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I had some adventures last week. So read the 3 posts below. I apologize in advance for the sort of crappy layout and writing. I am trying to finish before work, and its like 90 degrees in our apartment. Well, it is 90 degrees outside, so only a little cooler inside- I'm trying to tough it out to save on the AC bill.

Thanks for reading.

Adventures with Flat Stanley

Sandy had to go to a conference last week in Philadelphia, and I wanted to go to the Market Fair at Ft. Frederick in Maryland so I took a few days off. Tiffanie had mailed me a visitor, Flat Stanley, to help teach her class about maps. Flat Stanley came with a letter to mail a postcard or letter telling about his visit. I took some pictures of Stan here in Danville, but I thought I would do one better and take him on a trip with me and record our adventures.

Things went pretty smoothly at first. Upon getting to Maryland, the first freeway exit was exit 10. That means there were only 10 exits until Virginia. I had some spare time so, I thought Stanley and I would take a trip down to what is officially the "South" and see the welcome center. Things were going smoothly until we found out Virginia was really West Virginia. I guess Stanley needs to improve his knowledge of geography. This wouldn't be a big deal, except for some reason I don't like West Virginia. The only other time I was there, I thought the towns were all sort of ugly, everyone was wearing wife-beater T-shirts, and the guy at the gas station accused me of using a stolen credit card. This trip to West Virginia was a little better, I got a free magnet.

Ft. Frederick

Flat Stanley and I finally made it to our campsite. Spent a few minutes getting camp set up and made it to Ft. Frederick. We went that night, and then back again the next morning. The fort was really cool, and there was a lot of neat stuff for sale. The event going on was called the Market Fair. It is a reenactment of a French and Indian War Era "rendezvous". Probably the best thing I saw was a reenactment of a circus. I guess they started as only 2 people travelling around telling jokes and doing tricks and stuff. The guy had on a bright outfit and did some pretty cool stuff with strings and ropes.
I was shopping around, watching demonstrations and something tragic happened. I put Flat Stan down to look at some cups and never picked him up. I didn't notice until I was about to get on the train in D.C. I sort of freaked out. I had wanted to put Stan in a bunch of pictures to send to Tiff's class. I had planned on writing a letter to the class telling about our adventures like Flat Stanley really came to visit. So I felt sort of foolish for actually being sad that I lost my little friend Flat Stanley ( WIIIIIILLLLSON!!!)

Spontaneous Washington D.C

After the tragic loss of Stanley, and seeing that I was only about an hour away from D.C. I decided that I would cruise over and spend the afternoon in our nation's capitol. As I was approaching the city I got nervous about where to park and such, luckily there were big signs indicating how to get to the Metro. I followed the signs and ended up at the Shady Grove station which is the end of the line. It was about a 30 minute ride on the train which became the subway as it got closer to D.C.

I got off right behind the National Archives. The archives are right by the end of the National Mall.
It was a beautiful, hot April day. I had two choices on how to go about my afternoon. I could pick just a few things to really explore, or I could try to see as much as possible in my short time. I was feeling good, so I went the ambitious route. Here is my trip:

Note: my pictures aren't that great as I more focused on using my video camera. Plus, I was alone so no one familiar is in the pictures. I tried to take some pics of myself, but my giant cranium kept blocking out all the monuments. Also, Make sure to click the links within the text. They go to some better pictures of things my camera didn't work so well on.

1. First I went down to the Capitol building. Lots of steps, met Bill.

2. Went into the Botanical Gardens (which was free, just like all the other stuff, which ROCKS!!) Went in to use the bathroom, stayed to check out some of the cool plants in the medicinal plant section, will definitely drag Sandy back here.

3. Went down a couple buildings to the Smithsonian's Air and Space section. Another place to go back to( gonna stop saying that, cuz I'm gonna go back to all of 'em). Was really cool to see the Spirit of St. Louis, and other famous aircraft. They have some of the real re-entry vehicles from space mission. It was neat to look at the burnt tiles from coming through the atmosphere and know that this thing was really in outer space. Saw Sputnik, our hamster's namesake. The coolest thing I saw was called Aerogel. Its the least dense solid material ever. They had a chunk of it, and it looked like a cube shaped fog. It was bizarre. It looked like it would be really fragile and that your fingers would go into it like it was made of steam, but apparently it is rigid and really strong. I would have probably paid 10 bucks just for the opportunity to handle the stuff and see what it really feels like.

4. I then walked down to the Natural History section of the Smithsonian. Didn't stay long, but I checked out an orchid display that was going to be gone soon. There were a ton of really neat orchids. There was also a surprise in the gem section. I didn't know it, but a lot of famous gems are on display, including the Hope Diamond, and other gigantic gems owned by royalty.

5. I spent the rest of the day walking to all the monuments. I must say they are way bigger than I thought. Especially the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. The Jefferson causes an illusion where it looks a lot closer than it really is. Two cool things were the Korean War monument and the FDR park. The Korean War monument is just a group of statues that look like soldiers walking through the jungle. It really captures the emotion of war. The Franklin D. Roosevelt park is neat, it has a bunch of really geometric shaped waterfalls and statues of FDR and scenes from the depression and stuff.

6. It was almost dark and I had to get home, so I walked over and saw the Whitehouse last. It was cool. Then I caught the train and drove home. Coming home was its own adventure, because I needed to get on Highway 11, which goes through Danville. Well, like every exit for 20 miles says it exits on to 11. But you can't just get off and drive 11 unless you want to head out of the way and drive through Harrisburg. I was getting really frustrated, but eventually found the right exit to get home somewhat efficiently.

Well, thanks for reading about my adventures this week.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Can you beleieve it...I'm 28!!! Just to let you all know, next year will be my last birthday; I'm going to stay 29 forever. Thanks so much for all of the gifts and warm wishes. I really had a great time. Wes and I had a really nice dinner at a local coffee shop/cafe in Danville. I have a pumpkin ravioli salad. It was amazing. The cake I got it a local favorite in Pennsylvania, choclate cake with peanut butter frosting. It was a little tricky finding something small enough just for the two of us.

Just to update you on the internship; I am currently working with patients in the ICU. 3 patients have already died on me! One lady just came in with a really bad stomach ache and she died 6 days later. So do me a favor Dana, Jessie and Mom, go see the doctor if you have a stomach ache for longer than 2 days! Next week I start working with kids and I am a little nervous.

Tuesday I went to Harrisburg, PA (the capitol) and talked to State Senators and Representatives. We were lobbying for increased insurance coverage for Dietitians. The capital was beautiful! We even got to sit in on some meetings/chambers (not sure what it is called). I was suprised because half of the people were not even paying attention and it was a little chaotic. The guy sitting in the chair is state representative Millard. Sharon, our internship director is on the far right. The rest of the girls are the other interns.

National Nutrition Month Booth

For all of those who wonder what I do everyday, here is one example. This is the booth we made for National Nutrition Month (the theme is shopping on a budget). This is Jamie (another intern) and me at Geisinger. It may not look like much but a lot of work went into this. On Sunday alone, I spent 15 hours at Geisinger working on it. The Penny Pinchin Produce was my brain child. It's a game participants could play to win a prize (trust me the prizes were a little cheesy). Even though our prices were a bit outdated, I tried to send the message that you can get in 5 fruits and vegetables for less than you might think. Enjoy the photos; I put some pics of spud just for fun.

Readers Beware! Contains Graphic Content

This week I have seen some pretty crazy stuff. I spent sometime with the Wound oand Ostomy nurses (one career I would never want to get into). First there a women with an open abdominal wall. She had gastric bypass surgery and the surgen could not close her back up so they left her abdomen open. It was crazy, I saw her intestines moving around and everything (it kind of looked like the sea creatures we saw in Oregon). Another women I say had an ileostomy which is a surgical opening made by bringing the end or loop of small intestine out onto the surface of the skin and then a pouch is stuck to the skin surrounding the intestine and waste products (poop) are excreted into the pouch (it is as gross as it sounds). Not only do these nurses have to see gross thing, they also have to smell gross things. I think the smell was definitely more disqusting than they looked and the worst part was that I kept smelling it all day. The last intern fainted. Don't worry, I survived it without any problems.

If that was not bad enough, I went to endoscopy and watched colonoscopies. Luckily most patients had a good bowel prep before going (all you over 50 people should know what I'm talking about) and no turds were to be seen.

This past 2 weeks has really been interesting. From what the other interns said about this rotation, I was really dreading it but I have to say this might have been one of the best rotations yet. I have been able to see a wide variety of patients and really been able to build my skills and learn a ton of new stuff about the GI tract, surgery, the nutrition care process and nutrition support, all of which probably sounds pretty lame to you but it has been very interesting to me.

12 week remaining!!!

Have I mentioned yet how cold it has been here. Up until 2 days ago it has been in the 30s and below! YIKES! I never thought I would say this but I miss the Logan winters. It is supposed to warm up this weekend and I hope it stays warm. It's starting the get a little depressing.

One more thing, March is National Nutrition Month so eat right and be healthy!