Carissa’s Neighborhood

Today, mine is Dolsi. :)

DETROIT -- Freddy Dolsi jogged from the left-field bullpen into a situation that didn't look too promising for the Tigers. Their young reliever entered in the eighth inning with the bases loaded with one out.

The Tigers had a three-run lead as Dolsi, who never pitched above Double-A before this season, faced the potential winning run at the plate.

That, however, didn't stop him from challenging the Indians hitters.

"He has no fear," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.

First, he blew a 98-mph fastball past Jhonny Peralta. The fans roared. One out to go for the 25-year-old. It didn't take long. He struck out Ben Francisco looking on a well-placed 97-mph heater on the outside corner. The crowd of 39,941 at Comerica Park on Sunday afternoon erupted, catcher Ivan Rodriguez pumped his fist and the Tigers held on for a 5-2 win, their first Sunday win at home this season.

(From www.detroittigers.com)

I was there.  I cheered.  I kept score.  I had a beer, hot dog, and peanuts.  Lost my car (seriously, I need tos tart paying more attention about which lot I park in -- even if I did get a kick-butt spot for only ten dollars).  Made it back home in time for a couple of tornado warnings.  I went with my cousin, J., and we agreed to split season tickets for next year's season -- what a great time.  Of course, 90 degrees in the blazing sun with ridiculous humidity isn't necessarily the best for my skin (I couldn't find my sunscreen and I am buuuurnt) but we had a pool to jump into when we got home.  Too bad the tornados hit about then.

Oh well.

Go Tigers. :)

To all of the soldiers who have sacrificed,
To all of the families and friends who have sacrificed along side of them,
and for all the children who will grow up in a better world because of what you have given up,

Thank you. 

All politics aside. . . all squabbling, controversy, and opinions aside, forgetting denominations, party memberships, and background,

Just thank you.

2.5 pounds.  I'll admit, I was a little dissappointed at the weigh-in yesterday in just 2.5 pounds, because I know the first week is usually a lot more for people, but I had to remind myself of both the pizza buffet the one night and the fact that most people lose that much from cutting out soda and drinking more water, both things I do already.

So 2.5 is a good start.  And I'm still pround I continued my run on Monday morning after that piece of sidewalk jumped out at me.

Well, so far it's been culture shock up here in D-town.  I cover the north side of 8-mile on the squad, all the way up to M-59, depending on which shift I'm working.  Some of the people have been friendly, but in general, as the new girl I get the cold shoulder. . .possibly until I prove myself?  Hrm.  One medic even told me that he wasn't used to medics being nice to patients and wasn't sure what to do with that.

Meanwhile, I haven't really had days off in the past 2.5 years, and now I do!  It's only temporary -- starting June 18th I'll be teaching Anatomy and Physiology for one of the paramedic classes down in Toledo, and of course once I'm 100% moved in, I'll be studying for the MCAT, but I'm waiting till the move is finished for that.  Honestly, even the next 2 weeks I don't have days off because I'll be in Columbus for moving back and forth, but today I had a day off, and I almost had no idea what to do!  Luckily, I found a box of brownies begging to be made (the guys at work barely blinked when I dropped them off there) and my grandmother deserves to be waited on hand and foot every so often, which I did today, and she ate it up.

Anyhow, I'm not sure if I'm working a 12 or a 24 tomorrow (I'll find out when I show up) but I'm not to that point yet where I look forward to going to work, so I'm torn.  At the other company, even when I hated the job, I loved the people and the patients, so that was easy to deal with, but here, I'm still so new, still getting oriented, still lost when it comes to which ER does what and why and when, and I still don't know the little things that make life easier once you know them, things that you don't even think about until you learn them, like which hallway is a shortcut in the ER and which bathroom has a toilet where I can reach the ground.  (You laugh, but sometimes they put those seat-raisers on old persons' toilets and I really can't reach them!!!!)  The people aren't exactly friendly yet and it makes a huge difference.

Plus, I simply don't know anyone in town yet.  I'm looking forward to going to church this Sunday (though I'm not sure WHERE yet) and last Sunday Liz and I had a great time at Greenfield Village -- the hobo band even played Chatanooga ChooChoo. . .and included a dulcimer!  Too bad it was Thomas the Tank Engine day so there were little minions EVERYWHERE.

I still almost comment every time I see something labeled Michigan, but luckily the little voice inside my head has beaten the big voice in my big mouth 99% of the time. . "Hey, look, a U of M sweater" may sound appropriate in Ohio, but it sounds absolutely asinine in Michigan.  Right.

Hrm, weigh-in tomorrow.

Went running today for the first time in a while -- between work and moving, I literally was getting 4 hours of sleep a night.  So today, I set the alarm, woke up early, and hit the road. . .

At 5am, in an area with which I'm not familiar, the sidewalk can be dangerous.  I now have a skinned knee.  I'm sure it was graceful.  But it felt good to get out. :)

Anyhow, back to my 24-hour shift.

But that's okay.  I had this long, drawn-out entry about a 56 hour shift I worked. . . long story short -- free breadsticks, employee's 16 year-old daughter in labor in the middle of the freeway, and diagnosing a missed stroke.

Yeah.

Now I'm up in Michigan -- darn moving though.  Nice thing is a gym membership up here is only 10 bucks/month.

Found on someone's Myspace:

I was sitting section 137, row 13, seat 23 for the 2008 home opener.

First pitch at 1308. . . .three hours and 37 minutes later, 11 innings of pain later, a roller-coaster of emotions later, Detroit Tigers lost to the KC Royals 5-4.

Ahh well.  Meeting Mark was awesome (and now he's my new best friend since he has season tickets!) and it was a great time regardless.  So what if I can't afford a $90 hoodie?  I got myself a new Tigers hat, and I love it.

*sighs*

Opening days are phenomenal!

Happy Easter!  I love Easter -- it's really the biggest holiday, as far as importance goes.  I mean, most any historian or scholar will admit a man named Jesus was born in Bethlehem, lived, pissed off a lot of people, and was hung on a cross between two criminals, then laid to rest in a tomb-on-loan.  Seriously, non-Biblical accounts of that time in history say the same thing.

What they don't believe in is the miracle.

See, a man dying on a cross -- that was a common occurrence back then!  And a man saying he's God, well, I take a lot of patients who say that every day.  But a man who .  . .well, I could go on forever, but suffice it to say the miracle is not that He died, but that He lives today.  And He sacrificed Himself of His own free will -- to me, that's amazing.  He could have changed His mind at any time, but He basically volunteered to spend a day in the greatest human pain ever so that by accepting that, we could be with Him eventually.  The sermon today said everything much better, but that's why I'm not a pastor.

Anyhow, how did you spend your Easter?

I woke up late (Hey, I was tired!  Went to a jazz club last night, and the show lasted forever.)  and jumped in the shower, only to realize I had nothing to wear.  I'm a girl, with a closet full of clothes that don't fit, and that I need to take to Goodwill -- and none of them were really church-appropriate anyhow.  My church is more of a jeans-and-t-shirt type thing, but on Easter, we try to look a little nice, especially since I'm up on the stage in front of everyone.  Finally found something clean (it's tough to do laundry 'round here), got in the car, realized the needle is below E, so I head to the gas station.  Which is closed.

Of course.  I mean, it is Easter.

Well, there's no other gas station near by so I jump on the freeway (My church is about 20 minutes from here) and am praying heartily that I'll make it to where I know there's a gas station a couple of exits down.  One thing this city doesn't do right is gas stations near the downtown.  I coast into the station and fill up.  I really wanted to get to rehearsal early so I could switch out the keyboard I was using, but with running low on gas, I was really running late at this point.  Anyhow, 40 bucks later I'm ready to roll.

I roll into church about 15 minutes late for praise band rehearsal, but get set-up and ready to go.  We go through rehearsal (plus a surprise vocalist, which made things interesting) and it was rough, but since I was apparently the only one who thought so, I let it go.  Well, church rolls around and we pretty much bomb.  I mean, last week's worship was absolutely 100% phenomenal.  This week, the pre-sermon stuff was average at best.  The post-sermon worship bombed hardcore.  Mistakes, general issues, you name it.

So after that sucked it up, I met up with my buddy JPA.  We went to grab a quick lunch (we aimed for Arby's, which was closed) and ended up at a Chinese buffet -- a very nice one too!  After an interesting lunch which involved me forgetting to close my mouth before I attempted to swallow some water, we hopped in his car and headed to Hocking Hills, where we hiked Old Man's Cave Gorge.  It's about 5 miles of a loops, with (in order as we hit them) the Lower Falls, Whispering Falls, Cedar Falls, Devil's Bathtub, and Upper Falls.  Sometimes in the summer, they're completely dried up.  If you've been paying attention to the news, the midwest has been dealing with some flooding lately.  Now, we're not flooded here, but I knew the river/stream/creek/whatever running through there would be flowing nicely.  I certainly wasn't dissappointed -- you could hear the water forever away.  Anyhow, it was a great hike.  Last time we did it, we were kind of in a hurry because of a meeting we had scheduled for the evening.  This time, we took about 3 hours to do the 5 miles. . .stopping a lot, meandering slowing, and talking the whole way.  It's certainly nice to have a Christian to bounce ideas off of.  Let alone one with a brain in his head

Anyhow, of course cause he's a single guy and I'm a single girl, everyone at church thinks we're dating, and that if we're not, we should be.  *rolls eyes*  I haven't got the time to even begin to address how incorrect that is.  Regardless, we have good times together, and talk non-stop -- he can even almost dish back as well as I can.

Our great but exhausting (I mean, it's not just 5 miles -- it's 5 miles of climbing over trees, under rocks, through mud, up and down hills, around waterfalls, etc.) hike was a great way to spend Easter.  Seriously, spending time enjoying God's creation is terribly underrated.  It's one reason why I like jogging all alone in the quiet of the morning -- just me, God, and the world.  We covered every topic under the sun, and then headed back to the city.

I changed back into long pants (I like to hike in shorts, even when it's cold) and we headed to B-dub's for some wings.  He grabbed a beer, but I'm on call today, so I couldn't.  I'm on call today, so no alcohol for me.  Not that I get drunk -- I just enjoy a beer now and then.  Anyhow, another reason the hike was fun is that I was playing hookie from being on call -- my cell, my work cell, and my pager all have exactly ZERO reception out at Old Man's Cave.

I called my family on my way home and wished the a Happy Easter, then started taking care of some stuff for work tomorrow.  Holy cow.  I can't believe it's 2130h already.  Wow.  And I'm bushed.

I guess I need to e-mail the schedule and go to bed. :)

Here's to the day of miracles!  Happy Easter everyone, no matter how or why you celebrate it.  I have a peanut-butter egg sitting on top of my fridge from my Grandmother, so that's calling my name.

First of all, I ran across an old blog today.  It was personal, and I enjoyed reading my old entries, especially back from the beginning of being a paramedic.  I'm going to continue with those, I think.  The thing it was missing was anonymity.  Anyone could find it knowing who I am, or know who I was based on reading it.

Running is as much to condition the mind as it is to condition the body.

And people ask why I'm doing it.

To condition my mind.
To prove to myself I can.
To beat the odds.
To do something with my time.
Because it feels good (just not today).