Fun stuff

 I literally have no clue what to name this blog. It was a pretty typical week, but some fun stuff too so there ya have it. First item of fun business - The VA is quite literally falling apart. So last Saturday night I was abruptly awoken to my phone going off. I wake up to see that "3west" is calling me and it's 3am. Due to it being 3am I was deliriously panicking and wondering if I had missed my shift or if I was in trouble. So I didn't answer and waited for it to go to voicemail. Well, a message was left saying there had been a massive flood and they needed everyone to come in and help. So I did what anyone would do and went back to bed. I was scheduled to work the following night (Sunday night) and yep there sure was a flood. It had been mostly cleaned up by then, but half our unit was not useable and all the clinics are now completely shut down for who knows how long. A pipe on the top floor broke and had been flooding for hours before anyone even saw anything. Ceilings were falling in on people and the elevators turned into waterfalls or so I heard from the people working that night. 

What was our main patient hallway is now taped off and massive huge, very loud fans are blowing everywhere. The craziest thing is a few days later on Wednesday morning a sewage pipe busted and took out another three of our available rooms on the unit. So we went from a full floor being 17 to 9 to now 6 patients. haha nurse - patient ratios have never been better. We all keep joking that in 20+ years there will be one of those commercials that says "If you worked at the SLC VA from 2023-2025 you may be entitled to compensation" due to all the mold and probably asbestos that is now just intoxicating our air. Mom told me that maybe this is a good thing because they'll actually have a reason to go up and clean out and fix everything in the walls and ceilings - She obviously doesn't know how janky the VA is. you already know they are just putting new ceiling tile up and not doing a dang thing about the rusted piped and things growing in the walls. That's how things go around here I guess. 

Right now Im on nights because my coworker Alex didn't want to work them. She has kiddos and Im not afraid of making some extra money exchange for a wacky sleep schedule so I took one for the team and switched her schedules for a couple weeks. She was appreciative and made me a charcuterie board <3 She knows I love fancy cheeses so I was pumped. I let her know that I would take any and all night shifts in the future as well. 

Friday morning started out with the Timpanogos XC meet! I will drop any and everything to make it to Jackie's races, but this weekend just lined up perfectly with my days off. Having it be on a Friday morning meant not much other support due to work and traveling so I cheered extra loud. I staked out my place to watch the start and as I was looking for jack I found him like this. By himself out on the course. Not gonna lie, I teared up. He's a good kid. Doing good things now and preparing to do good things in the future. 

A bunch of good kids actually. 

Desert Hills boys ran a good race. State is most likely going to go to Mountain View, but Desert Hills and Orem will battle it out for second. Orem got them by one point this week. Goes to show how important every single boy is in racing. Jack ran a 34 second PR from his time on this course last year. Pretty dang impressive. It's funny because I was talking to George's parents (Jacks buddy) and it was the first time I had met them. I had said something and the mom goes "Oh so you did this in high school?" I wanted to say "pfft lady this was my life in high school." I was later talking to Jaiden and Camri. Jaiden had been talking to the boys team and we were laughing because no one, except jack, knew who he was. Crazy how it feels like yesterday I was tearing up these courses, hitting PRs, everyone knowing the desert hills varsity runners and now man its been so long no one knows. Good memories though. I love hearing jack talk about his workouts, good races, bad races and all the good and ugly in between because I totally remember it. The only thing I miss about high school is running. 

Which brings me to my current running journey of this week. Last week I mentioned Ive started running more and trying to enjoy it more. Well this week was another step in the right direction. I found a new trail system that got me kinda stoked so Saturday morning I headed out with a goal of a "long run". At first that meant 6 miles, but I decided I wanted to go further. I was running a slow but very comfortable pace of 9-9:30 and finished 8 miles! I ran the first 5 without stopping and the last 8 were still more running than walking, but a little walking added in there for sure. I was proud of myself and of my body. 

The Aftermath. Ive reached the conclusion that I don't need to train for marathons or halfs to have a reason to train. All I want to train for right now is to earn my love for running back which Im working hard to do and so far it's paying off. Im still listening to my body - I can't run everyday or else my back won't be too happy with me and some times after work its not worth putting more strain on my body, but Im doing my best. Yay for maybe making a slight comeback. 

And to wrap up this weekend - BYU Football game. The first of the season. And I believe the first one of my lifetime. I honestly don't recall ever even going to my high schools football games so Im pretty sure this was straight up a first for me. It was a good time. I can always count on my sports loving friend to get me free tickets to experience live games. It was a super good time and I learned a lot about football. I know the difference between a drop and a fumble now and I might remember the jobs of different positions on the field, but don't quiz me. These tickets were given to her and her family by a season pass holder who lives in Emery County. Perks of Cancer I guess. Erin told me she's already hoping someone will donate some jazz seats this season HAHA. She kills me. Gotta use up the perks while ya got'em. Love the hurst family and the way they make me as well as others feel so welcomed. Update on Erin's cancer while we are talking about it: finished her first round of clinical trial. Ended up getting Pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital for a time. As of Friday (a few days after her natural killers infusion) her platelets are still low and so was her hgb so she received two units of blood. Which was quite a tender mercy in preparation to allow her to attend the BYU game. I love how her doctors are obviously all for treatment and kicking this thing, but also for allowing her to live life and will do everything in their power to help her feel good enough to do a few of the things she wants to do. Well, today has included cleaning, church, blogging and starting to look at my next class that starts this week. This is always the worst part of school. Staring at the huge load of work you have ahead of you and not sure if you'll be able to handle it. Knowing I will but also just dreading figuring out a new class. Excited to learn though. This first week is on cellular biology and genetics. yay! Sounds soo fun right? Wish me luck. See ya next week!