This summer was quite interesting. My friend Adrienne graduated with her associates degree from UWS in May and then a day or two later we began our road trip across the nation. We started in Wasau, WI and the first day we were on our own, we planned on meeting my grandparents at a KOA near the South Dakota / Minnesota boarder. It was a very long drive but we managed to entertain ourselves pretty good.The second day we went through South Dakota. We decided that we would go off on our own during the day and meet up with Grandma and Grandpa in the evenings at a campground. That second day we went to the corn palace, the dinasaur park, Wall Drug and a fairy tale park (which was closed).
The third day we went to Mt. Rushmore, the Flinstones park, and a cavern in the black hills mountains.
That night I had noticed my throat was feeling kind of sore. I had been to the doctor a few weeks earlier and the doctor had said I had a sinus infection and put me on antibiotics. On the road trip I managed to develop a sun rash and what looked like thrush on the back of my throat. It really looked like there was cottage cheese growing on the back of my throat. It was very gross. I called my mom that night and asked her to make an appointment for me when I got home.
The last day of our driving we drove from 30 miles east of Bozeman, MT all the way to my home in Lakewood, WA. It was a very long drive. Adrienne thought that Eastern Washington was pretty boring but she was impressed with our mountains in the west.
The next day I went to my doctor appointment. My doctor was busy so I saw some new doctor that was filling in. She was very young. I told her about all my reactions to the antibiotic and that I had a sinus infection. She took one look at my throat and ran out of the room -- literally. She came back with a nurse who swabbed my throat, told me I had fast-acting strep throat and gave me new antibiotics. She never did call me and tell me that the test came back negative on the strep throat. Two days later my throat had swollen up so much that I could barely breathe and my mother took me to the emergency room. That doctor took one look at me and told me I had Mono. Once he gave me some pain killers and some decongestants I got better in about three days. I only slept a lot for those three days, otherwise I was doing pretty good.
I was supposed to take a summer class at Pacific Lutheran University again, but the day the class started was one of those three days where I felt like I was going to die. I slept through most of the lecture and dropped the class before the lab started after lunch. I searched around for another Organic Chemistry class and only found one at the University of Washington. I juggled that class and a MCAT prep course for half the summer. I also worked at the QFC main office with my mother again while I was taking my classes.
I wasn't the only one who got sick over the summer. Right after I got over my bout of Mono I took Adrienne to a Creed concert. It was one of several concerts we went to this summer. We stopped by Jack-n-the-box on the way there and had one of their spicy chicken sandwiches and a Dr. Pepper. She woke me up at 3am that morning in so much pain it freaked me out. I took her to the emergency room and we found out she had a really bad kidney infection. She was not a happy camper for a couple of weeks and even had to fly back to Wisconsin in order to heal up with medical attention. She came back a month later.
At the end of my summer Adrienne's mother, Joan and Joan's boyfriend, Don, came out to drive us back to Wisconsin. They went and did a ton of sight seeing like to Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Leavenworth. I only went to Leavenworth because I was studying for the MCATs.
I took the MCATs on August 19th and thought I did pretty well on them. I was very optimistic because I had gotten a 28 on a practice exam the weekend before. It was an 8 hour exam and the most exhausting experience of my entire life. By the end of the exam I couldn't see straight or read anything. I almost had to call my parents to come pick me up because I didn't know if I could drive.
The drive back to Wisconsin was pretty eventful. We stopped at Bear Country, Devil's Tower, Custer's Last Stand, and a few other places I think. All in all it was a very interesting summer.
Other notes: Faith Rose was married June 30th, 2000 to Ben Schmitt. Angie Vasfaret is getting married to Jason Mills on June 23, 2001. We went to the Faith Hill / Tim McGraw concert this summer and it was Awsome. We also went to a free Sawyer Brown concert. I took mom to the Bite of Seattle this year where I got to see 9 Days in concert and my Uncle's band, The Pink Torpedoes, also played.
Some of you already know this story, but for those of you who don't, here's my hockey news.I have stopped playing the game of hockey. For the first time in my life I actually quit something. But here is the story that led up to the pre-mature end of my hockey career.
At the beginning of the season we aquired a new coach, Jane Norman. She was very outgoing and what seemed to be a good coach. She worked us hard in the pre-season and had high expectations for us.
About a week or two before our first game she called me into her office and told me that she wanted me to play forward. I said I couldn't because I don't have the mentality, stamina or real desire to play a position I haven't played in eight years. She told me she wanted me to play forward with a couple of the freshman because she needed my maturity and leadership on that line. I saw that I really didn't have a choice and so I went with it.
The first couple of games were awsome. We beat Augsburg who was ranked number 2 in the national polls for division 3 women's hockey. Shortly after that, however, the coaches started to ignore me, players started saying things behind my back and I just felt retarded out there playing forward. I ended up crying at every practice, again when I got home. If I talked or thought about hockey it made me cry. I just sank into a deep depression. I was so unhappy that I knew that something had to change in my life and I didn't know what. So I set up a meeting with my coach to talk about stuff.
Our first meeting was delayed because of a lack of communication. I was waiting for her in her office at the gym, she was waiting for me at the rink. She didn't understand that I wanted to talk to her away from the huge ears of the team. She tried to get me to talk while the team was still in the locker room and I told her that I didn't want to be around the team. She then got the other two coaches together and called me in after practice, three weeks or more after I had first asked to talk to her. I went in there and told them that I didn't want to quit the team but that I was just so unhappy all the time. I told them that I really wanted to play defense again but I knew that they needed me at forward right now because we were short players. We were expecting at least two new players in January and I said I could wait until then. Their reaction to what I said was "no, don't quit the team, we need you... you're one injury away from you playing on the first line.. you're one of our better players.. blah blah blah... " I was so happy that night and I was looking forward to our game the next day. I get to the rink and the Jane didn't tell me until we were walking to the ice for warm-ups that I was playing defense. That's all she said. She didn't say who I was playing with and who I was suposed to rotate with. It ended up screwing up the whole warm-up. Players were mad with me, Jane yelled at me and then she played me for four shifts in the entire game. Due to some injuries on the team that week the forwards were short one player and they decided to double shift one of the defenseman to cover that spot. I sat on the bench while other people were double shifting in what was basically my spot on the third line. Right then and there I regretted telling the coaches anything. I gave them an excuse to bench me. They thought I should be soooo happy playing defense again. They didn't understand that they actually insulted me. I was livid after the game. We beat the crap out of the other team and still they wouldn't play me.
Saturday night's game was even worse. I only got two shifts and again the defense were double shifting in my spot as forward while I warmed the bench and got in people's way. They expected me to be phenominal when I did play but they didn't realize that I hadn't played defense since captain's practices and when you only play one shift in the first period and one shift in the third period you aren't exactly the best player you can be because you're cold and not in the right frame of mind.
During the game I had decided I didn't need this s*** anymore and I would quit the team. We won that night by something like 8-1 or 8-2 and I only got two shifts. The team went into the locker room and Jane tore us a new one for being jerks on the ice, yelled at me for moping around, and then after she stormed out of the locker room the captains started yelling at eachother. It got so bad that I though the team was going to start brawling. I looked at my goalies and I told them I couldn't take it anymore and that I was done. The team was just screaming at eachother so I stood up and yelled at the top of my lungs "Shut the F*** up and go home!" I took off my gear and went to inform Jane of my resignation from the team and all she told me was, turn in all your school issued gear. And that was it. I went to the locker room and packed up my stuff. I cried the whole time and for about an hour after I got home. The assistant coach on the team was the only coach that seemed upset about me leaving. He was the only one who truely thought I was a decent player.
That was the weekend before Thanksgiving. Since then I have been very happy and I do not regret my decision at all. It was just time for me to move on and focus on other things. I now have a social life and have several friends who I go out to the clubs with and dance all night long. I even get to go see Gabriel and Adrienne more often. What's even better is that I don't have to deal with hockey politics, back stabbing, or being lied to again.
Speaking of a social life.... *griN* I have a pretty good one. I moved in with my friend Cathy Green and since she introduced me to her friends from the Twin Cities, we go out as much as possible. Just before Christmas break I went down to party in the Cities for the first time. She took me to a place called Club Cancun with our friends Ryan and Chris. We met up with Matt and about five other people at the bar. We get in there and they hand Cathy and I a cup. We asked "what's this for?" and they said it was ladies night and we get free drinks till 11pm. It was 10:30 at that time so we made the best of it. Both of us ended up having three drinks called a Fruit Loop. It's made of Vodka, orange juice, cranberry juice and pineapple juice. It was pretty good. After the second one I knew I was getting tipsy, and after the third I was feeling pretty good.An hour later Chris came up to us and wanted to do a Kamakazee shot.. we did that and then I asked.. didn't order.. but asked the bartender if he knew how to make an oatmeal cookie shot. I hadn't found a bartender who knew what it was in the mid-west. The bartender came back with a plastic beer cup half full of liquid and told me to taste it. It tasted the alright and he made me pay 5 bucks for it. So I took it even though I didn't really want it. It was probably the equivalent of 3-4 shots. I drank most of it... Spilled the rest while I was dancing.
I was having the best time. The music was good. The dancing was good. And It was just a lot of fun. That is until Cathy split her lip on a beer bottle while dancing with me. She gave herself a fat lip and so we went to the bathroom to look at it. On our way back I got sick and had to run back to the bathroom. I ended up praying to the toilet gods for the last half hour of the night. It was so gross. We ended up leaving during the last dance beause I didn't feel well and didn't want to pass out in the bar. Once we got outside I was ok but then Chris got sick. We ended up stopping about 15 times for Chris to puke and once he fell out of the car and hit his head on the pavement.
The next morning I had a headache for a couple hours but that was my only side-effect of the night before. Everyone was suprised I got drunk because I didn't plan it and I had never gotten drunk before or since that night. I experienced it and it had it's good parts, but I could definatly do with out the puking.
Just about everyone knows that I want to be a doctor. Some think I want to cut up dead people (forensic pathologist), other people think I want to put live people back together again. Well...Your right. I would love to do either. And right now I am in the process of applying for medical school and I thought you would all like to know where I applied and who's looking and who denied me. So here's the list.
School Name Location Interview? Accepted / Denied Ohio State University No Denied Medical Sciences of Oregon Portland, OR No Denied University of Ohio No Denied Vanderbilt College Nashville, TN No Denied Albany Medical College Albany, NY Boston University Boston, Mass University of Washington Seattle, WA University of Wisconsin Madison, WI No Denied Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee, WI No Denied University of Iowa Iowa City, IA Jefferson Medical College Philadelphia, PA Loyola University Chicago, IL No Denied Medical College of Ohio Toledo, OH University of Vermont