazy. And while looking at all the paperwork I can't possibly figure out how many trips to the doctor I'll have to make to get all the paperwork done. I mean besides the physical there are so many freaking lab tests. Atleast I don't have to have a pap smear.