Posted in Uncategorized on June 28, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday Matt and I played a very strategic game of Real Life Jenga where you cram all of your earthly possessions into a non-air conditioned storage unit in 100 degree heat. Let me know if anyone is interested in playing. Our next round will be sometime in August!
Kidding aside, we have made it back to Northern Virginia and have vowed to revel in a population >9,000 for a couple of days!
More adventures to come!
Posted in CCHRC on June 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
When I was little, my mom “sponsored” an elderly person, meaning that Josh (my brother) and I would write letters, draw pictures, and bake cookies for our particular nursing home resident. On occasion, we would go and visit her. I hated every minute of it.
Yesterday was my last day working at the nursing home, and my, it was tough saying goodbye to those residents. When I first started working at the nursing home, I thought I would be panicked and uncomfortable with patients with Alzheimer’s and other progressive diseases. I thought that dread that I felt when I was little would return and that I would be depressed and bummed each day assisting people with end of life issues. My goodness was I was sorely mistaken. While some of my favorite residents did in fact pass while I was there (including the gentleman who referred to be as M.F.S.O.B), working at the nursing home was anything BUT depressing. I have never laughed as hard as I have working at this particular nursing home due to the priceless things the residents did and my boss’s fantastic bedside manner. I have grown to love the stories the residents have shared with me about their involvement in Pearl Harbor or the retired organic farmer telling me to put egg shells or coffee grounds on my plants with weak stems. I learned a wonderful lesson in compassion and respect and have cherished the simple things, such as telling an 80 year old woman that her hair looks fantastic after a fresh perm., or combing the sweetest man’s hair down after a rough night of sleep. The residents of the nursing home grab hold of your heart and don’t let you do anything less but love them.
I am embarrassed to admit that prior to working at the nursing home, I was ageist. I am so glad I’ve had the opportunity to turn that around. Now, I can wholeheartedly say that I will always volunteer, work PRN, or sponsor a resident in a nursing home. What an incredibly valuable experience this has been. I am definitely a better person for working at this facility.
Lucky for me, I now have about 5 honorary grandparents who have committed to being my pen pal! I can’t imagine anything sweeter.
Posted in Moving on June 26, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Houston Skyline
After much deliberation (Think: Tyra Banks-style in America’s Next Top Model), we’ve decided that our next stop will be Houston! Houston definitely was not on our radar when we started this process, but it seems like a great next step. We are excited to explore a new city, even though we’ll have to bathe ourselves in 60 spf sunblock every day before walking outside!
Although not on par with our original plan, I signed a 10 month contract with the Houston Independent School District. I’ll be working with preschoolers and elementary school kids! I am so thrilled. I get a pretty big kick out of those little guys and I must say, that I am an expert at playing Candy Land. Rumor on the street is that I get to wear jeans to work! Big plus! At times, it feels like I’m having a Speech Pathology identity crisis bouncing from hospital setting to skilled nursing facility to a school, but I am grateful for varied experiences and the knowledge new coworkers bring. Maybe one of these days I’ll stick to something!
The best part of all of this is that the school year doesn’t start until August, so I have the next month and a half off! We are planning to go to DC, spend time with Matt’s parents at their sweet digs in North Carolina, buzz to the Caribbean to knock off another country on the list, and spend 2 weeks in Milwaukee with my Marquette favorites. (insert fist pump here)
I signed on with another contract company who will be paying our housing, so we’ve been looking to move into this place. (Warning: I’m not sure what the scary Scorsese red motif all over this building is about…beware.) We’ve researched the walk score and it seems to jive well with our lifestyle.
Houston Factoids:
All in all, we are really excited to be getting back into an urban setting. Come for a visit if you can!
Source: City of Houston and https://fisher.osu.edu/blogs/internship/files/houston
Posted in Advertising, Sports, tagged 2010 World Cup, advertising, Nike, Nike football, soccer, sports, World Cup, Write your future on June 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Let’s get it out of the way: the World Cup is totally awesome. I’ve got a post coming down the line about why I think so but for now I wanted to share this bit of wonderful from Nike entitled ‘Write Your Future’. You’ve probably seen snippets of this commerical if you’ve watched any matches to date but they just don’t compare to the full version in its entirety. The first time I saw it I started to wonder if I was watching a TV show instead of a commercial; then it went on for another two minutes. The concept, action, and editing are all really great. If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and just press play (full 1080p HD is highly recommended!).
Kudos to the Nike people on an awesome ad that’s instantly my second favorite Nike spot of all time. First place is still ‘Leave Nothing’ but that’s just because I’m a big softy for ‘The Last of the Mohicans.’
Posted in Awareness, tagged awareness, BP, BP oil spill, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf oil spill, oil spill on June 10, 2010 | 6 Comments »
Note: I’ve wanted to write something for awhile now about the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I’m sure most are aware of the situation at this point as it’s received a lot of coverage in the mainstream press. While you might be following this ordeal pretty closely, I’ll attempt to drop some knowledge that you might not be seeing elsewhere. It’s a bit long, so buckle up, but I wouldn’t put it up here if I didn’t feel I had anything meaningful to contribute to the discussion. Without further ado…
50 days ago an explosion aboard the BP oil drilling platform, Deepwater Horizon, would ultimately lead to its destruction and the death of 11 people. After losing power and burning for more than a day the thruster controlled platform sank causing it’s oil pipeline to break in the process. The real trouble was just beginning. In the aftermath of the chaos the oil well remained gaping open, relentlessly spewing oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico. 50 days later little progress has been made on stopping the flow and oil continues to pour out of the well and into the ocean.
Aerial photo of oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico
Soon after this incident began BP estimated that oil was spilling into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 1,000 barrels each day. The oil giant refused to allow independent experts to have access to the site or their data claiming that efforts to examine the flow rate would only detract from attempts to stop the spillage. Not long after, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that the actual flow rate was closer to 5,000 barrels daily. By late May the official United States position was an estimate of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels every single day. The highest current estimates put the number closer to 25,000.
To get an idea of how much oil that really is envision a gallon of milk. Each barrel of oil is equal to 42 gallons. Taking a median estimate of 18,500 barrels would mean that 777,000 gallons of oil are pouring into our oceans every single day, for the past 50 days, bringing the grand total to just shy of 39,000,000 gallons. That’s a lot of milk. If that number alone doesn’t stagger you then maybe ifitwasmyhome.com will. This is a website where you can view the size of the spill as an overlay on a US map. Using my hometown of Fairfax, VA shows all of Northern Virginia, D.C., Baltimore, and the Philadelphia area to be engulfed. (more…)
Amanda
Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese
Sleepwalk With Me by Mike Birbiglia
Matt
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
