4 AM

Well, it's 4 in the morning now. I've been laying in bed for the last 4 hours and haven't been able to fall asleep with my normal tricks, so I'm blogging and listening to Ellen Degeneres watching Spyder-Slayer slink around. One thing that has been keeping me awake is I have a song stuck in my head. It's kind of a weird song, it's the Bicycle Song by Queen. I listened to it about 2 hours before I went to bed and it just never left my head. I guess I'll just update a little on my life.
I have been living in my apartment now for about 2 weeks. It really has been fun because I get along with my roommates really well. They're all from California and pretty cool. It's nice to not have roommates from highly Mormon areas because I don't feel like they're judging me. That's one thing that bothers me, when people judge me when I'm not even doing anything wrong! But they don't do that and we have lots of fun.
My classes are all going pretty well. It's kind of weird, but the classes that I thought were going to be really hard actually turned out to be my funnest ones! I'm taking a class called Readings. It's all about theories on art. I thought it was going to be super boring, but I'm actually enjoying it! Time does kind of drag on in that class because I have it at 3:15 in the afternoon and I've been going straight from class to class since 9 in the morning. My other fun class is my Color Photo one. It's more of my thing, so I feel more comfortable in it. And my teacher is about 7 months pregnant, so she doesn't feel like pushing the class too hard. I think she gets tired standing in front of us teaching for so long because we get out of class early a lot. I'm also taking Heredity, which is kicking my trash. I'm working really hard to understand things, but I feel like everything is going over my head. I hope things get better soon. The only thing that makes me feel better is that lots of other people said they feel the same way. Hopefully he grades on the curve!
For the Halloween concert this year the theme is "Super Heroes". We're all supposed to dress up accordingly (mostly like Marvel comics), but I don't know what to dress up as! Suggestions are welcome! Especially if you know how to put the costume together! I would rather not have to dress up like a boy, but there aren't many girl super heroes.
Well, I think I'll try to get some sleep now. I have to get up in about 3 hours. Have a good night! (Or morning!)

September 11, 2002

On this day, most people remember the attacks on the World Trade Centers by terrorists wanting to destroy America. I think of this too, but this day also makes me think of another occasion. On the one year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, September 11, 2002, I had a procedure done on my heart known as a Catheter Ablation. Up until that date I suffered from a disorder called Wolff -Parkinson-White Syndrome. It's not necissarily a life-threatening disorder, but it did limit my activities and narrow down what I wanted to do with my life. When an attack came on, I remember there was a lot of pain. My chest hurt so severely that it felt like a knife was being shoved into it. I would often get very dizzy and light-headed and on occasion was worried I would pass out. I did play sports, but I knew that certain things would trigger an attack. I couldn't suddenly start sprinting, make any jerky movements, and even running up the stairs set it off. When I was going through a little bit of testing to see if I was a candidate for surgery, my heart was recorded at going 240 bpm (beats per minute). I was scheduled for surgery and on September 11, 2002, I underwent a procedure that helped me live my life more fully. I remember waking up at the crack of dawn to go to the hospital. I'll never forget looking out the back winsheild of our car in the parking garage at the man standing in the middle of it. He was dressed in Scottish attire with the kilt and hat, playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. I'll admit, it was an ominous sight. We drove to the hospital and watched as President Bush read the names of the people who died on the flights for the one year anniversary. They called me back to get prepped. I was a little nervous. After changing into a gown, the nurse tried to start an IV on me and missed the vein. Blood started spurting a little from my arm and my dad, who was sitting in a rolling chair, started backing way up (he hates needles). I remember thinking at that point, "That doesn't look good..." When they took me to the room, it was cold. They told me it was a room built for machines, not people. There were a lot of people in the room, mostly students because the operation was at the University Hospital in SLC. When I was put under, I remember seeing the room, but from the viewpoint of the ceiling looking down on what was happening. I woke up in the recovery room and my first thought was to look at the clock to see how long the surgery had lasted. I think I calculated about 4 hours, but I'm not sure what the actual time was. When the nurse saw I was awake, she took my vitals and asked if I wanted some ice cream. My throat was very sore because they had to put a tube down it. The nurse fed me because I was still too weak to feed myself. She was very generous in her servings and hardly let me swallow before she shoved another spoonful into my mouth! I finally had to shut my mouth so I could breathe for a second. I was then wheeled out of the recovery room and into an elevator by 2 people, a man and woman, who I think were talking about some dating scandal that had recently happened. After I got to my room, all I did the rest of the day was sleep and watch TV. Sleeping was hard because of the IV in my arm (which hurt like the dickens every time I touched it) and because the nurses were constantly coming in and out of the room taking vitals and seeing if I needed anything. That next morning, I ate a little bit of breakfeast and we went home. We got back in time for me to go to the volleyball game our team had that night. I couldn't play, but it was fun to sit on the bench and cheer the team on. I know the surgery was very expensive and somewhat of an inconvenience, but it has helped me live a much fuller life. I don't have to worry about running up the stairs or joining in a game my friends are playing for fear of having an attack. If you look at me now, you wouldn't know I had heart surgery. The only scar I have left is a tiny dot on my neck, hardly noticable even when I am looking for it. I'm very thankful for today because it helps me remember what good things can happen with advances in medicine and wonderful people like Dr. Klein and my parents.

More Quotes

Some more random words have come up in our house that I thought I should probably document. Joni has started calling our cat "B-Burns". And when my dad told me I could take a bunny with me to college, she said I should introduce him as "B-Bunny". And some other words I should put down so people know what we're talking about: "P-Pozzle" (pop) which is not to be confused with "B-Bozzle" (Burns). Burns also goes by the name of "Jungle Kitty" which is often paired with Oscar's name of "Jungle Doggy". These were both developed when Joni and Andy were forced to tackle the weed garden and the aminals kept them company. I'm sure there will be more posts to follow this one, but that's all I have for now.